Arsenia Toledo, Natural News – American Conservative Movement

The Hard Push: Jeff Bezos Invests $60 Million to Lower Costs, Improve Taste and Boost Nutritional Value of Fake Meat

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 11:06:59 +0000

Editor’s Note: We consider the very notion of lab-grown “meat” to be an abomination, which is why we have partners with an America First, long-term storage beef company in Prepper All Naturals. We benefit when our readers take advantage of 25% off at checkout with promo code “veterans25”.

(Natural News)—The Bezos Earth Fund has announced an initial $60 million commitment to establish a fund to improve alternative meats by making them cheaper and taste better.

Jeff Bezos’ fiancee, Lauren Sanchez, who is also vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund, announced on Tuesday, March 19, the creation of the Bezos Centers for Sustainable Protein (BCSP).

The $60 million will fund the creation of BCSP research centers in multiple universities over the next five years. These research centers will focus on reducing the cost of manufacturing fake meat and boosting the quality and nutritional value of so-called “sustainable protein products.” The initial investment will also go toward initiatives to enhance the flavor and texture of artificial meat. (Related: Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos pushing for a new lab-grown meat industry that harvests the blood of unborn cow fetuses.)

“There are also enormous opportunities to enhance the texture and boost flavor through innovation in cell biology and engineering,” said the Bezos Earth Fund in a statement.

The initial investment is part of the Bezos Earth Fund’s commitment to provide $1 billion to “food transformation.” This has seen Bezos’ vast fortune be directed to projects related to reducing methane emissions, boosting the seaweed farming industry and researching alternatives to crop burning, among others.

Consumers still unlikely to transition to eating fake meat due to cost, taste and nutrition

In a press release published by the Bezos Earth Fund, the fund noted that the initial investment would apply to innovation on all kinds of alternative proteins, including plant-based, lab-grown and fermented meats. Funding will be directed to any initiatives that target the “major barriers” to the industry’s growth, those being lowering costs, increasing quality and boosting nutritional benefits.

These issues have significantly stifled the growth of the cultivated meat industry. So far, only two such companies have received the Food and Drug Administration’s approval to sell their fake meat products, showing that these kinds of food items are still a long way from entering the mainstream market affordably.

A study from the nonprofit Good Food Institute also found that consumers are mostly concerned by price and then by the taste of the food items they eat and the main reasons why they are discouraged from purchasing plant-based products.

To date, cultivated meat costs about $17 per pound to produce, which could make them cost at least $40 per pound once they reach grocery stores. Plant-based beef costs twice as much as normal beef, and four times that of chicken. These prices have made investments drop by 78 percent in 2023.

In her announcement of the BCSP, Sanchez claimed “innovations” were necessary in the lab-grown meat industry to allow the world to “feed 10 billion people with healthy, sustainable protein throughout this century.”

“This will need a ton of innovation,” she added. “We’re investing heavily in [the] livestock sector and inventions that will give customers meat options that are better for the Earth.”

Learn the latest developments in the lab-grown meat industry at FakeMeat.news. Watch this clip from “The HighWire” as host Del Bigtree and co-host investigative journalist Jefferey Jaxen discuss the collapse of the fake meat industry.

JPMorgan Chase to Shut Down Nearly 160 Bank Branches Across the U.S.

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Thu, 30 Nov 2023 10:13:25 +0000

(Natural News)—JPMorgan Chase, America’s largest bank, will have shut down 159 branches across the country by the end of 2023.

For Chase Bank’s customers, these closures represent serious inconveniences, if not outright terrible disruptions to their lives. Services previously offered by human bank tellers and other banking professionals who used to staff these now-shuttered branches have now been replaced by automated customer service helplines. (Related: Largest banks in America have collectively cut 20K JOBS so far this year.)

Twenty states have or will be impacted by the Chase Bank branch closures. Some, like Wisconsin and Wyoming, will only have one branch closed in each state. Others have more than a dozen branches being shut down by the end of the year.

California is the hardest hit of all, with the state recording a total of 46 branches that will have closed by the end of the year.

Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Nevada and Utah will see two branches shut down in each state by the end of the year. They are followed by Connecticut and Michigan with three branches each; Arizona and Florida with five branches each; and Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, Ohio and Washington with six branches each.

Along with California, three other states will see double-digit number of Chase Bank branches shut down by the end of the year: Texas, New York and Illinois, with 13, 17 and 24 branches, respectively.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citi Bank also shutting down hundreds of branches

The latest data from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation notes that approximately 8,000 bank branches were in operation in the U.S. in 2000. By 2022, this figure had been halved. Other Big Banks in America are also reporting dozens of bank closures, including the Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citibank.

According to data provided by the Bank of America to the Office of the Comptroller of Currency, the bank will be shutting down 138 locations. To date, at least 95 of those branches have already been closed. Fifteen more will shutter by the end of the year, and the remainder will stay open up to 2024.

Wells Fargo has closed 61 branches so far – a number expected to increase to 65 before December. A spokesperson for the company claims many of its customers are already taking advantage of “our wide range of digital capabilities for many of their banking needs.” As a result, fewer and fewer transactions are being carried out in person in branches.

“We continually evaluate our branch network in light of changing customer needs, increased usage of digital banking and market factors,” added the spokesperson.

Citigroup, the parent company of Citibank, claimed that its shuttering of branches not just in the U.S. but globally is part of a shift in the company’s strategy to focus on wealth management. The shuttering of Citibank branches is aimed at focusing on more affluent clients and generating higher returns through feel while simplifying operations and reducing complexity and capital requirements.

Citigroup’s wealth division handled $746 billion of wealth globally in 2022, significantly lower than Bank of America’s own wealth management division, Merrill Lynch, which had an asset size of more than $2.8 trillion in the same year.

Collapse.news has more stories about bank closures. Watch this special report from Next News Network reporting on the downgraded credit ratings of major U.S. banks.

This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.

Rise in Antisemitism on College Campuses Linked to Middle Eastern Regimes Donating Billions of Dollars to Universities

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Sat, 18 Nov 2023 23:05:49 +0000

(Natural News)—A new report has found that over 200 universities and colleges in the United States have received a combined total of over $13 billion in “undocumented contributions from foreign governments.” Many of these nations come from the Middle East and have no doubt contributed to the rise in antisemitism on college campuses.

This comes from the Network Contagion Research Institute’s (NCRI) latest report which found that most of the funds received by American tertiary educational institutions came from some of the most authoritarian regimes in the world, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. (Related: Demonstrating stunning disconnect from reality, dozens of Harvard student groups blame Israeli government for Hamas terror attacks.)

The group’s findings relied in part on a 2020 Department of Education report that revealed how billions in undeclared foreign donations made their way into major higher education institutions. Federal law requires colleges to disclose donations from foreign governments, but many schools still refuse to do so.

Many of these schools that failed to disclose the origin of their donations were more likely to have received such funding from Middle Eastern governments.

Worse yet, the NCRI warned that the schools that have likely received funding from Middle Eastern dictatorships have also seen a rise in anti-Israeli sentiment and intolerant behavior toward Jews and Judaism.

“A massive influx of foreign, concealed donations to American institutions of higher learning, much of it from authoritarian regimes with notable support from Middle Eastern sources, reflects or supports heightened levels of intolerance towards Jews, open inquiry and free expression,” read the report.

The report further warned that, from 2015 to 2020, “institutions that accepted money from Middle Eastern donors had, on average, 300 percent more antisemitic incidents than those institutions that did not.”

8 Ivy League universities received largest share of unreported foreign donations

The NCRI’s report did not name any specific colleges where an increase in funding from “undocumented” sources coincided with an increased antisemitic climate. However, the report did point out that eight Ivy League universities “were disproportionately represented,” and received the largest share of unreported foreign donations.

These include Cornell University, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, which ranked second, third, sixth, 16th and 18th, respectively, among the top 20 universities that received funding from unreported sources.

“This report raises the sobering possibility that international actors are using undisclosed channels to funnel large amounts of money into college campuses (including elite institutions that often have outsized influence on American culture and politics) for purposes harmful to the democratic norms of pluralism, tolerance and freedom,” warned the authors of the report.

“There clearly has been an erosion of democratic norms on campuses… These developments are surely complex and multiply determined,” continued the report. “One possibility, however, is that receipt of undocumented funding from foreign sources, especially authoritarian ones, has contributed to these developments.”

Learn more about the wild things happening at college campuses at CampusInsanity.com. Watch this clip from Newsmax featuring political commentator Dinesh D’Souza explaining how leftist ideology justifies antisemitism.

This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.

Pentagon Warns China Now Has Over 500 Operational Nuclear Warheads as It Seeks Nuclear Parity With the U.S.

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Sun, 22 Oct 2023 13:36:53 +0000

(Natural News)—A new report from the Department of Defense strongly suggests that China now has over 500 operational nuclear warheads, which is likely to double to more than 1,000 by 2030.

This is according to the Pentagon’s annual report to Congress on military and security developments in communist China. The report warned that China may have been in possession of more than 500 operational nuclear warheads as of May – a key milestone in the country’s nuclear expansion and modernization efforts that was achieved two years earlier than previously anticipated.

The report adds that this nuclear expansion and modernization effort will continue through 2035 in support of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s objective of creating a “world-class” military that can compete with the United States by 2049. (Related: Nuclear-armed nations are expanding and modernizing their nuclear arsenals in anticipation of a potential global power conflict.)

Beijing’s nuclear stockpile is still much smaller than that of Russia’s or the United States’. As of January, Russia had approximately 5,889 operational nuclear warheads and the U.S. had 5,244.

Speed at which Beijing creating new nukes alarms analysts

One Defense Department official who spoke with the media on condition of anonymity noted that the speed and scale at which China is expanding its nuclear arsenal – as well as the rest of its military – is unprecedented.

“What they’re doing now, if you compare it to what they were doing about a decade ago, it really far exceeds that in terms of scale and complexity,” said the official. “They’re expanding and investing in their land, sea and air-based nuclear delivery platforms, as well as the infrastructure that’s required to support this quite major expansion of their nuclear forces.”

The Pentagon expects China to use its new “fast breeder” nuclear reactors and reprocessing facilities to produce plutonium for its nuclear weapons program. This is despite official claims by the Chinese government publicly maintaining that these nuclear facilities are intended only for “peaceful purposes.”

Furthermore, the Pentagon report notes that China likely has completed the construction of three new fields for solid-fueled missile silos in 2022, which includes at least 300 new missile silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles. The report warns that “at least some” of these silos are loaded with missiles ready to launch.

The same Defense Department official tried to downplay the severity of the situation, saying that long-term projections about the growth of China’s nuclear arsenal become less reliable when taking additional variables into consideration as the years go on.

He added that the U.S. is expected to continue using diplomatic channels to urge China to be more transparent about its nuclear capabilities.

For its part, the Chinese Foreign Ministry claimed that the Pentagon report is not truthful. Spokeswoman Mao Ning said at a press briefing in Beijing that the report is “filled with prejudice and distorts facts.”

“China is committed to peaceful development,” she said. “We have a stable and unique nuclear policy that is highly predictable.”

Learn more about the expansion of nuclear capabilities around the world at NuclearWeapons.news. Watch this clip from Fox Business with journalist, lawyer and Gatestone Institute Senior Fellow Gordon G. Chang as he warns about how a nuclear exchange between China and the United States is “much closer” to reality than expected.

This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.

Defense Officials Warn: Iran Could Use Israel-Palestine Chaos as an “Opportunity” to Attack American Forces All Over the Middle East

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Sat, 14 Oct 2023 22:37:21 +0000

(Natural News)—The Department of Defense has warned that the ongoing escalated conflict between Israel and Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip could be used as an “opportunity” by Iran to strike American targets all over the Middle East.

Pentagon officials are specifically worried that militant groups backed by Iran or Iranian forces stationed in the Persian Gulf, could take advantage of the heightened instability in the region to attack the United States or partner forces operating in the region, particularly in Iraq and Syria. (Related: Iran, Lebanese Hezbollah ready to “join the battle” in Gaza, warns Hamas leader.)

“That presents an opportunity,” said one Pentagon official who spoke with Politico on condition of anonymity.

U.S. military forces stationed in Iraq and Syria are reportedly “aware of malign actors who may seek to capitalize on conflicts and instability in the region,” said Maj. Geoffrey Carmichael, the director of public affairs for the Combined Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve, the U.S.-led coalition to counter Islamic State remnants in Iraq and Syria.

“We will not let nefarious actors pull us into engagements that detract from our mission,” added Carmichael. He did not mention Iran by name, but he did add: “Make no mistake, we reserve our inherent right to self-defense whenever faced with threats that place our forces in harm’s way.”

The U.S. has about 2,500 troops in Iraq who are not assigned to combat missions but remain in the country advising the Iraqi military. The U.S. has an additional 900 troops in Syria working with local armed groups to counter ISIS.

Alleged Iranian involvement unfounded

Since the beginning of the conflict, American security leaders and mainstream media outlets have claimed that Iran is somehow involved. The Wall Street Journal reported that Iranian security officials supposedly “helped plan Hamas’s Saturday [Oct. 7] surprise attack on Israel and gave the green light for the assault at a meeting in Beirut [in Lebanon].”

But later reports from U.S. officials note that the Pentagon does not have any specific evidence linking Tehran to the initial attacks led by Hamas. Nevertheless, this did not stop government officials from blaming Iran due to its prior links to Hamas.

“Make no mistake, there’s a degree of complicity here just because Iran’s been supporting Hamas now for many, many years [with] weapons, tools capabilities, training,” said National Security Council spokesman John Kirby. “So, clearly, Iran – there’s complicity here. But in terms of the specific series of attacks we have seen … we just don’t have direct evidence.”

Reports from Reuters and the New York Times suggest that the U.S. has collected multiple pieces of intelligence showing that key Iranian leaders did not know that Hamas was planning a large-scale attack and were actually caught by surprise.

Despite no clear link, one U.S. intelligence official who spoke with Reuters on condition of anonymity suggested that the closest concrete intelligence the Pentagon has suggests that Iran may have been aware that Hamas was planning to take some kind of smaller and limited action against Israel. U.S. intelligence agencies are also allegedly still intent on digging up any kind of information to suggest a concrete link between Iran and recent hostilities.

“We will be looking at additional intelligence in the coming weeks to inform our thinking on this issue, including whether there were at least some within [Iran’s] system that either had a clearer sense of what was coming or even contributed to aspects of the planning,” said the official.

Watch this clip of Sen. Lindsey Graham threatening to “blow up” Iranian oil supplies if Tehran is drawn into the conflict with Israel.

This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.

Food Shortages and Inflation Continue as “Bidenomics” SPECTACULARLY FAILS

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Thu, 07 Sep 2023 22:50:24 +0000

More food shortages and price hikes are coming before the end of 2023, as President Joe Biden’s economic agenda, dubbed “Bidenomics,” once again puts too much pressure on inflation and food production.

(Article cross-posted from Natural News)

“The economy is in the dump, and no matter how many times the media or President Joe Biden tells us how great we are doing, Americans are going to judge that for themselves by what they see in their wallets, their bank accounts and what the bill is every time they shop for food, appliances, cars, homes or anything else they may need to purchase,” wrote Susan Duclos for All News Pipeline. (Related: Massive government spending is keeping inflation high, warns market expert.)

“Many Americans have been waiting for prices to lower, but even if inflation came to zero – which isn’t even their goal, two percent is – prices will not come down. They just wouldn’t rise for that month,” wrote Duclos. “The only way to lower prices is to see negative inflation, which simply isn’t going to happen.”

The current rate of inflation has slowed down to 4.9 percent in July year-over-year – still more than double the Federal Reserve’s target of two percent – the slowest it has been since last fall. This is also down from the 5.7 percent annual inflation recorded in June.

Of the different food products that saw price increases, frozen vegetables posted the largest increase, costing 17.1 percent more than it did last year. This is followed by margarine, with prices up by 11.3 percent annually.

Other notable food products that saw price increases include cereals and bakery products, which are now seven percent more expensive, and dairy, which is 1.3 percent more expensive.

The ongoing price increases represent a bigger strain on American household budgets, as Americans now consume 13.4 cents on food for each $1 in consumer spending – the second-largest expense for Americans, second only to housing at 34.7 cents per dollar.

“To be sure, the high inflation of the past two-plus years has done lots of economic damage,” noted Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics. “Due to high inflation, the typical household spent $202 more in July than they did a year ago to buy the same goods and services. And they spent $709 more than they did two years ago.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that by the end of the year, food prices will be an average of 5.8 percent higher than in 2022. Next year, food prices will continue rising by an estimated 2.4 percent.

Food shortages in popular food products to continue

To make matters worse for Americans, many food products are expected to experience shortages in the remaining months of the year.

Megan Hageman of Eat This, Not That! warned that five popular food products expected to have troubles with supply are rice, pasta, chocolate, salmon and flour.

The world’s supply of rice has been ravaged since the Western world blocked Russian rice exports since the beginning of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. Damaging weather in major rice-producing countries like China and Pakistan has also dented global supply.

While pasta is not a core cuisine for most Americans, the global decrease in pasta supply has still affected U.S. households, with the average price of a pound of spaghetti and macaroni rising to $1.47 compared to an average cost of $1.21 per pound last year. In Italy, the pasta shortage got so bad that the country’s government met for crisis talks earlier this year solely to address the issue.

Cocoa – the main ingredient of chocolate – has become a hot commodity in recent months, and current prices are the highest they have been in nearly 12 years. Cocoa is heavily dependent on fertilizer, and because of the drop in global fertilizer supply due to the sanctions on Russian fertilizer exports, global supply has dropped drastically.

The drought in many parts of the U.S. has brought salmon populations into a steep decline this year. To protect the remaining population, California has banned commercial and recreational salmon fishing for the entirety of the 2023 fishing season.

The flour shortage has been ongoing since last year, causing prices to rise by 8.5 percent compared to last year. Analysts warn that Americans will likely continue to feel the effects of this shortage into 2024. Dry conditions in the South and Central U.S. have caused crops of hard red winter and hard red spring wheat to decline, leading to shortages.

Learn more about the true state of the American economy at EconomicRiot.com. Watch economist Steve Moore explain why Americans will still feel the dire effects of inflation in the coming months.

This video is from the News Clips channel on Brighteon.com.

Sen. Ron Johnson Accuses CDC of Working With Big Tech to Censor Speech Questioning Covid-19 “Vaccines”

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Sat, 02 Sep 2023 21:03:28 +0000

Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin has accused the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of working with Big Tech corporations to censor his social media posts raising legitimate questions about the safety and effectiveness of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines.

(Article cross-posted from Natural News)

In an open letter to CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen sent on Monday, Aug. 28, Johnson, as ranking member of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, accused the CDC of coordinating with social media companies to censor posts about COVID-19 vaccines, specifically those referring to data on the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS), a U.S. government database on the ill effects of vaccines.

“Based on recent information I have received … it is clear that the CDC abused its authority by engaging in a censorship campaign to suppress and discredit certain viewpoints it labeled as ‘misinformation,'” wrote Johnson.

As an example, Johnson highlighted a post he made on Twitter on Jan. 3, 2022, about VAERS information that shows the COVID-19 vaccines have caused over one million adverse events and over 21,000 deaths in the United States.

This post was immediately labeled “misleading,” with a note explaining that health officials claim the COVID-19 vaccines are “safe for most people.”

Johnson demands answers regarding social media censorship efforts

Johnson said the CDC influenced the decision of Big Tech companies like Twitter to label posts about the COVID-19 vaccine as misleading. Johnson noted that he in the past questioned Twitter officials as to why his post had been labeled “misleading” but received no response.

After Elon Musk took over Twitter, Johnson was later told that executive branch officials and the CDC “communicated with social media companies, including Twitter, about ‘COVID vaccine misinformation.'”

“The information Twitter provided showed a clear and concerted effort by the CDC to censor those who tweeted about VAERS data,” said Johnson. “CDC’s campaign to encourage social media companies to suppress CDC’s own data appears to be a blatant attempt to mislead the public about adverse events associated with the COVID-19 vaccines.”

In his letter, Johnson is demanding that the CDC provide the subcommittee with all of its communications between its employees and the employees of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube regarding 10 individuals, all of whom gained notoriety during the pandemic for expressing alternative views to COVID-19 vaccines, lockdowns and treatments.

These 10 include Johnson himself as well as Brianne Dressen, John Ioannidis, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Pierre Kory, Theresa Long, Robert Malone, Peter McCullough, Harvey Risch and Aaron Siri.

In addition, Johnson is asking for records relating to the CDC’s interaction with employees of social media companies, private sector and third-party groups and other federal agencies about COVID-19 misinformation policies and the suppression of online speech.

Finally, the senator is also demanding records about “Be On The Lookout” topics and a list of all social media posts the CDC has flagged as “containing misinformation, disinformation or generally disfavored speech.” Johnson has given the CDC until Sept. 11 to comply.

Learn more about efforts to censor medical information at MedicalCensorship.com.

Watch this clip from InfoWars featuring Dr. Roger Hodkinson discussing how at least 20 million people globally have been killed by the COVID-19 vaccines, with another 2.2 billion seriously harmed by them.

This video is from the InfoWars channel on Brighteon.com.

End of the Dollar: South Africa Says Over 40 Countries Want to Join BRICS

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Thu, 17 Aug 2023 22:03:04 +0000

Over 40 other countries are looking to join the BRICS bloc of developing economies. If these nations were given the opportunity to be full-fledged members, this could lead to approximately 85 percent of the global population turning away from using the United States dollar as its main foreign currency.

(Article cross-posted from Natural News)

This is according to financial expert and analyst Andy Schectman, who recently spoke with Kitco News to discuss the South African government’s recent revelation that some 40 or so nations are gearing up to submit their formal applications to join BRICS.

Schectman noted that the developing world is creating multinational institutions that are steadily growing in power and influence to the point that they may one day be able to threaten America’s global financial hegemony. Schectman pointed to programs and organizations like the Belt and Road Initiative, the Eurasian Economic Union, BRICS’s own New Development Bank and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

“If you put together the Belt and Road Initiative, the BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and the Eurasian Economic Union, you’re d–n near close to 85 percent of the human population,” he said. “What they’re doing is they’re being very methodical in the way that they’re laying the groundwork, the foundation to when they flip the switch.”

“And so whether or not we see a [BRICS] currency in a few weeks or a few months or next year, to me the alliance that’s being built, this alliance that represents the majority of the human population that is not going green [U.S. dollar], it’s a very big deal,” Schectman added. (Related: BRICS bloc’s proposed gold-backed currency could spell an END to the US dollar.)

22 Nations formally applying to become full BRICS members

South Africa’s ambassador to the BRICS bloc, Anil Sooklal, recently informed journalists that 22 nations have formally applied to join the organization.

This announcement comes just days before BRICS is about to hold a summit in South Africa’s main commercial city of Johannesburg, due to take place on Aug. 22 to 24 and without the attendance of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Twenty-two countries have formally approached BRICS countries to become full members. There’s an equal number of countries that have been informally asking about becoming BRICS members … [including] all the major global south countries,” said Sooklal.

Some of the countries that have publicly expressed their interest to become full-fledged members of the economic union are Argentina, Bangladesh, Comoros, Cuba, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Iran, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The growing interest in membership to the BRICS group is “nothing new,” said Sooklal, but it does underline the “confidence” that the world has in the work that BRICS nations have done in “championing” the economies of the developing world since the group’s inception.

“The BRICS are not only the driving force of global strength in trying to change the fault lines in terms of global politics, they are also changing what happens in the global economic space,” said Sooklal. “The current global architecture continues to be unequal, continues to marginalize developing countries … and continues to be dominated by a few hegemonies. We want a world where our voices are heard.”

Sooklal noted that BRICS is now being seen more as “a powerful force,” adding that, measured by purchasing power parity, the bloc now accounts for nearly 32 percent of the global GDP – a level that officially overtakes the G7 group of so-called advanced democracies that includes the United States.

Mikatekiso Kubayi, a researcher for the Institute for Global Dialogue at the University of South Africa in Pretoria, noted that BRICS’s many achievements make joining the bloc a very attractive prospect.

“You will recall that from the onset BRICS was an outfit that was easily dismissed by many, particularly in the West, seen merely as some concept,” said Kubayi. “But it has achieved a lot, you know, in the 15 years that it’s been around.”

Kubayi’s examples include the creation of the New Development Bank and its programs and policies for looking at alternative ways of conducting trade and promoting the use of local currencies.

Learn more about the coming end of the U.S. dollar at DollarDemise.com.

Watch this clip from Kitco News as financial expert Andy Schectman discusses the possibility that 85 percent of the global population could dump the U.S. dollar.

This video is from the Thrive Time Show channel on Brighteon.com.

Russian Electronic Warfare Systems Are Successfully Disabling “Sophisticated” US-Supplied Ukrainian Weapons

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Sun, 13 Aug 2023 00:58:00 +0000

Reports coming out of Ukraine note that Russia is disabling “sophisticated” Kyiv’s Western-supplied missiles, rendering them useless on the battlefield.

Bryan Clark, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute think tank, said Russian electronic warfare capabilities used to be inferior compared to their Ukrainian opponents, largely because they could not keep up with their troops on the ground.

“Russian systems are largely unwieldy, vehicle-borne systems that are designed to be on the defensive,” said Clark. “And as a result, their electronic warfare systems weren’t very agile, they weren’t very fast and they weren’t very numerous.” (Related: Former Pentagon officer David Pyne says Russia’s capability in electronic warfare is unparalleled.)

But Clark noted that Russia may have learned from its earlier mistakes. Instead of using large bulky radar and electronics jamming equipment that can easily be spotted and destroyed by drone strikes and artillery, Russian forces are now relying on hundreds of smaller and more mobile electronic warfare equipment deployed all along the front line.

“This is a war of technologies,” said Col. Ivan Pavlenko, chief of the Ukrainian General Staff’s electronic and cyber warfare department. Pavlenko admitted that Russian systems are reducing the efficiency and accuracy of the Western weapons Ukraine has been receiving. This has led to a change of tactics within the Ukrainian forces, who are now focusing on targeting Russian electronic warfare systems.

“Before we strike with a precision-guided munition, we have to provide intelligence,” he said. “Is there any suppression in that area? If that area is affected by a jamming signal, we have to find the jammer and destroy it, and only then use this weapon.”

Russian GPS jamming equipment preventing Ukraine from conducting accurate missile strikes

Over the course of Russia’s special military operation, Ukrainian capabilities have been developing thanks in no small part to the immense amount of military equipment sent to the nation by the United States and other Western nations.

Ukraine has reportedly been relying more and more on Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMs), a very cost-effective system that can convert unguided bombs into missiles that can be guided by GPS systems. These bombs can be launched by air to hit targets up to 45 miles away. Ukrainian forces hoped that these weapons could help in the latest counteroffensive against Russian forces.

While Russian forces aren’t able to prevent the launching of JDAMs, their electronic warfare systems are successfully affecting the trajectory of these missiles by drawing out their GPS guidance signals from satellites.

One widely used Russian jamming system, the R-330Zh Zhitel, a truck-mounted electronic warfare system, is able to jam GPS and satellite signals with 100 megahertz to two gigahertz wavebands.

“Zhitel can jam a GPS signal within 30 kilometers [18.6 miles] of the jammer,” noted Clark. “For weapons like JDAM bombs, which use just a GPS receiver to guide it to the target, that’s sufficient to lose its geolocation and go off target.”

Targeted wavebands from the Zhitel can also significantly hinder the accuracy of the guided rockets fired by the American-made M142 HIMARS multiple rocket systems.

Russian investment into counter-GPS technologies is part of the country’s massive electronic warfare campaign to disrupt Ukrainian radio communications and drone operations, preventing Kyiv from bringing to bear the vast arsenal of sophisticated Western-supplied weapons systems at its disposal.

Clark said Ukraine has been attempting to develop countermeasures against Russian jamming, including reprogramming weapons. This in turn spurs Russian forces to develop their own counter-measures. Clark described it as an intense competition of “move and counter-move” playing out all over the front lines.

“The problem may well be the sheer power of the jamming signal that can be brought to bear,” said Thomas Withington, a researcher for the United Kingdom’s Royal United Services Institute. He added that his institute’s estimates believe there may now be at least one major Russian electronic warfare system within 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the front line. Such extended coverage is reportedly leading to up to 10,000 Ukrainian drones lost per month.

“If you’re losing in electronic warfare, your forces will turn into a 19th-century army,” noted Yaroslav Kalinin, chief executive for Infozahyst, a company that manufactures electronic warfare systems for Ukraine. “You will be 10 steps behind your enemy.”

Learn more about the different weapons being used in the conflict in Ukraine at WeaponsTechnology.news. Watch this video from “The New Atlas” discussing the failures of Ukraine’s so-called counteroffensive.

This video is from the channel The Prisoner on Brighteon.com.

Fear Reboot: ‘Health Experts,’ CDC Claim Covid-19 Cases Are Rising Again

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News — Wed, 09 Aug 2023 10:06:03 +0000

So-called health experts and organizations like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are claiming that the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) is making a comeback in the United States after months of falling cases.

According to data released by the CDC, there were 8,035 new hospital admissions related to COVID-19 for the week ending on July 22. This represents a 12.1 percent increase compared to the previous week, but still marks one of the lowest points in the pandemic. At the same time during the previous year, for comparison, the number of new COVID-19-related hospital admissions was over 44,000.

Mount Sinai Health System Medical Director for Infection Prevention Dr. Bernard Camins said the health system in New York City is now seeing about 40 new COVID-19 patients a day, compared with just 10 per day earlier in the summer. He added that only about five percent of the patients who need to be hospitalized are sick enough to need intensive care treatment, which he said is a “very small number” compared to earlier in the pandemic.

Bill Hanage, an associate professor of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, claims people are more likely to get COVID-19 now than they were earlier this summer.

“If you do, and you are vaccinated, then your chance of being seriously ill is very slim,” Hanage claimed.

Wastewater analyses similarly claim that COVID-19 cases are increasing, especially in the American South and Northeast, followed by the West and Midwest. Test positivity from these analyses has risen to 7.6 percent, a level last seen in November 2021 as the post-vaccine Delta variant swept the nation.

Doctors claim America needs to embrace “new normal” of COVID being resurgent in the summer

Renewed fears of a resurgent COVID-19 come over two months after both the U.S. and the World Health Organization declared an end to the federal and global COVID-19 public health emergencies, respectively.

“The U.S. has experienced increases in COVID-19 during the last three summers, so it’s not surprising to see an uptick after a long period of declining rates,” claimed CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley, who further claimed that hospitalization rates are higher in unvaccinated individuals. But she did note that most Americans already have some form of immunity – either natural immunity from past infections, artificial so-called “immunity” from vaccinations, or both.

So-called health experts are now calling on the public to accept that COVID-19 will keep returning every year and that all people need to do to fend it off is to keep updated on their COVID-19 vaccinations.

“To some extent, I’m thinking of this as the new normal,” said Scott Becker, CEO of the Association of Public Health Laboratories. “We never expected variants to just disappear, so the virus is doing what viruses do. We’re watching all of this in order to better be prepared for any fall surge in respiratory diseases.”

Between November 2022 and March 2023, an estimated 50,000 deaths were attributed to COVID-19 infections. public health analysts are studying this latest so-called resurgence to try to predict whether the coronavirus will peak during the summer or the early fall.

“This fall is something that us, epidemiologists, are watching with much curiosity,” said Dr. Katelyn Jetelina. “I think a lot of us are cautiously optimistic that we may start getting a new normal respiratory season.”

During an interview with David and Stacy Whited on “Flyover Conservatives,” health expert Dr. Stella Immanuel warned that the resurgent COVID-19 cases could be part of a globalist plot to take over the global economy.

“We have been anticipating something crazy is gonna happen. Why? Because … the central bank digital currency was launched in July. The United Nations wants a digital compact for all banks,” said Immanuel. “So I know that they’re gonna bring up something that will be a stressful event that will allow them to crash the economy and lock us down – if not a climate crisis, something else.”

The fact that health experts are arguing for yearly resurgences in COVID-19 to be treated as normal lends credence to Immanuel’s concerns. (Related: Former Pfizer VP says next manufactured COVID-like crisis is “closer than ever.”)

Learn more about the COVID-19 pandemic at Pandemic.news. Watch this episode of “Flyover Conservatives” with David and Stacy Whited as they interview Dr. Stella Immanuel about the claims that COVID-19 is on the rise once again.

This video is from the channel Flyover Conservatives on Brighteon.com.

Arsenia Toledo, Natural News – American Conservative Movement

The Hard Push: Jeff Bezos Invests $60 Million to Lower Costs, Improve Taste and Boost Nutritional Value of Fake Meat

Consumers still unlikely to transition to eating fake meat due to cost, taste and nutrition

More related stories:

JPMorgan Chase to Shut Down Nearly 160 Bank Branches Across the U.S.

Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citi Bank also shutting down hundreds of branches

More related stories:

Rise in Antisemitism on College Campuses Linked to Middle Eastern Regimes Donating Billions of Dollars to Universities

8 Ivy League universities received largest share of unreported foreign donations

More related stories:

Pentagon Warns China Now Has Over 500 Operational Nuclear Warheads as It Seeks Nuclear Parity With the U.S.

Speed at which Beijing creating new nukes alarms analysts

More related stories:

Defense Officials Warn: Iran Could Use Israel-Palestine Chaos as an “Opportunity” to Attack American Forces All Over the Middle East

Alleged Iranian involvement unfounded

More related stories:

Food Shortages and Inflation Continue as “Bidenomics” SPECTACULARLY FAILS

(Article cross-posted from Natural News)

Food shortages in popular food products to continue

More related stories:

Sen. Ron Johnson Accuses CDC of Working With Big Tech to Censor Speech Questioning Covid-19 “Vaccines”

(Article cross-posted from Natural News)

Johnson demands answers regarding social media censorship efforts

More related stories:

End of the Dollar: South Africa Says Over 40 Countries Want to Join BRICS

(Article cross-posted from Natural News)

22 Nations formally applying to become full BRICS members

More related stories:

Russian Electronic Warfare Systems Are Successfully Disabling “Sophisticated” US-Supplied Ukrainian Weapons

Russian GPS jamming equipment preventing Ukraine from conducting accurate missile strikes

More related stories:

Fear Reboot: ‘Health Experts,’ CDC Claim Covid-19 Cases Are Rising Again

Doctors claim America needs to embrace “new normal” of COVID being resurgent in the summer

More related stories: