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Andrei Kelin tells the BBC tactical nuclear weapons have “nothing to do” with operations in Ukraine.

The jury, chaired by Vincent Lindon, has unveiled its winners for the 2022 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Swedish director Ruben Östlund received the Palme d’Or for the film “Triangle of Sadness”, a funny and cruel prank on wealthy industrialists and influencers. Two films tied for the Cannes Grand Prix: “Close” by Belgian filmmaker Lukas Dhont and “Stars at Noon” by French director Claire Denis.

The global health agency warns many more cases of the virus have yet to be diagnosed

The hundreds of cases of monkeypox that have been diagnosed in the past month across Europe, North and South America, Israel, the UAE and Australia may be just “the tip of the iceberg,” WHO Epidemic and Pandemic Preparedness and Prevention chief Sylvie Briand warned on Friday during a press briefing.

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No need for mass vaccination against monkeypox – WHO

Briand suggested there could be “many more cases that are undetected in communities,” as monkeypox does not immediately present with definitive symptoms. Infected individuals initially complain of flu-like ailments such as a fever, muscle aches, and swollen lymph nodes before the telltale chickenpox-like rash appears on the face and body. While there is no known cure for the virus, it usually recedes within two to four weeks.

Despite stating that “we know that we will have more cases in the coming days,” Briand discouraged people from panicking, insisting “this is not a disease the general public should be worried about. It is not Covid or other diseases that spread fast.” While the WHO is still seeking to determine the exact origin of the recent monkeypox outbreak, there is no indication that the virus responsible for it has mutated or otherwise become more dangerous.

The agency convened an emergency meeting last week to discuss the outbreak, which began earlier this month, likely in the UK among individuals who had traveled to Nigeria. The disease is endemic in western and central Africa, though its presence outside the continent is considered rare.

WHO official Maria van Kerkhove has confirmed that the majority of the cases detected outside of Africa have been found in men who have sexual contact with men, and early reports of the outbreaks in Belgium and Spain had links to large gay fetish festivals in those countries. Gay dating app Grindr released a message to its European and UK users earlier this week alerting them to the outbreak and encouraging them to seek treatment if they experienced symptoms.

READ MORE: First monkeypox quarantine ordered in EU

Over 200 cases have been diagnosed in 20 countries around the world, according to the WHO, with the majority of those found in the UK. Belgium last week became the only country to declare a mandatory 21-day quarantine for infected individuals. The WHO’s European head, Hans Kluge, expressed concern that the disease could spread rapidly over the summer festival season, given the sexually transmitted nature of most of the confirmed cases. 

Vladimir Putin tells France’s Macron and Germany’s Scholz that continuing arms supplies to Ukraine is ‘dangerous’.

Kyiv has been unable to export grain supplies due to Russia’s invasion, which has sent global food prices soaring.

Families describe heartbreak and anger as more than 30,000 people face travel disruption this week.

As Defeat Looms Kiev Places All Its Hopes on Western Weapons, Erdogan Repeats Opposition to Finland, Sweden NATO Bids
News Topic 509

Eric Zuesse

Here is the ruling’s final page,  p. 81:

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p.81, “CONCLUSION”:

The Court has considered all of the arguments raised by the parties. To the extent not specifically addressed, the arguments are either moot or without merit. For the reasons explained above, the DNC’s Second Amended Complaint is dismissed with prejudice [boldface by the Judge] and the [Clinton] Campaign’s motion for sanctions under Rule 11 is denied.34 [boldface by the Judge] The Clerk is directed to enter judgment dismissing the Second Amended Complaint with prejudice. The Clerk is also directed to close this case and to close all pending motions. SO ORDERED. [boldface by the Judge]

Dated: New York, New York, July 30, 2019

John G. Koeltl, United States District Judge

34 … The DNC has now had three chances to plead a viable complaint and it is not clear how the DNC could plead around the fundamental defects in the current complaint. … nor is there any reason to believe that the fundamental defects in the Second Amended Complaint can be cured.

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The DNC decided not to try a fourth time. The Clerk sent them a package on the next day, to file an Appeal, but the DNC simply quit.

Judge Koeltl had been appointed on 26 April 1994 by U.S. President Bill Clinton.

The case was “Democratic National Committee v. The Russian Federation et al., 18-cv-03501(JGK)”. That “et al.” constituted (in addition to “THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION)

“GENERAL STAFF OF THE ARMED FORCES OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION (“GRU”); ARAS ISKENEROVICH AGALAROV; EMIN ARAZ AGALAROV; JOSEPH MIFSUD; WIKILEAKS; JULIAN ASSANGE; DONALD J. TRUMP FOR PRESIDENT, INC.; DONALD J. TRUMP, JR.; PAUL J. MANAFORT, JR.; ROGER J. STONE, JR.; JARED C. KUSHNER; GEORGE PAPADOPOULOS; and RICHARD W. GATES, III.”

However, during all of the many months and years following after 30 July 2019, in which that matter had actually already been legally settled, America’s ‘news’-media continued with ‘news’-reports and commentaries, and Special Counsel investigations, about the ‘question’ of whether candidate Trump had colluded with Russia’s Government in order to win the White House in 2016. That was political theater pretending to be news-investigation and analysis, but keeping hidden the top evidence: that Court’s ruling, and the DNC’s final decision not to appeal the ruling.

It was like “Saddam’s WMD” in 2002 through to the end of G.W. Bush’s Presidency in 2008: lies after lies after lies, obfuscations and propaganda all the while, and the key evidences and facts being hidden from — instead of reported and emphasized to — the public, so as to continue the manipulation of the highly gullible American public and consequent control of their public by America’s billionaires who own the ‘news’-media, and own the ‘defense’-contractors, which profit off of the resulting global-imperial U.S. constant-warfare, boosting their MIC-dominated and deception-oriented mega-corporations, which are controlled by those same billionaires, who hire and fire their employees and other agents in order to continue their exploitation of not only America’s, but the entire world’s, public.

This is how the one country that spends around half of all of the world’s ‘defense’-expenditures manages to serve its billionaires so well: it serves the public to them, on their golden platter of hired lies and constantly trusting masses, who never lose faith in them, no matter how many times they’ve been deceived by them before.

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Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s next book (soon to be published) will be AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change. It’s about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

US military engineers have finally finished reconstructing the levee system destroyed by the devastating storm in 2005

The US Army Corps of Engineers has finally finished rebuilding the system of levees, floodgates, and other protections surrounding the city of New Orleans. Built stronger and more extensive than the structures it replaced, the flood-prevention system is the “largest civil works project in the Corps’ history,” Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced on Friday during a ribbon-cutting ceremony.

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New Orleans police & National Guard deploy ‘anti-looting teams’ after hurricane leaves over 1 million without power in Louisiana

“The people of New Orleans have experienced the worst Mother Nature has to offer, and with the completion of this system, they’ll be protected by the best of engineering, design, and hurricane protection,” the governor declared. The official completion of the project comes just in time for hurricane season, which begins in June.

The new flood protection system includes the largest-ever pumping station and storm surge barrier. The latter stretches 1.8 miles (2.8 km) and can be closed during a storm surge. The levees have been armored to stop erosion, and permanent canal closures and pumps were added. Congress supplied $14.5 billion for the project, the formal name of which is the Hurricane and Storm Damage Risk Reduction System.

Already partly in operation, the system thus far appears to work, judging by its success withstanding last year’s season, the third-most active Atlantic hurricane season ever recorded. The year saw the standard alphabetical list of storm names exhausted and one of the worst storms in Louisiana’s history unleashed. Hurricane Ida, a Category-4 storm that hit in August – 16 years to the day after Katrina laid waste to New Orleans – tied historical records as the strongest hurricane ever to hit Louisiana.

Katrina was the costliest storm in American history, wreaking $178.8 billion in damages (in 2021 dollars) when it struck the Gulf Coast in 2005. More than 1,800 people died due to the storm and its aftermath. Nearly half of the fatalities were due to drowning as no fewer than 50 of the levees that were supposed to protect New Orleans failed. Many others succumbed to chronic disease exacerbated by the stress and conditions of post-Katrina living. The vast majority of the storm-linked deaths (1,577) took place in Louisiana, while there were 238 in Mississippi, and several in Alabama, Florida, and Georgia.

READ MORE: WATCH: Fire breaks out at iconic Superdome in New Orleans as flames and smoke seen billowing across city

Nearly three quarters of all occupied housing in New Orleans was damaged in the storm, leading more than half of the population to flee the city, at least temporarily, while their homes were being rebuilt. While a mandatory evacuation was issued ahead of Katrina’s landfall, many residents – especially the poor and elderly who had nowhere to go – opted to stay instead, sheltering in their homes or in the Superdome sports arena, which soon turned into an overcrowded, poorly-planned deathtrap. Ultimately, some 400,000 people were permanently displaced by Katrina, and the city’s population numbers have never recovered.

The Ukrainian president accused the Netherlands’ Mark Rutte of staying “silent” on Ukraine’s potential EU membership

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told Dutch broadcaster NOS on Friday that the Netherlands’ Prime Minister Mark Rutte needs to clarify whether Ukraine has a future in the European Union. Rutte is one of several top EU politicians to have cast doubt on a fast accession to the bloc for Ukraine.

Rutte spoke to Zelensky by phone on Thursday, two weeks after he virtually addressed the Ukrainian parliament in Kiev. Rutte expressed his support for Ukraine in its conflict with Russia but did not offer any indication as to whether Kiev’s application for EU membership would be accepted in the near future.

“I said very openly to him: If you think there is no place for us in the EU, then you should say so clearly,” Zelensky told NOS. “You really help us and I am very grateful for that,” he recalled telling Rutte, ”but as far as the EU is concerned, you stayed silent on all the things we wanted to hear.”

“EU membership is a sign of strength in the fight we are waging against Russia at home,” he declared.

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EU members oppose fast-tracking Ukraine– media

Rutte has previously cautioned that to fast-track EU membership for Ukraine – as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has suggested would happen – would be unfair to long-term candidate states such as Turkey and Montenegro. Addressing Dutch lawmakers earlier this month, Rutte said that Ukraine would need to implement many reforms before being considered a viable candidate and that candidacy is at present “very far away” for Kiev.

France’s European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune also stated earlier this month that Ukraine could take “15 or 20 years” to join the European bloc, while German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned in March that “joining the EU is not something that can be done in a few months.” French President Emmanuel Macron has proposed inviting Ukraine into a so-called “European political community” as a stopgap measure, something that Zelensky has outright rejected.

Ukraine’s track record of corruption is seen as a major stumbling block to EU membership. The country is ranked as the most corrupt in Europe and one of the most corrupt in the world. 

Speaking to NOS, Zelensky, who along with key members of his inner circle was revealed in the Panama Papers to hold an extensive web of offshore assets and properties, dismissed these concerns. 

“How do you know that there is corruption in Ukraine?” he asked interviewer Marielle Tweebeeke. “Do you live here?” When confronted with the fact that these allegations of corruption have been spelled out in “official reports,” Zelensky countered: “What makes them official?”

“Yes, there are problems,” Zelensky conceded. “You have them in many countries. You also have them in many EU countries. There are reforms that we still need and want to implement.”

EU sources told Bloomberg last month that a preliminary decision on Ukraine’s candidacy could come as early as June.