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Inside CBDC’s Anti-Trump Rebrand

The planned rollout of a planet-wide network of “interoperable” digital currencies has shifted gears this year.

Digital Currency is still the endgame, but – in keeping with the spirit of the age – it seems they are changing the method to create the illusion of sides and choices.

We covered this briefly our most recent This Week in the New Normal, but it’s worth a deeper dive.

For years now OffG (and many others in the alternative media sphere) have covered the plans for programmable digital currency as a means for technocratic social control. This goal is years old, but first came to real prominence in the wake of the Covid “pandemic” and the attempted re-shaping of our entire society that entailed.

From 2020 to 2023, the development of “central bank digital currencies” (CBDCs) around the world was a steady upward line, reaching its peak when 130+ of the 197 nations on the planet, representing over 98% of the world’s economic output, were in the process of developing their own CBDC.

But then things went quiet, and some nations – including Japan and Canada – announced they would no longer be moving forward with their CBDC.

Why that would be I couldn’t say, except to speculate that concerns about control and privacy became too widely publicized, and market research indicated too much public scepticism to proceed.

Evidence for this can be found in the FinTech article “Bank of Canada Puts CBDC Development on Ice: Is This Indicative of Global CBDC Demise?”, from September 2024:

“The truth is that people don’t really want CBDCs,” says Stuart Connolly, CIO at investment and operating company Deus X Capital. He explains that concerns about freedom and privacy are still rife when it comes to CBDCs. “They have been roundly rejected by the business and crypto communities, and privacy advocates have campaigned against them because they are best suited to authoritarian economies where transparency can infringe upon freedoms and the creation of money and wealth are heavily controlled. Ultimately, there are few benefits to CBDCs and they simply aren’t compelling.”

That’s just an opinion of one man, of course, but it does jive with my instinctive feeling – CBDCs got too much bad press, and a shift in tactics was needed.

This brings us to 2025. There has been more movement on the CBDC front this year.

On April 9th the EU published the final draft of its “Digital Euro Bill”, and then just a few days ago, the European Central Bank announced a deal with 70 corporate trading partners to test “usage cases” for digital Euro transactions.

In the UK, the Bank of England is testing out offline payment systems for the Digital Pound.

Canada just *ahem* “elected” Mark Carney as their new Prime Minister, and while the Bank of Canada allegedly “scaled down” work on its CBDC last year, Carney has expressed very clear pro-CBDC thoughts in the past. It wouldn’t be shocking to see it restarted in a new “elbows up, look at us standing up to Donald Trump” context.

Indeed, that’s now the heart of the CBDC story.

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Trump’s New Executive Order Does Not Outright Ban Gain-Of-Function

A new rule issued last year by the U.S. Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) takes effect today that allows the Secretary of “any federal department” to indefinitely waive oversight requirements for high-risk experiments involving the most deadly pathogens known to man.

That means no safety checks and no independent review for government-led gain-of-function (GOF) experiments, despite the risky practice causing the COVID-19 pandemic that killed millions of Americans.

I sounded the alarm over the new waiver rule in October 2024, again the following month, and in various subsequent articles.

The document for the OSTP’s new rule avoids using “gain-of-function” terminology despite describing activities that match the practice, likely due to the controversy linking GOF research to the origins of the COVID pandemic.

The government wants to continue engineering dangerous pathogens to be even more lethal, but without anyone knowing.

The document, titled “United States Government Policy for Oversight of Dual Use Research of Concern and Pathogens with Enhanced Pandemic Potential,” was quietly issued without congressional approval on May 6, 2024.

It takes effect today, exactly one year after the issuance.

The policy “addresses oversight of research on biological agents and toxins that, when enhanced, have the potential to pose risks to public health, agriculture, food security, economic security, or national security,” the document reads.

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DNI Gabbard Reveals 11 Active Investigations Into Intel Leaks and Deep State Sabotage of Trump Administration

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard confirmed this week that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) is actively pursuing 11 separate internal investigations into classified intelligence leaks meant to sabotage the Trump administration from within.

Appearing on a segment with Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Gabbard pulled no punches, directly calling out entrenched bureaucrats for undermining the duly elected President of the United States with calculated leaks to far-left corporate media outlets.

Matt Gaetz:
I’ve also noticed the news you’ve made in making criminal referrals regarding people who were leaking information—allegedly to The Washington Post—from the Defense Department. What can you tell us about those referrals you’ve made? And do you expect the Justice Department to prosecute?

Tulsi Gabbard:
Yeah, Matt. Well, as I said, the politicization of our intelligence community needs to end—to even begin to start to earn the trust of the American people. The actions that we’ve taken—unfortunately—there continue to be significant leaks coming out of the intelligence community. Not only my organization, but the CIA and others—again, by those who are very directly trying to undermine the agenda and actions of President Trump. Once again, the President who was elected by the American people with an overwhelming mandate.

The way that we start to end this is by bringing about transparency and accountability. In these cases, we conducted our own internal investigation. In three cases, we referred them to the Department of Justice. As you know well, Matt, sometimes—or historically—we could refer things to the Department of Justice, and they would sit on a desk somewhere or get lost in the paper shuffle. And you end up having to wait and you wonder, Well, is anything ever going to happen?

Well, I can tell you, with the leadership we have there now, not only has there been action taken, but they have been actioned by the FBI and are going through immediately to investigate these cases with the intent of bringing about prosecution.

We have 11 other internal investigations ongoing now within ODNI, and we intend to continue to carry them out to completion—to hold those who are illegally leaking classified information, trying to undermine the President, politicizing intelligence—hold them accountable. Because this has got to end.

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Ukraine’s Parliament Ratifies US Minerals Deal In Hopes Of Securing Future Arms

The minerals deal is now official and legally binding for Ukraine as on Thursday Ukraine’s parliament voted in favor of ratifying the controversial resources agreement with the United States. This was a final key step in its adoption.

The Zelensky government is hoping this will more firmly secure future military assistance from Washington. The vote was unanimous: 338 Ukrainian lawmakers approved of ratifying it, and none opposed.

“The Ukrainian Parliament has ratified the historic Economic Partnership Agreement between Ukraine and the United States,” First Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced on X.

“This document is not merely a legal construct — it is the foundation of a new model of interaction with a key strategic partner,” Svyrydenko added.

Critics have warned that this could be a big resource grab by the United States, but since it’s signing was accomplished in Washington last month, Trump administration rhetoric toward Kiev has softened. For example, Trump is no longer demanding that Ukraine quickly move toward holding new presidential and parliamentary elections.

Meanwhile, Moon of Alabama has highlighted that there’s still a fight on as well as confusion over some suppressed details of the deal, citing Strana, which reported (machine translation)…

The opposition already accuses the authorities of concealing the main points about the deal. The fact is that the agreement on the creation of the fund, signed last week and already made public, is being submitted for ratification, and there are very few specifics in it. This is essentially a framework agreement. For all the main points in the text of the agreement, there are references to another document – the Limited Partnership Agreement. There is also a third document – the Foundation’s charter.

A number of deputies claim that all three documents have actually been signed (or agreed upon). But they showed only one-the least important and most abstract of them, from which it is not even clear what the Foundation will do in general.

The government denies this, saying that only one document has been signed, and the rest will still be discussed.

Trump has indicated the US could just walk away from efforts to mediate peace, if neither side is a willing partner. The White House has not said whether this means it would halt arms for Ukraine’s military, or intelligence-sharing. 

But the minerals deal means the US is indeed very likely to continue arming Kiev. After all, the White House now has more of an interest in protecting US ‘investment’ now and into the future.

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FBI Investigating Alarming Incidents Amid “Poor Culture Of Safety” At NIH’s High Security Pathogen Lab

The FBI launched an investigation last week into security violations at the NIH’s Integrated Research Facility at Fort Detrick following several dangerous incidents in which a contractor cut holes in an employee’s biocontainment suit designed to protect against infection from pathogens such as Ebola, according to interviews and documents viewed by The DisInformation Chronicle.

Violations of safety protocol at the research facility were uncovered by Jeffrey Taubenberger on his first day as Acting Director of the NIAID, the NIH Institute formerly run by Anthony Fauci. Fort Detrick houses multiple government germ labs, including the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. The Army’s lab was shut down in 2009 and again in 2019, both times due to safety concerns.

“Many issues have been known for months if not years and previous NIAID leadership did nothing about it,” explained an NIH official, detailing problems at the facility which was described as having a “poor culture of safety.”

Incidents in November and March occurred under the watch of NIAID Director Jeanne Marrazzo, who was let go last month during a round of federal cuts. The NIH also uncovered poor documentation of select agents, with logs not matching inventory, although all missing vials have apparently been accounted for.

An NIH employee leaked an incomplete email to Wired Magazine last week which ran a story that downplayed safety breaches and accused Secretary Robert F. Kennedy of shutting the lab down as part of “the latest disruption to federal science agencies.” The article quoted Johns Hopkins researcher Gigi Gronvall complaining that the lab shut down would harm research and cost taxpayer money.

“The sacrifice to research is immense,” Gigi Gronvall told Wired. “If things are unused for a period of time, it will cost more money to get them ready to be used again.”

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Bernie Sanders Exposes Himself As An Elitist Fraud

Bernie Sanders was called out during a Fox News interview about repeatedly traveling on private jets during a tour he’s called “Fight the Oligarcy,” and his answer exposed him for the completely fraud he is.

As we previously highlighted, Sanders spent (or used taxpayer funds, it isn’t clear yet) more than $220,000 in the first quarter of this year flying to the events on private jets, while complaining about Elon Musk.

When he was challenged on this behaviour by host Brett Bair, Sanders scoffed at the idea that he could possibly fly commercial.

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DNA Reveals Surprising Twist About Christopher Columbus

On 22 February 1498, a well-weathered mid-40s Christopher Columbus ordained in writing that his estate in the Italian port city of Genoa would be maintained for his family “because from it I came and in it I was born”.

Though most historians regard the document to be a cut-and-dried record of the famed explorer’s birthplace, some have questioned its authenticity and wondered if there’s more to the story.

Last year, a decades-long investigation led by forensics scientist José Antonio Lorente from the University of Granada in Spain came out in support of claims that Columbus may not be of Italian heritage after all, but was actually born somewhere in Spain to parents of Jewish ancestry.

The revelation was announced in October as part of a special program broadcast in Spain to celebrate Columbus’s arrival in the New World on 12 October 1492.

It’s important to keep in mind that science by media ought to be viewed with caution, especially when there isn’t a peer-reviewed publication to critically examine.

“Unfortunately, from a scientific point of view, we can’t really evaluate what was in the documentary because they offered no data from the analysis whatsoever,” former director of Spain’s National Institute of Toxicology and Forensic Sciences, Antonio Alonso, told Manuel Ansede and Nuño Domínguez at the Spanish news service, El País.

“My conclusion is that the documentary never shows Columbus’s DNA and, as scientists, we don’t know what analysis was undertaken.”

Nonetheless, historical documents are increasingly being challenged – and bolstered – by forensic analyses of biological records, raising the possibility that Columbus’s own DNA could potentially reveal insights into his family history.

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Filing: Smartmatic Hid Meeting With Dem Megadonor Who Financed Its Suit Against 2020 Election Reporting

Smartmatic, the electronic tabulator company suing Fox News for alleged defamation following the 2020 election, failed in a February court hearing to disclose a meeting with Democrat megadonor Reid Hoffman, newly unsealed court documents allege.

Following the 2020 election, both Fox News and Newsmax “hosted commentators who aired concerns that tabulators were not secure, were vulnerable to voter fraud, and had possibly changed Trump votes to Biden votes,” as described in these pages by Logan Washburn. Smartmatic sued, arguing the comments amounted to defamation. Fox previously settled a suit with Dominion Voting over similar allegations while Newsmax recently settled with Smartmatic for $40 million, according to NBC.

As Washburn reported, Fox had previously expressed concerns about a “deep-pocketed ‘third party’ behind the suit” — allegations that Smartmatic denied in 2023, according to Reuters. But reporting from The Washington Post revealed Hoffman invested millions in Smartmatic, as the company sued news outlets for their reporting about the 2020 election. In July 2024, the Post reported that Hoffman had “connected with Smartmatic chief executive Antonio Mugica through friends of friends” and was “boosting” its lawsuit against Fox.

According to a newly unsealed filing, Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica met with “politically-motivated investors … to discuss the company’s financials and investment prospects.” That’s “a fact that Smartmatic withheld from this Court on February 5, 2025,” says the document, which was initially filed under seal with the New York State Supreme Court in April before being unsealed this week.

“After that meeting, Hoffman and [his adviser Dmitri] Mehlhorn infused Smartmatic with $25,000,000 to fund its litigation against Fox and publicly declared that Smartmatic could be a ‘$400 million’ company but for the alleged defamation,” the filing continues.

A “deposition transcript from the Newsmax case confirms that Hoffman and Smartmatic CEO Antonio Mugica had a private meeting,” according to the document. But “Smartmatic did not tell the Court at that [Feb. 5, 2025] hearing … that Antonio Mugica, Smartmatic’s CEO, had met with Hoffman and Mehlhorn via videoconference about Smartmatic’s finances, this lawsuit,” and Hoffman’s funding, it says.

The filing also alleges that Smartmatic had previously “failed to disclose to Fox that … it entered into a litigation-funding agreement with … an entity controlled by Reid Hoffman,” a fact that Fox learned “from public media reports” in July 2024, “just seven days before the then-scheduled close of fact discovery.”

In a statement to The Federalist, a Fox News representative said it’s unsurprising that Hoffman would be involved.

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National Weather Service on alert after conspiracy group threatens radar sites

The National Weather Service (NWS) is on heightened alert after recent threats from a militia-style group that believes the agency’s Doppler radar systems are being used as “weather weapons.”

Initial reports indicate the group, identified by CNN as Veterans on Patrol, has targeted radar facilities operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The group reportedly sent threats, calling the radar network a weapon and encouraging attacks on weather sites.

“They are the number one tool in our toolbox,” said Herb Simmons, director of St. Clair County Emergency Management.

Simmons emphasized the critical role Doppler radar plays in severe weather forecasting and emergency response. The NWS data reaches nearly 4 million people in the St. Louis region alone.

“Our storms seem to be coming more frequently. We are seeing more severe storms,” Simmons said. “One of the reasons we haven’t had the loss of life or injuries is because I think the National Weather Service is giving us the ability to warn people quicker.”

Threats and warnings

CNN reports that NOAA officials have received internal warnings about the group advocating for “penetration drills” to identify weaknesses at radar sites, with the goal of ultimately destroying them.

The Southern Poverty Law Center classifies Veterans on Patrol as an anti-government militia.

According to the SPLC website, “Veterans on Patrol (VOP) is an antigovernment militia located in Pima County, Arizona. The founder, Michael “Lewis Arthur” Meyer, is a Christian nationalist who rallies hard-right extremists and conspiracy theorists around the issue of immigration and encourages vigilantism.”

“Without their monitoring, without their prediction, it will create problems for these communities when storms decide to raise their ugly heads,” Simmons said.

When asked about the risks to meteorologists and the public, Simmons didn’t mince words.

“It’s someone trying to incite violence for some strange reason, and it would be terrible,” he said. “Hopefully, whoever it is either comes to their senses or is met with the swift arm of the law — because I’ll tell you, it could have bad consequences.”

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Diddy trial thrown into chaos as key witness goes MISSING

A star witness in the Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs trial is reportedly MIA, throwing the disgraced Bad Boy mogul’s sex trafficking case into chaos. 

Opening statements are set to begin next week. But federal prosecutors have been left scrambling. 

They can’t find one of the female victims who is central to their case. She does not live in New York where the Combs’ trial is being held.

Lead prosecutor Maurene Comey told US District Judge Arun Subramanian on Wednesday that they are having a difficult time contacting ‘Victim 3’ and her attorney.

Prosecutors had mentioned Victim 3 plans to disclose ‘very personal and explosive details’ concerning abuse she allegedly suffered under Combs. 

Comey told the judge that even if they are able to reach the unnamed victim, she ‘may not show up.

Defense attorney Teny Geragos demanded that the prosecution make a decision by the end of the week on whether they still plan to call Victim 3 to testify.

The prosecutions’ admission that they cannot reach one of their star witnesses came as a shock after they told the judge in an April 29 memo that Victim 3 ‘did not wish to use a pseudonym during her testimony.’

Prosecutors filed a third superseding indictment in April that added an additional charge of sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution related to Victim 3. 

Combs is facing a total of five counts, including racketeering, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution in connection to four alleged victims who were forced to participate in drug-fueled ‘freak offs’, prosecutors claim.

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