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Former pastor in 2 states pleads guilty to child sex charges

A former pastor in Tennessee and Indiana faces up to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to federal child sex abuse charges, prosecutors said.

Joshua Henley, 33, pleaded guilty Monday to producing, possessing and sending sex abuse material involving children and transporting a minor interstate to have sex, the U.S. attorney’s office in Memphis said.

Henley was the pastor at Holladay Church of Christ in Benton County, Tennessee, and coached the Holladay Elementary School girls’ basketball team, prosecutors said. Henley later went to work at a church in Evansville, Indiana, in April 2021, prosecutors said.

Henley drove to Tennessee in June to pick up a girl and brought her back to Indiana, where he had sex with her when she was 15, prosecutors said. Another girl later said Henley had asked her to create and send sexually explicit images, prosecutors said.

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U.S. aims to arm Ukraine with advanced anti-ship missiles to fight Russian blockade

The White House is working to put advanced anti-ship missiles in the hands of Ukrainian fighters to help defeat Russia’s naval blockade, officials said, amid concerns more powerful weapons that could sink Russian warships would intensify the conflict.

Ukraine has made no secret it wants more advanced U.S. capabilities beyond its current inventory of artillery, Javelin and Stinger missiles, and other arms. Kyiv’s list, for example, includes missiles that could push the Russian navy away from its Black Sea ports, allowing the restart of shipments of grain and other agricultural products worldwide.

Current and former U.S. officials and congressional sources have cited roadblocks to sending longer range, more powerful weapons to Ukraine that include lengthy training requirements, difficulties maintaining equipment, or concerns U.S. weaponry could be captured by Russian forces, in addition to the fear of escalation. read more

But three U.S. officials and two congressional sources said two types of powerful anti-ship missiles, the Harpoon made by Boeing (BA.N) and the Naval Strike Missile made by Kongsberg (KOG.OL) and Raytheon Technologies (RTX.N) were in active consideration for either direct shipment to Ukraine, or through a transfer from a European ally that has the missiles.

In April, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy appealed to Portugal to provide the Ukrainian military with Harpoons, which have a range of up to almost 300 km.

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House passes antisemitism resolution calling for surveillance and censorship of online content

The House of Representatives has voted to pass a resolution that calls for increased surveillance and censorship of online speech, to help reduce antisemitism.

The resolution goes beyond condemning antisemitism; it goes into the realm of calling on social media platforms to do more to stop it.

We obtained a copy of the resolution for you here.

The resolution calls on social media platforms to “institute stronger and more significant efforts to measure and address online antisemitism” and, like most resolutions of this kind, pays lip-service to the idea of “protecting free speech concerns,” without providing details on how this is possible.

The resolution also calls for the house to work “in tandem with the cross-party Inter-parliamentary Task Force to Combat Online Anti- semitism to help craft thoughtful global initiatives designed to address online antisemitism.”

The resolution names platforms specifically, saying there has been an uptick in “antisemitic language, conspiracy theories, and hatred has increased on multiple social media platforms—from Facebook and Instagram to Twitter and TikTok.”

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, was the only member of the House that recognized the implications of government once again trying to insert themselves into moderation on online platforms and voted against the bill on free speech grounds.

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Biden Admin Places $119 Million Order for Vaccines After Single Case of Monkeypox Reported in US

The Biden administration has placed an order for millions of doses of a vaccine intended to protect against smallpox and monkeypox, after the first case of monkeypox in the United States this year was confirmed in Massachusetts on May 18.

Monkeypox, a viral disease typically limited to Africa, has been reported in several countries with more than 25 confirmed cases since the beginning of May.

Denmark-based biotech group Bavarian Nordic announced the order on May 18, which prompts the company to convert its bulk liquid smallpox vaccine into freeze-dried versions, which have an improved shelf life. The bulk vaccine has already been manufactured and invoiced under previous contracts with the U.S. government, the Bavarian Nordic stated. The vaccine is approved under the name “JYNNEOS” in the United States.

The order represents $119 million worth of the Jynneos vaccines, which would be manufactured and invoiced in 2023 and 2024.

Under the contract, the Biden administration has the option to place another order worth $180 million. That would allow for about 13 million freeze-dried doses of the Jynneos smallpox vaccine to be manufactured by around 2024 and 2025. The majority of the bulk vaccine for those doses has already been manufactured and invoiced, according to the company.

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Australian cop who said there are only two genders faces investigation

An Australian policeman, a 62-year-old policeman, Sergeant Bruno Stafiieri, is being investigated after an online comment telling another officer that there are only two genders.

“So you are doing tertiary education studying genders,” Staffieri wrote, “I’ll make it easy for you to pass … there are 2.”

As reported by The Age, the ongoing investigation into Staffieri “shapes as a test case for freedom of speech and the force’s recently revised social-media policy, particularly for officers expressing religious or political opinions online.”

It was not the first time Staffieri has landed in trouble for commenting on LGB and Trans stories.

He was under investigation for criticizing the government’s decision to cancel Anzac Day and Australia Day but allowed Gay Pride March.

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We May Never Know If Covid Leaked From A Lab Unless The United States Stops Helping China Cover Up The Truth

The only Covid narrative that doesn’t directly aim to control people has to do with determining the origin of SARS-CoV-2. Discovering the origin of the virus should have been a top priority, but it was not. Why? Perhaps, instead of controlling people, the goal in this case was to cover for complicit behavior. 

There are only two plausible competing virus origin hypotheses: “lab leak” and “wet market.” Instead of imploring scientists to work together and discover the truth, then-National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins wrote in an email to presidential medical advisor Anthony Fauci early in the pandemic: “Wondering if there is something NIH can do to help put down this very destructive conspiracy [i.e., ‘lab leak’], with what seems to be growing momentum.”

Knowing that SARS-CoV-1 leaked from a Chinese lab on at least two occasions in the early 2000s, why would Collins and Fauci be so quick to “put down” the lab leak hypothesis? 

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Twitter To Ramp Up Censorship Of ‘Misinformation’ About The Ukraine War

Twitter has published what it calls a “crisis misinformation policy” announcing that it will be actively reducing the visibility of content found to be false which pertains to “situations of armed conflict, public health emergencies, and large-scale natural disasters.”

If you’ve been paying attention to the dramatic escalations in online censorship we’ve been seeing in 2022, it will not surprise you to learn that the Ukraine war is the first crisis to which this new censorship policy will be applied.

Twitter says that it “won’t amplify or recommend content” found to violate its new policy, and will also attach warning labels to individual tweets and even hide offending content behind a warning label and disable the retweet function on particularly naughty posts.

The problem here is of course the question of how to impartially establish whether something is objectively false without it turning into at best a flawed system guided by fallible human biases and perceptual filters and at worst a powerful institution shutting down unauthorized speech. Twitter says it formed its new policy with input from unnamed “global experts and human rights organizations,” and will be enforcing it with the help of “conflict monitoring groups, humanitarian organizations, open-source investigators, journalists, and more.” This will come as no comfort to anyone who’s familiar with the history of propaganda peddling that can be found in every single one of those respective categories.

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2020 Census: Significant Miscounts in 14 States, Mostly Red States Lost Congressional Seats

The 2020 census made significant miscounts, with population numbers in six states being undercounted while eight states saw an overcount in population, based on data from a recently published U.S. Census Bureau report.

Interestingly, five of the six states where the population was undercounted were red states—Arkansas, Tennessee, Florida, Mississippi, and Texas. The only blue state was Illinois.

Of the eight states where the population was overcounted, six were blue states, with the exceptions being Utah and the battleground state of Ohio.

In Arkansas, the population was undercounted by 5.04 percent, Tennessee by 4.78 percent, Mississippi by 4.11 percent, Florida by 3.48 percent, Illinois by 1.97 percent, and Texas by 1.92 percent.

In Hawaii, the number of people was overcounted by 6.79 percent, Delaware by 5.45 percent, Rhode Island by 5.05 percent, Minnesota by 3.84 percent, New York by 3.44 percent, Utah by 2.59 percent, Massachusetts by 2.24 percent, and Ohio by 1.49 percent, according to the May 19 report.

“For the remaining states and the District of Columbia, the estimated net coverage error rates were not significantly different from zero,” it said.

There are several explanations for the miscounts according to AP. In states like Texas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Florida, local administrations are believed to have not spent many resources to encourage residents to fill out census forms.

Demographer Allison Plyer points out that in states like Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas, the proportion of homes with a computer and internet subscription is among the lowest. The 2020 census was the first in history in which most participants were encouraged to fill out online forms.

“Get-out-the-count efforts can make a big difference, even when your community has poor internet access and is less likely to answer the census,” Plyer told the media outlet.

States that suffered from undercounting lost potential congressional seats. In Florida, the undercount translates into 750,600 missed citizens. According to an analysis by Election Data Services, Florida only needed 171,561 more people to get another seat.

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MI5 spy who fantasised about ‘eating children’s flesh’ escaped prosecution despite machete attack

An MI5 spy was able to leave the country whilst under investigation for having Nazi paraphernalia and threatening to kill, it emerged on Thursday night.

The informant, whose identity remains a secret after the Government won an injunction against the BBC, also escaped prosecution despite attacking his girlfriend with a machete.

As counter terror officers investigated Nazi paraphernalia and a diary in which he had written about killing “Jews” found at his home in the wake of the attack, the man moved abroad and began working for a foreign intelligence agency.

It is alleged officers had passed the allegations to MI5, who were effectively allowed to investigate one of their own.

As details emerged on Thursday night of his reign of violence and abuse against his former partners, officials were facing questions over how he got a job with MI5 and why taxpayer money was used to protect his identity.

His former girlfriend, known only as Beth, told the corporation: “I couldn’t speak out, he had men in high places who always had his back who would intervene and kill me if I ever spoke out.”

After she filmed him attacking her with a machete, she informed the police, but the case was dropped after they failed to take statements or copies of the video.

The whereabouts of the man known only as X, who is a foreign national, are currently unknown.

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Dem Legislation Could End Gun Sales to All Current Firearm Owners Forever, Require DOJ License

Do you want Merrick Garland to decide if you’re eligible to own a gun every time you acquire a new firearm?

Senate Democrats are pushing gun control in the run-up to the midterms, in the form of a bill introduced on Thursday.

They’re using the Buffalo mass shooting as a political tool, even though the gunman easily bypassed New York’s gun control laws to attack unarmed grocery shoppers.

Democratic Sens. Cory Booker, Richard Blumenthal and Bob Menendez are introducing the Federal Firearms Licensing Act, according to Politico.

The law would fundamentally revise gun ownership from a right enjoyed by American citizens to a privilege bestowed by the government at its own discretion.

Acquiring or buying a new gun would require a lengthy licensing process through the Department of Justice — every time you purchase a new firearm.

Buying a gun from a licensed firearms dealer already requires a NICS background check. Existing law prevents felons from buying or owning guns.

Booker’s bill would give the Attorney General discretion to approve or deny a federal firearms license, even if you’ve never been convicted of a crime.

The Attorney General would be able to deny a firearms license if they determined that the prospective gun owner “poses a significant danger of bodily injury to self or others” by owning a firearm.

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