Tag: corruption

Harvard closes evolution center after finding connections to Jeffrey Epstein

Harvard University’s program for evolutionary dynamics is to close after an inquiry into ties between its director, Martin Nowak, and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

According to the university, the mathematics and biology professor violated several university policies through his contacts with Epstein, including giving the disgraced wealthy financier an office on campus which he visited more than 40 times between 2010 and 2018.

Epstein, 66, was charged with sex trafficking in 2019, shortly before he was found dead in his cell in the Metropolitan correctional center in New York. Epstein had faced an indictment accusing him of running a sex-trafficking ring of underage girls, some as young as 14.

Nowak will be barred from starting new research or advising students for at least two years, according to the university. The sanctions come almost a year after Novak was suspended following a university review that found he had extensive, previously unreported contact with Epstein.

The review of Nowak’s connections to Epstein found that the professor had facilitated Epstein’s efforts to use ties to the prestigious university Harvard as a tool to rehabilitate his image.

The review also found that Nowak devoted a page to Epstein on the center’s website that included links to the financier’s websites. The university received $9.1m in gifts from Epstein, including a donation of $6.5m to the evolutionary dynamics faculty in 2006.

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Hugo Boss Vows to Buy Slave Cotton in Chinese After Denying Purchases in English

German fashion house Hugo Boss assured its Chinese buyers on Thursday that it will continue to “purchase and support” Xinjiang cotton, a product of Chinese state-supported slave labor by Uyghurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities, extensive reporting has revealed.

“Xinjiang’s long-stapled cotton is one of the best in the world. We believe top-quality raw materials will definitely show its value [sic]. We will continue to purchase and support Xinjiang cotton,” a verified Hugo Boss account wrote in a statement posted to the Chinese social media platform Weibo on March 25.

A Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) reporter reached out to Hugo Boss on Thursday for comment on its Weibo statement supporting Xinjiang cotton and received a contradictory response.

“[I]n an emailed response to HKFP, the brand linked to a statement on its website saying it has never used Xinjiang cotton: ‘So far, HUGO BOSS has not procured any goods originating in the Xinjiang region from direct suppliers,’” the luxury fashion house wrote on its official Western website.

“Hugo Boss did not respond to HKFP’s questions as to whether it is sending different messages to Chinese and Western customers,” the newspaper noted.

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Biden’s Press Conference ‘Cheat Sheet’ Contained Names, Photos Of Which Reporters To Call On

Though Biden’s use of cue cards to screen questions and speak about policy is unprecedented for a commander-in-chief, supporters have argued that the move makes sense given Biden’s past history of gaffes, such as confusing his wife for his sister and forgetting the name of his Secretary of Defense, former Raytheon board member Lloyd Austin.

Despite his helpful cue cards, Biden still managed to make numerous gaffes during Thursday’s press conference.

In one instance, Biden promised to “say something outrageous” but then appeared to entirely forget what he was talking about and moved on:

During Joe Biden’s long-awaited first press conference since taking office, the President said “I’m going to say something outrageous,” then promptly forgot what he was going to say, in what could be described as the newest addition to his long list of embarrassing gaffes.

“I’m going to say something outrageous,” said Biden. “I have never been particularly poor at calculating how to get things done in the United States Senate. So, the best way to get something done, if you, if you hold near and dear to you that you uh, um, like to be able to uh, anyway,” muttered Biden.

“We’re going to get a lot done,” said the President.

Biden’s cue cards came in handy when he was asked a question about North Korea, which he responded to byreading a prepared response off of his cheat sheet.

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US Military Ordered “Clandestine Burning” of Toxic Chemicals in Poor Neighborhoods

New research conducted by environmental justice scholars at Vermont’s Bennington College reveals that between 2016 and 2020, the U.S. military oversaw the “clandestine burning” of more than 20 million pounds of Aqueous Fire Fighting Foam in low-income communities around the country—even though there is no evidence that incineration destroys the toxic “forever chemicals” that make up the foam and are linked to a range of cancers, developmental disorders, immune dysfunction, and infertility.

“In defiance of common sense and environmental expertise, the Department of Defense (DOD) has enlisted poor communities across the U.S. as unwilling test subjects in its toxic experiment with burning AFFF,” David Bond, associate director of the Center for the Advancement of Public Action at Bennington College, said (pdf) in a statement earlier this week.

Noting that scientists, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and even Pentagon officials have warned that “burning AFFF is an unproven method and dangerous mix that threatens the health of millions of Americans,” Bond characterized the decision of the military to dump huge stockpiles of AFFF and AFFF wastewater into “a handful of habitually negligent incinerators” as a “harebrained” operation as well as a manifestation of environmental injustice.

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After Nine Weeks Without Press Conference, Biden Relies On Pre-Selected List Of Reporters At First One

While some presidents made a point to use a preferred press list in the past, Biden only fielded questions from 10 of the 25 reporters located in the White House’s East Room, many of whom injected their own agendas, bias, and narratives into their leading questions about immigration, the filibuster, and foreign policy.

One taxpayer-funded journalist at PBS asked if  the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border is because Biden is so “moral” and “decent.”

“You’ve said over and over again, that immigrants shouldn’t come to this country right now, this isn’t the time to come. That message is not being received,” Yamiche Alcindor said. “Instead the perception of you, that got you elected as a moral, decent man, is the reason why a lot of immigrants are coming to this country and trusting you with unaccompanied minors.”

Another reporter asked Biden if former President Barack Obama’s suggestion that the filibuster is “a relic of the Jim Crow era” is accurate, a sentiment that he readily agreed is true.

Even though multiple reporters were granted access to the indoor presser, certain White House correspondents such as Fox News’s Peter Doocy, who has a history of pressing White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki to answer his questions instead of giving him the runaround, were overlooked and never called on by the president.

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Vaccine Marketing: U.S. Businesses Offering Freebies to Vax Recipients Despite Ongoing Reports About Side Effects

COVID-19 vaccines are still considered to be experimental and some recipients have experienced horrible side effects from taking it.  This includes actor/lawyer/writer/comedian, Ben Stein.  Some recipients have also died after taking it, leading many European countries to suspend certain versions.

So despite all the public service announcements and government pressure to take the shot, there are people who still don’t want it – even health care workers.

Kroger isn’t mandating COVID shots but is offering $100 to employees who take them.  Some businesses are also offering other incentives to customers.

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CNN’s Defense of Chris Cuomo’s Special COVID Privileges is Grotesque

Ever since the COVID pandemic subsumed most countries on the planet, there have been numerous scandals and controversies relating to those who corruptly obtain medical privileges and other exemptions unavailable to ordinary citizens. These scandals typically arise when someone uses their wealth, power or connections to jump in front of others for access to potentially life-saving procedures or medications or grant themselves and their friends license to ignore what everyone else must endure.

Right now in Brazil, for instance, there is a burgeoning scandal from reports that a group of businesspeople with ties to the government arranged to purchase their own private stash of vaccines for use for themselves, families and friends in violation of the law. In the U.S., people were outraged when very young members of Congress were among the first to receive the vaccine (though the law permitted them to do so); those young Congressmembers justified their line-jumping on the ground that they were doing so selflessly to encourage others. Meanwhile, other members of Congress refused this privilege on the ground, as Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) put it, that it is “shameful” for young lawmakers to believe they “are more important” than workers. Repeatedly in the U.S., politicians were caught exempting themselves from lockdown orders they were imposing on everyone else.

But those pale in comparison to the abuse of power by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) and his brother, CNN host Chris Cuomo, as reported on Wednesday by The Albany-Times Union and The Washington Post. “High-level members of the state Department of Health were directed last year by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and Health Commissioner Dr. Howard Zucker to conduct prioritized coronavirus testing on the governor’s relatives as well as influential people with ties to the administration,” reported the Times-Union. “Members of Cuomo’s family including his brother, his mother and at least one of his sisters were also tested by top health department officials — some several times,” it added.

In particular, Gov. Cuomo abused state resources to ensure that his then-49-year-old brother, Chris, received fast COVID testing at a time when tests were very scarce. “The CNN anchor was swabbed by a top New York Department of Health doctor, who visited his Hamptons home to collect samples from him and his family,” The Post reported. The article also contains these damning details:

The same doctor who tested Chris Cuomo, Eleanor Adams, now a top adviser to the state health commissioner, also was enlisted to test multiple other Cuomo family members….The coronavirus test specimens were then rushed — at times driven by state police troopers — to the Wadsworth Center, a state public health lab in Albany, where they were processed immediately, the people said. At times, employees in the state health laboratory were kept past their shifts until late into the night to process results of those close to Cuomo, two people said.

All of this commandeering of state resources to provide the CNN host with very specialized medical attention occurred while “media reports were full of accounts from New Yorkers desperate to get tested — including some with symptoms and recent travel history who were turned away because of scarcity.”

For more than a year now, CNN’s promotion of “interviews” conducted by Chris Cuomo of his own brother — in which the CNN host repeatedly heaped lavish praise on Gov. Cuomo and even hyped him as a presidential contender while the Governor was corruptly and possibly criminally covering up COVID deaths — was one of the most glaring breaches of journalistic ethics imaginable. It was not cute or charming. It was corrupt. And it aggressively deceived CNN’s audience. That they knew it was corrupt was evidenced by the CNN host’s recent announcement that he would not cover his brother’s recent scandals: what conceivable framework makes it journalistically permissible for a news host to shower his own brother with praise, but then not cover his scandals?

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