Tag: israel

More Fetal Losses Than Expected After Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccination In Israel: Study

A higher-than-expected number of miscarriages and other forms of fetal loss were associated with COVID-19 vaccinations in Israel, a new study has revealed.

Researchers found 13 fetal losses—four more than the nine expected—for every 100 pregnant women who received a COVID-19 vaccine during weeks eight to 13 in pregnancy, according to the study, which was published as a preprint on the medRxiv server.

Most people in Israel, including pregnant women, received the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.

Pfizer did not respond by publication time to a request for comment.

The team behind the study includes Retsef Levi, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher who was recently named to the committee that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on vaccines, and Dr. Tracy Hoeg, who works for the Food and Drug Administration.

The researchers analyzed electronic health records from Maccabi Healthcare Services, one of four organizations that provide health care to Israelis. They looked at 226,395 pregnancies that occurred between March 1, 2016, and Feb. 28, 2022. The primary analysis looked at fetal loss for pregnant women after dose one or dose three of a COVID-19 vaccine, with fetal loss including miscarriage, abortion, and stillbirth.

The researchers came up with an expected number of fetal losses based on a model that drew from data before the COVID-19 pandemic, then compared the expected number of fetal losses with those that occurred from week eight of pregnancy onward.

They identified 13,214 fetal losses after the COVID-19 pandemic started, compared with 12,846 fetal losses in the reference period, finding that women who received a COVID-19 vaccine during weeks eight to 13 in pregnancy experienced a higher-than-expected number of fetal losses.

“If you believe this result … every 100 women that you would vaccinate during weeks eight to 13, you are going to see close to four additional fetal losses,” Levi told The Epoch Times.

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The Real Winners: The Strategic Fallout of the Israel-Iran War

On June 24, US President Donald Trump announced a truce between Israel and Iran following nearly two weeks of open warfare.

Israel began the war, launching a surprise offensive on June 13, with airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities, missile installations, and senior military and scientific personnel, in addition to numerous civilian targets.

In response, Iran launched a wave of ballistic missiles and drones deep into Israeli territory, triggering air raid sirens across Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba and numerous other locations, causing unprecedented destruction in the country.

What began as a bilateral escalation quickly spiraled into something far more consequential: a direct confrontation between the United States and Iran.

On June 22, the United States Air Force and Navy carried out a full-scale assault on three Iranian nuclear sites – Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan – in a coordinated strike dubbed Operation Midnight Hammer. Seven B-2 bombers of the 509th Bomb Wing allegedly flew nonstop from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri to deliver the strikes.

The following day, Iran retaliated by bombing the Al-Udeid US military base in Qatar and firing a new wave of missiles at Israeli targets.

This marked a turning point. For the first time, Iran and the United States faced each other on the battlefield without intermediaries. And for the first time in recent history, Israel’s long-standing campaign to provoke a US-led war against Iran had succeeded.

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‘War Industry’ Silenced Democrat Opposition On Iran Strikes: Sen. Murphy

A leading Democratic senator has offered a frank and rare explanation for why many in his party are disconnected from everyday Democratic voters when it comes to foreign policy, which for a brief spell during the Bush years was dubbed ‘anti-war’—a platform which pretty much disappeared during the Obama years and later Biden admin.

Senator Chris Murphy was on MSNBC this week to talk about President Trump’s strike on Iran’s nuclear sites, which was not so much as debated much less formally approved by Congress. Murphy pointed out to Chris Hayes that an overwhelming 87% of Democrats expressed disapproval, according to a recent poll, and that 56% of Americans overall opposed the military action.

“I gotta say, if you just looked at elected Democratic members of Congress I don’t think you would think the voting members of the party were as overwhelmingly against this strike as they are compared to the people they send to go represent them in Congress,” Hayes told Murphy in the Tuesday interview, asking, “Do you feel like there’s a pretty big distance on these kinds of issues, between Democratic voters and democratic electeds?”

“I mean yes,” Murphy responded without hesitation. “That’s because, listen, there is a war industry in this town. There just is. There’s a lot of people who make money off of war.

“The military, I love them, they’re capable. But they are always way overly optimistic about what they can do,” the senator added.

“So the American people get it,” Murphy then said. “This town, you know, has, like I said, a degree of optimism and hubris about military action that is derivative of the fact that the war industry spends a lot of money here in Washington telling us that the guns and the tanks and the planes can solve all of our problems.”

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Canadian PM Carney Calls for ‘Zionist Palestinian State’

In an interview Wednesday Prime Minister Mark Carney said Canada would only accept a “Zionist Palestinian state”. Two week earlier foreign affairs minister Anita Anand described Canada’s “unwavering support for Israel’s security” and next week an RCMP commissioner is set to speak at an event to assuage the concerns of Canadians who’ve fought in Gaza that they may be investigated under Canada’s war crimes legislation.

Canadian policy towards Israel is unique. No other faraway state has received a constant flow of Canadians joining its military. No other wealthy faraway country receives a remotely comparable amount of registered charity funds. No other state has a publicly financed special envoy to deflect criticism of its colonial violence or gets Ottawa to send letters threatening the International Criminal Court on its behalf. Nor is there another country in which the government sues to block proper labels on its wines or the Canadian embassy hosts parties for Canadians fighting in its military or the foreign minister says Canada would act as an “asset” for it on the UN Security Council.

I’ve written extensively about Canadian governments’ violating international law while professing its importance. In the case of Israel, the duplicity is even more glaring. Our governments have repeatedly failed to uphold Canadian law. The Minister of Justice, Global Affairs, RCMP and other government agencies have ignored their legal responsibilities regarding a genocidal apartheid state.

Issuing arms permits to Israel contravenes Canada’s Export and Import Permits Act yet Ottawa refuses to stop the flow of arms. According to the federal government, “Under the Export and Import Permits Act (EIPA), the Minister of Foreign Affairs must deny exports and brokering permit applications for military goods and technology if there is a substantial risk that the items would undermine peace and security, or could be used to commit or facilitate serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.”

By any credible account, the Israeli military has long committed “serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights laws.” Israel has launched a series of deadly wars on the besieged population of Gaza (2008, 2014, 2021). It’s also killed over a thousand in the West Bank and beginning in 2013 Israeli forces began bombing Syria on a near weekly basis.

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The truth behind Trump’s bombings and the huge Iran secret kept from the world that’s hoodwinked all of America

Two days before American B-2 stealth bombers dropped the biggest payload of explosives since World War II on Iran, trucks were seen lining up outside the primary target at Fordow.

Satellite images showed scores of cargo vehicles outside a tunnel entrance to Iran’s key nuclear base inside a mountain.

Donald Trump has insisted that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program was destroyed in the precision strikes, an assessment backed by the CIA and Israeli intelligence.

But there was also a frantic effort to move centrifuges and highly enriched uranium before US bombers attacked, the key question for the Pentagon now is: where did it go?

One possibility, according to experts, is a secret facility buried even deeper under another mountain 90 miles south of Fordow: ‘Mount Doom.’

In Farsi, the potential new ground zero for Iran’s nuclear program is Kuh-e Kolang Gaz La, otherwise known in English as ‘Pickaxe Mountain,’ located in the Zagros Mountains in central Iran on the outskirts of one of the regime’s other nuclear sites at Natanz.

‘It is plausible that Iran moved centrifuges and highly enriched uranium (HEU) to secret or hardened locations prior to the recent strikes – including possibly to facilities near Pickaxe Mountain,’ Christoph Bluth, professor of international relations and security at the University of Bradford, told the Daily Mail.

Previous intelligence had showed ‘large tunnels being bored into the mountain, with possible infrastructure for an advanced enrichment facility,’ he claimed.

‘The site may be buried 100 meters below the surface. So it is conceivable that advanced centrifuge cascades have been hidden there, but there is no specific evidence at this time to confirm where centrifuges and fissile material has been moved to.’

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The Battle over Battle Damage Assessment at Fordo

There are some questions being raised over the absolute confidence that the damage at the Fordo nuclear site in Iran was actually destroyed.  A solidly reliable source of Fake News, CNN, has now assumed the role of expert “Battle Damage Assessor”. Anyone can be a Battle Damage Assessor – it is very similar to being a “Sniper Profiler” in the 2002 Washington D.C. Sniper Episode – a conveyor belt of “Sniper Profilers” appeared out of nowhere flooding the airwaves with commentary and descriptions that proved to be wildly inaccurate.

CNN reported on their view of the Battle Damage Assessment (BDA):

“The US military strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear facilities last weekend did not destroy the core components of the country’s nuclear program and likely only set it back by months, according to an early US intelligence assessment that was described by seven people briefed on it.

The assessment, which has not been previously reported, was produced by the Defense Intelligence Agency, the Pentagon’s intelligence arm. It is based on a battle damage assessment conducted by US Central Command in the aftermath of the US strikes, one of the sources said.”

CNN continued on:

“Two of the people familiar with the assessment said Iran’s stockpile of enriched uranium was not destroyed. One of the people said the centrifuges are largely “intact.” Another source said that the intelligence assessed enriched uranium was moved out of the sites prior to the US strikes.

“So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops,” this person added.”

Karoline Leavitt responded like a flamethrower against CNN:

“This alleged assessment is flat-out wrong and was classified as ‘top secret’ but was still leaked to CNN by an anonymous, low-level loser in the intelligence community. The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program. Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000-pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.”

There are several matters that come to mind with the contrived effort of CNN to assert themselves as the self-appointed Gatekeepers of truth for BDA.

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US Navy Used Munitions at ‘Alarming Rate’ To Intercept Iranian Missiles Fired at Israel

A senior US military official told Congress on Tuesday that the US Navy used munitions at an “alarming rate” while defending Israel from Iranian missiles during the 12-day war that Israel started with massive strikes on Iran.

Adm. James Kilby, the acting chief of naval operations, was asked during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing whether the US Navy had enough SM-3 interceptors, an advanced missile that can reach space and can cost between $10 million and $30 million for a single missile.

“We do, sir, but we are, to your point, using them at an alarming rate,” Kilby told Sen. Brian Schatz (D-HI), who said the US was using a large number of munitions to defend Israel.

Kilby continued, “As you know, those are missiles procured by the Missile Defense Agency and then delivered to the Navy for our use. And we are using them quite effectively in the defense of Israel.”

It’s unclear how many SM-3 missiles the US Navy fired to defend Israel during the 12 days of war. The munitions were also used last year when Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel in April 2024 in response to the Israeli bombing of its consulate in Damascus and in October when Iran launched another attack over Israel’s assassination of Hamas’s political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, when he was in Tehran.

The US also expended a lot of munitions during its bombing campaigns against the Houthis in Yemen. President Trump’s airstrikes in Yemen, which lasted from March 15 to May 6, were particularly violent and killed more than 200 civilians. Despite the heavy attacks, the Houthis, officially known as Ansar Allah, were able to keep up attacks on US warships, and Trump eventually gave up trying to stop them from firing at Israel.

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NATO chief calls Trump ‘Daddy’ after president drops F-bomb over Iran-Israel strikes

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on Wednesday called President Trump “Daddy” after the commander-in-chief furiously dropped the F-bomb when he was ripping into Iran and Israel for temporarily breaking a cease-fire deal.

Rutte made the remark as Trump was comparing the fighting between Israel and Iran to children scrapping in a schoolyard — a day after the prez launched a blistering attack on both countries over the ongoing barrage of missiles being fired at each other.

“They’ve had a big fight, like two kids in a schoolyard. You know, they fight like hell, you can’t stop them. Let them fight for about 2, 3 minutes, then it’s easy to stop them,” Trump said as the pair gave a joint press conference ahead of the NATO summit at The Hague.

Rutte laughed and quickly added: “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language to get it stopped.”

Elsewhere, the NATO boss gushed that Trump was a “good friend” and praised the prez for making the summit a success by “finally” getting Europe to boost military spending.

“When it comes to Iran, the fact that he took this decisive action, very targeted, to make sure that Iran would not be able to get his hands on a nuclear capability — I think he deserves all the praise,” he said.

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Claims Swirl Over Extent Of Damage From Attacks On Iranian Nuclear Facilities

There are new claims saying Iran’s nuclear program was “badly damaged” in attacks by Israel and the U.S. These differ from earlier published reports that the strikes had a limited effect, highlighting the precarious nature of parsing through preliminary assessments.

Wednesday afternoon, CIA John Radcliffe said that his agency “can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes,” according to a public statement. “This includes new intelligence from a historically reliable and accurate source/method that several key Iranian nuclear facilities were destroyed and would have to be rebuilt over the course of years. CIA continues to collect additional reliably sourced information to keep appropriate decision-makers and oversight bodies fully informed. When possible, we will also provide updates and information to the American public, given the national importance of this matter and in every attempt to provide transparency.”

Radcliffe’s analysis follows statements from Israeli intelligence officials on Wednesday said that U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities have caused “very significant” and “long-term damage,” according to Israeli media reports. Iran also confirmed its sights were “badly damaged.” Those assessments are in line with what U.S. President Donald Trump has said. At the same time, they differ significantly from U.S. media reports citing a now-confirmed preliminary Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report stating that Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. attack on Fordow, Isfahan and Natanz, had limited results. Experts in the non-proliferation community are also giving their takes on the state of Iran’s nuclear program, some of which are conflicting and even Iran has chimed in.

Clearly this issue is highly politicized at this point and there are many agendas at play when it comes to propagating specific narratives surrounding it. These range from political motivations to state-sponsored disinformation. Unless there are trusted moles with actual access to these sites — or who have direct knowledge from those who do — within the Iranian government, and only if Iran has even gained access into critical areas themselves, conclusions can only be made in a preliminary fashion based on very limited information. Even intercepted intelligence can be falsified in order to throw foreign assessments off. Intelligence reports, as a practice, also range in confidence, and it’s unlikely the confidence is extremely high this soon after the attack. So maybe the B-2’s didn’t have the desired effect and maybe they destroyed huge amounts of critical nuclear infrastructure and materials. It’s still not very clear and conclusions in key intelligence products can change drastically based on new information.

Regardless, here is the state of play of the battle damage assessment situation as it sat prior to the CIA report. You can also catch up with our past reporting about the Israel-Iran conflict here.

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Dystopia UK: Genocidal RAF Squadron Targeted by Palestine Action is Owned by a Hedge Fund

If you thought RAF jets were owned by the RAF, think again.

The RAF squadron targeted for a repaint by Palestine Action due to its involvement in supplying Israel’s genocide, does not in fact belong to the RAF at all. It belongs ultimately to Polygon Global Partners LLP, a Hedge Fund.

Through a chain of seven cutout companies, which I will take you through, the direct ownership is with Airtanker Ltd, which gives its address as RAF Brize Norton. It owns, maintains and operates the RAF’s Voyager refuelling aircraft, which have been providing mid-air refuelling to the Israeli Defence Forces as well as carrying, in their cargo role, munitions to the IDF.

Note that Airtanker Ltd states that five of the Voyager aircraft while available to the RAF:  “can also be made available to other parties. This can include providing military capability to other nations…”.

Whether the aircraft have been operated by the RAF on behalf of the Israelis, or whether they have been “provided to” the IDF direct, is an interesting question. Is this designed to build in plausible deniability for the UK government?

Eight of the Voyager Aircraft though fully painted in RAF livery, actually are the property of Airtanker Ltd.

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