Up to $41 Billion in World Bank Climate Finance Unaccounted for, Oxfam Finds
October 28th, 2024More billions in U.S. taxpayer money down the drain.
Via: Oxfam:
Up to $41 billion in World Bank climate finance —nearly 40 percent of all climate funds disbursed by the Bank over the past seven years— is unaccounted for due to poor record-keeping practices, reveals a new Oxfam report published today ahead of the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings in Washington D.C.
An Oxfam audit of the World Bank’s 2017-2023 climate finance portfolio found that between $24 billion and $41 billion in climate finance went unaccounted for between the time projects were approved and when they closed.
There is no clear public record showing where this money went or how it was used, which makes any assessment of its impacts impossible. It also remains unclear whether these funds were even spent on climate-related initiatives intended to help low- and middle-income countries protect people from the impacts of the climate crisis and invest in clean energy.
California May Lose Two More Refineries That Produce 14% of Gasoline in the State
October 27th, 2024Via: Just the News:
Short on the heels of another major refinery closure, Valero signaled it is considering closing its two California refineries that produce over 14% of the state’s gasoline. Refinery closures already have the state importing 8% of its gasoline supply, which means the state could soon have to significantly increase its imports of refined products such as gasoline, on top of its existing reliance on the Middle East and South America for the majority of its crude oil.
Life-Sized Dolls in Japanese Village as Population Declines
October 27th, 2024Via: Japan Today:
Riding his tricycle with cheerful abandon, Kuranosuke Kato is the only child in his tiny, depopulated Japanese village overrun by life-sized puppets.
The two-year-old was the first baby in two decades for Ichinono, one of more than 20,000 communities in Japan where the majority of residents are aged 65 and above, according to the internal affairs ministry data.
Revitalising rural areas is one of Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s key campaign pledges as he fights to retain a majority in a general election on Sunday.
Ishiba has called Japan’s low birth rate a “quiet emergency”, one that is starkly evident in places like Ichinono, a bucolic hamlet home to fewer than 60 people.
“If the village is left as it is now, the only thing that awaits us is extinction,” said 74-year-old Ichiro Sawayama, head of its governing body.
Many developed nations are facing the same demographic time bomb, but Japan, which allows relatively low levels of immigration, already has the world’s second-oldest population after Monaco.
Silence pervades the air in Ichinono, where residents have handcrafted stuffed mannequins to create a semblance of a bustling society.
Some puppets ride swings while others push a cart of firewood, smiling eerily at visitors.
“We’re probably outnumbered by puppets,” Hisayo Yamazaki, an 88-year-old widow, told AFP.
Astronomers Discover Complex Carbon Molecules in Interstellar Space
October 26th, 2024Via: Science Alert:
A team led by researchers at MIT in the United States has discovered large molecules containing carbon in a distant interstellar cloud of gas and dust.
This is exciting for those of us who keep lists of known interstellar molecules in the hope that we might work out how life arose in the Universe.
But it’s more than just another molecule for the collection. The result, reported today in the journal Science, shows that complex organic molecules (with carbon and hydrogen) likely existed in the cold, dark gas cloud that gave rise to our Solar System.
Furthermore, the molecules held together until after the formation of Earth. This is important for our understanding of the early origins of life on our planet.
Israel Launches Airstrikes on Iran
October 25th, 2024Via: Fox:
In the largest attack by Israel on Iran in history, Jerusalem on Friday launched a wave of retaliatory airstrikes against Iran after the Islamic Republic fired a barrage of missiles toward Israelis earlier this month.
Local Israeli news outlet Channel 12 reported that in a direct attack on Iran, Israel sent 140 Air Force planes to the skies for the assault that has reportedly targeted military facilities containing missile exports, drones, ballistic missile transmitters and Iran’s air defense systems.
The local outlet further reported that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps headquarters in Tehran was hit by strikes, though Fox News has not been able to independently verify this.
Explosions were first heard near Iran’s capital of Tehran and nearby Karaj, Reuters said, citing local media.
Marines Testing Counter-Drone Rifle Aiming System With Automatically Moving Stock
October 25th, 2024Via: The War Zone:
The U.S. Marines are testing a system for standard service rifles that automatically fine-tunes the point of aim with the help of a powered buttstock as a new option to help shoot down drones. The service is in the midst of a broad push to acquire new capabilities to help every Marine better protect themselves from ever-growing uncrewed aerial threats.
Plastic Chemical Phthalate Causes DNA Breakage and Chromosome Defects in Sex Cells
October 25th, 2024Via: MedicalXpress:
A new study conducted on roundworms finds that a common plastic ingredient causes breaks in DNA strands, resulting in egg cells with the wrong number of chromosomes. Monica Colaiácovo of Harvard Medical School led the study, which was published October 24 in the journal PLOS Genetics.
Benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP) is a chemical that makes plastic more flexible and durable, and is found in many consumer products, including food packaging, personal care products and children’s toys. Previous studies have shown that BBP interferes with the body’s hormones and affects human reproduction and development, but the details of how it impacts reproduction have been unclear.
In the new study, researchers tested a range of doses of BBP on the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans and looked for abnormal changes in egg cells. They saw that at levels similar to those detected in humans, BBP interferes with how newly copied chromosomes are distributed into the sex cells. Specifically, BBP causes oxidative stress and breaks in the DNA strands, which lead to cell death and egg cells with the wrong number of chromosomes.
Bill Gates to Appear Before Dutch Court in Vaccine Lawsuit
October 24th, 2024Via: American Faith:
Bill Gates will appear before a Dutch court due to his involvement with the COVID-19 vaccines.
According to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf, seven plaintiffs have taken action against Gates, former Prime Minister Mark Rutte, former Minister Hugo de Jonge, and several members of the Outbreak Management Team. The plaintiffs alleged that Gates, through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum (WEF), knew the COVID-19 vaccines were not “safe and effective.” Due to their knowledge of the vaccine’s issues, Gates and others “deliberately” misled the public.
More: Bill Gates Loses Lawsuit and Will Appear in Dutch Court
Research Credit: cgroove
“If Israel insists on destroying civilian targets in Lebanon…”
October 24th, 2024If Israel insists on destroying civilian targets in Lebanon, let them buy and build their own weapons. American taxpayers should not be funding this. pic.twitter.com/xR3VLzmWYo
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) October 23, 2024
5-Year-Old Develops Autism After Being Forced to Get 18 Vaccines in 1 Day
October 23rd, 2024Via: The Defender:
In 2016, David Ihben moved his wife and three children from Chicago to Jamestown, in rural Tennessee, with high hopes for a new and calmer life.
But the dream turned into a nightmare for David and his children in December 2019, when divorce proceedings and a subsequent custody battle resulted in the forced vaccination of the children — and changed the family’s fortunes forever.
Ihben said his ex-wife decided “this wasn’t the life she wanted.” So they were attempting to develop a parenting plan in family court — when Tennessee judge Todd Burnett “pulled up the vaccine issue” after discovering the couple’s children were unvaccinated — and forced the parents to vaccinate their children.
Ihben’s two oldest children — daughter Hannah and son Joseph — were spared significant adverse events following their vaccination.
But his youngest son, Isaac, wasn’t so fortunate. After receiving 18 vaccines in one day, Isaac developed severe regressive autism. Today, he requires around-the-clock care.
