Fauci emails: Here’s what we learned

 

As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolded last year, Dr. Anthony Fauci was fielding dozens of daily requests from government officials, health experts and the media. 

Now, thousands of Fauci’s emails have been released, offering a glimpse into how the nation’s leading infectious-diseases specialist dealt with the crisis.

As the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Fauci became a prominent face of the nation’s response to the pandemic, appearing at White House COVID-19 briefings and doing a slew of interviews.

Here’s some of what we learned from Fauci’s correspondence:

Were Fauci’s emails leaked?

No. The trove of emails was obtained by The Washington Post and BuzzFeed News through the Freedom of Information Act, which allows journalists to request internal government correspondence.

Buzzfeed posted its entire batch of more than 3,200 pages for the public to peruse. The Washington Post received more than 800 pages and published a story about them Monday.

Was Fauci silenced by then-President Trump?

According to his emails, Fauci had little patience for claims that his statements in the early days of the pandemic were being restricted by the Trump administration.

In a March 2020 email, Fauci denied being silenced by Trump, writing: “Please stay silent since I have not been muzzled. I will be on multiple TV shows tomorrow and was on FOX this AM. No one is censoring me.”

“I am not being muzzled or censored,” he wrote in another email that same month.

Was Fauci fired over the emails?

No. But several GOP lawmakers have called for Fauci to be fired.

Republicans lashed out at Fauci after the email dump, focusing their ire on the fact that Fauci received warnings that the virus may have been “engineered.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has clashed with Fauci on a number of pandemic-related issues this year, tweeted the hashtag #FireFauci on Wednesday. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) also wrote that Fauci “needs to be fired.”

However, White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Thursday called Fauci “an undeniable asset” and said that President Biden has full confidence in his health adviser.

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Oregon woman died homeless while she had $884K in unclaimed funds

 An Oregon woman died homeless last year while $884,000 in inheritance money sat unclaimed in a state bank account, a news report said.

Cathy Boone died in January 2020 in a warming shelter after living on the streets of the city of Astoria, contending with drug and mental health issues, KGW News reported.

“It just didn’t make any sense to me,” her dad Jack Spithall said in a TV interview.

“That money just sitting there – and she needed help in the worst way.”

Boone grew up in the Portland area and later moved to Astoria, where her mother lived after her parents had separated. When Boone’s mother died in 2016, representatives of the estate tried to locate the daughter to no avail.

Newspaper ads went unanswered and a private investigator couldn’t locate her – so her unclaimed money was transferred to the Department of State Lands, KGW stated. In total, she was owed $884,407, according to the report.

“Given a year and a half of effort taken by the personal representative and the attorney for this particular estate, there really isn’t much more that the state could do,” Claudia Ciobanu, a spokesperson for the department, said.

 “This is a unique case and we sympathize with the family.”

What happens to Boone’s money now is unknown, with her two biological children and others potentially having claims to her cash, the station said.

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Bride dies of heart attack at her wedding in India, so groom reportedly marries sister

 

Bride in center and Sister in circle 

A bride collapsed and died at the beginning of her wedding in India — so the groom married her younger sister instead after the body was moved to another room, according to reports.

The bride — only identified as Surbhi — collapsed of a heart attack while exchanging traditional garlands with husband-to-be Mangesh Kumar at the start of their ceremony Thursday, according to News18, citing the Indo-Asian News Service (IANS).

She was pronounced dead by a doctor who raced to the festivities in Samspura village in Uttar Pradesh, the report said.

“We did not know what to do in the situation. Both the families sat together and someone suggested that my younger sister Nisha should be married to the groom,” the women’s brother, Saurabh, told IANS.

“The families discussed the matter and both agreed,” he said.

“It was a bizarre situation as the wedding of my younger sister took place while the dead body of my other sister was lying in another room,” he said, according to the Times of India.

After the joy of the wedding, the family immediately held last rites for the dead bride-to-be, the report said.

“It was a tough decision for our family,” one of the women’s uncles, Ajab Singh, told IANS.

“One daughter was lying dead in one room and the wedding of another was going on in another room. We have never experienced such mixed emotions,” he said.

“The grief over her death and the happiness of the wedding has yet to sink in.”

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Lapid informs president he can form government removing Netanyahu from power

 

Lapid, Bennett and the Arab 

Thirty-five minutes before a midnight deadline, Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid on Wednesday night informed President Reuven Rivlin he is able to form a government in which he and Yamina chief Naftali Bennett will switch off as prime minister, positioning themselves to replace Israel’s longest-serving leader Benjamin Netanyahu as premier.

Under the terms of the new coalition, Bennett is to serve as prime minister until September 2023, when Lapid will take over from him until the end of the Knesset term in November 2025. The agreement came together after Ra’am leader Mansour Abbas threw his support behind the would-be government late on Wednesday night, setting up his Islamist party to be the first majority Arab party to be part of a ruling coalition in Israel’s history.

Despite Lapid’s declaration, it remained unclear that the prospective “change government” will make it past the finish line. It is set to include 61 of the 120 MKs — the narrowest possible majority. And an MK from Bennett’s Yamina, Nir Orbach, earlier on Wednesday night announced he could vote against the new coalition, a move that could potentially doom the prospective razor-thin government of right-wing, centrist, left-wing parties and the Islamist Ra’am.

“I am honored to inform you that I have succeeded in forming a government,” Lapid told Rivlin according to a Yesh Atid statement. “The government will be an alternate government in accordance with Clause 13(a) of the Basic Law: The Government, and MK Naftali Bennett will serve as prime minister first.”

“I congratulate you and the heads of the parties on your agreement to form a government. We expect the Knesset will convene as soon as possible to ratify the government, as required,” Rivlin told Lapid in the phone call between them on Wednesday night, according to the President’s Office.

“This government will work for all the citizens of Israel, those that voted for it and those that didn’t. It will do everything to unite Israeli society,” Lapid promised.

“Today, we succeeded. We made history,” said Merav Michaeli, the Labor leader.

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History made as Arab Israeli Ra’am party joins Bennett-Lapid coalition

 

Ringed by flashing cameras in a luxury hotel in Ramat Gan, conservative Islamist Ra’am chief Mansour Abbas made history on Wednesday night as the first Arab Israeli party leader in half a century to sign a deal to sit in a coalition government.

“This is the first time that an Arab party is part of the process of forming a government. We of course hope that it works and that a government will rise after four rounds of elections,” Abbas said.

Even before Ra’am announced it was signing on, the nascent coalition was widely regarded as the widest in the country’s history, uniting parties from the left to the pro-settlement right aimed at deposing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud faction.

To make it happen, Yamina chief Naftali Bennett and centrist Yesh Atid leader Yair Atid agreed to a rotation scheme, with Bennett becoming Prime Minister for the first two years.

Despite the wide spectrum of views in the so-called “change government,” Abbas said that he had agreed on numerous plans and budgets in Arab Israeli society with his counterparts in the constellation of parties seeking to topple Netanyahu.

“We have reached a critical mass of agreements in various fields that serves the interest of Arab society and that provide solutions for the burning issues in Arab society — planning, the housing crisis, and of course, fighting violence and organized crime,” Abbas said.

Abbas promised that many of the benefits would flow to the Negev region in southern Israel. Ra’am’s base is among the traditional Bedouin communities in the Negev desert.

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Italian artist sells invisible statue for 15,000 euros

 

Forgedabout the seller .....Can I meet the buyer? 

Genius or scammer? Social networks are divided before a news that, although it seems incredible, has happened in Italy: an artist has sold an invisible statue for 15,000 euros. His name is Salvatore Garau and he has managed to auction his “work” for an amount that many consider crazy. However, he defends his creation tooth and nail.

The artist explained that “the success of the auction confirms an irrefutable fact: the void is nothing more than a space full of energy, even if we empty it and there is nothing left, according to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle that nothing has a weight. It therefore has an energy that is condensed and transformed into particles, that is to say, into us “. The ‘Io sono’ certificate of authenticity. (Art-Rite Auctions)

The supposed sculpture is titled ‘Io sono’ (‘I am’) and its new owner will be able to demonstrate his new possession by means of a certificate of guarantee, which attests to its authenticity. Afterwards, you can place it where you deem appropriate, although the artist points out that it needs a space free of obstructions to house its dimensions: 150 x 150 centimeters.

alvatore Garau has previously exhibited other intangible works. In February 2021 he placed a piece entitled ‘Buddha in contemplation’ in the Plaza Della Scala, in Milan. As in this case, you couldn’t see anything, since it was another invisible statue, although a marked box appeared on the ground where, apparently, his work of art was placed.

He plans to “place” seven invisible statues in as many cities around the world

The artist assures that “when I decide to ‘exhibit’ an immaterial sculpture in a given space, that place will concentrate a certain quantity and density of thoughts at a precise point, creating a sculpture that from my title will only take the most varied forms. After all, don’t we shape a God we’ve never seen? ”

Garau has more projects for the future, as he explained to the Art-Rite auction house who sold his work: 

“In May, the immaterial sculpture ‘Aphrodite cries’ will be ‘exhibited’ in the heart of New York, in front of Federal Hall (where G. Washington, the first president of the United States was elected) and a few steps from the Stock Exchange. It will be the third of the seven that I will place in as many cities of the world. Seven because it is the spiritual number par excellence and has a special value in all the great religions, Jewish, Christian, Muslim and Buddhist. Spirituality has always fascinated me, although in contemporary art it is a subject that does not seem to have great appeal, but to me, right now, it seems revolutionary “.

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Ohio football coach forces kosher player to eat pork as punishment

 

A member of an Ohio high school football team who keeps kosher was forced to eat pork as a punishment.

The father of a MicKinley Senior High School junior told News 5 Cleveland that his son, who is kosher, was forced by the team’s coach to eat a whole pepperoni pizza in front of the rest of the team as a punishment.

“The coach had a pork pizza as a penalty for this child not showing up for practice,” said the boy’s father’s attorney Edward Gilbert. “What’s interesting is everyone on the team knows this child will not eat pork.”

According to Gilbert the teen had missed the practice after a May 20 injury. When he returned to the team on May 24, the coach forced him to sit in the middle of the gym in a chair and eat a whole pepperoni pizza with the entire team watching. If he did not do so, his teammates would have to run extra drills and he would face the possibility of being kicked off the team.

According to CantonRep.com the player told the coach at least 10 times that he did not eat pork because his family keeps kosher.

The team should have realized that he didn’t eat pork because he participated in previous team meals.

The boy’s father said that the family has not consumed pork since they began to keep kosher in 2013.

News 5 was told by a Canton City School District that the team’s coach Marcus Wattley and seven assistant coaches have been placed on paid administrative leave.

Gilbert said that communications with the school and superintendent did not result in a satisfactory resolution. They plan to file a lawsuit against the district for violating the boy’s first amendment rights, reported CantonRep.com.

The Canton City School District released a statement on Facebook. 

“The incident calls into question whether appropriate team management, discipline, and player accountability infrastructures are in place,” they stated. 

They are nearing the completion of an investigation into the incident, at which point they will provide more information.

“Let us be clear, the Canton City School District holds all staff to the highest professional and ethical standards. Anything short of these standards is unacceptable,” they said. “As educators, we are united in the pursuit of creating an inclusive and safe learning environment for our students in the classroom and beyond.”

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Massive Fire at Iran's Oil Refinery

 

 A massive fire broke out Wednesday night at the oil refinery serving Iran’s capital, sending thick plumes of black smoke over Tehran. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were injuries.

The fire struck the state-owned Tondgooyan Petrochemical Co. to the south of Tehran, said Mansour Darajati, the director-general of the capital’s crisis management team.

Firefighters believe it struck a pipeline for liquefied petroleum gas at the facility, Darajati told Iranian state television. He did not elaborate.

Associated Press journalists in central Tehran, some 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) away, could see the black smoke rise in the distance. Another AP journalist saw flames shooting into the sky from the site.

Mojtaba Khaledi, the spokesman for Iran’s emergency department, told the semiofficial ISNA news agency that 10 ambulances and other equipment had been deployed at the scene of the fire. Hospitals in the area are on standby as well, he said.

It wasn’t immediately clear what started the blaze. Temperatures in Tehran reached nearly 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) on Wednesday. Hot summer weather in Iran has caused fires in the past.

The blaze came the same day a fire struck the largest warship in the Iranian navy, which later sank in the Gulf of Oman.

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America is over. I’m moving to Israel

 

by Rea Bochner

Last week, I watched John Oliver, one of America’s best-known comedy news hosts, take on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I’ve watched him many times before (the Joe Exotic episode is a favorite) and I’m a fan. But his maligning of Israel as a perpetrator of war crimes or his distortion of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict horrified me.

Because that was when I realized that everything I’d learned about Jewish History was true. 

I’m no expert on the subject, but after 15 years of self-study, I’ve drawn a few conclusions:

The 3,000-plus-year existence of the Jewish people is essentially a stretch of pogroms, expulsions, rapes, mutilations, public burnings, forced conversions, vandalization of property, demonization in the press, kangaroo courts, and the largest systematized genocide in the history of mankind. Sure, we’ve had our peaceful stretches, but they were commercial breaks, not the regularly scheduled program

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Did Gantz Sell Out Israel? Ganz made Deal with Biden for settlement freeze'

A senior settlement leader has accused Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz of cutting a deal with the Biden administration to block Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria.

In a statement released Wednesday morning, Gush Etzion Regional Council head Shlomo Ne’eman said Gantz had already begun to impose the de facto building freeze in Judea and Samaria.

“Benny Gantz has made a deal with the Biden administration to freeze construction in Judea and Samaria and is already implementing the move in practice," said Ne'eman.

“This move crosses one of the strongest red lines amongst the national camp.”

For the past five months the Council of Higher Planning has not met to discuss construction plans in Judea and Samaria. It is Defense Minister Benny Gantz who is preventing the committee from meeting.

“Over the past several weeks the authorities in Judea and Samaria along with the Yesha Council made a humble appeal to Defense Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Gantz to hold a “small” committee meeting, not for major planning but in order to deal with small changes to existing master plans. However our request was completely rejected by Benny Gantz."

“The same Benny Gantz who frequently accuses Netanyahu of deceitful politics is pursuing an independent policy without the prime minister’s knowledge. It turns out that Gantz agreed to a construction freeze with the Biden Administration, even though the new government hasn’t even been formed.”

Ne’eman urged Yamina chief Naftali Bennett and New Hope chairman Gideon Sa’ar not to form a unity government, which Ne'eman argued would empower Gantz to pursue the settlement freeze.

“Naftali Bennett and Gideon Sa'ar, did you think you would run the country? You promised to adhere to ideological red lines of the national camp in the government that is currently being formed. Just know that your defense minister thinks differently and is acting differently. Benny Gantz claims - behind closed doors that he, and only he will be at the head of the political echelons when it comes to what happens in Judea and Samaria. Gantz has already made a deal with the administration in Washington behind the back of the prime minister to implement an Obama-style freeze, which at the time was unprecedented.”

“Neither Bennett nor anyone else will be the liaison with the Americans on construction in Judea and Samaria, only I will decide on policy there.”

“These are his words, and this is how Gantz has been acting for the last several months. To the parties on the right and to the New Hope Party you should know that this move crosses one of the strongest red lines amongst the national camp. You are forming a government that is slated to abuse the Judea and Samaria enterprise, including half a million Israelis living there! You were wrong! But it’s not too late to fix it. Stand at the head of your camp, the national camp. Stand by your principles for the next four and a half years. It is completely in your hands, if you still believe in those principles of course.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Blue and White party signed a coalition deal with Yesh Atid.

Under the agreement, Benny Gantz will retain the Defense Ministry in the new government.

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