Twelve EU Countries Lobby for Starting Accession Talks With Ukraine and Moldova
A dozen EU member states have submitted a joint letter to the EU Council’s current Belgian presidency, urging their remaining colleagues to kickstart Ukraine and Moldova’s EU membership talks by adopting their respective accession roadmaps before Hungary takes over the revolving presidency next month.
“We jointly call for the adoption of the negotiating frameworks for Ukraine and Moldova by the General Affairs Council in June at the latest,” the letter, dated June 5th and obtained by Euractive, reads, “in order to convene Intergovernmental Conferences with both countries by the end of June 2024.”
Although the European Council, the EU body comprising representatives of the 27 governments, already ruled that both countries have completed the required pre-conditions, and approved the beginning of the accession process back in December, the talks only commence once a candidate country has its negotiation framework—a specific roadmap of the reforms that are still required to become a full-fledged member—drafted and approved.
“In light of the results achieved and the ongoing reform efforts in both Ukraine and Moldova, which the Commission has previously reported on, we believe that now is the time to move forward,” the letter says, signed by ministers from Czechia, Sweden, Estonia, Finland, Portugal, Latvia, Poland, Lithuania, Germany, Slovenia, Romania, and Slovakia.
Although being one of the main supporters of Moldova’s EU membership, Hungary remains the biggest holdout on Ukraine. Budapest has a long-standing diplomatic dispute with Kyiv about ethnic minorities’ fundamental language rights that have been taken away by Ukrainian legislation in 2017 and 2019 and demands the problem be also addressed by Ukraine’s negotiating framework before it can approve it.
The signatories of the letter are expecting to revisit the issue during the Council’s upcoming general affairs meeting on Friday, June 7th, hoping to persuade Hungary to change its mind.
“Given the dire situation on the ground in Ukraine and the upcoming presidential elections and EU referendum in Moldova, [opening accession negotiations] would boost morale and further the work on reforms in these countries,” they added.
The twelve countries also argued that “to continue [a] credible enlargement process, the EU should provide tangible benefits for the populations of the respective countries” even before the conclusion of the accession process.
“This can be achieved by the gradual integration of Ukraine and Moldova into the European Union, through phasing into individual EU policies and programs before full membership in the EU,” the letter said.
BREAKING: British Medical Journal Reports Record Excess Deaths After COVID Vaccine
Germany has Begun Dumping Migrants in Poland
Aleksandra Fedorska who works for independent radio WNET and news outlet Biznes Alert has reported that migrants are being handed over to Polish border guards by German officers and are then transferred to hostels in bordering areas.
According to her, many of the migrants have told staff that they arrived in Germany from the Netherlands, Austria and other countries, rather than via Poland.
Bez butów, głodni i zdesperowani – taki jest stan ludzi wydalonych przez Niemców do Polski
— Aleksandra Fedorska (@a_fedorska) June 6, 2024
Osoby oddane polskiej strazy granicznej przez Niemcow sa przez straz graniczna rozwozone do roznych noclegowni na terenach wojewodztw przygranicznych. W tych noclegowniach wiele z tych… pic.twitter.com/kICbrt5wKF
The Polish journalist asked German federal police for data on illegal migrants on the border with Poland. According to the data produced, Germany has sent back 3,500 migrants out of the 5,600 people who are alleged to have crossed from Poland into Germany illegally.
“From Jan. 1 to April 30, 2024, the federal police registered a total of 5,621 people who illegally crossed the Polish-German border. Of these, 3,578 people were returned to Poland,” wrote Fedorska on her account on X.
The EU migration pact, which will come into force in 2026, makes a provision for member states to choose whether to receive relocated illegal migrants or pay €20,000 for every migrant they refuse.
Migration is a key issue for voters in three German eastern states this autumn. Germany makes no secret of its hope that the migration pact will enable it to reduce the number of migrants on its territory.
BREAKING: British Medical Journal Reports Record Excess Deaths After COVID Vaccine
Christian Foster Couples Sue Vermont for Revoking Their Licenses Because They Oppose Homosexual Ideology
(LifeSiteNews) — A pair of Christian foster couples is suing the Vermont Department for Children & Families (DCF) for allegedly blocking them from taking on additional foster children due to their Christian views on gender and sexuality.
The Daily Signal reports, based on interviews with both families as well as the lawsuit itself, that Brian and Kaitlyn Wuoti and Michael and Rebecca Gantt began fostering in 2014 and 2016, respectively, with the Wuotis adopting two brothers and the Gantts taking in three children. Brian Wuoti and Michael Gantt are both Christian pastors, as well.
Seeking to renew their license in 2022, the Wuotis were initially hailed by a caseworker who said she “probably could not hand pick a more wonderful foster family,” but mention of their Christian faith and “that they could not say or do anything that went against faith-informed views about human sexuality” prompted their license to be revoked, according to the lawsuit.
The Gantts, meanwhile, were asked to take in a baby who was about to be born to a homeless drug addict, but before the emergency placement was settled they received a notice that foster parents had to adhere to the state’s ideas on gender ideology “even if the foster parents hold divergent personal opinions or beliefs.” Responding that they would “unconditionally love and support any children placed with them, but they would not forsake their religious beliefs that people should value their God-given bodies,” the Gantts were met with rejection of the emergency placement and revocation of their license.
According to state licensing rules, “all foster parents are prohibited from engaging in any form” of so-called “discrimination” against foster children based on “sexual orientation” and “gender identity.” They must specifically “support children in wearing” any clothing affirming a presumed racial, cultural, tribal, or religious identity or “gender identity.”
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Vermont, Windham Division, accuses DCF of forcing an “ideological position at the expense of children,” despite state officials’ own acknowledgment of a “desperate need for emergency foster homes.” As of last May, Vermont was estimated to have 1,060 children in state custody but only 900 licensed foster families.
“It requires parents to speak the State’s controversial views, while restricting parents’ ability to politely share their commonsense beliefs to any child in any context – categorically excluding disfavored viewpoints from the foster-parent pool entirely,” the suit contends. “Vermont’s regulations also target particular religious views for unequal treatment through an exemption-riddled system of individualized assessments.”
“We were surprised, because they are typically always trying to match children with families as best they can, and so we assumed maybe they would say, ‘Ok, maybe we won’t place an LGBT[-identifying] child with this family,’” Brian Wuoti told the Signal.
“We were offered to be reeducated and given the choice that they could either revoke our foster license or we could take some education materials, and they could give us up to a year to change our faith,” Michael Gantt said. “And I said, ‘No, we are not going to change our faith in the next year; absolutely not.’”
A substantial amount of social science literature supports the truth that children are properly served by homes with both a mother and a father, as each sex tends to bring unique strengths and emphases to parenting, which complement one another; and gives children a positive role model of their own sex as well as helping them understand and relate to the opposite sex. By contrast, a homosexual male “couple” would by definition lack a mother, and lesbians would be unable to provide a father.
Similarly, a significant body of evidence finds that “affirming” gender confusion carries serious harms, especially when done with impressionable children who lack the mental development, emotional maturity, and life experience to consider the long-term ramifications of the decisions being pushed on them. Studies find that more than 80% of children suffering gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, whereas reinforcing dysphoria fails to resolve and even exacerbatesmental strife by perpetuating delusion and neglecting the actual root causes.
Yet in states such as Vermont, Washington, and Arizona, officials have enacted rules that threaten to put religious agencies out of business if they do not fully embrace pro-LGBT dictates despite not only the potential harm to children but shortages in available foster homes. Nationally, the Biden administration has proposed requiring adoption and foster agencies to ensure that children who “identify” as LGBT are placed in homes that “facilitate the child’s access to age-appropriate resources, services, and activities that support” LGBT activists’ conception of “health and well-being.”
BREAKING: British Medical Journal Reports Record Excess Deaths After COVID Vaccine
Connecticut City Rejects Flying ‘Thin Blue Line’ Flag to Honor Fallen Trooper; Flies Pride Flag at Half Staff Instead
Council members in Wethersfield, Connecticut voted against flying a “Thin Blue Line” police flag in honor of Trooper First Class Aaron Pelletier, who was killed last week in a hit and run, opting instead to hoist a gay pride flag at half staff.
Pelletier was conducting a routine traffic stop in Southington, Connecticut last Thursday, when he was hit outside of his cruiser by Alex Oyola-Sanchez, a Puerto Rican native who had already been convicted of third-degree murder, attempted homicide and other felonies.
Oyola-Sanchez faces multiple charges, including “second-degree manslaughter, operating under the influence of alcohol/drugs and failure to move over.”
Pelletier, who leaves behind a wife and two young boys, was laid to rest on Wednesday.
During a meeting Monday night, a Wethersfield councilman requested that the Thin Blue Line police flag be raised during his funeral services.
“I think it’s the least we can do,” said Rich Bailey, Wethersfield councilman.
But the town council shot it down in a vote of 5 to 3.
Wethersfield’s Eyewitness News asked councilman Miki Duric why the police flag was voted down.
Duric claimed he voted no because it would’ve violated the town’s flag policy, which stipulates that all flag requests must be made at least 30 days in advance.
According to Eyewitness News, “people in town were hoping council would make an exception after the horrific tragedy.”
Many residents were reportedly outraged by the decision.
“It’s a tragic moment and they’re using it to gain political points. I don’t care which flag it was. Any flag brought up last night to be flown I would say no because it violated the policy,” Duric told Eyewitness News.
A one on one with Wethersfield Mayor Ken Lesser brought out what some suspect was the real reason the Thin Blue Line flag was rejected.
“It has now been used by white supremacist groups and other far right types of groups. Even many police departments around the country and in the state of Connecticut say we don’t authorize or use that flag,” Lesser said.
On Wednesday, the town made a point of flying the LGBTQ+ pride flag at half-staff.
During a pride event that included Wethersfield city council members and Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont (D), an official stated that the pride flag was hanging at half-staff in honor of Pelletier’s passing.
The request to fly the pride flag was made more than 30 days in advance, officials said.
Councilwoman Emily Zambrello (D), a policy analyst for Connecticut House Democrats, told WTNH during the pride event that it was not “appropriate” to fly the Thin Blue Line Police flag because it “represents racism and antagonism to many, many people.”
UNFREAKINGBELIEVABLE
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) June 6, 2024
Democrats in CT voted against flying the American blue line flag to honor fallen officer Aaron Pelletier who was kiIIed in the line of duty.
Instead they flew the pride flag at half staff to honor him. The pride flag. I have no words. This is disgraceful.… https://t.co/J0jLfj7j6l pic.twitter.com/7qJQ9oZqSA
BREAKING: British Medical Journal Reports Record Excess Deaths After COVID Vaccine
US Buying ‘Safe and Delicious’ Fukushima Fish Banned by Other Countries
Japan last month completed its fifth release into the Pacific Ocean of treated contaminated radioactive wastewater from the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station.
Local fishing groups, residents, neighboring countries and many scientists and environmental organizations strongly oppose the discharges, citing concerns about the contaminated water’s effects on human and environmental health.
In an attempt to allay those concerns, Japan’s Prime Minister Fumio Kishida last Septemer, following the first discharge, released a video clip of himself eating Fukushima fish, which he called “safe and delicious.”
And Japan’s economic minister, Yasutoshi Nishimura, ate sashimi in Tokyo for the news cameras. “It’s really the best!” he said, The New York Times reported.
That didn’t stop China, Russia and South Korea from banning the import of Japanese seafood, over concerns about radioactive contamination.
But the U.S. took a different tack. In October 2023, U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel announced the U.S. military would buy bulk Japanese seafood for service members stationed at military bases in Japan and explore more broadly how to help offset China’s ban on Japan’s seafood.
Emanual said the contract between Japanese fisheries and the U.S. armed forces would be long-term. It began by purchasing a metric ton of scallops with plans to expand eventually to all types of seafood.
He said the U.S. was also in talks with Japanese authorities to direct locally caught scallops to U.S.-registered processors and said the U.S. would look at its overall fish imports from Japan and China.
About a month before the announcement the Japanese embassy hosted a sushi-tasting event at the U.S. Capitol to protest China’s decision to ban Japanese seafood.
Enough radioactive water to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools
Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), owner of Fukushima Daiichi, last year initiated periodic releases of large amounts of wastewater accumulated at the plant since the massive earthquake and tsunami that caused the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.
The earthquake destroyed the plant’s cooling system. Since then, TEPCO has been pumping in water to cool the reactor core’s fuel rods. That water becomes contaminated with highly radioactive material.
That radioactive water is stored in tanks, which now hold about 1.3 million metric tons of water — enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. Japan said it is running out of storage space for the water and needs the land where the tanks sit to build facilities that will allow the company to safely decommission the plant.
TEPCO began filtering most radioactive material out of the water and releasing it after the United Nations (U.N.) International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in July 2023 determined TEPCO’s discharge plan met its international safety standards and would have only a “negligible” effect on humans and the environment.
Before the IAEA’s approval, the National Association of Marine Laboratories, made up of the 100 most prestigious institutions in the U.S., in 2022 called for the discharge plan to be suspended.
The National Association of Marine Laboratories, Greenpeace and many others who oppose the water release argue the risks haven’t been properly assessed and that TEPCO hasn’t presented enough data to determine the safety of the release.
Greenpeace’s Shaun Burnie, who authored the organization’s 2020 report on the plan, told The Defender there are several viable alternatives to TEPCO’s flawed water discharge plan.
However, rather than exploring those options, “TEPCO and the Japanese government have chosen what they claim is the cheapest option,” Burnie said. “TEPCO did not seriously consider the option of long-term storage and processing to remove tritium and carbon-14,” which would be less expensive than they allege.
A U.N. human rights special rapporteur warned Japan’s government that discharging the wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the environment violates the rights of its citizens and neighbors.
Kimberly Roberson, author of “Silence Deafening: Fukushima Fallout … A Mother’s Response” told The Defender that a green light from the IAEA, whose stated purpose is “carry[ing] out programs to maximize the contribution of nuclear technology to society,” does not mean the process is safe.
“Make no mistake, their mission is to promote nuclear power, and yet they are recognized as the authority,” she said.
“Standards, by the way, don’t necessarily equate with safety,” she added. “As for safeguarding, it’s like the fox guarding the hen house. The National Academies of Sciences BEIR VII report in 2006 unequivocally stated there is no safe dose of radiation.” This report examined the health effects of low-level radiation.
Is the water ‘safe’?
The radioactive water is captured in tanks and then filtered using the Advanced Liquid Processing System (ALPS) to remove as many radioactive isotopes as possible, but TEPCO reports that the water still contains tritium, a radioactive isotope of hydrogen that is hard to separate and remove.
The company dilutes the water until tritium levels fall below the IAEA’s international regulatory standards for drinking water before releasing the water into the ocean.
Burnie said that among other problems, the scientific panel commissioned to assess the Fukushima water issue for the Pacific Island Nations expressed serious concern about “the inappropriateness of using a drinking water-related parameter for a decades-long discharge of tritium contaminated water into the ocean,” especially when the existing regulatory process actually requires an Environmental Impact Assessment.
TEPCO also acknowledged that its ALPS processing technology is flawed, according to a 2020 Greenpeace report, and that tests show the water still contains radioactive materials it was supposed to be filtering out. The company claims more filtering can solve the problem.
Scientists, like oceanographer Ken Buesseler, Ph.D., from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts insist TEPCO’s claims of safety are “not supported by the quantity and quality of the data,” Science reported.
Others, like Robert Richmond, Ph.D., a marine biologist at the University of Hawaii at Manoa said that even though tritium levels in the released water are below international recommended levels, they are still thousands of times higher than the natural level in seawater.
The water will be discharged at a single point for decades, he said. That’s a problem because tritium bioaccumulates, which means the levels build up in fish and other microorganisms and then can work their way up the food chain.
“I strongly adhere to what’s called the precautionary principle,” Richmond told NPR. “In the absence of data showing something is safe, you don’t assume that it’s safe. You rather put in those protective measures to be very conservative.”
Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, Ph.D., an adviser to the 18 Pacific Island Nations on the issue, said the information TEPCO gave the scientists indicated the company didn’t have complete data on what was in the tanks. The data TEPCO provided, he said, was “like a student handing in a poorly written assignment with no effort.”
Also, the data TEPCO did have was sampled only in small amounts of water from one-quarter of the tanks. Strontium-90 and cesium-137 — radionuclides produced by nuclear fission — have turned up in the water in highly variable concentrations, raising serious concerns about the process.
Burnie said TEPCO’s assessment “makes fundamental mistakes in radiation protection science” and ignores the risks posed by radionuclides other than tritium found in the water.
“Basic things such as how much radioactivity in total is planned to be discharged has not been provided.”
Burnie added:
“Ultimately, the concentrations [of isotopes in the seawater] are of direct relevance to those who may consume them, including marine species including fish and, ultimately, humans.”
Japan began releasing the contaminated water last summer at approximately 7,800 tons at a time, with this fifth release bringing the total to about 39,000 tons — emptying just over 10 of the approximately 1,000 tanks at the site. In fiscal year 2023, TEPCO plans to discharge a total of 54,600 tons of contaminated water in seven rounds, including the water released in May.
BREAKING: British Medical Journal Reports Record Excess Deaths After COVID Vaccine
Less Than 5% of Abortions are Sought for Rape, Incest, or ‘Medical Emergency’ — Report
(LifeSiteNews) — Abortions sought for rape, incest, and “medical emergencies” account for less than five percent of abortions in the United States, according to updated statistics released on May 24 by the pro-life Charlotte Lozier Institute, providing context to some of the most common arguments invoked against state pro-life laws.
Lozier compiled and examined data covering roughly 123,000 abortions across eight states in 2021, the last full year that Roe v. Wade mandated legal abortion nationwide. It found that rape and incest accounted for just 0.4 percent, alleged “risks to a woman’s life or a major bodily function” 0.3 percent, other “physical health concerns” 2.2 percent, and “fetal abnormalities” 1.2 percent. Direct abortion is always gravely immoral and never needed nor ethically justified to save a mother’s life.
By contrast, 95.9 percent of abortions were sought for elective or otherwise-unspecified reasons.
“This could underestimate the number of abortions performed for each of these reasons, however, because in some states a significant percentage of women declined to share a reason,” Lozier notes. “Conversely, abortions for these reasons could be overestimated, since in states that permit multiple reasons to be reported, a single abortion could have been performed for more than one of these reasons. However, in Florida, which allows only one reason for each abortion and requires an abortion provider to list a reason before the abortion report form can be submitted, abortions for reasons that correspond to common exceptions accounted for less than 3% of the total in 2021.”
The data, which is consistent with past findings from other surveys, put in perspective the abortion lobby’s effort to focus the abortion debate on the so-called “hard cases,” by stirring emotional discomfort at the thoughts of an assault survivor undergoing pregnancy or a couple delivering a baby who may die shortly after birth, or raise fears of women dying from complicated pregnancies.
Pro-lifers stress that circumstances of conception do not change the preborn baby’s innocence or humanity, and therefore society must do all it can to treat both mother and child with compassion and note the physical and psychological consequences of abortion. Pro-lifers further note that rape exceptions are often exploited by predators to destroy the living proof of their crimes and continue molesting child victims. The pro-life group Live Action has documented Planned Parenthood’s complicity in several such cases in its “Aiding Abusers” video series.
Regarding lethal “fetal abnormalities,” which are frequently misdiagnosed, pro-lifers such as Dr. William Lile, a board-certified OB/GYN and pro-life public speaker, emphasize that the humane response is not abortion but giving him or her the same “love, the concern, and the care” that any born patient would receive. “This is a key concept: the baby in the womb is a patient,” he has written.
As for the third scenario, while some emergency situations in pregnancy can necessitate treatments indirectly resulting in a child’s death, abortion is still gravely immoral and not needed nor justified to protect a mother’s life or health. Regardless, every state in the union with abortion prohibitions currently in effect also permits doctors to administer life-saving, non-abortive treatment to pregnant women even if it comes at the expense of a baby’s life.
Pro-abortion activists have long sought to keep abortion debates focused on such situations, to divert attention from the vast majority of abortions that are sought for far less “sympathetic” reasons. They have gotten mileage out of that approach, which has helped defeat pro-lifers in recent state ballot referendums, and convinced national Republicans to take a more moderate stance on life this year.
However, as Lozier’s data reaffirms, such extreme situations do not reflect the reality of abortion in the vast, overwhelming majority of cases.
BREAKING: British Medical Journal Reports Record Excess Deaths After COVID Vaccine