Major US Tech Company to Pull Advertising From Paris Olympics After Last Supper ‘Mockery’
One of the largest US telecommunications companies, C Spire, has announced the decision to withdraw its advertising from the Summer Olympic Games in Paris after the controversial parody of the Last Supper during the opening ceremony, saying that its employees were shocked by the performance.
“We were shocked by the mockery of the Last Supper during the opening ceremonies of the Paris Olympics. C Spire will be pulling our advertising from the Olympics,” the company said in a statement on X late Saturday.
The opening ceremony took place on Friday and many social media users expressed their outrage at the parody of “The Last Supper,” which featured representatives of the LGBT* movement.
US billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk said on X that the scene was extremely disrespectful to Christians.
France is hosting the 2024 Summer Olympics from July 26 to August 11, with most of the events taking place in Paris and its suburbs.
Top Sniper Responds to Claims Trump Was Not Shot in Pennsylvania
Trump Promises to Make USA the “Bitcoin Super-Power of the World”
In a spirited keynote address, Former President Trump promised to make USA the “bitcoin super-power of the world,” ensuring that cryptocurrency is “mined, minted, and made in the USA.”
“We have to talk about Bitcoin. Our country is blessed with the extraordinary talent and genius in this room.
This spirit built America and will help us make it great again.
I admire what the Bitcoin community has achieved. In just 15 years, Bitcoin has gone from an idea to the 9th most valuable asset in the world.
It’s already bigger than ExxonMobil and soon it will surpass the market cap of silver.
That’s a big deal.”
He went on with some big promises:
“I pledge the day I take office the weaponization against Bitcoin ends.”
“On day one, I will fire Gary Gensler and appoint a new SEC Chairman.”
“I will immediately shutdown Operation Chokepoint 2.0“
Trump also confirmed that he will appoint a crypto advisory council with “regulations written by industry-loving people within 100 days.”
Trump also confirmed that “there will never be a CBDC” while he is president.
“Those who say that bitcoin is a threat to the dollar have it exactly backwards, the danger to our financial future comes from Washington DC not crypto.”
Additionally, the former president pointing out that“Bitcoiners understand inflation better than anyone. You all understood it first.”
Promising to ‘drill, baby, drill’, Trump notes that with low energy costs the USA will become the undisputed bitcoin mining center of the world.
Finally, Trump dropped the big guns:
“The policy of the Trump administration will be to keep 100% of all that it currently holds as the core of the strategic national bitcoin stockpile,” and confirmed his promise to commute the sentence of Ross Ulbricht to time-served.
?PRESIDENT TRUMP: “I WILL KEEP 100% OF ALL THE BITCOIN HELD BY THE UNITED STATES AS PART OF THE NATIONAL BITCOIN STRATEGIC STOCKPILE.” pic.twitter.com/fDNKvYe0uv
— Autism Capital ? (@AutismCapital) July 27, 2024
Watch the full keynote address at Bitcoin 2024 here:
Bitcoin price has risen significantly in the last 24 hours in anticipation of Trump’s speech…
Notably, the Democrats appear to be worried that crypto could be a vote-change for many people (and are pushing back against the Warren/Gensler attacks). A number of Democratic congressmembers have penned a letter to the DNC pushing for change…
Over 52 million Americans have embraced digital assets, seeing them as a means to democratize finance, spur innovation, and create new economic opportunities.
According to recent polls. 19% of voters have bought crypto, 19% self-identified as Democrats, 18% as Republicans, and 24% of crypto-owning voters are independents.
Data shows that digital assets are being adopted at higher rates among Gen Z, Black and Latino Americans, and immigrant communities key constituencies of the Democratic party compared to traditional financial products. These technologies are revolutionizing opportunities for these communities, reflecting their transformative potential.
From an electoral standpoint, crypto and blockchain technologies have an outsized impact in ensuring victories up and down the ballot. Crypto is at the top of voters’ minds in swing states, and a balanced approach to crypto that spurs innovation while protecting consumers is a net positive for policymakers and candidates.
Over 20% of voters in key battleground states identified crypto as a major issue in the 2024 election, and it is critical that our party presents a persuasive case to crypto voters while ensuring that consumers benefit from thoughtful and appropriate regulation.
The current financial system has left Americans behind.
According to recent surveys, 4 in 5 voters agree with the statement, “The current financial system favors elites over regular people.” Digital assets and blockchain technology are not merely financial instruments but represent a revolutionary shift that can enhance transparency, reduce fraud, and create a more inclusive financial system.
We believe this technology is non-partisan, and the Democratic Party should also champion these innovations to help reaffirm the U.S.’s position as the leader in the global digital economy.
They then make four suggestions that the DNC should back off the attacks on crypto:
BREAKING: ?? Democrats wrote to the DNC asking to shift away from the anti-#Bitcoin stance, responding to Trump speaking at the Bitcoin conference. pic.twitter.com/cgN4VhmKha
— Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) July 27, 2024
Who could have seen this coming?
Crypto is now a political issue (Dems want to crush it) and GOP will use that in 2024. https://t.co/k26pn0vO5T
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 13, 2023
In the sixteen months since, we have seen a seismic shift in attitudes towards crypto from both Independents and Republicans; while Democrats continue to demonize the sovereign currency.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. praised the role Bitcoin could play in improving the US economy and the American way of life as he spoke to an audience at the Bitcoin 2024 conference on July 26. He promised to sign a number of executive orders on his first day in office to begin the process.
Kennedy would sign an order requiring the US Justice Department and US Marshalls to transfer the 204,000 Bitcoin held by the US to the Federal Reserve to be held as a “strategic asset,” he said.
Furthermore, Kennedy said he would also order the Treasury Department to purchase 500 Bitcoin daily until the reserve reaches at least four million BTC.
The United States would attain “a position of dominance no other country will be able to usurp” and its Bitcoin reserve would eventually reach a value of “hundreds of trillions of dollars,” he promised.
?Presidential Candidate RFK JR: “I will sign an executive order directing the US Treasury to purchase 550 Bitcoin daily until the US has built a reserve of at least 4,000,000 Bitcoins and a position of dominance that no other country will be able to usurp.” pic.twitter.com/u6JopH7yCu
— Autism Capital ? (@AutismCapital) July 26, 2024
In addition, CoinTelegraph’s Derek Andersen reports that Kennedy would order the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to treat all transactions between Bitcoin and the US dollar as nonreportable and nontaxable. He would also order the IRS to treat Bitcoin as eligible for exchange into real property under the 1031 Exchange program, which provides incentives for real estate investment.
“Transactional freedom [is] as important as freedom of expression in the 1st Amendment,” Kennedy said, and Bitcoin can provide that freedom and help restore the United States economy to its condition before President Richard Nixon took the US dollar off the gold standard to fund the Vietnam war. Kennedy added:
“Fiat currency was invented to fund war. […] If the world was on a BTC standard, there would be no more war because you can’t print Bitcoin.”
“I understand that tomorrow President Trump may announce his plan to build a Bitcoin Fort Knox and authorize the US government to buy a million Bitcoin as a strategic reserve asset,” Kennedy told the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville on Friday, a day before Trump was scheduled to speak at the same event.
“And I applaud that announcement.”
However, most notable is the shift seen by former President Trump from his initial comments in 2019..
“I am not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, which are not money, and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated cryptoassets can facilitate unlawful behaviour, including drug trade and other illegal activity.”
Thankfully, as Mark Shut and Lee Bratcher detail below, via BitcoinMagazine.com, the official position of the Republican Party has changed dramatically since President Donald J Trump condemned the emerging crypto industry in those uncompromising terms back in 2019.
Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee adopted an ambitious platform to promote innovation in the US’ digital assets industry and protect the rights of bitcoin holders.
For one, the official platform pledges that the Republicans will “defend the right to mine bitcoin.”
This represents a much-needed departure from the policies of the incumbent administration.
In February this year, the US Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration (EIA) issued an “emergency” survey to bitcoin mining companies, demanding highly sensitive information such as the specifications of the machines being used, the specific locations of their mining operations, and contractual information relating to their commercial energy partners. The EIA not only demanded all of this information but pledged to publish even the most commercially sensitive bits of it.
This initiative represented an unprecedented intrusion into the activities of Bitcoin miners and a massive assault on the crypto industry. It prompted organizations such as the Texas Blockchain Council to launch legal proceedings to try and protect the rights of the crypto industry against federal outreach. The Republicans’ pledge to “defend the right to mine bitcoin” is therefore very welcome.
There are other encouraging pledges that the Republicans have made.
The GOP has said they will “ensure every American has the right to self-custody their digital assets and transact free from government surveillance and control.”
They have also come out strongly against the idea of a CBDC.
“Republicans will end Democrats’ unlawful and un-American crypto crackdown and oppose the creation of a Central Bank Digital Currency,” the party has said.
Of course, all of this is highly encouraging for digital asset industry advocates. But it still begs the question.
What caused President Trump to change his mind and start embracing the massive potential of digital assets and decentralized finance?
How has this pro-digital asset agenda vaulted into the limelight of Presidential politics?
If there is one man who has contributed more than anybody else to changing Republicans’ mind on crypto, it is Vivek Ramaswamy.
The former Republican presidential candidate and entrepreneur is clearly having increasing amounts of influence on the GOP inner circle. At the Republican Convention this month, Donald Trump Jr joked that he would like Ramaswamy to be his running mate in 2036. Indeed, ever since his presidential bid last year, it is clear that he has been one of the leading voices at the upper echelons of the Republicans guiding the party in a more pro-crypto direction.
Ramaswamy made waves in GOP circles when, at the North American Blockchain Summit in Texas last year, he released a detailed and comprehensive plan for the US crypto space.
What did he pledge to do? Perhaps the most eye-catching measure was his promise to fire most of the employees at the bloated Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and order the rest to stop trying to bully the crypto industry. Importantly, Ramaswamy defines many cryptocurrencies like bitcoin as commodities that are therefore not under the jurisdiction of the SEC.
“I think it’s nothing short of embarrassing that Gary Gensler, the current leader of the SEC, in front of Congress could not even say whether Ethereum counted as a regulated security or not,” Ramaswamy said during one of the Republican debates last year. “This is just another example of the administrative state gone too far.”
Ramaswamy has been a vocal advocate for innovation in the crypto space and the use of decentralized digital currencies as a tool for financial freedom. He has argued that the right to code should be a right protected by the First Amendment, protecting developers from the overreaches of federal agencies.
He has also said that consumers should have a right to possess self-hosted digital wallets beyond the grasp of the government. This has now been explicitly adopted by the Republicans for their 2024 election campaign, showing the practical influence Ramaswamy is having on Republican policy.
It is not just Ramaswamy who has been positively influencing Republican policy. Back in May last year, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, brought into force a law banning any potential CBDC being used in the state. The regulation “prohibits the use of a federally adopted CBDC by excluding it from the definition of money within Florida’s Uniform Commercial Code.”
Efforts like this have been essential in making the Republican leadership aware of the dangers associated with CBDCs and prompting them to pledge action.
But arguably the most important impactful of Ramaswamy’s crypto activism is to persuade the broader Republican Party that supporting crypto innovation is in line with their political philosophy and natural instincts.
He has powerfully argued that the current federal assault on the crypto industry is “an embodiment of our national decline” in the way it represents an attack on innovation and entrepreneurship, two values the Republicans have always claimed to hold dear.
Ramaswamy has similarly noted that Bitcoin mining is “a frontier in American innovation” in the same tradition as American heroes such as Thomas Jefferson – who Ramaswamy thinks “would have been a Bitcoin miner.” This rhetoric seems to have worked in convincing President Trump and Republican leaders that they should indeed be the pro-bitcoin party.
Another key emerging figure in the Republican party who is of a similar mind on digital assets as Vivek is Trump’s recent VP pick, J.D. Vance. Senator Vance is vocal about his support for bitcoin and digital assets and has a background in tech venture capital. He is young and he understands the importance of courting younger votes.
So, what will “four more years” of President Trump mean for the US digital asset industry?
Let’s end as we started, with another quote from the President – one that shows, thanks to the efforts of Vivek Ramaswamy, Senator Vance and others, just how much the Republican stance on crypto has changed over the last few years.
“I will end Joe Biden’s war on crypto. We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America.”
“If Trump is elected, the U.S. will have to add Bitcoin as a reserve, because it is digital gold,” said Arseniy Grusha, chief executive officer of data-center firm Dataprana, who attended the conference. “The earlier they do that, the better it will be for the United States.”
Top Sniper Responds to Claims Trump Was Not Shot in Pennsylvania
Putin Warns of Reciprocal Response to US Missiles in Germany
Russia will consider itself free from a moratorium on the deployment of medium and shorter-range missiles if the US places missiles in Germany, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said in an address to sailors at the Navy Day parade in St. Petersburg.
Earlier this month, the US and Germany announced plans to deploy long-range precision missile systems in Europe. According to a joint US-German press release dated July 10, the US “will begin episodic deployments of the long-range fires capabilities of its Multi-Domain Task Force in Germany in 2026.”
Putin called this announcement “noteworthy,” as such a deployment will put important Russian state and military facilities, administrative and industrial centers, as well as defense infrastructure within the reach of the weapons. He noted that the flight time of such missiles to targets on Russian territory would be about ten minutes, and that they could also be equipped with nuclear warheads.
“This situation is reminiscent of the events of the Cold War related to the deployment of American medium-range missiles in Europe,” Putin stated. He said that while Russia has long left the Cold War in the past, the US “did not reciprocate.” The president warned that if the US goes through with the missile deployment plan, Russia will respond accordingly.
“If the US implements such plans, we will consider ourselves free from the previously adopted moratorium on the deployment of medium- and short-range strike weapons, and will take steps to boost the capabilities of the coastal troops of our Navy,” he stated, noting that the development of a number of such missile systems is in the final stages.
“We will take mirror measures to deploy [these systems], taking into account the actions of the US and its satellites in Europe and other regions of the world,” Putin pledged.
Putin delivered his speech after greeting sailors and ship crews assembled for the annual Navy Day parade, the Russian Navy’s primary celebration. He praised the Navy as a “reliable guardian of our naval borders” and the country’s pride and glory. He said that Russia’s naval power had been achieved through the efforts and talents of its seamen, and vowed to continue supporting strengthen the Navy’s capabilities through training and more marine personnel, equipping naval vessels with hypersonic missiles, boosting coastal infrastructure, and intelligence and air defense.
Top Sniper Responds to Claims Trump Was Not Shot in Pennsylvania
Trump Leads Harris in WSJ and Forbes Polls
Former US President Donald Trump is narrowly leading Vice President Kamala Harris in the race for the White House, according to the latest polls by the Wall Street Journal and Forbes/HarrisX.
Harris became the Democratic Party’s presumptive nominee last week after President Joe Biden withdrew his candidacy and endorsed her. A Reuters/Ipsos poll released at the beginning of the week showed Harris leading Trump by two points. The surveys published afterwards show the opposite.
The WSJ poll released on Friday has Trump at 49% and Harris at 47%. The poll was conducted from July 23-25 and involved 1,000 registered voters.
The HarrisX/Forbes online poll of 3,013 registered voters, which was carried out from Monday to Wednesday, produced the same two-point gap, with Trump at 47% and Harris at 45%. The survey also revealed overwhelming support (81%) for Biden’s decision to quit the race.
“Vice President Harris has energized the Democratic base, growing the lead with suburban women and closing the gap with independents,” HarrisX CEO Dritan Nesho said. “She is still struggling with African American men, and Trump overall still has a more consolidated base of voters.”
Nesho argued that Biden’s decision to drop out has made the race competitive again.
Biden announced that he was ending his reelection campaign on July 21, after weeks of growing concerns among Democrats and party donors over his declining health and ability to defeat Trump in November. Initially defiant, Biden argued that the move was necessary given the high stakes of the election. “Nothing can come in the way of saving our democracy. That includes personal ambition,” he said in an address from the Oval Office on Wednesday.
The Harris campaign has reported an influx of donations, receiving $81 million in contributions in the 24 hours since Biden’s endorsement. It is expected that the Democrats will officially nominate Harris at the party’s convention next month.
Top Sniper Responds to Claims Trump Was Not Shot in Pennsylvania
Israel Says “All-Out War” Imminent After Hezbollah Rocket Slams Into Soccer Field, 30 Casualties
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Israel Katz are holding emergency consultations with the country’s senior defense leadership following a devastating Hezbollah rocket attack on the town of Majdal Shams in Israel’s north which resulted in 30 casualties, including at least ten killed.
Nine victims among the several dozen injured are said to be in critical condition, many of them children, some as young as ten. Foreign Minister Katz told a state broadcaster, “There is no doubt that Hezbollah crossed all red lines.”
He warned that “We are facing an all-out war” and added, “I have no doubt that we’ll pay a cost” – but also said an even greater toll will surely be exacted on Hezbollah.
The top diplomat further claimed in the comments that Israel will have “full backing” from the US and Europe in waging a bigger anti-Hezbollah campaign in Lebanon. Katz explained to Axios:
The Hezbollah attack today crossed all red lines, and the response will be accordingly. We are approaching the moment of an all-out war against Hezbollah and Lebanon.
We will pay prices, but at the end of the war Nasrallah and Hezbollah will be destroyed and the state of Lebanon will be severely damaged and we will restore peace and security to the residents of the north.
Rockets reportedly scored direct impact on a soccer field in the Israeli Druze town in the northern Golan region. The IDF military is probing why Israel’s anti-air defenses didn’t work upon the missile being inbound.
While for months hundreds of Hezbollah missiles and drones have rained down on northern Israel, it is much rarer for a missile to strike in the heart of a town or city.
Widely circulating video which was verified by the Times of Israel shows a large fireball upon impact:
Footage purportedly shows the moment the Hezbollah rocket struck a soccer field in the northern Druze town of Majdal shams, causing numerous casualties. pic.twitter.com/awfFomVEJ2
— Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian (@manniefabian) July 27, 2024
Amid the rising death toll, Hezbollah has later in the day issued a surprising statement insisting it was not behind the attack:
Hezbollah in a statement denies it launched rockets at Majdal Shams, in an attack that killed and wounded civilians, including children.
The terror group says it “has no connection to the incident at all, and categorically denies all false allegations.”
Hezbollah said earlier it launched dozens of rockets at an army base in the Golan Heights, near Majdal Shams.
Israel is charging that not only Hezbollah was definitely behind it, but that this attack has just greatly escalated the conflict. Meanwhile, recent days have seen new reports of fires breaking out in southern Lebanon due to Israeli strikes there.
In Gaza, Al Jazeera has the following latest developments:
- Gaza’s Health Ministry says at least 30 people have been killed after an Israeli bombing of Khadija School in Deir el-Balah. Israel claimed it targeted a “Hamas command and control centre”.
- The civil defence in Gaza says at least 170 people have been killed in Israel’s military incursion in Khan Younis since it began more than a week ago.
- The armed wing of Hamas says fierce battles are continuing in Gaza City and that its fighters struck an Israeli troop carrier surrounded by soldiers with an al-Yassin 105 rocket in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood.
- A rare Israeli air raid has taken place in the occupied West Bank, targeting the Balata refugee camp, east of Nablus. It killed a Palestinian man the army said was wanted.
? Galei Tzahal: 11 injured, including five critically (and six seriously), as a result of a Hezbollah drone crash in Majdal Shams.
— Israel News Pulse (@israelnewspulse) July 27, 2024
Very severe incident. A direct hit on a soccer field, likely by a drone (not yet fully confirmed), occurred during a children’s soccer game.
_ pic.twitter.com/mJw3sOEehi
Israel’s northern border has thus far since Oct.7 not slipped into all-out Israel-Hezbollah war, but this could mark the beginning of a broader conflict. The White House has long urged Israel to keep the fighting ‘limited’ and contained. The fear is that all of Lebanon could be engulfed if the IDF invades.
Top Sniper Responds to Claims Trump Was Not Shot in Pennsylvania
Study: Microplastics in the Brain Have Increased by 50% in the Last Eight Years
Levels of microplastics in the human brain have increased by 50% in the last eight years, according to a pioneering new study.
Researchers looked at autopsy samples taken in Albuquerque, New Mexico, between 2016 and 2024. They compared microplastic levels between different organs—the brain, liver and kidneys—and also compared levels in these organs over time.
The found that the brain samples contained significantly more microplastics than the kidney or liver samples. There noted a significantly larger amount of one plastic in particular, polyethylene, in the brain samples. Polyethylene is used in plastic bags, bottles and other containers.
Even more worryingly, the researchers noted that levels of microplastics increased over time. Concentrations in the brain samples rose by 50% in the last eight years.
The researchers believe the results may be explained by the fact that the liver and kidneys are “front line” organs for the removal of harmful substances from the body, so they are better equipped than the brain to dispose of microplastics.
Plastics are lipophilic—meaning they are attracted to fatty tissues—and the brain has the second highest lipid content of any organ in the body, besides adipose tissue itself, as well as a massive, extensive bloody supply to carry microplastics to it.
More than nine billion tons of plastic are estimated to have been produced between 1950 and 2017, with over half of that total having been produced since 2004. The vast majority of plastic ends up in the environment in one form or another, where it breaks down, through weathering, exposure to UV light and organisms of all kinds, into smaller and smaller pieces—microplastics and their even trickier brethren, nanoplastics. These are “secondary” microplastics, but there’s a whole class of “primary” microplastics which are small by design, like so-called “microbeads” used in cosmetics. Within our homes, microplastics are mainly produced when synthetic fibres from clothes, furnishings and carpets are shed. They accumulate in large quantities in dust and float around in the air, which we then inhale.
Microplastics have become a source of major health concern in recent years as the extent of human and animal exposure to them has become clearer. These minute pieces of plastic, often invisible to the naked eye, have been linked to virtually every major chronic disease of the modern age, from obesity and gut conditions like IBS, to cancer and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
Microplastics have also been implicated in the worldwide fertility crisis that could see humans unable to reproduce by natural means as early as 2050. According to expert Professor Shanna Swan, by 2050 the median man will have a sperm count of zero, meaning one half of all men will produce no sperm whatsoever, and the other half will produce so few they might as well produce none.
If you want to know more about microplastics, and how you can protect yourself and your loved ones from the, read our longform primer on the subject.