Month: December 2023

Authored by Megan Redshaw via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Pharmaceutical giant Moderna is policing what it calls “vaccine misinformation” online through its disinformation department aimed at shutting down dissenting voices and anything that might undermine COVID-19-related policies, such as lockdowns, vaccine passports, and mass vaccination.

According to an exclusive report by investigative journalists Lee Fang and Jack Poulson published on Nov. 20 in UnHerd, Moderna isn’t just manufacturing COVID-19 vaccines; it has an entire team dedicated to monitoring a wide range of social media platforms, government agencies, and news websites in the name of addressing the “root cause of vaccine hesitancy” by identifying and “shutting down misinformation” that may negatively affect the vaccine debate.

The internal documents show a “sprawling effort to monitor basically everything said online, on social media, and in the news media about vaccine policy, COVID policy, about Moderna, and other vaccine companies,” Mr. Fang told The Hill.

Monitoring Team of Former FBI, Secret Service, and Pharma-Funded NGOs

Moderna’s monitoring team includes its Global Intelligence division, run by Nikki Rutman, who was involved in compiling internal company misinformation reports of “high-risk” celebrities critical of vaccine mandates, including unvaccinated tennis star Novak Djokovic, Elon Musk, and actor Russell Brand, according to the investigative report.

Before joining “Moderna’s corporate security team” in 2022, Ms. Rutman worked as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. intelligence community for nearly 19 years, most of which was spent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). According to the report, Ms. Rutman was working from the FBI’s Boston office during the COVID-19 pandemic and “Operation Warp Speed,” which involved weekly cybersecurity meetings with Moderna, also headquartered in Boston.

Before her role with the FBI, Ms. Rutman worked for the Director of National Intelligence as an “adviser on terrorism to a mission manager” and as a counterintelligence analyst with the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Ms. Rutman is only one of many former law enforcement agents working on Moderna’s monitoring team, along with a drug industry-funded NGO called the Public Good Projects (PGP) and Talkwalker, an artificial intelligence firm that uses its technology to monitor vaccine-related discussions across 150 million websites in nearly 200 countries.

According to Mr. Fang, PGP is an “anti-misinformation NGO” financed through a $1,275,000 donation from the Biotechnology and Innovation Organization—lobbyists representing Pfizer and Moderna—that works closely with social media platforms, government agencies, and news websites to classify and combat alleged vaccine misinformation.

“We know from a separate batch of documents—the Twitter files—that I reported earlier this year, that the same partners that are working with Moderna—PGP and some of these other NGOs—had a direct line to Twitter’s executives, and they also worked with Google and Facebook to shape content moderation policies,” Mr. Fang told The Hill.

These Moderna-funded NGOs were pressuring social media companies to change their content moderation policies and delete and “de-amplify” specific tweets critical of coercive vaccine policies, Mr. Fang said. “They were actually sending entire Excel documents with tweets they wanted censored,” he added.

Talkwalker’s website states it is a “social listening and consumer intelligence platform” that helps pharmaceutical businesses by providing an array of services, including “above brand monitoring” and “misinformation detection.” Neither PGP nor Talkwalker has publically disclosed how they define “misinformation” or who determines that one’s speech falls into this category. However, Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson say these organizations, along with marketing executives and former FBI and Secret Service analysts, provide misinformation alerts to Moderna.

“None of the reports that we have seen makes any attempt to dispute the claims made,” Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson wrote. “Rather, the claims are automatically deemed “misinformation” if they encourage vaccine hesitancy.”

Beyond identifying and attempting to censor subjectively determined vaccine misinformation, Moderna has provided talking points and advice to a network of 45,000 healthcare professionals—unbeknownst to their patients—on “how to respond when vaccine misinformation goes mainstream,” according to an email from Moderna.

Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, co-author of the Great Barrington Declaration and professor of medicine at Stanford University, said Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson’s report is “absolute fire.”

“Moderna, thru the Public Goods Project, pays thousands of health professionals to attack and defame vaccine critics and push social media to censor anyone who says things, true or false, that reduce profits,” Dr. Bhattacharya posted on X.

Moderna Censors Legitimate Discussion About Vaccines

Moderna isn’t just flagging “misinformation” it considers a “danger to public health.” It’s flagging legitimate discussion of vaccine-related issues and mere criticism of vaccine companies, according to Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson.

For example, Moderna’s misinformation reports rate news surrounding Novak Djokovic as “high risk.” Mr. Djokovic acquired natural immunity from SARS-CoV-2 infection and refused to get vaccinated, preventing him from competing in the 2022 US Open. He returned in 2023 when mandates had been lifted and won the Moderna-sponsored competition. Moderna said vaccine opponents were celebrating his win, and social media users were “mockingly” pointing out that Moderna was a US Open sponsor.

The Moderna internal report entitled “Djokovic Crowned Anti-vaccine Hero after US Open Win” stated the “optics of Djokovic” bolsters “anti-vaccine claims that vaccines—and mandates—are unnecessary.”

Mr. Musk, CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, Inc., and owner of “X,”  was also classified as “high risk” because he mocked the media and government officials who erroneously claimed COVID-19 vaccines were 100 percent effective against the virus. Moderna’s report didn’t identify any false statements. Still, it raised concerns that pointing out the “deception by health authorities and health care providers during the pandemic” would “lay the groundwork to sow distrust in credible sources on vaccine safety and effectiveness.” In other words, Moderna wasn’t flagging the video because it was wrong but because it negatively shaped public discourse around COVID-19 vaccines.

Although some tweets flagged by Moderna’s disinformation team were legitimate misinformation, many were “genuine points of disagreement around coercive vaccine policy,” such as vaccine passports and mandates, Mr. Fang told The Hill.

Another Moderna report flagged an Oct. 5 post on X that expressed Mr. Musk’s opposition to vaccine mandates. The report states: “Musk has one of the largest platforms in the world—literally and figuratively. He increasingly uses that platform to elevate fringe vaccine opponents and conspiracy theorists.”

“These mandates were not successful in increasing vaccination rates. It got tens of thousands of Americans fired or pushed out of their jobs. These were controversial policies that were eventually overturned by the Supreme Court,” Mr. Fang said.

“This is not an area of misinformation that needed to be censored. This was a legitimate area of public debate around the very controversial and novel application of public policy that benefited just a small number of corporations,” he added. “Basically, the government forcing you to buy a certain product and to use it in your body. This is a bodily autonomy issue—a public health area that deserved more scrutiny, not less.”

Russell Brand, a critic of pharmaceutical companies, was also flagged for his claim that Moderna and Pfizer made $1,000 of profit every second from the pandemic because his views are “circulated in anti-vaccine spaces where he is viewed as a truth-teller and threat to authority,” the report said.

“Where this is potentially problematic is that if you look closely at these misinformation reports, they are clearly blurring the line between fighting actual disinformation—intentional lies—and classifying legitimate points of discussion around vaccine policy as dangerous misinformation,” Fang told The Hill. “They’re taking kind of a broad brush and painting any kind of criticism of their company vaccines as dangerous misinformation.”

According to Moderna emails, other misinformation alerts have centered around drug industry profits, vaccine hesitancy, competitor issues, and discussions of Pfizer. Moderna also closely tracks elected officials against coercive vaccination policies and laws restricting vaccine mandates. “Politicians attempting to ban COVID-19 mandates—or at least claiming to—signals growing resistance to COVID-19 mitigations,” reads one of the Moderna alerts.

Moderna Ramps up Marking Efforts as Profit Dwindles

Now that demand for COVID-19 vaccines has dwindled, so have Moderna’s earnings. Unlike Pfizer, Moderna was a 2010 startup company without an approved product before the COVID-19 pandemic. With the creation of its COVID-19 vaccine, it transformed from a struggling biotech company to a “household name” valued in 2021 at over $100 billion. The pandemic also created five new billionaires at Moderna alone, Mr. Fang told The Hill.

According to company financial reports, Moderna made $18.5 billion in 2021 and $19.3 billion in total revenue in 2022. Through the third quarter of this year, it has only made $3.9 billion.

In addition to lost profits and reduced demand, Moderna must now make royalty payments to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), formerly run by Dr. Anthony Fauci, because NIAID scientists collaborated with Moderna to develop its COVID-19 vaccine. As a result, Moderna raised the price of its vaccine from $15–$26 per dose to $130 per dose, the investigative report said.

The European Patent Office also recently invalidated one of Moderna’s European patents on mRNA vaccine technology. Moderna, in 2022 filed a patent infringement lawsuit in Germany, alleging Pfizer and BioNTech had copied its mRNA vaccine technology. The company requested a payout based on vaccine sales during the pandemic—sales of which topped $35 billion in 2022 alone. However, Pfizer and BioNTech countersued Moderna and won. Although Moderna intends to challenge the ruling, a payout would have been substantial.

With evaporating profits, Moderna is relying on a “flashy new marketing campaign” highlighting its mRNA technology and its ability to unlock cures for all sorts of diseases and efforts to rebrand its COVID-19 vaccine as a symbol of a healthy lifestyle.

“The most important thing for Moderna is that people keep having their jabs. Smart ads are part of that. But more important is to push back aggressively against any prevailing anti-vax narrative and engage where possible in any discussions around vaccine policy,” wrote Mr. Fang and Mr. Poulson. “That’s where the Moderna disinformation department comes in.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to Moderna for comment.

Authored by Frank Fang via The Epoch Times,

Former national security adviser John Bolton on Saturday criticized the Biden administration for its attempts to extend the truce in Gaza, calling them “objectively pro-Hamas.”

“I think with the initial pause now behind us, I think Israel’s best judgment here is simply to proceed militarily to achieve the objective it says it wants, which is the elimination of Hamas,” Mr. Bolton told News Nation.

“I think the second-guessing by the Biden administration, the efforts to prolong the pause to turn it into a full ceasefire, are objectively pro-Hamas because it denies Israel the self-defense right it has to eliminate the terrorist threat.”

Israel’s war with the Hamas terrorist group resumed on Friday after a weeklong truce brokered by Egypt, Qatar, and the United States, during which Hamas freed 110 hostages in exchange for 240 Palestinian prisoners.

A day before the truce ended, Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged for a longer truce on Thursday. He said, “Our immediate focus is working with our partners to extend the pause so that we can continue to get more hostages out of Gaza and more assistance in.”

Also on Friday, the White House blamed Hamas for ending the truce.

“It’s because of Hamas that this pause ended,” National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, per USA Today.

“They were just simply unable, failed to produce a list of hostages that could help enable that pause extending,” Mr. Kirby added.

“The onus is on Hamas to be able to produce a list of hostages that that they can get out so that we can try to get this pause back in place.”

Mr. Bolton criticized President Joe Biden for trying to limit what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can do. The national security adviser had previously criticized the truce as a “very bad deal for Israel.”

“I think the administration is weak. I think it’s weak on Ukraine, it’s weak on China. It’s weak on Iran, it’s weak on North Korea, and it’s weak on the terrorist threat that Israel faces,” Mr. Bolton said.

“Biden’s rhetorical support initially was quite strong. But when he put his arm around Netanyahu, he kept his arm around Netanyahu, and they really are trying to constrain what Israel is doing.”

“Maybe it’s for political reasons,” Mr. Bolton added.

“I think the administration is scared to death of the left wing of the Democratic Party.”

On Nov. 28, the House voted 412–1 to pass a resolution affirming Israel’s right to exist and calling for Hamas to release its hostages. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a libertarian, was the only lawmaker to vote against the resolution.

Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who has a history of anti-Semitism, was the only lawmaker who voted “present.” All other members of the far-left group “The Squad,” including including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), voted in favor of the resolution.

Mike Pompeo, the former secretary of state during the Trump administration and a senior counsel for global affairs at the American Center for Law and Justice, published an article on Dec. 2 calling on President Biden to “stop caving to Far Left ceasefire calls.”

“Make no mistake: A long-term ceasefire is exactly what Hamas wants,” Mr. Pompeo wrote.

“Pressuring Israel to now sign a long-term ceasefire would only encourage future attacks like those we saw on October 7. It would be a green light to Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies that America will not have Israel’s back, making the region far less safe for Israelis and Americans alike.”

“We know why the Biden Administration is now pushing for a long-term ceasefire,” Mr. Pompeo added.

“It is an attempt to placate its political base, which is increasingly dominated by antisemitic, anti-Israel activists.”

“Supporting Israel right now isn’t about politics. It’s about enabling the triumph of good over true evil,” Mr. Pompeo stated. 

Authored by Mike Fredenburg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

On Nov. 25, Russia launched some 75 drones at key military and infrastructure targets in Kyiv. As per usual, the Ukrainian military reported that its air defense systems had been incredibly successful—shooting down all but one of the drones (74 out of 75)—about a 98 percent kill rate.

But that feat is chump change compared to the claims made on May 16, 2023, by the commander-in-chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, “that his forces had intercepted the six Kinzhal missiles launched from aircraft, as well as nine Kalibr cruise missiles from ships in the Black Sea and three Iskanders fired from land,” according to Reuters.

If true, this was a very impressive feat indeed.

But Russia has also been making some extraordinary claims. On Aug. 26, Russian media reported that Russia detected 42 drones and then eliminated 33 of them via electronic warfare and shot down the remaining nine using its air defense systems—a 100 percent success rate. On Nov. 26, Russia claimed to have shot two S-200 missiles and 24 drones over three different areas of Russia.

The above are just a few out of the many dozens of reports by Ukraine and Russia claiming extraordinarily high success rates in shooting down enemy missiles and drones. These claims are problematic for two primary reasons.

The first is that both Russia and Ukraine have been engaged in propaganda efforts designed to make themselves look more powerful and competent while making their opponent look weaker and less competent—and clearly this is an important part of that narrative. But the other reason comes out of the history of air defense development and its real-world success rate and finds that such high success rates are highly problematic and thus more likely to be propagandistic exaggerations.

It has long been known that the estimated success rates for intercepting rockets and missiles established by testing vary greatly from those seen in the real world. For example, that Russia’s vaunted S-400 surface-to-air missile (SAM) apparently never failed a test strongly suggests that Russia wasn’t being transparent about all the unsuccessful test results that came before the successful one. Consequently, it may not be reliable when it comes to reporting on real-world stats. That doesn’t mean the S-400 isn’t effective, but that it likely isn’t as effective as reported by Russia.

However, if Russian and Ukrainian reports are to be believed, Ukrainian and Russian defense systems are regularly outperforming Israel’s much-vaunted Iron Dome System despite going up against much more sophisticated targets such as maneuvering drones that can use terrain to cover their approach, stealthy cruise missiles, and very fast ballistic and maneuvering semi-ballistic missiles. But even the Iron Dome’s estimated real-world success rates have been hotly debated.

Another example of a missile defense system with much-debated performance is the Patriot Air Defense System, of which Ukraine has received at least two. Each Patriot system costs over $1 billion. As is often the case, both the service who purchased the system (the U.S. Army) and the Patriot supplier, Raytheon, have been guilty of overestimating its effectiveness, with claims of 100 percent effectiveness being downwardly revised first to 52 percent and then to 10 to 20 percent effective. Along with the Patriot, at the start of the war Ukraine had around 100 operational Soviet/Russian S-300 SAM systems. While the S-300 is highly effective against relatively large jet fighters, when going up against tactical ballistic missiles, according to Russian tests it will fail an estimated 30 percent of the time. And as is the case with the Patriot Missiles System, the S-300 isn’t designed to take on low-flying UAVs that use terrain to mask their approach.

Of course, Ukraine has short- and medium-range air defense systems that are much better against drones, such as the IRIS-T and the NASAM, etc., but they too can be fooled, suppressed, jammed, and overwhelmed. Russia’s air defense systems are also subject to being fooled, suppressed, jammed, and overwhelmed. Consequently, when considering the complex and hostile engagement environments in which these air defense systems operate, continuous claims of them being 70 to 100 percent effective should be viewed with a healthy skepticism.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,

On the same day as Biden Administration ‘climate czar’ John Kerry warned of out of control global warming at the UN climate conference in Dubai, the entirety of Europe is experiencing an unprecedented deep freeze.

Kerry called on the world to “judge with our own eyes what science is telling us” and warned that the arctic, the antarctic and the permafrost are in danger of melting.

John Kerry at every global warming conference he takes a private jet to. https://t.co/R45gCYX6Oq pic.twitter.com/nnFdrcEqA6

— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) December 3, 2023

Dunno John, it looks pretty f*cking cold everywhere:

Europe hasn’t seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white! ❄️ pic.twitter.com/zuDB1GfkxM

— Xavi Ruiz (@xruiztru) December 1, 2023

OK, in reality it froze on the runway in Munich and tipped backwards after more than 40 centimetres (16in) of snow fell overnight on Friday into Saturday. pic.twitter.com/hKFaR6aXc6

— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) December 3, 2023

What Munich Airport traffic usually looks like on a Saturday afternoon compared to today as the airport has closed due to heavy snowfall. MUC is expected to reopen tomorrow at 0500 UTC.

Nearly 600 flights at MUC canceled today. pic.twitter.com/1sVaeqSiWr

— Flightradar24 (@flightradar24) December 2, 2023

With 44 cm left on the ground this morning, Munich, Germany has officially experienced its biggest December snowstorm on record.
pic.twitter.com/qMqEHoQiLj

— Nahel Belgherze (@WxNB_) December 2, 2023

UK weather: Temperatures plunge to -12C as snow disrupts travel https://t.co/OpdyE8Cer7

— BBC South Scotland (@BBCSouthScot) December 3, 2023

Quite extraordinary November cold today in northernmost Europe. A high temperature of -30.1C at Salla located in Finnish Lapland. Absolutely brutal cold, must be at or near record levels for this early, official winter has not yet started in Northern Hemisphere. pic.twitter.com/wRKl6yuGZd

— London & Southeast 🔆 (@TheSnowDreamer) November 27, 2023

Good morning Europe, this dawn was cold! pic.twitter.com/J8T22Xt2u4

— Giulio Betti (@Giulio_Firenze) November 26, 2023

But of course, when it snows and is freezing that is also because of global warming, got it?

As the global temperature rises the climate is breaking down unleashing chaotic weather. #Munich #MunichAirportpic.twitter.com/rTF4Szvfre

— Extinction Rebellion Global (@ExtinctionR) December 3, 2023

It’s not winter, it’s a weakened polar vortex weak jet stream pattern that unlocks cold air… or something, you idiot:

How convenient…global warming makes the planet colder

— Lacko (@Lacko_party_pak) December 3, 2023

*  *  *

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Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Pfizer and its partner BioNTech could be open to lawsuits for including a DNA sequence in their COVID-19 vaccine.

The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act, known as the PREP Act, largely shields COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers from lawsuits, but companies can be sued for “willful misconduct,” which includes acts taken “intentionally to achieve a wrongful purpose.”

“I think what we have here is willful misconduct,” Mat Staver, chairman of Liberty Counsel, told The Epoch Times.

The Pfizer-BioNTech, in testing by outside scientists, was discovered to contain a Simian Virus 40 (SV40) DNA sequence despite the public never being told about the sequence.

Regulators in Canada and Europe have since acknowledged that the companies did not highlight the sequence and that they should have, although regulatory submissions did show the full DNA sequence of the vaccine plasmid.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has refused to disclose whether the companies highlighted the sequence.

The FDA alleged no safety concerns have been identified from the residual DNA left behind by the SV40 sequence, though the agency provided no evidence on the matter.

“I can’t imagine that the FDA knew about this. There’s nothing in the FDA documents that would that I am aware of yet where they knew about this contaminant,” Mr. Staver said.

Under a declaration by then-Health Secretary Alex Azar in 2020, COVID-19 vaccines fall under the PREP Act. That act is aimed at allowing a quicker response to a health emergency and grants widespread immunity to manufacturers of vaccines and treatments, as well as administrators of the drugs.

The protection remains in place to this day thanks to extensions through both the Trump and Biden administrations.

The PREP Act has largely prevented lawsuits concerning the COVID-19 vaccines, but several recent developments could change that.

In August, a Michigan judge ruled that the drug manufacturer Gilead Sciences was not protected by the act in the case of a man who needed his leg amputated after receiving Gilead’s drug remdesivir, used as a treatment for COVID-19. The administered drug was said to be contaminated with glass particles.

The other is the revelation that Pfizer’s shot contains the SV40 sequence.

That could help plaintiffs “pierce that legal immunity that’s otherwise provided by the PREP Act,” Mr. Staver said.

He said he’s heard from personal injury firms and organizations who are exploring suits and that Liberty Counsel is considering bringing some as well in light of the developments.

Liberty Counsel has been involved in multiple major suits concerning COVID-19 vaccines, including some with military members who were denied in form letters requests for religious exemptions from the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The firm helped win orders blocking the military from discharging those members.

Pfizer and BioNTech have not returned requests for comment.

Warner Mendenhall, another American lawyer, said on a recent call that lawyers are talking about taking a different approach.

“The latest conversation that we’ve been talking about … is whether we have access right now, at least for some people, to prove battery,” he said.

Informed consent requires having information, “and nobody knew about the SV40,” he said.

Without such knowledge, vaccine recipients could not properly give consent, according to Mr. Mendenhall.

“And if you haven’t consented, and somebody does something to you without being informed and given proper consent, it’s called battery. So, there is some opening for battery cases. And we’re in discussions right now, and those may be able to be brought as as what are called mass torts or mass cases. So we’re working on that.”

Authored by Andrew Thornebrooke via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

TikTok is a key tool in communist China’s strategy to manipulate Americans and undermine the United States’s ability to respond to crises, according to experts and lawmakers.

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which rules China as a single-party state, will likely use TikTok in its effort to wage “cognitive warfare” against the United States, said Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.).

“The CCP calls it ‘cognitive domain warfare,’ part of their larger political warfare strategy,” Mr. Gallagher said in prepared comments for a Nov. 30 hearing of the House Select Committee on the CCP.

Mr. Gallagher, who chairs the committee, said that the United States was struggling to respond to the threat, as the nation had no grand strategy or apparatus for confronting propaganda from authoritarian powers.

“Cognitive warfare is not something we tend to think about here in the West. Sure, we have ideas like soft power, but they’re not a national strategy,” Mr. Gallagher said.

“On the ‘smokeless battlefield’ of people’s minds, we don’t have a standing military at all.”

CCP Seeks ‘Mind Dominance’

The Pentagon’s 2022 China Military Power Report (pdf), which distills the Defense Department’s most authoritative assessments of China’s strategy and capabilities, highlighted the development of the CCP’s new method of psychological warfare.

It said that the CCP and its military wing, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), were developing and deploying methods for conducting cognitive warfare to win military advantage.

“As the PLA seeks to expand the reach of its influence operations around the world and to seize information dominance on the battlefield, it is researching and developing the next evolution of psychological warfare called cognitive domain operation[s] (CDO) that leverages subliminal messaging, deep fakes, overt propaganda, and public sentiment analysis,” the report stated.

“The goal of CDO is to achieve what the PLA refers to as ‘mind dominance,’ defined as the use of propaganda as a weapon to influence public opinion to effect change in a nation’s social system, likely to create an environment favorable to China and reduce civilian and military resistance to PLA actions.”

The report described CDO as “a more aggressive form of psychological warfare” intended to “affect a target’s cognition, decision making, and behavior.”

Mr. Gallagher said that CCP leader Xi Jinping considered CDO as a vital weapon in the regime’s arsenal that could be used to manipulate the American people at key moments, such as during an election cycle.

“In Xi Jinping’s view, the war has already started on the most important battlefield: your mind,” Mr. Gallagher said.

Data Suggests TikTok Taking Direction From CCP

Mr. Gallagher pointed to TikTok as the regime’s most powerful tool for conducting cognitive warfare.

Though the company denies that it takes direction from China-based parent company ByteDance, executives have previously acknowledged its censoring and “heating” of content at the request of the CCP.

To that end, Mr. Gallagher shared several slides suggesting that TikTok is still taking orders from Chinese communist authorities.

The slides demonstrated that posts about “viral topics” in politics and pop culture were proportionately represented on TikTok and Instagram in relation to the number of monthly users that both apps had.

Thus, there were about twice as many posts about Democrats, former President Donald Trump, Taylor Swift, and the “Barbie” movie on Instagram because Instagram has about twice as many monthly users as TikTok.

That proportionality changes, however, when one looks at topics heavily criticized or censored by the CCP.

There were about nine times fewer posts about the Uyghurs on TikTok than on Instagram, for example. And there were 30 times fewer posts about Tibet.

Moreover, there were 153 times fewer posts on TikTok about the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre, a topic heavily censored by Beijing in the mainland.

“In the best-case scenario, TikTok is CCP spyware—that’s why so many state and national governments have banned it on official phones,” Mr. Gallagher said.

“In the worst-case scenario, TikTok is perhaps the largest scale malign influence operation ever conducted.”

TikTok Could Cause ‘Absolute Chaos’ in 2024 Elections

What’s more, Chinese state-owned media outlets have explicitly cited TikTok as a tool for advancing the regime’s goals, testified John Garnaut, a senior fellow at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think tank.

Mr. Garnaut noted that the CCP Central Committee’s official paper described TikTok as a key component in its effort to “allow short video platforms to become ‘megaphones’ for telling Chinese stories well and spreading Chinese voices well.”

Another story in the same paper said that the concepts of freedom, democracy, and human rights were invented to “compete with us [the CCP] for positions, hearts, and masses, and ultimately overthrow the leadership of the Communist Party of China and our country’s socialist system.”

To that end, Mr. Garnaut said that TikTok was “a project of total ideological control” by the CCP, with “enormous” potential to radically shape the information that Americans receive.

“The ability of this platform to manipulate public opinion at crucial moments … I think that’s the issue for deep concern,” Mr. Garnaut said.

Mr. Gallagher said earlier in the week that the CCP could exploit the app to cause “absolute chaos” in the U.S. 2024 presidential election.

Mr. Garnaut agreed with that sentiment, saying that the presence of any CCP disinformation could have detrimental effects regardless of whether it was believed. He pointed to the 2016 elections as evidence for such a phenomenon.

“Mueller found no evidence that Russia caused the election of Trump or that Trump had colluded with Russia,” Mr. Garnault said. “Nevertheless, Russia’s interference fed perceptions that bitterly divided Americans and wounded the faith of many that the election had been free and fair.”

Governments formulate lists of critical minerals according to their industrial requirements and strategic evaluations of supply risks.

Over the last decade, minerals like nickel, copper, and lithium have been on these lists and deemed essential for clean technologies like EV batteries and solar and wind power.

Visual Capitalist’s Bruno Venditti and Zach Aboulazm created the following graphic, using data from  IRENA and the U.S. Department of Energy, to identify which minerals are essential to China, the United States, and the European Union.

What are Critical Minerals?

There is no universally accepted definition of critical minerals. Countries and regions maintain lists that mirror current technology requirements and supply and demand dynamics, among other factors.

These lists are also constantly changing. For example, the EU’s first critical minerals list in 2011 featured only 14 raw materials. In contrast, the 2023 version identified 34 raw materials as critical.

One thing countries share, however, is the concern that a lack of minerals could slow down the energy transition.

With most countries committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the total mineral demand from clean energy technologies is expected to double by 2040.

U.S. and EU Seek to Reduce Import Reliance on Critical Minerals

Ten materials feature on critical material lists of both the U.S., the EU, and China, including cobalt, lithium, graphite, and rare earths.

Mineral / Considered Critical	🇺🇸 U.S.	🇪🇺 EU	🇨🇳 China
Aluminum/ bauxite	Yes	Yes	Yes
Antimony	Yes	Yes	Yes
Cobalt	Yes	Yes	Yes
Copper	Yes	Yes	Yes
Fluorspar	Yes	Yes	Yes
Graphite	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lithium	Yes	Yes	Yes
Nickel	Yes	Yes	Yes
Rare earths	Yes	Yes	Yes
Tungsten	Yes	Yes	Yes
Arsenic	Yes	Yes	No
Barite	Yes	Yes	No
Beryllium	Yes	Yes	No
Bismuth	Yes	Yes	No
Germanium	Yes	Yes	No
Hafnium	Yes	Yes	No
Magnesium	Yes	Yes	No
Manganese	Yes	Yes	No
Niobium	Yes	Yes	No
Platinum	Yes	Yes	No
Tantalum	Yes	Yes	No
Titanium	Yes	Yes	No
Vanadium	Yes	Yes	No
Tin	Yes	No	Yes
Zirconium	Yes	No	Yes
Phosphorus	No	Yes	Yes
Cesium	Yes	No	No
Chromium	Yes	No	No
Indium	Yes	No	No
Rubidium	Yes	No	No
Samarium	Yes	No	No
Tellurium	Yes	No	No
Zinc	Yes	No	No
Boron	No	Yes	No
Coking Coal	No	Yes	No
Feldspar	No	Yes	No
Gallium	No	Yes	No
Helium	No	Yes	No
Phosphate Rock	No	Yes	No
Scandium	No	Yes	No
Silicon	No	Yes	No
Strontium	No	Yes	No
Gold	No	No	Yes
Iron ore	No	No	Yes
Molybdenum	No	No	Yes
Potash	No	No	Yes
Uranium	No	No	Yes

Despite having most of the same materials found in the U.S. or China’s list, the European list is the only one to include phosphate rock. The region has limited phosphate resources (only produced in Finland) and largely depends on imports of the material essential for manufacturing fertilizers.

Coking coal is also only on the EU list. The material is used in the manufacture of pig iron and steel. Production is currently dominated by China (58%), followed by Australia (17%), Russia (7%), and the U.S. (7%).

The U.S. has also sought to reduce its reliance on imports. Today, the country is 100% import-dependent on manganese and graphite and 76% on cobalt.

After decades of sourcing materials from other countries, the U.S. local production of raw materials has become extremely limited. For instance, there is only one operating nickel mine (primary) in the country, the Eagle Mine in Michigan. Likewise, the country only hosts one lithium source in Nevada, the Silver Peak Mine.

China’s Dominance

Despite being the world’s biggest carbon polluter, China is the largest producer of most of the world’s critical minerals for the green revolution.

China produces 60% of all rare earth elements used as components in high-technology devices, including smartphones and computers. The country also has a 13% share of the lithium production market. In addition, it refines around 35% of the world’s nickel, 58% of lithium, and 70% of cobalt.

Among some of the unique materials on China’s list is gold. Although gold is used on a smaller scale in technology, China has sought gold for economic and geopolitical factors, mainly to diversify its foreign exchange reserves, which rely heavily on the U.S. dollar.

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Analysts estimate China has bought a record 400 tonnes of gold in recent years.

China has also slated uranium as a critical mineral. The Chinese government has stated it intends to become self-sufficient in nuclear power plant capacity and fuel production for those plants.

According to the World Nuclear Association, China aims to produce one-third of its uranium domestically.

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

But recent survey findings published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Pediatrics suggest that melatonin consumption in U.S. children and adolescents is “exceedingly common.”

Around one-fifth of American children use melatonin for sleep, with some parents beginning administration to their children at the early age of 1, the authors wrote.

The United States has seen a rapid rise in pediatric melatonin use due to sleep problems. Some clinicians attribute these sleep problems to an increase in mental illness and screen use.

According to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) survey findings, between 2017 and 2018, around 1 percent of children and adolescents under the age of 19 consumed melatonin in the past 30 days.

The JAMA Pediatrics study authors compared this finding to their own research results, reporting that the current data indicate a rise in use of about 20 percent. Parents surveyed also reported that their children take the supplement on average two to five days per week, and many take it daily.

The common use of melatonin has also contributed to melatonin poisoning. Between 2012 and 2021, poison control centers in the United States have seen a 530 percent increase in melatonin ingestion reports among children, some of which resulted in hospitalization and death, according to research published in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) publication.

Insufficient Sleep Is Common Among Children

“A lot of people think that kids don’t have sleeping problems, and that is absolutely not true,” sleep medicine pediatrician Dr. Gayln Perry, CEO of the Perry Center for Pediatric & Adult Sleep Care, told The Epoch Times.

Kids have always had sleeping problems, and these don’t differ much from those of adults.

COVID has also escalated problems. Around 25 percent of children suffered from disrupted sleep prior to the pandemic, and this jumped to nearly 46 percent in 2020.

Just as stress, anxiety, and depression can cause insomnia in adults, the same can occur in children who have different worries from day to day. These may include schoolwork, pressure from peers, and social media interactions.

Many teenagers are also over-committed in their school activities, which impacts their ability to get to bed on time.

Additionally, homeschooling during the pandemic increased children’s screen time. Screens are highly stimulating; their light can suppress and disrupt the sleep cycle.

There is a significant problem with electronics in general, “to the point that some parents really have lost control,” Dr. Perry said. Kids may get up in the middle of the night or early in the morning before school to get on their tablets or phones or to play video games.

Pediatrician Dr. Derek Husmann said he believes screen use is the main problem causing disordered sleeping in children.

Autism and attention-deficit/hyperactive disorders, whose rates have been growing among children, are also associated with poor sleep and difficulty falling asleep.

A Cheap and Accessible Sleep Aid

Parents and caretakers have, therefore, turned to melatonin.

Supplements for children are accessible, unregulated, and can be bought without a prescription. Available in the form of gummies and liquids, they are also appealing to young children.

“The majority of parents that come into my clinic have at least tried melatonin, or the child is already on melatonin—either per recommendation from a general pediatrician or on their own,” Dr. Perry said.

Between 2016 and 2020, sales of melatonin supplements increased by around 150 percent, according to the MMWR. Beyond sleep, people also supplement melatonin for its antioxidizing, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, and neuroprotective effects.

Melatonin is a natural hormone the body produces to regulate the sleep-wake cycle. Light suppresses, while darkness stimulates the release of melatonin from the pineal gland.

Generally, melatonin supplements are advised to be taken one to two hours before bedtime to mimic the natural cycle.

“If taken later, it might be that the ‘window of opportunity’ has been missed,” Henriette Edemann Callesen, a neuropsychiatry consultant for the Danish Health Authority, wrote to The Epoch Times via email.

Melatonin’s effects only last about two hours. “It’s going to facilitate falling asleep quicker, but it’s not going to be around long enough to impact sleep quality,” said Dr. Perry. While parents typically report a short-term benefit when administering melatonin, as time passes, the supplements may not work as well, and the dose may need to be increased.

Dr. Husmann has seen this in his patients.

“It used to bother me a lot when I came across those patients that have been on it for months and months. I asked them to try to wean their kids off … but there are some cases where they try, and it’s not particularly successful,” he said.

Whether prolonged melatonin use leads to tolerance, like other sleeping pills, remains up for debate. Studies have shown conflicting evidence. However, long-term supplementation is typically not advised.

The Dangers

Doctors also generally do not recommend melatonin supplementation for healthy children under age 3 since difficulties falling and staying asleep in these children are almost always behavioral in nature. Yet there have been numerous cases of melatonin use in infants and toddlers.

High melatonin levels have also been detected in deceased children.

“I suspect the biggest issue is easy access to melatonin and its ill-perceived safety,” sleep medicine pediatrician Dr. Muhammad A. Rishi at Indiana University Health wrote to The Epoch Times via email. 

A North Carolina autopsy report detailed seven cases of suspected melatonin involvement in pediatric deaths.

One case was of a 3-month-old girl routinely given eight to 10 daily doses of 5 milligrams of melatonin supplements as a sleep aid. Such a dosage is well above what’s recommended for a child of any age. The child’s cause of death was inconclusive.

Doctors still do not know why melatonin supplementation may be associated with death, given its assumed high safety profile. It should also be noted that deaths from melatonin supplements make up only a very small percentage of all melatonin poisoning reports.

Dr. Perry said she has never had a patient die from melatonin and expects that since melatonin is an endogenous hormone—meaning it naturally occurs in the body—it should have a wide safety margin.

“I don’t see a lot of downsides other than I wish so many kids didn’t need it in the first place,” Dr. Husmann agreed.

However, Dr. Rishi argued that melatonin is a drug, meaning that it changes a person’s mental or physical state and, therefore, should be treated as such.