Russia and Ukraine negotiated for two months with Turkey on a deal to ensure the safety of shipping in the Black Sea and reached agreement on a text that was to be announced by Ankara but Kyiv suddenly pulled out, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The negotiations were mediated by Turkey after nudging by the United Nations, according to the sources who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of such talks.
A deal was reached in March "to ensure the safety of merchant shipping in the Black Sea", and though Ukraine did not want to sign it formally, Kyiv gave its assent for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to announce it on March 30, the day before critical regional elections, the sources said.
"At the very last minute, Ukraine suddenly pulled out and the deal was scuttled," said one of the sources.
Three other people confirmed that version of events. Russia, Ukraine and Turkey declined to comment.
It was not immediately clear why Ukraine pulled out. The people who spoke to Reuters said they did not know what had prompted Kyiv's decision.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in February that without new U.S. military aid, Ukraine would not be able to defend a Black Sea shipping corridor hugging its western Black Sea coast near Romania and Bulgaria.
The talks on the shipping deal, which have not been reported before, offer a glimpse of the quiet diplomacy going on behind closed doors on ways to bring the two warring sides to negotiation, if only, at first, about merchant shipping.
When asked for a comment on the Reuters reporting, United Nations Spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: "We still hope that freedom of navigation in the Black Sea will prevail."
Turkey and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have been trying to months to get merchant shipping sailing more freely though the Black Sea, which in some areas has been turned into a naval war zone since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Most Americans will remember Dr. Deborah Birx as the “scarf lady” who served on the White House’s Covid Response Team beginning in February 2020.
According to a recently-released (but little-seen) 24-minute mini-documentary, it was Birx – even more so than Anthony Fauci – who was responsible for government “guidelines,” almost all of which proved to be unnecessary and disastrous for the country.
According to the documentary, the guidelines ran counter to President Trump’s initial comments on Covid, but ultimately “toppled the White House (and Trump) without a shot being fired.”
The mini-documentary (“It Wasn’t Fauci: How the Deep State Really Played Trump”) was produced by Good Kid Productions. Not surprisingly, the scathing 24-minute video has received relatively few views on YouTube (only 46,500 since it was published 40 days ago on Feb. 26).
I learned of the documentary from a colleague at Brownstone Institute, who added his opinion that “Birx (is) far more culpable than Fauci in the Covid disaster…Well worth the time to see the damage an utter non-scientist, CIA-connected, bureaucrat can do to make sure things are maximally bad.”
I agree; the significant role played by Birx in the catastrophic national response to Covid has not received nearly enough attention.
Brought in from out of Nowhere…
From the video presentation, viewers learn that Birx was added to the White House’s Coronavirus Task Force as its coordinator in latter February 2020.
Birx worked closely with Task Force chairman Vice President Mike Pence, a man one suspects will not be treated well by future historians.
According to the documentary, “career bureaucrats” like Birx somehow seized control of the executive branch of government and were able to issue orders to mayors and governors which effectively “shut down the country.”
These bureaucrats were often incompetent in their prior jobs as was Birx, who’d previously served as a scientist (ha!) in the Army before leading the government’s effort to “fight AIDS in Africa” (via the PEPFAR Program).
When Birx was installed as coordinator of Covid Response she simply rehashed her own playbook for fighting AIDS in Africa, say the filmmakers.
The three tenets of this response were:
“Treat every case of this virus as a killer.”
“Focus on children,” who, the public was told, were being infected and hospitalized in large numbers and were a main conduit for spreading the virus.
“Get to zero cases as soon as possible.” (The “Zero Covid” goal).
The documentary primarily uses quotes from Scott Atlas, the White House Task Force’s one skeptic, to show that all three tenets were false.
Argued Atlas: Covid was not a killer – or a genuine mortality risk – to “99.95 percent” of the population. Children had virtually zero risk of death or hospitalization from Covid. And there was no way to get to “zero cases.”
Atlas Didn’t Shrug, but was Ignored…
Furthermore, the documentary convincingly illustrates how the views of Atlas were ignored and how, at some point, his ability to speak to the press was curtailed or eliminated.
For example, when Atlas organized a meeting for President Trump with Covid-response skeptics (including the authors of the Great Barrington Declaration) this meeting was schedule to last only five minutes.
The documentary also presents a report from the inspector general of the Department of State that was highly critical of Birx’s management style with the African “AIDS relief” program she headed.
Among other claims, the report said she was “dictatorial” in her dealings with subordinates and often “issued threats” to those who disagreed with her approach.
Shockingly, this highly-critical report was published just a month before she was appointed medical coordinator of the Coronavirus Task Force.
A particularly distressing sound bite from Birx lets viewers hear her opinion on how controversial “guidance” might be implemented with little pushback.
According to Birx, she intentionally buried the more draconian elements of the lockdowns in text at the end of long documents, theorizing (correctly apparently) that most reporters or readers would just “skim” the document and would not focus on how extreme and unprecedented these mandates actually were.
The documentary points out that Birx’s prescriptions and those of President Trump were often in complete conflict.
Birx, according to the documentary, once pointed this out to Vice President Pence, who told her to keep doing what she believed.
Indeed, the Vice President gave Birx full use of Air Force 2 so she could more easily travel across the country, spreading her lockdown message to governors, mayors, and other influencers.
Several Covid skeptic writers, including Jeffrey Tucker of Brownstone Institute, have noted that President Trump himself went from an opponent of draconian lockdowns to an avid supporter of these responses in a period of just one or two days (the pivotal change happened on or around March 10th, 2020, according to Tucker).
Whoever or whatever caused this change in position, it does not seem to be a coincidence that this about-face happened shortly after Birx – a former military officer – was named to an important position on the Task Force.
(Personally, I don’t give Anthony Fauci a pass as I’ve always figured he’s a “dark master” at manipulating members of the science/medical/government complex to achieve his own desired results.)
This documentary highlights the crucial role played by Deborah Birx and, more generally, how unknown bureaucrats can make decisions that turn the world upside-down.
That is, most Americans probably think presidents are in charge, but, often, they’re really not. These real rulers of society, one suspects, would include members of the so-called Deep State, who have no doubt installed sycophants like Fauci and Birx in positions of power.
I definitely recommend this 24-minute video...
A Sample of Reader Comments…
I also enjoyed the Reader Comments that followed this video. The first comment is from my Brownstone colleague who brought this documentary to my attention:
“… As I said, things can change over the period of 20 years but in the case of Birx/Fauci, I do not believe so. I have never seen people entrenched in the bureaucracy change.”
Other comments from the people who have viewed the mini-documentary on YouTube:
“Pence needs to be held accountable.”
“What does Debbie’s bank account look like?”
“(The) final assessment of President Trump at the 23:30 mark is, while painful, accurate. He got rolled.”
“This is very hard to find on YouTube. You can literally search the title and it doesn’t come up.”
“Excellent summary, hope this goes viral. Lots of lessons to learn for future generations.”
“Eye opening. Great reporting.”
Post from One Month Ago…
“37 likes after 3 years of the most controversial and divisive action in recent history. How can this be?”
“Oh never mind. YouTube hid it from the public for years.”
“Probably hasn’t been taken down yet for that reason, relatively low views.”
“Thanks for this! Sounds like everyone below President Trump was on a power trip and I didn’t think it was possible to despise Pence more than I already do.”
“…the backing of CDC, legacy media, WHO and government schools, business folding in fear are ALL responsible. Accountability for every person and agency is paramount!”
“Should be noted that her work on AIDS in Africa was just as useless and damaging.”
“First, any mature, adult woman who speaks with that much vocal fry should be immediately suspect. And the glee with which she recounts her role at undermining POTUS is remarkable and repulsive. This woman should NEVER be allowed to operate the levers of power again.”
U.S. employers' obligation to accommodate workers' pregnancies also extends to abortions and the use of contraception, the U.S. agency that enforces workplace discrimination laws said on Monday.
The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) unveiled a rule to implement the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act, a law that Congress passed with bipartisan support and the backing of major business groups in 2022.
The law requires employers to alter job duties or give time off to workers with "limitations related to ... pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions."
The commission's rule, which was proposed last year, has drawn criticism from some Republicans and religious groups who say the law's protections should not extend to workers who choose to have abortions or take birth control, or that if it does, religious employers should be eligible for an exemption.
A group of Republicans in Congress suggested in comments to the EEOC that the lack of a religious exemption could form the basis of a legal challenge to the rule.
Rep. Virginia Foxx, a Republican from North Carolina, said on Monday the EEOC exceeded its authority by adopting the rule.
"The term ‘abortion’ is not once mentioned in the law," Foxx said in a statement. "Instead of following congressional intent, the Biden administration is using the regulatory process to advance radical policy goals."
The EEOC's five members are appointed by the president, but the agency functions independently from the White House.
The rule will be formally published on Friday and will take effect 60 days later.
The 2022 law requires U.S. employers with 15 or more employees to provide reasonable accommodations to pregnant workers. Previously, federal law only required those accommodations if employers also gave them to employees with injuries or medical conditions.
The EEOC rule's list of accommodations that workers may seek includes limits on heavy lifting, part-time work schedules, additional breaks to drink water and use restrooms, modified equipment and uniforms, seating, remote work, and paid or unpaid leave.
Workers may also ask to be relieved of certain essential functions of their jobs, as long as they can resume performing them after a pregnancy, the EEOC said.
Business groups and other critics of the rule have said that providing accommodations such as seating and additional breaks sounds simple, but can be impractical for many jobs and workplaces.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups told the EEOC last year that whether specific accommodations are appropriate should be considered on a case-by-case basis. And once temporary accommodations are granted to pregnant workers, employers should be permitted to periodically request documentation showing that they are still necessary, the groups said.
Many worker advocacy groups supported the regulations. A Better Balance, which advocates for work-life balance measures, said the broad EEOC rule would remove various obstacles to women staying in the workforce when they are pregnant and after they give birth.
"Today with these final rules, we have achieved a huge step forward for women’s economic security, maternal health, and the economy as a whole," the group's co-president, Dina Bakst, said in a statement.
In February, a Texas federal judge agreed with the Republican-led state that the pregnancy bias law was invalid because it was included in a $1.7 trillion government funding bill that was not properly passed.
The judge blocked the EEOC from enforcing the rule against the state in its role as an employer. The commission in a March filing said it would comply with the ruling and did not indicate whether it would appeal.
UnitedHealth is expected to record higher medical costs in its first earnings report since a cyberattack disrupted its technology systems including those that manage prescription and medical claims, analysts said.
The attack, disclosed on Feb. 21, affected hospitals, clinicians, and pharmacies nationwide. Some providers are still unable to access medical claims and payments processing, a recent survey by the American Medical Association showed.
UnitedHealth has advanced billions of dollars in reimbursements through loans to affected healthcare providers and suspended prior authorization of medical services for some government-backed insurance plans for quicker processing.
"We are used to them delivering quite a stable double digit growth. This is clearly a very high quality company, but to use the phrase for this coming quarter - it will probably be a bit messy," said Gerrit Smit, head of global equity management at investment firm Stonehage Fleming.
Analysts on average expect the company to post an adjusted profit of $6.61 per share for the first quarter, according to LSEG data, sharply down from $6.76 earlier this month.
With some medical procedures going through without prior authorization since the last 25 days of the first quarter, Piper Sandler analyst Jessica Tassan estimates that UnitedHealth will incur an incremental $154.2 million of medical costs in Medicare.
Prior authorizations allow a health insurer a chance to review how necessary a medical treatment is and thus, help reduce its costs.
TD Cowen analyst Gary Taylor said in a research note that he expects UnitedHealth will record "extra" authorizations of medical procedures due to the suspensions as one-time costs in its medical care ratio, which measures the percentage of premiums versus medical services provided.
He estimates a first-quarter medical care ratio of 84.7%. UnitedHealth reported a ratio of 82.2% for the quarter a year earlier.
The recent attempt by an unknown actor to sabotage a widely used software program may have been one of several attempts to subvert key pieces of digital infrastructure across the internet, two open source groups said in an alert published on Monday.
In a joint statement, the Open Source Security Foundation and the OpenJS Foundation said the attempt to insert a secret backdoor into XZ Utils - a little-known program that is baked into Linux operating systems across the world - "may not be an isolated incident."
They said at least three different JavaScript projects were targeted by unnamed individuals demanding suspicious updates or asking to be made maintainers of the targeted software.
The JavaScript programming language powers much of the modern web and sees intensive use across the world. Omkhar Arasaratnam, the Open Source Security Foundation's general manager, said that one of the targeted packages alone saw tens of millions of downloads a week.
He declined to identify the JavaScript projects by name, saying he wanted to protect an ongoing investigation.
Arasaratnam also said that while it wasn't clear what the suspected malicious actors were hoping to do - "we stopped them before they got that far" - he suspected they hoped to build backdoors into those projects as well.
The OpenJS and Open Source Security Foundations said they had warned the U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency about the suspected infiltration. The agency did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Almost three weeks following the incident where a massive container ship collided with and caused the collapse of the 1.6-mile long Francis Scott Key Bridge, thus paralyzing the Port of Baltimore and severely disrupting supply chains throughout Baltimore and the Mid-Atlantic, FBI agents boarded the vessel on Monday morning.
The Baltimore Sun reports FBI agents boarded the "Dali" container ship earlier today and were "conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity."
A spokesperson for the FBI denied to comment on the ongoing investigation. However, Maryland US Attorney Erek Barron provided the local media outlet with this statement:
"My office generally will not confirm the existence of or otherwise comment about investigations.
"However, the public should know, whether it's gun violence, civil rights abuse, financial fraud, or any other threat to public safety or property, we will seek accountability for anyone who may be responsible."
In the days after the bridge collapse, FBI agents were at the scene. The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating why the container ship slammed into the bridge without safety barriers.
Source: WSJ
According to the local media outlet, the NTSB's investigation has been "homing in on the electronics system of the 984-foot ship, getting assistance from Hyundai to assist authorities with the ship's engine, which the South Korean firm manufactured."
Many X users have questioned why, shortly after the incident, the federal government declared there was no evidence of terrorism with hardly an investigation underway.
Since many crew members of vessels are foreigners, some of whom may come from countries not entirely fond of America, it might be time for the federal government to devise a way to vet every crew member before entering US waters. After all, the world is half on fire with impending major conflict breaking out in the Middle East and ongoing war in Ukraine.
Researchers at Peter MacCallum Cancer Center have found a new way to treat a form of leukemia that stops the disease in its tracks to prolong remission.
The research,published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, has shown how a new combination of a molecular technology called measurable residual disease (MRD), medication and low-dose chemotherapy is helping patients live longer with acute myeloid leukemia (AML).
Despite the best treatment, many patients with AML have recurrent disease within the first two years. This MRD test provides advanced warning that the disease is returning several months before the leukemia is visible under the microscope or the patient develops abnormal blood counts.
As soon as MRD was detected to rise, patients were treated with a pill called venetoclax combined with low-dose, under-the-skin injection of chemotherapy that stopped the leukemia in its tracks in the majority of patients.
Dr. Ing-Soo Tiong, hematologist and researcher at Peter Mac, said with the previous approach to treatment, the median survival after first relapse is only 6–8 months. Results of this clinical trial shows 50–70% of AML patients are still alive after two years.
"Prior to this discovery, patients and clinicians face the uncertainty of disease relapse, and the only treatment option then was an even stronger dose of salvage chemotherapy requiring at least a month of stay in hospital associated with a very high risk of infection," he said.
"In this new study we measured a patient's MRD as soon as they finished chemotherapy with the aim of the data telling us which patients were most likely to relapse."
Professor Andrew Wei, co-lead of the AML program at Peter Mac and Royal Melbourne Hospital, explained this option meant patients could be treated as an outpatient or by hospital in the home with results comparable to intensive chemotherapy.
"This is a paradigm-changing clinical trial that utilizes molecular technologies to enable patients to receive their interventional therapy much earlier than normal and with less toxicity," he said.
"The response to treatment was fast and durable, enabling patients to receive a subsequent stem cell transplant with much lower levels of disease burden and enhanced fitness.
"This is the first ever prospective trial using a pre-emptive MRD targeted approach. It has led to the development of a new national trial called INTERCEPT, coordinated by the Australasian Leukemia and Lymphoma Group."
The INTERCEPT trial is currently recruiting patients at Peter Mac and approximately 15 sites nationwide. AML is a type of blood cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow. It is a rare cancer with 1,218 people diagnosed in Australia in 2019.
More information: Ing Soo Tiong et al, Targeting Molecular Measurable Residual Disease and Low-Blast Relapse in AML With Venetoclax and Low-Dose Cytarabine: A Prospective Phase II Study (VALDAC), Journal of Clinical Oncology (2024). DOI: 10.1200/JCO.23.01599
