World

Hundreds Died During This Year’s Hajj Pilgrimage In Saudi Arabia Amid Intense Heat, Officials Say

Published

5 months ago

2024-06-19

Hajj Pilgrimage | AP News Image

Mecca, Saudi Arabia – Hundreds of people perished during this year’s Hajj trip in Saudi Arabia due to extreme heat at Islamic holy sites in the desert nation, officials said Wednesday, as people attempted to claim their loved ones’ bodies.

Saudi Arabia has not commented on the death toll during the trip, which is compulsory for every able Muslim once in their lives, or provided any explanations for those who died. However, hundreds of people had gathered at the Emergency Complex in Mecca’s Al-Muaisem neighborhood, hoping to find out what had happened to their lost loved ones.

One internet list claimed that at least 550 individuals died during the five-day Hajj. A physician who talked to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity to discuss information not made public by the authorities said the identities mentioned appeared authentic. That physician and another officer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said they estimated there were at least 600 bodies at the facility.

Hajj Pilgrimage | AP News iMage

Hundreds Died During This Year’s Hajj Pilgrimage In Saudi Arabia Amid Intense Heat, Officials Say

Deaths are not unusual during the Hajj, which has at times brought more than 2 million people to Saudi Arabia. There have been stampedes and epidemics during the pilgrimage’s history.

Each year, the Hajj attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims from low-income countries, “many of whom have had little, if any, pre-Hajj health care,” according to a study in the April issue of the Journal of Infection and Public Health. Communicable illnesses can spread among the crowd, many of whom have saved their entire lives for their journeys and maybe elderly with prior health concerns, according to the article.

However, this year’s high mortality toll shows that something triggered the increase. Several nations, like Jordan and Tunisia, have already reported that some of their pilgrims died as a result of the heat that swept across Mecca’s sacred sites.

On Tuesday, the Saudi National Centre for Meteorology said that temperatures in Mecca and its hallowed sites hit 47 degrees Celsius (117 degrees Fahrenheit). Onlookers witnessed some people fainting while attempting to perform the symbolic stoning of the demon.

According to authorities, temperatures at Mecca’s Grand Mosque reached 51.8 degrees Celsius (125 degrees Fahrenheit) on Monday despite the fact that pilgrims had already gone to Mina.

Hajj Pilgrimage | AP News Image

Hundreds Died During This Year’s Hajj Pilgrimage In Saudi Arabia Amid Intense Heat, Officials Say

Others, especially many Egyptians, became separated from their loved ones because of the heat and overcrowding. According to Saudi Hajj authorities, more than 1.83 million Muslims will undertake the Hajj in 2024, including over 1.6 million pilgrims from 22 countries and over 222,000 Saudi nationals and residents.

On Wednesday, at the Mecca medical complex, an Egyptian man slumped to the ground when he heard his mother’s name among the dead. He grieved for a while before grabbing his phone and calling a travel agent, shouting, “He left her to die!” The audience attempted to appease the man.

Security appeared tight at the compound, with an official reading out the names of the deceased and their nationalities, which included Algerians, Egyptians, and Indians. Those who claimed to be deceased relatives were permitted inside to identify them.

The kingdom’s ruling Al Saud family wields significant power in the Muslim world due to its oil wealth and control over Islam’s holy sites. King Salman, like previous Saudi rulers, has assumed the title of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, alluding to the Grand Mosque in Mecca, which houses the cube-shaped Kaaba that Muslims pray to five times a day, and the Prophet’s Mosque in the adjacent city of Medina.

Hajj Pilgrimage | AP News Image

Hundreds Died During This Year’s Hajj Pilgrimage In Saudi Arabia Amid Intense Heat, Officials Say

Saudi Arabia has spent billions of dollars on crowd control and safety precautions for those making the annual five-day pilgrimage, but the sheer number of people makes assuring their safety difficult.

Climate change could amplify the risk. According to a 2019 study conducted by specialists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, even if the world succeeds in reducing the worst consequences of climate change, the Hajj will be hosted in temperatures above an “extreme danger threshold” from 2047 to 2052 and 2079 to 2086.

Because Islam follows the lunar calendar, the Hajj occurs 11 days earlier each year. It will take place in April 2030, and in the following years, it will be held in the winter when temperatures are milder.

According to an Associated Press count, a 2015 stampede in Mina during the Hajj killed almost 2,400 pilgrims, making it the deadliest event to ever hit the pilgrimage. Saudi Arabia has never acknowledged the full scale of the catastrophe. A separate crane fall at Mecca’s Grand Mosque, which occurred before the Mina disaster, killed 111 people.

The second-deadliest occurrence at the Hajj was a 1990 stampede that killed 1,426 people.

SOURCE – (AP)

World

Biden Escalates Ukraine War With Long-Range Missiles

Published

6 days ago

2024-11-18

Geoff Brown

The Kremlin announced on Monday that President Joe Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to hit targets inside Russia with US military long-range missiles is “fuel to the fire” and will exacerbate international tensions.

Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to employ US military long-range missiles to strike deep within Russia has raised concerns about growing tensions, with many fearing that this decision could lead to world conflict.

On Monday, with less than two months remaining in office, President Joe Biden authorized American-provided Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) to strike deep within Russia.

“It is obvious that the outgoing administration in Washington intends to take steps and they have been talking about this, to continue adding fuel to the fire and provoking further escalation of tensions around this conflict,” said Peskov, the spokesman for the president.

Peskov reminded journalists of a September statement by President Vladimir Putin, who stated that enabling Ukraine to target Russia would dramatically raise the stakes.

It would alter “the very nature of the conflict dramatically,” Putin stated. This would mean that NATO countries, the United States, and European countries would be at war with Russia.”

Peskov asserted that Western countries that deliver longer-range weaponry also provide targeting services to Kyiv. “This fundamentally changes the modality of their involvement in the conflict,” he said.

Ukraine War Escalation

In June, Putin threatened that if NATO permitted Ukraine to utilize the arsenal of its partners to attack Russian territory, Moscow would send longer-range weapons to others to strike Western targets.

“The Westerners supply weapons to Ukraine and say: ‘We do not control anything here anymore and it does not matter how they are used.'” Putin had said. “We can also say, ‘We supplied something to someone — and now we have no control over anything.'” “And let them think about it.”

Putin again emphasized Moscow’s willingness to deploy nuclear weapons if it perceived a threat to its sovereignty.

Biden’s decision will “mean the direct involvement of the United States and its satellites in military action against Russia, as well as a radical change in the essence and nature of the conflict,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry stated.

The new policy has unpredictable consequences. ATACMS, with a range of roughly 300 kilometers (190 miles), can travel deep behind Ukraine’s 1,000-kilometer (600-mile) front line, although their range is modest compared to other types of ballistic and cruise missiles.

President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20, has not responded, but he won the election on promises to stop the conflict, and some people close to him have decried the action as a hazardous escalation.

Missile Decision Sparks Anger

The Military Industrial Complex appears to want to start World War III before my father has a chance to restore peace and rescue lives. We need to lock in those $Trillions. Life be damned!! Imbeciles!” Donald Trump Jr., the President-elect’s son, posted on X

“On his way out of office, Joe Biden is dangerously trying to start WWIII by authorizing Ukraine to use U.S. long-range missiles against Russia,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on X. “The American people gave a mandate on November 5 against these exact American last decisions.”

Rebekah Koffler, a former Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) officer and author of “Putin’s Playbook,” speculated that the stories were a “trial balloon to disrupt Trump” and that Biden may not have authorized the ATACMS strikes yet.

According to Dani Belo, PhD, Director of Security and International Relations at Global Policy Horizons Research Lab, Ukraine’s ability to currently hit Russian territory has the potential to escalate the war with Russia.

However, Donald Trump’s victory is likely to moderate the escalation.

There is speculation that Donald Trump’s administration would restrict military hardware deliveries to Ukraine, putting political pressure on Kyiv to resolve the crisis. This implies Ukraine has no motivation to escalate now and lose its fighting capability in a matter of months.

Russia sees no reason to escalate the situation at this time. Moscow expects that Trump’s administration will try to finish the war soon, so the Kremlin will likely take a wait-and-see approach until the new presidential administration takes office without significantly escalating the conflict. As a result, any escalation is unlikely.

Source: AP

Trump Shakes Up Pentagon Names Pete Hegseth Defence Secretary

Trump Shakes Up Pentagon Names Pete Hegseth Defence Secretary

World

A Court Filing Reveals Elon Musk Flatly Rejected OpenAI’s ICO in 2018.

Published

1 week ago

2024-11-15

Salman Ahmad

(VOR News) – Elon Musk, the billionaire and CEO of Tesla, claims in a subsequent court filing that was submitted on November 14 that he was successful in stopping OpenAI from doing an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2018.

According to the filing requirements, this information was disclosed.

Musk and his legal team have claimed that two of OpenAI’s founders, Greg Brockman and Sam Altman, tried unsuccessfully to create a token in early 2018 to help the company grow. To the best of our knowledge, this was the founders’ intention.

Elon Musk accurately described the scenario.

Elon Musk made the remark during the pertinent time period, according to the lawsuit’s accusations.

This, in his opinion, would lead to a significant decline in trust in OpenAI and everyone involved in the initial coin offering (ICO). These statements are extracted from his initial declaration.

A unique project backed by Altman, Worldcoin launched a token twenty-three years ago with the goal of creating digital identification for verified individuals.

Furthermore, the company in charge of token distribution was Worldcoin. Through the use of the token, Worldcoin was able to authenticate individual identities.

When OpenAI was first founded, it was a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating safe artificial general intelligence (AGI).

In this context, the acronym AGI stands for artificial global intelligence. “Musk has continuously voiced concern about the grave threat that these sophisticated systems pose to humanity,” his attorney wrote in the complaint. These sophisticated technologies represent a serious threat to humankind.

“Musk remains apprehensive regarding this threat.” “Musk regards these threats with the utmost seriousness.” “Elon Musk has harbored these concerns for an extended period.”

This led to Musk joining OpenAI’s board of directors and continuing to serve as co-chair of the board. Furthermore, he was appointed to that board of directors post.

Elon Musk contributed $44 million to the enterprise.

OpenAI declared in a March 5th news release that it was imperative that the company adopt a profit-making structure in order to obtain the necessary funding to achieve its objectives. In order to enable OpenAI to fulfill its objectives, this transition was necessary.

According to both the OpenAI statement and the amended filing, Elon Musk advocated for the combination of OpenAI and Tesla to help the artificial intelligence startup with its financial issues.

The aforementioned measures were implemented to mitigate the challenges that the organization was facing at that specific moment. Musk submitted his resignation as an OpenAI employee in February 2018.

He founded his own artificial intelligence company, which he named XAI, in the ensuing years. His efforts directly led to the achievement he achieved.

We are deeply disappointed that our friendship with someone we have always held in the highest respect has deteriorated.

As we started to make significant strides toward OpenAI’s goal on our own, this person, who had previously motivated us to achieve greater heights, abruptly predicted that we would fail, established a rival company, and filed a lawsuit against us, according to the group’s press release.

In August of this year, Musk filed a lawsuit against OpenAI and its CEOs, Altman and Brockman, claiming that they had violated federal RICO statutes, engaged in unfair competition, and committed fraud. OpenAI is the target of legal action taken by Elon Musk.

According to Elon Musk, they have engaged in additional illegal activity. Microsoft was named as one of the defendants in the dispute in the updated complaint, which was submitted on November 14.

It’s being presented as a case at the moment. Microsoft and OpenAI started working together in 2019, and Microsoft committed $1 billion in the partnership.

In July 2023, OpenAI’s native cryptocurrency, Worldcoin (WLD), was made available to the general public. Not too long ago, an article published by The Block disclosed this knowledge. When the market closed on November 15 at 11:36 p.m. Eastern Time (16:36 UTC), the price of a share of WLD was $2.21.

SOURCE: TB

World

Trump Appoints Robert F. Kennedy Jr to Head HHS

Published

1 week ago

2024-11-15

Geoff Brown

Trump Appoints Robert F. Kennedy Jr to Head HHS

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)

President-elect Trump appointed Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr) to run the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), sending Democrats and Big Pharma allies into a tailspin.

“I am delighted to announce Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS). For too long, Americans have been crushed by the industrial food complex and medicine firms, which have engaged in deception, misinformation, and disinformation regarding public health,” Trump stated in his announcement.

“The safety and health of all Americans is the most important role of any administration, and HHS will play an important role in ensuring that everyone is safe from harmful chemicals, pollutants, pesticides, pharmaceutical products, and food additives that have contributed to this country’s overwhelming health crisis.

Mr. Kennedy will restore these agencies to gold-standard scientific Research and Transparency traditions, stopping the Chronic Disease Epidemic and making America Great and Healthy Again!” Trump added.

Reactions to RFK Jr HHS Appointment

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) oversees the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Medicare, Medicaid, and the National Institutes of Health.

Kennedy is a former environmental justice lawyer who has recently started an anti-vaccine nonprofit. He ran for president as an independent candidate in 2024 but dropped out to join Trump’s closest circle.

House Republicans have reacted to Donald Trump’s nomination of former presidential contender Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as health secretary.

Chip Roy, a Texas congressman, calls it “great news”. He tells me, “We need disruption throughout the federal government.” He’ll be fantastic at HHS [the Department of Health and Human Services] to do that.”

Roy adds that he expects Kennedy’s candidacy will clear the Senate.

“There’s been a few Kennedy’s in the Senate in the past so maybe there’ll be some legacy there that they will want to move him through,” he speculates.

South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman concurs with Roy on Kennedy’s confirmation in the Senate: “I believe he was an excellent choice by the president, as have all of them. Kennedy is interested in, and passionate about, the medical industry. He will do a terrific job with it.”

According to Public Citizen, a progressive nonprofit group focused on consumer protection, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “is a clear and present danger to the nation’s health.”

He should not be allowed to enter the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), let alone be appointed director of the nation’s public health agency.”

“Donald Trump’s mishandling of public health policies during the Covid outbreak resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths. “By appointing Kennedy as secretary of HHS, Trump is courting another policy-driven public health disaster,” the organization continued.

Apu Akkad, an infectious disease physician at the University of Southern California, described the statement as a “scary day for public health”.

Meanwhile, pharmaceutical stocks such as Pfizer and Moderna plummeted following news of Kennedy’s nomination for HHS Secretary, as investors considered his potential impact on vaccine sales.

Novavax and BioNTech finished down more than 7%, with almost all losses occurring when word of the selection broke—Novavax shares fell to $7.22, and BioNTech shares fell to $103.56.

Moderna’s stock closed 5.6% at $39.77, reaching its lowest point of the year.

Sanofi’s stock fell 3.4% to $47.82, continuing a weeks-long share price decline that began after the company’s latest earnings report last month.

Pfizer lost less than its competitors on Thursday, closing down 2.6% at $26.02, despite having its sharpest drop of the day immediately following the RFK Jr. announcement.