Friday, February 7, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Ad:

Chinese skyscrapers to produce a million pigs a year

Published 1 March 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Experts warn about biosecurity at grotesque facility in Ezhou city.

China’s new pork production is raising pigs in giant skyscrapers to produce more meat after losing much of its production to African swine fever a few years ago.

The facility is described by many as grotesque and experts say the new production increases the risk of further disease spread.

In October last year, China opened the doors to two new twin skyscrapers in the city of Ezhou. The 26-storey buildings will not house working people – they will be used to raise pigs.

From the insemination of sows, to piglets that grow into full-grown pigs, the new pig production facility will meet China’s pork needs and be able to slaughter about 1.2 million pigs each year, reports The New York Times.

China has a great fondness for pork, which used to be eaten only at special feasts but is now part of the everyday diet. China consumes about half of the world’s pork. Meat production is described by China’s government on Twitter as a “profitable high-tech facility”. The plant will have temperature and ventilation controls that will also allow the animals to be fed at the touch of a button. Even the faeces are collected, measured and reused.

The plant is described by many as dystopian and grotesque. Several experts also warn that the facility poses major biosecurity risks. For example, it is common for pig farmers to spread out their farms to reduce the risk of disease. If disease gets into the plant, it will spread like wildfire, says New York University professor Matthew Hayek.

– Intensive farms can reduce the interaction between domestic and wild animals and their diseases, but if a disease enters the farm it can spread between the animals like wildfire, he told The Guardian.

China last had a massive outbreak of African swine fever, a deadly virus for pigs and wild boar, in 2018 to 2020 when it lost about 100 million pigs. The Ezhoue plant will help rebuild production.

Hayek says he’s heard about several reports on biosecurity and sustainability regarding the plant, but there’s little evidence that it’s actually true. Professor Dirk Pfeiffer of One Health at the City Univeristy of Hong Kong agrees, arguing that the more animals crowded in, the greater the risk.

– The higher the animal density, the greater the risk of spreading and amplifying infectious pathogens, as well as the risk of mutation.

TNT is truly independent!

We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.

Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…

Google shuts down its DEI program

Published yesterday 17:46
– By Editorial Staff
Google had a supportive stance towards the violent black power movement BLM.

Google has decided to end its Diversity, Equality and Inclusion (DEI) programs in the recruitment process. The decision means that the company will no longer have specific targets for hiring people from “underrepresented groups”. This is according to an internal memo to employees, written by Google’s HR manager Fiona Cicconi, which The Verge has seen.

In the memo, Cicconi explains that the decision is a consequence of Google’s status as a federal contractor and is influenced by “court decisions and presidential orders in the US” relating to the subject. She also mentions that the company is now “carefully evaluating” other DEI initiatives that may involve “risk” or “aren’t as impactful as we’d hoped”.

However, a Google spokesperson, Chloe Cooper, emphasizes to The Verge that the company remains “committed to creating a workplace where all our employees can succeed and have equal opportunities”. She adds that over the past year, the company has been reviewing its programs to ensure they are achieving these goals.

The decision to end DEI targets comes after Google in 2020, during the height of the violent Black Lives Matter movement, publicly pledged to increase the percentage of leaders from “underrepresented groups” by 30 percent – a goal that was achieved by 2022. But now, as dismantling DEI programs has become a priority for the Trump administration, Google is choosing to change course.

Google is not alone in this change. The company is following in the footsteps of other tech giants such as Meta and Amazon, which have also cut back on their “diversity initiatives”. According to the Wall Street Journal, Google has also removed a previous line of text in its annual reports, in which the company assured that diversity was “part of everything” it does. This line has been there since 2021.

In the internal memo, Cicconi stresses that the decision is part of an annual policy review and that the company continues to strive for an inclusive workplace, although some programs are now being phased out.

Russia launches Eurovision rival

Published yesterday 16:11
– By Editorial Staff
All BRICS countries are said to have agreed to participate - and several Latin American nations are also said to be interested.

The Intervision Song Contest will be the BRICS’ alternative to Eurovision. The first contest will be held in Moscow already in September.

A similar song contest was held in 1965 and 1977 as an Eastern Bloc alternative to Eurovision. Participants included the Soviet Union, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary.

The initiative is a Kremlin order, signed by President Vladimir Putin on Monday, and the idea to revive the contest came from the Russian culture minister, Olga Lyubimova, in September 2023.

Eurovision, which started in the 1950s, excluded Russia from the 2022 contest in the context of the start of the war. Meanwhile, the organizers, including the Swedish state channel SVT, have been criticized for double standards as Israel was allowed to participate in 2024, despite accusations of war crimes.

Latin American interest

The Intervision Song Contest will include all BRICS countries, members of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and other interested nations, Russian state broadcaster RT reports. According to Russian authorities, the contest will be free of political restrictions.

Mikhail Shvydkoy, the President’s Special Representative for International Cultural Cooperation, confirmed that all BRICS countries have agreed to participate. Several Latin American nations are also said to be interested.

The competition is scheduled to take place in Moscow in September.

Trump bans trans women from competing in women’s sports

Published yesterday 13:54
– By Editorial Staff
Trump signed the decree in front of girl athletes on National Girls' and Women's Sports Day.

Donald Trump has signed an executive order banning trans women from competing in women’s and girls’ sports in the United States.

Transgender women overshadowing their biologically female counterparts in women’s sports has been a hot topic of debate in the US in recent years. For example, Lia Thomas, formerly Will, provoked strong reactions when the swimmer broke new women’s records at the University of Pennsylvania.

This led Riley Gaines, who lost to Thomas, to raise the debate about biological males competing against biological females – and that it’s simply not a fair set-up.

However, the debate has been socially charged, and those who oppose trans women competing in women’s and girls’ competitions are often accused of being “transphobic”, when in fact it is about creating justice for women and girls. Despite years of debate, trans women have continued to win gold medals in various sports.

“The war on women’s sport is over”

On Wednesday, National Girls’ and Women’s Sports Day, President Donald Trump signed a new executive order banning trans women from competing in women’s and girls’ sports in the United States.

– With this executive order, the war on women’s sports is over, says the president, who signed the decree in front of excited girl athletes of all ages, CNN reports.

In practice, it means withdrawing the Biden administration’s guidance on Title IX, the civil rights law. Under those guidelines, schools were required to allow trans students access to school sports teams and sex-segregated facilities that align with their self-selected gender identities. The new decree will instead bar students born with biological male gender from participating in girls’ and women’s sports or using women’s restrooms.

Fraud

Furthermore, it will work with sports governing bodies, including the International Olympic Committee, to ensure that the guidance is followed in non-training environments. It will also affect US visa policy.

– If you are coming into the country and you are claiming that you are a woman but you are a male here to compete against women, we’re going to be reviewing that for fraud, said one of the officials.

Trump has also signed executive orders banning transgender people from serving in the military, declaring that there are only two genders, and banning the use of sex reassignment therapy, such as hormone blockers, for minors.

Zelensky’s call: “Give us nuclear weapons”

The war in Ukraine

Published yesterday 11:09
– By Editorial Staff
Zelensky has repeatedly expressed regret that Ukraine has no nuclear arsenal.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky wants the West to provide Kiev with nuclear weapons and even more missiles “to stop Russia” if Ukraine is not granted membership of the NATO military pact very quickly.

British journalist Piers Morgan published an excerpt from an interview with Zelensky in which he asked the Ukrainian leader why Kiev refuses to provide any alternative to NATO membership for possible peace negotiations, when he knows that such a proposal is considered completely unacceptable to Moscow.

The Ukrainian president replied that if Kiev is prevented from joining the US-led bloc in the near future, Ukraine will have the right to ask its allies how to defend itself against Russia instead.

– Which support package? Which missiles? Will we be given nuclear weapons? Then let them give us nuclear weapons!

Give us back nuclear arms. Give us missile systems. Partners, help us finance the one-million army, move your contingent on the parts of our state where we want the stability of the situation, he continued.

“A maniac”

In recent months, Mr. Zelensky has repeatedly expressed his regret that Ukraine had previously handed over Soviet nuclear weapons stationed on its soil in exchange for security guarantees. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine inherited some 1 700 nuclear warheads, which remained under Moscow’s operational control.

Russia has always maintained that Ukraine never had any nuclear weapons to begin with, as the Soviet assets legally belonged to Moscow.

– Zelensky’s latest statements that he wants to possess a nuclear capability expose him as a maniac, who considers the planet as an object for his sick delusions. They also prove that for him nuclear power stations are not a source of peaceful energy, but a dirty weapon that the Kiev regime needs for blackmail, comments Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.