Free Republic

The European Commission was wrong to refuse to release text messages sent by Ursula von der Leyen to the head of Pfizer during negotiations to secure Covid-19 vaccines, the EU's top court has ruled. The General Court said the commission had not given a plausible explanation as to why the exchanges between its president and Pfizer's Albert Bourla could not be made public when an investigative journalist requested them in 2021. That year, Pfizer signed billions of euros in vaccine contracts with the EU, including a deal for 1.8bn extra doses. The content of the messages between von der Leyen...

Agreement between the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and German company Diehl Defence paves the way for large industrial projects Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the German company Diehl Defence, which produces IRIS-T systems and is "an important part of Ukraine's air defense shield." According to the minister, the signed agreement paves the way for large industrial projects that will strengthen the capabilities of Ukrainian air defense. In addition, the memorandum provides for a threefold increase in the supply of missiles and air defense systems, Umerov noted. IRIS-T is a medium-range...

Sen. Richard Blumenthal is calling for a response from the U.S. State Department after reports surfaced about $400 million worth of contracts for armored vehicles produced by Tesla. In a letter sent to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and obtained by CBS News, Blumenthal, D-Conn., demanded to know why the department was entertaining the idea, given the possible conflict of interest concerning Tesla owner Elon Musk's dual role in President Donald Trump's administration. "Mr. Musk's dual roles pose conflicts of interest so obvious that they hardly require explanation," Blumenthal wrote. "The State Department's intent to purchase armored Cybertrucks suggests the...

Department of Defense (DoD) contracts with the Thomson Reuters news agency to develop automated defenses against social engineering attacks were railed against Thursday by President Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk. “Reuters was paid millions of dollars by the US government for ‘large scale social deception,’” Musk wrote on X. “They’re a total scam.” Many, including Musk, were in outrage at the contracts awarded to Reuters that were labeled as Active Social Engineering and Large Scale Social Deception (LSD) in DoD contracts. Trump expressed frustration on Truth Social where he demanded Reuters "GIVE BACK THE MONEY, NOW!" ​​​​​​​"Radical Left...

State conflict of interest laws ban public officials from any involvement in contracts in which they have a financial interest, including agreements that financially benefit their spouse or groups that pay their spouse. Los Angeles’ top homeless services executive told LAist in December that she stuck to those rules, saying she had been walled off and “completely recused” from business relating to her husband’s employer. Through a public records request, LAist later discovered records that contradict her assertion. The documents show that Va Lecia Adams Kellum, chief executive of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), signed a $2.1 million...

BREAKING: Superstar outfielder Juan Soto and the New York Mets are in agreement on a 15-year, $765 million contract, sources tell ESPN. It is the largest deal in professional sports history. Juan Soto's 15-year, $765 million deal with the New York Mets includes no deferred money, according to sources, and has escalators that can reach above $800 million.

Hundreds of tech staffers at the beleaguered New York Times could vote to walk off the job on Tuesday if the company doesn’t deliver on their job demands. The threatened Election Day walkout, which could critically hamper the newspaper’s coverage of the presidential vote, comes amid stalled negotiations between the two sides, the Wall Street Journal said. “We have made it clear that we need to reach an agreement before the election in order to avert a strike,” the union’s bargaining team wrote to the Times’ board of directors urging its members to intervene. The stance by the Guild, which...

SNIP In the end, Clark is in line for an eight-year deal that could end up being worth $28 million and a signature shoe, according to the Wall Street Journal. SNIP The sharp-shooting Clark’s previous deal with Nike was inked in 2022 and expired following this past season — and after the six-foot Clark cemented herself as not just the most well-known women’s college hoopster, but arguably the most popular college basketball player — male or female — last season. SNIP The negotiations reached a fierce pace, according to the Wall Street Journal, at NBA All-Star weekend in mid-February, when...

Google has fired 28 employees over their participation in a 10-hour sit-in at the search giant’s offices in New York and Sunnyvale, California, to protest the company’s business ties with the Israel government, The Post has learned. The pro-Palestinian staffers — who had donned traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday — were terminated late Wednesday after an internal investigation, Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow said in a companywide memo. “They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers,”...

Jacksonville, Florida, Mayor Donna Deegan (D) is facing questions after she awarded a no-bid contract worth $300,000 to a firm whose president not only donated to her campaign, but hosted an event for her at his home this year. The Democrat mayor’s deal was exposed in a Wednesday Florida Times-Union report, revealing that the city’s Professional Services Evaluation Committee recommended Deegan approve a year-long contract with Langton Consulting without seeking proposals from any other firms, despite the city typically requiring “competitive bidding.”

South Africa just released the #Covid #Vaccine contract with #Pfizer that all our governments are so DESPERATELY trying to hide from us Do you guys know what this contract states about the #Covid #Vaccine : (1) Efficacy = UNKNOWN (2) Adverse events = UNKNOWN (3) Long term Side-Effects = UNKNOWN Now, do you understand why they’re trying to hide the contracts from the public? Because it would show that ‘SAFE & EFFECTIVE’ was a complete lie and these people are responsible for #War crimes against #Humanity/#CrimesAgainstHumanity 👇 Where did they come up with all these FAKE lies that they were...

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA expressed optimism Saturday that they will achieve a “seminal deal” with studios, networks and streamers to avert an action like the writers’ strike that has nearly shut down scripted production. “We are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser-focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you,” SAG-AFTRA National President Fran Drescher said in a video message to members. “We’re standing strong and we’re going to achieve a seminal deal.” Drescher told members she could not release details because “Frankly, it’s very confidential what’s going on in there.” She and...

Last year, President Biden announced that he would cancel student-loan debts of up to $20,000 for millions of borrowers. While that policy had been under discussion since the first days of his administration, only after the announcement did the administration’s lawyers advance a legal justification for the action—that it came under the 2002 HEROES Act. That law was passed to allow the Secretary of Education to waive or modify student debts for service members or others suffering financial hardships “as a result of wars, military operations or national emergencies.” Biden’s legal team came up with the argument that, since the...

Unfortunately this is not a video coverage. Not sure why cameras are not allowed with this. Hmmm.... Anyway tune in if you'd like. Some very fast talking woman defense [biden] attorney going right now. Needs to cut down on the covfeve imho. Oh wait...we no longer know what a woman is. Sorry.

A union representing nearly 12,000 railroad workers on Monday voted down the tentative contract agreement between freight railroad companies and all 12 of their unions brokered by the White House last month. Why it matters: The rejection, by the Brotherhood of Maintenance of Way Employes Division of the Teamsters (BMWED), raises the prospect once again of a nationwide rail strike.

A father has accused a Kansas City water park of racism after it abruptly called off the birthday party for his son when 500 people allegedly arrived and made staff feel 'uncomfortable.' Evans said he signed a $2,000 contract with Summit Waves Aquatic Facility in Lee's Summit to host 250 people for his 17-year-old son's birthday party on Saturday, but officials said a crowd twice the size appeared. A video of the heated argument with the Evans family and a park employee shows the family demanding an answer, with the official not giving a clear response as she's flanked by...

A left-wing nonprofit working to end mass incarceration landed a $171.7 million taxpayer-funded government contract that could potentially hit $1 billion to help unaccompanied minors avoid deportation, Fox News Digital has discovered. The Vera Institute of Justice, a New York-based group that supports defunding police and views immigration enforcement agencies as a "threat" to civil liberties, was awarded a Health and Human Services-funded contract in March to provide legal assistance to unaccompanied minors, according to a federal database. The arrangement lasts until March 2023 but can reach as high as $983 million if renewed until March 2027, the agreement shows....

President Joe Biden has given Amazon, for which billionaire Jeff Bezos serves as chairman of the board, a $10 billion federal contract despite having pledged to American union workers not to reward corporations accused of union-busting tactics. For years, Amazon has been accused of trying to prevent its warehouse workers across the United States from unionizing amid reports that the corporation has put its workforce in dangerous scenarios under ruthless shipping quotas.

ransomnote: A comment by FReeper COUNTrecount followed by Metabiota's press release.In the General/Chat forum, on a thread titled Q ~ Trust Trump's Plan ~ 03/18/22 Vol.398, Q Day 1603 COUNTrecount wrote:https://metabiota.com/news/page/6#!metabiota-gains-government-momentum-with-black-197Metabiota Gains Government Momentum with Black & Veatch Sub-Contracts for Defense Threat Reduction ProgramsFound this.....Department of Defense contracts say they paid Black and Veatch to build biolabs.B&V were in partnership with Metabiota to build biolabs globally.Metabiota’s major owner was the Tech Venture Capital firm, Rosemont Seneca.Rosemont Seneca was owned by Hunter Biden.10% for the big guyDO YOU REALISE WHAT THIS MEANS? ...it means the Biden family are directly involved in...

The agency said Feb. 7 it awarded a contract valued at up to $194 million to Lockheed to develop the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), an essential element of the overall Mars Sample Return campaign being developed by NASA and the European Space Agency. The MAV will be transported to Mars on a NASA-led Sample Retrieval Lander, which will also carry an ESA-developed rover. That rover will pick up samples of Martian rock and regolith cached by Perseverance and return them to the lander. Perseverance may also return some samples to the lander on its own. Those samples will be loaded...