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- Executive Producers:
- Sir Kevin McLaughlin, Duke of Luna, Lover of AMERICA & BOOBS
- Brandon Pinball Wizard of The Freakshow
- Associate Executive Producers:
- 1368 Club Members:
- Sir Kevin McLaughlin, Duke of Luna, Lover of AMERICA & BOOBS
- Become a member of the 1369 Club, support the show here
- Title Changes
- Baron Kevin McLaughlin -> Duke of Luna, Lover of AMERICA & BOOBS
- Knights & Dames
- Ada Nelson -> Dame Ada of the Sassy Pants
- John Baglioni -> Sir Zilla
- End of Show Mixes: Sir Chris Wilson - Tom Starkweather - Toby Langford - Sound Guy Steve
- Engineering, Stream Management & Wizardry
- Mark van Dijk - Systems Master
- Ryan Bemrose - Program Director
- Clip Custodian: Neal Jones
- Breakthrough New Science!
- 'Fully Vaccinated' - What does it mean with Boosters?
- There is NO variant test BOTG Report
- I recently heard a claim on some media outlet that 71% of all Covid cases in that area were the Delta variant and another outlet claimed 40% in a different area. Of course no details about how testing for variants are completed or who can do them, just the usual parroting of information from some government PR person.
- I am one one of the boards for a multi-hospital regional healthcare system on the east coast. We recently had a board meeting with a Covid update as part of our agenda. One of the executives suggested that the Delta variant was a major factor for all the cases. Naturally I put on my on No Agenda Hat and asked some questions after the meeting with this person.
- It turns out in the hospitals in our system are not testing for variants, because they can't. Only two highly recognized learning hospitals can provide those tests regionally and even then they can only test for general variants not the Delta. Only the feds or maybe the state has the ability to test specific variants. But the hospitals in our system are not even sending samples to the learning hospitals let alone the feds for testing. Not sure how the CDC or any organization can accurately suggest statistics about the variants.
- Also an additional fact discussed on the show and I can verify. The healthcare database systems that feed into state and then CDC have no way of knowing how many times a person has been tested. Meaning if a person has been tested three times positive for Covid that is three new cases of the Covid not three tests for for one person. Most people are getting multiple tests in our system once they test positive.
- Subject: Peer review
- The phrase ‘high score’ connected some dots for my on this for me that could make it even more
- damning or fauci as the bureaucrat who likely sets the framework under which the paper was “rated”.
- This goes back directly to climate change and more broadly the shaping of US thought at the top
- levels of government in broad areas by a few people (if not one individual entirely).
- Unfortunately I’m sleep deprived and can’t trust myself to provide detail id stand by at the
- moment, but I’ll follow up today or tomorrow. The broad view is that the federal government is
- targeted for litigation endlessly, and the whole role of government (in my mind) has now been
- shaped towards minimizing the exposure to the risk of litigation on every level, both direct
- consequences of funding mistakes, as well as potential lawsuits to accuse them of
- bias/favoritism/cronyism. As a result, weve reached a point (pun intended) where any open
- government funded project for research is awarded based on a score, with broad categories being
- reviewed and assigned point values for funding that provides the appearance of being unbiased.
- But they aren’t unbiased in reality because in the effort to avoid litigation the scoring mechanism
- becomes so clearly laid out that the only thing separating one possibility from another would be
- how that scoring criteria was shaped. Think all federal money to California on a open application
- state-wide grant project going to one neighborhood with the exact balance of racial composition and
- household income that scored perfectly. Think how the government can finds only climate change
- research again and again so the media can point to that 97% number and not be sued, despite the
- actual impact being debatable.
- I have never applied for a grant through NIH, but you can be assured they have a similar system in
- place to review grant proposals before awarding money. It was not controversial or debatable in my
- field of study that NIS money goes reliably to those who can read the weather best and year after
- year write applications that are awarded the highest grants to fund large projects. This is not
- based on pure research genius, it’s entirely favoring those who can interpret the federal releases
- correctly and craft applications for the project the federal agency has shaped the grant process to
- fund, and typically they couldn’t care less on a personal level about whatever the large project
- If Fauci said it scored well it was without question his intent to fund gain of function research,
- as he almost certainly shapes the broad agenda of the NIH in his role if nothing else. That also
- means these application savants for the NIH (if they weren’t so scared of fauci) could point you to
- the material which shows this
- Vaccinated vs Vacuous
- I'm standing up and risking my job BOTG
- Gradually, my company has imposed more and more restrictions on non-vaccinated employees and most recently they sent out a survey which requires self-identifying vaccination status.
- This survey is stated to be a mandatory and all employees must participate. It may seem an arbitrary line to many, especially given that you can choose to answer "not willing to share," but everyone needs to pick their line before it is too late, and this is mine. I refuse to be participant to the cataloging of people across metrics which can be used to discriminate, or to coerce them against their own bodily autonomy. My participation would be validation of this act and I think we can all see where this is likely headed.
- I have a great job with a great salary. I have worked incredibly hard for my career and my family depends on my income. Despite this, my wife and I are in agreement that if we don't take a stand and voluntarily risk these things today, then one day they will be forced from us, or similar things would be forced from others. I cannot abide by that.
- I will provide an update once everything shakes out.
- To all the Dames and Knights, I hope I can encourage them that the value of holding true to your morals far exceeds the value any douchebag corporation can send you in rapidly depreciating fiat.
- Don't lie, don't pull cute tricks and word play, just stand up and declare what you know is right, it is the only way we can hold back this coming wave of tyranny. We can resist the tyrants and we can support each other.
- Thank you for your courage,
- Sir Ten Cryptids, Keeper of Lore
- New Test requires SEPARATION of covid and flu
- Most people know that when a drug dealer gives you the first sample free, that shit is going to be addictive.
- Mandates
- French Millennial Producer (FMP) BOTG Report
- hi adam and john! I’m American but I’ve been travelling around France for the last 10 months. Here’s what’s going on:
- - unfortunately the “pass sanitaire” (health pass) is definitely being enforced. as of last week, a bunch of places have booths set up outside of them where you have to show a QR code or a paper that proves you have either been vaccinated (at least 4 weeks ago) or have a negative test result (48 hrs ago). places include museums, galleries, concerts, public pools, some libraries and more. People I live with have told me that they have been denied access to the pool with their 4 yo daughter because they didn’t have their ID to match with their vaccination papers (they didn’t think to take their passport to the pool with them).
- - On August 1 “controle pass sanitaire” is supposed to be extended to restaurants, cafes, and “long-distance” public transportation. I don’t know if this will include regional commuter trains, personally I can’t imagine controlling the volume of people who take trains every day to get to work.
- - There are protests all the time but they seem to be going through with it. Unfortunately most of the people I know are saying “if you just get vaccinated it won’t be a problem.”
- - During the November lockdown, I was “not allowed” to go more than 1km away from my home. However, I took buses all over to explore the region as if nothing had changed and I never once got controlled.
- - Masks were “mandated” outdoors for the majority of my time here and I never once wore a mask outdoors and I never got fined or even approached by any control officer. Sometimes a police officer rolls by and says “masks are necessary” and drives off. however the population is extremely obedient because they are afraid of getting fined.
- - When I was in Paris in June one day I just stopped wearing a mask on the metro and although I was the only unmasked person, no one blinked an eye. I did this for three weeks.
- - However you cannot get into a store without a mask on. I have tried the Adam Curry Whole Foods trick all over the place and have never been able to walk into a store without a mask. especially at a whole foods-sized place there is ALWAYS a security guard at the door making sure you’re wearing a mask and in many cases not letting you pass until you use hand sanitizer. (my trick is to stand with my body in between the guard and the sanitizer disposer for one second and then turn around and rub my dry hands together)
- For context i’m a 27 y.o. girl, I lived in Marin County (18 yrs), Boston (4 yrs), and Nashville(4yrs) before selling everything I own to travel around Europe in August 2020. awkward timing with covid but I went anyway. I’ve been in France since October 2020. started listening to the show shortly after adam’s first JRE appearance. I have 0 people in my life who are not completely bought into the mainstream media narrative so I’m super grateful for No Agenda and I wish I could go to a meet up!!!!! I will host one if I ever know in advance that I will be in one place for more than 3 weeks.
- i’m escaping to Spain next week, wish me luck that I can sneakily get there without being controlled for a test.
- thanks love you guys here’s karma for YOU ding ding ding dinnnng <3 mel
- ps on the millennial/genZ topic its true that pretty much everyone i know my age is depressed and anxious and at this point its definitely cool to be anxious and complain about everything. people get very suspicious if you say you are happy and life is going great. they are suspicious and do not encourage you if you decide to do something with your life other than sit at home and complain. which is why I left them to travel around alone. BYE!!
- Down Under
- Sir Chris Wilson NSW/Sydney BTOG
- Troops are on the streets to “assist” the New South Wales State Police. I haven’t heard back about the scope of the services...yet. I will let you know once I have more info (clip provided)
- Alleged Horse punch bloke is in solitary “for Covid safety reasons” and refuses to get a Covid test. They won’t let anyone see him including his lawyer. This is a stalemate, and won’t progress easily....a bit like Julian Assange, but without pissing off the Clintons, though PETA has plans for him I am sure
- At the protest, there is multiple videos of a dude in a Red white and blue hoodie, seen in a number of incidents starting things but never getting busted. Cops ignore him.
- Please tell everybody that the rally for Saturday 31st at Hyde Park is a fake. It’s a setup and the Police will be there as a “show of force”. False flag, set up, whatever. Just don’t go, it won’t end well
- Brad Hazzard, our state health minister is a see you next Tuesday, with his attitude for those who choose not to have the vaccine. (Clip provided)
- Earlier in the week, Our Dear Premier, Gladys described the protesters as disgusting and the police commissioner Michael Fuller used the word filthy. Sounds like words used to describe a class of people identified in Germany during the mid 1930s...
- Things are ratcheting up on the Genocide Meter...
- Federal Govt bailout money has increased to $750 dollaridoos a week
- Spent close to 4 hours on the phone today on hold to the state services hotline for the 5 minutes it took to find out about work restrictions for some dude named Ben work in the really locked up regions in Sydney, and about the proof of masklessness requirements...the bloke was as helpful as he could be, but the legislation and guidelines they are given are vague. But 4 hours for 5 minutes on the phone....is that a record ??
- It has been revealed that the Covid sign in is a mandate, but not a law. Moreover, to quote the documentation from the NSW government, it collects data that it may share with third parties. In other words, it’s selling our data !!!! (I forwarded the video on Telegram. 2:22 to 3:10 covers this)
- And to add insult to injury, while we are not allowed outside except for walkies, and certainly not allowed into restaurants, shops and hotels, someone well meaning, has suggested that dogs should be allowed in restaurants, shops and hotels. (Clip provided)
- Dogs are people too, but filthy and disgusting Sydney siders are not
- Shout out to Erin Semmler at ABC Rockhampton for being kind enough to share the audio for the doggie clip with me.
- Climate Change
- Media SHAMEFULLY Ignores Historic Coal Miner Strike For 4 MONTHS
- Coal miners strike outside Blackrock
- Subject: Striking Coal Miners “Follow the Money” to BlackRock HQ
- Cultivating a high profile as an ESG proponent is causing a headache for BlackRock’s Larry Fink.
- Coal miners striking against Warrior Met Coal (which mines metallurgical coal used in steel making) descended on BlackRock’s headquarters today to try to get the firm to help settle the strike.
- BlackRock, through its Indexing arm— which passively invests the proper, proportional amount in companies to match the performance of an underlying Stock index— is the largest institutional stock holder of Warrior Met Coal.
- With BlackRock recently posing as an activist firm to take advantage of the ESG craze, the firm gets dinged two ways:
- (1) not pressuring their investee companies to act in the interests of certain “stakeholders”.
- (2) owning companies that mine “dirty coal”- which is not ESG-friendly.
- Going “woke” has its drawbacks— if you don’t act woke enough for some people.
- Dell won't ship energy-hungry PCs to California and five other US states due to power regulations
- Old Folks Homes
- Pharma=Insurance=Expensive old people
- Happenings at a nursing home in North Carolina BOTG
- Well, they've stepped it up a bit here at the nursing home. They have been 'suggesting' that people get vaccines by saying that if your gone for more than four hours or overnight for whatever reason that you have to get moved to the quarantine hall for two weeks.
- Well this past week an employee here was 'tested positive' and everyone had to get a covid test. This happened over the weekend. Then today they started going around and giving the residents who haven't had the covid shot the first vaccine shot. I've overheard a few of the nurses explanations to the residents and they are being very evasive about what the shot is for. They are basically saying that they have to get this shot to prevent 'covid' and they aren't explaining it very well, or even telling them which shot they are getting. I know it's not the 'one shot wonder' because they say they'll be back in 28 days to give them the second shot.
- I'm coherent enough that I would be able to question it, but a lot of these residents just take whatever they are given or told to take. There's huge problems with the residents that are diabetic being given high sugar foods, I know not to eat it and a lot of times order my food on my own so I can make sure I'm getting the high protein low sugar food I should be getting.
- I can't help but think that they are just trying to get rid of the older people in our society. A lot of these residents here have existing problems that could really be exacerbated by the 'experimental' vaccine.
- Thank you for your courage!!!
- mRNA
- If you accepted mRNA vaccine, you may be owned like Monsanto seeds - SCOTUS
- In the US, the Supreme Court has ruled that vaccinated people worldwide are products, patented goods, according to US law, no longer human.
- Through a modified DNA or RNA vaccination, the mRNA vaccination, the person ceases to be human and becomes the OWNER of the holder of the modified GEN vaccination patent, because they have their own genome and are no longer "human" (without natural people), but "trans-human", so a category that does not exist in Human Rights.
- The quality of a natural person and all related rights are lost.
- This applies worldwide and patents are subject to US law.
- Since 2013, all people vaccinated with GM-modified mRNAs are legally trans-human and legally identified as trans-human and do not enjoy any human or other rights of a state, and this applies worldwide, because GEN-POINT technology patents are under US jurisdiction and law, where they were registered.
- SOURCE of the decision of the US SUPREME COURT
- The Purge
- Capitol Attacks in Hisory
- Jan 6th was the worst attack on the Capitol since 1812? Odd because in 1954, five congressmen were wounded on the floor when 4 terrorists opened fire from the visitor area. (Prez Carter later commuted/reduced the sentences.)
- March 1, 1971 NYT: “A bomb, apparently planted by a group or person protesting against the Vietnam war, exploded early this morning in the Senate wing of the Capitol, causing extensive damage but no injuries.”
- How many bombs went off Jan 6th?
- Nov 7, 1983: At 10:58 p.m. a thunderous explosion tore through the second floor of the Capitol’s north wing... The force of the device blew off the door to the office of Democratic Leader Robert C. Byrd.
- How many bombs went off in the Capitol on Jan 6?
- “Shortly before midnight on Friday, July 2, 1915, police responded to the U.S. Capitol where an explosion had just rocked the Senate wing.”
- Haven’t seen anything close to this damage from Jan 6th.
- Oct 2018: Hundreds storm a US Senate building during the sacred work of confirming a Supreme Court Justice for a position that holds longer than a presidential term. 302 were arrested by Cap Hill Police; none by the Feds. https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/409999-scores-of-kavanaugh-protesters-arrested-after-descending-on-senate-building
- Cyber Pandemic
- THE TIMES AND THE SUNDAY TIMES: Private equity power couple behind NSO spyware scandal
- Private equity power couple behind NSO spyware scandal
- When Stephen Peel and Stefan Kowski flew to Oregon in November 2017 to reel in investors for their new private equity fund, they did not hide their intentions. “We have to find deals that other people don’t see or don’t want to do for various reasons,” Peel told the Oregon Investment Council in a slick pitch for cash from its state pension fund. He wasn’t exaggerating. In February 2019, after a successful funding round, their new firm, Novalpina Capital, bought a majority stake in NSO Group. The
- Read in The Times and The Sunday Times: https://apple.news/AEIB7PXghSGuzbBhocgh0vw
- Supply Chains
- Chlorine and Chemical Supply Shortage
- The State Water Resources Control Board Division of Drinking Water has heard from several operators that chlorine and other chemicals are in short supply. We have also been made aware of supply chain and transportation problems that prevent chlorine/chemicals from getting to manufacturers, suppliers, and retailers. Manufacturers have declared force majeure for chemicals affected by this chlorine shortage.
- If you are at risk of running out of chlorine or other chemicals without a solution to this problem, fill out the SDWA Section 1441 Application for Certification of Need from the EPA here:
- Afghanistan Poppies
- Fentanyl to replace heroin?
- Wow, just read this article that’s promoting the replacement of heroin with fentanyl because it’s easier and cheaper to produce. It looks like that’s already happening in North America but now they are wanting to replace it in Asia and Europe as well where fentanyl doesn’t have the same hold as here.
- Foam finger number one for American pharmaceutical companies saving us from the taliban!!!! All the while killing more people with a more addictive drug.
- STORIES
- Dr. Jane Ruby '' New Media & Political Insights
- https://www.amazon.com/dp/1548258830/ref=cm_sw_su_dpUPDATE: Dr. Jane Survives Wuhan Virus and Discovers Democrats Sabotaging Life Saving Drugs!https://loomered.com/2020/04/17/i-survived-china-wuhan-gates-virus-a-covid-19-nightmare-insiders-report/
- Dr. Jane Ruby is a Washington DC health economist and New Right political pundit with fascinating conservative insights and breaking news in the world of New Media! Her radio and online TV Show, ''Dr. Jane's DC'' airs Mon '' Fri, 11:00 PM EST on The Exceptional Conservative Network and provides a current view into the fascinating world of our nation's capital and the people in it. Watch it LIVE each night at: dev.enetlive.tv/tecn/live
- Dr. Ruby was most recently Sr Advisor to the 2018 Stewart for U.S.Senate campaign, and an Associate Producer of newly released movie, ''Hoaxed: The Media's War on Truth.''
- Her book, ''A Sea of New Media'' illustrates the emergence of a new generation of journalists' '' truth tellers' '' the citizen journalists. From cable news to the New Media, she takes us through the transitions and features the people that are driving this new phenomenon in journalism.
- As a former television host in Washington, DC she observed the transformation of the American press from mainstream conglomerates to a citizen based press. Your camera, your smartphone, your social media capability makes you just as powerful in breaking a story as ABC, NBC, FoxNews or the New York Times. At his 2010 Tax Day Tea Party speech Andrew Breitbart told the crowd to hold their cellphones up and said, ''We have a sea of New Media here to capture the lies!''
- ''A Sea of New Media,'' is now available on Amazon! Click on the link above to purchase. This book describes the great work of our citizen journalists, famous and some not yet famous, restoring the First Amendment of the United States Constitution, Freedom of the Press''--'and the preservation of liberty by a populace that is truthfully informed.
- We are now in a Sea of New Media''--'and it is us.
- SOCOM To Test Anti-Aging Pill Next Year - Breaking Defense Breaking Defense - Defense industry news, analysis and commentary
- SOCOM's Human Performance Program includes innovating capabilities for physical training, injury mitigation and performance nutrition.
- WASHINGTON: Special Operations Command expects to move into clinical trials next year of a pill that may inhibit or reduce some of the degenerative affects of aging and injury '-- part of a broader Pentagon push for ''improved human performance.''
- The pill ''has the potential, if it is successful, to truly delay aging, truly prevent onset of injury '-- which is just amazingly game changing,'' Lisa Sanders, director of science and technology for Special Operations Forces, acquisition, technology & logistics (SOF AT&L), said Friday.
- ''We have completed pre-clinical safety and dosing studies in anticipation of follow-on performance testing in fiscal year 2022,'' Navy Cmdr. Tim Hawkins, a SOCOM spokesperson, said.
- SOCOM is using Other Transaction Authority (OTA) funds to partner with private biotech laboratory Metro International Biotech, LLC (MetroBiotech) in the pill's development, which is based on what is called a ''human performance small molecule,'' he explained.
- ''These efforts are not about creating physical traits that don't already exist naturally. This is about enhancing the mission readiness of our forces by improving performance characteristics that typically decline with age,'' Hawkins said. ''Essentially, we are working with leading industry partners and clinical research institutions to develop a nutraceutical, in the form of a pill that is suitable for a variety of uses by both civilians and military members, whose resulting benefits may include improved human performance '' like increased endurance and faster recovery from injury.''
- Hawkins said SOCOM ''has spent $2.8 million on this effort'' since its launch in 2018.
- A ''small molecule'' in biology is a low molecular weight organic compound, many of which regulate biological processes and often form the basis for drugs, i.e. 'pharmaceuticals.' A 'nutraceutical,' by contrast, is '' a food containing health-giving additives and having medicinal benefit,'' according to the Oxford Dictionary '-- in essence a dietary supplement.
- But in the case of the SOCOM program, the pill in question is the result of biotechnology.
- MetroBiotech did not respond to a request for comment. However, its website explains that the firm has developed a number of proprietary precursor compounds for ''nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD+)'' which ''is critically important to the function of all living cells.''
- The website explains that ''reduced levels of NAD+ are linked to aging and numerous diseases, including mitochondrial dysfunction, inflammation and a variety of associated diseases. These levels decline as humans age and remain depleted during disease states. Preclinical evidence suggests disease- and age-related functional decline can be mitigated by boosting NAD+, which supports the Metro International Biotech hypothesis that maintaining optimal NAD+ levels may allow humans to lead longer and healthier lives.''
- Sanders told the Defense One Defense Tech Summit that SOCOM's ability to use OTAs and Middle Tier Acquisition authorities has helped the command ''explore things in this burgeoning sector of biotechnology.'' Those authorities have allowed SOCOM to enter into partnerships with industry, research institutes and labs to spur commercial research that could result in health benefits for the troops, she explained.
- SOCOM has ''stayed out of long-term genetic engineering '-- that makes people very very uncomfortable,'' Sanders said, ''but there's a huge commercial marketplace for things that can avoid injury, that can slow down aging, that can improve sleep.''
- Indeed, SOCOM has been working to bolster its relationships with small businesses and innovative companies involved in emerging tech, including biotech and artificial intelligence. Its innovation arm, SOFWERX, launched a campaign in May to speed contracting with non-traditional DoD suppliers.
- Canada border officers vote to strike, warn of supply chain disruption - FreightWaves
- Thousands of Canada Border Services Agency personnel have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike '' something that could throw a wrench into port, cross-border trucking, airfreight and international parcel operations.
- The strike could happen as early as Aug. 6, the Public Service Alliance of Canada and its Customs and Immigration Union said on Tuesday. The union represents some 8,500 CBSA employees, including officers serving at ports of entry across the country.
- The threat of a strike comes as Canada prepares to reopen its land border to nonessential travel for the first time since March 2020. The timing wasn't lost on the union, which warned that a strike could lead to ''significant disruption to the flow of goods.''
- The impacts could bring delays to commercial vehicle traffic and impact parcel deliveries and duties collection, the union said.
- READ MORE: How a strike by Canada border officers could impact ports, supply chain
- CBSA officers serving in essential positions are legally barred from striking. But as American Shipper reported, the legal definition of essential is narrow in scope and doesn't include collection of duties and taxes, according to a federal tribunal ruling.
- The Port of Vancouver appears particularly vulnerable as it contends with an unprecedented level of container ship traffic. As the largest port in Canada, any disruption there could have impacts throughout the country and intermodal rail and trucking operations.
- The union members have been without a contract since 2018 and are seeking pay parity with other Canadian law enforcement agencies and protections against what they allege is a toxic workplace culture.
- ''They've kept our borders safe, screened travelers entering Canada and ensured the rapid clearance of vaccine shipments,'' Chris Aylward, national president of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, said in a statement. ''Now it's time for the government to step up for them the way they've stepped up for Canadians.''
- Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told reporters on Tuesday that his government is negotiating with the union and hoped to reach an agreement.
- ''We're hopeful that there won't be any disruptions,'' Trudeau told reporters.
- Read moreCanada border officers mull strike at critical time for supply chain, portsCanada border agency systems woes delay inbound shipmentsPort of Montreal: Why it matters and what a full strike could meanClick for more articles by Nate Tabak
- CDC reversal on indoor masking prompts experts to ask, 'Where's the data?' - The Washington Post
- New recommendations from federal health officials this week on when vaccinated Americans should don face masks came with a startling bolt of news: People who have had their shots and become infected with the delta variant of the coronavirus can harbor large amounts of virus just like unvaccinated people. That means they could become spreaders of the disease and should return to wearing masks indoors in certain situations, including when vulnerable people are present.
- But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention did not publish the new research. In the text of the updated masking guidance, the agency merely cited ''CDC COVID-19 Response Team, unpublished data, 2021.''
- Some outside scientists have their own message: Show us the data.
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- ''They're making a claim that people with delta who are vaccinated and unvaccinated have similar levels of viral load, but nobody knows what that means,'' said Gregg Gonsalves, an associate professor at the Yale School of Public Health. ''It's meaningless unless we see the data.''
- Top health officials Anthony S. Fauci and Rochelle Walensky said July 28 that vaccinated individuals should wear masks indoors, per new CDC guidance. (The Washington Post)When CDC Director Rochelle Walensky spoke to reporters Tuesday, she cited the ''new scientific data'' but provided limited details about how the research was done. She said the data comes from outbreak investigations in which researchers compared delta infections among vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
- The data will be ''published imminently,'' according to a federal official knowledgeable about the research but who was not authorized to be a spokesperson for the government.
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- ''These data were alarming and recently presented,'' the official said Wednesday. ''We saw the data and thought it was urgent enough to act '-- in the context of a steeply rising, preventable fourth surge of covid-19.''
- Because tests showed similar levels of virus in the vaccinated and unvaccinated, the CDC inferred the delta variant can be transmitted by people with breakthrough infections.
- ''I think the implications [of the data] are that people who are vaccinated, even when they're asymptomatic, can transmit the virus, which is the scientific foundation of why this recommendation is being made,'' Anthony S. Fauci, President Biden's chief medical adviser, said in an interview with The Washington Post.
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- But Fauci noted there is not yet clinical data on what the high viral loads mean in terms of disease transmission. ''You can make a reasonable assumption that vaccinated people can transmit the virus just like unvaccinated people can,'' Fauci said.
- Three senior administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal discussions said the new research convinced health officials that it was time to update the agency's guidance. When scientists compared viral loads in vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals infected with an earlier variant of the virus '-- the alpha variant, which was dominant in the spring '-- there were considerable differences in the amount of virus each carried.
- The CDC did not answer questions Wednesday about whether it relied on outside sources of data or the number of patients examined in its outbreak investigations.
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- The medical and scientific community has generally endorsed the change in CDC mask guidance. Several organizations and public health experts issued statements saying the CDC should have gone further and broadened the criteria for deciding which communities have transmission high enough to warrant universal masking indoors.
- The question about viral loads is among the many unknowns surrounding SARS-CoV-2, including the frequency of breakthrough infections and whether they play a significant role in the recent rise in cases.
- ''If we're seeing more breakthroughs, is it just because the virus is better and the vaccines don't hold up quite as well, or is the efficacy of the vaccines beginning to wane, independent of the delta?'' asked Robert Wachter, chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of California at San Francisco. ''This is three-dimensional chess, there's a hundred things going on at the same time.''
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- There is now a Greek-alphabet soup of viral variants competing with one another. The delta, which was first identified in the United States in February and only gained traction in June, is dominant in the United States.
- ''The big concern is that the next variant that might emerge, just a few mutations away, could potentially evade our vaccine,'' Walensky said Tuesday.
- There are multiple vaccines deployed to stop the pandemic, with a range of efficacy in stopping mild infections. The vaccines are all highly protective against severe disease and death. Pfizer published data Wednesday showing a modest drop in efficacy over the course of six months.
- Although delta is more than twice as transmissible as earlier variants, it does not have some of the mutations seen in other variants that can help the virus evade antibodies. But the delta floods the zone. It grows so quickly in the nose that it may be overwhelming the body's vaccine-enhanced defenses before the immune system can marshal a robust response, said William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
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- ''The immune response, once activated, takes a while to kick in even among people who have been vaccinated,'' Hanage said in an email. ''As a result if the virus can copy itself really quickly it might be able to get a few rounds of replication in, even in vaccinated folks, before the immune system brings it under control.''
- The Singapore Ministry of Health recently found that three-fourths of coronavirus cases in the past four weeks were in people who were fully or partially vaccinated, most with no or mild symptoms. And in India, vaccinated health-care workers showed high viral loads when infected with the delta, according to a study from University of Cambridge researchers that is not yet peer-reviewed.
- The senior author of that study, microbiologist Ravindra Gupta, said the infectivity of people with breakthrough infections has not been ''formally measured in a rigorous way,'' but the new research shows high viral loads in people with breakthrough delta infections. That suggests vaccinated people should wear masks, he said.
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- Research by Chinese scientists posted online and not yet peer-reviewed describes the stunning ability of the delta variant to replicate in the human body. The viral load from the delta is 1,000 times that detected in the earliest variants of the virus. That is about 10 times the viral load sparked by the alpha variant, which was first seen in the United Kingdom and became dominant in the United States this spring before the delta overcompeted it.
- ''Delta is alpha on steroids,'' said James M. Musser, chair of the Department of Pathology and Genomic Medicine at Houston Methodist Hospital and Research Institute.
- In the eight hospitals run by Houston Methodist, there are about 300 covid-19 patients, triple the number in early June, Musser said. Most new cases involve the delta variant. He estimated that 20 percent of the covid patients were fully vaccinated before becoming infected.
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- But he cautioned that most of these patients have underlying medical conditions that impaired their ability to mount an immune response after being vaccinated.
- These post-vaccination infections have often been described by Walensky and other medical experts as rare. How rare is unclear. News reports of people getting sick after vaccination have been common in recent weeks. But scientific data is limited.
- The CDC on May 1 said it would stop tracking mild and moderate breakthrough cases, and focus only on hospitalizations and deaths. As of July 19, the CDC had documented 5,914 such breakthroughs, including 1,141 deaths.
- CDC spokeswoman Kristen Nordlund said Wednesday the agency conducts ''cohort'' studies to obtain estimates of the efficacy of the vaccines that often involve tens of thousands of people. Scientists examine vaccinated and unvaccinated patients for a period of time to see if they develop covid-19, Nordlund said.
- Several experts have criticized the agency for not tracking mild and moderate breakthrough cases on a broader scale, arguing it makes it difficult to know how rare these cases really are.
- Even though the vaccines remain effective against all variants of the coronavirus, they are not designed to create ''sterilizing'' immunity. That's why breakthrough infections happen. The virus can infect the nose and begin replicating before the immune system rallies its range of defenses. The vaccines prime the immune system, including the ''B memory'' cells that begin cranking out antibodies after detection of an invasive pathogen.
- Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, said it's like the fire extinguisher in your kitchen. The immune system ensures you have that fire extinguisher standing by for an emergency. But it can't prevent the initial conflagration. ''You still had a little fire in the kitchen,'' Offit said.
- Larry Corey, a virologist at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said it would not be surprising to see a variant emerge that is better at replicating in people's noses. Animal studies, he said, indicated that vaccines were better at protecting animals' lungs from infection than their noses. That might help explain why vaccinated people can become infected but rarely develop severe disease.
- ''The virus is under selective pressure to jump from nose to nose,'' Corey said. ''So its evolutionary sort of pressure is to do that as efficiently as it can. Delta is more efficient than others.''
- Even if tests find lots of virus in vaccinated people, it is uncertain how contagious they are. A study of immunized health-care workers in Israel, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, found 39 breakthrough infections among 1,497 fully vaccinated people. About three-fourths of those people had, at some point while infected, what researchers characterized as high viral loads. There was no evidence that a breakthrough case led to other infections.
- Natalie Dean, a biostatistics expert at Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, said she remains unconvinced a high viral load in the nose truly means that vaccinated and unvaccinated people are equally as likely to spread the virus, although she acknowledged there is an ongoing debate about the issue.
- ''I feel like nasal viral load is one part of a lot of other parts'' that determine how infectious a person is, Dean said, adding that she thinks the amount of virus in the throat or lungs could be important and might differ between people who are vaccinated and those who are not.
- Fentanyl Manufacturers
- Toll Free: (877) 446-9001 Local: (214) 237-9001 Fax: (214) 237-9002
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- Fentanyl is an extremely powerful painkiller that is sold in a number of different forms. The most commonly used fentanyl product is the fentanyl patch, which is sold both generically and under a brand name. Fentanyl is also sold in a lollipop form known as Actiq, a nasal spray called Lazanda and in pill form called Fentora.
- Fentanyl Pain Patch: Generic and Brand Name ManufacturersThe fentanyl pain patch was first sold under the brand name Duragesic, which is manufactured by Alza Corporation and sold by Janssen Pharmaceuticals '--two subsidiaries of Johnson & Johnson. Alza Corporation also makes a generic version of the patch which is sold by Sandoz, Inc. Several other companies also manufacture generic versions of the fentanyl patch, including:
- AbrekaAvtavisMylanSandozWatsonBecause of the extreme potency of fentanyl, manufacturing defects that cause the fentanyl gel contained in the reservoir version of the pain patch to leak may lead to serious side effects that can result in overdose or death. Several fentanyl patch manufacturers have been forced to recall certain lots of the fentanyl patch due to manufacturing defects, including Janssen, Johnson & Johnson, Actavis, Watson, and Sandoz.
- Other Fentanyl Products and their ManufacturersIn the years since the pain patch was first approved by the FDA, other manufacturers have developed fentanyl products in a variety of formulations, including the fentanyl lollipop, the fentanyl spray, and fentanyl tablets.
- Some of these products include:
- Abstral is a fentanyl buccal tablet manufactured by the British pharmaceutical company ProStrakan. Abstral is a sublingual tablet, meaning that it is placed under the tongue until it dissolves, allowing fentanyl to be absorbed into the body. The tablets are manufactured in dosages of 100mcg, 200mcg, 300mcg, 400mcg, 600mcg, and 800mcg.Actiq is an oral transmucosal fentanyl lozenge manufactured by Cephalon. This product is more commonly known as the ''fentanyl lollipop.'' Actiq is sold in dosages of 200 mcg, 400 mcg, 600 mcg, 800 mcg, 1200 mcg, and 1600 mcg. A generic version of Actiq is also manufactured by Teva Pharmaceutical Industries, the parent company of Cephalon.Fentora is a fentanyl buccal tablet similar to Abstral. Fentora is manufactured by Cephalon, a subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceutical. Like Abstral, Fentora is available in dosages of 100 mcg, 200 mcg, 400 mcg, 600 mcg, and 800 mcg. It is not sold in dosages of 300mcg.Instanyl is an intranasal fentanyl spray sold by Takeda. Instanyl is sprayed into the nose in order to deliver its fentanyl dose to patients. The spray is manufactured in doses of 50 mcg, 100 mcg, and 200 mcg.Lazanda is an intranasal fentanyl spray similar to Instanyl that is manufactured by Archimedes Pharma. This fentanyl nasal spray is sold in dosages of 100 mcg and 400 mcg.Onsolis is a fentanyl buccal soluble film manufactured by BioDelivery Sciences International. This product is a small piece of film that is placed on the inside of the cheek, where is sticks and dissolves in about 15 to 30 seconds. Onsolis is sold in fentanyl dosages of 200 mcg, 400 mcg, 600 mcg, 800 mcg, and 1200 mcg.Subsys is a fentanyl sublingual spray manufactured by Insys Therapeutics. Patients using Subsys spray the product under their tongue in order to deliver the prescribed fentanyl dose. The spray is sold in dosages of 100 mcg, 200 mcg, 400 mcg, 600 mcg, and 800 mcg.
- Lawsuit Filed on Behalf of Fentanyl Pain Patch VictimsPatients who were treated with a defective fentanyl patch may be eligible to file a lawsuit. Individuals who were improperly prescribed fentanyl by their doctor'--including post-surgical patients or those with short term pain'--may also qualify to file a fentanyl lawsuit.
- If you or a loved one have suffered a fentanyl overdose or other injuries caused by the use of the pain patch, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit and receive compensation for your injuries. For a free legal consultation, contact the lawyers at Heygood, Orr & Pearson by calling toll-free at 1-877-446-9001 or by this link to our free case evaluation form.
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- The US Military Couldn't Stop the Heroin Trade from Funding the Taliban. But Synthetic Opioid Producers Might. | Military.com
- The global drug trade could eventually accomplish what the U.S. military tried and failed to do in Afghanistan: bust up a heroin industry that fuels insurgencies and corruption.
- A threat to the Afghan heroin market -- which accounts for anywhere between 10%-30% of that country's gross domestic product -- looms because of a growing preference among drug producers for far cheaper synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, according to a new Rand Corp. study.
- "All told, fentanyl represents an attractive alternative for drug producers and marketers who are looking to reduce their operating costs and risks. Therefore '... when comparing the two drugs, it is hard to see how heroin can compete directly or indefinitely with this low-cost, high potency alternative," Rand said in its report that examined the implications for Afghanistan.
- Since the early days of the war in Afghanistan, U.S. forces sought to curtail the heroin trade in the country. The efforts ranged from attempts to get farmers to shift from poppy to pomegranate trees, to more extreme measures. For example, in 2009, then-NATO Supreme Allied Commander Gen. John Craddock issued a memo stating that troops should shoot on sight those affiliated with the drug industry. The plan caused a stir at NATO headquarters and was eventually rescinded because of a backlash among allies.
- But over time, market forces could prove to be more of a threat to Afghanistan's opioid industry than NATO forces ever were.
- Fentanyl is already displacing major heroin markets in the U.S. While fatal overdoses and drug seizures related to heroin have been on the decline, they're rising in connection with synthetic opioid use, Rand said.
- Fentanyl is similar to morphine, but is 50 to 100 times more potent, the U.S. National Institute for Drug Abuse said on its website. It's used legally to treat severe pain and following some surgeries.
- Fentanyl can be churned out in laboratories from cheap chemicals, providing quicker turnarounds than harvesting the poppies that are key to the Afghan trade.
- So far, the Afghan heroin industry does not appear to have taken a serious hit, but that's because most of the trade involves European and Asian markets rather than North America, Rand said. The future of the industry in Afghanistan will hinge on whether Europe and Asia-based illegal drug traders make the same shift as their U.S. counterparts.
- Historically, the Taliban has been one of the big beneficiaries of the opioid trade, deriving up to $400 million a year in revenue connected to the business, Rand said.
- If the opiate market were to collapse, filling the revenue gap could be "a heavy lift in just a few years," the report said.
- "Overall, the loss of opiate revenues for insurgent or other antigovernment groups could be beneficial to the central government if those groups lose strength in relation to the central government, but the government's prospects are highly uncertain," Rand said.
- A rapid loss of the opioid market could also spur a humanitarian crisis in the rural south, where poppy cultivation is the main industry. Farmers might be forced into urban centers if alternatives sources of income weren't found, the report said.
- "The government would then be facing not just a rural crisis but also the challenges of accelerated urbanization, including attendant needs for crime control or expanded services," Rand said. "The central government is highly unlikely to have adequate resources to meet such challenges on its own, even with additional tax revenues."
- Show Full Article (C) Copyright 2021 Stars and Stripes. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
- Nation Of Islam Finally Banned From Twitter, But Not For Anti-Semitism | The Daily Wire
- Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam, an unabashedly anti-Semitic group, has been banned from Twitter '-- but not for hatred against Jewish people.
- The final straw for Twitter came when the Nation of Islam criticized vaccines, The Federalist reported. Prior to that, however, the social media giant had repeatedly declined to ban or punish Farrakhan's personal account or that of the Nation of Islam despite blatant harassment and anti-Semitism.
- ''Twitter moved to ban the account last week after being targeted for promoting 'misinformation.' In reaction to the ban, a high-ranking member in the group tweeted, 'Unsurprisingly, Twitter, Inc. has suspended The Nation of Islam's official account: @OfficialNOI,''' The Federalist reported. ''A report cited by the White House this month said that 12 Twitter accounts are responsible for 65 percent of supposed anti-vaccine content. One of the 12 listed was Rizza Islam, a Nation of Islam member. While Twitter took action against the group after perpetual mRNA vaccines criticism, it remained silent on its previous anti-semitism.''
- The Twitter ban comes after the account was allowed to operate for a decade spreading anti-Semitic messages. In 2018, for example, Farrakhan said ''the powerful Jews are my enemy'' during a speech, adding, ''white folks are going down. And Satan is going down. And Farrakhan, by God's grace, has pulled the cover off of that Satanic Jew and I'm here to say your time is up, your world is through.''
- That clip wasn't shared to Twitter, but that same year, Farrakhan tweeted a clip of another speech where he compared Jews to termites. He captioned that video: ''I'm not an anti-Semite. I'm anti-Termite.''
- As The Federalist reported, Twitter has a policy against ''dehumanizing'' tweets but told BuzzFeed News at the time that Farrakhan's account had posted that tweet before the policy went into place, so it could remain. And even though the Nation of Islam's account was banned, Farrakhan's account is still active.
- Many attribute Twitter's blind eye toward Farrakhan's messages over the years to his Democratic support. Though many Democrats have since distanced themselves from Farrakhan within the last decade, they previously supported him publicly. House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC), for example, joined Farrakhan on stage in 2011. In 2013, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-GA) said the Nation of Islam's ''voice has been important even for the development of Black theology.''
- Warnock made the comments in response to an audience member's question about the Baptist Church's ''relationship with the Nation of Islam and the Islamic movement.'' Warnock, who was then the senior pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, replied: ''Well, the Nation of Islam is significant, but its numbers don't come anywhere near the membership of our churches. Its voice has been important, and its voice has been important even for the development of black theology. Because it was the Black Muslims who challenged black preachers and said you're promulgating, you know, they called, 'the white man's religion. And that's a slave religion; you're telling people to focus on heaven meanwhile they're catching hell.'''
- ''And so we've needed the witness of the Nation of Islam, in a real sense, to put a fire under us and keep us honest about the meaning of the proclamation coming from our pulpit,'' Warnock added.
- The Daily Wire is one of America's fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member.
- NSW sends 300 ADF troops to enforce Sydney lockdown - Rebel News
- By Avi Yemini FREE legal defence Ordinary Australians are being fined extortionate amounts for doing regular things like exercising outside for too long. Are you one of them?
- SendNSW Police Commission Mick Fuller has been given 300 Australian Defence Force troops to enforce the controversial Sydney lockdown.
- Fuller made a formal request to the federal government, seeking assistance to enforce the state's Covid compliance operation.
- NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian had previously rejected offers from the federal government, but with the threat of further protests, NSW has accepted the help.
- #BREAKING: @nswpolice has requested support from the Australian Defence Force in enforcing COVID-19 measures during #sydneylockdown #COVID19nsw pic.twitter.com/QdwZSzgWgi
- '-- Gavin Coote (@GavinCoote) July 29, 2021The intention of the ADF troops is to 'boost the operational footprint' of existing resources.
- Major anti-lockdown protests last Saturday saw thousands of frustrated residents flood the CBD, demanding freedom from government health orders. As there is no protest organiser to take to court, the NSW government has focused on pursuing anyone who breaks Covid health directions. Thousands of tip-offs have been sent in from members of the public.
- March for our freedom! ð¨ð¨ Wake up Sydney!! #EndLockdownNow #ourbodyourchoice #Australia #freedomrally pic.twitter.com/T3Sx26OIXU
- '-- LH (@LHfreedomfightr) July 24, 2021The decision to use the ADF in a visible role is likely to cause controversy, given there is a great deal of difference between the Army assisting with floods and bushfires compared to policing Australian citizens.
- Australians are not accustomed to heavy a police presence on their streets, let alone the use of the army outside their doors. The issue is particularly fragile given the large amount of civil resistance to health orders which have been creating financial havoc in NSW, costing the state $2 billion a week.
- In a press conference earlier today, Fuller declined to rule out bringing in the ADF to patrol Sydney streets.
- ''Nothing is off the table between the conversation between the [NSW] premier and myself. We are not stretched at the moment, but clearly if there was an LGA expansion I would absolutely have the confidence in expanding the Australian Defence Force in NSW. To be clear, they are working with us now in hotel quarantine, they are working in our police operation centre '' some forty-thousand shifts in hotel quarantine. If we had to use them, absolutely I would call out,'' said Commissioner Mick Fuller.
- D avid Elliott, Minister for Police and Emergency Services, also voiced his support for the announcement.
- ''As I have said previously, support from the Army will add another line of defence to the NSW Government's crackdown on Covid-19 compliance. The Army's unique skills and training have combined many times with those of our police officers to serve the people of NSW in times of crisis, such as the floods of severe bushfires we've experienced in recent years.''
- Prohibiting political protests, even in a pandemic, remains a big question in Australia. Police failed to stop Black Lives Matter and Metoo protests at other points during the Covid outbreak, but have always shown a heavy-handed response when a protest is held in the name of liberty. The double standard continues to be a matter of contention between Australian citizens.
- ''Unauthorized protest.Protest will not be tolerated.
- We have deployed significant intelligence assets.
- Now is not the time to conduct unauthorized protests.
- We will not tolerate those types of actions.
- You will receive the appropriate punishment.'' pic.twitter.com/dNwPL4efwS
- '-- Ezra Levant ð (@ezralevant) July 29, 2021Early today, Prime Minister Scott Morrison caused his own controversy during a radio interview with 3AW when he laid the ground work for discrimination based upon vaccination status.
- ''We'd have to have more restrictions on people who are unvaccinated because they're a danger to themselves and others. If you're not vaccinated you present a greater health risk to yourself and to others than people who are vaccinated ['...] and public health decisions will have to be made on that basis,'' said Scott Morrison.
- ''If people are unvaccinated they are more at risk and would have to have more restrictions on people who are unvaccinated because they are a danger to themselves and others.''
- M orrison did not elaborate, but hinted that the state premiers were on board with announcing increased restrictions on citizens. He did, however, strongly oppose compulsory vaccination.
- This comes despite advice from both the CDC and vaccine producers that Covid vaccine s do not stop transmission, but rather lesson serious symptoms in vaccinated individuals. On July 27, the CDC updated its advice to recommend fully vaccinated adults and children continue wearing masks indoors.
- It is not the first time a Liberal politician has found themselves in hot water when being interviewed by 3AW's Neil Mitchell. Victorian Opposition Leader Michael O'Brien endorsed jail for those who refused to cooperate fully with contact tracers during the last Victorian outbreak.
- The Prime Minister refused to guarantee that Australia would be open by the end of 2021.
- ''There is a clear learning here, and that is the approach that I would expect states would follow in the future,'' said Scott Morrison.
- The public service continue to 'learn' on full pay, while the NSW residents in the thick of the lockdown watch their businesses collapse.
- U.K. covid cases are plummeting. Scientists aren't sure why. - The Washington Post
- LONDON '-- This is a puzzler. Coronavirus cases are plummeting in Britain. They were supposed to soar. Scientists aren't sure why they haven't.
- The daily number of new infections recorded in the country fell for seven days in a row before a slight uptick Wednesday, when the country reported 27,734 cases. That's still almost half of where the caseload was a week ago.
- The trajectory of the virus in Britain is something the world is watching closely and anxiously, as a test of how the delta variant behaves in a society with relatively high vaccination rates. And now people are asking if this could be the first real-world evidence that the pandemic in Britain is sputtering out '-- after three national lockdowns and almost 130,000 deaths.
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- Public health experts, alongside the government, predicted that cases would be rising in Britain at this point, perhaps even exponentially.
- The highly contagious delta variant of the virus, first detected in India, accounts for almost all new cases here. On July 17, the number of new day cases reached 54,674, the highest since January.
- Two days later, dubbed ''Freedom Day'' by the press, Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government ended almost all government mandates in England for mask-wearing and social distancing. Pubs are serving pints at the rail and night clubs have reopened with maskless youths packed on the dance floors. Viral defense is now a ''personal choice.''
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- And so some of the best infectious-disease modelers on the planet warned that 100,000 new cases a day this summer could be expected.
- But the trend since then has been on a sharp decline.
- Scientists have theories. Maybe it's the sunshine? There was a week-long heat wave.
- Schools have closed for the summer break, so children are not spreading the virus as much.
- Test-and-trace might be working. Last week, almost 620,000 people were pinged by a National Health Service app in England and Wales telling them to quarantine after exposure to the virus.
- It is also possible that people have stopped getting tested '-- because if they test positive, even if they are fully vaccinated, they are asked to quarantine for 10 days, even if they are about to travel abroad for their holidays.
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- Or maybe Britain has reached an immunity threshold. More than 70 percent of adults here are fully vaccinated, and 88 percent have had a first dose '-- one of the best vaccine uptakes in the world. Among those who remain unvaccinated, many have had covid or asymptomatic infection.
- Britain could be approaching ''population immunity, with people immune either from vaccinations or natural infection,'' said Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia.
- He noted that the reverb from Freedom Day wouldn't be instantaneous. Any bump in cases would start to show up later this week or early next, as symptoms can appear up to two weeks after exposure. But he predicted, overall, ''we won't see the huge surges that we've seen in the past.''
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- Martin McKee, professor of European public health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said he doubted that Britain was reaching population or herd immunity, in part because that wouldn't explain regional differences. ''I don't have a simple answer, none of us do,'' he said.
- Johnson is not celebrating. Not yet.
- Speaking to reporters on a rainy Tuesday from under an unusually smallish umbrella, the prime minister said that, yes, he has noticed the ''better figures.''
- But he added: ''It is very, very important that we don't allow ourselves to run away with premature conclusions about this.''
- ''People have got to remain very cautious, and that remains the approach of the government,'' he said.
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- Hospitalizations and deaths are still rising, though at a far slower rate than during previous waves. More than 6,000 covid patients are in hospitals in Britain, the highest figure since March. On Wednesday, Britain reported 91 new deaths.
- But the people so want the pandemic to end. The Daily Mail's front page Wednesday declared: ''Covid is all over bar the shouting.''
- On Wednesday, the government announced that fully vaccinated visitors from the United States and Europe could travel to England starting Aug. 2 without quarantining. (The reverse is not true, however. Even as England is reopening, the United States has kept restrictions for travelers from Britain and the European Union in place.)
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- Stephen Griffin, an associate professor at the University of Leeds, said the reduction of cases was ''very, very strange.''
- He cautioned that further data needs to be analyzed but suggested that it could be a result of a raft of behavioral factors, ranging from the warm weather to people following quarantine guidance to people avoiding tests if they want to go on vacation. Another factor is the end of the Euro 2020 soccer tournament, which drove thousands into pubs and onto the streets.
- ''All of these things compounded together may genuinely reflect a reduced number of tested positive cases,'' he said. ''Whether that actually reflects infection or not, we don't know.''
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- Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London whose models have shaped government policy in Britain and the United States, said it now appears possible that the pandemic could be in the rearview mirror.
- He added his own notes of caution, too. He told the BBC on Tuesday that the effects of lifting restrictions on Freedom Day earlier this month have yet to be seen.
- Ferguson also said there could be a spike in cases if the weather turns bad or when schools return in September.
- ''We're not completely out of the woods,'' he said. ''But the equation has fundamentally changed. The effect of vaccines has been huge in reducing the risk of hospitalizations and death. And I'm positive that by late September or October .'.'. we will be looking back at most of the pandemic.''
- Ferguson added: ''We will have covid with us. We will still have people dying from covid. But we'll have put the bulk of the pandemic behind us.''
- State Governments Are Creating Their Own Drug Cartels '' Reason.com
- Politicians just don't learn.
- People die as police fight drug dealers. Marijuana dealers form gangs and fight among themselves.
- It's so stupid. Especially because marijuana is relatively harmless.
- Finally, some states legalized it, hoping to put an end to the black market. But legalization hasn't ended the violence.
- Why? Because many states impose so many unnecessary rules.
- California is one of the worst.
- "The illicit market is approximately two to three times the size of the legal market," says cannabis industry lawyer Tom Howard in my new video.
- Illegal sales thrive in California because politicians make distribution pointlessly difficult.
- Howard advises clients who want to open a dispensary, "You have to have a $50,000 safe, a $200,000 security system, and a $100,000 consultant help you make an 800-page application."
- Every single plant must be weighed, tagged, and tracked from seed to sale.
- This information is "not being used to benefit anybody," complains grower Jason Downs. "It's just a waste of everybody's time, money."
- While legal sellers struggle, clueless California Gov. Gavin Newsom complains: "Illegal cannabis grows! They're getting worse, not better."
- His solution: California taxpayers now will spend $100 million to bail them out!
- Much of what government does is tax people to try to fix problems that government caused.
- Politicians are so arrogant and ignorant that they even lose money when they take over profitable illegal industries.
- Bookies once let people bet on horse racing without going to the track. Politicians called them criminals and said government would put an end to the "crime" of off-track betting by running that business themselves.
- New York claimed they'd use their profits to "promote the public welfare." But the state's rules were so bureaucratic that New York lost millions on its off-track betting parlors.
- Other states manage to lose taxpayer money running liquor stores (Alabama, certain counties in Maryland), and even on sports betting (Oregon).
- Only governments can mismanage so badly.
- Back to marijuana: Illinois' rules are probably the worst.
- "Only 'social equity veterans' in Illinois can get a license," explains Howard. In other words, new licenses are supposed to go to prior "victims of the drug war."
- But the bureaucrats' rules are so complex that a full year after legalization, zero new licenses have been issued.
- Meanwhile, politically connected people grabbed every existing license.
- One billionaire from the Wrigley gum family "paid $155 million for six dispensary licenses," says Howard. Illinois is "creating a cartel."
- Vice News confronted Illinois bureaucrat Toi Hutchinson, the governor's cannabis adviser. She denied that her licensing program is a failure. "It's delayed, but it's not done yet," she said. "The fixes that we've been able to do almost in real time'...another thing that is not normal for government. I don't know how to solve for racism and capitalism and structures that have existed for 100 years."
- She blames capitalism for her failure to allow capitalism to work?
- Arrogant government workers have little knowledge and no shame.
- Howard says Illinois is "like [old] Russia, where they had the state pick and choose winners and losers."
- Other states have bad rules, too.
- "Florida and Arizona are millionaires' clubs," says Howard. "You have to not only grow it; you have to be able to produce it and process it. You have to own your own dispensary. If you have $40 or $50 million, it's great."
- Massachusetts requires all dispensaries to black out windows lest anyone see the marijuana. Stores must also check everyone's IDs multiple times.
- Legalization doesn't have to be stupid.
- Oregon and Colorado have reasonable rules, and in Oklahoma, "anyone can get a cannabis license," says Howard, "provided you've lived in Oklahoma for two years."
- "You get a lot more innovation'--more entrepreneurs coming into market. Some go out of business, and some do very well'....It's free market capitalism."
- That works! If only politicians would let people try it.
- COPYRIGHT 2021 BY JFS PRODUCTIONS INC.
- Cuomo lawyer who was figure in sexual misconduct allegation to resign
- By Carl Campanile and Jesse O'Neill
- Attorney Judith Mogul (left) is set to step down from her post. R Umar Abbasi
- A top lawyer to Gov. Andrew Cuomo and a key figure in the inquiry into the governor's alleged sexual misconduct is set to resign next week, officials said.
- The departure of Special Counsel Judith Mogul would come just two weeks after Cuomo was apparently questioned by the state's top lawyer about widespread accusations of sexual harassment that began to be publicized late last year.
- One of the Democrat's accusers '-- former aid Charlotte Bennett, 26 '-- said that she complained to Mogul and then-chief of staff Jill DesRosiers last summer about alleged harassment by Cuomo and was told by unnamed officials there was no need to investigate because the governor's conduct never got past the ''grooming'' stage.
- The former aid alleged that the governor tasked her with ''finding'' the 63-year-old a girlfriend, and asking her if she had sex with older men, charges the governor denied.
- Gov. Cuomo had recently been questioned for the sexual harassment allegations. Matthew McDermottBennett said she was transferred to another position in the Capitol building after she complained to Mogul and DesRosiers about the alleged harassment and provided a detailed statement.
- Her lawyer, Debra Katz, later accused the retiring lawyer of mishandling the situation, writing in a March letter to the AG that the Executive Chamber failed to ''adequately address Ms. Bennett's allegations'' and alleging ''the chief of staff and special counsel exploited Charlotte's fear and manipulated her.''
- Ten other women have publicly accused Cuomo of misconduct, and the alleged sexual harassment is being probed by State Attorney General Letitia James and the State Assembly, which is conducting a wide-ranging impeachment inquiry.
- A senior advisor to the three-term governor said Mogul's departure was in the works for more than a year, and she will be replaced by newly appointed Special Counsel for Public Integrity Victor Olds.
- Charlotte Bennett has said she told Mogul about the sexual harassment she faced last year. CBS ''Judy left a high profile career in the private sector '' and before that as a Assistant US Attorney '-- to serve the people of the state of New York,'' Richard Azzopardi told The Post in a statement.
- ''While she had previously planned to leave government in spring of 2020, she selflessly extended her state service for more than a year to help manage the pandemic '' and we are grateful for that. Judy is a phenomenal lawyer, model public servant and friend and we wish her well in her next chapter.''
- She notably worked to develop gun violence and pandemic response initiatives, Azzopardi said.
- NY Attorney General Letitia James is leading the investigation into the allegations against Gov. Cuomo. Gabriella BassMogul, 62, has already been interrogated about the alleged sexual misconduct and toxic workplace in the governor's office, according to The New York Times.
- The probe is being led by former Manhattan US Attorney Joon Kim and Anne Clark, a leading employment lawyer.
- Covid map: Here are the hot spots under the CDC's new mask guidance
- Published Wed, Jul 28 2021 12:44 PM EDTUpdated 3 Hours Ago
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- The CDC recommended Tuesday that fully vaccinated Americans start wearing masks indoors again in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates.The counties in the two groups for which the CDC recommends mask-wearing combined make up 225 million Americans, according to a CNBC analysis of the agency's data, or about two-thirds of the U.S. population.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Tuesday that fully vaccinated Americans start wearing masks indoors again in places with high Covid-19 transmission rates as nationwide infection levels are once again on the rise.
- CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters Tuesday that masks should be worn in public, indoor settings by everyone, including fully vaccinated people, in areas "with substantial and high transmission."
- But what exactly is "high" or "substantial" transmission, and where are the areas the CDC is concerned about?
- The agency uses two measures to group U.S. counties into four levels of community transmission: the number of new cases per 100,000 residents and the percent of Covid tests that are positive over the past week.
- If a county has reported 50 to 100 cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period or has a positivity rate of 8% to 10%, it falls into the "substantial transmission" tier, while those reporting 100 cases or more per 100,000 or have a positivity rate of at least 10% are labeled as "high transmission." Those are the two groups for which the CDC recommends mask-wearing.
- The CDC said 1,495 counties fall into the highest transmission grouping and another 548 counties in the "substantial" tier '-- the areas where masks should be worn inside restaurants, businesses, any public space. Those counties combined make up 225 million Americans, according to a CNBC analysis of the agency's data, or about two-thirds of the U.S. population.
- The counties with moderate transmission, which aren't subject to the CDC's advisory, make up another 31% of the population while just more than 1% of Americans live in counties with low transmission rates, according to the CDC's criteria, which is current as of July 27.
- Federal health officials still believe fully vaccinated individuals represent a very small amount of transmission. Still, the more contagious delta variant means some vaccinated people could be carrying higher levels of the virus than previously understood and potentially transmit it to others just as easily as unvaccinated individuals, Walensky said.
- There are at least three states where every county falls within the CDC's mask advisory: Florida, Louisiana and Arkansas.
- The delta Covid variant is one of the most infectious respiratory diseases ever seen by scientists, Walensky said last week. The variant is highly contagious, largely because people infected with the delta strain can carry up to 1,000 times more virus in their nasal passages than those infected with the original strain, according to new data.
- "The delta variant is more aggressive and much more transmissible than previously circulating strains," Walensky told reporters at a briefing Thursday. "It is one of the most infectious respiratory viruses we know of, and that I have seen in my 20-year career."
- The CDC's guidance is only a recommendation, and leaves it up to states and local officials to decide whether to reintroduce their mask rules for certain people. Some areas have started to reimpose mask mandates in recent weeks.
- Dr. Natasha Bhuyan, a family physician with One Medical in Phoenix, said she is recommending mask-wearing to her patients since the delta strain is so much more contagious than other variants.
- "We know that when you're vaccinated, you are significantly less likely to be hospitalized or die from Covid," she said. "But even if you're vaccinated, while rare you can still get Covid and you can still be contagious and pass Covid to other people."
- Phoenix is in Maricopa County, which is in the highest community transmission category.
- "Delta has changed our thinking about when people should wear masks," Bhuyan added. "It's not going to last forever. When we get the vaccination rate up and Covid case rate down, people will be able to take off their masks."
- -- CNBC's Berkeley Lovelace Jr. contributed reporting.
- Correction: This article was updated to remove Hawaii as one of the states where every county meets the CDC's mask advisory. Kalawao County, population 86, has low transmission rates.
- 'Metaverse': the next internet revolution?
- Credit: CC0 Public Domain
- Imagine a world where you could sit on the same couch as a friend who lives thousands of miles away, or conjure up a virtual version of your workplace while at the beach.
- Welcome to the metaverse: a vision of the future that sounds fantastical, but which tech titans like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg are betting on as the next great leap in the evolution of the internet.
- The metaverse is, in fact, the stuff of science-fiction: the term was coined by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 novel "Snow Crash", in which people don virtual reality headsets to interact inside a game-like digital world.
- The book has long enjoyed cult status among Silicon Valley entrepreneurs'--but in recent months the metaverse has become one of the tech sector's hottest buzzwords, with companies pouring millions of dollars into its development.
- Facebook fuelled the excitement further Monday by announcing the creation of a new team to work on Zuckerberg's vision of the metaverse.
- "This is going to be a really big part of the next chapter for the technology industry," Zuckerberg told tech website The Verge last week. Over the next five years, he predicted, Facebook would transition from "primarily being a social media company to being a metaverse company".
- As with many tech buzzwords, the definition of the metaverse depends on whom you ask. But broadly, it involves blending the physical world with the digital one.
- With the help of augmented reality glasses, it might allow you to see information whizz before your eyes as you walk around a city, from traffic and pollution updates to local history.
- But metaverse enthusiasts are dreaming of a future in which the idea could be extended much further, allowing us to be transported to digital settings that feel real, such as a nightclub or a mountaintop.
- As workers have grown weary of video-conferences during the pandemic, Zuckerberg is particularly excited about the idea that co-workers could be brought together in a virtual room that feels like they are face-to-face.
- Digital casinos and Gucci handbags
- Games in which players enter immersive digital worlds offer a glimpse into what the metaverse could eventually look like, blurring virtual entertainment with the real-world economy.
- As far back as the early 2000s, the game Second Life allowed people to create digital avatars that could interact and shop with real money.
- More recently, plots of land in Decentraland'--a virtual world where visitors can watch concerts, visit art galleries, and gamble in casinos'--have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in MANA, a cryptocurrency.
- The hugely popular video game Fortnite has also expanded into other forms of entertainment, with 12.3 million people logging in to watch rapper Travis Scott perform last year. Fortnite's owners Epic Games said in April that $1 billion of funding raised recently would be used to support its "vision for the metaverse".
- And on Roblox, a gaming platform popular with children, a digital version of a Gucci bag sold in May for more than $4,100'--more than the physical version would have cost.
- Cathy Hackl, a tech consultant who advises companies on the metaverse, said the next generation was more comfortable with the idea of attaching real meaning to virtual experiences and objects.
- "My first concert was in a stadium. My son's first concert was (American rapper) Lil Nas X on Roblox. Just because it happened in Roblox, it didn't make it less real for him," she said.
- Exhilarating, or dystopian?
- Hackl rejects the dystopian vision presented in "Snow Crash" of a virtual world where people go to escape the horrors of reality, an idea that emerged again two decades later in the novel and Steven Spielberg movie "Ready Player One".
- Nor does she think the metaverse would necessarily involve everyone shutting out their neighbours with virtual reality headsets around the clock.
- Facebook has invested heavily in technology that allows people to feel like they are physically somewhere else, such as its Portal video-calling devices, Oculus headsets and its Horizon virtual reality platform.
- But even Zuckerberg has admitted that existing virtual reality headsets are "a bit clunky", requiring far greater development for the kind of experiences he has described.
- Wedbush tech analyst Michael Pachter said it was hard to predict whether Facebook could truly transform into a "metaverse company" in five years.
- "But they certainly have a huge advantage of having one billion people log on every day," he said. "If they offer entertainment options, it's likely they will succeed."
- City of Austin says it WON'T require proof of vaccination for employees, despite Mayor Adler's request | KXAN Austin
- Russell Falcon and Jacqulyn Powell
- AUSTIN (KXAN) '-- The City of Austin says it's urging staff to get vaccinated, but that it can't require vaccination due to a previous executive order by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
- On Wednesday afternoon, Austin Mayor Steve Adler officially urged City Manager Spencer Cronk to enact the requirement, as cases in the Austin-Travis County area have surged in the past few weeks.
- ''With alarming increases in cases, ICU admissions, and community positivity rates, we must do more. We must especially act to better protect our children under 12 who cannot get vaccinated and are being put at needless increased risk. I am today asking the City Manager to require city employees to be vaccinated (subject only to appropriate exceptions). Further, I urge Austin businesses also to require their employees to become vaccinated. We must all lead by our own example.''
- Austin Mayor Steve AdlerThe move came as city leaders continue being bound by Texas Governor Greg Abbott's executive order banning mask mandates in governmental entities. Mayor Adler in particular has butted up against the order, saying that he'd enforce masking in the city '-- even for vaccinated people '-- if he could.
- But a spokesperson for the City of Austin told KXAN later Wednesday afternoon that required vaccinations won't be happening.
- ''The Governor's Executive Order GA-35 prohibits the City from requiring vaccinations,'' said the spokesperson. ''However, the City Manager has urged staff to get vaccinated as an essential part of helping us end this pandemic. Being fully vaccinated is proven to provide the highest level of protection against COVID-19 and COVID variants.''
- Texas Medical Association COVID-19 Task Force member Dr. Dr. Ogechika Alozie told KXAN he feels more needs to be done to get more people vaccinated.
- ''I think we sort of have failed in getting enough people in this country vaccinated because it's been politicized, and so the next two things are mandates and potentially incentives,'' Alozie said.
- Dr. Alozie says he feels employers should have some control when it comes to employees being vaccinated.
- ''I truly believe that employers now have to take a role in this conversation. They can't sit on the backburner anymore. They have to make a decision,'' Alozie said. ''I think it is fair for people to have mandates to get vaccinated, and actually I actually believe that if we're going to engage in mandate conversation, it should be on things that we have data around which are the vaccines and not masks.''
- Back in April, KXAN reported that only about 49% of Austin Police Department officers were vaccinated once it was made available to them, although this number did not include those who may have already been vaccinated on their own. Austin Police Association President Ken Casaday said that there was some vaccine hesitancy within the department.
- APD said that while it made the vaccine available to employees, it does not ''in any way influence the decision of our officers'...''
- On Tuesday, Adler condemned Abbott for the mask ban, especially as it bars Texas school districts from enforcing mask wearing as in-person classes begin for fall.
- ''As the CDC prepares to recommend all K-12 students wear masks, a reminder that @GovAbbott has made it impossible for Texas schools to protect students and for cities to protect its citizens,'' Adler tweeted.
- Later that day, Abbott reiterated previous statements that he wouldn't reinstate the mandate, no matter the surging case numbers and hospitalizations.
- ''The time for government mask mandates is over '-- now is the time for personal responsibility,'' Abbott tweeted. '''...Every Texan has the right to choose whether they will wear a mask or have their children wear masks.''
- As of the last update on July 27, there are currently 1,816 active cases of COVID-19 in Austin-Travis County. A reported 292 people are hospitalized, 103 are in the ICU, and 59 people are on ventilators.
- Last week, Austin-Travis County entered Stage 4 guidelines for COVID-19 risk.
- Can an employer require vaccination?The answer is yes.
- The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission explains:
- ''The federal EEO laws do not prevent an employer from requiring all employees physically entering the workplace to be vaccinated for COVID-19'...''
- U.S. EEOCRogge Dunn, a Dallas labor and employment attorney, told CNBC many of his corporate clients are leaning toward making vaccines mandatory.
- ''Under the law, an employer can force an employee to get vaccinated, and if they don't take it, fire them,'' said Dunn.
- Dunn said some businesses may even see being able to tout an all-vaccinated staff may be attractive to customers and clients, saying businesses he'd talked to indicated ''they think it may give them a competitive advantage.''
- Nationally, President Joe Biden said Tuesday that a vaccination requirement is being considered for all federal employees. Government employees in California and in New York City must show proof of vaccination or get weekly COVID-19 testing.
- Ben Crump Sues Johnson & Johnson on Behalf of Black Women - The Tatum Report
- News Civil Rights attorney Ben Crump announced he is filing a lawsuit against Johnson & Johnson on behalf of members of the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). The suit alleges that Johnson & Johnson specifically targets black women with unsafe products knowing that they are most likely to use them regularly.
- Insider reports that a complaint from the NCNW claims organization members were diagnosed with ovarian cancer after using Johnson & Johnson powder products. Crump announced the negligence lawsuit in Washington DC on July 27.
- Crump is most known for his often racially and politically driven work. Since 2012 he has been involved in some of the highest-profile legal cases in the United States, including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice, Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, and Jacob Blake.
- The suit states in part, ''NCNW has thousands of members who have used J&J's Powder Products. Some of those members have already been injured through the development of ovarian cancer caused by J&J's Powder Products. Others have legitimate reasons to believe that they will develop symptoms and are thus suffering psychological harm while also requiring immediate medical monitoring.''
- A 2019 report from Reuters revealed that the company was focused on marketing its products to African-American and overweight women. Internal company documents show they distributed Baby Powder samples in churches and black and Latino beauty salons. The company also ran advertisements with weight-loss company Weight Watchers and Southern radio markets hoping to reach ''curvy Southern women 18-49 skewing African American.''
- Crump's lawsuit claims that the way Johnson & Johnson advertised implied black women were naturally offensive and needed their products to remain fresh. Janice Mathis of the NCNW stated, ''generations of black women believed them and made it our daily practice to use their products in ways that put us at risk of cancer '' and we taught our daughters to do the same. Shame on Johnson & Johnson.''
- Johnson & Johnson TARGETED Black women in marketing campaigns for their talcum-based baby powder! The lives of Black women MATTER! This multi-billion dollar corporation must be held accountable for knowingly marketing its harmful, ovarian cancer-causing product to Black women! pic.twitter.com/1kjgJD4aCs
- '-- Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) July 27, 2021
- The company has denied claims that its powder products are not safe. However, they are no stranger to lawsuits, having faced at least 25,000 lawsuits and allocated nearly $4 billion for litigation expenses. A 2018 investigation by Reuters showed the company has known of possible asbestos contamination in their products since the 1970s
- Most recently, Johnson & Johnson had to recall five of their sunscreen products after samples were found to contain potential cancer-causing chemicals. Their covid-19 vaccine distribution was also temporarily paused after blood clots arose in patients after receiving the company's one-shot vaccine dose.
- Follow Eric Butler and Tatum Report on Instagram
- More Biographical Information Recent Posts ContactEric Butler grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and spent time in New York City before moving to the Midwest after witnessing the consequences of poor city leadership. He is an outspoken social media commentator and content creator standing up for the truth. ericbutler@tatumreport.com
- Google postpones return to work until October, will require vaccinations
- A person wears a face mask outside Google's offices in Chelsea as the city continues Phase 4 of re-opening following restrictions imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus on September 29, 2020 in New York City.
- Noam Galai | Getty Images
- Google CEO Sundar Pichai said the company is extending its office return for employees until Oct. 18 amid the latest Covid-19 outbreaks.
- In an email to employees Wednesday, Pichai also said the company will require anyone coming to the office to be vaccinated, beginning in the U.S. in coming weeks.
- Pichai's note represents the second delay in office returns for its workforce of more than 130,000-plus employees amid the ongoing pandemic. In December, Google delayed return to offices to Sept. 1, after which employees would be required to work in person for at least three days a week.
- "We are excited that we've started to re-open our campuses and encourage Googlers who feel safe coming to sites that have already opened to continue doing so," Pichai stated in his email. "At the same time, we recognize that many Googlers are seeing spikes in their communities caused by the Delta variant and are concerned about returning to the office."
- Pichai said the company will monitor the data carefully and let employees know at least 30 days in advance before transitioning into our full return to office plans. He also noted that employees in "special circumstances" will be able to apply to work from home for the remainder of the year.
- Covid cases have been rising in all 50 states as the more contagious delta variant has been spreading, particularly among unvaccinated communities. Earlier this month, Apple delayed its return-to-work plans until October, and the state of California this week announced that all state workers would be required to show proof of vaccination by Aug. 2. President Joe Biden is expected to make a similar announcement for federal workers in a speech on Thursday.
- Despite the setback, Pichai sounded an optimistic tone in his note. "Seeing Googlers together in the offices these past few weeks filled me with optimism, and I'm looking forward to brighter days ahead," he added. "I hope these steps will give everyone greater peace of mind as offices reopen."
- The Whole World Sends Its Love to Bob Odenkirk | Vanity Fair
- The way people feel about Bob Odenkirk is in direct opposition to the number of dirtbags, hucksters, and loudmouths he has brought to life. We hate those kinds of guys, and yet we love the comedian turned character actor turned leading man'--as evidenced by the fact that no one can get any work done today because we're constantly refreshing news sites and social media for word on how he's doing.
- The 58-year-old reportedly collapsed on the New Mexico set of Better Call Saul yesterday and has been hospitalized, with no word about his condition. His representatives tell Vanity Fair they have no updates to share at this time. His loved ones, of course, have no obligation to inform the general public about his medical status, but what's remarkable in this era of scorching hot takes and relentless all-consuming cynicism is the way concern for the actor has resulted in a rare moment of social media unity.
- ''I really need someone to tell me Bob Odenkirk is okay right now,'' reads a typical post on Twitter. ''Big prayers for national treasure Bob Odenkirk,'' states another. They're in many different languages, and come from many different parts of the world, accompanied by thousands of likes and retweets. Most are from strangers, but some are posts from fellow actors: ''Oh man, really hope Bob Odenkirk is ok,'' tweeted Elijah Wood. One popular post was just a circle of protection with candle emojis:
- It's fair to say that Odenkirk was always generally liked and respected, but he has never been a trending topic or an object of such sumptuous admiration and attention before. So what's behind this avalanche of goodwill, especially on a platform like Twitter, with its increasingly well-earned reputation for pile-ons, shaming, bullying, and the overall daily discord known as ''the discourse''? This repository of scorn and endless dunking became like a hushed waiting room.
- A big part of it has to be the sheer uncertainty of the situation. We're used to instant information, and not knowing his status has created a mystery that compels outsized attention. That makes us dwell on Odenkirk for a moment before scrolling on to the next thing, the next outrage, the next thrill, the next joke or tragedy. It stops us. It holds us in place, if only for a moment. The churn of Twitter's gears come to a halt. We have a moment to linger and think.
- Odenkirk has been part of the fabric of our entertainment for so long that we've taken him for granted. He was a writer on SNL, and The Ben Stiller Show, and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. He was in Alexander Payne's Nebraska, and Steven Spielberg's The Post, and Greta Gerwig's Little Women. They were small but scene-stealing roles'--the overbearing, successful brother; the crusading journalist Ben Bagdikian; the girls' minister father, sent to war. His illness makes us remember: oh yeah, he was great in that.
- Then there are his bigger roles, the ones that made him a household name. He made us both laugh and squirm performing alongside David Cross on the classic sketch series Mr. Show. He repeatedly shocked us as Bryan Cranston's gleefully sleazy attorney Saul Goodman on Breaking Bad. He moved us on Better Call Saul as Jimmy McGill, the sweet, mistreated man Saul Goodman was before the cruelty and indifference of the world broke him forever. Odenkirk is both the comedy and the tragedy masks, fused into one guy.
- Odenkirk has played a lot of bastards, but he has never come across as one in real life. He has no scandals. No incidents of lashing out or behaving badly. He has never seemed entitled or aloof. There are stories percolating online of pleasant fan encounters, and recollections of a gentle, good-natured guy who has achieved great things as a performer while still seeming like a regular person.
- That was the appeal of his recent action flick Nobody, in which Odenkirk starred as an extremely mild-mannered working-class dad whose seemingly pathetic exterior is cover for the fact that he was once a merciless special-ops assassin. What better metaphor for Odenkirk himself: the guy who somehow fades into the wallpaper despite being an incredible badass.
- The truth is, the Better Call Saul actor hasn't been at the forefront of out minds. Then he got sick. Then we didn't know if he was okay.
- And we realized we never appreciated him enough.
- Those who know Odenkirk in real life have reached out to offer some reassurance and information, like Cranston, who posted a photo of the two of them with the message: ''Today I woke up to news that has made me anxious all morning. My friend Bob Odenkirk collapsed last night on the set of Better Call Saul. He is in the hospital in Albuquerque and receiving the medical attention he needs but his condition is not known to the public as yet. Please take a moment in your day today to think about him and send positive thoughts and prayers his way, thank you.''
- Cross also tweeted his concern in a message aimed at sending goodwill to his Mr. Show co-star while offering some comfort to Odenkirk's many worried admirers.
- It's important to note that Odenkirk is not in the past tense. Talking about the ways he has moved us or connected with us before does not mean he will not be able to do those things again. With luck, all the goodwill, prayers, and healing wishes will be answered, and an actor who has earned so much affection will be on the mend soon.
- Until then, this stalled moment, this unifying alarm and disquiet, is a reminder to appreciate what we have when we have it. If someone brings you joy, remember to let them know, whether they're an actor onscreen or just a regular person from your life.
- Odenkirk's true appeal is how familiar and relatable he seems. He reminds us of a favorite science teacher, a beloved uncle, the neighbor who always has the tool you need to borrow, the classmate you haven't seen in too long a time. He has definitely played a lot of bad guys, but there is always something humane in his performances that remind us of good people we know.
- That's how we end up with get-well wishes for the ''nobody,'' from everybody.
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- California Gov. Newsom Says Not Getting Vaccine Is Like Driving Drunk
- PoliticsBy James Samson July 27, 2021
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) went on MSNBC on Monday to slam those who have not gotten the COVID-19 vaccine, saying that they ''are choosing to live with this virus.''
- ''You can't choose to drive drunk,'' Newsom stated. ''You put your life at risk. You put other lives at risk. We don't want to go back to where we were this fall. We don't want to wait until we're overwhelmed in our ICUs. We don't want to wait until thousands and thousands of more Californians die of a virus where they simply can save their lives by getting a simple vaccine shot.''
- ''You've got 25% '-- you noted, 75% of Californians have received at least one dose. But 25% of people are choosing to live with this virus,'' he added. ''You can't choose to drive drunk. You put your life at risk. You put other lives at risk. At the end of the day, we've got to be a little more assertive to help people get this disease behind us, help society ultimately end this pandemic.''
- MORE NEWS: Elise Stefanik Rips Liz Cheney As A 'Pelosi Pawn' '' 'She Does Not Represent The Republican Conference'
- Newsom made similar comments on CNN.
- ''It's like drunk drivers, you don't have the right to go out and drink and drive and put everybody else at risk including your own life,'' he said, according to Yahoo News.
- Newsom was then asked if California should consider reinstating a universal mask mandate to stop the spread of the Delta variant.
- ''Look we don't even have to have that debate if we can just get everybody vaccinated that isn't vaccinated, that's refusing to get vaccinated, that's living vaccine free and impacting the rest of us,'' he replied.
- ''We're really trying to focus on ending this pandemic once and for all,'' the Democrat later added. ''Those non-pharmaceutical interventions like face coverings and face masking were necessary in the absence of vaccines, but with these vaccines we can extinguish this virus once and for all and get it behind us.''
- Newsom's handling of this pandemic has been widely panned by conservatives and liberal alike.
- 6 Actions the Federal Government Should Take in Response to the Delta Variant | Bill of Health
- Today, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took an important step in protecting the nation's health by reinstating indoor masking for both vaccinated and unvaccinated alike, in particularly high-risk circumstances. That's good. And so is the jump in institutions like the Veterans Health Administration requiring COVID-19 vaccination.
- But we need to take more forceful action, and it needs to happen faster.
- Just over the last few weeks, the Delta variant of the virus has swept through the United States, changing so many of the things we thought we understood about COVID-19. The federal government needs to find a way to forget past mistakes and misjudgments in the face of what can fairly be described as a new threat.
- The COVID situation right now is much worse than it was last fall, when the virus was not only less contagious, but people also were far more cautious.
- Unless we do something to stop it, every person exposed to the Delta variant will be infected by it, even those already vaccinated. This is because the vaccines we currently have do not offer sterilizing immunity '-- they do not prevent infection; but rather they prevent severe disease. It's like the difference between the harm you'd suffer if shot while sitting behind bullet proof glass (no physical contact), versus while wearing a bullet proof vest (possibly a big bruise).
- While vaccinated individuals are unlikely to get so sick as to be hospitalized, the consequences of even a mild or asymptomatic infection (the bruise, per the analogy) could be severe. Based on the information coming in from survivors and scientists, the long term effects of infection seem be among the worst of any virus, short of AIDS or Polio.
- A virus is, as Dr. Michael Osterholm has repeatedly tried to explain, much more like an unstoppable tornado or a tidal wave than it is like a human entity who can be intimidated.
- In general, the more we can see this threat as a force of nature, the easier it should be for those with the power to make policy to drop the pretense that they can hold back the tide of COVID-19 through force of will or stern words.
- It isn't clear to what extent the actions below can stop the harm already barreling towards us, but, absent the intervention of an Avenger, the federal government needs to step up and use the power it has to slow what has become a runaway train:
- 1. Adopt a zero-infection policy.
- Given the track record of this virus for hitting the ''worst case scenario'' target again and again, we know enough to understand what the long-term burden on society may be if we continue to be casual about the consequences of infections '-- even among the vaccinated.
- To reference Susan Sontag's exhortation at a Wellesley College graduation, President Biden: ''Be bold! Be bold! Be bold!'' Own the reality that not everyone will agree on the danger of catching COVID until it's too late to do anything about it (and maybe not even then, either). So, make a decision that U.S. policy will be to prevent infection and re-infection among the unvaccinated and vaccinated alike.
- 2. Shift from a vaccine-only approach to one that centers on non-pharmaceutical interventions.
- Given how many people, right now, are unvaccinated, we have to develop a defense without them '-- that is, one that does not rely on hitting a target percentage of vaccinated adults. We need to refocus on masks and social distancing. Because that was working.
- The burden of requiring mask wearing is so much lower than that of either vaccination or closing of public places or quarantining of individuals that it needs to be the all-out focus of every resource at the federal government's disposal. We are lucky that masks work and many of the early supply chain issues have eased and high-quality masks are more available. But if people don't start wearing them again, we could find ourselves in a dystopian nightmare with coming mutations that infect differently.
- Today's guidance from the CDC is a good first step, but the agency needs to go further. Indoor masking should occur without qualification: all individuals, regardless of vaccination status, should be required to wear masks indoors. Mask wearing should not be limited to only certain settings, like schools.
- 3. Establish a COVID-19 threat warning system.
- We need to establish and communicate an evidence-based COVID-19 threat level. To do this, we must comprehensively test the population to find out where the virus is and to track its effects (including in asymptomatic/vaccinated populations). The CDC's truly unbelievable decision NOT to track secondary COVID infections is exactly the wrong approach.
- Once we establish such a system, we need to let people know what it is and how things are going. Is the National Weather Service at the table? Their experience giving warnings in rapidly shifting situations, like ''increased pollution'' or ''fire conditions,'' could be useful.
- 4. Identify one government official to lead the response and to speak to the public.
- Communication at all levels has been so poor during this pandemic that it is going to be difficult to find a person or a method to restore trust.
- Even the series of leaks about a Sunday Camp David meeting preceding the CDC's decision today undermines the trust of the public that they are being told the truth, even when the news is bad, as well as being given accurate information on what the government is doing and what actions they can take.
- But step one is, as has been done in the past, to identify one official either on the basis of their job title (i.e., Surgeon General, Director of CDC), or expertise, to hold daily briefings. And that person must be seen as speaking for the entire federal government.
- 5. Tell the FDA that extraordinary times require extraordinary actions. They must immediately:
- Develop a process for approving, in full, the three available vaccines as soon as possible. This fall is too late. Approval would set in motion the ''cover'' that employers and schools and the military need to mandate vaccination mandatory. Yes, an EUA is probably even better than full approval because it means the trials and the manufacturing of the vaccines are under real-time FDA supervision, but it has become a sticking point. If they balk, ask them if any vaccine has ever been as widely used pre-approval or gone through as much scrutiny as these have.Accelerate clinical trials with children and find a way to issue an EUA for kids under 12. Let parents choose if they want to protect their kids, but respect that many parents would prefer to mask or isolate.Respect and address the concerns people have about post-vaccine side-effects '-- don't ignore concerns about fertility, share the animal data and ask the manufacturers for real answers.6. Elsewhere in the federal government:
- Instruct every entity under the control of the federal government, from post offices, to aircraft carriers, to immediately implement a masking policy reflective of current scientific standards as to what's necessary for real protection '-- people should wear N95 masks, which are now much more available, or close-fitting surgical masks. They may wear whatever logo or fashion-forward masks they prefer over these masks that offer robust protection.Instruct the Department of Education to require masking in every school, college, or university it either funds or regulates.Gather the federal agencies that fund research or regulate it and require each and every one of them develop a masking policy.Ask your cabinet to reach out to the people touched by their agencies to get more information about what populations like farmers, Native Americans, and recent immigrants need to be safe.By all accounts, we are, this week, at an inflection point.
- Without clear federal leadership about the risks, as well as the most effective ways to manage it, we risk disruptions this fall that we could not have imagined last fall. There will never be universal agreement on what measures are necessary and it is very important to identify the least intrusive measures to steer us out of this pandemic. That starts with honest information and good advice for those who want to protect themselves and clear guidelines and consequences for a hopefully shrinking percentage of the population that doesn't.
- We can do two things at once; we can work with Oliva Rodrigo to encourage vaccine uptake, but let's also listen to Lizzo and wear our masks.
- Ex-intel analyst Daniel Hale sentenced to 45 months for leaking government secrets | Daily Mail Online
- Daniel Hale of Nashville, Tennessee, (pictured) was sentenced to 45 months in prison on Tuesday for leaking top secret information about the U.S. government's drone strike in Afghanistan program.
- A former Air Force intelligence analyst was sentenced to 45 months in prison on Tuesday for leaking top secret information about the U.S. government's drone strike in Afghanistan program.
- Daniel Hale of Nashville, Tennessee, said he was motivated by guilt when he told an investigative reporter from The Intercept about a military drone program he believed was indiscriminately killing civilians in Afghanistan.
- 'I believe that it is wrong to kill, but it is especially wrong to kill the defenseless,' Hale said in court Tuesday.
- He added that what he shared 'was necessary to dispel the lie that drone warfare keeps us safe, that our lives are worth more than theirs.'
- But Hale was jailed after the material he leaked was found to have fallen into the hands of ISIS fighters.
- Documents leaked by Hale were discovered in an internet compilation of material designed to help Islamic State fighters avoid detection, according to prosecutors.
- The prosecution is one in a series of cases the Justice Department has brought in recent years against current and former government officials who have disclosed classified secrets to journalists.
- Tuesday hearing did not focus on whether Hale had illegally shared secret information - he has openly acknowledged having done so.
- It centered more on whether the action harmed national security and the extent to which his motives should be taken into consideration
- Hale said he was motivated by guilt when he told an investigative reporter from The Intercept about a military drone program he believed was indiscriminately killing civilians in Afghanistan
- As a signals intelligence analyst, Hale´s job when he deployed to Afghanistan entailed locating targets for drone strikes and tracking down cellphone signals linked to people believed to be enemy combatants (File photo)
- In an attempt to explain his reasoning behind leaking the information, Hale wrote a poignant handwritten letter to Judge Liam O'Grady ahead of Tuesday's sentencing, highlighting grisly details on U.S drone strikes.
- 'It is not a secret that I struggle with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. both stem from my childhood experience growing up in a rural mountain community and were compounded by exposure to combat during military service, Hale wrote in the 11-page letter.
- 'Depression is a constant. Though stress, particularly stress caused by war, can manifest itself at different times and in different ways.'
- In addition, Hale described the horror he felt as he watched videos of Afghan civilians killed in part because of work he had done to help track them down.
- 'Not a day goes by that I don´t question the justification for my actions,' Hale wrote.
- Hale was deployed to Afghanistan in August 2012 and was honorably discharged less than a year later.
- Prosecutors argued he abused the government´s trust and knew the documents being shared 'risked causing serious, and in some cases exceptionally grave, damage to the national security' but leaked them anyway.
- In an attempt to explain his reasoning behind leaking the information, Hale wrote a poignant handwritten letter to Judge Liam O'Grady ahead of Tuesday's sentencing, highlighting grisly details on U.S drone strikes.
- In addition, Hale described the horror he felt as he watched videos of Afghan civilians killed in part because of work he had done to help track them down.
- '(A)s a result of Hale´s actions, the most vicious terrorists in the world obtained documents classified by the United States as 'Secret' and 'Top Secret' - and thought that such documents were valuable enough to disseminate to their own followers in their own manuals,' the prosecutors wrote.
- As a signals intelligence analyst, Hale´s job when he deployed to Afghanistan entailed locating targets for drone strikes and tracking down cellphone signals linked to people believed to be enemy combatants.
- In his letter, Hale wrote about how his experiences differed with former President Barack Obama's public assurances that all steps were being taken to prevent civilian casualties and that drone strikes helped protect the U.S.
- "I came to believe that the policy of drone assassination was being used to mislead the public that it keep[s] us safe, and when I finally left the military, still processing ... I began to speak out, believing my participation in the drone program to have been deeply wrong," Hale wrote.
- After leaving the Air Force, that's when Hale decided to share the documents that depict how the drone program was not as precise as the government claimed in terms of avoiding civilian deaths.
- His lawyers argued in court papers that his altruistic motives, and the fact that the government hasn´t shown any actual harm occurred from the leaks, should be taken into account for a light sentence.
- 'He committed the offense to bring attention to what he believed to be immoral government conduct committed under the cloak of secrecy and contrary to public statements of then-President Obama regarding the alleged precision of the United States military´s drone program,' they wrote.
- Dogs should be allowed in shops, restaurants, motels, says trainer - ABC News
- Veteran dog trainer Heather Northover has watched the pandemic profoundly shift the way people think about their four-legged pals.
- Key points: A Queensland dog trainer says a growing desire by owners to spend more time with their pets could be a silver lining of the pandemic Queensland laws permit dogs in some outdoor dining areas and on public transport under certain conditions Well-behaved pets should be welcomed in cafes, hotels and on public transport, the trainer says"It's helped people bond with their dogs," she said.
- After more than 40 years in the industry, the central Queenslander said these periods of working from home could mark a turning point.
- "I hope that it's a beginning for Australians to adopt more responsible dog ownership and start to enjoy their dogs more and look after them a bit better," she said.
- "Ultimately, what I'd like to see is Australia start to move down the same pathways that we see in Europe and America where dogs are really considered part of the family.
- "People tend to live with their dogs inside, they go down the street with them, they go to cafes, they stay in hotels with their dogs.
- "Here in Australia, that doesn't happen very much because people tend to get a puppy and then when it's not cute anymore, it goes outside and it learns to just look after itself."
- Red heeler puppy Hank helping his mum work from home during lockdown.(Supplied: Rachel Fountain
- )Ms Northover said the change could be "a silver lining" to the pandemic for dogs nationwide.
- "We have seen this year questions about dogs being allowed on public transport and in motels and in cafes," she said.
- "It's actually a good side effect of [COVID-19] that people are paying more attention to their dogs and becoming more interested in these little animals they're sharing their lives with.
- "They can have someone to talk to and someone to go for walks with and someone to spend their day with."
- Sam Finch takes her border collie-koolie cross, Bronson, to training once a week.(ABC Capricornia: Erin Semmler
- )An equal family memberYeppoon's Sam Finch attends training with her dog, Bronson, who she said was "another family member".
- "I wanted to get a smart dog that we could do things with and be a good family pet too, which he has been," she said.
- "[I've learnt] how to make him respond positively using positive reinforcements and probably learnt more about myself keeping calm.
- "We hope to take him on family holidays.
- "We took him to [a cafe] for breakfast one morning, took him for a walk along the beach '... he was pretty good."
- Sam Finch says her dog, Bronson, goes everywhere with her family.(ABC Capricornia: Erin Semmler
- )What are the rules?Queensland laws allow food businesses to choose if they want to permit dogs in outdoor dining areas only '' different rules apply for assistance animals.
- Pet owners must respect the safety and comfort of others, maintain control of the dog, refrain from touching the dog while eating, clean up after the pet and be aware of the local laws and the Animal Management Act.
- In South-East Queensland, assistance animals are allowed on TransLink buses, trains, trams, and ferries with a pass.
- Pet dogs are allowed on TransLink ferries all weekend and from 8:30am to 3:30pm and 7pm to 6am on weekdays as long as they meet requirements. These include being on lead, wearing a muzzle or in an enclosed carrier.
- Heather Northover hopes Australia moves towards allowing dogs in more public places, as happens in Europe.(ABC News: Alkira Reinfrank
- )Dog trainers in high demandDemand for dog training services has been "very high" since the start of the pandemic.
- "Suddenly people are staying at home with these dogs and realising that they don't actually like the dog because the dog doesn't behave the way they want it to," Ms Northover said.
- "When they're trying to work from home and spend more time with the dog they find, 'Oh, this dog pulls on a lead or it barks at other dogs or when I bring it inside it wants to beg for food at the table'.
- "They generally understand that it isn't a very pleasant dog, it doesn't have any manners, it doesn't have any social graces."
- Yeppoon dog trainer Heather Northover says it is important to teach dogs good manners.(ABC Capricornia: Erin Semmler
- )These were common complaints from pet owners.
- "Once they realise that, they come along here and say, 'My dog jumps up on me and scratches and it mouths the kids and it barks at my friends and it digs the garden'," she said.
- "They've had the dog for a couple of years and they just didn't notice because they weren't home with it, so it's nice to be able to turn that around for them."
- Ms Finch encouraged other dog owners to train their pets.
- "I think it's great because you don't get them to just to leave them at home," she said.
- "He comes everywhere with me '... to the beach, out for lunch if we can, and he comes to Mum's and Dad's and Grandma's."
- Yeppoon Yappers principal Heather Northover has 40 years' experience working with dogs.(ABC Capricornia: Erin Semmler
- )Responsible dog ownershipMs Northover said the science behind the behaviour of dogs had progressed "in leaps and bounds".
- "When I started, it was very much, 'We must be the boss and we must force the dogs to do this and push their bottoms down and jerk their heads up and pull them around on leads'," she said.
- "Now we use a lot more scientific methods to make dogs want to behave the way that we want them to because it's rewarding for them and because they want to do what we're asking them to do.
- "My big catch cry is always dog responsibility.
- "Look after your dog. Learn what your dog is doing. Teach him a great recall and have fun with him '... please train your dog to live with you in your family and be a responsible part of your family."
- CDC: COVID-19 may be a few mutations away from evading vaccines
- July 27, 2021 | 6:03pm | Updated July 27, 2021 | 6:57pm
- COVID-19 may be ''just a few mutations'' away from being able to evade vaccines, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned Tuesday.
- Walensky said the current vaccines are effective against severe cases of the coronavirus, including those caused by its known variants, but its continuing spread could allow the disease to mutate beyond the immunizations' protection.
- ''The largest concern that I think we in public health and sciences are worried about is that virus and potential mutations '... [have] the potential to evade our vaccine in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death,'' Walensky said at a press briefing.
- ''Right now, fortunately, we are not there. These vaccines operate really well in protecting us from severe disease and death. But the big concern is the next area that might emerge, just a few mutations potentially away, could potentially evade our vaccines.''
- CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned the public that potential COVID-19 mutations may be able to evade the virus. Bloomberg via Getty ImagesThe agency chief said the possibility is even more reason for people to get vaccinated '-- so that the virus can finally be off at the pass before it mutates into something that requires another vaccine.
- The CDC on Tuesday issued new indoor mask guidelines designed to help slow the spread of the virus in places experiencing surges in cases.
- ''In areas with substantial and time transmission, CDC recommends fully vaccinated people wear masks in public, indoor settings to help prevent the spread of the Delta variant and protect others,'' Walensky said, referring to the highly contagious strain that comprises an estimated 83 percent of new cases nationwide.
- Health officials have stressed that rising coronavirus case numbers in the US are being driven by unvaccinated Americans.
- Currently, people who are not vaccinated are responsible for around 99.5 percent of COVID-19 deaths and 97 percent of hospitalizations, officials said.
- Union advocates rally in New York to support striking Alabama coalminers | Mining | The Guardian
- Coal miners and union advocates from across the country rallied in New York on Wednesday morning in support of Alabama miners who are four months into a strike against their employer, Warrior Met Coal.
- Dressed in camouflage T-shirts with the slogan ''We Are Everywhere'', members of the United Mine Workers Association (UMWA) gathered in midtown Manhattan in front of the headquarters of BlackRock, a hedge fund that is Warrior Met Coal's largest investor.
- Over 100 protesters chanted ''No contract, no coal!'' and ''Warrior Met Coal ain't got no soul!'' as trucks and cars driving between the barricades enclosing the protesters honked in support.
- Over 1,100 workers from two Warrior Met Coal mines in Brookwood, Alabama have been on strike since April amid union contract negotiations with the company. It has become one of the largest labor demonstrations seen in the deep south, a region that is typically hostile to labor disputes.
- Workers say they took on a $6-an-hour cut in wages and reduced benefits in their 2016 union contract after Walter Energy, which eventually became Warrior Met Coal, declared bankruptcy in 2015.
- UMWA rejected a contract offered up by the company in April, just a few weeks after the strike began, which would have given workers a $1.50 pay increase over five years. Workers say they want pay and benefits to match what they were receiving before the contract that was signed in 2016.
- ''It's about time to get what we deserve. We brought this company out of bankruptcy,'' said Mike Wright, 45, a Brookwood miner on strike '' one of the dozens who were in attendance at the protest. ''We deserve to get back what we had.''
- Miners said that in addition to a cut in pay and benefits, the company has also gotten stricter on attendance. Workers could be expected to work seven days a week, up to 16 hours a day, and termination for missing more than four days of work except in the case of a family death.
- Coal mining is already a dangerous job, with miners going hundreds of feet underground and being exposed to toxic fumes, like methane gas.
- Brian Kelly, 50, a third-generation miner and president UMWA Local 2245 who attended the protest with his wife, two daughters and grandson, said that many of his coworkers struggle with paying medical bills after healthcare became more expensive for workers.
- ''We have debt collectors all over our people because we can't afford to pay these bills,'' Kelly said. ''There used to be a little respect for people who go down there'... and this company just lost all respect for us.''
- The company brought in contract replacement workers to keep the mines running, though workers say safety conditions have worsened and the company is running below capacity with the replacement workers.
- Fellow coal miners from Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia were in attendance at the rally, along with representatives from other labor unions like the AFL-CIO and the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.
- Actress Susan Sarandon also showed up in support of the strikers, telling the crowd that BlackRock ''is a horrible smear on the vision of the United States'' and that she admires the strength of the miners for continuing their strike.
- The protest in New York is one of multiple protests UMWA has held for the current strike. Nearly a dozen workers were arrested and charged with trespassing during a protest that was held at a Warrior Met Coal mine in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
- Carl White, 35, president of UMWA Local 2397, said that BlackRock likely sees ''that this company is not performing like it did when the union workers were in these coal mines''. ''We're not asking for much here,'' White said. ''It's time to come to the table and give us a fair and decent contract.''
- BlackRock declined to comment on the strike and protest. Warrior Met Coal did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
- Coronavirus Sequencing | NGS for COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) identification and characterization
- At a basic level, diagnostic testing helps clinicians manage patients, and infectious disease surveillance is required to manage populations.
- Diagnostic testing provides important yes/no answers for individual patients so that appropriate management can be provided.
- Surveillance helps public health officials track the path of the epidemic, understand transmission routes, perform contact tracing, determine the rate of viral evolution, and understand if the virus is changing in ways that could impact diagnostic or therapeutic effectiveness.
- NGS can provide unbiased detection of a novel pathogen in patient samples without prior knowledge of the organism.
- A key challenge in infectious disease detection is that many of the microbes, including viruses, that cause respiratory, digestive, and other diseases in humans, have not been researched and characterized and thus are not known or detected by targeted approaches such as PCR. Development of PCR assays requires knowledge of the pathogen genome. NGS plays a critical role in discovering these unknown, novel pathogens; the resulting genome sequence can then be used to develop routine tests such as PCR to help clinicians manage patients.
- NGS can be used to track the evolution of the pathogen genome to help public health officials monitor the spread of infection and determine the best isolation plan at a population level. Sequencing the virus from different patients over time can determine the rate of viral evolution, and address whether the virus is changing in ways that could impact pathogenicity as well as diagnostic or therapeutic effectiveness. PCR is designed to detect the presence of specific regions of the pathogen genome and will not identify new mutations across rapidly evolving pathogen genomes. Furthermore, PCR performance can suffer if mutations occur in the primer or probe binding regions.
- Epidemiologists can utilize NGS to study viral genome mutations from patient samples across the globe. They can use this information to build a genetic tree (or map) that can indicate the path of transmission between patients. Clusters due to genetic similarities in the pathogen belong to patients within the same transmission chains. These transmission chains allow public health officials to quickly determine the pathogen origin, track the path of the epidemic, understand transmission routes, and inform appropriate containment measures.
- A shotgun metagenomics workflow enables sequencing of both novel and known species. During an outbreak involving an unknown pathogen, multiple molecular diagnostic tests are often utilized; this may lead to unnecessary costs and delays in identifying the pathogen. Shotgun metagenomics can be used as a single comprehensive screening assay for identifying and characterizing pathogens. This research workflow can help accelerate outbreak investigations and support development of new lab tests for large-scale screening efforts.
- Once a pathogen such as SARS-CoV-2 is identified, a target enrichment workflow can provide the high sensitivity needed to detect the virus, and provide information about its epidemiology and evolution. This information can help researchers optimize infection control strategies, including monitoring when it's acceptable to de-escalate isolation mechanisms and resume normal activities, and aid in the development of vaccines.
- These complementary workflows using Illumina sequencing can be performed alongside traditional testing methods and integrated into a comprehensive outbreak response model.
- The Respiratory Virus Oligo Panel includes 7,800 probes to sequence common respiratory viruses, recent flu strains, SARS-CoV-2, and other coronaviruses, as well as human probes to act as positive controls. These probes are 80-mer oligos, spaced very close together, providing full genome coverage of all viruses in the panel. Table of viruses in the panel:
- Human coronavirus 229EHuman coronavirus NL63Human coronavirus OC43Human coronavirus HKU1SARS-CoV-2Human adenovirus B1Human adenovirus C2Human adenovirus E4Human bocavirus 1 (Primate bocaparvovirus 1 isolate st2)Human bocavirus 2c PK isolate PK-5510Human bocavirus 3Human parainfluenza virus 1Human parainfluenza virus 2Human parainfluenza virus 3Human parainfluenza virus 4aHuman metapneumovirus (CAN97-83)Respiratory syncytial virus (type A)Human Respiratory syncytial virus 9320 (type B)Influenza A virus (A/Puerto Rico/8/1934(H1N1))Influenza A virus (A/Korea/426/1968(H2N2))Influenza A virus (A/New York/392/2004(H3N2))Influenza A virus (A/goose/Guangdong/1/1996(H5N1))Human bocavirus 4 NI strain HBoV4-NI-385KI polyomavirus Stockholm 60WU PolyomavirusHuman parechovirus type 1 PicoBank/HPeV1/aHuman parechovirus 6Human rhinovirus A89Human rhinovirus C (strain 024)Human rhinovirus B14Human enterovirus C104 strain: AK11Human enterovirus C109 isolate NICA08-4327Influenza A virus (A/Zhejiang/DTID-ZJU01/2013(H7N9))Influenza A virus (A/Hong Kong/1073/99(H9N2))Influenza A virus (A/Texas/50/2012(H3N2))Influenza A virus (A/Michigan/45/2015(H1N1))Influenza B virus (B/Lee/1940)Influenza B virus (B/Wisconsin/01/2010)Influenza B virus (B/Brisbane/60/2008)Influenza B virus (B/Colorado/06/2017)Influenza B virus (B/Washington/02/2019)Human control genesTarget enrichment is a resequencing method that captures genomic regions of interest by hybridization to target-specific biotinylated probes. Target enrichment through hybrid''capture methods allows for highly sensitive detection and therefore does not require high read depth. Additionally, the target enrichment NGS workflow allows for near-complete sequence data of targets and opens up applications such as variant analysis for viral evolution or viral surveillance.
- Alternatively, amplicon sequencing is designed to detect the presence of the target pathogen in a sample by identifying specific regions of the pathogen genome. This method does not enable identification of new mutations across rapidly evolving pathogen genomes (as is required for viral evolution or viral surveillance studies).
- The target enrichment NGS workflow allows for near-complete sequence data of targets and opens up applications such as variant analysis for coronavirus evolution or viral surveillance studies. Compared to other targeted resequencing methods, such as amplicon sequencing, enrichment through hybrid capture allows for dramatically larger probe panels with more comprehensive profiling of the target regions. Additionally, the oligo probes used for hybrid''capture protocols remain effective even within highly mutagenic regions (which can be difficult for amplicon-based assays such as qPCR), allowing targeting of rapidly evolving viruses such as RNA viruses.
- Once a pathogen like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has been identified, amplicon sequencing can provide cost-effective, rapid, and scalable detection of the pathogen. When used as a general whole-genome sequencing diagnostic approach, it allows for broader target coverage, making it less susceptible to mutational effects. For research, viral whole-genome sequencing can be used to monitor viral mutations and allows phylogenetic analysis.
- Once a pathogen like the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus has been identified, a viral enrichment sequencing panel provides high sensitivity detection coupled with epidemiology information by detecting the full genome and the genomic mutations found across different samples. This information helps define the epidemiology of transmission and can assist public health officials in optimizing infection control strategies.
- The Illumina Respiratory Virus Oligo Panel expands detection to ~30 families of respiratory viruses and allows researchers to study co-infections with other viruses in the panel.
- This amplicon-based NGS test includes 2019-nCoV primers designed to detect RNA from the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
- Learn MoreVisit our Sequencing Platforms page to explore our portfolio. The choice of sequencer depends on which method(s) you use most frequently. See the workflows above for recommendations on which sequencer is optimal for which method.
- Chechen leader Kadyrov bans locals still unvaccinated against Covid-19 from entering mosques or shops & using public transport '-- RT Russia & Former Soviet Union
- In a bid to encourage mass inoculation against Covid-19, the authorities in Russia's Chechen Republic have introduced a strict policy banning all unvaccinated people from entering mosques and stores and using public transport.
- The new rules, some of the strictest the country has seen, were announced by Chechen Deputy Prime Minister Vakhit Usmayev on Monday. ''When visiting mosques, it is mandatory to have certificates of vaccination,'' he explained, noting that checks would also be carried out at retail outlets, sports events and entertainment facilities. Those using public transport will also be required to be inoculated and wear masks.
- On the same day, the regional health minister, Elkhan Suleimanov, announced that 60% of the region's adult population have received the first component of a Covid-19 vaccine, making it the first area in the whole country to achieve this feat. This percentage is often a figure stated for the acquisition of herd immunity. Writing on Telegram, Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov encouraged everyone to get vaccinated, calling it ''the only way to overcome the pandemic,'' urging locals to listen to advice from medical professionals.
- Also on rt.com Five Chechen officials targeted by human rights activists as lawsuit filed over alleged violence & persecution of LGBT citizens ''We are obliged to treat this issue with full responsibility and protect our residents from insidious infection,'' he wrote. ''I stress that we should not stop at the 60% mark, but vaccinate the entire adult population!''
- Mass vaccination against Covid-19 has been taking place in Russia since January 18 but has ramped up in recent months. While President Vladimir Putin has revealed his opposition to compulsory jabs, vaccination policy decisions have been put in the hands of regional heads. Many areas of the country are now forcing workers in specific sectors, such as catering and transport, to get inoculated. Vaccination in Russia is completely free of charge, and citizens have the option of four different domestically-made jabs: Sputnik V, Sputnik Lite, EpiVacCorona, and CoviVac.
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- Jared Kushner to open investment firm - The Jerusalem Post
- Affinity Partners to have office in Israel to pursue regional investments Jared Kushner looks on during the Middle East summit in Warsaw, Poland, February 14, 2019
- (photo credit: KACPER PEMPEL/REUTERS)
- Jared Kushner, former US president Donald Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser, plans to launch an investment firm in the coming months that will also have an office in Israel.
- Kushner has spent the six months since leaving office writing a book that has been described by the publisher as the ''definitive'' account of the Trump administration's term in office, and he is now in the final stages of launching Affinity Partners, a new investment firm.
- Sources said that Kushner remains close with Trump and that the establishment of the investment firm was a confirmation of reports that he is stepping away from politics for the foreseeable future and returning to the private sector.
- Before taking up his role in the White House, Kushner was CEO of Kushner Companies, where he oversaw multibillion-dollar real estate, media and hi-tech deals.
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- if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("656089") != -1){document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none";}else if(window.location.pathname.indexOf("/israel-news/") != -1){ document.getElementsByClassName("divConnatix")[0].style.display ="none"; var script = document.createElement('script'); script.src = 'https://player.anyclip.com/anyclip-widget/lre-widget/prod/v1/src/lre.js'; script.setAttribute('pubname','jpostcom'); script.setAttribute('widgetname','0011r00001lcD1i_12258'); document.getElementsByClassName('divAnyClip')[0].appendChild(script);}Affinity Partners' office in Israel will pursue regional investments and serve as a hub between Israel, the Gulf, India and throughout North Africa. Kushner was the key architect behind the normalization agreements between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, better known as the
- Affinity Partners will be based in the Miami area where Kushner and his wife, Ivanka Trump, currently reside.
- During his time in office, Kushner was a key administration contact for business leaders and helped negotiate the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, a free trade agreement between the three North American countries, as well as the OPEC+ oil deal that led to the largest cut in oil production in history.
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- Neuralink Rival Receives FDA Permission to Test Brain Chip in Humans | Observer
- Brain-computer interface is the latest frontier of artificial intelligence. Fakurian Design/Unsplash
- In April, Elon Musk's neurotech startup Neuralink proudly demonstrated an experiment of a macaque monkey with two ''Link'' devices implanted in his brain playing a video game'--solely with his mind. The next step, Musk said, would be testing the device in humans. While that timeline is up in the air, some of Neuralink's quiet competitors are already making rapid progress.
- Synchron, a New York startup that makes a brain-computer interface, or BCI, similar to Neuralink's, said Wednesday it had received the FDA's permission to test its brain device in human patients in what's known as an early feasibility study.
- Synchron's implantable device, called Stentrode, is smaller than a matchstick. Unlike Neuralink's ''Link'' device that requires drilling a two-millimeter hole in the patient's skull to install, Stentrode is small enough to be implanted via a blood vessel at the base of the neck. The device will then be maneuvered toward a vessel in the brain.
- Stentrode works by communicating through a tiny wire with a second implant in the chest. A transmitter then sends signals to an external computer near the patient.
- ''We have worked together to pave a pathway forward, towards the first commercial approval for a permanently implanted BCI for the treatment of paralysis,'' Synchron CEO Thomas Oxley said in a statement Wednesday.
- The company plans to enroll six patients in its U.S. trial later this year. An FDA-approved product could be on the market in as soon as three to five years.
- Last year, Synchron carried out a four-patient trial in Australia. The U.S. study will take a closer look at safety issues, including physical risks and cybersecurity, Oxley says.
- Brain-computer interface is latest frontier of artificial intelligence and biology. While the technology is in very early stage, a growing number of companies are looking to put it to commercial use, creating a challenge for the FDA.
- In April, the FDA authorized the first device falling under its BCI category'--a robotic wearable called IpsiHand developed by Washington University startup Neurolutions. The wearable is designed to help people disabled by a stroke regain control over their arm and hand function using their thoughts.
- Sen. Elizabeth Warren doubts bitcoin as inflation hedge, wants tighter regulation
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- Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNBC she's skeptical bitcoin will prove to be a reliable hedge against inflation over time. "Look at what's happened in the high volatility in the price of these things," the Massachusetts Democrat said.The idea that they're somehow a protection or a hedge, I don't think that's going to be borne out over time," she said. Many crypto bulls see bitcoin as a durable, long-term store of value that can counteract what they feel is irresponsible government spending.Sen. Elizabeth Warren told CNBC on Wednesday she's skeptical that bitcoin will prove to be a reliable hedge against inflation over the long run, a key reason some investors choose to own it.
- "People can make their own investment decisions, but to do that somehow assumes two things. One is that what's happening with bitcoin or any other cryptocurrency is somehow going to be divorced from what's happening elsewhere in the economy," the Massachusetts Democrat, a frequent Wall Street and crypto critic, said on "Squawk Box."
- The second assumption, according to Warren, is "crypto coins are not going to have their own inflationary pressures." She countered such a notion, saying inflation "may come from a different source than what happens with dollars, but look at what's happened in the high volatility in the price of these things."
- "The idea that they're somehow a protection or a hedge, I don't think that's going to be borne out over time," she added.
- Many crypto bulls believe bitcoin represents a durable, long-term store of value, providing protection against what they see as too much government fiscal spending on top ultra-accommodative monetary policies by global central banks causing problematically high inflation. Their reasoning is that eventual supply of bitcoin is capped at 21 million tokens. Currently, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market value has 18.77 million tokens in circulation.
- New bitcoins come into the market when so-called miners use high-powered computers to verify transactions across the blockchain, a decentralized digital ledger. That reward is systematically reduced roughly every four years in a technical event known as the "halving." The most recent occurred in May 2020.
- Many critics, Warren among them, point to bitcoin's penchant for wild price swings and believe it undercuts the premise of bitcoin as a store of value.
- In recent months, inflation concerns have permeated across the U.S. and other parts of the world as economies pick up steam from pandemic-related slowdowns. Against that backdrop, however, bitcoin tumbled from its all-time high near $65,000 in mid-April to below $30,000 this summer. As of Wednesday morning, bitcoin traded back near $40,000.
- Mike Novogratz, founder and CEO of crypto financial services firm Galaxy Digital, told CNBC earlier Wednesday that he believes theories about bitcoin's store-of-value potential cannot be shot down yet.
- "Bitcoin is 13 years old, so we're still very early in the adoption of these new technologies and these new assets. People are buying bitcoin because they have worries that our fiscal and monetary policy is out of control. So, yes, it's a broader debasement-of-currency hedge. It's a broader debasement-of-fiat-money hedge. That's mostly an inflation hedge. It doesn't mean it's going to go tick for tick with every CPI number," Novogratz said, referring to the consumer price index, a monthly inflation reading released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Warren wants to root out 'snake oil salesmen'In the wide-ranging interview, which also touched on her wealth-tax proposal, Warren called for cryptocurrencies to face tighter regulation, suggesting it will help root out "snake oil salesmen" and may shore up the confidence of investors in the nascent asset class.
- She likened it to the formation of the Food and Drug Administration in the early 20th century and the agency's crucial role in regulating medicines and treatments.
- "Once we really had an FDA that stood up and that said, 'You know what, we're going to test the drugs before they go onto the market. We're going to assure the public that they are safe.' Then look what happened. We got a whole lot more investment and obviously a much bigger market that helped the entire world," said Warren, a former Harvard Law School professor and key architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
- She pushed back on concerns that increased regulation would stifle innovation for still-emerging digital assets and blockchain technology.
- "I want people to have freedom to invest. I just don't want a system where the big guys, where the shadowy guys, where the guys you never quite see, can get out there and do pump-and-dump [schemes]," Warren said.
- "I think the question is not just regulation. The question is how it's aimed. Who takes advantage of their being no rules? It's the big guys. Who wins when there's no cop on the beat? It's the big guys," she added. "That's the part that I care about and I care about it happening before a lot of people have been wiped out."
- In the interview, Warren also made a fresh push for wealth tax, saying "Yes, Jeff Bezos, I'm looking at you."
- Port Houston on Twitter: "Bayport and Barbours Cut Container Terminals will not open today or tonight due to a hardware failure. We're working diligently to restore our systems and will provide updates as soon as we can. Click here to read the full noti
- Port Houston : Bayport and Barbours Cut Container Terminals will not open today or tonight due to a hardware failure. We're workin'... https://t.co/QSX6YdVFbY
- Wed Jul 28 16:44:27 +0000 2021
- Remington offers Sandy Hook families $33M to settle lawsuit
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- HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) - The maker of the rifle used in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting has offered some of the victims' families nearly $33 million to settle their lawsuit over how the company marketed the firearm to the public.
- Lawyers for now-bankrupt Remington filed the offers late Tuesday in Waterbury Superior Court in Connecticut. The nine families suing the company, who are being offered nearly $3.7 million apiece, are considering the proposals, their lawyers said.
- A Hartford lawyer representing Remington, James Rotondo, declined to comment Wednesday.
- A Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle made by Remington was used to kill 20 first graders and six educators at the Newtown, Connecticut, school on Dec. 14, 2012. The 20-year-old gunman, Adam Lanza, killed his mother at their Newtown home before the massacre, then killed himself with a handgun as police arrived at the school.
- Relatives of nine victims killed in the shooting say in their lawsuit that Remington should have never sold such a dangerous weapon to the public and allege it targeted younger, at-risk males in marketing and product placement in violent video games. They say their focus is on preventing future mass shootings.
- 08 March 2019, Bavaria, N¼rnberg: Rifles from the US manufacturer Remington will be on display at the company's stand at the IWA OutdoorClassics trade fair for hunting, shooting, outdoor and safety. Photo: Daniel Karmann/dpa (Photo by Daniel Karmann/ '...
- One of the plaintiffs, Nicole Hockley, whose 6-year-old son Dylan died in the shooting, said Wednesday that the families need to talk with their lawyers about the settlement offers and declined further comment.
- Joshua Koskoff, an attorney for the families, said the settlements were offered by two of Remington's insurers.
- "Ironshore and James River ... deserve credit for now realizing that promoting the use of AR-15s as weapons of war to civilians is indefensible. Insuring this kind of conduct is an unprofitable and untenable business model," Koskoff said in a statement.
- Remington's lawyers have denied the lawsuit's allegations.
- Remington, based in Madison, North Carolina, filed for bankruptcy last year for the second time in two years. Its assets were later sold off to several companies.
- Spotify Misses Overall Q2 User Target, Ad Revenue Jumps 110% - Variety
- Spotify, citing ongoing headwinds from the COVID pandemic, fell short of its total monthly user growth goal in the second quarter of 2021.
- The audio-streaming giant netted 7 million paying subscribers in Q2, growing Premium customers 20% year over year to reach 165 million, in line with expectations. Total monthly active users grew 22%, to 365 million in the quarter (a gain of 9 million) '-- which was just below its forecast.
- One bright spot: Spotify's ad revenue more than doubled, which the company said was helped by podcast ad sales including for ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' and the Obamas' Higher Ground podcasts.
- Click here to sign up for Variety's free Media Earnings newsletter.
- The company's previous Q2 guidance was for overall monthly users of 366 million-373 million and 162 million-166 million paying subscribers.
- ''While MAU growth was softer than expected in the first half of the year, we are seeing that trendline reverse and all the leading indicators show that we are back on track,'' Spotify CEO and founder Daniel Ek said in announcing the results. ''By accelerating our pace of innovation and investing for the long term, we continue to cement our standing as the preferred audio platform around the world.''
- Spotify is still on track for strong MAU growth for full-year 2021 that will outpace 2018 and '19, coming off a bumper crop of net adds last year, Ek told analysts on the Q2 call. He said he remains optimistic that over the long term the streamer can amass a base of 1 billion users.
- In discussing the lighter user adds in the quarter, Spotify said in its letter to shareholders, ''COVID-19 continued to weigh on our performance in several markets, and, in some instances, we paused marketing campaigns due to the severity of the pandemic.'' Specifically, MAU growth in India, Brazil and parts of Southeast Asia was below expectations, according to Ek. The company also blamed part of the shortfall on ''a temporary issue related to user intake on a third-party platform'' related to email verifications.
- The company issued bullish guidance for Q3 and Q4 user and subscriber growth. Spotify expects total MAUs of 377 million-382 million and paid subscribers of 170 million-174 million for the current quarter. For Q4, it projected 400 million-407 million overall MAUs and 177 million-181 million Premium subscribers.
- Q2 revenue of '¬2.33 billion (about $2.75 billion) was up 23% year over year, due to ''significant advertising strength and subscriber outperformance.'' Spotify Premium revenue grew 17% to '¬2.06 billion ($2.43 billion) and ad-supported revenue rose 110% to '¬275 million ($325 million).
- Spotify posted a net loss of '¬20 million ($24 million) for the quarter, an improvement from a net loss of '¬356 million ($420 million) in Q2 2020. It reported operating income of '¬12 million ($14 million), versus an operating loss of '¬167 million ($197 million) in the year-ago period.
- At the end of Q2, Spotify had 2.9 million podcasts on the platform, up from 2.6 million at the end of Q1. The percentage of monthly active users that listened to podcasts improved ''modestly'' relative to Q1, when about 25% of total users listened to podcasts, the company said.
- Among MAUs that engaged with podcasts in Q2, listening was up more than 30% year-over-year on a per-user basis. During the quarter, podcast share of overall consumption hours on Spotify also reached an all-time high, with total time spent listening to podcasts increasing 95% in aggregate, the company said.
- Spotify's podcast advertising growth '-- which topped its internal forecast '-- benefited from a triple-digit year-over-year gain at existing Spotify studios (The Ringer, Parcast, Spotify Studios and Gimlet) along with contributions from the Megaphone acquisition, the exclusive licensing of Joe Rogan's controversial and popular podcast, and projects from the Obamas' Higher Ground.
- On the earnings call, Ek said that podcast ad revenue in Q2 grew 627% year-over-year, or 200% on an ''organic basis'' (but didn't disclose revenue figures). He admitted he hasn't focused much of his time on Spotify's ad business, but said it is the second big revenue driver for Spotify: ''The potential is significant and the trendline is clear.''
- During the quarter, the company announced exclusive licensing deals for Alex Cooper's sex-positive ''Call Her Daddy'' podcast '-- which sources said was worth more than $60 million over three years '-- and Dax Shepard's ''Armchair Expert,'' both of which are now exclusively on Spotify. The company said ''The Joe Rogan Experience'' continues to perform above expectations, and The Ringer shows such as ''The Bill Simmons Podcast'' grew consumption ''significantly'' as the NBA headed into the playoffs.
- Ek said ''where possible,'' Spotify will look to land exclusive podcast deals, but said the company will be ''extremely opportunistic'' about such pacts.
- On the call, Ek was asked about a report that Spotify was considering expanding into live events. While he declined to comment on ''tests'' the company is conducting, he said that ''we've been involved in live events for many, many years.'' He noted that musicians can sell concert tickets through Spotify and that Spotify's Rap Caviar has hosted live shows in U.S. and U.K. In addition, earlier this year, the company ran a limited virtual concert series with tickets priced at $15. Ultimately, he said, ''We want to work with as many partners as we can'... to turn listeners into fans and turn fans into superfans.''
- Spotify also called out Olivia Rodrigo's new album, ''Sour,'' which in May set the record for biggest streaming debut for any album on the platform so far in 2021 with more than 63 million first-day streams worldwide.
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- Spotify loses $23.6 million in Q3, misses total user targets | AppleInsider
- Spotify reaches 365 million monthly active users, just missing forecast targets, yet posted a $23.6 million loss despite strong paid subscription numbers.
- Spotify has long operated at a net loss with the hope of one day establishing enough paid subscribers and ad revenue to offset its increasing costs. The company sometimes posts a profit in a quarter, but these occurrences are rare.
- The Wall Street Journal reports that Spotify has now failed to reach its forecast for total monthly active users. Despite missing its target, the company still increased its active user base by 22% YoY to 365 million.
- There are now 165 million paying subscribers, which is 20% higher than the year-ago quarter and a number that meets Spotify's goals. However, the company has lowered its annual growth target to around 400 million active users, and 177 million paid users.
- Despite the increase in users and improved ad performance, the company could not post a profit and its cashflow dropped significantly, too. Spotify generated only $40 million versus $48 million in the year-ago quarter.
- Controversy has surrounded Spotify thanks to its continual lack of profits. The company has been involved in multiple lawsuits surrounding music distribution and payments.
- Spotify's main competitor, Apple Music, is known to pay artists as much as double Spotify's rates per stream. Both companies charge similar rates, however Apple doesn't offer an ad-supported tier.
- Spotify has been banking on its push into podcasting to ultimately tilt the financial odds in its favor.
- Comparisons are hard to make as Apple doesn't share active user numbers on a regular basis, but the number was estimated to be around 72 million in June 2020. If Apple Music continues to grow at an estimated 30% to 40% per year, the company could cross 100 million paid subscribers in 2021.
- Sydney adds four weeks to lockdown as Australia COVID-19 cases grow
- People walk through the quiet city center during lockdown in Sydney, Australia, July 28, 2021. Reuters/Loren Elliott
- SYDNEY, July 28 '' Australia's biggest city, Sydney, extended a lockdown by four weeks on Wednesday after an already protracted stay-at-home order failed to douse a COVID-19 outbreak, with authorities warning of tougher policing to stamp out non-compliance.
- Far from a planned exit from lockdown in three days, the city of 5 million people and neighboring regional centers spanning 120 miles of coastline were told to stay home until Aug. 28 following persistently high case numbers since a flare-up of the virulent Delta variant began last month.
- The state of New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, reported 177 new cases for Tuesday, from 172 on Monday. That is the biggest increase since an unmasked, unvaccinated airport driver was said to have sparked the current outbreak. The state also reported the death of a woman in her 90s, the 11th death of the outbreak.
- Of particular concern, at least 46 of the new cases were people active in the community before being diagnosed, raising the likelihood of transmission, said authorities. They have cautioned that active community transmission must be near zero before rules are relaxed.
- ''I am as upset and frustrated as all of you that we were not able to get the case numbers we would have liked at this point in time but that is the reality,'' state Premier Gladys Berejiklian told a televised news conference.
- Berejiklian added police would boost enforcement of wide-ranging social distancing rules and urged people to report suspected wrongdoing, saying ''we cannot put up with people continuing to do the wrong thing because it is setting us all back''.
- In one case, a mourning ceremony attended by 50 people in violation of lockdown rules resulted in 45 infections, she said.
- The extension turns what was initially intended to be a ''snap'' lockdown of Australia's most populous city into one of the country's longest since the start of the pandemic and may spark the second recession of the A$2 trillion ($1.47 trillion) national economy in two years, according to economists.
- To minimize the economic impact, the NSW government said it would lift a ban on non-occupied construction in most of Sydney. However, it expanded a list of local government areas within the city where the ban would stay because of the prevalence of COVID-19 cases there.
- ''It's getting really difficult, day in and out, day by day, for us to continue running the same business,'' said Raihan Ahmed, a convenience store owner at Bankstown, one of the main affected suburbs. ''Somehow we have to survive and we are trying our best.''
- Federal falloutPatrolling police officers check ID information of people working out at a Bondi Beach outdoor gym area during a lockdown in Sydney, Australia, July 27, 2021. Reuters/Loren ElliottOpinion polls have showed slipping support for Prime Minister Scott Morrison's government amid criticism of a slow vaccination roll-out that has been blamed on changing regulatory advice and supply shortages.
- ''There is no other shortcut, there is no other way through, we have to just hunker down and push through,'' Morrison said during a televised news conference in the national capital Canberra.
- All Australians who wanted to vaccination would receive it by the end of the year and ''I would expect by Christmas that we would be seeing a very different Australia to what we are seeing now,'' he added.
- The NSW government said it was redirecting Pfizer Inc vaccine doses, which have so far been restricted to people aged 40-60, from relatively unaffected regional areas to final-year school students in the worst-affected Sydney neighborhoods.
- The state and federal governments also said they were expanding relief funding to enable affected companies to keep paying wages through the closure.
- In contrast to New South Wales, the states of Victoria and South Australia began their first day out of shorter lockdowns that halted outbreaks there. Victoria reported eight new cases, all of them isolated throughout their infectious period and another case still under investigation.
- Australia has kept its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with just over 33,200 cases and 921 deaths, out of a population of about 25 million, since the pandemic began.
- Sheila D on Twitter: "Portugal proposes denial of all services, including access to food from supermarkets, to unvaccinated, following France and Italy. Decision on Thursday. @ukcolumn @JamesDelingpole @adamcurry" / Twitter
- Sheila D : Portugal proposes denial of all services, including access to food from supermarkets, to unvaccinated, following Fr'... https://t.co/HTGaDE85RE
- Wed Jul 28 08:49:45 +0000 2021
- Bitcoin Price Surges On Massive Short Squeeze | Bitcoin Magazine: Bitcoin News, Articles, Charts, and Guides
- The bitcoin price surged to $40,000 on Sunday, but what was the reason for the move and why was it so explosive?
- The below is a recent edition of the Deep Dive, Bitcoin Magazine's premium markets newsletter. To be among the first to receive these insights and other on-chain bitcoin market analysis straight to your inbox, subscribe now.
- The short squeeze finally arrived.
- Late Sunday evening, the bitcoin price started to run and absolutely exploded higher, touching $40,000 on certain exchanges and hitting an unbelievable $48,000 on the Binance Perpetual Swap BTC/USDT contract.
- What was the reason for the move, and why was it so explosive?
- The first thing to understand is how derivatives work and how certain types of derivatives can affect the market.
- In last Friday's edition of the Daily Dive, we covered the structural changes that had occurred in the bitcoin derivatives market since May. Specifically, the increasing prevalence of stablecoin margined derivatives. To quickly recap some of the important points from Friday's report, there are two type of derivative contracts (broadly speaking): ones that use stablecoins as margin and ones that use crypto, or in this case specifically, bitcoin as collateral.
- It is advantageous to use stablecoins to long bitcoin instead of bitcoin itself because if bitcoin draws down while you are leveraged long, not only does your position take a hit but the value of the collateral you are using falls in tandem. This is a large reason that the May 19 sell off was so extreme.
- In The Daily Dive #024 A Dichotomy Emerges, we covered the divergence between the spot market accumulation taking place and the increasingly bearish sentiment and trading occurring via the derivatives markets, as funding was persistently negative for much of the past three months.
- ''Derivative and futures traders are bearish. Bitcoin stackers and hodlers are bullish. An explosive dichotomy in the market is beginning to emerge.''
- Specifically, bearish bets occurring on Binance using stablecoins as collateral had been occurring in increasing numbers over the past three months.
- Leading up to May, traders were increasingly using bitcoin as collateral to long bitcoin. This can be seen in the chart below which shows the proportion of crypto/stablecoin margined futures contracts.
- This short squeeze is the opposite. Traders were increasingly shorting bitcoin using stablecoins as collateral (i.e. shorting bitcoin via futures without having the underlying bitcoin).
- However, slowly but surely, accumulation by sat stackers ate away at the free float supply, which eventually gave way to a short squeeze.
- Austin health leaders preparing for alternate COVID-19 care sites, discussing mass casualty plans | KXAN Austin
- AUSTIN (KXAN) '--Twelve cases of the delta variant have been confirmed in Travis County, Dr. Desmar Walkes said Tuesday in a virtual Travis County Commissioners Court, however local health leaders believe the delta variant accounts for many more cases in the community.
- Dr. Walkes said Austin Public Health is seeing a ''rapid spread'' of the delta variant, mostly in unvaccinated people, and in younger people who are not yet approved to be vaccinated. Nearly 20% of people who are in the ICU with COVID-19 in Austin are under the age of 30.
- ''We're at a crossroads,'' Dr. Walkes said. ''We're planning for alternate care sites now.'' She also said area health leaders are talking seriously about ''mass casualty planning.''
- KXAN reached out to Austin Public Health to get more details on what that plan entails. A spokesperson told us: ''At this time both the alternate care site and mass casualty planning are still discussions and are not being operationalized as the hospitals have not requested that they needed either.''
- That spokesperson added that they know surges can happen within a couple of days, which is why they're having planning conversations now.
- Dr. Walkes reported that of the nearly 690,000 people who have been fully vaccinated in Travis County since January 1, 623 people have tested positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated. She stressed that even though we're seeing more breakthrough cases because of the delta variant, it's still important to get the vaccine.
- ''That is a good success rate for our community, that is what we need to talk away from this,'' Dr. Walkes said. ''The rise is not as important as the fact that the vaccine itself does protect.''
- Below you can see the University of Texas' most recent projections for both hospitalizations and ICU patients in the Austin-Round Rock area.
- According to the Austin COVID-19 dashboard, which was updated Sunday, 227 people are hospitalized right now. The seven day moving average is 37, which means roughly 37 people are being admitted to area hospitals daily. That statistic is largely what steers risk-based guidelines in the Austin-Travis County area.
- Stage 5 risk-based guidelines would be triggered when that seven-day moving average hits 50 or more. Health leaders can trigger it more quickly should they see a dramatic rate of increase. To move back down to Stage 3, the 7-day rolling average of new admissions would need to be less than 30.
- ''This unrelenting rise has to stop,'' Dr. Walkes said, noting that COVID-19 positivity rates have risen rapidly within the community in the past three weeks.
- ''This rise is unprecedented,'' Dr. Walkes said. ''In previous surges, it's taken up to 10 weeks to have this kind of impact in the number of cases and number of positive tests.''
- Also in Tuesday's briefing with Travis County Commissioners, APH Chief Medical Officer Dr. Mark Escott said the rise in hospitalizations is putting a strain on hospitals that have already lost a lot of staff.
- ''Our healthcare systems are stressed,'' Dr. Escott said. ''We have hundreds of nurses short in Travis County and the surrounding area. We've got dozens of EMTs and paramedics short right now throughout our EMS systems. We don't have the staffing that we had six months ago because people have left. Additional staffing from the state is gone.''
- Officials with Baylor Scott & White say they're managing through the shortages to staff their hospitals' needs for now.
- ''We're starting to see a lot of patients come back into the hospital that are extremely ill, so that takes a toll on our staff,'' said Dr. Rob Watson, Chief Medical Officer of Greater Austin Region of BSW Health.
- Dr. Watson says hospital system is working to give employees as much time off as possible to recharge for their mental and physical health. He asks community members to do their part through getting vaccinated and masking.
- ''Please help us, you know, start to tamp this down and get it going back in the other direction,'' Dr. Watson said.
- The Austin-Travis County area is in Stage 4 risk-based guidelines right now, which asks people who are unvaccinated to avoid any travel or shopping unless absolutely necessary, and to do so in a mask. It also asks people who are vaccinated to mask up.
- COVID-19: Risk-Based Guidelines with 7 Day Moving Averages for New Admissions as of 7/26/2021 (Austin MSA)The guidelines are not enforceable by Austin-Travis County, because of an executive order signed by Gov. Greg Abbott, but are what Dr. Walkes has previously called an individual call to action.
- Meanwhile, the CDC is expected to backpedal on some of its masking guidelines Tuesday. A federal official, who anonymously spoke to the Associated Press, said the agency would be recommending that vaccinated people wear masks indoors in parts of the country where the virus was surging.
- Several cities nationwide have already reinstated their masks mandates this month including Savannah, Georgia and St. Louis, Missouri.
- Simone Biles: American gymnast praised for 'prioritising mental wellness' - BBC Sport
- Dates: 23 July-8 August Time in Tokyo: BST +8 Coverage: Watch live on BBC TV, BBC iPlayer, BBC Red Button and online; Listen on BBC Radio 5 Live, Sports Extra and Sounds; live text and video clips on BBC Sport website and app. American gymnast Simone Biles was praised for prioritising "mental wellness over all else" after pulling out of the Olympic women's team final.
- The head of the US Olympic team, many gymnasts, and other sportspeople were among those to praise Biles' decision.
- The 24-year-old withdrew from the event after her vault, saying: "I have to focus on my mental health."
- "You've made us so proud," said Sarah Hirshland, chief executive of the US Olympic and Paralympic Committee.
- "We applaud your decision to prioritise your mental wellness over all else and offer you the full support and resources of our Team USA community as you navigate the journey ahead."
- Listen to the latest Olympics Daily podcast The US were favourites for gold after winning five successive world titles - in 2011, 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019 - in addition to back-to-back Olympic gold medals in London and Rio.
- After scoring 13.766 - her lowest Olympic vault score - Biles left the arena, but returned to support her team-mates as they took silver behind the Russian Olympic Committee, with Great Britain claiming bronze.
- Biles is a 30-time Olympic and World Championship medallist, and needs four podium finishes in Tokyo to become the most decorated gymnast - male or female - in history.
- She is widely referred to as the 'GOAT' (Greatest Of All Time).
- Jamaica gymnast Danusia Francis said: "Don't know about you but I think Simone Biles just empowered everyone to put their mental wellbeing above everything else. What a queen. GOAT in more ways than one."
- Former Great Britain gymnast Beth Tweddle, a bronze medallist in 2012, said on BBC One: "Since 2013 she's been undefeated in the all-around so every competition she goes in, everyone expects her to be perfection, and it's just not possible.
- "She was strong enough to say: 'I'm just not right today and I've got the belief in the rest of the girls. They know they can step up, that they can do their routines.'
- "And she went back in, she was their chief cheerleader, and she was getting the chalk for them. That shows how much of a leader she is, to be able to make that decision.
- "We have got to make sure that the health and wellbeing of every athlete is the main priority."
- BBC Headroom - Your Mental Health Toolkit France gymnast Melanie de Jesus dos Santos said: "We are not used to seeing Simone Biles like this. I would like to say that it is not easy because she is Simone Biles and everyone is watching her. It's so difficult psychologically for her."
- Japan gymnast Mai Murakami added: "This is very unusual for her, but if you're under a lot of pressure it can affect your body."
- Second place brought Biles her sixth Olympic medal, and she also won 19 world titles between 2013 and 2019.
- She has reached all five individual finals in Tokyo and is undecided on whether she will compete in her next event on Thursday, when she will attempt to become the first woman to retain the Olympic all-around title since 1968.
- "We're going to see," she said. "We're going to take it a day at a time and see what happens."
- Jordan Chiles, 20, replaced Biles in the women's team final, and said: "That was a huge thing. Those were definitely some big shoes that I had to fill and I'm very happy that I was able to do that.
- "Yes, she is the GOAT. I was able to show the world that not only can you fill amazing people's shoes but we also did this together as well."
- Team-mate Sunisa Lee, 18, added: "We were all so stressed. We honestly didn't know in that moment. She's freaking Simone Biles. She carries the team basically.
- "When we kind of had to step up to the plate and do what we had to do, it was very hard and stressful. But I'm very proud of us because we did that."
- After returning to the arena, Simone Biles cheered on her team-mates and celebrated USA's silver medal with her replacement Jordan Chiles'Just a friendly reminder: Olympic athletes are human'Former Olympic champion and retired US gymnast Aly Raisman said: "I feel sick to my stomach. It's horrible. I know that all of these athletes dream of this moment for their whole entire lives so I'm just completely devastated and just hoping Simone's OK.
- "It's just so much pressure, and I've been watching how much pressure has been on her in the months leading up to the Games - and it's just devastating.
- "Just a friendly reminder: Olympic athletes are human and they're doing the best they can. It's really hard to peak at the right moment and do the routine of your life under such pressure."
- Day-by-day guide to the Games Times and channels for BBC's live coverage Messages of support for Biles also came from other athletes - and figures outside sport.
- Boxer Manny Pacquiao said "once a champion, always a champion", while US alpine skier and two-time Olympic gold medallist Mikaela Shiffrin added: "Keep whipping out that smile of yours cause it is undeniably golden."
- Karl-Anthony Towns of NBA side Minnesota Timberwolves sent "nothing but love and positivity", while retired US figure skater Adam Rippon said: "I can't imagine the pressure Simone has been feeling. Sending her so much love. It's easy to forget she's still human."
- Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, said: "Gratitude and support are what Simone Biles deserves. Still the GOAT and we are all just lucky to be able to see her in action."
- Unicef USA tweeted: "Thank you for being a role model and showing the world it's OK to prioritise your mental health."
- Tokyo 2020 medal table The life and legacy of one of the UK's greatest talents: Join us for a celebration of Amy Winehouse Smalltown Boy: A powerful tale of a young gay man told through a disco classic
- Ex-Obama official exits Israeli spyware firm amid press freedom row | Surveillance | The Guardian
- A former Obama administration official who has faced criticism from press freedom groups for her role as a senior adviser at NSO Group has stepped down from the Israeli spyware company.
- The disclosure of the public departure of Juliette Kayyem, a high-profile national security expert and Harvard professor, as a senior adviser to NSO came just one day after a controversy over her role at the spyware group prompted Harvard to cancel an online seminar she was due to host.
- The ''webinar'', which was focused on female journalist safety, was cancelled after officials from the Committee to Protect Journalists, among others, criticised Kayyem's work for NSO, whose technology is claimed to have been used to target journalists and human rights campaigners. NSO has denied the allegations.
- Ahmed Zidan, CPJ's digital manager, said in a tweet that the former Homeland Security official's role at the event was akin to inviting a ''coal executive to talk about renewable energy''.
- The decision by Harvard's Shorenstein Center to cancel the event after receiving criticism of Kayyem's involvement in the webinar is the latest sign that spyware companies are coming under increasing scrutiny.
- The circumstances around Kayyem's departure are not clear.
- The former Obama administration official did not respond to several requests for comment.
- NSO announced six months ago it was hiring three new advisers to support the company's work to ''assist governments in fighting serious crime and terrorism'': Kayyem, Tom Ridge, the former US secretary of Homeland Security, and G¨rard Araud, the former French ambassador to the US.
- The company has said its technology is only intended to be used to fight crime and that it investigates allegations of wrongdoing by customers who license its technology.
- But since that announcement, NSO has faced allegations that its technology has been used to target members of civil society. WhatsApp, the popular messaging app, is suing NSO in a US court and has alleged that the company's spyware was used to hack 1,400 of its users over a two-week period last year. NSO has denied the allegations.
- The company is also reportedly under investigation by the FBI, according to Reuters, and is facing separate lawsuits in Israel. Last week, a New York Times reporter working with Citizen Lab alleged his phone had been targeted by Saudi Arabia using NSO technology. The company has denied the allegation.
- Juliette Kayyem waves to the crowd before her speech at the Democrat state convention in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 2014. Photograph: Boston Globe/Boston Globe via Getty ImagesThe latest controversy began when the Shorenstein Center announced last week it would host a ''webinar'' featuring Kayyem that was focused on ways female journalists could protect themselves, both on- and offline.
- In tweets that appear to have since been deleted, Kayyem joked that she would not be teaching women how to take down 200lb men, but that she would be offering advice to women that they might not like to hear, like not posting realtime photos of their children.
- Press freedom advocates questioned the Shorenstein Center's decision on Twitter. One campaigner, Courtney Radsch, noted the irony of Kayyem's involvement, and said she wondered if the event would cover how journalists could protect themselves from NSO Group's signature technology, Pegasus, which has been described as sophisticated malware that is almost impossible to detect.
- A spokeswoman for the Shorenstein Center declined to comment on the decision to cancel the event.
- But a person familiar with the matter said the the event's organisers had not been familiar with Kayyem's connection to NSO until after it was pointed out by critics on Twitter. Once Kayyem's work for NSO was discovered, the person said it confronted Kayyem and that there was ''no question'' that it would be cancelled.
- When the Guardian approached NSO late on Monday, the company said in an emailed statement that Kayyem had stepped down from NSO.
- ''Juliette played an important role advising NSO on its governance framework, and we're grateful for her leadership and experience during her time as senior adviser,'' the statement said. It added that her work for the company had concluded in 2019.
- Asked to clarify the date of her departure, since Kayyem was still listed as working as an adviser on NSO's website as recently as last weekend, NSO did not reply.
- The revelation marks the second time Kayyem's association with NSO has created controversy for the former Obama administration official. Kayyem was appointed last October to serve as an opinion section contributor at the Washington Post. At the time, an editorial page editor noted that Kayyem was a ''leading voice in her field'' and would ''help make sense of how the US approaches its most challenging national security issues''.
- But days later, Kayyem announced she would not accept the job after facing criticism on Twitter about her role at NSO. At the time, she said in a statement on Twitter that she was working at NSO to help ''ensure that this technology is used appropriately, and that fundamental human rights are protected and respected''.
- ''I still believe reasonable people can disagree on issues of our security and rights and will continue to speak and write about that,'' she said.
- Instagram clip of woman struggling to walk after being vaccinated fuels anti-vax sentiment | Daily Mail Online
- A series of Instagram videos showing a woman struggling to walk after being jabbed appears to be fuelling anti-vaccine sentiment among younger people.
- In one of the posts, Georgia-Rose Segal, 34, is seen staggering before nearly collapsing on to a kitchen floor. Another clip in the same series then shows her legs and feet spasming in a hospital bed.
- The videos were uploaded to the Instagram account Imjustbait, which has attracted 4.7 million followers since it was set up by Anthony 'Antz' Robb in 2014.
- The caption reads: 'Since the 29th June after her second Pfizer jab, Georgia has had daily episodes of fainting, developing into neurological issues and losing the use of her legs. And yes, she was perfectly fit and healthy before!'
- The post, which has more than 100,000 likes, sparked debate in the comment section, with several popular Instagram users outlining fears about possible side-effects from the coronavirus vaccine.
- While Ms Segal's condition is extremely rare, it is an acknowledged side effect, so Instagram is not taking the video down.
- In one of the posts, Georgia-Rose Segal, 34, is seen struggling to walk before nearly collapsing on to a kitchen floor
- THE MINIMAL RISKS OF COVID VACCINES The COVID-19 vaccines can cause side effects, but not everyone gets them.
- Most are mild and should not last longer than a week.
- They can include a sore arm from the injection, feeling tired, a headache, feeling achy, and feeling or being sick.
- You may also get a high temperature or feel hot or shivery 1 or 2 days after your vaccination. If symptoms get worse or you're worried, the NHS advises calling 111.
- You cannot catch COVID-19 from the vaccine, but you may have caught it just before or after your vaccination.
- Most people with allergies (including food or penicillin allergies) can be vaccinated against COVID-19, but you should tell healthcare staff before you're vaccinated if you've ever had a serious allergic reaction (including anaphylaxis). They may ask what you're allergic to, to make sure you can have the vaccine.
- Serious allergic reactions to the COVID-19 vaccines are very rare.
- If you do have a reaction, it usually happens in minutes. Staff giving the vaccine are trained to deal with allergic reactions and treat them immediately.
- If you have a serious allergic reaction to the 1st dose of a vaccine, you should not have the same vaccine for your 2nd dose.
- The MHRA is carrying out a detailed review of reports of an extremely rare blood clotting problem affecting a small number of people who had the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
- It's not yet clear why it affects some people.
- The COVID-19 vaccine can help stop you getting seriously ill or dying from COVID-19. For people aged 40 or over and those with other health conditions, the benefits of being vaccinated with the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine outweigh any risk of clotting problems.
- For people under 40 without other health conditions, it's preferable for you to have the Pfizer/BioNTech or Moderna vaccine instead of the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine.
- There have been rare cases of inflammation of the heart reported after COVID-19 vaccination. Most people who had this recovered following rest and simple treatments.
- It is not yet clear if it was caused by the vaccines, but get urgent medical advice if you have any of these symptoms within a few days of being vaccinated:
- Chest painShortness of breathA fast-beating, fluttering or pounding heart (palpitations) Source: NHS
- Recent figured have revealed that while infections among young adults have soared to a record high, vaccine uptake has slowed to a fraction of what it was in the spring.
- One in three 18-to-29 year olds have still not had a first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine, NHS England figures show.
- But the virus is running rampant in this age group, with more than one in 100 aged 20 to 29 testing positive last week.
- One comment from an account which has 86,000 followers on the video of Ms Segal says: 'This is why I have not got it yet, I'll get it if it's life and death but mans had covid and got over it like a cold and no one gave man a vaccine for my cold.'
- Another, from a user with 20,000 followers, says: 'And this is the s*** they're trying to force into everyone's bodies... no thanks, had worse colds than Covid.'
- Others write that the risk of developing the neurological condition is very low, and typically caused by emotional or psychological distress.
- 'It's unfortunate for sure, but I've had both of mine and I'm perfectly fine, I would really urge everyone to get it,' one user writes.
- Ms Segal said her Instagram page had originally been 'very private', but she made it an open account because her friends wanted to share her experience, The Times reports.
- The Imjustbait account then offered to publish her videos.
- Having spent nine days in hospital, Ms Segal now hopes to crowdfund enough money to see an alternative medicine specialist in California to treat her fainting and leg condition.
- Around three million young adults in the UK are yet to be vaccinated, even though all over-18s have been eligible since June 18.
- Public Health England yesterday revealed that case rates among those in their 20s are higher than in any age group since the pandemic began.
- The current weekly infection rate of 1,155 cases per 100,000 compares to a rate of just 60 per 100,000 in those over 80.
- In total, 88 per cent of adults have had their first dose, but this falls to 66 per cent among those aged 18 to 29.
- The video appears to have stoked scepticism over the benefits of the Covid vaccine.
- After watching the clips, 23-year-old Birmingham waitress Kevani Aird, could not stop thinking about them.
- She does not want to get vaccinated, and none of her immediate family have been jabbed.
- Ms Aird said: 'I don't trust it, to be honest with you. I just don't trust the government in general. I don't think it's worth the risk.'
- While 44% of under-30s are now vaccinated, Birmingham has the lowest level of any English local authority.
- But despite last month's 'Glastonbury-style' rush from young people to get vaccinated, parts of Britain are now seeing a slump in uptake.
- The lower risk of Covid to younger people could play a part in the hesitancy to get vaccinated.
- Just 237 under-30s are among the more than 140,000 people to have died with Covid on their death certificates.
- Chairman of the Royal College of GPs, Professor Martin Marshall, said that risk of infertility is 'probably the biggest concern' he heard from young people.
- One of the videos posted on Instagram shows Ms Segal struggling to walk in a hospital ward
- NHS trusts and councils have been stressing that these claims are false on social media.
- Aston University science student Sasha Bunn, 20, was positive about getting vaccinated but had seen a number of negative online posts about women 'being less fertile'.
- While the clips of Ms Segal are not being removed, the videos have been 'restricted', meaning it will not be recommended and will be less prominent.
- Instagram said: 'We are running the largest online vaccine information campaign in history, and through our work with the NHS and UK government we've directed over 13.5 million visits to accurate information about the virus and approved vaccines.'
- PayPal Partners with ADL to Fight Extremism and Protect Marginalized Communities | Anti-Defamation League
- SAN JOSE, Calif., July 26, 2021 -- PayPal Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: PYPL), in partnership with ADL (the Anti-Defamation League), today announced a new partnership initiative to fight extremism and hate through the financial industry and across at-risk communities. This is the latest effort by PayPal in combating racism, hate and extremism across its platforms and the industry.
- PayPal Partners with ADL to Fight Extremism and Protect Marginalized CommunitiesThrough this collaboration, PayPal and ADL have launched a research effort to address the urgent need to understand how extremist and hate movements throughout the U.S. are attempting to leverage financial platforms to fund criminal activity. The intelligence gathered through this research initiative will be shared broadly across the financial industry and with policymakers and law enforcement.
- "By identifying partners across sectors with common goals and complementary resources, we can make an even greater impact than any of us could do on our own," said Aaron Karczmer, Chief Risk Officer and EVP, Risk and Platforms, PayPal. "We are excited to partner with the ADL, other non-profits and law enforcement in our fight against hate in all its forms."
- The initiative with PayPal will be led through ADL's Center on Extremism, a leading authority on extremism, terrorism and hate. PayPal and ADL will focus on further uncovering and disrupting the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements. In addition to extremist and anti-government organizations, the initiative will focus on actors and networks spreading and profiting from all forms of hate and bigotry against any community.
- "All of us, including in the private sector, have a critical role to play in fighting the spread of extremism and hate. With this new initiative, we're setting a new standard for companies to bring their expertise to critical social issues," said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO, ADL. "We have a unique opportunity to further understand how hate spreads and develop key insights that will inform the efforts of the financial industry, law enforcement, and our communities in mitigating extremist threats."
- Core to the PayPal and ADL initiative is the establishment and expansion of a coalition with other civil rights partner organizations, such as the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), to protect marginalized communities against extremism. PayPal and ADL will work closely with these organizations to share trends in extremism and hate with marginalized and vulnerable communities with the goal of helping to empower and safeguard those communities which are frequently targets of hate groups and extremist acts.
- "This innovative partnership between ADL and PayPal encourages us to think outside the box when fighting evil," said Sindy Benavides, CEO, LULAC. "We hope to see more private and public partnerships such as these to help raise the social awareness of the public to the dangers that exist in plain sight. Attacking these hateful groups' revenue sources weakens their reach and exposes just how unstable they truly are. The data and research collected from experts will help organizations, like LULAC, inform their strategy to combat evil. We congratulate these organizations and will continue to stand alongside them against hate."
- "I applaud PayPal and the ADL for joining forces to combat hate and extremist movements who seek to utilize financial platforms to bankroll their criminal activities and profit from the spread of racism and bigotry," said Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Jr. "My office stands ready to assist financial institutions and businesses of all kinds in this urgent fight to stop hate and protect members of historically marginalized communities."
- ADL has been combating extremist threats across the ideological spectrum for decades. Its staff of investigators, analysts, researchers and technical experts strategically monitors, exposes and disrupts extremist threats '' on the internet and on the ground. ADL provides resources, expertise and educational briefings that enable law enforcement providers, public officials and community leaders, as well as internet and technology companies, to identify and counter emerging threats.
- This partnership is the most recent example of PayPal extending the reach of its financial crimes capabilities through multi-sector collaborations to address critical societal and community issues. PayPal also maintains partnerships with Polaris to combat human trafficking through a joint Financial Intelligence Unit, as well as a multi-sector research initiative to better understand illegal firearm trafficking and financing.
- About PayPalPayPal has remained at the forefront of the digital payment revolution for more than 20 years. By leveraging technology to make financial services and commerce more convenient, affordable, and secure, the PayPal platform is empowering more than 375 million consumers and merchants in more than 200 markets to join and thrive in the global economy. For more information, visit paypal.com.
- About ADLADL is the world's leading anti-hate organization. Founded in 1913 in response to an escalating climate of antisemitism and bigotry, its timeless mission is to protect the Jewish people and to secure justice and fair treatment for all. Today, ADL continues to fight all forms of hate with the same vigor and passion. A global leader in exposing extremism, delivering anti-bias education, and fighting hate online, ADL is the first call when acts of antisemitism occur. ADL's ultimate goal is a world in which no group or individual suffers from bias, discrimination or hate.
- 49 people who were fully vaccinated have died of COVID in N.J. Here's what we know. - nj.com
- More than half of so-called "breakthrough" COVID deaths were people who had underlying conditions. (Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com) Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
- There have been 49 fully vaccinated people in New Jersey who have died from the coronavirus through July 12, state health officials told NJ Advance Media on Wednesday.
- More than half of those who died had at least one underlying medical condition, according to Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health.
- The number of deaths has increased since Gov. Phil Murphy announced on Monday that there had been 31 fully vaccinated people who died of COVID through June 28. The latest number includes cases through July 12, the latest data available, Leusner said.
- All of the deaths were people over age 50, with 30 of them over age 80. Thirteen of the deaths were people between the ages of 65 and 79, and six were between the ages of 50 and 64, Leusner said.
- Of the 27 deaths of people with underlying conditions, 17 had cardiovascular disease, seven had diabetes and nine had cancer or other immunocompromised conditions, she said. Five had chronic lung conditions, three had chronic kidney disease, one had chronic liver disease and five others are listed as ''other chronic diseases.'' Some of the people who died had more than one underlying condition.
- Data about whether any of the people who died were nursing homes residents was not available.
- ''It is important to point out that 49 deaths due to COVID-19 among 4.8 million fully vaccinated state residents is slightly greater than one in 100,000 fully vaccinated individuals,'' said state communicable disease service medical director Ed Lifshitz. ''That means vaccines are about 99.999% effective in preventing deaths due to COIVD-19.''
- While those who are most at risk of death from COVID-19 are unvaccinated people with underlying conditions, fully vaccinated people with underlying conditions will remain at risk as long as a large part of the population is unvaccinated, said Perry Halkitis, dean of the Rutgers School of Public Health.
- ''The solution to our problems both in terms of stopping the deaths and also stopping the spread of the disease depends on increasing the percentage of the population who are vaccinated,'' Halkitis said. ''But we have the flu vaccine in 59% of people. Why do we think we're going to get higher than that with COVID-19?''
- ''But we have to get higher than that. It's got to be better,'' he added.
- More than 5.18 million people who live, work, or study in New Jersey have now been fully vaccinated, according to state data. There are more than 9 million residents in the state, including children under the age of 12 who are not yet eligible to be vaccinated.
- About 70% of the eligible population is vaccinated in New Jersey, ranking about 7th in country, according to CDC data.
- If more people don't get vaccinations, Halkitis said, he expects new restrictions in the months to come because ''unvaccinated people are placing themselves and all of us at risk.''
- Please subscribe now and support the local journalism YOU rely on and trust.
- NJ Advance Media staff writer Brent Johnson contributed to this report.
- Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.
- Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.
- Group calls on white people not to send kids to Ivy League schools so black students can get a spot | Daily Mail Online
- A social justice group has said it sent a letter to white Democrats in two wealthy Texas neighborhoods calling on them to pledge their children will not apply to Ivy League schools so that black students can get a spot instead.
- Dallas Justice Now (DJN), which appears to have been set up recently, is asking white supporters of Black Lives Matter to commit to 'making sacrifices to correct centuries of injustice.'
- The group is specifically calling on white people to sign its 'college pledge' not to send their children to Ivy League or US News & World Report Top 50 schools 'and instead leave those spots open for students from Black, LatinX, and other marginalized backgrounds who were denied access to these institutions for hundreds of years.'
- Ethnic minorities have long been underrepresented in Ivy League schools. At Harvard and Princeton, only around 6 percent of the total student body are black, according to Data USA. At Columbia and Cornell this figure stood at around 5 percent, while Brown around 7 percent.
- DJN said in a press release it has sent the pledge out to the '95 percent white Highland Park and University Park neighborhoods'.
- Data from the US Census Bureau shows 88 percent of residents in University Park are white, with just 1.5 percent of people being black or African American. In Highland Park, 91 percent are white and less than 1 percent black or African American.
- Both areas are among the richest in the state, with residents enjoying a median household income above $200,000 and Highland Park ranking in the 10 wealthiest communities in America back in 2018.
- The average house price stood at $1.3 million in University Park and $1.5 million in Highland Park between 2015 and 2019, with some mansions along the iconic Beverly Drive currently on the market for $10 million.
- A social justice group has sent a letter to white Democrats in two wealthy Texas neighborhoods calling on them to pledge their children will not apply to Ivy League schools so that black students can get a spot instead. The letter above
- Highland Park and University Park are among the richest areas in the state. The average house price stood at $1.3 million in University Park and $1.5 million in Highland Park between 2015 and 2019. Pictured a villa in Highland Park
- The pledge letter, seen by Dallas City Wire, tells rich, white people they 'earned or inherited your money through oppressing people of color'.
- 'We are writing to you because we understand you are white and live within the Highland Park Independent School District and thus benefit from enormous privileges taken at the expense of communities of color,' the letter reads.
- 'You live in the whitest and wealthiest neighborhood in Dallas, whether you know it or not, you earned or inherited your money through oppressing people of color.'
- It goes on to call out the white Democrats who stand with the Black Lives Matter movement, saying now is the time for them to 'step up' and make the area 'more just.'
- 'However, it is also our understanding that you are a Democrat and supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement, which makes you one of our white allies and puts you in a position to help correct these cruel injustices,' it reads.
- 'We need you to step up and back up your words with action and truly sacrifice to make our segregated city more just.'
- A woman called Jamila posted a video on the group's Facebook page this month describing it as a 'nonprofit advocacy group'
- The pledge asks the recipient to check one of two boxes: 'I am a racist hypocrite' or 'I agree' to the pledge.
- The group warned on its website it will publicly announce the names of people who have and have not signed the pledge.
- It is not clear how the group has identified the group of 'white Democrats' it sent the letter to or how many people have received it.
- Spokesperson and founder of DJN Michele Washington hit out at white BLM supporters in the wealthy areas who put up signs but have failed to 'make any sacrifices' to drive real change.
- 'White abolitionists died in the Civil War so that we could live as free men and women.
- 'White freedom riders risked their lives at the hands of the KKK to end the racist Jim Crow Laws,' she told DailyMail.com in a statement.
- 'Now, wealthy white liberals in 95 percent white enclaves like the Park Cities in Dallas profit by professing support for Black Lives Matter on social media, displaying us like animals at their charity galas, and taking Instagram pictures of themselves at our rallies all the while failing to make any sacrifices themselves to cure the problems that they and their ancestors created and profited from.'
- Washington said college education at an Ivy League or Top 50 school is a social mobility tool and argued that sacrificing the place of a white student is 'a minor sacrifice for privileged families.'
- Dallas Justice Now (DJN), which appears to have been set up recently in Dallas, is asking white allies to commit to 'making sacrifices to correct centuries of injustice'. The group's website above
- The group said it was hosting a meet and greet earlier this month and posted images of a handwritten sign and people signing a document
- 'Imagine the progress we could make ending the multi trillion dollar wealth gap if those hundred thousand spots at top colleges went to Black and LatinX students,' she said.
- 'We understand that this is a minor sacrifice for privileged families but we think it is the least they can do if they truly are allies of our community.'
- Washington told Dallas City Wire people posting support on social media but not taking action 'are the problem.'
- 'If whites want to be our allies, they must make sacrifices,' she said.
- 'Many people think they can get by just posting on social media - it's hurtful to those of us who have dedicated our lives to social justice when they think that is enough to remedy hundreds of years of oppression.'
- The letter has sparked some disagreement in the local community, with the group clashing with a white woman over its call to action.
- Casie Tomlin claimed she received the pledge letter and could not believe it was real.
- 'There's no way an organization would send this,' Tomlin told Dallas City Wire.
- Washington responded by branding Tomlin a 'racist Karen' and accused her of reporting the group to the police over the pledges.
- Tomlin has denied the allegations, telling Dallas City Wire: 'I wholeheartedly dispute and deny all accusations made by Michele Washington and Dallas Justice Now.
- Dallas Country Club in Highland Park. Data from the US Census Bureau shows 91 percent of residents in the wealthy suburb are white and less than 1 percent black or African American
- 'I am now and have always been an active advocate for social justice.'
- DJN appears to have been set up toward the end of last year with a Facebook page for the group posting its first photo in October.
- In a post on June 25, the group announced it was nearing completion of its website.
- A woman who said she is called Jamila posted a video on the Facebook page this month describing the group as a 'nonprofit advocacy group.'
- 'I'm Jamila with Dallas Justice Now,' she said.
- 'We are a nonprofit advocacy group in Dallas and we are fighting for change, we are fighting for equality.
- 'We are wanting to bridge gaps and we just want to catch up.'
- Jamila said she is a parent and wants to send her children to college - something she said would create 'generational wealth' and have a 'trickle down effect' on other generations in the community.
- The group said it was hosting a meet and greet earlier this month and posted images of a handwritten sign and people signing a document on the Facebook page.
- Washington told Dallas City Wire that DJN is planning to launch an Advisory Council which will include Professor Troy Harden, director of the Race and Ethnic Studies Institute at Texas A&M University.
- Harden denied any involvement with the group when reached for comment by DailyMail.com, saying 'it's not true.'
- Harvard University above. Harvard announced a more diverse class of 2025 in April with 18 percent identifying as African American or black
- Calls for more diversity in Ivy League schools have mounted over the last year in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and BLM protests calling for and end to racism
- A BLM protest in Dallas, Texas, last year as people demanded racial justice in the wake of George Floyd's murder
- Calls for more diversity in Ivy League schools have mounted over the last year in the wake of the murder of George Floyd and BLM protests demanding an end to racism across America.
- Harvard announced a more diverse class of 2025 in April with 18 percent of students identifying as African American or black, 27.2 percent Asian American, 13.3 percent as Latinx, 1.2 percent as Native American, and 0.6 percent as Native Hawaiian.
- Meanwhile, the university is being sued by a group that claims it imposes a 'racial penalty' on Asian American applicants by systematically scoring them lower in some categories than other applicants and awarding 'massive preferences' to black and Hispanic applicants.
- Harvard denies that it discriminates against Asian American applicants and says its consideration of race is limited.
- Lower courts sided with the university but the plaintiffs, a group called Students for Fair Admissions and anti-affirmative action activist Edward Blum, appealed the decision.
- Last month, the Supreme Court asked the Biden administration to give its views on whether the justices should hear the challenge.
- Sydney COVID: Taxpayers spend more than $580 million on COVID-19 testing in NSW
- NSW Chief Health Officer Kerry Chant said testing capacity was beginning to ''max out'' when more than 82,000 people were tested on Friday, since which time the daily rate has increased to around 100,000. On Tuesday, her deputy Dr Jeremy McAnulty said the state was actively reviewing the use of rapid antigen tests.
- ''The technology changes all the time and there has been a rapid surge of new technology in terms of diagnostics in the past year,'' Dr McAnulty said. ''We are working closely to work out where rapid antigen tests may be most useful - for example in businesses or various industries.''
- Rapid antigen testing has been used by film and television production companies and Opera Australia to screen employees for COVID-19. It is widely used in Germany, Singapore and the United Kingdom. At-home rapid antigen tests are currently prohibited under therapeutic goods legislation.
- The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia is opposed to its widespread use due to the higher incidence of false negatives.
- Henning Liljeqvist, an epidemiologist and public health consultant, said officials had sought his advice on the value of rapid antigen tests following speculation the government had chosen not to use them as a result of lobbying by pathology companies.
- Dr Liljeqvist said it had a place in surveillance testing because it picked up positive cases almost immediately so people did not go home and infect their families. It could be rolled out widely in workplaces and its speed compensated for the slight reduction in sensitivity compared to PCR.
- ''I'm not suggesting that we should replace PCR with rapid antigen testing,'' Dr Liljeqvist said. ''If we ever need a diagnostic test we need that precision that we have with the PCR test. But PCR simply can't cope with the number of tests we need to do for the best, most effective surveillance testing.''
- But pathology companies said they had not yet reached their limit and most laboratories were able to perform more tests without reducing turnaround time. Three public laboratories in NSW are each performing 4000-5000 tests per day, while private companies are doing up to 20,000.
- NSW Health said in a statement that despite record testing rates, its laboratories still had the capacity to surge, and they were delivering negative results within 24 to 72 hours.
- Bill Rawlinson, who runs the public laboratory at Prince of Wales Hospital in Randwick, said testing could be upscaled through pooling, whereby several samples are tested in a group and only re-tested individually if the group tests positive. This had been done in some form since February.
- ''We've not yet come to capacity, certainly in our lab and certainly not in the other public health laboratories,'' Professor Rawlinson said.
- ''The reality is that, as a public laboratory, we have a very similar approach to [the private labs]. There's no doubt that the PCR tests are better than rapid antigen tests at the moment.''
- Greg Granger, director of strategic operations at Histopath, said there was room for growth in the amount of PCR testing performed in NSW and a switch to rapid antigen testing would compromise on quality. ''That's the trap that other countries have fallen into and the virus has got away from them,'' Mr Granger said.
- Scientists were developing on-the-spot PCR testing, though it would not be cheaper than PCR testing, he said.
- Grattan Institute health economist Stephen Duckett said depending on the brand, rapid antigen tests can be anywhere between 60 to 90 per cent accurate, compared to about 98 per cent accuracy for PCR tests.
- ''In my view we should be using rapid antigen tests as a screening test, for example in schools or big venues. They are cheap and quick. They aren't perfect but really increase our options.''
- Dr Sean Parsons, founder of at-home COVID-19 test biotech Ellume, said there was ''limited utility'' for rapid antigen tests while there was very low community transmission.
- ''But sooner or later COVID-19 will escape the elimination strategy,'' Dr Parsons said.
- ''We cannot do hotel quarantine forever and lockdowns forever. Rapid antigen tests are useful for ubiquitous and frequent testing, catching the most at risk people for transmission, compared to PCR tests that are far more expensive and have far longer delays in results.
- ''The country has been slow on the vaccine rollout. And if we're not careful, we're going to be slow with these additional tools.''
- Stay across the most crucial developments related to the pandemic with the Coronavirus Update. Sign up to receive the weekly newsletter.
- Rising Seas Are Coming For Big Tech Campuses. Who Will Pay To Protect Them? : NPR
- In the heart of Silicon Valley, the world's biggest tech companies are expanding their headquarters on the edges of San Francisco Bay.
- Google has bought more than 70 properties in the past five years in Sunnyvale to expand its campus, worth almost $3 billion.
- Farther north, Facebook has acquired properties now worth more than $2.5 billion in the last decade.
- The company has built a state-of-the-art campus, designed by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry. Facebook
- Nearby, some of the few low-income communities in Silicon Valley are also vulnerable to flooding.
- In just a few decades, sea levels could rise almost 2 feet, flooding the area if a major storm hits.
- Caption: Map shows 1.7 feet of sea level rise, plus a 20-year storm event, with no additional shoreline protection.
- By the end of the century, the risk is even greater.
- Caption: Map shows 4.9 feet of sea level rise, plus a 20-year storm event, with no additional shoreline protection.
- Google's campus is at risk, too.
- Local governments are planning to build massive levee projects to hold the water back, costing hundreds of millions of dollars.
- The price is more than they can afford.
- JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQEDWhat's certain: The water is coming.
- What's not certain: Who should pay for it?
- The entrance to Facebook's headquarters in Menlo Park is marked by a piece of Silicon Valley iconography. It's a huge thumbs-up, taller than a person, the symbol used as the social media giant's ''like'' button. It's not unusual to see people taking selfies in front of it.
- Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty ImagesThe rest of the campus is bordered by something less eye-catching: a 9-foot-tall earthen berm. It's the barrier that protects Facebook's east campus, 1 million square feet of office space on land that juts into San Francisco Bay.
- ''Some people refer to them as levees, but they're really just mounds of dirt,'' says Kevin Murray, senior project manager with the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, an agency that works on flood protection in the area.
- Levees protecting Menlo Park and East Palo Alto, Calif., don't currently meet federal safety standards. JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQED
- Facebook's shoreline campus, along with surrounding roads, homes and businesses, depends on levees that were never designed to protect people. In the 1940s, salt-making companies mounded up mud to form large ponds where bay water evaporated, leaving behind crystalline salt.
- Over the years, government agencies have maintained the levees. But the whole region is considered a flood zone because the levees weren't constructed to meet safety standards, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency created to ensure the barriers can withstand extreme storms.
- ''We know that the structures that are providing flood barrier now are not adequate and are subject to failure if we have a really big tide or a big wind event or a big storm surge,'' Murray says.
- Outside Facebook's campus, the remnants of historical salt production are still visible today. Cris BentonClimate change is only increasing that risk.
- San Francisco Bay has already risen almost 8 inches in the past century. By 2050, the bay is expected to rise between 0.9 feet and 1.9 feet, depending on how much more greenhouse gas pollution humans emit.
- By the end of the century, the water could be as much as 5 feet higher or more, if emissions don't fall.
- Coastal cities grapple with "fair share"Like Facebook's campus, billions of dollars of new coastal development is on land that will inevitably become ocean in a hotter climate. Many projects were built even after those risks were well-understood.
- To stop the water, cities are looking at installing multibillion-dollar defenses on their shorelines. But those plans vastly outstrip their ability to pay. That has local governments struggling to figure out who bears the cost of climate change.
- Most cities are looking to federal funding since large amounts of public infrastructure are at risk, such as roads, power lines and wastewater treatment plants. But competition for those resources is growing.
- ''It's going to be trillions of dollars, in my opinion, just in the United States,'' says Mark Lubell, professor of environmental science and policy at the University of California, Davis. ''Even if you added up all the state and federal money that's out there, it doesn't pay that price tag.''
- As a result, many cities are considering raising taxes. It's a heavy lift in most communities, and it inevitably raises questions about who should contribute to protecting against sea level rise. Should all residents pay? Or should more of the cost be shouldered by private landowners on the shoreline, who would benefit the most and in some cases, who knowingly put themselves at risk?
- Weighing these questions, local governments are in the uncharted territory of climate change accountability. Everyone has differing ideas of what's fair.
- ''Is fair share based on how much risk you're facing?'' asks A.R. Siders, assistant professor at the University of Delaware's Disaster Research Center. ''Is it based on your ability to pay? This is a problem because there's no scientific answer. This is ethics. This is personal values.''
- Facebook has expanded its headquarters along the waterfront twice in the last decade. Facebook Flood risk was clear when Facebook first moved inIn 2011, Facebook took over the former buildings of Sun Microsystems in Menlo Park for its east campus on the bay front, full of the dining, gyms and other perks tech companies offer. Then the company constructed a new building, designed by architect Frank Gehry, featuring a 9-acre green roof with full-grown trees.
- In 2016, Facebook began a second expansion, also designed by Gehry, that added two more buildings with almost 1 million square feet of space. Altogether, the properties are valued at more than $2.5 billion, according to recent tax records. The company is still expanding.
- Attracting Facebook meant jobs for Menlo Park. Under an agreement, the company also paid several million dollars in fees for local infrastructure and community benefits as well as continuing annual payments to the city of around $1 million.
- To build both expansions, Facebook needed approval from the city in 2011 and 2016, which required environmental analyses of the projects.
- Consulting firms paid for by Facebook issued the environmental assessments, and they highlighted the risk of being on the water.
- The entire site ''is subject to tidal flooding from the Bay,'' the 2011 report reads and ''could be inundated with a sea level rise of 16 inches, which might be expected to occur by mid-century.'' The 2016 report notes that Facebook's campus is ''particularly vulnerable'' to sea level rise, which "would dramatically increase the risk of flooding.''
- As sea levels rise, storms and high tides could breach Menlo Park's levees. JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQED
- The community noticed the warnings.
- ''Please explain how Facebook is planning to improve existing levees and flood protection systems to mitigate the potential threat of flooding due to tidal flooding, including the effects of Sea Level Rise,'' then-East Palo Alto City Manager Carlos Martinez wrote in a public letter at the time.
- Facebook offered a solution: The first floor of its new buildings would be elevated by 12 feet, keeping it dry in a flood, at least until sea level rise gets dramatically worse after midcentury. That wouldn't protect the surrounding area, the environmental analysis said, since the ''parking areas and roadways, including underground parking areas, would be inundated.''
- Preparing for sea level rise wasn't legally required for Facebook, the environmental assessment noted. California has one of the strictest laws in the country requiring environmental impacts to be analyzed before a project is built. But according to recent court cases, its scope is limited around sea level rise. Construction projects must account for damage they cause to the environment, but not the damage the environment could cause to them.
- Cities face aging levees and sea level riseWith billions of dollars of real estate at stake as well as major roads and power lines, Menlo Park and neighboring cities are opting to defend their shoreline.
- Work is already underway. The old salt ponds outside of Facebook's campus, some still coated in a white, mineral crust, are being restored to the marshes they once were. Plants and tidal channels will create vital habitat for migratory birds and other animals, part of an effort to bring back 15,000 acres of wetlands through the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project.
- The marshes provide another big benefit: They protect the shoreline from flooding.
- Around 90% of San Francisco Bay's marshes have been lost, according to scientific research. JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQED
- ''You can think of it as a sponge,'' says Dave Halsing, executive project manager of the restoration, as he watches trucks bring fresh dirt to the work site. ''If you have a healthy, functioning marsh in front of the levee, it absorbs a lot of that wave energy. It diffuses it and slows it down.''
- The entire restoration effort will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Funding has come so far from federal, state and local sources. But raising money continues to be a challenge. So several years ago, the restoration project started conversations with the tech companies on their doorstep, such as Facebook.
- Former salt ponds are being restored to tidal marsh, providing flood protection for Menlo Park. Lauren Sommer/NPR''We were always well-received,'' says John Bourgeois, who led the restoration project at the time. ''But then when we tried to translate that into more direct funding support or partnerships, that's where things started to get complicated.''
- Facebook declined to contribute to the marsh restoration work. To offset the impact of a footbridge it's building on salt pond land, the company is paying for several public trail improvements.
- Now, another crucial and costly effort is getting started: a 16-foot-tall levee that will wrap around the shoreline. The SAFER Bay Project, as it's known, is designed to protect against 3 feet of sea level rise.
- Facebook isn't the only one that needs it.
- JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQEDNearby, half of East Palo Alto is also vulnerable to flooding.
- Len Vaughn-Lahman/MediaNews Group/The Mercury News via Getty ImagesFloods have hit the area before, where communities of color are already struggling to hold on to homes as local prices skyrocket.
- Lauren Sommer/NPR"I'm thinking back to the places that weren't ready. Let's talk about Katrina. That could be us in the next couple of years."
- '-- Leia Grewe, an East Palo Alto resident, with her daughter Heleine Grewe
- To construct a levee to protect the region , the federal government preliminarily awarded $50 million.
- Hundreds of other communities were denied funding.
- East Palo Alto is putting in $5.5 million.
- That's 13% of its annual budget.
- Facebook is putting in $7.8 million.
- That's 0.009% of its revenue last year.
- Lauren Sommer/NPR"New development must pay its way.
- ''There is no reason why the residents or the public should subsidize the benefits that those corporations get."
- '-- Carlos Romero, mayor of East Palo Alto
- Leia Grewe's home in East Palo Alto sits on the edge of the city in the last row of houses before San Francisco Bay begins.
- ''If we were to get hit, we would be the first,'' she says, walking on the road behind her home. In the distance, the water gleams on one side of her house; Facebook's campus sits on the other.
- Flooding didn't cross Grewe's mind until her daughter Heleine came home from high school talking about it after meetings of a local youth activism group.
- ''She used to brush it off,'' Heleine says. ''We'd come home like, 'Mom, we're going to be underwater.' ''
- For Heleine, sea level rise is an added layer to East Palo Alto's long struggle for environmental justice. For decades, the city housed industrial plants, a landfill and a hazardous waste recycling facility. Discriminatory housing practices ensured that nonwhite families were pushed into surrounding neighborhoods. Heleine's grandparents on one side arrived with many other Black residents after World War II. Her grandparents on the other side emigrated from Tonga.
- Heleine Grewe near her home in East Palo Alto. Marissa Leshnov for NPRNow, many East Palo Alto residents are fighting to keep their community together, one of the few low-income neighborhoods in a sea of skyrocketing housing prices. Walking down their street, Leia and Heleine Grewe can spot the houses that used to belong to people they knew: cousins, friends, Heleine's grandmother.
- A big flood would only exacerbate the fraying of their community. Many East Palo Alto residents wouldn't have the resources to recover, and few get information about preparing for the risk they face, says Heleine, who teaches environmental justice classes that cover flooding.
- ''All one has to do is look at Houston, look at [Hurricane] Katrina and the 9th Ward,'' says Carlos Romero, mayor of East Palo Alto. ''People of color are fewer these days because they have been displaced permanently from those areas.''
- Floods have hit East Palo Alto a dozen times over the last century. Marissa Leshnov for NPR Levee project awarded largest federal grantWith as much as two-thirds of East Palo Alto at risk from sea level rise, the city is leveraging its limited resources to help build a new 6-mile levee, the SAFER Bay Project. Until all of it is built, the entire region is vulnerable.
- The first section, bordering East Palo Alto, already has $17 million in federal funding secured. East Palo Alto is contributing $5.5 million from its capital improvement fund.
- The second phase of the levee, stretching around Facebook's campus and into Menlo Park, has a bigger price tag. So, the project applied for public funding: a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant from FEMA, specifically earmarked for pre-disaster preparation.
- The grant requires local entities to contribute as well. The utility, Pacific Gas & Electric, would put in $10 million to help protect its transmission lines. Facebook has offered $7.8 million, the amount that would protect its east campus, but not its recent expansion.
- ''Sea level rise is an issue for everyone living and working in the San Francisco Bay Area due to our close association with a large body of water,'' a Facebook spokesperson said in an emailed statement. ''We want to do our part to help protect the communities around our campus.'' The company declined to be interviewed by NPR.
- In early July, FEMA preliminarily awarded the SAFER Bay Project the largest grant of the program '-- $50 million.
- Hundreds of other projects that would safeguard other cities, many in low-income communities, were denied funding by FEMA, whose funding requests were seven times more than the program's budget. While the grant program sought to prioritize underserved communities, an analysis from Headwater Economics shows the majority of funding will go to wealthier states.
- Sea level rise could put two-thirds of East Palo Alto at risk. JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQED
- Communities are asking: Is it enough?Questions of equity had already come up in the local community. Facebook and East Palo Alto would be contributing similar amounts of money for sea level protection, with Facebook's share only covering part of its campus. Taxpayers would foot most of the bill for the entire levee system.
- In meetings, East Palo Alto residents asked: Shouldn't Facebook be doing more? The company's arrival had driven up housing costs and increased traffic around them. Now, facing a new threat, why wasn't Facebook using its enormous wealth to pay more to help its neighbors? residents wondered.
- ''You're a lot closer to the water than we are,'' Leia Grewe says of the company. ''Let us see that you're just as serious about us as we are about our land.''
- Romero, the East Palo Alto mayor, says the challenge is that cities don't have an established way to charge shoreline developers and companies for sea level rise protection. In his view, those private entities have a larger duty to pay because of the value flood protection adds to their land.
- ''All of us are going to have to contribute,'' he says. ''And I think we should indeed figure out a way where corporations, who are making billions of dollars, contribute to this in a significant way because their very livelihood is challenged.''
- Cities consider climate fees for developersEven in wealthier communities, pulling together funding for shoreline protection from private landowners has proven to be difficult. Cities such as San Francisco and Miami went to voters to pass bonds, raising hundreds of millions for flood and sea level rise projects.
- Still, San Francisco will need $5 billion for only part of its waterfront. Miami will need $4 billion. So, both cities are looking at raising money from private companies building in the flood zone that bear the highest risk from rising seas.
- How to do that is being hotly debated around the country. Most, like San Francisco and Boston, are negotiating with developers individually. But while companies may offer to pay to protect their own buildings, they may not see a need to pay for the nearby roads, power lines and pipes on which they also depend.
- ''It's not just that Facebook has a part of their campus that can be flooded,'' says Lubell, the UC Davis professor. ''They've got employees coming from all over the region. And to protect their overall workforce from this, they need to invest in it. And they've got plenty of money to do it at a scale that's much higher.''
- The other option is to charge developers directly, either through new taxes or fees. But the idea hasn't taken off. Cities typically try to attract major employers with tax breaks or other incentives. Adding costs for sea level rise could drive them away, city governments worry.
- Menlo Park has that option. In 2016, the city gave itself the power to implement a fee on new developments for their ''fair share for the funding of sea level rise projects.'' But the city never followed through.
- Menlo Park isn't the only city grappling with sea level rise. Down the shoreline, Google is expanding.
- Google's Sunnyvale campus growth
- GoogleThe company has a vision for building a new campus with offices, housing and green space.
- The current levees that protect the area don't meet federal safety standards.
- A major storm could inundate the area in a matter of decades.
- Marissa Leshnov for NPRThe Sunnyvale City Council is making a plan to allow more development, up to 20,000 housing units and more than 10 million square feet of office space.
- To protect the area, a new levee is being planned. But it could take decades to construct and could cost around $600 million.
- That's raising a tough question for the city. Does it allow new buildings before protections are in place?
- Lauren Sommer/NPR"The worst-case scenario is that it becomes a flood zone. So I feel this extra burden to be really judicious about where we allow housing to go."
- '-- Russ Melton, Sunnyvale City Council
- When residents of Sunnyvale tuned into City Council meetings this spring, they heard discussions about a welcome topic in the Bay Area: additional housing.
- Like in the rest of Silicon Valley, home values in the largely suburban city have skyrocketed due to a severe housing shortage. In May, the median home sale price in Sunnyvale was $1.8 million.
- To help alleviate the shortage, Sunnyvale is setting its sights on a 1,300-acre triangle of land known as Moffett Park, sitting on the shoreline of San Francisco Bay. Today, it's mostly offices, the low-rise buildings separated by wide parking lots.
- Sunnyvale hopes to transform the Moffett Park neighborhood. Marissa Leshnov for NPR Sunnyvale is reimagining it as an ''eco-innovation district,'' potentially allowing up to 20,000 units of housing for the first time, including affordable housing, as well as 10.5 million square feet of office and commercial space. New developments would feature green space with biking trails and landscaping for native wildlife. The city is doing an environmental analysis of the plan over the next year.
- ''One of the most sustainable things you can do is put people where they work and put people where transit is, so this is a huge opportunity,'' says Michelle King, principal planner with the city of Sunnyvale.
- The vision isn't just Sunnyvale's. It's shared by one of the largest landowners in Moffett Park: Google.
- Over the past five years, Google has quietly acquired 75 parcels there, worth almost $3 billion, according to tax records. In 2017, the company wrote a letter to Sunnyvale officials, urging them to rezone Moffett Park to allow housing and higher-density development.
- Now, Google has several large construction projects underway, including its Caribbean project, two buildings with sloping green roofs, separated by a landscaped flood control channel. The company says as it expands, it plans to build mixed-use development, as it's doing around the Bay Area, which combines offices, green space and housing available for the public, including affordable housing.
- ''We're incorporating sustainability into everything we do in our developments,'' says Jeff Holzman, Google's director of real estate district development for Sunnyvale. ''And we're doing it to support our employees but also the community and hopefully the environment.''
- Some are asking: Why build here at all?The future of Moffett Park also includes sea level rise, which is expected to inundate a large part of it. Just like nearby cities, Sunnyvale is protected by aging levees that don't currently meet federal safety standards.
- Without those levees, parts of Moffett Park would already be underwater because the land has sunk. Before the arrival of tech companies, Sunnyvale was farmland, home to vast rows of fruit trees. Farmers pumped groundwater for irrigation, causing the land level to drop.
- Silicon Valley was once called ''the Valley of Heart's Delight,'' home to orchards and farms. San Jose Public Library, California Room, Historic Postcard CollectionThat groundwater, sitting a few feet below the surface in some spots, is another potential source of flooding. As sea levels rise, saltwater doesn't just flood onshore. It also encroaches underground, pushing up groundwater that's already there, closer to the surface.
- When it rains, shallower groundwater gives runoff nowhere to go.
- ''It's like a sponge that's already soaked and full of water,'' says Kristina Hill, associate professor of environmental planning and urban design at the University of California, Berkeley. ''So you can't get any more water into it.''
- As a result, rainstorms can cause flash flooding, even forcing water out of sewer drains onto surrounding land. Shallower groundwater can also spread chemicals or contaminants in the soil. Traditional shoreline protection, such as levees, can't stop it since the water is moving underneath.
- ''If you spent billions of dollars to build levees and then behind the levee, the groundwater comes up anyway and people are flooded out any time that it rains, that's going to be seen as a failure,'' Hill says.
- Faced with this information, some city residents are asking why construction would be permitted in low-lying areas.
- ''Moffett Park is already heavily developed and is an employment center for the city,'' King, the city planner, responded in a November meeting. ''The city has a great interest in making sure that Moffett Park is protected in the future and that the investment that's been put into Moffett Park at this point remains where it is.''
- Funding runs short to build a new leveeTo protect Moffett Park, Sunnyvale is pinning its hopes on a new levee, like other Bay Area communities. But efforts have already hit hurdles.
- The county's water utility, Valley Water, is leading the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Protection Project. It would protect 18 miles of shoreline, potentially costing almost $2 billion.
- The first section of levee, now nearing construction in a neighboring city after 15 years of planning, has already raised flags about funding.
- Congress granted $124 million in 2018 to build the project, but construction bids came back almost double what was expected. Valley Water is covering the shortfall, raising its share of the project's cost to $269 million, vastly more than it had planned for.
- Now, as the agency looks at building two more sections of levee, including Sunnyvale's, it's warning that it can't do it alone. Localities will need to contribute.
- ''They need to share the responsibility with us,'' says Richard Santos, a member of Valley Water's board of directors. ''Because we're all in collaboration together, and they all receive the benefits. But they all don't pay. You know, you wanna play, you gotta pay.''
- JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQED
- Which comes first: a levee or new buildings?Sunnyvale is facing a timing problem, too: The levee could take several decades to build, leaving new homes and buildings unprotected against rising seas.
- That's giving some City Council members pause.
- ''Can I get comfortable with housing in the context of sea level rise?'' says council member Russ Melton. ''That's where people live.''
- Melton sees the need for more housing. But since there isn't housing in Moffett Park now, the decision to allow it comes with considerable risk. Before voting, he needs assurances that the levee will be built.
- ''I'm going to need to see something that is plausible, that is funded, that has the political ability to get across the finish line before we make an irrevocable decision to allow housing in Moffett Park,'' he says.
- A feasible levee plan is years away. In the meantime, the city is weighing if it should have Google wait on its new construction, where thousands of people will live and work.
- Google says allowing its projects to move forward would help ensure everyone is protected.
- ''I think that all of Sunnyvale needs to contribute to the solution, and I think we're absolutely going to do our fair share and our part,'' says Google's Holzman.
- Google is planning a major expansion beyond its Google Cloud campus in Sunnyvale. Marissa Leshnov for NPR The company says it's willing to contribute financially to build a levee if other Moffett Park businesses are asked to do the same.
- ''We kind of need projects like Moffett Park and others to move forward, so that it creates the economic ability to contribute into these solutions,'' Holzman says. ''The problem is going to exist whether we do more things in Moffett Park or not. And so it gives us a chance to help contribute to what needs to be a community solution.''
- Experts say that economic argument can be problematic, because it incentivizes moving more people into harm's way. Developing in risky areas can help pay for protections there, but what if those protections fail?
- ''Obviously, the challenge there is you have just put a lot of people at the forefront,'' says Linda Shi, professor of city and regional planning at Cornell University. ''If a storm surge supersedes what the sea wall there is built for, then those residents are the ones that are actually the first ones to be hit by that much water.''
- Google, along with other Moffett Park property owners, is now considering building its own levee to provide flood protection sooner than a larger project would.
- Cities have little incentive to say noAround the country, city councils like Sunnyvale's are on the front lines of decisions that are becoming increasingly risky in a hotter climate. With control over zoning and land use, they determine who is in the path of future disasters.
- Still, cities face an inherent conflict. New development is crucial for their financial health. Responding to a flood disaster, on the other hand, is often paid for by the federal government.
- ''It's always the incentive of local governments to build things that bring in sales tax or property tax revenue,'' Lubell says, ''because that is the main financial mechanism where local governments get their funding.''
- That can make it difficult to say no to development. Still, today's building decisions come with potentially billion-dollar price tags down the road. Local governments are often tasked with maintaining and even raising levees in the future, which is critical to ensuring people remain protected.
- JJ Harris/Techboogie/KQED"The short-term gain often outweighs the long-term cost," says Siders, the University of Delaware professor. "We know that building in some of these places is going to incur costs down the line. But we're so tempted by the short-term gain that it's hard to withstand it."
- NYC restaurants are now being destroyed by woke complaints
- July 24, 2021 | 8:11am | Updated July 24, 2021 | 8:12am
- Enlarge Image Chef Chinchakriya Un recently quit Bushwick rooftop eatery Outerspace, calling the owners "culture vultures" who are guilty of "exploitation" and "internalized misogyny." AN RONG XU
- The newest threat faced by New York City restaurants isn't high rents or the pandemic. It's employees who use credulous media to air beefs that chefs and owners aren't being nice enough to them.
- A handful of restaurants truly were cesspools of misconduct deserving to be shut down. On-the-record sexual-harassment claims wrecked the Spotted Pig, owner Ken Friedman and his pal Mario Batali. A chef at Danny Bowien's shuttered Mission Chinese, once praised for what Bowien called a ''healthy'' environment for cooks, hurled racial slurs at a black employee and deliberately scalded him with a spoon dipped in hot oil.
- But the struggle has since shifted to the far murkier ground of ''abusive language'' and ''toxic atmosphere.'' Progressive-minded news organs and social media posts air grievances that seem petty, vague or disputable, sometimes shielding complainants with anonymity while affording no such courtesy to the accused. ''Defend yourself, slime!'' is the rule of the day.
- Accusations against manager Thomas Carter, who worked at Manhattan's popular Estela a few years ago, presaged today's kangaroo-court cancellations. He supposedly practiced ''psychological abuse,'' used bad language and played ''mind games'' with hapless employees. Ahem '-- who hasn't worked for an unfair, tyrannical boss? But there were also more serious claims of gruesome sexual harassment.
- Still, of the 30 Estela employees interviewed, Eater.com identified exactly one woman by name who spoke, just barely, to that issue. Her statement that Carter ''would court you like he was dating you, then all of a sudden he would start ridiculing you'' fell light years short of the hideous charges leveled by the nameless horde. It didn't matter: The media heat drove Carter to resign from the business.
- On-the-record sexual-harassment claims against Spotted Pig owner Ken Friedman rightly led to a shutdown. Patrick McMullan via Getty Image; Gregory P. MangoFlash forward to 2021. The latest target of concealed snipers is Buddakan, the jumbo pan-Asian Chelsea restaurant owned by Stephen Starr. Ever-vigilant Eater.com last week named a Starr Restaurants executive who, the site's sources said, tolerated an environment where several black servers were assigned to ''unfavorable shifts'' to create a ''culture of fear.''
- Now, true racial discrimination is unforgivable '-- if proven. But the owners and manager persuasively denied the claim.
- The Buddakan ''news'' followed the blowup one week earlier of Outerspace, a Bushwick rooftop eatery whose three top chefs and general manager shockingly walked out the day after a glowing New York Times review.
- Anonymous claims of ''psychological abuse'' hounded former Estela manager Thomas Carter out of business. WireImage; David McGlynnThey supposedly quit over garden-variety gripes: They said they were overworked and underpaid by inexperienced owners who didn't even know what to do when it rained.
- But the quitters appeared to have an alternate agenda. One of the chefs, Chinchakriya Un, gave the game away in a widely reported Instagram post. She derisively trashed the owners as ''white people'' and ''culture vultures'' guilty of ''white saviorism,'' ''colonial narration,'' ''exploitation'' and ''internalized misogyny.''
- Why would any restaurateur in his or her right mind think of hiring Un after that? For that matter, with so many personal and political grudges waiting to be blared in public, why would anyone think about opening a restaurant at all?
- Buddakan owner Stephen Starr is the latest target of concealed snipers. patrickmcmullan.com; Helayne SeidmanA few owners are fighting back against the mutinous tide. A Midtown restaurateur friend of mine was able to dig up a months-old security-video clip that showed a disgruntled dishwasher collapse from drugs on the kitchen floor at precisely the time he claimed in a threatened lawsuit that bosses were hurling ethnic slurs against him inside an office. But few owners have my friend's resources, patience and guts to beat back the lawyers.
- Yes, restaurants can be rife with inhumane conditions. At a Long Island steakhouse where I worked in the early 1970s, the owner fired all the women to solve the problem of ''too many affairs'' between waiters and waitresses.
- Those days are thankfully gone. But some working stiffs and their media mouthpieces today regard the normal rough-and-tumble of a high-pressure job as tantamount to a mass execution. They need to put down the knives '-- and grow up.
- Olympics: Germany gymnastics team wears unitards, tired of 'sexualization' - Sports Illustrated
- Marijan Murat/dpa/Sipa USA
- TOKYO (AP) '-- The team's outfits looked similar to the others in the room as the arena lights gleamed off crystals crisscrossing their chests and down their crimson and white sleeves.
- But the German gymnastics team's new Olympic suits didn't stop at their hips.
- For decades, female gymnasts have worn bikini-cut leotards. In qualifying on Sunday, however, the German team instead wore unitards that stretched to their ankles, intending to push back against sexualization of women in gymnastics.
- The Tokyo Olympics are the first Summer Games since Larry Nassar, a former USA Gymnastics national team doctor, was sent to prison for 176 years for sexually abusing hundreds of gymnasts, including some of the sport's greatest stars. At his sentencing, athletes '-- some of them Olympians '-- described how the sport's culture allowed for abuse and objectification of young women and girls.
- Male gymnasts wear comparatively body-covering clothes: singlets, with loose shorts for their floor exercise and vault, and long pants on bar and pommel horse routines.
- The German team first wore unitards at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships in April.
- Sarah Voss, a 21-year-old German, said they weren't sure they would decide to wear them again during Olympic competition until they got together before the meet.
- ''We sat together today and said, OK, we want to have a big competition,'' Voss said. ''We want to feel amazing, we want to show everyone that we look amazing.''
- Their wardrobe revolution, while widely championed, has not so far started a trend. Leotards that leave the legs bare were worn by every other female gymnast during qualifying at the Tokyo Games.
- At 4-foot-8, American superstar Simone Biles said in June that she prefers leotards because they lengthen the leg and make her appear taller.
- ''But I stand with their decision to wear whatever they please and whatever makes them feel comfortable,'' Biles said. ''So if anyone out there wants to wear a unitard or leotard, it's totally up to you.''
- Matt Cowan, the chief commercial officer for GK Elite, the U.S.' premier leotard manufacturer, said most requests for unitards now come from countries the require modesty for cultural and religious reasons. They have otherwise seen no rush toward catsuits.
- ''Would we do it? Absolutely. We have the capabilities of designing it and doing it, and we have done it,'' Cowan said. ''But from a consumer demand perspective, we are not there yet.''
- Gymnastics is often viewed as a sport best performed by very young women and girls. Biles, at 24, often jokes about being old; she recently called herself a grandma on social media.
- But other nations have defied that emphasis on youth, including the Germans: Elisabeth Seitz is 27, Kim Bui is 32, Pauline Schafer is 24, and Voss is 21. Their average age of 26. Voss said that gymnastics customs should leave room for female bodies as they age and change.
- Their outfits comply with the wardrobe rules of the International Gymnastics Federation. But that doesn't mean female athletes are generally free to cover their bodies as they choose.
- Just days before the Games began, the Norwegian women's beach volleyball team refused to play in bikini bottoms during European tournaments, opting instead for skin-tight shorts. For that, they received a fine for violating a wardrobe requirement.
- But at gymnastics qualifying Sunday, the announcer over the loudspeaker called the outfits ''very nice indeed.'' The German team did not qualify for finals, but the announcer pondered if their team debut on the Olympic stage might increase unitards' popularity.
- Biles and U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team Stumble in QualifiersJamaican Gymnast Danusia Francis Makes Olympic Dream Come TrueChase Kalisz, Jay Litherland Set Off a Tidal Wave of Medals for U.S. SwimmingNaomi Osaka Returns to Tennis'--and the World Stage'--With a Win at the Tokyo Olympics
- Is pine needle tea the answer to covid vaccine shedding / transmission? Learn about suramin, shikimic acid and how to make your own extracts | SGT Report
- by Mike Adams, Natural News:
- Disclaimer: The information presented in this article and podcast are for informational purposes only. Nothing present here is intended to diagnose or treat any disease, and there are no supplements or products offered for sale in relation to this information.
- Word is spreading that pine needle tea may offer a solution against covid vaccine ''shedding'' or transmission, which appears to be a phenomenon where vaccinated people are spreading harmful particles or substances to others around them. See this article from a WordPress blog site called ''Ambassador Love.''
- TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
- There is a potential antidote to the current spike protein contagion which is called Suramin. It's found in many forests around the world, in Pine needles. Suramin has inhibitory effects against components of the coagulation cascade and against the inappropriate replication and modification of RNA and DNA. Excessive coagulation causes blood clots, mini-clots, strokes, and unusually heavy menstrual cycles.
- Pine needle tea is one of the most potent anti-oxidants there is and it's known to treat cancer, inflammation, stress and depression, pain and respiratory infections. Pine tea also kills parasites.
- Below, find a full podcast and video that reveals two extraction methods, both of which are simple, low-tech, low-cost methods that can be used almost anywhere.
- Fresh pine needles from appropriate trees have been used for centuries as sources of vitamin C and other phytochemicals that Native Americans used to treat respiratory infections and other ailments. Vitamin C is a known cure for scurvy, as scurvy is a disease of vitamin C deficiency. Pine needles contain many other substances that appear to reduce platelet aggregation in the blood, potentially preventing blood clots that lead to strokes, heart attacks and pulmonary embolism diagnoses. (See published science sources below.)
- Pine needles have been used by indigenous populations around the world as both food and medicine for thousands of years. Many people now believe pine needles may be able to offer protection from covid spike proteins '-- which are engineered bioweapons found in covid vaccines '-- as well as covid vaccine ''shedding'' particles, which also appear to be biological weapons designed to achieve global depopulation.
- Dr. Judy Mikovits asserts that globalists are well aware that pine needle tea is the answer to covid depopulation weapons, and they are secretly using pine needle tea to protect themselves from the very plague they have unleashed upon the world, Mikovitz explains.
- Digging into the science behind pine needles and covidAs a published laboratory scientist, I decided to dig into this question with the help of my laboratory knowledge and experience. Boiling fresh pine needles in order to make a tea is an extraction method that's commonly used in food science as well as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM).
- Water acts as a solvent, and through heat and time, some phytochemicals in the pine needles are extracted into the water, making a pine needle tea. (This is how all tea is made.)
- As I poured over the published science research on this topic, I had two primary questions:
- 1) What molecules are found in pine needles, and what are their functions in relation to halting blood clots or protecting the unvaccinated from covid vaccine shedding?
- 2) What is the best extraction method to pull these molecules out of pine needles? Is there a low-tech extraction method that almost anyone can use, without needing a laboratory?
- Through research, I found that pine needles not only contain suramin, a large molecule that's touted for various medicinal effects, but also shikimic acid.
- Shikimic acid is the basis for Tamiflu, and it's the molecule found in Chinese Medicine herb Star Anise, that cures plaguesImagine my surprise when I discovered that pine needles contain shikimic acid, the same molecule found in Star Anise herb used in Traditional Chinese Medicine to treat plagues and respiratory illness.
- The Boston Herald published a story in 2010 that revealed researchers were studying extraction techniques to harvest shikimic acid from pine needles in order to provide this raw material to the pharmaceutical industry to manufacture anti-viral, anti-flu, anti-pandemic prescription medicines. From that story:
- Researchers at the University of Maine at Orono say they've found a new and relatively easy way to extract shikimic acid '-- a key ingredient in the drug Tamiflu '-- from pine tree needles.
- Shikimic acid can be removed from the needles of white pine, red pine and other conifer trees simply by boiling the needles in water, said chemistry professor Ray Fort Jr.
- But the extracted acid could be valuable because Tamiflu is the world's most widely used antiviral drug for treating swine flu, bird flu and seasonal influenza. The major source of shikimic acid now is the star anise, an unusual star-shaped fruit that grows on small trees native to China.
- The research has been funded from a variety of sources, including the Maine Technology Institute, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Science Foundation and the university's chemistry department.
- One study published in ResearchGate confirms that shikimic acid offers antiplatelet-aggregating activity, meaning it helps halt blood clots: Content Analysis of Shikimic Acid in the Masson Pine Needles and Antiplatelet-aggregating Activity.
- Shikimic acid, when separated by HPLC, exhibited a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation induced by adenosine diphosphate and collagen in rabbits. Because of the relative high content and good antiplatelet-aggregating activity of shikimic acid, the Masson pine needles can be used as a potential source of shikimic acid.
- '...achieved about a 6% yield of shikimic acid from Masson pine needles, which is possibly the highest extracted yield from any pine species till now (Chen et al. 2014). Since pine needles are inexpensive and readily available in North Asia, North America, and Europe, there is a strong possibility to utilize them as a drug manufacturer against less available star anise species
- That study found that pine needles provide about two-thirds the shikimic acid of star anise herb:
- Masson pine needles = 5.71% shikimic acidStar anise = 8.95% shikimic acid
- So we know that pine needles, which are extremely common across North America, China and Europe, provide shikimic acid, a kind of ''miracle'' molecule that may prove incredibly useful for halting blood clots and defending people from respiratory infections.
- Further research led me to a study that used neural networking research to optimize the extraction conditions in order to carry out a highly efficient extract from pine needles: 17 Optimization of Extraction Conditions of Shikimic Acid in Pine Needles Based on Artificial Neural Network.
- That study offers the following recipe for extraction optimization:
- Use roughly 75% alcohol (such as vodka) and 25% waterUse an ultrasonic cleaning machine with a stainless steel vesselSet the temperature to 65 degrees C.Use 280 mL of extraction solution for every 10 grams of pine needlesUse a duration of 25 minutes for the ultrasonic extractionThis finished ''tea'' should be filtered through a coffee filter or other paper filter in order to remove large particles. The resulting liquid will contain shikimic acid, suramin, pigments and various terpenes, and will typically show some coloration and have a rather pungent taste.
- Watch this video to see how I used an ultrasonic cleaning machine to create a water extract of rosemary herb:
- How to extract shikimic acid using a common espresso machineThe most exciting finding in this research was discovering a published science paper that describes using a common espresso machine to carry out a highly efficient extraction of shikimic acid from star anise herb.
- That paper is published in Science Direct: Total quantification and extraction of shikimic acid from star anise (llicium verum) using solid-state NMR and cellulose-dissolving aqueous hydroxide solutions.
- The paper was published in Organic Letters in 2015, and also appears as a PDF at the University of Oregon website. (This link may be problematic in some browsers because it contains spaces in the URL).
- Read More @ NaturalNews.com
- Dell won't ship energy-hungry PCs to California and five other US states due to power regulations ' The Register
- Dell is no longer shipping energy-hungry gaming PCs to certain states in America because they demand more energy than local standards allow.
- Customers seeking to purchase, for example, an Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition R10 Gaming Desktop from Dell's website and have it shipped to California are now presented with a message that tells buyers they're out of luck.
- "This product cannot be shipped to the states of California, Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Vermont or Washington due to power consumption regulations adopted by those states," the website says. "Any orders placed that are bound for those states will be canceled."
- Dell confirmed to The Register that the California ban was down to power consumption regulations, saying:
- Such concern about energy efficiency appears to be appropriate given the findings of a 2015 Semiconductor Industry Association report [PDF] that, given a benchmark system of 10-14 Joules/per bit transition, "computing will not be sustainable by 2040, when the energy required for computing will exceed the estimated world's energy production."
- Graph from SIA report on the IT revolution ... Click to enlarge
- Current processors operate at about'' ~10-17 J/bit, which the SIA considers to be a workable target for more efficient computing, though the group said in a more recent report, "Revolutionary changes to computing will be required soon."
- That report describes the growing energy usage of computing in less dire terms '' as a limit to future computational capacity rather than a trend destined to devour all available energy. It notes that "the total energy consumption by general-purpose computing continues to grow exponentially and is doubling approximately every three years, while the world's energy production is growing only linearly, by approximately 2 per cent a year."
- At the end of 2016, California became the first state to approve energy efficiency limits for computers. At the time, the California Energy Commission (CEC) voted unanimously to adopt tighter appliance energy standards in an effort to meet climate policy goals. According to the 2016 CEC Staff Report, computers and monitors account for about 3 per cent of residential and 7 per cent of commercial energy use in the state.
- Since then, other states have adopted similar energy standards for computers.
- The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) at the time projected that the California standards will "save more than 2.3 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity a year '' equivalent to annual electricity use by all the homes in San Francisco '' and avoid 730,000 tons a year of climate-disrupting carbon pollution from fossil fuel-fired power plants."
- Tier I requirements took effect on January 1, 2019. As of July 1, 2021, Tier II requirements affecting desktop computers, thin clients and mobile gaming systems took effect.
- And come December 9, 2021, "computers with high-speed networking capability, multi-screen notebooks, notebooks with cyclical behavior, and monitors with high refresh rates" will be covered by the rules.
- Boffins improve on tech that extracts DC power from ambient Wi-FiBoffins say they've improved on algorithm for dynamic load balancing of server workloadsTomorrow's wireless world will be fatter, faster, and creepierIntel sponsors report on tech's role in decarbonisation and the irony isn't lost on usA CEC spokesperson told The Register that staff was unaware of vendors not shipping to California as a result of the Tier II requirements taking effect.
- The standards [PDF] specify energy consumption targets that cover four non-active usage modes '' short-idle, long-idle, sleep and off-modes '' tied to the device's "expandability score" (ES), based on the number and types of interfaces, and on additional power requirements arising from add-on capabilities (graphics cards, high-bandwidth system memory, etc.).
- The requirements thus vary depending in the device's characteristics, but as a baseline, desktop computers, mobile gaming systems, and thin clients manufactured between January 1, 2019 and July 1, 2021 can consume no more than 50/80/100 kWh per year for ES scores of less than 250, 251-425, and 426-690 respectively.
- For such devices manufactured after July 1, 2021, the kWh per year limit becomes 50, 60, and 75. The Alienware Aurora Ryzen Edition model cited above lists [PDF] a short-idle energy consumption of 66.29 watts and 563.01 watts when stressed.
- A spokesperson for Acer, asked whether the rules affect any of its products, responded by saying the company is looking into the matter. HP did not respond to a request for comment. ®
- Fauci's history of fake news: In 1983 he accused children of spreading AIDS | The BL
- Amid the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, Anthony Fauci, the rising star of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) bureaucracy, promoted a misleading and unscientific theory that children could spread the syndrome within the family through close contact. The media quickly replicated this misinformation, triggering a national media frenzy and public panic, Great Game India reported.
- Fauci promulgated this misleading hypothesis about the newly discovered little-known syndrome on 6 May 1983 in an article he published in JAMA Network, the monthly open-access medical journal published by the American Medical Association.
- In that article, he also noted that the journal had published in the same issue a report documenting one of the first cases of the onset of immunodeficiency disease in an infant, raising ''the possibility that routine close contact, such as within a family home, may spread the disease.''
- ''Researchers believe that sexual contact and blood transfusions can spread the disease. But ''if non-sexual, non-blood transmission is possible, the scope of the syndrome could be enormous,'' then ''AIDS takes on a whole new dimension,'' Fauci further wrote, fuelling bewilderment and alarm by putting an increasingly speculative spin on his theory.
- The media were quick to immediately invoke Fauci's claims and take them as their leading authority. After a nationally distributed report on the UPI wire entitled, ''Household Contact Can Transmit AIDS,'' other media outlets began a flurry of alarmist headlines, such as the Associated Press (AP) asking, ''Is AIDS Spread by Routine Contact?''
- Fauci's theory was misleading, unsubstantiated, and soon refuted. Regarding the infant infection discussed in JAMA, which he used to base his hypothesis, it became known that it involved vertical transmission from mother to child during pregnancy. Moreover, HIV, the virus later linked to the cause of AIDS, is only transmitted by exposure to infected bodily fluids, such as blood, or by sexual contact, as the medical and scientific community officially maintains to this day.
- But the damage was already done. Hundreds of newspapers spread the misleading theory of Fauci's article, the media actively set to work fanning the alarm about the transmission of AIDS through simple routine contact.
- Unfounded fears of the risk of transmission through simple contact became one of the most damaging missteps of the entire AIDS crisis.
- Drawing a parallel with the COVID-19, otherwise known as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP Virus) crisis. Several facts show Fauci to be a strategist of deception to carry out purposes that have to do with his economic interests.
- One of these relevant facts was reported by TheBL in an article revealing how Fauci admittedly misled Americans into getting vaccinated without presenting supporting scientific support or prior correctly verified research. He reportedly receives a substantial commission on vaccine sales.
- He has even been accused by several infectious disease experts, including Dr. Steven Hatfill, of discrediting and causing medical bureaucratic roadblocks preventing the use of drugs such as hydroxychloroquine, despite their actual efficacy against the CCP Virus. This again raises the NIH director's interest in pushing for experimental vaccines.
- Since the emergence of the CCP Virus, contradictions in its emergence and handling of the pandemic have become a distinguishing factor, raising concerns and uncertainty about what is true and what may be a sham for speculative purposes.
- Exclusive: Over half of Covid hospitalisations tested positive after admission
- More than half of Covid hospitalisations are patients who only tested positive after admission, leaked data reveal.
- The figures suggest vast numbers are being classed as hospitalised by Covid when they were admitted with other ailments, with the virus picked up by routine testing.
- Experts said it meant the national statistics, published daily on the government website and frequently referred to by ministers, may far overstate the levels of pressures on the NHS.
- The leaked data '' covering all NHS trusts in England '' show that, as of last Thursday, just 44 per cent of patients classed as being hospitalised with Covid had tested positive by the time they were admitted.
- The majority of cases were not detected until patients underwent standard Covid tests, carried out on everyone admitted to hospital for any reason.
- Overall, 56 per cent of Covid hospitalisations fell into this category, the data, seen by The Telegraph, show.
- Crucially, this group does not distinguish between those admitted because of severe illness, later found to be caused by the virus, and those in hospital for different reasons who might otherwise never have known that they had picked it up.
- Last month, health officials instructed NHS trusts to provide "a breakdown of the current stock of Covid patients", splitting it into those who were in hospital primarily because of the virus and those there for other reasons. So far, NHS England has failed to publish this data.
- However, the patterns shown in the leaked figures '' with the vast majority of hospital Covid cases being diagnosed after admission, in some cases weeks later '' suggest it includes large numbers likely to have been admitted for other reasons.
- The breakdown of daily Covid hospital diagnoses shows that of more than 780 hospitalisations dated last Thursday, 44 per cent involved people who tested positive in the 14 days before hospital entry.
- A further 43 per cent were made within two days of admission, with 13 per cent made in the days and weeks that followed, including those likely to have caught the virus in hospital.
- Experts said the high number of cases being detected belatedly '' at a time when PCR tests were widely available '' suggested many such patients had been admitted for other reasons.
- Prof Carl Heneghan, director of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine at the University of Oxford, said: "This data is incredibly important, and it should be published on an ongoing basis.
- "When people hear about hospitalisations with Covid, they will assume that Covid is the likely cause, but this data shows something quite different '' this is about Covid being detected after tests were looking for it."
- Prof Heneghan urged the Government to publish clearer data, including whether or not the virus was the primary cause of hospital admission.
- "This needs to be fixed as a matter of urgency," he said, adding that the published data could lead the public "towards false conclusions", exaggerating the true levels of pressures on hospitals.
- Sir Graham Brady, the chairman of the 1922 committee of Tory MPs, said: "Nearly 18 months into the Covid crisis, it is absurd that data breaking down hospital admissions still isn't publicly available on a regular basis.
- "Counting all patients who test positive as Covid hospitalisations is inevitably misleading and gives a false picture of the continuing health impact of the virus."
- Greg Clark, the chairman of Commons science and technology select committee, on Monday night said he would write to Sajid Javid, the Health Secretary, asking him to publish the breakdown on a regular basis following The Telegraph's disclosure.
- "If hospitalisations from Covid are a key determinant of how concerned we should be, and how quickly restrictions should be lifted, it's important that the data is not presented in a way that could lead to the wrong conclusions being drawn," he said.
- "While some of these people may be being admitted due to Covid, we currently do not know how many. And for those who are not, there is a big distinction between people who are admitted because of Covid and those are in for something else but have Covid in such a mild form that it was not the cause of their hospitalisation."
- The leaked statistics come from NHS daily situation reports, collected by all hospital trusts in England.
- One NHS data expert said the published statistics distorted the true picture, saying: "It creates an impression that all these people are going into hospital with Covid, and that simply is not the case. People are worried and scared and not really understanding the true picture '' that is what I find despicable."
- An NHS spokesman said: "Many patients are admitted to hospital because of their Covid symptoms and complications, which are then confirmed with a post-admission Covid test, and for others they may initially be presymptomatic or asymptomatic."
- On Tuesday, NHS leaders said the health service is as stretched now as at the height of the pandemic in January and made a plea for extra funding.
- In a letter to the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Health Secretary, NHS Providers, which represents hospital trusts, raised fears the situation could get worse before it gets better.
- They said "very different pressures" - including a "massive backlog" of patients in need of care, high numbers of staff self-isolating or on annual leave, meant the strain on the service now is just as bad as at the start of the year.
- German cops identify over 1,600 suspects in sting op on online chat groups where child porn & zoophilia materials were distributed '-- RT World News
- Police in Germany have identified more than 1,600 potential child sex-abuse suspects who participated in online chat groups on which child pornography and zoophilia material was shared. Many of the suspects are reportedly minors.
- While most of the suspects came from across the country, digital forensic experts had picked out people from the US, Austria, Switzerland and France on suspicion of possessing or sharing images of child sex abuse in the chat groups.
- According to a press statement from Bavarian police, the suspects were being evaluated as part of ''two large-scale trials'' being prepared by police and prosecutors. If convicted, all suspects, including the minors, would be looking at a prison term of "not less than a year.''
- Police officers in the Bavarian town of Amberg had been on to the online chats after coming across an advertisement earlier in March. The chats contained graphic videos and images of sex acts with children, adolescents and animals.
- Hinting at the scale of the five-month investigation, Amberg police said that they had "several hundred thousand" pages of information on the suspects '' enough to fit in ''21 large moving boxes.''
- Also on rt.com Mexican YouTube star arrested on child porn charge after sharing video showing gang rape of teen ''The distribution of child and adolescent pornography has increased markedly in recent years and is an area of focus for us in many investigations,'' Peter Kr¤mer, deputy head of criminal police investigations in Amberg, said.
- ''As well as people with pedophile tendencies, it is often children and adolescents who share material like this in group chats without thinking, and who therefore regularly open themselves up to criminal prosecution," he added.
- The investigators also warned that even membership in such group chats would be enough grounds for prosecution in Germany '' since it pointed to the possibility of an individual either having access to, or possessing copies of, the photos and videos on their devices.
- "That is why our appeal is particularly aimed at parents to sensitize their children to this issue," Kr¤mer said.
- The statement noted that the early use of smartphones by young children had opened up the possibility of them being exposed to such illegal content.
- Earlier in the year, German authorities arrested four people after a raid on a dark-web club that had some 400,000 users.
- Also on rt.com Twitter hit by 3 police cases in India over alleged child pornography content and controversial Kashmir map If you like this story, share it with a friend!
- StandWithUs on Twitter: "#ICYMI: Israel will become the first country in the world to test an oral COVID-19 vaccine that was developed by Oramed Pharmaceuticals. Trials are set to start soon at Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv. ð'ð®ð± We hope to
- StandWithUs : #ICYMI: Israel will become the first country in the world to test an oral COVID-19 vaccine that was developed by Or'... https://t.co/uoFbcfz1Pl
- Tue Jul 27 11:15:00 +0000 2021
- This Creator Showed That Getting Millions Of Views Doesn't Necessarily Mean You're Going To Make Money
- Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Legitimate Interest Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Features: Matching Data to Offline Sources Linking Devices Precise Geographic Location Data Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Features: Matching Data to Offline Sources Linking Devices Precise Geographic Location Data Purposes: Information storage and access Legitimate Interest Purposes: Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Features: Precise Geographic Location Data Purposes: Information storage and access Features: Linking Devices Precise Geographic Location Data Purposes: Information storage and access Measurement Features: Linking Devices Purposes: Information storage and access Measurement Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Features: Matching Data to Offline Sources Linking Devices Purposes: Information storage and access Legitimate Interest Purposes: Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Features: Matching Data to Offline Sources Linking Devices Purposes: Information storage and access Legitimate Interest Purposes: Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Legitimate Interest Purposes: Content selection, delivery, reporting Features: Matching Data to Offline Sources Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Legitimate Interest Purposes: Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Features: Linking Devices Precise Geographic Location Data Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Legitimate Interest Purposes: Measurement Features: Matching Data to Offline Sources Linking Devices Legitimate Interest Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement Purposes: Information storage and access Personalisation Ad selection, delivery, reporting Content selection, delivery, reporting Measurement
- Ehden on Twitter: "PFIZERLEAK: EXPOSING THE PFIZER MANUFACTURING AND SUPPLY AGREEMENT. (thread) Background: Pfizer has been extremely aggressive in trying to protect the details of their international COVID19 vaccine agreements. Luckily, I've managed to g
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- Mon Jul 26 13:37:06 +0000 2021
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- FDNY union comes out against de Blasio vaccine requirement | TheHill
- A union that represents emergency workers with the New York City Fire Department (FDNY) is speaking out against New York Mayor Bill de Blasio's (D) new rule that requires all city employees to either get vaccinated against COVID-19 or submit to weekly testing.
- De Blasio on Monday announced that all city employees would be required to get vaccinated or begin undergoing weekly tests beginning by Sept. 13. This rule applies to the police department, school employees and all other agencies within the city government.
- "FDNY EMS Local 2507 is strongly opposed to these new workplace mandates being forced upon all 4,300 of our members by Mayor de Blasio. These must be a subject of collective bargaining. The city and the mayor cannot simply disregard the civil liberties of the workforce," the union said in a statement.
- The union said it is "troubling" that this requirement was announced while none of the coronavirus vaccines have been granted full approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
- The union questioned whether overtime will be authorized to allow for the new testing requirement and whether the city will pay for these tests.
- It added, however, that it is "open to dialogue with the city about the details around Covid vaccinations and testing."
- "Our members at FDNY EMS are highly trained medical professionals, yet they continue to be disrespected and disregarded by city leadership, which believes we can feed our families on poverty wages," the union said. "Instead of dictating more royal edicts upon workers, the mayor should instead concentrate on providing more support for the women and men who serve as New York City's medical first responders."
- The Hill has reached out to de Blasio's office for a response.
- If You Live in These States, Prepare for an Alcohol Shortage | Best Life
- As the U.S. continues to grapple with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the non-health burdens that's never seemingly let up, even as the virus itself has ebbed and flowed, is supply shortages. A shortage of shipping containers and the complexities of supply chains during the pandemic have resulted in heavy delays and shortages on everything from furniture to chlorine to shellfish over the course of the last year and a half. And now, some states are facing a shortage of one of the products Americans tend to lean on in times like this: alcohol.
- At least three states are currently suffering from alcohol shortages due to disrupted supply chains and worker shortages. And it gets worse: According to experts, these shortages are likely to continue into early next year, especially as bars and restaurants reopen and compete with increased at-home consumers for beer and liquor.
- Read on to find out where bars, restaurants, and wholesalers are struggling to keep alcohol on shelves.
- RELATED: This Is the Most Popular Liquor in Your State, According to Data.
- Joe Giddens/PA Images via Getty ImagesLiquor store owners and bar owners across Ohio, Vermont, and North Carolina say it's been difficult to acclimate to the new normal, especially as people have shifted to doing most of their imbibing at home.
- Ohio, like many places around the country, saw a boom in drinking during the pandemic. A report from the Dayton Daily News found that state liquor agencies saw a nearly 10 percent increase in liquor sales in 2020 compared to 2019, even as sales shifted from wholesale to retail. "I took a picture of my shelves," one liquor store manager told the outlet. "It looked like locusts had gone over them. I'd never seen them that empty in my life. It was like, overnight."
- In Vermont, alcohol sales increased by 13 percent, Vermont Department of Liquor and Lottery Deputy Commissioner Wendy Knight told WCAX. And in North Carolina, there was a 15 percent increase year over year between May 2019 and May 2020.
- Restaurant and bar owners say now that as much of the U.S. has opened back up, they're finding that many beer and alcohol distributors are struggling to keep up with supply. Supply chain issues combined with worker shortages and increased demand from newly opened bars and restaurants have now created a perfect storm for alcohol shortages.
- In North Carolina, for example, bars and restaurants fully reopened in May without restrictions, forcing business owners to ramp up from 0 to 60 quickly. Fernando Gomez, a Mexican restaurant owner in Charlotte, North Carolina, said he spends days searching for liquor to fill his bar shelves, traveling to several ABC-operated stores. In one case, he told the Charlotte Observer, "I had to drive to six ABC stores, and it took me almost the whole day. I never like to run out. It's not me. It's just nowhere."
- ShutterstockThe problem has been exacerbated by the way that these states control the flow of alcohol. In North Carolina, the state requires that food and beverage establishments purchase alcohol from the state Alcohol Beverage Control, or ABC. Vermont runs a similar Divison of Liquor Control, as does Ohio. As a result, these state-run establishments have been inconsistently stocked.
- Vermont is among the states that uses a control model for distilled spirits, which means the state acts as a wholesaler. The state purchases liquor and distributes it to state-licensed stores, which then sell to the public.
- "There's enough to at least have your second choice, if not your first," George Bergin, who owns the Beverage Warehouse in Winooski, Vermont, and buys from the state wholesale, told local WCAX. "With all the bars and restaurants opening up everywhere, everyone is trying to restock their shelves, and it's just taking a little bit of time to get caught up with the sudden demand."
- RELATED:For more up-to-date information, sign up for ourdaily newsletter.
- diy13 / ShutterstockBut it's not necessarily the alcohol itself that's short; there have also been sluggish deliveries of aluminum cans and bottles.
- Mac McHugh, the executive vice president and general manager at the Heidelberg Distributing Company in Ohio, says that while his company can produce beer, they're having difficulty finding bottlers and label suppliers. "It's not only they can't get the glass," McHugh told local ABC News affiliate WTVG. "They can't get the crowns that go on the glass to hold the bottle in place. They're having a hard time with glue to hold the packages together because some of that glue is only made in China."
- "We can produce the beer," McHugh continued. "Our brewers have plenty of beer. They just don't have bottles and kegs and cans to put it in."
- RELATED: This Is the State That Drinks the Most Beer, Data Shows.
- Vladimir Vladimirov / iStockAs the shortages continue in these states, bar and restaurant owners have to adjust expectations. "Our supplies have been limited. So obviously, our alcohol, our liquor, week-to-week, we don't know what we're going to be able to get. And it gets a little frustrating," Kerry Bryant, the manager of West 94th Street Pub in Durham, North Carolina, told ABC11.
- "As a matter of fact, this past week, I had a customer leave because he couldn't get what he wanted," she added.
- RELATED: This Is the State That Drinks the Most Alcohol, According to Data.
- Bumble dating app trips up another Capitol riot suspect
- A Texas man who told a Bumble match he participated in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol was arrested Friday after his would-be date alerted the FBI, according to court documents.
- Andrew Quentin Taake, 32, is accused of pepper-spraying and assaulting police officers, federal authorities said. He's charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, felony assaulting police, obstruction of law enforcement, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, demonstrating in a Capitol building and engaging in physical violence on restricted grounds.
- He made his initial court appearance Friday in the Southern District of Texas.
- The FBI received a tip in January about Taake's participation in the riot after a witness told authorities they had messaged Taake on the dating app Bumble while he was in Washington, D.C., according to charging documents.
- In a screengrab of the conversation included in the court document, the unnamed match asked Taake if he was "near all the action."
- Taake told his match he was in the Capitol for about 30 minutes and was pepper-sprayed by law enforcement while "peacefully standing there." He also sent the person a photograph of himself apparently after he was pepper-sprayed, the documents show.
- ''About 30 minutes after being sprayed,'' he wrote underneath a selfie. ''Safe to say, I was the very first person to be sprayed that day '... all while just standing there.''
- After receiving the tip, authorities reviewed flight records that showed Taake took flight from Houston to Washington, D.C., a day before the riot and flew back days after. The FBI said it also found "publicly posted videos and photographs" showing Taake at the Capitol.
- "Several of these images show Taake using what appears to be a metal whip and pepper spray to attack law enforcement officers," the charging document stated.
- Body-worn camera provided by the Metropolitan Police Department showed Taake pepper-spraying officers who were blocking rioters and appearing to hit another group of officers with the whip, according to the charging document. Other videos captured Taake walking inside the building with the whip in his hand.
- After the FBI gathered images of Taake, they showed them to a FedEx driver who had delivered a package at Taake's home. The driver was able to identify the man in the photos as Taake, the documents stated.
- Attorney information for Taake was not immediately available. A phone call to a number listed for him was not returned.
- This is the second time a riot suspect was charged after their Bumble match alerted authorities. In April, Robert Chapman, of Carmel, New York, was arrested and charged after boasting to his match about storming the Capitol.
- In one message, Chapman wrote that he "did storm the Capitol and made it all the way to Statuary Hall."
- The person responded, "We are not a match."
- More than 535 people in nearly all 50 states have been arrested in connection with the riot, according to the Department of Justice. Over 165 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
- Minyvonne Burke is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
- Covid tests on track to break the $1 billion mark | Daily Mail Online
- Australia has reached a new milestone with the cost of Covid-19 testing stinging the taxpayer for more than $1billion.
- Daily Mail Australia can reveal working Australians contribute between $42.50 and a whopping $85 each and every time someone is tested for coronavirus.
- The milestone comes amid frustration health authorities are persisting with a ban on much cheaper $15 rapid antigen tests, which have been adopted around the world and produce accurate results in just minutes.
- The cost of Covid tests in Australia has broken the billion-dollar mark as calls to implement rapid antigen testing ramp up
- Covid cases continue to soar in NSW, with tens of thousands being tested every day
- Rapid antigen tests could reduce costs and provide faster Covid test results, diagnostics experts believe
- COVID TESTS OVER THE PAST 7 DAYS Victoria: 323,095
- The Australian Government pays Medicare Benefits Schedule rebates for private patient Covid-19 tests.
- More than 9 million private patient tests have been bulk-billed under the MBS by a range of public and private providers who are sharing the load of testing.
- For the Covid-19 pathology test, the MBS sets a $42.50 rebate for public providers and $85.00 rebate for private providers.
- Additional MBS rebates for the costs associated with collection and management of patient specimens also apply. The Australian Government has paid abound $760 million for MBS funded COVID-19 pathology tests.
- Daily Mail Australia can also reveal children suffering isolation in Melbourne have been visited by health officials guarded by soldiers.
- Families were visited on Sunday by mistake after a Victorian health department bungle wrongly identified them.
- One father, who asked to remain anonymous, said an official demanded to see his young son under the premise of a 'welfare check
- On Friday, a little over 23.3 million Australians had been tested for the virus - at a cost to taxpayers of $760 million through the Medicare Benefits Schedule.
- That number soared over the weekend, with the Australian Government Department of Health website registering 24million tests to date on Monday - 173,128 over the past 24 hours.
- In NSW, which recorded 145 new cases of the virus on Monday, 98,000 Covid tests were conducted as of 8pm Sunday.
- More than 1,000 people flooded the streets in Melbourne's CBD on Saturday to protest the latest lockdown, with many more taking to the streets in Covid-ravaged Sydney.
- The demonstrators were seen abandoning face masks and disregarding social distancing, raising concerns the anti-lockdown rally could act as a super spreader for Covid-19.
- The soaring test costs have led to renewed calls for the Commonwealth and state governments to introduce cheap and effective rapid antigen tests to run in tandem with the more expensive polymerase chain reaction tests.
- PCR tests, which require pathology testing inside a laboratory, remain the only tests available to the general public.
- Last week, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention warned pathology labs it would end its support for the tests from December 31 due to concerns over their accuracy.
- 'CDC encourages laboratories to consider adoption of a multiplexed method that can facilitate detection and differentiation of SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses,' it stated in an alert.
- Rapid antigen testing kits can be bought over the counter in countries including Belgium
- Health personnel speak to people queuing in their cars at a Covid-19 test site in Albert Park, Melbourne, last year
- People line up at a Covid testing site in Prahran last week after a positive Covid case attended the Prahran Market in Melbourne. More than 900 people needed to get tested and isolate
- Australian Defence Force soldiers are arriving at the homes of children as Victorian health officials do 'welfare checks'
- BUNGLING HEATH OFFICIALS UNLEASH SOLDIERS ON KIDS Children suffering isolation in Melbourne have been visited by health officials guarded by soldiers.
- Daily Mail Australia can reveal families were visited on Sunday by mistake after a Victorian health department bungle wrongly identified them.
- One father, who asked to remain anonymous, said an official demanded to see his young son under the premise of a 'welfare check'.
- His family had just been released from 14 days isolation after attending the MCC on July 10 when an infected member was there.
- The search party had wrongly believed the man's son had been isolating due to a related Covid event at Trinity Grammar.
- A teacher who attended the same game had become infected, forcing students and teachers into isolation.
- The health officials refused to leave the boy's home before speaking to him, despite being shown an email from their own department clearing him of quarantine.
- 'It was pretty intimidating. They demanded he present at the door and then asked for his phone number,' the boy's father said.
- 'They wouldn't accept they had got it wrong. '
- The man labelled Victoria's health department a 'disgrace'.
- 'They couldn't have cared less for my son's health. They wanted to make sure he was home and we were isolating, even though we had clearance and they had mucked up their contact tracing yet again,' he said.
- Daily Mail Australia has reported the incident to Victoria's health department, but received no response.
- Experts claim by running rapid antigen and rapid antibody tests in parallel with PCR tests, patients understand after 15 minutes with a high degree of accuracy whether they currently have or have had the virus.
- Such tests, which can be bought over the counter in the United States and United Kingdom, can quickly identify potential carriers and cost as little as $15 a pop.
- John Kelly, managing director at Atomo Diagnostics, told Daily Mail Australia on Monday the high cost of PCR tests had impacted Australia's most vulnerable people.
- 'The number of PCR tests being made available to screen workers in aged care, has been severely limited due to cost '' typically twice or three times a month,' he said.
- 'Rapid tests being only one tenth of the cost, could be used every two days. Studies published by the US Government's Institute of Health demonstrate that frequent rapid testing is a more effective way to manage risk in these environments.
- 'The benefit of also getting results at the time of the test in invaluable. Finding out a worker has Covid the day after they have worked a shift while infectious is just too late.'
- A spokeswoman for the Commonwealth health department told Daily Mail Australia it continued to back PCR testing.
- 'Covid-19 pathology testing remains an important part of the strategy to contain the spread of COVID-19, with testing at no charge to patients forming a central part of the Australian Government's Covid-19 health response,' she said.
- 'The government and public and private pathology laboratories have successfully worked together on delivering Covid-19 pathology testing throughout the pandemic.'
- Sources have told Daily Mail Australia Australian pathology companies were 'rolling in cash'.
- The majority of COVID-19 tests have been provided to public patients under state and territory health testing services.
- The Australian Government is providing financial support for pathology testing through its 'National Partnership on COVID-19 Response', funding 50 per cent of the costs of public health testing facilities.
- Soldiers have been accompanying Victorian health officials to check on the 'welfare' of children under quarantine directions
- Victorians caught up in Tier 1 Covid scares have been told to obtain multiple tests before they are released from quarantine
- Drive-through Covid testing sites have become 'the norm' for anyone getting about Melbourne
- Soldiers have scared young children after turning up in support of bungling health care workers in Melbourne
- Under the partnership, all governments have committed to providing Covid-19 pathology testing to people in Australia free of-charge, regardless of Medicare eligibility.
- This includes all Australian citizens, permanent residents and all visa holders, including those who are not eligible for Medicare.
- The Commonwealth has committed to spend a total of $311 billion to fight Covid-19, including $20 billion on health support and $290 billion in economic stimulus.
- According to May's budget, the government has spent an additional $41 billion on economic support and $3 billion on health since December's mid-year economic update.
- Another expert told Daily Mail Australia the taxpayer expense of testing Australians could be far better spent.
- 'If the amount of $3-4 billion spent on PCR testing was used to purchase rapid tests, it would be enough to test every person in Australians ten time each,' he said.
- Philip Morris CEO Wants to ''Unsmoke the World''
- Jacek Olczak, the CEO of Marlboro maker Philip Morris, told The Mail yesterday that the company will stop selling cigarettes in Britain in the next 10 years.
- Yeah, we did a double take too, but it is not fake news: Olczak is urging the British government to treat cigarettes like fossil-fuel cars and basically regulate them to death (the government is banning the sale of gasoline-powered vehicles in 2030).
- So how will that work from a business perspective, exactly? Philip Morris wants to transition to a ''healthcare and wellness company'' where half of its sales come from non-smoking products.
- The company currently generates a quarter of its revenue from alternatives such as its electronic IQOS device that heats tobacco instead of burning it. Earlier this month, Philip Morris said it would buy Vectura, a company that makes asthma inhalers. Big picture: Critics say the public shouldn't trust cigarette companies to lead a campaign that would ban smoking, especially when they're still marketing cigarettes in lower income countries where most of the world's smokers now reside.
- Covid cases in Reno rose after a heavy layer of wildfire smoke settled over the city last year | Daily Mail Online
- Scientists believe there is a link between pollution and Covid after cases in Reno, Nev. rose sharply when a heavy layer of wildfire smoke settled over the city last yearStudy finds nearly 18% rise in COVID-19 cases following wildfires Worries grow that current wildfires billowing smoke across the country could lead to rise in coronavirus Scientists theorize that virus could attach to pollutants and get into lungsLead scientist in study calls on residents to get vaccinated and wear masksBy Ronny Reyes For Dailymail.Com
- Published: 07:00 EDT, 26 July 2021 | Updated: 08:29 EDT, 26 July 2021
- COVID-19 cases rose by nearly 18% last year in Reno, Nevada, after a heavy layer of wildfire smoke settled over the city, according to findings from the Desert Research Institute.
- Scientists believe there is a link to air pollution caused by the smoke between Aug. 16 and Oct. 10 and a rise in COVID-19 cases locally.
- 'Our results showed a substantial increase in the COVID-19 positivity rate in Reno during a time when we were affected by heavy wildfire smoke from California wildfires,' said Daniel Kiser, a co-lead author of the study published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.
- 'This is important to be aware of as we are already confronting heavy wildfire smoke...with COVID-19 cases again rising in Nevada and other parts of the western U.S.'
- Wild fires raged in Nevada in the summer and fall of 2020. Smoke from the blazes, like the Pinehaven Fire, pictured above, were found to be linked to the rise of COVID-19 in Reno
- The flames destroyed thousands of acres and blackened the air with smoke
- Smoke rises from a neighborhood in southwest Reno
- There are currently more than 80 wildfires blazing in the west with smoke clouds and haze reaching New York City.
- Kiser told the Reno Gazette Journal that he hoped the research would motivate more people to get vaccinated and wear masks to reduce their exposure to the virus amid the latest wildfires.
- Kiser and his team collected data from the Washoe County Health District and Renown Health, the region's largest hospital system, where they discovered wildfire particles that measured 2.5 micrometers - about one-thirtieth the size of a human hair - or less.
- Washoe County's 450,000 residents, many of whom live in Reno, experienced those particles for 43 days, the team said. The study compared the area with that of the San Francisco Bay, where people dealt with those particles for only 26 days.
- ''We had a unique situation here in Reno last year where we were exposed to wildfire smoke more often than many other areas, including the Bay Area,'' said Dr. Gai Elhanan, co-lead author of the study and an associate research scientist of computer science at the institute. ''We are located in an intermountain valley that restricts the dispersion of pollutants and possibly increases the magnitude of exposure, which makes it even more important for us to understand smoke impacts on human health.''
- Kiser and Elhanan's team also cite a study out of Northern Italy where researches there found new coronavirus on these particles.
- Kent Pinkerton, an expert on air pollution at the University of California, said there's concern among physicians and scientists about the impact of climate change on cardiopulmonary health, a topic he's currently addressing in an article he's submitting to a medical journal.
- ''Hotter temperatures, climate change, wildfires, air pollution, all seem to have some association with a greater risk of COVID-19 cases,'' Pinkerton said. ''If you're susceptible to air pollution, such as particulate matter, it could be that you just have a situation where you'll be also much more susceptible to viral particles that might be in the air that you're breathing.
- Pinkerton added that there was a research in Turkey showing an upswing in COVID-19 cases that may be linked to air pollution.
- The Reno Fire Department and the city worked together to vaccinate residents in April
- They concluded that the wildfire particles were responsible for the rise in COVID-19 cases in the area.
- While other research around the world points to similar conclusions, scientists have not yet found the mechanism that increases the risk.
- Some have speculated that the virus attach to pollutants an get into people's lungs.
- Kiser and Pinkerton said some researches theorized that because the pollutants make their way through the nasal, throat and lung passages, the inflammations they create along the way can make those areas ripe for infection.
- The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has its own webpage about wildfire smoke and COVID-19 that that provides tips on how to prepare for wildfire season, including identifying high-efficiency air filters and maintaining a supply of N95 respirators which filter out particulates.
- Creating clean air at home to protect against wildfire pollution Use a portable air cleaner in one or more rooms. Portable air cleaners work best when run continuously with doors and windows closed.If you use a do-it-yourself box fan filtration unit, never leave it unattended.During periods of extreme heat, pay attention to temperature forecasts and know how to stay safe in the heat.Whenever you can, use air conditioners, heat pumps, fans, and window shades to keep your cleaner air space comfortably cool on hot days.If you have a forced air system in your home, you may need to speak with a qualified heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) professional about different filters (HEPA or MERV-13 or higher) and settings (''Recirculate'' and ''On'' rather than ''Auto'') you can use to reduce indoor smoke.Avoid activities that create more indoor and outdoor air pollution, such as frying foods, sweeping, vacuuming, and using gas-powered appliances. Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- U.S. Intel Officials Warned of Neo-Nazi Recruitment on DLive
- Members of the National Socialist Movement, one of the largest neo-Nazi groups in the US, hold a swastika burning after a rally on April 21, 2018 in Draketown, Georgia. Photo: Spencer Platt (Getty Images)
- Growing interest among a host of violent extremists in a lesser-known livestreaming app'--one that's largely geared toward younger gamers'--prompted U.S. intelligence officials in January to circulate warnings to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies only days after the violent siege at the U.S. Capitol.
- Analysts charged with keeping tabs on violent extremist organizations warned of streaming service DLive's rising popularity for ''recruitment and propaganda distribution,'' while pointing to the app's use by pro-Trump insurrectionists who breached deep inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6.
- On Jan. 15, federal and state officials in San Diego and Central Florida issued a joint intelligence bulletin, saying a host of far-right personalities known for their violent rhetoric were likely drawn to DLive after being banned from mainstream sites such as YouTube. The ability to fundraise using DLive's micropayment system was likely a key factor.
- According to the bulletin, DLive's in-house currency, known as ''lemons,'' offered the ''means to raise funds to further their extremist agenda,'' analysts wrote.
- G/O Media may get a commission
- DLive users can purchase lemons'--worth around one U.S. penny a pop'--using a credit card, cryptocurrency, or Amazon Pay. Like a ''tip,'' the donation of lemons serves as a form of gratuity for content creators. They can be cashed out in exchange for real money upon request.
- Research into DLive transactions, which are public, has effectively proven the ability of known extremists to cultivate large followings on the platform, netting them potentially thousands of dollars per broadcast. This was possible due to lax enforcement of DLive's own community guidelines (which prohibit hate speech), ostensibly arising from efforts to maintain its marketability as a ''censorship-free'' alternative to major streaming platforms.
- ''As online platforms continue to suspend and remove accounts sharing extremist-related content, violent extremists will likely continue to seek alternative online platforms, particularly platforms that promote limited to no censorship,'' analysts wrote.
- ''Because it is lucrative to both content creators AND platform companies, there are a lot of sites springing up to fill the role of enabling hate speech.'' While the analysts draw largely from open-source reporting, the bulletin circulated among law enforcement was intended ''for official use only.'' A prominent notice declares the bulletin ''cannot be released to the public, media, or other personnel who do not have a valid 'need-to-know' without prior authorization'' by the originating source; so-called ''fusion centers'' in California and Florida run jointly by the Department of Homeland Security and state police.
- Gizmodo first obtained the bulletin after it was disclosed in a freedom of information request brought by Property of the People , a nonprofit group of record-seekers whose work has fueled high-profile investigations at ProPublica , the Washington Post and New York Times , among others. ''It shouldn't take a fascist coup attempt to finally draw intelligence agencies' attention to the spreading white supremacist plague, but here we are,'' said Ryan Shapiro , executive director of Property of the People.
- Screenshot: San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center / Central Florida Intelligence Exchange
- ''While the development of alternative platforms, such as DLive, is likely intended to diversify the current selection of available live streaming services, violent extremists seeking a new platform to promote extremist-related content likely view DLive as a refuge,'' the bulletin says. ''Key features, including secure and private connections, limited censorship, and quick transfer of cryptocurrency to tangible cash, may increase the platform's attractiveness to violent extremist groups seeking to exploit such features to further their extremist agenda.''
- Gizmodo reached out to DLive for comment on multiple occasions but received no response.
- Megan Squire, a professor of computer science at Elon University who studies extremists online, is one of the principal sources cited by the analysts. Squire's use of DLive's transaction ledgers to track the flood of payments going to white supremacists and other far-right streamers was previewed by the Southern Poverty Law Center in November 202o; a subsequent paper, titled ''Monetizing Propaganda: How Far-right Extremists Earn Money by Video Streaming,'' was published last month.
- Squire's paper details donations of over $800,000 to 55 streamers of far-right extremist content, including Nick Fuentes, a pro-Trump Holocaust denier, wh0 days prior to the Capitol riot told a DLive audience: ''What can you and I do to a state legislator, besides kill them?''
- Fuentes is the highest-paid streamer noted in Squire's research, having amassed nearly $94,000 in donations between April 2020 and Jan. 9'--at which point DLive suspended his account for ''inciting violent and illegal activities.'' The second-highest earner, Patrick Casey, had raked in over $79,860. Casey is the former leader of Identity Evropa, a neo-Nazi organization, which he attempted to rebrand as the ''American Identity Movement'' in a self-declared effort to appeal to the ''boomer patriot crowd,'' (i.e., pro-Trump internet users in the 55-75 age range).
- ''We show that with a regularly produced livestream show on a niche platform like DLive, far-right actors can earn over $100,000 in donations in less than a year,'' Squire wrote. ''This money is available by courting both mega-donors and smaller donors. The funds are able to be cashed out regularly from the platform, providing a form of regular income to political extremists.''
- DLive booted a handful of accounts in January in response to attention brought on by the events at the Capitol in early January. The transaction ledgers studied by Squire also indicate that some refunds'--including around $40,000 donated to Fuentes'--were issued to users who'd given to the now-banned accounts.
- In an email, Squire noted that DLive had ''attempted'' to demonetize certain channels by allowing channel owners to flag their own streams as ineligible to receive donations, also known as applying an ''X-Tag.'' The site defines content that requires an X-Tag as that which ''is at the outer edge of what's allowable on our platform, but without crossing the line into prohibited material or behaviors.'' (The X-Tag option was an effort to allow the continued monetization of mature-themed broadcasts, whose content ''are more in the realm of a mainstream R-rated movie,'' as DLive describes them.)
- Many streamers, according to Squire, attempt to fly under the radar by removing the X-Tag while streams are live. ''For example Patrick Casey frequently turns the monetization on and off,'' she said. ''Many white supremacists who weren't known to be directly involved with the insurrection ... are still monetized and still using the platform to stream and chat.''
- ''This is a very fast-moving space, and because it is lucrative to both content creators AND platform companies, there are a lot of sites springing up to fill the role of enabling hate speech,'' added Squire. ''This makes it very challenging to keep up with the different sites and who is moving to which ones.''
- In February, lawmakers alarmed by DLive serving as a funding vehicle for violent extremists called out its chief executives. Citing ''thousands of dollars in DLive's digital currency'' earned by livestreamers while storming the Capitol, Reps. Raja Krishnamoorthi and Jackie Speier pressed DLive's two CEOs, Justin Sun and Charles Wayn, to answer questions about the company stance on adolescent users being targeted by ''extremist content aimed to 'lure' and 'recruit' individuals''.
- ''We must also look at how social media livestreaming and fundraising gives extremists outreach and resourcing opportunities to spread and do further harm.'' ''As DLive allows the exchange of digital currency facilitated by BitTorrent and their operational cryptocurrency exchange, Tron, what oversight mechanisms are used to identify individuals financing extremist content?'' the lawmakers asked, among other questions.
- A spokesperson for Rep. Speier said her office had not seen any response from the company.
- A spokesperson for Rep. Krishnamoorthi said that in lieu of a written response, subsequent discussions with DLive took place. ''Though none of those conversations brought greater light on the matter than DLive has provided in its public statements ,'' the spokesperson said, ''the Congressman is continuing to monitor the issue.''
- ''Violent domestic extremism and virtual currencies are two things I am increasingly concerned about,'' Rep. Speier, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told Gizmodo.
- ''Radicalization because of these social media companies' business models is the major issue people have been focused on, and rightly so. But too often, we fail to proactively identify incoming and growing threats. We must also look at how social media livestreaming and fundraising gives extremists outreach and resourcing opportunities to spread and do further harm,'' she said.
- As regulators focus their scrutiny on the larger tech companies working to develop their own digital currencies, such as Facebook's Diem , it must not be lost on smaller companies, Speier said, whose payment tools ''will likely continue to grow as a serious threat to our national and financial security.''
- In the aftermath of the Capitol attack, DLive issued a statement saying it had taken action against a few accounts. ''Since yesterday, we have suspended 3 accounts, forced offline 5 channels, banned 2 accounts from live streaming and permanently removed over 100 past broadcasts from our platform,'' it said.
- ''Our product team has commenced working on adding reporting functions within the channel page, so in the future, we can handle similar issues in an even more expeditiously and efficient manner,'' it added.
- Madagascar foils assassination attempt on President Andry Rajoelina | Africanews
- Madagascar said on Thursday it had foiled an attempt to assassinate various Malagasy figures, amongst which President Andry Rajoelina.
- Six people, two of them French nationals according to diplomatic sources, have been arrested.
- "According to all the investigations we have made, the people arrested are involved in the assassination attempt of the Head of State of Madagascar. The arrests followed all the norms. The arrests were not made by mercenaries but by the police," Minister of Public Security Rodellys Randrianarison told the press.
- "Six people were arrested. Among them, two Malagasy are bi-nationals, there is also a foreigner and the others are Malagasy," he added.
- Police said they intervene to seize weapons on Tuesday after monitoring the operation for months.
- Two assassination attempts in a monthThe announcement of the assassination plot comes after several months of turbulence and threats to journalists reporting on the country's coronavirus pandemic and a burgeoning famine in the south of the country.
- It's the second time in a short period that an assassination attempt on a high profile official has been thwarted by authorities.
- On Madagascar's Independence Day celebrations on June 26, the gendarmerie announced they had foiled an assassination murder on their boss, General Richard Ravalomanana, who is also Rajoelina's right-hand man.
- President Rajoelina, first seized power in March 2009 from Marc Ravalomanana with the backing of the military, and has since then ruled over the island country.
- He won the last vote in December 2018, beating his main rival and predecessor Ravalomanana in an election beset by allegations of fraud.
- Madagascar Joins Covax After Vaccine U-turn | Barron's
- By AFP - Agence France Presse
- April 1, 2021 Order Reprints Print Article Text size
- Madagascar's health minister on Thursday announced the country had joined the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme, following through with a recent pledge to roll out jabs after months of resistance from the president.
- Vaccination has yet to begin on the Indian Ocean island nation, where President Andry Rajoelina took a hard-line stance against jabs that most other governments scrambled to secure.
- Instead, Rajoelina relentlessly stood by a locally-made herbal infusion he claims is a coronavirus "cure", saying last month that he was in no hurry to launch mass inoculations for his citizens nor get a jab himself.
- But heavy criticism forced him to make a U-turn last week, when his office said the government would "seek" and "use" vaccines against Covid-19.
- Health Minister Jean Louis Hanitrala Rakotovao on Thursday said Madagascar had successfully signed up for vaccine procurement through the Covax facility.
- "There are still many stages to go through but we have made a first step," Rakotovao announced on a video posted online by the health ministry.
- The presidency has not yet disclosed which jabs would be procured.
- Madagascar is struggling to curb a second wave of coronavirus infections, likely due to the presence of a highly transmissible variant first detected in South Africa.
- Rakotovao told local media on Thursday that the number of severe cases had risen and warned that hospitals were running out of oxygen.
- Long queues of people have been forming outside pharmacies in the capital Antananarivo, according to an AFP reporter.
- The government has meanwhile continued to promote the herbal infusion, which is based on the anti-malarial plant artemisia.
- Dubbed Covid-Organics or CVO, it is sold in drink and capsule form and has been widely distributed to citizens.
- Experts have cautioned against the brew, which has not been scientifically tested.
- Madagascar, an island of around 27 million inhabitants, has recorded more than 24,600 coronavirus cases, including at least 433 deaths.
- 15,000-year-old viruses never before seen by humans discovered in glacier ice - Study Finds
- COLUMBUS, Ohio '-- Glaciers can preserve all sorts of relics from the distant past. So could they also be home to a pandemic from prehistoric times as well? It's possible. A team from The Ohio State University has discovered a collection of viruses that have never been seen before in the ice of a glacier in China.
- Scientists say the viral samples date back nearly 15,000 years and may reveal how pathogens evolve over the centuries. Of the 33 viruses found trapped in the ice of the Tibetan Plateau, the team considers 28 to be completely novel. About half of them also seem to have survived specifically because of the freezing conditions.
- ''These glaciers were formed gradually, and along with dust and gases, many, many viruses were also deposited in that ice,'' says lead author Zhi-Ping Zhong, a researcher at Ohio State's Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center, in a university release. ''The glaciers in western China are not well-studied, and our goal is to use this information to reflect past environments. And viruses are a part of those environments.''
- A viral timeline of Earth's pastYao Tandong, left, and Lonnie Thompson, right, process an ice core drilled from the Guliya Ice Cap in the Tibetan Plateau in 2015. The ice held viruses nearly 15,000 years old, a new study has found. (Courtesy: Lonnie Thompson)Scientists collected the core samples from the Guliya ice cap in 2015. This ice sits 22,000 feet above sea level and researchers say layers continued to accumulate there year after year for thousands of years.
- Study authors say this created a sort of timeline of everything in the atmosphere at different periods in history; trapping microbes and showing how the climate has changed since 13,000 B.C.
- ''These are viruses that would have thrived in extreme environments,'' adds Matthew Sullivan, co-author of the study and professor of microbiology at Ohio State. ''These viruses have signatures of genes that help them infect cells in cold environments '' just surreal genetic signatures for how a virus is able to survive in extreme conditions. These are not easy signatures to pull out, and the method that Zhi-Ping developed to decontaminate the cores and to study microbes and viruses in ice could help us search for these genetic sequences in other extreme icy environments '' Mars, for example, the moon, or closer to home in Earth's Atacama Desert.''
- Where did these ancient viruses come from?Viruses don't share a common genetic background, so researchers say that figuring out the origin of a new virus takes several steps. For the 33 viruses unearthed in China, the team compared gene sets of known viruses to the novel strains.
- The study discovered that four viruses from the Guliya ice cap belong to a virus family that typically infects bacteria. They also found that the viral concentrations of these germs was much lower than amounts scientists find in oceans or soil.
- The team also says all of these new viruses likely originated in soil or plants, not in animals or early humans.
- ''We know very little about viruses and microbes in these extreme environments, and what is actually there,'' says senior author Lonnie Thompson, a distinguished university professor of earth sciences at Ohio State. ''The documentation and understanding of that is extremely important: How do bacteria and viruses respond to climate change? What happens when we go from an ice age to a warm period like we're in now?''
- The study appears in the journal Microbiome.
- Steelers Among NFL's Least Vaccinated, Players To Wear Bracelets During Practice '' OutKick
- The Pittsburgh Steelers announced that they will monitor the team's vaccination status using yellow bracelets to mark players who have yet to receive their COVID shot.
- Players are instructed to wear the bracelets during training camps and for the foreseeable future. Head coach Mike Tomlin was asked about the team's progress with vaccines and how Pittsburgh can benefit from the new bracelets.
- ''We really kind of moved on, to be honest with you,'' said Tomlin. ''That's why we wanted to be so proactive about addressing it, so we're not spending a whole bunch of time thinking or talking about it. So, it's a non-issue for us, thankfully, due to the efforts and willingness of our guys. We're focused on football.''
- According to the AP, 85% of the Steelers roster has been vaccinated, with the new system in place to encourage the remaining players to get vaccinated.
- The Steelers aren't the only NFL team implementing the new ruling. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced that they will be using a similar system leading up to the start of the new season, marking unvaccinated players with red bracelets.
- Buccaneers running back Leonard Fournette jokingly admitted on Twitter that he remains hesitant about the mandatory vaccination ruling, but he then deleted the incriminating tweet.
- Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league announced that unvaccinated players league-wide will be fined $14,650 for any COVID guideline infractions.
- Pittsburgh SteelersTampa Bay Buccaneers
- Written by Alejandro Avila Alejandro Avila lives in Southern California and previously covered news for the LA Football Network. Guided by Kevin Harlan on one shoulder, Eli Manning on the other, Alejandro joins the OutKick community with an authentic passion for sports, pop culture, America, and episodes of Jeopardy!
- Twitter: @AlejandroAveela
- NS: GHG Emissions Target Greenlighted - Railway Age
- July 26, 2021 Class I, Freight, Locomotives, Mechanical, News Written by Marybeth Luczak, Executive Editor NS has committed to achieving a 42% reduction in ''scope 1 and 2'' GHG intensity by 2034 from a 2019 base year.
- The Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi) has approved Norfolk Southern's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction target, which aligns with the Paris Agreement on climate change.
- Validation from SBTi'--a joint initiative of CDP, UN Global Compact, the World Resources Institute and World Wide Fund for Nature'--''confirms that the company's target is consistent with reductions required to keep warming to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels,'' NS reported on July 26.
- NS has committed to achieving a 42% reduction in ''scope 1 and 2'' GHG intensity by 2034 from a 2019 base year.
- ''Achieving our target will require continued investments in our locomotive fleet along with supplier engagement,'' NS Chief Sustainability Officer Josh Raglin said. ''Our implementation of innovative technologies, sustainable operating practices and locomotive modernizations are part of our efforts to build a more sustainable transportation network.''
- Locomotive fuel accounts for more than 90% of NS's carbon emissions. As part of the Class I railroad's 2015 strategic plan, it targeted an 8.6% improvement in fuel efficiency by 2020. NS said it exceeded that goal with a 9.4% improvement, ''resulting in savings of more than 130 million gallons of diesel fuel and avoidance of approximately 1.3 million metric tons of emissions.''
- NS also highlighted its recent sustainability initiatives:' Issuing in May $500 million of green bonds to fund eligible green projects.' Retiring more than 700 older, less fuel-efficient locomotives in 2020.' Working to convert older D.C.-traction locomotives to ''more reliable and efficient'' A.C. units.' Equipping locomotives with ''smart energy management technology that automatically matches horsepower to trailing tonnage and track terrain, maximizing fuel efficiency using the minimum horsepower.''' Recycling older locomotives into low-emission ''Eco'' models, as part of a public-private partnership program to reduce ''emissions in urban communities on our rail network and enabling them to meet their Clean Air Act obligations.''' Replacing diesel-powered overhead cranes with hybrid and fully electric cranes at NS intermodal facilities, a move that is projected to reduce emissions at those facilities by approximately 75%.
- Anti-terror organisation set up by tech firms to compile database of right-wing militias, Technology News | wionews.com
- A counterterrorism organisation formed by big tech companies in the US including Facebook and Microsoft is compiling extremist content exchanged among firms in a database, with hopes to quell hate speech.
- The Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) told Reuters that it aims to limit content from white supremacists and far-right militias.
- What does GIFCT intend to do?
- Until now, the GIFCT was focused on visuals, largely videos and images from terrorism groups on a United Nations list. It had consisted of content from Islamist extremist organisations like Islamic State, al Qaeda and the Taliban.
- Over the coming months, the GIFCT will insert attacker manifestos and other content flagged by UN's "Tech Against Terrorism" initiative. Attacker manifestos are generally shared by terror sympathisers after violence, especially perpetrated by white supremacists.In addition, the group will make use of lists from intelligence-sharing group "Five Eyes". More content from other groups including Proud Boys, The Three Percenters and will be added to the database.
- Also read: What is Facebook's $1 billion gamble to regain lost users?
- The grouping of firms uses "hashes" which represent a number embodying content which has been removed from their services. Based on this, services compare among themselves whether the same content is being carried on their platforms, which may then be reviewed or removed.
- The ongoing project will help contain extremist content on major platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Youtube. Even then, violent images and hate speech may be pushed out in different arenas of the internet.
- In an interview with Reuters, GIFCT's Executive Director Nicholas Rasmussen claimed that he wants to fight an array of threats. "Anyone looking at the terrorism or extremism landscape has to appreciate that there are other parts...that are demanding attention right now," Rasmussen told Reuters.
- Also read: This is how social media giants are feeding dangerous content to children
- Tech companies have faced flak for being ineffective in the face of hate content on their platforms and the role played by these platforms in causing potential real-life damage. But at the same time, the companies are confronted with censorship concerns.
- (With inputs from agencies)
- NYC Will Require Vaccines Or Weekly Tests For Hundreds Of Thousands Of City Workers : NPR
- New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that city workers will be required to be vaccinated or get tested weekly for COVID-19. De Blasio is seen here in Brooklyn on Sunday at a rally in support of Haiti. Michael Appleton/ New York City Mayoral Photography Office hide caption
- toggle caption Michael Appleton/ New York City Mayoral Photography Office New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday that city workers will be required to be vaccinated or get tested weekly for COVID-19. De Blasio is seen here in Brooklyn on Sunday at a rally in support of Haiti.
- Michael Appleton/ New York City Mayoral Photography Office New York City will require city workers to be vaccinated or tested weekly for COVID-19, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced.
- De Blasio cited the danger and lethality of the rapidly spreading Delta variant in announcing the mandate, which will apply to roughly 340,000 city workers. That includes the city's teachers and its police officers.
- Renee Campion, commissioner at the New York City Office of Labor Relations, said if employees refuse to comply, they will be put on leave without pay.
- Monday's decision makes New York the largest city in the nation to take such a step. The mayor said the announcement was part of what will be an intense vaccination effort in the lead-up to the start of the school year.
- "We're leading by example," de Blasio said, noting that he hopes the city's stance will push private employers to follow. "Right now there are employers ready to act, who will take heart from our announcement."
- Most adults in the city have at least one dose alreadyIn New York City, some 71% of adults have had at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. Information on the vaccination rate among city workers is incomplete, but it is thought to be similar to the overall rate for adults.
- Part of the goal of the new mandate is to "lift all boats" by creating a higher standard, said New York City Health Commissioner Dave Chokshi.
- City workers who are unvaccinated must wear a mask when indoors at work, de Blasio said, adding that workers who don't will be removed from the workforce.
- The mayor says the city has an obligation to take actionDe Blasio said the city is in talks with various worker unions, but that the city has the right as an employer to take urgent actions to protect the health and safety of workers in the middle of a global pandemic.
- Campion said that under the New York City collective bargaining law, the city does have to negotiate with unions regarding the safety impacts of these policies.
- "It's quite clear the Delta variant has changed the game. Now it's time to focus on one thing and one thing only '-- vaccination. No more excuses, no more delays," de Blasio said. "Our goal here is simple: make it maximally easy for people to get vaccinated and create an atmosphere where there's clearly consequences if you don't get vaccinated. Because vaccination is the only answer at this point."
- Germany to warn of future floods with phone alerts - The Local
- Wreckage in Bad M¼nstereifel after the floods in western Germany. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Thomas Banneyer
- Germany will issue mobile phone alerts in the future to inform citizens of impending dangers, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Monday after deadly floods prompted a rethink of the country's warning systems.''Not everyone has always been enthusiastic about the idea in recent months. But I've decided that we're going to do it'... There is no reasonable argument against it,'' Seehofer said in parliament.
- At least 180 people died when severe floods pummelled western Germany over two days in mid-July, raising questions about whether enough was done to warn residents ahead of time.
- Some 70 people are still missing after torrents of water ripped through entire towns and villages, destroying bridges, roads, railways and swathes of housing.
- READ ALSO: German floods death reach toll reaches 180 '' and dozens still missing
- Interior Minister Horst Seehofer on Monday. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | J¶rg CarstensenGovernment spokeswoman Martina Fietz last week said the country's weather warning system and mobile phone app Nina had ''worked'' but admitted that ''our experiences with this disaster show that we need to do more and better''.
- (article continues below)
- See also on The Local:Armin Schuster, president of the German civil protection agency (BBK), called for sirens to be reinstated in more areas.
- He also said the agency was considering introducing mobile phone alerts, but ''a number of issues'' would need to be talked through first, including the costs and data protection concerns.
- Why weren't residents of German flood zones all warned via text?Why Germany faces tough questions over its disaster responseThe alerts would be sent using a technology known as cell broadcast, which enables local authorities to send messages to multiple mobile phone users in a particular area at the same time.
- The alerts are similar to SMS messages, but can be sent and received anonymously and have the advantage of still working when networks are overloaded.
- The technology is not widely used in Europe, but is common in the US and Japan.
- Seehofer on Monday called for a mix of analogue and digital warnings. ''The warning app is of no use if you are asleep at night and don't hear it. The siren, in turn, is of no use on its own because it doesn't tell people: What should they do?''
- Matt Walsh on Twitter: "Yes, this is real." / Twitter
- Matt Walsh : Yes, this is real. https://t.co/ToTA6qlhEs
- Sun Jul 25 19:17:40 +0000 2021
- Marlene Manteiga : @MattWalshBlog Omg'... I cannot believe that letter?!
- Mon Jul 26 15:16:28 +0000 2021
- Peter England : @MattWalshBlog Their normal plan. Can't elevate everyone, so everyone gets equally degraded.
- Mon Jul 26 15:13:32 +0000 2021
- Distinctively Unoriginal : @MattWalshBlog We used to play Highland Park in football, good team. Now it seems all an opponent would have to do'... https://t.co/ojhBcI6kfs
- Mon Jul 26 15:13:17 +0000 2021
- B4theWALL61 : @MattWalshBlog This is F U C K E D UP
- Mon Jul 26 15:03:46 +0000 2021
- Super Saiyan Savage : @MattWalshBlog They can't be serious
- Mon Jul 26 15:03:15 +0000 2021
- Shari Romanick : @MattWalshBlog What ever happened to the united negro college fund? Can my underprivileged white kid apply for that?
- Mon Jul 26 14:55:13 +0000 2021
- Texas Democrat fears 'rural cop' retaliation for fleeing state | Fox News
- '[H]e said that he was going to round us up and corral us up and bring us back,' said Jarvis JohnsonA Texas state representative smeared Texas Republicans and rural state troopers, saying he feared they, or "fanatic[s] of the Republican Party" were under the bidding of Governor Greg Abbott, and would "round up" Texas democrats who fled the state to avoid voting on election legislation.
- On Sunday, Texas State Representative Jarvis D. Johnson spoke on MSNBC's "The Sunday Show with Jonathan Capehart" to discuss the recent actions of the Texas Democrats, who fled their state to Washington D.C. in order to avoid voting on an election reform bill.
- Capehart asked Johnson to discuss a warning he gave his own son not to drive in Texas for fear of "retaliation."
- "And one of the things you told me is that you have told your son to not drive in Texas, because of your concern about retaliation on the part of Governor Abbott against you. Can you just talk a little bit about that?" Capehart asked.
- Johnson responded that he feared Texas Governor Greg Abbott would "round us up" and "corral us up" based on the governor's announcement that the representatives could be arrested upon their return to the state.
- TEXAS DEMOCRATS TO REMAIN IN WASHINGTON THROUGHOUT SPECIAL SESSION
- "The governor put out the call and he said that he was going to round us up and corral us up and bring us back. And we've watched all across this country when there's a leader that does something like this, that there are people in their party that will take this and run with it," Johnson said.
- "And so, my son drives my car, which has state plates. And I just don't want some rural cop, or some fanatic of the Republican Party that listens to Governor Abbott, as they say they need to bring us back because we're fugitives."
- Abbott previously stated that the Democrats who fled the state would be arrested upon their return to Texas. However, the arrest can only be made within the state. The Democrats later stated that they would remain in Washington D.C. through the last two weeks of the special session called by the governor to pass the election bill.
- Johnson later said his fears were based on race, and that he was concerned a Republican would "act as the hero" to round up someone like his son.
- "Because we do understand, I understand, what relationships are with police officers and black males, and I do know what's going on with most of the Republican Party, when they want to take the law into their own hands and act as the hero and say, 'we rounded one up,'" Johnson said.
- Capehart responded "Wow!"
- CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
- The Texas Democrats were widely criticized for their actions in fleeing the state, most notably with a widely panned photo of many state representatives riding maskless on a private plane. The photo was later criticized when it was revealed that six of the Democrats traveling to Washington D.C. contracted the coronavirus.
- Frequently Asked Questions '' Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record
- What is a Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record?Your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record is an electronic vaccination record drawn from the data stored in the California immunization registry. The digital record shows the same information as your paper CDC vaccine card: your name, date of birth, vaccination dates and type of vaccine you received. The digital record also includes a QR code that when scanned by a SMART Health Card reader will display to the reader your name, date of birth, vaccine dates and vaccine type. The QR code also confirms the vaccine record as an official record of the state of California.
- How does the Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record portal work?The Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record portal draws COVID-19 records from California's immunization systems. Enter your name, date of birth, and an email or mobile phone number associated with your vaccination record, then create a four-digit PIN. If the information you submitted matches the official record, you will receive a text or email with a link to your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record. Enter the PIN you created to view the record.
- How will my vaccine record be delivered?When your vaccination record is found, you will receive a link delivered to the email or mobile phone number associated with the vaccination record. After entering your four-digit PIN, you will see your COVID-19 vaccination information including your name, date of birth, vaccination date(s), and vaccine manufacturer. You will also receive a scannable QR code confirming your vaccine record is authentic.
- If my record is found, how do I retrieve it?When your vaccination record is found, you will receive a link delivered to the email or mobile phone number associated with the vaccination record. You have 24 hours to access the link and enter your four-digit PIN to retrieve your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record. Once saved to the phone or in an app, your digital vaccine record does not expire. If your link to retrieve your record expires, you can start over at Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record.
- What if my record is not found?If the information you submitted does not return a link, you can re-enter your information making sure to use an email or phone associated with your vaccine record, and double check that your name and birthdate are correct. If your record still isn't found, you may need to correct or update your immunization record. Contact your provider to update your record or follow the troubleshooting tips at cdph.ca.gov/covidvaccinerecord. If you received your vaccinations from a federal agency (e.g., Department of Defense, Indian Health Services, or Veterans Affairs), you will need to reach out to those agencies for assistance with your vaccination.
- What if my digital vaccine record is incorrect?If the information on your digital vaccine record is not correct, for instance missing a dose or the wrong dates or brand, you may need to correct or update your immunization record. Contact your provider to update your record or follow the troubleshooting tips at cdph.ca.gov/covidvaccinerecord.
- What if I made multiple vaccination appointments for multiple people with a single phone number?If you are a parent or guardian and have created multiple appointments with a single phone number or email, enter the requests one at a time to receive separate links for each vaccine record.
- Will my information remain private?Yes. Filling out the form on the portal does not provide instant access to your vaccine record. The link to the vaccine record requires a PIN that you create and is sent only to the mobile phone or email that is associated with your immunization record.
- The QR code is a SMART Health Card, a secure copy of your vaccination record. More information is at https://smarthealth.cards. To protect your privacy, the QR code can only be scanned and read by a SMART Health Card-compliant device.
- What happens to my information after I share it?Your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record shows the same information as your paper CDC vaccine card. You can ask organizations that will scan the QR code in your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record how they will use your data or if they will keep it. Only you can decide how and when to share your record.
- What if I need to replace my vaccination card?The portal provides a digital copy of your vaccine record. If you've lost your paper vaccine card, you may print out your digital record and use it. If you lose your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record, you can start the process over at the Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record portal.
- Is this a vaccine passport?No. You are not required to obtain a Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record. It is an optional means to obtain your COVID-19 vaccine information, and is the digital version of your paper vaccine card. It is one of the options to show proof of vaccination. The State will not be implementing a mandatory passport system in California.
- Please click here for more information about general COVID-19 vaccine record guidelines and standards in California.
- Can I save my digital vaccine record on an Android device?Yes. You can save your digital vaccine record to Google Pay if you have Android version 5 and Google Play Services version 21.18 or above.
- You can also take a screen shot of your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record and save it to your camera roll.
- Can I save my digital vaccine record on an iPhone?Yes. You can save your Digital COVID-19 Vaccine Record on your iPhone by taking a screenshot and saving to your camera roll.
- Research reveals Beijing's response to SARS created template for Covid deception, writes IAN BIRRELL | Daily Mail Online
- Towards the end of 2002, several chefs and animal traders in the southern Chinese coastal province of Guangdong fell ill with a strange respiratory disease that left them coughing, feverish and struggling to breathe.
- Several worked in restaurants that slaughtered animals on the spot for diners, another supplied such creatures for them, and a third sold snakes in the squalid local market filled with stacked cages. This mysterious disease alarmed doctors, since it was clearly highly infectious. After the snake seller died, his wife and some medical staff who treated him fell sick, while at least two of the chefs triggered outbreaks in other nearby hospitals.
- These events marked the start of the global epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) '' a deadly new coronavirus almost certainly from bats that infected thousands of people in 30 countries, including four in Britain.
- Towards the end of 2002, several chefs and animal traders in the southern Chinese coastal province of Guangdong fell ill with a strange respiratory disease that left them coughing, feverish and struggling to breathe
- Fortunately, despite its lethal virulence and frightening impact on older people, there were just 774 fatalities worldwide and the outbreak was stifled in months. This was a warning to the world, a narrow escape from global health catastrophe that showed the dangers of a new pathogen '' yet it went unheeded, with terrible consequences almost two decades later. It also exposed, with unnerving familiarity in light of recent events, the reaction of a Communist regime that lied about the disease, silenced doctors, covered up data, duped global health authorities and blamed outsiders for a 'bioterrorist' attack.
- The disease flared up again briefly the following year after leaks at a flagship Chinese state-run laboratory, following two other incidents of infection in high-security research centres in Taiwan and Singapore. Little wonder the World Health Organisation warned that 'these laboratories represent the greatest threat for renewed SARS-CoV transmission'. Now the stark similarities between Beijing's sinister response to the two outbreaks are highlighted in a damning new paper published in CBRNe World, a journal for specialists in biological, chemical and nuclear threats.
- Milton Leitenberg, senior researcher at the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, argues that SARS taught China it could 'mislead, misinform and manipulate' health authorities with few consequences. He said this lesson was reinforced by the subsequent laboratory infection outbreaks '' and then applied in the pandemic 'in an aggressive and bravura style' with 'a massive campaign of denial, cover-up, diversions, delay and disinformation'.
- Intriguingly, China instantly blamed the latest coronavirus on an animal market in Wuhan '' backed by a scientific establishment insisting on natural 'spillover' from animals rather than anything untoward in a lab '' until this was disproven.
- These events marked the start of the global epidemic of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) '' a deadly new coronavirus almost certainly from bats that infected thousands of people in 30 countries, including four in Britain
- So what happened in that first SARS outbreak?
- The first case was traced to a patient in Foshan on November 16, 2002. This city '' unlike Wuhan '' is located in a region notorious for exotic cuisine. As cases multiplied, many with links to the animal trade, there were clear signs of human transmission as family members and medics fell ill. Health officials warned about a new, pneumonia-like disease.
- Yet the Communist Party response was to stifle information '' and it took another three-and-a-half months before China finally confessed to an epidemic that was by then spreading death and disease around the world.
- Beijing sent experts to Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong province, to investigate on January 20, 2003 '' but their report filed a week later was marked 'Top secret' and not shared with the World Health Organisation.
- Party chiefs imposed a news blackout amid New Year festivities '' but China was a much less controlled society back then, so rumours spread. One text message warning of 'fatal flu' was shared 126 million times in three days.
- After the stories were picked up in Hong Kong newspapers, the WHO demanded answers. The government admitted there was a disease but insisted it was under control. Several days later, officials claimed the virus was caused by chlamydia, a sexually transmitted infection. Yet the epidemic was intensifying, hitting health workers hard, with more than 400 falling sick in Guangzhou alone. Sales of a vinegar thought to protect against the disease rocketed.
- Beijing rebuffed outside offers of help '' just as it was to with Covid-19 '' and on February 23 the WHO reported that China's health authorities had declared the outbreak in Guangdong to be over.
- Yet two days earlier, a lung specialist treating patients in a Guangzhou hospital travelled by bus to Hong Kong for a wedding '' and his brief stay in a hotel infected travellers from Canada, Singapore, the US and Vietnam staying on the same floor.
- Now this disease was unleashed on the planet, with more than 4,000 cases later traced to this doctor's one-night visit that passed the virus to 14 of his fellow guests.
- One Hong Kong resident who fell sick infected more than 100 staff at a big teaching hospital. A woman from Singapore sparked 90 cases after going home. A Canadian mother died a few days later in Toronto after infecting her son and several medics. One week after the Canadian woman's death, the WHO ignored China to proclaim a global alert '' and two weeks later, on March 25, issued an emergency air travel advisory notice for the first time in its 55-year history.
- The same day, an infected woman flew home to Britain from Singapore and was admitted a week later to a Manchester hospital. Three other Britons were treated in London before being discharged.
- The disease was named SARS, with Covid later added to give the designation SARS-CoV '' just as the successor disease that emerged in Wuhan is called SARS-CoV-2. China finally admitted the virus had spread outside Guangdong at the end of March 2003 but blamed Hong Kong for being the source '' just as it made more phoney claims against Thailand over a flare-up in Beijing.
- Party chiefs imposed a news blackout amid New Year festivities '' but China was a much less controlled society back then, so rumours spread. One text message warning of 'fatal flu' was shared 126 million times in three days
- Days later, the government declared again the disease had 'already been brought under control'. Eventually it allowed in a team of WHO investigators. But officials prevented them from travelling to the outbreak's centre for eight days, failed to supply promised samples and refused to let them visit sick people in Beijing hospitals. Then, after granting access, they hid patients to dupe WHO about the number of cases.
- Susan Jakes, editor of the online ChinaFile magazine, was then Time magazine's correspondent in the country. 'Doctors told me they were ordered to remove patients from three hospitals when the WHO inspectors came,' she recalled. 'In one they were driven around in ambulances for hours. In another, they were put in a basement.'
- Little wonder many doctors were left infuriated by such deception given the gravity of the situation, as scores of colleagues fell ill.
- 'Beijing's doctors listened to the politicians so they didn't demand facemasks, goggles or gloves,' said one virologist. 'They believed the propaganda.'
- After the health minister claimed there had been just 12 cases and three deaths in Beijing, one brave whistleblowing doctor from a military hospital contacted Jakes to expose the truth.
- Jiang Yanyong told her that medics were angry since there were 60 SARS patients and seven deaths at one military hospital alone. 'I couldn't believe what I was hearing,' he said. 'I have a responsibility to aid international and local efforts to prevent the spread of SARS.' Is this why China under ruthless President Xi Jinping clamped down so quickly on those doctors in Wuhan trying to warn of Covid-19 and then expelled journalists from US and Australian news organisations last year?
- China finally admitted the virus had spread outside Guangdong at the end of March 2003 but blamed Hong Kong for being the source '' just as it made more phoney claims against Thailand over a flare-up in Beijing. Pictured: A mural depicting medical workers battling SARS in Beijing
- BBC journalist John Sudworth was also driven out of the country four months ago after attempting to investigate a mine that was frequently visited by coronavirus researchers at Wuhan Institute of Virology to collect samples from bats. At least in 2003, the WHO, led by former Norwegian prime minister Gro Harlem Brundtland, was forceful after duplicitous reports emerged '' in sharp contrast to its supine stance in this pandemic under Ethiopian director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
- Back then it accused China of misleading the public and lying about the number of cases in unusually blunt language for a UN body. 'Next time something strange and new comes anywhere in the world, let us come in as quickly as possible,' demanded Brundtland.
- This pressure from doctors and the WHO forced China to take action. The country's then president, Hu Jintao, ordered officials to stop under-reporting data, the health minister was sacked and the government admitted to tenfold more cases. Within three months the global outbreak was contained after imposition of new measures such as travel restrictions, thermal scanners at airports, quarantine, contact-tracing and mask-wearing in the worst afflicted places. 'I don't think we've seen anything like this before,' Balaji Sadasivan, a doctor and health minister in Singapore, told the New York Times. 'This is a battle being fought with the thermometer and quarantine.'
- The epidemic ended with 8,098 confirmed cases and 774 deaths. This was a lucky escape since SARS is much deadlier than Covid-19 '' but its symptoms become apparent before people start spreading the disease, unlike its successor. Even before the SARS epidemic ended, scientists identified that the virus was carried by civet cats '' one of the key ingredients, along with shredded snake and chrysanthemum petals, in a popular Guangdong soup.
- Curiously, researchers have been unable to detect any animal host that might have transmitted SARS-CoV-2 from bats to humans in the pandemic, despite intensive efforts that include tests on more than 80,000 samples.
- Over subsequent months, there were a series of incidents involving SARS in labs that nearly sparked a second wave, exposing both safety concerns at high-security research units and China's toxic obsession with secrecy. The first was minor and involved a student in Singapore. The second was more serious, taking place in a top-security military lab in Taiwan equipped '' as is Wuhan Institute of Virology '' by France. More than 90 people had to quarantine.
- Between February and April 2004, there were at least four primary infections due to sloppy practices at Chinese labs that led to 11 confirmed cases, including a nurse treating patients, and almost 1,000 people were put in quarantine. These began at an Institute of Virology lab run by the Chinese Center for Disease and Control (CCDC), which was then the country's leading viral research centre before the institute in Wuhan started its operations.
- The first two cases were never officially disclosed, emerging only after revelations by Chinese investigative journalists. Eventually the WHO sent in a team, though it didn't deliver a report, unlike after the earlier incidents in Singapore and Taiwan.
- The systemic failures, which included a fridge containing SARS samples moved into a corridor outside a lab to make space, led to several senior figures being given 'administrative sanctions'. They included CCDC deputy director Dong Xiaoping, who is now joint director, and a top Communist Party official who even joined the first WHO study team into the pandemic origins in February 2020. Later, the body declared a lab leak to be 'extremely unlikely'.
- Six years ago, the Chinese army published a book claiming SARS was created in a lab outside China, similar to how its officials now suggest a US military research centre as a source of this pandemic.
- 'We thought SARS would be a watershed for handling disease and they would learn the lessons of transparency,' said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow at the US Council on Foreign Relations. 'But the pattern was no different, with cover-up, denials and inaction after the outbreak in Wuhan.'
- He is right. There are many uncomfortable parallels between these two outbreaks, even down to the time of year they emerged and local officials fearing the implications of actions that might disrupt party conventions or public holidays '' though only one can be definitively blamed on wild animals.
- 'Dictatorships breed dishonesty because everyone is afraid of what a mistake could cost,' said Tory MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. 'Today in China it is no different '' but this time we're all paying the price.'
- Ford and GM replace 'chairman' title with gender-neutral 'chair'
- Bill Ford, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board for Ford Motor Company.
- Geoff Robins | AFP | Getty Images
- DETROIT '-- Ford Motor Company's Bill Ford is no longer chairman of the automaker's board of directors, but he's still running the show.
- The automaker's board voted last week to amend Ford's bylaws to "adopt gender-neutral language throughout, including the title 'chair' in place of 'chairman,'" according to a recent regulatory filing.
- Bill Ford's new title is simply "chair."
- The changes, which took effect immediately, are a pretty big step for the historically male-dominated auto industry. They come after large swaths of corporate America have promised employees and investors that they will be more inclusive and focus on diversity efforts following social unrest in the wake of the #MeToo movement and George Floyd's murder last year.
- "Our roles at Ford aren't gender exclusive and these changes help limit ambiguity and contribute to the inclusive and equitable culture we're creating," Ford spokeswoman Marisa Bradley said in an emailed statement.
- A spokesman for General Motors said Monday it removed the "chairman" title from CEO Mary Barra in exchange for "chair" in May. He said GM did not change its bylaws but made the changes internally and to the company's website.
- Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, leaves after a meeting with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S. June 16, 2021.
- "Mary Barra's title adjustment from Chairman and CEO to Chair and CEO is just one of many changes at General Motors in our journey to be the most inclusive company in the world," David Barnas, a company spokesman, said in an emailed statement.
- Barra adopted the "chairman" title when she began leading the automaker's board in January 2016. She is the first female CEO and chair of any major automaker.
- JPMorgan Chase & Co. made headlines earlier this year by erasing gender designations from its bylaws as well.
- California Gives Female Inmates Condoms, Plan B After State Forces Them To Stay With Transgenders | The Daily Wire
- The state of California is reportedly offering contraceptives '-- including Plan B '-- to female inmates forced to stay with men identifying as ''transgender.''
- As The Daily Wire reported last September, inmates in California are now housed according to their self-proclaimed gender identity. SB 132 '-- signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) '-- states that prison officers must privately ask inmates in the intake process if they identify as transgender, nonbinary, or intersex. Inmates can then request a move to the facility that houses other inmates in line with their preferred identity.
- The Women's Liberation Front '-- a left-wing feminist organization that opposes gender identity legislation due to its negative effects upon women and children '-- revealed that corrections facilities are now offering contraceptives as a result of the policy:
- Women incarcerated in California's largest women's prison are describing the conditions as ''a nightmare's worst nightmare'' after the introduction of new pregnancy resources in the Central California Women's Facility (CCWF) medical clinics. The new resources are a tacit admission by officials that women should expect to be raped when housed in prison with men, where all sex is considered non-consensual by default within the system.
- New posters recently appeared in medical rooms outlining the options available to ''pregnant people'' in prison, including prenatal care, abortion, and adoption. The poster also declares that women have the right to ''contraceptive counseling and your choice of birth control methods by a licensed health care provider within 60-180 days prior to scheduled release date.'' However, the only methods available to incarcerated women to prevent pregnancy are condoms, which appeared shortly after the men, and Plan B emergency contraceptives.
- Though it mainly seeks to prevent ovulation, Plan B can prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg to the uterus, thereby ending a preborn baby's life.
- Before the prison bill passed in September, pregnancies among incarcerated women were ''vanishingly rare'' in California women's prisons, according to the Women's Liberation Front. Inmates who enter prison while pregnant are usually held in separate facilities until they give birth.
- As The Los Angeles Times reported in April, hundreds of male inmates have asked to be relocated to females' facilities:
- The demand has been high, with 261 requests for transfers since SB 132 took effect Jan. 1, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. It's the start of a hugely sensitive operation playing out in one of the largest prison systems in the country.
- So far, the prison system has transferred four inmates to the Chowchilla women's prison, approved 21 gender-based housing requests and denied none. Of the 261 requests, all but six asked to be housed at a women's facility.
- One inmate told The Los Angeles Times that staffers have been preparing for the reality of pregnancies following the law's passage: ''They say we're going to need a facility that's going to be like a maternity ward. They say we're going to have an inmate program where inmates become nannies.''
- The Daily Wire is one of America's fastest-growing conservative media companies and counter-cultural outlets for news, opinion, and entertainment. Get inside access to The Daily Wire by becoming a member .
- Clips
- VIDEO - The Vaccine Causes The Virus To Be More Dangerous
- Bannons War Room Published July 28, 2021 255,646 Views 2851 rumbles
- Rumble '-- The Vaccine Causes The Virus To Be More Dangerous
- 48m57sEpisode 1,130 '' Safeguarding Our Election From Foreign InterferenceBannons War Room
- 40m36sCovid Vaccine causes more problemsShaddyAddy
- 12sDangerous U-Turn Causes CrashViralHog$0.06 earned
- 2m03sFauci Virus VaccineActive News Ro
- 1m23sMixed messaging causes COVID-19 vaccine hesitancyKSHB
- 2m07sDoctors warn of dangerous virus in kidsWFTS
- 2m23sIndia's crisis causes a vaccine drought in AfricaReuters
- 2m02sWe Are The Petri Dish For A Dangerous Experimental VaccineBannons War Room
- 2m55sBiden looks to purchase millions more vaccine doses to curb virusDab39907
- VIDEO - Jim Cramer Freaks Over Delta Variant: Could Be 100 Million Sick in 9 Weeks
- CNBC financial pundit Jim Cramer sounded the alarm about the Delta variant of the coronavirus, predicting that the U.S. could see 100 million people stricken by the disease ''in 9 weeks.''
- On Wednesday morning's edition of The Street Live, Cramer delivered a dismal forecast based on recent market performance on the heels of news that the CDC would (and then did) revise mask guidelines in the face of the Delta variant.
- Interviewing Cramer on the trading floor, Jeff Marks asked Cramer what effect he thought the new CDC mask guidance would have on the market.
- Cramer began by telling Marks to ''look at Starbucks, which is getting crushed, on a good quarter by the way,'' and asked Marks to consider what happens if ''the great reopening'' becomes ''the great reclosing?''
- ''I mean in order to be able to get to herd immunity in this country, we're going to have to have 100 million people get Covid,'' Cramer said. ''Now they won't, we know it that doesn't necessarily lead to death, leads to hospitalization, but with the way that this Delta variant goes, 100 million could be very quickly.''
- Cramer then declared ''I wouldn't be surprised if we got a hundred million people sick in 9 weeks.''
- Marks reacted to that alarming prediction in the most finance-bro way imaginable. Without missing a beat, he told Cramer ''Let's dig into that Starbucks quarter a little further.''
- Have a tip we should know? tips@mediaite.com
- VIDEO - Biden says your not smart if you don't have the vaccine - YouTube
- VIDEO - (101) STAYHOMER | GamePlay PC - YouTube
- VIDEO - (100) 'Madam Speaker, You Don't Know The Facts Or The Science': McCarthy Assails Pelosi For Mask Mandate - YouTube
- VIDEO - CNN's John Berman asks CDC director 'why the hell' vaccinated people have to wear masks | The Daily Caller
- CNN host John Berman asked Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) director Rochelle Walensky ''why the hell'' vaccinated Americans have to ''pay the price'' for the unvaccinated and wear masks, during Wednesday's broadcast of ''New Day.''
- ''With prior variants, when people had these rare breakthrough infections, we didn't see the capacity of them to spread the virus to others,'' Walensky explained. ''But with the Delta variant, we now see in our outbreak investigations that have been occurring over the last couple of weeks, in those outbreak investigations, we have been seeing that if you happen to have one of those breakthrough infections, that you can actually now pass it to somebody else.''
- Walensky claimed that ''new science'' prompted the updated recommendations and that it was something that ''weighed heavily'' because the CDC was aware that Americans didn't want to wear masks again. She did acknowledge that the ''vast majority'' of transmission is coming from unvaccinated people. (RELATED: Fauci Says The CDC 'Hasn't Really Flip-Flopped At All' On Masks)
- Berman pointed out a CDC brief that showed vaccinated people rarely transmit the virus and asked if that science was no longer applicable.
- ''You can understand the frustration in those of us who are vaccinated saying, 'Why the hell do I have to pay the price for this?''' Berman asked.
- Walensky claimed that the new guidance was put in place because if vaccinated people are in an area with a higher level of COVID infections, there is a ''reasonably high chance, if nobody is wearing a mask, to interact with people who may be infectious.''
- Walensky added that even though breakthrough infections are rare, the intention was to prevent vaccinated people from spreading the virus to others.
- Former CDC Director Tom Frieden recently claimed that the U.S. could daily case numbers for the Delta variant rise to 200,000. According to Reuters, the Delta variant represents about 83% of new cases, with 97% of severe cases occurring among unvaccinated Americans.
- VIDEO - JOEY on Twitter: "WHAT IN BABY JESUS' NAME WAS THAT https://t.co/BymJaXF7sz" / Twitter
- JOEY : WHAT IN BABY JESUS' NAME WAS THAT https://t.co/BymJaXF7sz
- Wed Jul 28 20:19:52 +0000 2021
- Cryptos & Tokens : @JoeyTweeets https://t.co/V1r1OHMsx9
- Thu Jul 29 04:10:46 +0000 2021
- HMK : @JoeyTweeets When the government mentions "temporary" you know you're fucked for 10 years.
- Thu Jul 29 04:08:18 +0000 2021
- Gabe Tha Guru : @JoeyTweeets Sounds like me when I try explaining why I came home late smelling like weed,liquor and stripper sweat ð¤£ð¤£ð¤£
- Thu Jul 29 04:07:26 +0000 2021
- Robert Farkas ð : @JoeyTweeets https://t.co/VMPGd46JsY#Inflation
- Thu Jul 29 04:06:28 +0000 2021
- KryptoBandito : @JoeyTweeets @Dxron2 Wtf !
- Thu Jul 29 04:06:04 +0000 2021
- Davey : @JoeyTweeets @Dxron2 His head is the SIZE of a $50 Dollar Water ðMellon ððð
- Thu Jul 29 04:03:14 +0000 2021
- Gary Pointer : @JoeyTweeets Cranular resemblance. https://t.co/Wp7FCWiOK4
- Thu Jul 29 04:01:48 +0000 2021
- DegenerateHODLR ð...ðº '/21M #FREEROSS : @JoeyTweeets https://t.co/tkDeSL4UVD
- Thu Jul 29 04:01:20 +0000 2021
- Jimmy Lau : @JoeyTweeets 2 minutes of tragicomic. JFC'...
- Thu Jul 29 04:00:17 +0000 2021
- (We Are All) Donald J Trump : @JoeyTweeets https://t.co/QHzjxV2Yn4
- Thu Jul 29 04:00:17 +0000 2021
- Literally Murder : @JoeyTweeets https://t.co/r5d5qiqANG
- Thu Jul 29 03:59:58 +0000 2021
- Ronit Pereira : @JoeyTweeets @passivefool ð¤£ð¤£
- Thu Jul 29 03:58:13 +0000 2021
- Rumman : @JoeyTweeets For sure his message is not for general public, too much complicated meassage.
- Thu Jul 29 03:53:29 +0000 2021
- OG Ape Raymundo : @JoeyTweeets https://t.co/e7Mj153cML
- Thu Jul 29 03:52:37 +0000 2021
- Sumdum Gi : @JoeyTweeets Sounds like a large load of nasty smelling propaganda & please don't believe what you're seeing of god forbid blame us for it.
- Thu Jul 29 03:51:27 +0000 2021
- Footy : @JoeyTweeets OMG Jerome Powell's hands are super small!
- Thu Jul 29 03:50:37 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - Media SHAMEFULLY Ignores Historic Coal Miner Strike For 4 MONTHS - YouTube
- VIDEO - Darren of Plymouth ð¬ð§ on Twitter: "'The viral load of delta variant in the nose of the vaccinated is the same as unvaccinated, so mask up please' Fauci providing more evidence how vaccine passports won't work. https://t.co/4tpW4DB0v5" / Twit
- Darren of Plymouth ð¬ð§ : 'The viral load of delta variant in the nose of the vaccinated is the same as unvaccinated, so mask up please' Fa'... https://t.co/QS84H6E7Te
- Wed Jul 28 14:10:34 +0000 2021
- Luke MacDougall : @DarrenPlymouth @dennyking so why the tyrannical 8 day quarantine for the unvaccinated. Nothing more than a penalty'... https://t.co/CUz7pC4QYj
- Wed Jul 28 22:14:56 +0000 2021
- Beni-Crypto : @DarrenPlymouth https://t.co/tZ2u29ddfk
- Wed Jul 28 22:13:07 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - (97) Nigel Farage reacts to UN comments 'the pandemic is a warning from the planet' - YouTube
- VIDEO - De Blasio proclaims 'voluntary phase is over' on COVID vaccines
- July 27, 2021 | 9:56am | Updated July 27, 2021 | 10:39am
- Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday that the ''voluntary phase is over'' in the effort to administer COVID-19 vaccinations to city workers '-- hinting that mandatory jabs for the Big Apple's workforce could come soon.
- Asked if the city will soon require all city workers to be inoculated, de Blasio said he's heading in that direction.
- ''Yes, we are climbing a ladder. I'm not answering yes to your question yet,'' he said on MSNBC's ''Morning Joe'' in response to a question from host Joe Scarborough.
- ''But if that's not enough, I think we got to be ready to climb the ladder more,'' he added. ''We've got to put pressure on this situation.''
- On Monday, de Blasio announced that the entire city workforce will soon need to submit to weekly testing if they are not inoculated against the coronavirus. Additionally, city officials said the city, beginning Aug. 2, will require unvaccinated city workers to wear a mask at their workplaces '-- or face removal from them and suspension without pay.
- De Blasio said all city employees will soon be required to be vaccinated. Getty ImagesThose new rules came after on Wednesday de Blasio outlined a weekly test-or-COVID-19 vaccine requirement for the city's public health system workers, amid mounting concern about the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the bug in the five boroughs.
- On Tuesday, Mayor Bill de Blasio said enticing New Yorkers with goodies isn't enough in the city's goal to get more workers inoculated against COVID-19. James MesserschmidtOn Tuesday, de Blasio said enticing New Yorkers with goodies isn't sufficient to meet the city's goal of getting more workers inoculated against COVID-19.
- People gather during an anti-vaccine demonstration in Central Park. REUTERS''We've got to shake people at this point and say, 'Come on now.' We tried voluntary. We could not have been more kind and compassionate. Free testing, everywhere you turn, incentives, friendly, warm embrace. The voluntary phase is over,'' de Blasio said on MSNBC.
- ''We can keep doing those things. I'm not saying shut it down. I'm saying voluntary alone doesn't work,'' he added. ''It's time for mandates, because it's the only way to protect our people.''
- VIDEO - (97) Jimmy Dore's Experience with Vaccine Side Effects - YouTube
- VIDEO - (97) China slams US Navy presence in South China Sea; Australia defense spending highest since Cold War - YouTube
- VIDEO - (97) No comment, just watch. - YouTube
- VIDEO - (97) Chris Hedges | The HORRIFIC State of the American Empire - YouTube
- VIDEO - (97) Olympic Fold: Whitlock Rips into 'Cowardly' Simone Biles | Ep 16 - YouTube
- VIDEO - gootecks on Twitter: "@disclosetv @adamcurry @THErealDVORAK ICYMI...*jcd voice* SCIENCE!!!! Is this the new ''jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs'' jingle?" / Twitter
- gootecks : @disclosetv @adamcurry @THErealDVORAK ICYMI...*jcd voice* SCIENCE!!!!Is this the new ''jobs, jobs, jobs, and jobs'' jingle?
- Wed Jul 28 17:33:01 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - EXCLUSIVE! Dr. David Martin Just Ended COVID, Fauci, DOJ, Politicians in ONE INTERVIEW.
- Stew Peters Show Published July 19, 2021 644,478 Views 4750 rumbles
- Rumble '-- Stew Peters talked with Dr. David Martin in an historical interview with inarguable fact-based exposure that should be seen by the entire world as an absolute end to the COVID narrative.
- www.StewPeters.tv | www.DavidMartin.world
- 25m49sTrump KNOWS! Bombshell Evidence About Election and 'Vaccines' EXPOSED!Stew Peters Show
- 21sDog will only eat pill when it is thrown on the groundBrighteyedhoot
- 7sMom leaves room for one minute, finds baby completely covered in spaghettiKeighly0507
- 58sWoman can't stop laughing at her mom's exercise routinekerriokie
- 32sToddler hilariously struggles to pick up three balls at onceShannonBannister4
- 8sPit Bulls can't contain excitement when owner says "grandma"megmy90
- 18sKitty plays with bouncy ball in epic slow motionKornfeind
- 2m00sEnglish Bulldog adorably struggles with long walkstitusbulldog
- 52sPack of Great Danes enjoy an epic pool partyMaxandKatietheGreatDanes
- 15sDog always hides his guilt behind a smirkkynbunch34
- VIDEO - Marty Bent on Twitter: "This dude needs to be exiled. A fucking demon. https://t.co/x838WHsfVy" / Twitter
- Marty Bent : This dude needs to be exiled. A fucking demon. https://t.co/x838WHsfVy
- Wed Jul 28 12:53:00 +0000 2021
- 0xLeibniz : @MartyBent Seriously what is wrong with you? The man has been fighting for public health for 40 years. What have y'... https://t.co/U9VlFI45Tz
- Wed Jul 28 14:36:57 +0000 2021
- Bitcoin for President! : @MartyBent @Stoeney1 Puppet! Not a true benevolent person! Not my doctor!!!! Always from jump street thought he seemed shady'...
- Wed Jul 28 14:26:17 +0000 2021
- Meekakeszi : @MartyBent https://t.co/MLIdofPAu4
- Wed Jul 28 14:21:58 +0000 2021
- Mark : @MartyBent These people can fuck right off.Stop complying.
- Wed Jul 28 13:58:04 +0000 2021
- BTCIsFuUSD §Malfeitor : @MartyBent Demons are much nicer that him
- Wed Jul 28 13:55:36 +0000 2021
- Big Sky HODL : @MartyBent He's basically saying there's no reason to be vaxxed. He's finally coming to his senses.
- Wed Jul 28 13:53:37 +0000 2021
- chad : @MartyBent How the fk do these killers keep a straight face without laughing whilst talking so much shit
- Wed Jul 28 13:53:33 +0000 2021
- Alex der Strauss : @MartyBent https://t.co/WjtUqb7YAK
- Wed Jul 28 13:52:12 +0000 2021
- Deezy : @MartyBent Is the mortality rate still like 1 in 500,000? The news still acts like contracting the virus equals i'... https://t.co/jWqIeKD6Vl
- Wed Jul 28 13:49:38 +0000 2021
- lowercase b : @MartyBent The devil got a holt of him
- Wed Jul 28 13:49:29 +0000 2021
- BitcoinGoGo : @MartyBent Look at him blinking, totally lying.
- Wed Jul 28 13:43:15 +0000 2021
- BTC Hodler ð : @MartyBent So? The vaccine does not do shit against a variant? I don't really understand, either it works or it doe'... https://t.co/bQ9T0Lr3uu
- Wed Jul 28 13:37:15 +0000 2021
- Ecka : @MartyBent Of course . Vaxed are superspreaders of variants.
- Wed Jul 28 13:34:07 +0000 2021
- mcpable : @MartyBent "[Fauci] doesn't understand medicine" - inventor of PCR test https://t.co/MEpALAsNDS
- Wed Jul 28 13:33:55 +0000 2021
- LIQUIDITY PRRROVIDER : @MartyBent https://t.co/4E9KgToS0N
- Wed Jul 28 13:33:28 +0000 2021
- Tubespendous : @MartyBent Guillotine time
- Wed Jul 28 13:32:15 +0000 2021
- Nunya Bizniz : @MartyBent Not a single trusted word.
- Wed Jul 28 13:26:38 +0000 2021
- New Order Solutions : @MartyBent Do I understand him correctly? Did he just say that a vaccinated persons results were the same as somebo'... https://t.co/fOS2QoJ3o6
- Wed Jul 28 13:20:44 +0000 2021
- MICapital ð(C)ð : @MartyBent This is a non-conventional war of media deception and fiat based coercion
- Wed Jul 28 13:20:02 +0000 2021
- Steve ' : @MartyBent How is it a breakthrough case if it's a variant? Fuck these people
- Wed Jul 28 13:19:33 +0000 2021
- Spacy : @MartyBent What's next? Delta+ Alpha Alpha+ Beta?
- Wed Jul 28 13:15:18 +0000 2021
- Oliver Î(C) : @MartyBent Diabolical
- Wed Jul 28 13:13:39 +0000 2021
- SatillionaireBTC : @MartyBent Rather see him put on trial and jailed
- Wed Jul 28 13:09:56 +0000 2021
- Super-Coder 9000 : @MartyBent Arrest #Fauci.#FauciLied
- Wed Jul 28 13:08:35 +0000 2021
- '--¸TIEMPO DE GUERRA STERLING'--¸ : @MartyBent Thought the party of science was about to do that. Narrative was starting to shift. Looks like they stil'... https://t.co/E1B613hUjk
- Wed Jul 28 13:05:11 +0000 2021
- Stackin' : @MartyBent It has always been about control!
- Wed Jul 28 13:04:52 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - Breaking911 on Twitter: "OFFICER DUNN: "One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, 'You hear that, guys, this nigger voted for Joe Biden!' Then the crowd, perhaps around 20 people, joined in, screaming 'Boo! Fucking nigger!' No one had ever'--ever'c
- Breaking911 : OFFICER DUNN: "One woman in a pink MAGA shirt yelled, 'You hear that, guys, this nigger voted for Joe Biden!' Then'... https://t.co/xWogAmCUAW
- Tue Jul 27 17:18:23 +0000 2021
- David ðºð¸ð : @Breaking911 I'll give a shit when you do hearings on all the things yelled at cops in cities BLM burned down. Unti'... https://t.co/NoUcjftGIP
- Wed Jul 28 09:41:39 +0000 2021
- chagermeister : @Breaking911 can almost see his nose trying to grow
- Wed Jul 28 09:37:19 +0000 2021
- Tom : @Breaking911 Jesse smolette' had a stronger story
- Wed Jul 28 09:37:02 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - Daily Caller on Twitter: "DOOCY: "If vaccines work -- then why do people who have the vaccine now need to wear masks?" @PressSec: "Because the public health leaders in our administration have made the determination -- that is a way to make sure th
- Daily Caller : DOOCY: "If vaccines work -- then why do people who have the vaccine now need to wear masks?"@PressSec: "Because t'... https://t.co/KV2JJVbcss
- Tue Jul 27 17:25:55 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - Ed Buck found guilty on all counts for giving meth to 2 men who died in his WeHo apartment
- Ed Buck's trial centers on alleged injection fetishThe men Ed Buck lured to his apartment for "party and play" found themselves in a situation of life and death, prosecutors said.
- LOS ANGELES - A jury has reached its verdict in the trial of former political donor Ed Buck, who is accused of providing methamphetamine to two men who died in his West Hollywood apartment.
- The jury found Buck guilty on all nine felony counts, including two counts of distribution of controlled substances resulting in death, stemming from the deaths of Gemmel Moore in July 2017 and Timothy Dean in January 2019.
- Each of the two charges carry 20-year mandatory minimums.
- A prosecutor told jurors Friday that Buck caused the deaths of Moore and Dean as a result of his "fetish" for injecting men with increasing doses of methamphetamine until they became comatose, but the defense countered that the victims had underlying medical conditions that ended their lives.
- "He would find desolate, vulnerable victims and push meth on them over and over ... until they went unconscious," Assistant U.S. Attorney Lindsay Bailey alleged in her closing argument. "That's what he liked about it -- the power gave him sexual gratification. ... Every time he stuck a needle in someone's arm, he was playing God. And he never stopped -- not even after two men died."
- Democratic donor Ed Buck charged with running drug den in West Hollywood apartment Democratic donor Ed Buck indicted by federal grand jury in drug overdose deaths of 2 men Ed Buck pleads 'not guilty' to federal drug charges in arraignment LA judge denies pretrial release for Ed Buck Democratic donor Ed Buck's trial centers on alleged injection fetish Ludlow Creary II, one of Buck's attorneys, argued that his client actually did nothing more than enjoy party-and-play sessions involving drugs and sex with men he met online. Buck could not be held responsible for the serious medical conditions that caused the deaths of the two men at his apartment 18 months apart, the attorney said.
- "This is a subculture, a lifestyle that may be shocking to some of us," Creary said during his summation. "Everyone involved was there voluntarily."
- Buck is additionally charged with enticing Moore and another man to travel to Los Angeles to engage in prostitution; knowingly and intentionally distributing methamphetamine; and using his West Hollywood apartment for the purpose of distributing narcotics such as methamphetamine, and the sedatives gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) and clonazepam.
- Get your top stories delivered daily! Sign up for FOX 11's Fast 5 newsletter. And, get breaking news alerts in the FOX 11 News app. Download for iOS or Android.
- Buck, who has reportedly given more than $500,000 to mostly Democratic politicians and causes since 2000, declined to testify in his own defense.
- Over the course of eight days, federal prosecutors put on more than 20 witnesses, including four men who told of smoking methamphetamine that Buck provided and then being pressured to allow the defendant to shoot them up with the drug.
- One of the men testified that he passed out after being given several injections, and then managed to rouse himself, leave the apartment and go to a nearby gas station, where he called paramedics who saved his life.
- Prosecutors say Buck exploited vulnerable, primarily Black men by paying them to come to his home, use drugs and engage in sex play to satisfy a fetish.
- The defense called just one witness to the stand. Dr. Marvin Pietruszka, who runs a private autopsy service in the San Fernando Valley,testified Friday that he analyzed photos, slides and medical reports on the bodies of Moore and Dean, finding that both men had serious underlying medical conditions that caused their deaths. Methamphetamine, he told the jury, did not kill either of the men.
- Moore, Pietruszka said, died of complications from AIDS and pulmonary edema, while Dean died 18 months later, also in Buck's apartment, of alcohol poisoning and heart disease.
- Prosecution witnesses, including a county medical examiner, testified that both men died from lethal overdoses of methamphetamine.
- In his closing argument, Creary appeared to shock the courtroom by using a racial slur while blaming the prosecution for trying to put forth "the racist notion that Black men have no morals ... no self-control," and that Buck somehow was so powerful that he could force men against their wills to come to his apartment and engage in party-and-play.
- Tune in to FOX 11 Los Angeles for the latest Southern California news.
- CNS contributed to this report.
- VIDEO - 'This is how I'm going to die': Officers share Capitol attack testimonies | Euronews
- ''This is how I'm going to die, defending this entrance," Capitol Police Officer Aquilino Gonell recalled thinking, testifying at the emotional opening hearing of the congressional panel investigating the violent January 6 Capitol insurrection.
- Officer Gonell told House investigators he could feel himself losing oxygen as he was crushed by rioters '' supporters of then-President Donald Trump '' as he tried to hold them back and protect the Capitol and lawmakers.
- He and three other officers gave their accounts of the attack on Tuesday, sometimes wiping away tears, sometimes angrily rebuking Republicans who have resisted the probe and embraced Trump's downplaying the day's violence by supporters who were challenging his election defeat.
- Along with graphic video of hand-to-hand fighting, the officers described being beaten as they held off the mob that broke through windows and doors and interrupted the certification of Democrat Joe Biden's presidential win. The new committee is launching its probe with a focus on the law enforcement officers who protected them '-- putting a human face on the violence of the day.
- Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone, who rushed to the scene, told the committee '-- and millions watching news coverage '-- that he was ''grabbed, beaten, tased, all while being called a traitor to my country.'' Doctors later told him he'd had a heart attack.
- Daniel Hodges, also a D.C. police officer, said he remembered foaming at the mouth and screaming for help as rioters crushed him between two doors and bashed him in the head with his own weapon, injuring his skull.
- Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn said one group of rioters, perhaps 20 people, screamed the n-word at him as he was trying to keep them from breaching the House chamber.
- Tensions on Capitol Hill have only worsened since the insurrection, with many Republicans playing down, or outright denying, the violence that occurred and denouncing the Democratic-led investigation as politically motivated. Democrats are reminding people how brutal it was, and how the law enforcement officers who were sworn to protect the Capitol suffered serious injuries at the hands of the rioters.
- The officers detailed the horror of their experiences, their injuries and the lasting trauma as they begged the lawmakers to investigate the attack.
- ''I feel like I went to hell and back to protect them and the people in this room," Fanone testified.
- Pounding his fist on the table in front of him, he said, ''Too many are now telling me that hell doesn't exist or that hell actually wasn't that bad. The indifference shown to my colleagues is disgraceful.''
- The lawmakers on the committee, too, grew emotional as they played videos of the violence and repeatedly thanked the police for protecting them. Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy of Florida told them she was hiding near an entrance they were defending that day and ''I shudder to think what would have happened had you not held that line."
- Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the panel, shed tears during his questioning. He said he hadn't expected to become so emotional.
- ''I think it's important to tell you right now that you guys may individually feel a little broken," Kinzinger told the officers. "You guys all talk about the effects you have to deal with and you talk about the impact of that day. But you guys won. You guys held.''
- Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney, the panel's other Republican appointed by Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, expressed ''deep gratitude for what you did to save us'' and raised broader, larger issues.
- ''The question for every one of us who serves in Congress, for every elected official across this great nation, indeed, for every American is this: Will we adhere to the rule of law, respect the rulings of our courts, and preserve the peaceful transition of power?''
- ''Or will we be so blinded by partisanship that we throw away the miracle of America?''
- The House Republican leader, Kevin McCarthy, withdrew the participation of the Republicans he had appointed last week after Pelosi rejected two of them, saying their ''antics'' in support of Trump, and his lies that he won the election, weren't appropriate for the serious investigation. Monday evening, the House voted against a resolution offered by the GOP leader to force his chosen members onto the panel.
- McCarthy has stayed close to Trump since the insurrection and has threatened to pull committee assignments from any Republican who participates on the Jan. 6 panel. He has called Cheney and Kinzinger ''Pelosi Republicans,'' which Cheney has dismissed as ''childish.''
- Ahead of the hearing on Tuesday, McCarthy again called the process a ''sham'' and said Pelosi only wanted the questions asked ''that she wants asked.''
- McCarthy told reporters that Pelosi should be investigated for her role in the security failures of the day but ignored questions about Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, who had identical authority over the Capitol Police and Capitol security officials.
- Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said the hearing would ''set the tone'' of the probe, which will examine not only Trump's role in the insurrection but the groups involved in coordinating it, white supremacists among them.
- It will also look at security failures that allowed hundreds of people to breach the Capitol and send lawmakers running for their lives. Some of those who broke in were calling for the deaths of Pelosi and Vice President Mike Pence, who was hiding just feet away from the mob.
- Outside of a committee preparation session for the hearing on Monday, Kinzinger told reporters that ''for too long, we've been pretending that Jan. 6 didn't happen" and that "when you have lies and misinformation that continue to thrive, it's essential for us as members of Congress to get to the answers.''
- Shortly after the insurrection, almost every Republican denounced the violent mob '-- and some criticised Trump himself, who told his supporters to ''fight like hell'' to overturn his defeat. But many have softened their tone in recent months and weeks.
- And some have gone further, with Georgia Rep. Andrew Clyde saying a video of the rioters looked like ''a normal tourist visit'' and Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar repeatedly saying that a woman who was shot and killed by police as she was trying to break into the House chamber was ''executed.'' Others have falsely claimed that Democrats or liberal groups were responsible for the attack.
- The officers testifying have become increasingly politically active in recent months, and went from office to office in May to lobby Senate Republicans to support an outside commission to investigate the insurrection.
- The Senate GOP ultimately rejected that effort, though that panel would have been evenly split between the parties.
- VIDEO - Higher COVID Rate Found In Some Counties With Higher Vaccination Rate '' Why, And What It Says About The Delta Variant '' CBS Sacramento
- SACRAMENTO (CBS13) '' State workers and health care employees will now be required to show proof of vaccine or get tested for COVID at least once a week.
- The governor announced the new guidance today and is urging private employers to ''replicate the example.''
- READ MORE: Family Nearly Overcome By Waves After Storm Quickly Moved Over Lake TahoeThis comes as the highly contagious Delta variant is now dominant in the state and COVID rates have skyrocketed in the month since California officially reopened, including breakthrough cases among vaccinated Californians.
- A new analysis finds several counties with above-average vaccination rates also have higher COVID case rates, while case rates are falling in counties with below-average vaccination rates.
- Statewide data analyzed by the Bay Area News Group found five counties, Los Angeles, San Diego, Alameda, Contra Costa, and San Francisco, have both a higher percentage of people who are fully vaccinated than the state average and a higher average daily case rate.
- Compare that to these five counties: Modoc, Glenn, Lassen, Del Norte, and San Benito, which have below-average vaccination rates and decreasing case rates.
- However, UCSF infectious disease expert Dr. Phillip Norris clarifies that the data doesn't mean the vaccine is not working.
- He notes, first, the counties referenced with higher vaccination and case rates are more densely populated.
- ''If there are a lot of people around you're more likely to bump into one who has COVID,'' Norris explained.
- He, like other infectious disease experts, warns that vaccinated people may be unknowingly spreading the virus.
- Julie: A lot of people think if they're vaccinated, they can't transmit. Is that true?
- Phillip: So, originally we thought that might be true.
- READ MORE: CDC Says Some Vaccinated Americans Should Wear Masks Indoors AgainBut he says that's no longer the case, thanks to the Delta variant.
- He points to preliminary data from China that indicates the viral load in the nose from the Delta variant may be 1,000 times higher than previous variants.
- ''If that's the case, even a little bit in somebody who's vaccinated could be a lot,'' he explains.
- Several studies have indicated that vaccines may reduce transmission, but most were based on previous COVID variants. (See here, here and here).
- Norris notes that as case rates increase with the Delta variant, more vaccinated and unvaccinated people will get COVID, though data indicates that the rates will likely remain much higher among the unvaccinated.
- Consider this: In Los Angeles County last month, vaccinated people made up one out of five new COVID cases.
- That means, for every 100,000 people, 10 vaccinated people would test positive compared to 40 unvaccinated people.
- Infectious disease experts stress that vaccinated people also have fewer symptoms, are less likely to be hospitalized and are still believed to be less likely to transmit.
- However, for those who have immune-compromised people in their life, it's also important to remember that you can still get COVID and give it to them '-- even if you're both vaccinated.
- MORE NEWS: 1 Hurt After Cars Catch Fire In Turlock DrivewayNOTE: This story was updated to include additional links and correct a typo. (''compared to 40 unvaccinated people.'')
- VIDEO - Starship Alves on Twitter: "Omg please let it be @THErealDVORAK who brings this clip to Thursday's No Agenda Show. It needs clown horns ð¤ ðº and ð'¨ fart noises! - @adamcurry" / Twitter
- Starship Alves : Omg please let it be @THErealDVORAK who brings this clip to Thursday's No Agenda Show. It needs clown horns ð¤ ðº and'... https://t.co/y362ZpxKwa
- Tue Jul 27 19:28:56 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - China Threatens to NUKE Japan (Repeatedly) - YouTube
- VIDEO - China hits back at Japan over Taiwan warning - YouTube
- VIDEO - (91) Bill Gates Dishes About President Donald Trump Meetings In Exclusive Video | All In | MSNBC - YouTube
- VIDEO - Coronavirus Australia: The Project hosts reveal bizarre side-effects from getting Covid vaccine | Daily Mail Online
- Carrie Bickmore admits noticing a VERY interesting change to her top half after getting a Covid jab - as The Project hosts reveal the BIZARRE side effects they got from the vaccineThe Project hosts share details about temporary side effects of Covid jabsSome women in the US claimed their breasts got bigger after getting PfizerCarrie Bickmore revealed she had swollen lymph nodes after being vaccinated By Kylie Stevens For Daily Mail Australia
- Published: 10:31 EDT, 26 July 2021 | Updated: 10:32 EDT, 26 July 2021
- The Project hosts have shared intimate details about the side effects they've had since rolling up their sleeves for the coronavirus vaccine.
- Carrie Bickmore revealed she found an unusual but harmless lump on her breast after getting Pfizer, while Steve Price suffered bad dreams after his AstraZeneca shot.
- The lively discussion on Monday night's program was sparked by reports that some women who had the Pfizer jab claimed their breasts have since grown due to swollen lymph nodes.
- 'Not just women I'm afraid,' Pete Hellier joked.
- Co-host Bickmore then candidly opened up about the changes she's seen in her own breasts since getting the Pfizer jab.
- 'This is exactly what happened, and I will admit I clicked on the clickbait today because mine didn't go up a size, but I was thinking when I was in the shower, after I got my Pfizer, I noticed a lump, and I thought that's weird, I will keep an eye on that,' she said.
- Carrie Bickmore (pictured) opened up about the changes she saw in her breasts after getting the Pfizer vaccine
- 'I texted a girlfriend who had the jab around the same time as me the next day and asked how she was feeling, she said "fine, but my lymph nodes are up under my arms' and I was like 'of course, that's what it is".'
- Her revelations prompted fellow panellist Steve Price to join the conversation.
- 'You get bigger boobs and I get bad dreams from the second jab of AstraZeneca,' he told Bickmore.
- 'That was the side effect I had.'
- Co-host Pete Helliar asked Price if his bad dreams were about bigger boobs.
- Waleed Aly added: 'He is not disclosing.'
- The unusual and temporary side effect dubbed the 'Pfizer boob job' has prompted an rise in mammogram appointments in the US, where the vaccine rollout is far more advanced than Australia's.
- The Project's Steve Price (pictured) revealed on Monday night he had bad dreams after getting his second jab of AstraZeneca
- The Australian Department of Health states that enlarged lymph nodes are a less common side effect of the Covid-19 vaccine.
- 'These side effects are usually mild and usually go away within one or two days,' the website states.
- 'Some recipients will experience more significant flu-like symptoms from this vaccination compared to other common vaccinations and may require time away from normal activities.
- 'These symptoms may occur after either dose but are more common after the second dose.'
- More than 11 million doses have been administered since Australia's vaccine rollout began five months ago with almost 13 per cent of the country's population now fully vaccinated.
- Dr Jeanette Dickson, President of The Royal College of Radiologists in the UK said swollen lymph nodes can occur after getting the jab but are nothing to worry about.
- 'Virtually everyone mounts an immune response after getting the jab in their arm,' she said earlier this year.
- Carrie Bickmore and fellow panelist from The Project Peter Helliar went to get the vaccine together (pictured)
- 'This response is biggest in the lymph nodes in our armpits, which drain fluid away from the arm '' the swelling of which is then seen on screening mammograms, which is something these scans are designed to pick up.
- 'In cancer care we are also seeing some visible lymph node swelling in the armpits of recently vaccinated patients undergoing CT and PET-CT scans.
- 'If patients are having any type of scan they need to make the imaging team aware if and when they had their COVID-19 jab and in which arm.
- 'These lumps can happen after the vaccine and are nothing to worry about.
- 'However, if a lump hasn't gone a few days after getting the jab, then we would urge patients to consult their GP in case the cause is more serious.'
- The topic sparked a lively conversation on The Project on Monday night (pictured)
- VIDEO - Is Vaxed America Running Out of Patience? | Talking Points Memo
- I wanted to share some thoughts and snippets of news following up on the GOP vaccine switcheroo. But first I wanted to share this LA Times article that helped me think more broadly about the issue. Reporter Brittny Mejia went to a pop-up vaccine clinic in LA to talk to people who were finally getting vaccinated after waiting months into their eligibility. The people who turned out at this clinic were mainly Latino immigrants, so not the demographic that has garnered the most attention in the mainstream media discussion. The reasons ranged the gamut: they'd had COVID and assumed continued immunity; they didn't want to or couldn't take time from work; they had general apprehensions about a vaccine without a long testing history; they'd heard conspiracy theories women becoming infertile. In some cases, it was perhaps some vague mix of one or more of these and just continuing to put it off '' apathy for lack of a better word.
- What jumped out to me is that basically none of the couple dozen people who showed up the day Mejia was there had held out for any ideological or political reasons. And in most cases '' as their being there to get their shot makes clear '' they were ultimately convincible. Many people who have heard stories of alarming side effects can be convinced by actual data or reassurance from people in their community they trust. We can make policy decisions that make it easier on people who don't feel free to miss a day or more of work.
- These are anecdotes but they remind us that the challenge is not only stereotypical Trumpers refusing for reasons tied to political commitment and ideology.
- But I think CNN's Brian Stelter captured the moment in this snippet when he said that last week was the week that vaccinated America started to get fed up.
- Thesis: This was the week that vaccinated America started to get really fed up. pic.twitter.com/4VZfkuvVMF
- '-- Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) July 25, 2021
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- That's what's driving the GOP vaccine switcheroo. What comes through when you look at demographic data is that minority communities tend to be more vaccine hesitant than vaccine resistant. It's among white Republicans you see more affirmative resistance. And that's not budging.
- In late Spring it seemed like COVID was basically about over. Critically, it seemed like the non-vaccinated might be able to hitch a ride on the rest of the country's vaccinated immunity. Everyone could drop their masks and get back into restaurants and theaters and it would all be fine. Clearly that didn't pan out. One of the most hopeful signs in the last week is that that fact is leading a lot of people to go get vaccinated. After months of declines, the number of vaccinations is starting to rise again. But among the vaccinated there's a growing realization that we're going backwards, seeing rates go up, seeing some mask mandates come back because of the non-vaccinated. And people are getting frustrated. That is a big part of why you're seeing Republicans not simply encouraging people to get vaccinated but even more trying to ditch the vaccine-resistant brand. They're feeling exposed to shifting public opinion. In short, they don't want to be accountable for what they've done.
- To understand the politics, we need to take a different look at the numbers. We're used to hearing the rather disappointing fact that even months into the vaccination drive and with surplus vaccines everywhere only just under half (49.1%) the US population is vaccinated. Epidemiologically, that's bad news. But it looks different from an electoral perspective. 60% of adults (over 18) are vaccinated and fully 69% have received at least one dose. Shift our perspective in this way and you see that when you're talking about the political nation, a big, verging on overwhelming majority are vaccinated. Among people over 65, the group that votes most consistently, 80% are vaccinated. Furthermore there is a lot of evidence that vaccination rates escalate with age. People in their forties are substantially more vaccinated than people in their twenties. So higher rates of vaccination align with propensity to vote.
- If you're vaccinated and are starting to wear a mask again at the grocery store or seeing reports that mask mandates may come back you know who is driving this: the voluntarily unvaccinated. It's literally true. If 100% of the population over 12 was vaccinated none of this would be happening. Yes, there are breakthrough infections among the vaccinated '' and more than we'd like to see. But that's spill over from the unvaccinated community among whom Delta COVID is spreading like wildfire.
- Most elected Republicans haven't been explicitly anti-vaccination. Indeed, even before the last couple weeks many have made low volume statements saying they've been vaccinated and encouraging others to do so. But they've almost all participated in the effort to make vaccine resistance into a kind of freedom movement '' banning government or private businesses from using vaccine passports, banning mask mandates, politicizing debates over school reopenings. As a party they've leaned into valorizing vaccine resistance and banning any private or governmental efforts to place the burden of the consequences of non-vaccination on those who choose not to be vaccinated.
- They thought that would supercharge their already happy prospects for 2022 by riding an anti-vax or anti-vax mandate wave. And now they're thinking they may have miscalculated.
- VIDEO - Huntington Beach Restaurant Only Accepting NON-VACCINATED Customers, Liberals Lose Their Minds - Videos - VidMax.com
- Huntington Beach Restaurant Only Accepting NON-VACCINATED Customers, Liberals Lose Their Minds
- When restaurants across California halted indoor dining as the COVID-19 pandemic took hold in March 2020, Basilico's Pasta e Vino in Huntington Beach continued to welcome patrons.When officials issued an order for establishments to mandate face coverings to stem the spread of the virus, the Orange County eatery declared itself a mask-free zone and required that diners remove them before entering.This week, the Italian restaurant issued another decree: Proof of being unvaccinated is required for entry.Two signs bearing the message were taped to the windows of the restaurant, which is nestled between a gym and a sustainable beauty salon in a small strip mall at Hamilton Avenue and Brookhurst Street.Liberals took to Twitter and made the story trend, commenting how unfair the policy was, not realizing liberals from CNN, MSNBC and Democrats have suggested vaccine passes to enter certain public places. Don Lemon even suggested what some countries in Europe are doing, not allowing unvaccinated into supermarkets to shop for their families.The same liberals that are howling at this restaurant's police were applauding artists like Foo Fighters and Bruce Springsteen for only allowing vaccinated fans to see them in concert.
- VIDEO - Montclair: COVID sticker mandate set to take effect for maskless city employees - ABC7 Los Angeles
- MONTCLAIR, Calif. (KABC) -- Starting Monday in Montclair, city workers who choose not to wear a mask must wear stickers that prove they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
- The city manager says the requirement is in line with California Division of Occupational Safety and Health rules, but there has been some pushback on the new requirement.
- Some of the city's leaders want Montclair to hold off on mandating the vaccine over concerns that it might violate employees' privacy rights.
- Mayor Javier "John" Dutrey says the requirement falls in line with recommendations from the California Department of Public Health and Cal/OSHA. Both agencies require workplaces to document proof of an employee's vaccine status.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommends that employers provide stickers to fully vaccinated employees, to be worn on their work badges.
- Montclair's mandate was approved Wednesday despite qualms that the city might end up in court over the matter.
- Fauci says CDC weighing revised mask guidance amid COVID surgesThe policy "treads on some serious potential legal concerns and issues of privacy, that we as a council are going to be held liable for -- potentially held liable for -- irrespective of the policy," City Councilman Ben Lopez said during a City Council meeting.
- Montclair City Council members are expected to take up the mandate again at their next meeting, which is scheduled for August.
- Copyright (C) 2021 KABC-TV. All Rights Reserved.
- VIDEO - (91) Auroral Anomaly, Another CME, Earth's Rotation | S0 News July.27.2021 - YouTube
- VIDEO - Judy Mickovitz on potential antidote to vaccine (Suramin)
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- VIDEO - Fmr. CA Senator Barbara Boxer Robbed, Assaulted In Oakland's Jack London Square - YouTube
- VIDEO - Higher COVID Rate Found In Counties With Higher Vaccination Rate - YouTube
- VIDEO - IN FULL: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announces 141 new cases of COVID-19 | ABC News - YouTube
- VIDEO - Cuomo is getting desperate'... '' CITIZEN FREE PRESS
- Yesterday the corrupt DOJ announced that the DOJ will be dropping their ''investigation'' of Cuomo's EO potentially killing New York elderly in nursing homes.
- Right on cue '' today Cuomo's makes an ''offer'' to take uninoculated citizens of New York ''for a ride'' !
- Think about that '' an arrogant governor makes a veiled threat to New Yorkers '' to take them for a ride'' if they don't get the dangerous mRNA spike protein jab!
- Hmmm '' is Cuomo's family roots or just his narcissistic persona showing?
- Oh by the way before any of my fellow Americans of Italian heritage get offended '' I am a grandson of a law abiding Italian immigrant entrepreneur whose three sons served in WW Ii.
- I too am an attorney though I graduated from a much more respected law school than Mr. Cuomo. I took and passed the bar the same time Cuomo did.
- For 38 years I have practiced my profession with the utmost Respect for The Rule of Law.
- My grandparents and parents raised me to be humble but strong, grateful to be in America, honest and treat everyone you meet with respect.
- Gee, wonder how did Mario and Mattilda raise narcissists Fredo and Andrew?
- VIDEO - (87) 33 War and Peace - Feat. MC PODFATHER (yes, I'm high) - YouTube
- VIDEO - (87) Democrats 'will be forced' to remove Joe Biden from office due to his 'mental decline' - YouTube
- VIDEO - (87) Chinese military jet fleet patrols Taiwan; US carrier group enters South China Sea | China in Focus - YouTube
- VIDEO - (87) Yukon Huang: Debunking Myths About China's Economy - YouTube
- VIDEO - (11) Camus on Twitter: "Australia Federal government considers forcing citizens to provide ID through a 100 point data system to use social media and dating sites Source: https://t.co/JKwIz5nn3c https://t.co/jOy4gPaiSn" / Twitter
- Camus : Australia Federal government considers forcing citizens to provide ID through a 100 point data system to use social'... https://t.co/TL68NDhnAw
- Mon Jul 26 07:16:04 +0000 2021
- VIDEO - Rep. Tlaib: Civilian Climate Corps Will Connect 'Environmental Justice with Economic and Racial Justice' :: Grabien - The Multimedia Marketplace
- Rep. Tlaib: Civilian Climate Corps Will Connect 'Environmental Justice with Economic and Racial Justice'
- MP4 (854x480) Use clipper to adjust file type
- TLAIB As you all '''''''' as we fight for '''''''' change I ve repeatedly '''''''' that we don t '''''''' to choose between our '''''''' and our economy Some '''''''' my colleagues that continue '''''''' deny the science would '''''''' us believe that any '''''''' to make the planet '''''''' for future generations would '''''''' devastating devastating to our '''''''' communities But those are '''''''' talking points from their '''''''' polluter friends who are '''''''' off of our suffering '''''''' reality is that we '''''''' made a choice between '''''''' environment and the economy '''''''' we are unquestionably destroying '''''''' planet to line the '''''''' of a select few '''''''' all have a moral '''''''' to transform the relationship '''''''' our environment and the '''''''' into a mutually beneficial '''''''' where we put people '''''''' work and well paying '''''''' jobs in service of '''''''' planet I m excited '''''''' the idea of the '''''''' Climate Corps That connects '''''''' justice with economic and '''''''' justice.''
- To view this clip's transcript, log into your Grabien account.
- VIDEO - ER Doctor Tells Tucker Carlson To Knock It Off | Crooks and Liars
- Dr Rob Davidson, an ER doctor from Michigan who makes frequent media appearances on CNN and MSNBC, among others, continues to hammer right-wing media outlets for their misinformation and outright lies about COVID, vaccines, and the dangers from getting the virus.
- His tweet this morning was a continuation of what's he's been saying publicly in recent weeks, first in an op-ed on NBC News, and later in an appearance on CNN.
- I don't blame my patients for their refusal. What breaks my heart, as someone who took an oath to prevent harm, is that my patients choose to abandon the science and evidence that can save their lives. I do blame Fox News and other right-wing media outlets for poisoning the minds of millions of Americans with the deceptive propaganda they spray into living rooms 24/7.
- I spent 20 min being yelled at by a patient because I recommended a #COVID19 test. Told we were giving people COVID with the vaccine. These interactions are because of @FoxNews and @TuckerCarlson. Their lies are making doctors' jobs harder and killing our patients. pic.twitter.com/swA8crbOn1
- '-- Dr. Rob Davidson #GetVaccinated (@DrRobDavidson) July 26, 2021
- VIDEO - China's Rush Into Africa, Explained. - YouTube
- VIDEO - Michael Hamilton on Twitter: "@DarrenPlymouth @adamcurry" / Twitter
- Michael Hamilton : @DarrenPlymouth @adamcurry
- Mon Jul 26 10:02:01 +0000 2021
Last Modified 07/30/2021 12:21:20 by Freedom Controller
