World News
Hong Kong Sees Rush for Burner Phones as Government Pushes Contact-Tracing App
Epoch Times – Electronics shops in Hong Kong have seen a sharp increase in demand for cheap burner phones as the Chinese-ruled city’s government eases coronavirus restrictions but pushes the use of a contact-tracing app which has raised privacy concerns. The former British colony saw anti-government and anti-China protests erupt in 2019 and a sweeping national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020, along with the arrest of most of its prominent pro-democracy activists. The swift authoritarian turn taken by the government on its 7.5 million residents has resulted in deep-seated mistrust of public policies, including measures to curb the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus. Health Secretary Sophia Chan said the app poses no privacy risks as it only stores data on users’ phones and no third party collects it. The app notifies users if they had been in the same place with a person confirmed with the CCP virus.
Now scientists spot ANOTHER variant: Finland detects new strain
Daily Mail – Finnish scientists claim to have found another coronavirus variant which shares some of the same mutations as other troublesome strains.
Only one case of the virus — temporarily named Fin-796H — has been spotted so far but experts have admitted they are unsure how widespread it is.
Finland said was unlikely the variant emerged there, given the country’s low infection rate. The Scandinavian nation has recorded just 51,000 cases and 700 deaths since the pandemic took off.
Finnish scientists claim to have found another coronavirus variant which shares some of the same mutations as other troublesome strains.
Only one case of the virus — temporarily named Fin-796H — has been spotted so far but experts have admitted they are unsure how widespread it is.
Finland said was unlikely the variant emerged there, given the country’s low infection rate. The Scandinavian nation has recorded just 51,000 cases and 700 deaths since the pandemic took off.
Thousands of Israelis return to normal life with forged ‘Green Pass’ as vaccine refuseniks otherwise barred from venues
RT – While Israel prepares to welcome only vaccine recipients into gyms, hotels, and other venues, thousands have been making their own ‘Green Pass,’ the easily-counterfeited credential the country is using to prove vaccination.
The Green Pass looks complex enough, with the secure-looking QR code on the lower-right side, but the code is just made up of the same details printed on the pass in normal letters and numbers, cybersecurity expert Ran Bar-Zik revealed in a Facebook post earlier this week. The pass can thus be easily forged by anyone with a graphics program and a printer
Israel will officially reopen businesses from gyms and hotels to malls, museums and libraries on Sunday. However, only those who can prove they have been vaccinated or had Covid-19 will be welcome in the gyms, hotels, and swimming pools, and only they will be allowed to attend sports and cultural events.
But having over 100,000 Israelis buying and selling fake passes on social media, a market the Times of Israel reported on Thursday is already moving at a healthy pace, defeats the purpose of having a vaccine pass. The passes are going for about 750 shekels ($230), according to Haaretz, and even before the businesses reopen their doors can exempt the holder from quarantine.
Dining woes: Canada’s restaurants suffer worst year on record
Food trucks, bars and taverns were hit the hardest by lockdowns and restrictions, with sales dropping 48 percent.
Al Jazeera – Canadian restaurants and bars suffered their worst year for sales on record in 2020.
Sales at eating and drinking establishments in Canada dropped 28% from the year before, Statistics Canada reported Thursday in Ottawa. That’s the largest drop in records dating back more than two decades and shows the extent to which large-scale closures and restrictions affected business activity.
Food trucks and catering companies as well as bars, taverns and other drinking spots were hit hardest by the virus containment measures, with sales dropping about 48%. By contrast, limited-service eateries or those specializing in fast food or takeout suffered a sales drop of 13.4%.
Although restrictions have started to ease in major provinces in February, the food and drinking sector is likely to face headwinds until vaccines are widely available and consumers are comfortable going out and spending money without fear of contracting and spreading the coronavirus.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
U.S. Will Pay WHO $200 Million in Dues After Trump Cut Funding
PJ Media – U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has informed the United Nations that the U.S. will pay the World Health Organization $200 million in dues. The money is owed to WHO after the Trump administration cut funding to the group.
The cash certainly isn’t for a job well done. As of today, more than 2.5 million people have died in a pandemic that the WHO knew about early on and after the organization failed to take steps against China to mitigate the disaster. In fact, the organization has been a Chinese toady throughout the pandemic, running interference for China and keeping a lid on Chinese incompetence, mismanagement, and perhaps even negligence in handling a dangerous pathogen.
The WHO hasn’t saved a single life and probably cost lives with their contradictory and confusing directives on how to stay healthy. Why give them anything?
“Today, I’m pleased to confirm that by the end of the month, the United States intends to pay over $200 million in assessed and current obligations to the WHO,” Blinken said at a U.N. Security Council meeting.
The remarks came as part of a Security Council meeting on the global response to coronavirus.
“This is a key step forward in fulfilling our financial obligations as a WHO member, and it reflects our renewed commitment to ensuring the WHO has the support it needs to lead the global response to the pandemic, even as we work to reform it in the future,” Blinken said.
As with everything else at the UN, the world plays a gigantic game of “Let’s Pretend.” Everyone pretends the UN is a meaningful organization and not an Israel- and U.S.-bashing bunch of loudmouth hypocrites. UN members pretend that the WHO is an independent body that leaps into action when the health of the world is at stake.
Beto O’Rourke says U.S. could become like Nazi Germany in 10 years, despite Biden’s win
Fox – Democratic politician Beto O’Rourke fretted Thursday on MSNBC that the United States could become Nazi Germany within 10 years, in spite of full Democratic control of the White House and Congress.
On “Morning Joe,” O’Rourke likened efforts by former President Donald Trump and some Republican allies to overturn President Joe Biden’s election victory to the failed Beer Hall Putsch coup attempt by Adolf Hitler in 1923.
“The proudest democracy on the face of the planet will become a memory if we do not fight for it right now,” O’Rourke said. “So we should take no comfort in the fact that Joe Biden was successfully sworn in, no comfort in the fact that Congress seems to be operating as normal. This thing is on a roll right now, and if you look at the Beer Hall Putsch in Germany, 1923, it was 10 years later Hitler is chancellor. We are operating under the big lie right now in America. We’ve got to stop it. That’s up to all of us in this great democracy.”
New York’s Cuomo Releases Full Transcript of Aides Speaking With Legislators
Epoch Times – New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s office has released what it says is a full transcript of his secretary Melissa DeRosa and other aides speaking last week with state legislators. The transcript confirms as accurate a New York Post report that included a snippet from the call. DeRosa appeared to tell legislators that the Cuomo administration withheld how many nursing home residents died from COVID-19 because they feared the numbers would “be used against us.” The transcript shows state Sen. James Skoufis, a Democrat, alleging Cuomo’s administration was disregarding state lawmakers. Skoufis and other lawmakers asked in August 2020 for answers, but none were forthcoming even as six months had passed, he told Cuomo aides. “I’ve been put in a pretty bizarre situation where like I’m as frustrated as anybody about the lack of forthrightness and getting answers.
>> READ: New York Governor Cuomo Should Resign or Be Impeached Over Covid Scandal
Economy & Business
New York will soon reopen theme parks, summer camps
Indoor entertainment can reopen in March, and outdoor theme parks are slated to resume operations in April
Fox – New York will soon allow amusement parks and arcades to reopen following months of COVID-19 closures.
Arcades and indoor entertainment facilities can resume with 25% capacity beginning March 26, and outdoor theme parks can reopen April 9 at 33% of their capacity, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday.
New “COVID” Legislation Contains $300 Billion in Unrelated Spending, Budget Watchdog Warns
Activist Post – President Biden has not backed down from his $1.9 trillion COVID-19 spending proposal, and House Democrats are pushing full steam ahead on making his vision a legislative reality. But a top budget watchdog just warned that the budget-busting legislation, which costs roughly $13,260 per federal taxpayer, is full of spending that has nothing to do with the pandemic.
“Only about 1 percent of the entire package goes toward COVID vaccines, and 5 percent is truly focused on public health needs surrounding the pandemic,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) warned on Wednesday.
“Meanwhile, nearly half of the package will be spent on poorly targeted rebate checks and state and local government aid, including to households and governments that have experienced little or no financial loss during this crisis,” the report continues.
Biden COVID adviser can’t explain why closed California isn’t doing better than open Florida
Daily Mail – White House coronavirus adviser Andy Slavitt appeared stumped on Wednesday when asked to explain why California and Florida, which had very different methods of combating COVID-19, have similar trends in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
Slavitt told MSNBC that the virus was still very unpredictable and ‘a little bit beyond our explanation.’
In California, a little more than 8.5% of the population has been infected; in Florida, it’s a little less.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has put some of the strictest measures in place to combat the coronavirus pandemic – while Florida’s Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis has done nearly the opposite.
But both states saw massive post-holiday surges in infections, hospitalizations and deaths, raising questions over whether lockdowns were worthwhile.
Earlier in the pandemic, stay-at-home orders were linked over and over again to lower transmission and death rates, indicating they did work, especially at a time of uncertainty about how to combat the spread.
But now that measures like making and social distancing are more widely used, lockdowns like Newsom’s, which some called ‘draconian,’ may have outlived their utility.
Biden’s adviser struggled to spell out specific reasons that Florida’s lax approach wasn’t just as effective, saying: ‘What we do know is that the more careful people are, the more they mask and social distance, and the quicker we vaccinate, the quicker it goes away and the less it spreads,’ Slavitt said.
Energy & Environment
Texas Failed To Winterize Nuclear Plant Leading To Reactor Shut Down
ZeroHedge – A polar vortex split dumped Arctic air into Texas, along with multiple winter storms, created havoc on the state’s power grid operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). What happened, and why, more specifically, how did one nuclear power plant which provides power for two million homes shutdown?
How is it possible that a nuclear power plant in Texas had to shutter operations due to freezing weather, but nuclear power plants can operate without disruption in Russia?
The answer is simple – the South Texas Nuclear Power Station failed to winterize its facilities. After all, whoever thought Arctic conditions would be seen in on the Gulf of Mexico?
On Monday, the nuclear power plant had to shut one of two reactors down, halving its 2,700 megawatts of generating capacity. The plant, which operates on a 12,200-acre site west of the Colorado River about 90 miles southwest of Houston, provides power for more than two million homes.
According to Washington Examiner, the nuclear power plant was not winterized to withstand cold weather.
“It’s very rare for weather issues to shut down a nuclear plant,” said Brett Rampal, director of nuclear innovation at the Clean Air Task Force. “Some equipment in some nuclear plants in Texas has not been hardened for extreme cold weather because there was never a need for this.”
Power outages linger for millions as another icy storm looms
AP – Millions of Americans endured another frigid day without electricity or heat in the aftermath of a deadly winter storm as utility crews raced to restore power before another blast of snow and ice sowed more chaos in places least equipped to deal with it.
Nearly 3.4 million customers around the U.S. were still without electricity, and some also lost water service. Texas officials ordered 7 million people — a quarter of the population of the nation’s second-largest state — to boil tap water before drinking it following days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes.
The latest storm front was certain to complicate recovery efforts, especially in states that are unaccustomed to such weather — parts of Texas, Arkansas and the Lower Mississippi Valley.
“There’s really no letup to some of the misery people are feeling across that area,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service, referring to Texas.
Snowstorm brings ‘most dangerous conditions’ seen by utility
AP – PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Nearly 150,000 customers remained without power Wednesday in and around Portland, Oregon, nearly a week after a massive snow and ice storm swept into the Pacific Northwest, taking out hundreds of miles of power lines as ice-laden trees toppled.
The damage wrought by the storm to the power system was the worst in 40 years, and more than 2,000 power lines — about 208 miles in total — were still down, said Maria Pope, CEO of Portland General Electric. At the peak of the storm, more than 350,000 customers iwere without power, and 5,000 power lines and three substations were down.
Health
Bill Gates calls for THIRD vaccine dose to combat mutations in coming years after calling anti-vaxxers ‘crazy’ and ‘evil’
RT – Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates this week proposed the likelihood of a third dose of coronavirus vaccine being required to combat the growing number of coronavirus mutations in the years to come.
“The discussion now is, do we just need to get a super high coverage of the current vaccine, or do we need a third dose that’s just the same, or do we need a modified vaccine?” Gates said.
Gates’ remarks come amid mounting concerns that the current generation of vaccines are ill-equipped to handle the multiple, highly virulent mutated strains of the virus from the likes of the UK, South Africa, and Brazil.
Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot coronavirus vaccine may actually be TWO doses
Daily Mail – Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot coronavirus vaccine may actually be two doses, the Biden administration said.
The vaccine, which was recently submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for approval, was hailed as one of the most effective ways to help increase supply and bring President Joe Biden closer to his goal of 150 million shots in arms in the first 100 days of his term.
However, during a Washington Post Live event, Andy Slavitt, the White House senior advisor on COVID-19 response, say the company is currently testing the e effectiveness of its shot with a booster.
New French nasal spray eliminates 99% of Covid virus
The ionised water spray is set to go on sale in March; but it is preventative only, not a cure
The Connexion – A French pharmaceutical company has developed a nasal spray that it says could eliminate up to 99% of the Covid-19 virus, with the product set to be available to buy within weeks.
French group Pharma & Beauty (P&B) has been working on the spray for almost a year. It says that according to several studies it can eliminate 99% of the viral load in nasal passages within 30 seconds and reduce the spread of the virus by up to 90%.
The company is set to begin selling the product from March 1.
Production is scheduled to begin next week at the P&B site in Montélimar, Drôme; and then in four other P&B factories across France. Between 1 million-3 million bottles are expected to be available in March, followed by 13 million-15 million each month from April.
Each bottle of 30ml is expected to last one month, and will be sold at €14.90 each.
Good News
Omaha church partners with nonprofit and cancels $7.2 million of medical debt for strangers
RIP Medical Debt is a nonprofit organization that buys up medical debt at a discount to forgive it
The Blaze – A Nebraska church is serving its community and helping those in need by helping to eliminate millions of dollars in medical expenses for people overwhelmed by debt.
King of Kings Church in Omaha has partnered with RIP Medical Debt, a New York-based nonprofit organization, to buy up medical debt and then forgive it.
“They are just doing a terrific ministry,” King of Kings Church lead pastor Greg Griffith told WOWT-TV.
RIP Medical Debt was founded in 2014 by former debt collections executives Craig Antico and Jerry Ashton. Their organization uses donations to purchase medical debt from hospitals and doctors practices before it is sold to collections firms and then forgives that debt, freeing people in need from the enormous burden of their medical expenses.
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