World News
‘Urgent intervention’: UK supermarkets appeal for govt action to tackle N. Ireland post-Brexit food supply problems
RT – The UK’s biggest supermarket chains have come together to call for government action “to prevent significant disruption” to Northern Ireland’s food supply chains due to new customs regulations under the Brexit deal.
The CEOs of Asda, Iceland, Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Co-op said that “urgent intervention” was needed to address the current situation before new procedures are enforced when the “grace period” for simplified trade controls expires on March 31.
In a letter to the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Michael Gove, on Tuesday, the supermarket chiefs said: “The current proposals, increased bureaucracy and increased certification in such a short timescale, are unworkable.”
Shortages of fresh fruit, vegetables and meat have been witnessed by customers in some supermarkets in Northern Ireland this week due to additional red tape imposed by the UK’s post-Brexit trade deal with the EU.
Under the Northern Ireland Protocol, which took effect on January 1, businesses sending goods from England, Scotland and Wales to the region must comply with new regulations due to a customs border in the Irish Sea.
This allows Northern Ireland to remain in the EU’s single market for goods, but means there are specific rules for British traders moving goods into the region, such as applying for export health certificates from official vets for animal products.
Antibodies for all! Putin orders mass vaccination against Covid-19 with Sputnik V jab to be offered to every Russian
RT – President Vladimir Putin has instructed the Russian government to begin rolling out a coronavirus vaccine for the entire population from next week, with more than 1.5 million people having already received the jab.
In a meeting with ministers on Wednesday, Putin said that the time had come to “move from large-scale vaccination to mass vaccination.” He added that the Sputnik V formula, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, was “the best in the world.”
While comparisons between different vaccines are hard to draw, given the unique circumstances under which they have been developed, he insisted that “no others demonstrate this level of protection and such a degree of safety.”
English Covid rules have changed 64 times since March, says barrister
Guardian – Lockdown rules in England have been changed at least 64 times by the government since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, a human rights barrister has calculated, amid growing calls for clearer guidance for the public.
Adam Wagner, of Doughty Street Chambers, said that new national regulations, local regulations, regulations on face coverings or rules on travel quarantine have passed into law on average every four-and-a-half days since the first restrictions were introduced in the spring.
As a result, the rules have become increasingly cumbersome, with police, lawyers and ministers unable to distinguish between laws and advice. The guidance given to the public often does not reflect the law, Wagner said.
Many rules, including those demanding that people have a reasonable excuse before travelling, are effectively unenforceable, he said.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
House poised to impeach Trump for second time: ‘Incitement of insurrection’
NBC – The House on Wednesday was poised to impeach President Donald Trump a second time, which will make him the first president to face possible removal twice.
House lawmakers are expected to vote on a single article of impeachment around 3 p.m. ET, charging Trump with “incitement of insurrection” in the wake of a pro-Trump mob that violently stormed the U.S. Capitol last Wednesday.
SHOCKING: Pelosi Chooses China Spy Lover Eric Swalwell to Be On Her New Impeachment Panel
Gateway Pundit – Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced her team of dreams for the next sham impeachment of President Trump. Eric Swalwell who recently was in the news for shagging a Chinese spy is the noblest of her team members.
Pelosi is attempting to impeach President Trump for a second time on another lie leading to another unconstitutional abuse of power. Pelosi hates President Trump because he is for the American people and not China. After stealing the 2020 election from the President, Pelosi wants to make sure President Trump knows she hates him.
Pelosi still has not released one testimony hidden in the Capitol archives from her last impeachment. This is because this testimony with Deep Stater Michael Atkinson will totally unravel the corrupt first impeachment.
President Trump on the Border: ‘I Kept My Promises’
President Donald Trump celebrated his presidency’s pro-American migration reforms in a border speech on Tuesday — just after a vice-president at one of Mark Zuckerberg’s advocacy groups described his policies as “evil.”
“We took on the cartels, the coyotes, and the special interests, and we restored the rule of law,” Trump declared in a subdued speech Alamo, Texas. He continued:
For years, politicians ran for office promising to secure the border, only to get elected and to do the absolute exact opposite. …. they promised a wall but they couldn’t get it built.
[….]
But unlike those who came before me, I kept my promises. And today we celebrate an extraordinary milestone: the completion of the promised 450 miles of border wall. Four hundred and fifty miles.
“We shouldn’t roll our eyes at just another border trip,” said a prior tweet for Alida Garcia, the vice president of advocacy for Zuckerberg’s FWD.us group. “This is pure evil … he will continue to wage war against [foreign] people suffering because our country is breaking the law,” she claimed in a series of tweets before Trump’s speech.
Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls for Liz Cheney to Resign as House GOP Chair for Supporting ‘Political Witch-Hunt Impeachment’
Breitbart – Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) joined a growing movement of Republicans Wednesday calling on Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) to resign as the House Republican Conference chair.
“I’m calling for @RepLizCheney to step down as Chairwoman of the House Republican Conference,” Greene said in a statement Wednesday. “She doesn’t represent Republican voters by supporting this political witch-hunt impeachment of President Trump. She is not connected to the base and is voting for a hurtful lie.”
Greene’s call for Cheney to resign follows as Reps. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) and Andy Biggs (R-AZ) urged Cheney to step down for supporting the impeachment of Trump.
“Much more will become clear in the coming days and weeks, but what we know now is enough. The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack. Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President,” Cheney said in a statement Tuesday. “The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not. There has never been a greater betrayal by a President of the United States of his office and his oath to the Constitution.”
“I will vote to impeach the President,” she added.
“When Representative Cheney came out for impeachment today, she failed to consult with the Conference, failed to abide by the spirit of the rules of the Republican Conference, and ignored the preferences of Republican voters,” Rosendale said in a statement Tuesday.
New York City moves to end contracts with the Trump Organization
CNN – Organization in response to last week’s attack on the US Capitol.
On the day President Donald Trump faces a second impeachment for his role inciting the rioters who ransacked the Capitol, officials in New York City announced plans to immediately end the Trump Organization’s contracts to operate the Trump Golf Links at Ferry Point, the Central Park Carousel and the Wollman and Lasker ice skating rinks.
“The attacks on our Capitol killed a police officer, left four rioters dead, exposed lawmakers to Covid-19 and threatened the constitutional transfer of power,” the city said in a statement issued Wednesday morning. “They were a national abomination. We’re reviewing whether legal grounds exist in light of these new circumstances to terminate concessions with the Trump Organization.”
A number of private businesses have also announced they would no longer do business with the Trump organization because of the president’s comments to supporters before the attack on the Capitol. They include two of his banks, Deutsche Bank and Signature Bank, credit card processor Stripe, which is no longer processing credit card payments for the Trump campaign, Shopify, which stopped operating online stores for both the Trump Organization and the campaign and the PGA of America, which announced it is pulling a major golf tournament from one of Trump’s courses.
On Wednesday, global real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield (CWK) said it “has made the decision to no longer do business with The Trump Organization,” according to a company spokesperson.
The Billion Dollar California-China Mask Deal
Judicial Watch – “I encourage you to read and review all of the documents we’ve uncovered because the media won’t tell you about it, because the leftists controlling California don’t want to be held accountable.”
Friday’s Judicial Watch Weekly Update with Tom Fitton covered a number of pressing topics, including a billion dollar facemask deal struck between the California state government and the Chinese mask manufacturer, BYD. As Fitton explained, “we were able to extract 848 pages of documents about a California government deal… we’re trying to figure out what was behind this contract which was quite controversial… the documents are pretty interesting.”
According to Judicial Watch’s findings, “the documents reveal that the Office of Emergency Services Assistant Chief Counsel in California admits that they deviated from the normal procurement protocol for this contract.” As Fitton summarized from an April 7th 2020 email, the President of the Chinese company, BYD, suggested that the California agency “should open champagne at the conference call when California finalized the purchase of the masks.” In a later amendment to the agreement, “BYD had to refund 247 million of the 495 million down payment [to California] because they weren’t able to meet the deadline to receive certification for the N95 masks.
“These are remarkable documents,” Fitton continued. “The documents show how a well-connected and controversial Chinese firm was able to get a leg up on a billion-dollar mask contract with California politicians,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
President Kennedy Asked the FBI to Look Into Speaker Pelosi’s Father for Connections to the Mob – Documents Quietly Released Last Week Confirm This
Gateway Pundit – President John F. Kennedy requested that Speaker Pelosi’s father, Thomas D’Alesandro Jr. be investigated by the FBI for his connections to organized crime. The related FBI documents were quietly released on January 6th.
On January 6th the FBI quietly released documents related to Nancy Pelosi’s father. Thomas D’Alesandro Jr was investigated by the FBI in 1961 per a request from President John F. Kennedy. The document drop was released while Big Media and the Democrats were busy approving a stolen election and pushing the narrative that Trump supporters are violent.
There were prior reports that D’Alesandro Jr was connected to the mob. The Federalist Papers reported in 2018.
Despite excuses from Hoover, allegations continued to pile up and President John F. Kennedy finally requested in 1961 that “D’Alesando’s involvement with Baltimore hoodlums; with favoritism in awarding city contracts; [and] protection for political contributors and the prosecution of local cases” be investigated.
The documents released on the 6th provide evidence that Pelosi’s father was investigated by the FBI based on Kennedy’s concerns. The results of the investigation were provided to Kennedy and his brother Bobby, the Attorney General.
Economy & Business
Airbnb to Ban People Linked with ‘Violent Activities’ Ahead of Inauguration
Breitbart – Airbnb announced on Monday that it would be reviewing reservations in the Washington DC area ahead of the presidential inauguration and will ban any guests it believes are associated with “hate groups” or violent activity. The company is also cross-referencing arrest records from the Capitol Hill incident with its customer base to ban attendees from using the platform in the future.
CBS News reports that the online rental marketplace Airbnb has announced plans to review reservations in the Washington DC area ahead of next week’s presidential inauguration and will ban any guests it believes are associated with hate groups or violent activity. The decision comes shortly after city officials asked Airbnb, VRBO, and other rental hosts to remove listings until the January 20 inauguration is over.
HSBC Says Customers Who Don’t Wear Face Masks Could Have Their Accounts Terminated
Infowars – Banking giant HSBC has told its customers in the UK that if they refuse to wear face masks when entering a branch, they could have their accounts terminated.
Jackie Uhi, head of branch network, HSBC UK, told the Daily Mirror that those who fail to comply will not only be refused service but have their relationship with the bank severed permanently.
“Sadly, some people are failing to protect themselves, our branch colleagues and other customers by refusing to wear a face covering inside our branches or observe social distancing,” said Uhi.
“If you do visit us, please wear a face covering and maintain a safe distance from others. If individuals put themselves or our colleagues at risk, without a medical exemption, we reserve the right to withdraw their account,” she added.
The announcement was made shortly after several supermarkets said they would refuse entry to customers not wearing a face covering. Other banks could also follow HSBC’s example by threatening customers with account termination.
Face coverings must be worn on public transport, in shops, supermarkets, banks, post offices, places of worship, museums, galleries, entertainment venues and libraries, although the only real enforcement appears to be on public transport where fined can be issued.
Despite already being under a national lockdown, Brits could be about to face even stricter restrictions, with government ministers denying speculation earlier this week that people could be only allowed to leave their house once per week.
Science & Technology
YouTube suspends Trump channel, removes video
Al Jazeera – Google-owned YouTube suspended Donald Trump’s channel and removed a video for violating its policy against inciting violence – the latest sanction by the social media giant against the US president.
Online platforms and social media companies are distancing themselves from, and taking action against, those who encouraged or engaged in last week’s deadly violence on the US Capitol by the president’s supporters.
“In light of concerns about the ongoing potential for violence, we removed new content uploaded to Donald J Trump’s channel for violating our policies,” YouTube said in a statement.
The channel is now “temporarily prevented from uploading new content for a minimum of 7 days”, it said.
The video-sharing platform also said it will be “indefinitely disabling comments” on Trump’s channel because of safety concerns.
The homepage of the Trump channel featured a month-old video of Trump casting doubt on the voting election process that logged some 5.8 million views. The free channel itself has 2.77 million subscribers.
Gab CEO completely backed up President Trump’s Twitter account before it was deleted and recreated him on Gab!
>> See the account here: ab.com/realdonaldtrump
If Big Tech Can Ban Certain Political Views So Easily, Why is Child Porn Rife on Their Platforms?
Free Thought Project – As TFTP reported on Monday, Parler has been a haven for those who have been banned, deleted, or otherwise algorithmed into the memory hole by establishment media platforms. Users moved to Parler because the platform claimed not to censor their content and it was safe space for MAGA folks. For over a year, Parler has remained an open network where pro-Trump users largely proceeded uncensored. Until now.
Early Monday morning, Amazon took down Parler from its web-hosting service. Amazon Web Services, or AWS said Parler had violated its terms of service given its inadequate content-moderation practices for failing to remove posts glorifying the recent riot at the U.S. Capitol. Google and Apple joined in as well, ensuring that Parler is deplatformed indefinitely.
This move came on the heels of a massive purge of tens of thousands of pro-Trump folks who allegedly espoused ridiculous Qanon theories. It was bad enough that these folks were duped into following the psyop known as Q. Now, however, instead of realizing the absurdity of these ideas as they are debunked in the public arena, that is no longer an option. Now, they will grasp onto these whacky ideas as the massive monopolistic power of tech behemoths imposing their neoliberal will on them gives them justification for doing so.
Sadly, many on the left — who used to claim to stand for free speech — are now praising the collusion by big tech to censor their political enemies, completely ignoring the fact that it will inevitably turn on them whenever convenient for the establishment.
Health
How “Big Food” Influences Public Health Policy to the Detriment of Public Health
Children’s Health Defence – Story at-a-glance:
- Processed foods, junk foods and soft drinks are key culprits in the rise of obesity and chronic diseases that have a key role to play in COVID-19 deaths.
- Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, multinational food and beverage corporations are interfering with public policy and influencing the development of dietary guidelines.
- More than half of those appointed to the 2020 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee (DGAC) have ties to the International Life Sciences Institute (ILSI), a junk food industry front group.
- Junk food giants are thoroughly intertwined with public health recommendations pertaining to food and nutrition — to the detriment of public health.
- Eating nutritious foods could help you lose weight, put Type 2 diabetes into remission and improve your health considerably, so you’ll have a much better chance of survival should you contract COVID-19.
Underlying health conditions like obesity, heart disease and diabetes have emerged as key factors in fatalities due to novel coronavirus, COVID-19. In one study, more than 99% of COVID-19 fatalities occurred among people who had underlying medical conditions.
Among the fatalities, 76.1% had high blood pressure, 35.5% had diabetes and 33% had heart disease. What’s more, another study revealed that among 18- to 49-year-olds hospitalized due to COVID-19, obesity was the most prevalent underlying condition, just ahead of hypertension.
Chronic conditions like Type 2 diabetes, heart disease and obesity have a lot in common, including the fact that they’re often fueled by poor diet.
Processed foods, junk foods and soft drinks are key culprits in the rise of such chronic diseases, and therefore have a key role to play in COVID-19 deaths. Yet, even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, multinational food and beverage corporations are interfering with public policy and influencing the development of dietary guidelines.
In order to protect public health, this conflicted influence must be curbed, according to a report published by the campaign group Corporate Accountability. Meanwhile, health experts are calling out ultra-processed foods as key players in COVID-19 deaths and calling on public health guidelines to warn the public of their risks.
Yellow mealworm safe for humans to eat, says EU food safety agency
Move paves way for high-protein maggot-like insect to be approved for consumption across Europe
Guardian – Yellow mealworm finger foods, smoothies, biscuits, pasta and burgers could soon be mass produced across Europe after the insect became the first to be found safe for human consumption by the EU food safety agency.
The delicacies may not be advisable for everyone, however. Those with prawn and dustmite allergies are likely to suffer a reaction to the Tenebrio molitor larvae, whether eaten in powder form as part of a recipe or as a crunchy snack, perhaps dipped in chocolate.
The conclusion of scientists at the EU food safety agency, following an application by France’s first insect-for-food production company, Micronutris, is expected to lead to EU-wide approval within months of yellow mealworm as a product fit for supermarket shelves and kitchen pantries across the continent.
The insect’s main components are protein, fat and fibre, offering a potentially sustainable and low carbon-emission source of food for the future. When dried, the maggot-like insect is said to taste a lot like peanuts.
Brain Tumors Linked to Toxin From Undercooked Meat
Newsmax – A food-borne pathogen may be linked to a type of rare brain cancer in adults, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that people who have glioma are more likely to have antibodies to toxoplasma gondii than a similar group that was cancer-free. That indicates they were previously infected with the parasite, which is most commonly acquired from undercooked meat.
The investigators examined the association between T. gondii antibodies measured several years before the cancer was diagnosed and the risk of developing a glioma. Study participants were from an American Cancer Society Study and the Norwegian Cancer Registry’s Janus Serum Bank.
“This does not mean that T. gondii definitely causes glioma in all situations. Some people with glioma have no T. gondii antibodies, and vice versa,” researcher James Hodge said in an American Cancer Society news release. He’s an epidemiologist at the society.
“The findings do suggest that individuals with higher exposure to the T. gondii parasite are more likely to go on to develop glioma,” said co-author Anna Coghill, from the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute in Tampa, Fla. “However, it should be noted that the absolute risk of being diagnosed with a glioma remains low, and these findings need to be replicated in a larger and more diverse group of individuals.”
Good News
Another Record Decline Reported in US Cancer Death Rate
Newsmax – Researchers on Tuesday reported another record one-year decline in the U.S. cancer death rate, a drop they attribute to success against lung cancer.
The overall cancer death rate has been falling since 1991. From 2017 to 2018, it fell 2.4%, according to an American Cancer Society report, topping the record 2.2% drop reported the year before.
Lung cancer accounted for almost half of the overall decline in cancer deaths in the past five years, the society reported.
Most lung cancer cases are tied to smoking, and decades of declining smoking rates have led to falling rates of lung cancer illnesses and deaths. But experts say the drop in deaths has been accelerated by refinements in surgery, better diagnostic scanning, more precise use of radiation and the impact of newer drugs.
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