News 7-27
RT – Dutch Olympic skateboarder Candy Jacobs has blasted conditions at a Toyko quarantine hotel as “inhuman”, after missing an event at the Olympic Games due to her ongoing eight-day stay in isolation.
The Netherlands competitor said she had to force officials into permitting her a short break under supervision away from her room to get some fresh room, as her accommodation’s window doesn’t open.
“Not having any outside air is so inhuman,” complained the 31-year-old in a video on her Instagram account, which she has also used to provide other updates such as practicing from her room.
“It’s mentally super draining…definitely more than a lot of humans can handle.”
Jacobs had been staying in the Olympic Village but was then removed and put into a separate quarantine facility for those present at the Tokyo 2020 Games, where she has missed a street event, with the virus.
On the seventh day of her isolation, she claims to have refused to move.
And after over seven hours, Jacobs alleged, officials agreed she was allowed to stand near an open window for 15 minutes while also supervised.
“Having that first breath of outside air was the saddest and best moment in my life,” she admitted.
RT – France’s data protection regulator has fined agricultural firm Monsanto €400,000 ($472,320) for illegally creating lists to help the company lobby support during a debate about the authorization of a key weed killer ingredient.
The case was launched by the National Commission on Informatics and Liberty (CNIL) after seven plaintiffs complained about Monsanto, now owned by German giant Bayer, compiling files on individuals who were involved in the public debate about the use of controversial weed killer glyphosate.
While the lists themselves were not deemed illegal, Monsanto fell foul of the data regulator by keeping the files secret and failing to inform individuals that their information was gathered, giving them the right to refuse to be included.
The French list of more than 200 people gave each individual a rating of one to five, marking influence, credibility and their level of support for the agricultural firm, specifically its pesticide and crop modification practices.
Siding with the plaintiffs, the CNIL fined Monsanto €400,000 over its data collection system and failure to provide individuals with the right to request their data be removed or not collected.
After Monsanto was acquired by Bayer in 2019, the German firm launched an internal investigation that found around 1,500 people had been targeted globally, “primarily within the EU,” but argued that there was no evidence anyone was illegally surveilled.
The watch lists were created during a heated debate in the EU over the use of weedkiller Roundup amid lawsuits that claimed it has the potential to cause cancer. Monsanto has repeatedly claimed that Roundup and its main ingredient glyphosate is safe, denying there is any wrongdoing or cause for concern.
Drone Whistleblower Daniel Hale Sentenced to 45 Months in Prison “For Exposing US War Crimes”
Activist Post – Human rights and press freedom advocates expressed dismay on Tuesday when whistleblower Daniel Hale, who pled guilty earlier this year to violating the Espionage Act, was sentenced to 45 months in prison for sharing with a journalist classified information about the U.S. military’s drone assassination program.
“Whistleblower Daniel Hale has just been sentenced to 45 months in prison for exposing U.S. war crimes,” said anti-war group CodePink. “While his sentencing isn’t the 10 years we feared, it is 45 months too long.”
Hale’s lawyers argued in court papers that his humanitarian motives, and the lack of harm resulting from his actions, warranted a lenient 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 [Barack] Obama regarding the alleged precision of the United States military’s drone program,” wrote Defense attorneys Todd Richman and Cadence Mertz.
Prosecutors, however, claimed Hale’s leaks posed a greater risk to “national security” than those of Reality Winner, the former National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower released last month after serving four years of a 63-month sentence—the longest ever imposed for disclosing classified government information to the media. They sought a sentence “significantly longer” than Winner’s.
U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady said the 45-month prison sentence he gave Hale was necessary to “deter others from disclosing government secrets,” the Associated Press reported.
Breitbart – On Tuesday’s “Mark Levin Show,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) stated that the Biden administration wants kindergartners “muzzled with a mask,” but when it comes to people crossing the border illegally, “they don’t give a damn about COVID at that point.”
DeSantis said, “I mean, if you’ve got a kid in kindergarten, they just said today they want the kid muzzled with a mask, even though COVID’s not any risk to the kid. If you have a loved one overseas, they may not let them come and fly, just normal travel. Because of COVID, they’ll claim. But yet, if you want to just come straight across that border and have thousands of people pouring in, they don’t give a damn about COVID at that point. They’re letting them right in.”
New York Times reporter deletes tweets calling Trump supporters ‘enemies of the state’
RT – New York Times reporter Katie Benner has deleted a series of tweets calling Trump supporters “enemies of the state.” Benner called the tweets “wrongly worded,” but her sentiment is largely shared by the state itself.
As a Democrat-run committee investigating the pro-Trump riot on Capitol Hill in January got underway on Tuesday, viewers were treated to garish tales of violence and tears from lawmakers who lamented the “dark day” they experienced in January. Portrayed by Republican leadership as a “sham” that “no-one will believe,” the hearing evidently worked as intended on New York Times journalist Katie Benner.
Midway through the proceedings, Benner angrily called for the US’ national security apparatus to target supporters of former President Donald Trump.
“Today’s #January6thSelectCommittee underscores America’s current, essential natsec dilemma: Work to combat legitimate national security threats now entails calling a politician’s supporters enemies of the state,” she tweeted.
“As Americans, we believe that state power should not be used to work against a political figure or a political party. But what happens if a politician seems to threaten the state? If the politician continues to do so out of office and his entire party supports that threat?” she continued.
Benner apparently viewed Trump and his supporters as a “threat” long before January 6, as she pointed out that two impeachments and the ‘Russiagate’ investigation had left this “dilemma…unresolved.”
Benner’s tweets triggered an avalanche of criticism from the right, and she later deleted them, claiming that they had been “unclearly worded.”
CDC to recommend masks for some vaccinated people in certain situations
CDC to revise guidance issued in May
(FOX) The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to announce Tuesday that some vaccinated individuals resume wearing masks in certain situations to protect against COVID-19, reversing its earlier guidance that only unvaccinated individuals should wear face coverings.
A federal source confirmed the news to Fox News after reporting from the New York Times.
In May, the CDC announced that vaccinated individuals were not required to wear masks indoors or outdoors, or physically distance, while maintaining that unvaccinated individuals should continue to wear masks and socially distance.
At the time, the CDC still recommended that fully vaccinated individuals wear masks while in crowded indoor settings, such as riding public transportation and in hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters. The CDC told Fox News last week it had “no plans” to update its mask use recommendations.
The expected guidance comes as the Biden administration ramps up its warnings about the delta variant of COVID-19, as the strain becomes more prominent in the United States.
‘Massive Revolts’: GOP Rep. Warns Against Mask Mandates After Being Fined for Not Wearing One
Newsweek – Republican U.S. House member Ralph Norman is speaking out regarding potential mask mandates that may be administered due to rising COVID-19 numbers.
The South Carolina congressman spoke to NewsMax on Monday about certain consequences that might occur if Americans are required to wear masks in public places by the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.
“I don’t think they’re going to take it well,” Norman said to NewsMax. “I think you can see massive revolts against doing this, particularly with this administration and being so hypocritical in other areas. I think they’ll revolt against it.”
“What will be interesting is when you board an airplane, whether people are gonna decide they want to do it or not, or risk being thrown off the plane,” Norman continued. “But it’s going to be massive. This is part of their strategy to do this.”
“Where is the commission to find out where it [COVID-19] really came from? Does anybody believe it was from a bat in a wet market? No, this is from a foreign country, China, which we think, a lot of us think, they’re putting this out on America because they despise America, they’re a communist country.”
In May, Norman, along with U.S. Representatives Majorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, and Thomas Massie, of Kentucky, were fined $500 for not wearing a face-covering on the House floor. He lost an appeal on July 20 regarding the specified fine.
Afterward, Norman pushed back on Twitter stating the House missed an opportunity to uphold its orders to allow vaccinated individuals to be without face coverings in public places.
“Americans ought to push back on petty rules that are neither rational nor rooted in science,” Norman said on Twitter. “Especially those that are politically motivated. That’s exactly what I did on the House floor.”
Gateway Pundit – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky is now saying that “new data” shows breakthrough cases in vaccinated individuals can spread as much virus as an unvaccinated person.
The CDC has now changed course yet again and is now calling for fully vaccinated Americans to wear masks indoors in places with “substantial or high” transmission — including “universal masking” in schools.
“In rare occasions, some vaccinated people infected with a delta variant after vaccination may be contagious and spread the virus to others,” Walensky said during a press briefing on Tuesday. “This new science is worrisome, and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendation.”
Walensky claimed that “new information” gathered last week shows that those infected with the delta variant could carry the same viral load as unvaccinated, infected people, according to a report from ABC News.
Despite giving these new recommendations, the CDC director continued to demand that people go get vaccinated.
“Getting vaccinated continues to prevent severe illness, hospitalization and death, even with delta. It also helps reduce the spread of the virus in our community. Vaccinated individuals continue to represent a very small amount of transmission occurring around the country,” Walensky said.
At FDA Urging, Pfizer and Moderna to Include Thousands More Children in Clinical Trials
Global Research – Citing concerns about the risk of heart inflammation associated with the vaccines, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration asked Pfizer and Moderna to expand the number of children in their clinical trials.
Pfizer and Moderna will increase the number of children in their COVID vaccine clinical trials prior to seeking Emergency Use Authorization (EUA), after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) told the vaccine makers the size and scope of their pediatric studies, as initially envisioned, were inadequate to detect rare side effects.
The rare side effects cited by the FDA include myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle, and pericarditis, inflammation of the lining around the heart, multiple people familiar with the trials told The New York Times.
Moderna’s shot is authorized for emergency use in people 18 and up, and Pfizer’s vaccine is authorized for children as young as 12. No COVID vaccines have yet received EUA approval for children younger than 12.
Expanding the pediatric trials means thousands more children as young as 6 months old may soon be recruited and enrolled in COVID vaccine trials.
According to the Times, the FDA asked the companies to include 3,000 children in the 5- to 11-year-old group, the group for whom results were expected first.
One person, granted anonymity by the Times to speak freely, described that figure as double the original number of study participants.
Moderna researchers had intended to test the vaccine in about 7,000 children, with some as young as 6 months, according to ABC News, but the company told the news outlet today in an email they never decided on how many kids would be added to the trial.
Pfizer began testing its vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 on June 8, with those younger than 5 being included as of June 21. The study will involve up to 4,500 subjects from the U.S., Finland, Poland and Spain, according to the Wall Street Journal, which also reported the company declined to say whether the recent request from the FDA will change the timing of any authorization submissions.
Last month, Pfizer and Moderna said their vaccines for children 5 through 11 could be ready as early as September. Pfizer, which is on a faster timetable than Moderna, may be able to meet the FDA’s expectations on a bigger trial size and still file a request for expanded EUA by the end of September, the Times reported.
A federal official, who spoke to the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, predicted authorization of a COVID vaccine for children 5 through 11 might come by late October or early November.
The government is not expecting it will be a big problem to enroll more children because so many parents are eager to get their children vaccinated, the official said.
NaturalNews – Israeli health officials have stated that the Pfizer/BioNTech Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine is only 39 percent effective against the delta variant of the virus.
The Israeli Ministry of Health (MOH) revealed the finding in a July 22 report that looked at COVID-19 cases between June 20 and July 17. Nevertheless, the ministry insisted that the two-dose mRNA vaccine remains highly effective in preventing serious illness and hospitalization.
The MOH looked at COVID-19 cases during the period of the delta variant’s spread throughout Israel. The ministry’s report also showed the decreasing effectiveness of the two-dose Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine against transmission. Israel used the Pfizer/BioNTech mRNA vaccine on the majority of its population, alongside some doses from Moderna.
Israelis inoculated back in January 2021 showed a 16 percent effectiveness against COVID-19 transmission, while those inoculated in February 2021 reflected a higher 44 percent potency against transmission. This potency rose to 67 percent among Israelis vaccinated in March 2021. Meanwhile, those vaccinated in April 2021 showed a 75 percent effectiveness against COVID-19 transmission.
Despite these findings, the MOH said the vaccine’s effectiveness at preventing severe COVID-19 for Israelis vaccinated in January remained at 86 percent. This was only slightly lower than those vaccinated in the succeeding months. Furthermore, the findings also showed that it was still 91 percent effective in preventing serious illness in fully vaccinated individuals.
However, doctors who spoke to the Times of Israel said the July 22 statistics not only reflect the passage of time following vaccination. They added that it also reflected a bias as most Israelis who got inoculated early –such as the elderly – often had health conditions and are more prone to infection.
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev epidemiologist Nadav Davidovitch reacted to the MOH’s figures. He told the Times: “What we see is that the vaccine is less effective in preventing transmission. [But] it’s easy to overlook that it’s still very effective in preventing hospitalization and severe cases.”
NaturalNews -A leaked video is circulating on alternative social media that exposes Barclay Crawford, editor for the Daily Mail Australia, as a vaccine propagandist who specifically instructed his staff to ridicule “anti-vaxxers” in their articles.
The video – watch below – shows Crawford participating in a virtual meeting with staff members, some of whom he is heard congratulating for demonstrating that they already “got it” – meaning they have been doing a good job pushing pro-Wuhan coronavirus (Covid-19) “vaccination” in the paper.
“You’re all champions,” Crawford is heard saying. “We’ll keep trying to run stories that are, um, call out the ‘anti-vax’ weirdos and, and point out why, why we need to get it and why it’s important, you know, and why we don’t want Australia regressing to some, you know, the reason why we have medicine and medical science is for things like this and it’s amazing, and should be celebrated and not run down.”
We occasionally cite the original United Kingdom version of the Daily Mail Online, which seems to be a mixed bag when it comes to supporting or rejecting vaccination. Oftentimes, Daily Mail commenters are supportive of medical freedom, which Crawford rejects as “people who should know better.”
“And I know you will see a lot of comments on our stories from people who should know better,” Crawford told his staff.
“It’s extraordinary how many, um, uh, intelligent, um, uh, otherwise well-educated people are, are, are spreading this, this disease, really, out there in the community, so it’s just important we keep on top of it.”
West Virginia city makes final pitch in opioid lawsuit seeking $2.5 bln
(REUTERS) Lawyers for a West Virginia city and its county made their closing arguments on Tuesday in their three-month landmark trial against the nation’s largest drug distributors, seeking $2.5 billion to remedy an opioid crisis they say the companies helped cause.
Huntington and Cabell County, along with the rest of the state’s local governments, have opposed the $21 billion nationwide settlement with distributors McKesson Corp (MCK.N), AmerisourceBergen Corp (ABC.N) and Cardinal Health Inc (CAH.N) announced last week, instead betting that they can do better on their own. read more
The lawyers laid out their case to U.S. District Judge David Faber in Charleston and said that evidence showed the distributors were responsible for the region’s addiction crisis.
“81 million pills, distributed to a community of 100,000 people or less, isn’t a substantial factor in the opioid epidemic,” attorney Paul Farrell, who represents Cabell County, told the judge. “It will cause an opioid epidemic.”
The non-jury trial will be decided by Faber, who must determine if the companies are liable for the epidemic and what they must pay to remedy it.
The distributors’ lawyers are expected to make their closing arguments later on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The defendants have denied the claims, saying they complied with state and federal laws and blame doctors’ prescribing practices for a surge in opioid use.
Huntington and Cabell’s case was the first against the distributors to go to trial and will be a key test of the allegations.
Farrell told Faber that opioid addiction is an “imminent threat to public safety.”
He detailed the severity of the crisis in Huntington, where he said there had been 6,494 overdoses from 2015 to 2020 and 1,151 overdose deaths from 2001 to 2018. More than 8,000 suffered from opioid use disorder, he told the judge.
He said 10% of the Cabell County’s roughly 91,000 residents were addicted to opioids.
Nationwide, nearly 500,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the from 1999 to 2019, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC earlier this month said provisional data showed 69,710 opioid overdose deaths in 2020, up more than 36% from the previous year.
New York City, California order government workers to get COVID vaccine
Reuters – Political leaders in California and New York City on Monday ordered government workers to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or face regular tests, ratcheting up the pressure on reluctant residents in a bid to stem a rise in infections blamed on the Delta variant.
New York City will require its more than 300,000 employees to get vaccinated by Sept. 13 or get tested weekly, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. The crackdown came a week after the United States’ most populous city passed a vaccine mandate for all healthcare workers at city-run hospitals and clinics.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said that all state employees, some 246,000 people, would be ordered to get vaccinated starting Aug. 2 or undergo COVID-19 testing at least once a week.
On Monday, the Department of Veterans Affairs, whose mandate includes providing healthcare for former service members, became the first federal agency to require its employees to get vaccinated.
NaturalNews – If you thought that Americans were the only ‘hard-headed’ people against forced vaccinations and mandatory proof of same via “COVID passports,” you’re mistaken.
Apparently, free people everywhere are against such tyrannical measures.
In Britain, for instance, more than 1,250 members of the clergy are warning Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the ruling government not to implement the use of the passports — which document that holders have received their vaccine — because doing so will create conditions similar to “medical apartheid.”
Vaccine czar and MP Nadhim Zahawi has already expanded the use of vaccine passports, and now he’s indicating that the program may be extended even further to including sporting events, entering businesses and going to venues to see concerts or other forms of entertainment.
When asked in an interview recently with LBC radio host Nick Ferrari if the current vaccine passport regime could be expanded to ban people who are not vaccinated from even going to worship, business minister Paul Scully replied, “We’re not ruling anything out.”
That admission prompted 1,250 clergy from several Christian denominations to pen an open letter to Johnson, warning that the “introduction of vaccine passports would constitute an unethical form of coercion and violation of the principle of informed consent.”
The clergy noted that many Christians have objected to taking the vaccine because of “serious issues of conscience related to the ethics of vaccine manufacture or testing.” Also, the letter said that implementing universal vaccine passports risk “creating a two-tier society, a medical apartheid in which an underclass of people who decline vaccination are excluded from significant areas of public life.”
“This scheme has the potential to bring about the end of liberal democracy as we know it and to create a surveillance state in which the government uses technology to control certain aspects of citizens’ lives. As such, this constitutes one of the most dangerous policy proposals ever to be made in the history of British politics,” the letter warns.
Some bar and restaurant owners, Summit News reports, have vowed not to enforce a vaccine passport scheme, which is leading to more unrest as rowdy demonstrations spread beyond England and the UK to the rest of Europe.
German outlet DM reports, “The protesters are angered by health passes and mandatory vaccinations, as they believe those policies curtail freedom. European governments are ramping up pressure on the unvaccinated to get the jab.”
“Thousands of Europeans took to the streets in France, Italy and Greece on Saturday to demonstrate against coronavirus restrictions and mandatory vaccination policies,” the report added.
In France, an estimated 160,000 protesters vented anger towards President Emmanuel Macron and the government in Paris as well as several other major cities around the country.
They were angered by new legislation that would require French citizens to have a COVID passport or proof of a negative COVID test in order to go to a restaurant or other public areas, DW.com added. The lower House of Parliament passed the legislation on Friday but it was still being debated in the Senate as of this writing.
The French protesters in the streets shouted slogans such as “No to the pass of the shame,” while others carried placards calling Macron a “tyrant.”
Demonstrators clashed in the streets of Paris with police who deployed water cannons and other non-lethal methods to control and disperse crowds. The protests come after the government made vaccination mandatory for all healthcare workers in France, DW.com noted.
Meanwhile, protestors in Italy were upset over a government mandate that required citizens to get vaccinated, provide proof of recovery from the virus, or have a negative COVID test before they could venture out in public.
The demonstrators are also angered by a government certificate requiring vaccination, proof of recovery or a negative test result to participate in public life. The protesters chanted phrases such as “Freedom!” and “Down with the dictatorship!”
Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said the mandates were necessary to guard against the new Delta variant.
Protests were also seen in Greece, where demonstrators pushed back on mandatory vaccination.
It could be that COVID will prove to be the spark for a new liberty movement worldwide.
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