World News
The pandemic is being used as cover for a no-deal Brexit | Mujtaba Rahman
The Vote Leavers at the heart of government think the coronavirus crash will disguise the pain caused by a rupture with the EU
Guardian –
ost of us who have followed Brexit closely believed coronavirus would soften the government’s stance in trade talks with Europe. The economic shock triggered by the pandemic, and the fact Whitehall is so overwhelmed managing it, made it more likely the government would extend the transition period, due to expire at the end of this year, or strike a deal. It turns out that the opposite is true. Rather than encouraging a more flexible and pragmatic approach, Covid-19 has instead reinforced the case for no deal at the very top of government.
Perhaps the most important driver is the belief among ministers that the UK economy will be permanently reshaped by the crisis, as companies create new supply chains and reshore production to provide greater resilience in the future, not least in case of another pandemic. The government wants a free hand to facilitate this change, one that it believes would be constrained by the EU’s demand that the UK remain tied to its labour and environmental standards and state aid rules.
On the other side of the same coin, there are growing fears in cabinet that maintaining close EU ties would lock the UK into the EU’s post-Covid-19 economic measures designed for its 27 member states, with little regard for the UK’s interests. This is nonsense, as the EU’s rescue package unveiled last Wednesday assumes no UK financial contribution. But it is a powerful argument on the Eurosceptic backbenches and has scared many in cabinet.
Another argument popular with backbench Brexiteers, but now more prominent among ministers, is the belief that coronavirus presents the government with an opportunity to “bury” the loss of growth from no trade deal under the cover of the much more dramatic drop in GDP caused by coronavirus.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Minneapolis City Council president, Dem Jeremiah Ellison claim they’ll ‘dismantle’ police
Fox – Jeremiah Ellison, a Minneapolis city councilman and son of state Attorney General Keith Ellison, is calling for the “dismantling” of the Minneapolis Police Department following days of nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd — and he soon got the support of the City Council’s president.
Ex-NY Times reporter accuses Amazon of trying to censor booklet about coronavirus lockdowns
Fox – Former New York Times reporter and author Alex Berenson joined “Tucker Carlson Tonight” Thursday to address Amazon’s initial refusal to publish his booklet expressing skepticism about the effectiveness of coronavirus lockdowns.
“They told me this morning they weren’t going to publish it and then some, you know, some people with loud voices said that was wrong and they backed off,” Berenson said. “It’s a good day.”
“Unreported Truths about COVID-19 and Lockdowns: Part 1,” which included an introduction and a section on death counts and estimates, was expected to become available on Amazon Thursday but Berenson told host Tucker Carlson he woke up to an email from the online retailer informing him they would not publish it.
“They just sent an email saying something like… it didn’t conform to their standards. They were encouraging people to use official sources about COVID-19,” said Berenson.
Amazon made the booklet available after complaints from, among others, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who called for Amazon to be broken up. Berenson told Carlson Thursday night that the web giant never apologized directly to him before publicly apologizing and changing course.
“They’ve said publicly, but not to me, that they made a mistake. You know, people can judge that for themselves,” Berenson said. “But I think the mistake they made was picking on somebody or trying to censor somebody who happened to have a big enough megaphone to shout back. And, you know, the booklet is selling incredibly well right now. And I think that’s because people really want information that they’re not getting.”
“It’s all facts. It’s all data. There’s no conspiracy theories in there,” Berenson said of the booklet. “And it has information people need and they seem to want that.”
Carlson asked Berenson if other authors have faced the same issues with Amazon.
“We don’t know because it’s not like YouTube where stuff gets posted, then pulled. They can censor on the way in,” Berenson said. “And I’ve heard from people [who] already have emailed me saying that’s happening, but we don’t know how many and we don’t know what the standards are.”
REVEALED: Philadelphia Police Prioritize Rioters Over Neighborhood Watch
Commissioner Danielle Outlaw allegedly told police to stand down
National File – Philadelphia Police have been prioritising rioters over protecting citizens, with the police allegedly being told to stand down.
Philadelphia was one of the cities that was hit by Black Lives Matter protests and riots over this week, sparked off by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis by a police officer.
National File’s Patrick Howley spoke to Zach Rehl, the organiser of a Neighbourhood Watch Group in Philadelphia, who described the situation as being totally chaotic.
“It’s really just been complete and utter chaos here, with rioting and looting. After the first couple of days, we expected it to taper off… it just got to the point where we had to… stop these people before they were coming for our homes,” Rehl told Howley.
However, Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney and Police Commissioner Danielle Outlaw denounced citizens that organised and armed themselves to protect their community from the rioters.
Mayor Kenney said that the city would not “tolerate” the neighbourhood protection groups any longer.
FSU football player says team will boycott workouts after coach’s statement
Campus Reform – A Florida State University football player announced he and his teammates will boycott workouts following first-year coach Mike Norvell’s response to the protests over the death of George Floyd, the Minneapolis man who died after having his neck pinned to the ground by a police officer’s knee.
In a tweet, defensive tackle Marvin Wilson refuted reporting by The Athletic that quoted Norvell saying he had individually spoken with every player. He called Norvell’s claim a “lie” and said the team was “outraged.”
“This is a lie and me and my teammates as a whole are outraged and we will not be working out until further notice”
Over 1,000 Christians Gather To Pray as Riots Continue Across the Country
Western Journal – There is an immense amount of noise in the world right now.
At first, people were yelling at others to wear a mask while others yelled back that it was an infringement on their freedom. Not long after that, people began yelling to shut down more and more businesses while others argued that to do so would cause irreparable damage to our economy.
But then the videos of Ahmaud Arbery and George Floyd went viral within weeks of each other, and the country erupted in an even louder cry.
Protesters swarmed streets and rioters came behind them, damaging police stations and local businesses.
You see, noise is a funny thing. When it’s present, it’s often more difficult to hear important things like truth and love.
But on Tuesday night, a group of over 1,000 Christians gathered in downtown Phoenix in hopes of breaking through the noise to seek the mercy of God.
They didn’t come armed with bricks or torches as some rioters across the country have. Instead, they came armed with prayer and broken hearts for the current state of our country and our world.
Their humility spoke louder than any other chant.
“I think a lot of times we tend to be more focused on what we’re against as the church when really we’re called to be for Jesus and for his ways and not against the world. And so what does it look like to be a people who are for our brothers and sisters who are experiencing injustices?” Kimberly Deckel, one of the leaders of the event, told The Western Journal.
“The church should be present in this. We should be present in all of life,” she continued.
The crowd gathered at Neighborhood Ministries, an inner-city ministry dedicated to meeting “basic necessities of life” for those living in poverty, and walked 0.7 miles to the Arizona State Capitol building.
Helicopters and Military Humvees With Mounted Gun Turrets Deployed for Protests In D.C.
Activist Post – We have seen a lot of police brutality and crazy rioting over the past week. As a sign of potential escalation, video has emerged of Humvees with machine gun turrets mounted on the top driving down the streets of DC, while a black red cross medical helicopter was used by the National Guard to show force against protesters at the capitol. And if that’s not enough, there is news of protesters disappearing in Chicago.
U.S. President Trump vowed to use force against protesters and to deploy the U.S. military to DC, the nation’s capital. He also expressed he would do the same elsewhere if the protests didn’t die down and rioters didn’t stop the vandalism and looting that occurred in some places. Trump also said he had dispatched “thousands and thousands of heavily armed soldiers, military personnel and law enforcement officers” to Washington, D.C.
A former Marine, Luke Thomas, commented on the video asking “Why HMMWV’s rolling through DC city streets with their gun turrets mounted?”
Although we can speculate what’s going on here with these Humvees and the horrible things they could be used for, it’s best to instead deal with the facts as they stand.
The Associated Press reports that approximately 200 active duty troops that were brought in to help if needed with the civil unrest in the nation’s capital will return to their home base. However, we have no way of knowing whether or not these troops returning home are the same that were seen driving down D.C. streets with turrets attached to their Humvees.
The official who spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, also noted that there were a total of 1,300 troops in the capitol region early this week as protests turned violent. Protests became violent in the aftermath of the death in Minnesota of a black man, George Floyd, who died after a white police officer Derek Cauvin pressed his knee to Floyd’s neck for several minutes causing asphyxiation.
If Humvees with mounted turrets wasn’t enough to wet your police state whistle, a medical military helicopter was used to disperse protesters in D.C. as well, while the police on the ground kettled them and beat them. Even a CNN journalist was beat up by brutal riot cops. This all showcases that our First Amendment right to peaceful assembly is being threatened in many cases.
The incident occurred on Monday night after protesters failed to disperse during the curfew at the capitol at 7 p.m. EST. The helicopter flew low to the ground and was positioned just above those violating the curfew. The chopper sent gusts of dust and trash into the air near the demonstrators.
Supreme Court Urged To Rethink Legal Immunity For Police Officers Amid Floyd Protests
Daily Caller – The Supreme Court is weighing petitions to reexamine legal immunity that protects officers from being sued in instances of brutal arrests, use of excessive force and the shooting of innocent people in their homes.
The call for reassessment comes during nationwide protests of police brutality, the most recent instance being the death of George Floyd. Floyd died on May 25 after a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, video of the incident shows.
Supreme Court decisions over the past ten years have made it relatively impractical for victims to sue police officers for cruel treatment or wrongful death, both Democrats and Republicans have chastised the judgement, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The court doctrine created “qualified immunity” for police officers facing civil lawsuits, which has led to officers rarely held accountable for abusing authority or being charged for crimes, the LA Times reported.
Democratic Sens. Cory Booker of New Jersey, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Chris Van Hollen of Maryland and Bernie Sanders of Vermont introduced a resolution recognizing legal and racial inequalities in application to law enforcement officers.
The resolution states that the statute of qualified immunity is a “mistaken judicial interpretation” of the statute, and that to correct the misinterpretation Congress needs to make an amendment which eliminates the qualified immunity defense for law officers.
The “qualified immunity” doctrine has led to no compensation for victims of crimes committed by police, the LA Times reported. Appeals have been filed by many victims imploring the justices to allow their claims to go before a jury, and the courts are considering their cases.
St. Louis Police Chief Breaks Down Over Violence of Riots: ‘Can We Make Some Sense Out of This?’
Western Journal – Those left in the wake of the violence perpetrated by rioters who claim to be protesting the death of George Floyd are left visibly shaken by their experiences.
And St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Chief John Hayden is among those heartbroken by tragedies suffered as a result of the riots.
Early Tuesday morning, not long after four of his officers were shot amid the violence engulfing the city, Hayden tried to make sense of it all.“Some coward fired shots at officers and now we have four in the hospital but thankfully, and thank God, they’re alive,” he told local media.
Hayden began to cry as he tried to continue.
“Can we make some sense out of this? Can we make some sense out of this? That’s all I’m trying to say,” he said.
According to KSDK, two of the officers were shot in the leg, one was shot in the foot and the fourth was shot in the arm. Each of them has been released from the hospital.
Rioters also threw bottles, rocks and fireworks, some of which exploded on officers, at law enforcement personnel.
Hayden went on to describe how disturbed he was that many of these rioters were gleefully “jumping up and down,” “high-fiving each other” and “flourishing pistols.”
Florida Supreme Court rules against assault weapons ban amendment
Washington Examiner – The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday knocked a proposed constitutional amendment to ban possession of “assault-style weapons” from a prospective berth on the 2022 ballot.
In a 4-1 decision, the court ruled Ban Assault Weapons NOW’s 75-word ballot summary “affirmatively misleads voters” by contradicting broader text in the proposed amendment.
“Specifically, the next-to-last sentence of the ballot summary informs voters the initiative ‘exempts and requires registration of assault weapons lawfully possessed prior to this provision’s effective date’ when, in fact, the initiative does no such thing,” the majority opinion said. “Contrary to the ballot summary, the initiative’s text exempts only ‘the person’s,’ meaning the current owner’s, possession of that assault weapon.”
Floridians will vote on six proposed constitutional amendments in November:
Joe Biden: ‘10 to 15 Percent’ of Americans Are ‘Not Very Good People’
Breitbart – Presumptive Democrat presidential nominee Joe Biden claimed Thursday night most Americans were good people who see improvement as a possibility for the nation, while lamenting “there are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people.”
The former vice president delivered his character analysis of some 50 million Americans during remarks in an online event carried by “The Shade Room” and moderated by actor Don Cheadle.
Biden spoke about race and plans for a Biden administration to push for racial equity in office. He accused President Donald Trump of dividing the country while pledging that, as president, he would unify and heal.
“The words a president says matter, so when a president stands up and divides people all the time, you’re going to get the worst of us to come out,” Biden said during the exchange.
“Do we really think this is as good as we can be as a nation? I don’t think the vast majority of people think that,” he continued. “There are probably anywhere from 10 to 15 percent of the people out there that are just not very good people, but that’s not who we are. The vast majority of the people are decent, and we have to appeal to that and we have to unite people — bring them together. Bring them together.”
His thoughts echoed those of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 dismissal of “half of Trump’s supporters” as bigoted “deplorables” which subsequently became one of the most remembered quotes of her failed campaign.
Biden’s claim to be a peacemaker came just 24 hours after said he “won’t traffic in fear and division” in the wake of protests over the death of George Floyd.
“I won’t fan the flames of hate,” he claimed, as Breitbart News reported.
Nutcase Maxine Waters Argues That The Term ‘Rioting’ Is Racist
Infowars – In the wake of inner city looting and rioting across America, including destruction of people’s businesses and property, as well as violence against police and everyday Americans, Democratic rep. Maxine Waters has decreed that the use of the term ‘rioting’ is racist.
In an interview with The Cut, Waters seriously contended that the term “rioting” constitutes “negative language used far too often in a description of black people by folks who fundamentally don’t see black people the same way they see whites and others.”
“A lot of negative language gets used against black people, describing what whites often believe is true about us: that language includes ‘lazy,’ ‘criminal,’ and ‘rioting,’” Waters added.
Waters explained that she prefers to label the rioting as “insurrection”.
“I said ‘insurrection’. People acting out of frustration and hopelessness and understanding that they don’t have an establishment — political or otherwise — that really cared about their ability to work or have good health care. Yes, I choose to call it an insurrection.” Waters declares.
Economy & Business
Tech Billionaires Aiming at a Global Currency
Mercola – Google, Gates and the Rockefeller Foundation announced the formation of Mojaloop, which is open-source software designed to be used for financial transactions.
The technology is modeled after M-Pesa from Nigeria, which has been successful since 2007. Mojaloop is intended to be managed by governments or financial authorities.
Ripple, a payment cryptocurrency and platform currently used by some banks, will be the foundation of payment processing for Mojaloop.
How closely Mojaloop will adhere to the inherent privacy in cryptocurrency transactions remains to be seen
Pence says jobs report indicative of U.S. economy beginning to recover
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said the jobs report released on Friday was a sign the U.S. economy was beginning to recover from the deep hit caused by the novel coronavirus outbreak, but said President Donald Trump is still in favor of a payroll tax cut.
BUST: Food bank demand remains high
Reuters – One was a nurse, another a retiree. Others had recently lost jobs with an insurance company and a country club.
On a humid day last week, in the parking lot of this Long Island town’s largest park, they had a common bond. Each was making their first visit to a food bank to help cope with hardships arising from the coronavirus outbreak.
“I’m hungry. That’s why I’m here,” said Marcia Duckley, a mother of four children ages 4 through 17 who lost her hotel job this year. “It never crossed my mind before that I’d be doing this.”
Duckley, who came to the United States 30 years ago from Jamaica, said she has recently been feeding her children meals of flour dumplings with butter – plus an occasional treat of water flavored with sugar.
“They say, ‘Mom, when are you going back to work?’” she said through an open window as she edged her car slowly forward.
The scene in Valley Stream, a community of 37,000 in the Nassau County suburbs just east of New York City, has been replicated nationwide during a 10-week stretch in which 42 million Americans have applied for unemployment benefits. Long lines of cars, sometimes numbering in the thousands, backed up while their occupants wait — sometimes for hours — for the chance to take home a free batch of food.
Energy & Environment
Yellowstone hit by 300 quakes in month
Forbes – In a year marked with a worldwide pandemic and protests about police brutality and racial inequality, the cherry on top of an annus horribilis would be a cataclysmic supervolcano eruption.
Nearly 300 earthquakes were centered in Yellowstone National Park last month, the largest with a 3.1 magnitude, according to the monthly update from the U.S. Geological Survey.
That may sound worrisome, considering that the park sits on top of a supervolcano. But a new study published in the journal Geology suggests that we don’t need to worry about the Yellowstone hotspot blowing its lid anytime soon.
Yellowstone is famous for sitting on top of a “hotspot” of molten rock that bubbles up from deep within the planet, fueling the park’s famous geysers, mudpots, fumaroles and hot springs. The 288 earthquakes that occurred in May — in three bursts known as swarms — along with the continued eruptions of Steamboat Geyser in Norris Basin, are proof that the park is very seismically active.
Science & Technology
Ancient Explosion at Milky Way’s Centre ‘Lit Up’ Gas in Satellite Galaxies, Scientists Say
Sputnik – The researchers described the explosion as a “cataclysmic event” which helped them understand how “different regions of the galaxy are linked”.
Astronomers operating NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope continue to study the remains of a massive explosion that rocked the very heart of our galaxy some 3.5 million years ago, sending ripples across the universe, space.com reports.
According to the media outlet, the new study established that the explosion, which occurred when supermassive black hole known as Sagittarius A* unleashing “massive amount of energy”, ended up illuminating gas associated with two satellite galaxies – the Large Magellanic Cloud and the Small Magellanic Cloud.
Scientists Use Gene-targeting Breakthrough Against COVID-19 Cells With CRISPR Tool Called ‘PAC-MAN’
We might soon be saying, it’s PAC-MAN to the rescue in the coronavirus pandemic.
Scientists from Stanford University have found the perfect partners to work on a gene-targeting, antiviral agent against COVID-19, after teaming up with researchers at the Molecular Foundry, a nanoscience user facility located at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab).
Last year, Stanley Qi, an assistant professor in the departments of bioengineering, and chemical and systems biology, at Stanford University and his team had begun working on a technique called PAC-MAN—or Prophylactic Antiviral CRISPR in human cells—that uses the gene-editing tool CRISPR to fight influenza.
Qi said that the key challenge to translating PAC-MAN from a molecular tool into an anti-COVID-19 therapy is finding an effective way to deliver it into lung cells. When SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus that causes COVID-19, invades the lungs, the air sacs in an infected person can become inflamed and fill with fluid, hijacking a patient’s ability to breathe.
“But my lab doesn’t work on delivery methods,” he said. So on March 14, they published a preprint of their paper, and even tweeted, in the hopes of catching the eye of a potential collaborator with expertise in cellular delivery techniques.
Health
Quarantea — Health Benefits of Drinking Tea in Crisis
Mercola – During coronavirus shutdowns, tea, sometimes called “quarantea,” is a soothing, relaxing and reinvigorating drink that is bringing families together.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, tea is becoming a more popular beverage than milk, fruit juices and soda.
Tea has been found in scientific studies to reduce or relieve depression without dangerous and harsh antidepressant drugs.
Research has found tea lessens anxiety and improves cognition.
Tea drinking can improve heart, liver and brain health, bone mineral density and weight control and can support healthy blood pressure
Good News
South Korea Sends 10K Masks to Navajo Nation to Honor Their Service as ‘Code Talkers’ During Korean War
Good News Network – When the South Korean government realized that the Navajo Nation had been suffered infection rates of COVID-19 rivaling that of New York City, it shipped them 10,000 masks and other PPE to honor their service seven decades years ago to the East-Asian nation.
During the Korean War around 800 members of the Navajo Nation used their native language as an unbreakable code for radio messages, ensuring complete secrecy around any military movements by the United States, an ally to South Korea.
While this little-known story in the famous ‘police action’ that was the Korean War often goes untold, the South Koreans have never forgotten the Native American contributions.
According to the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs in South Korea, around 130 of these “Code Talkers” are still alive today.
“We hope our small gifts will console the veterans in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis,” said committee co-chairman Kim Eun-gi.
“The government remembers those who made a noble sacrifice to defend a strange country 70 years ago, and we hope they will proudly tell their posterity about the choice they made so many years ago.”
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