World News
Tanzanian President Who Was Skeptical of Western Vaccines DEAD After Missing for Two Weeks
Health Impact News – It is being reported today that Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, has died after being missing for more than two weeks.
The President’s death was announced today by the country’s vice-president Samia Suluhu, who said the president died of heart failure. He was 61.
About two weeks ago Health Impact News published an article that was written by Rishma Parpia of The Vaccine Reaction reporting that both President John Magufuli, and his health minister, Dorothy Gwajima, had announced that their country has no plans in place to recommend widespread use of COVID-19 vaccines in the African country.
On Feb 2, 2021, Tanzania’s health minister, Dorothy Gwajima, announced that her country has no plans in place to recommend widespread use of COVID-19 vaccines in the African country.
The announcement came a few days after Tanzania’s President John Magufuli expressed concern about the safety and effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines developed and manufactured in Western countries.
President Magufuli said that the health ministry will only accept COVID-19 vaccines after Tanzania’s experts have examined and certified them. Health Minister Dorothy Gwajima explained,
“We are not yet satisfied that those vaccines have been clinically proven safe.”
President Magufuli reiterated that he will not allow Tanzanians to be used as guinea pigs in COVID-19 vaccine trials conducted by vaccine manufacturers. He warned that COVID-19 vaccines could be harmful and has been urging Tanzanians to stop living in fear and adopt common sense disease control measures and lead a healthy lifestyle. Health Minister Gwajima said:
We must improve our personal hygiene, wash hands with running water and soap, use handkerchiefs, herbal steam, exercise, eat nutritious food, drink plenty of water, and [use] natural remedies that our nation is endowed with.
See:
Almost immediately after this article was published, President Magufuli disappeared from public life.
Last week, Kit Knightly, writing for Off-Guardian, wrote an article titled: Tanzania – The second Covid coup?
Government Drops Charges Against Jailed Canadian Pastor, Lawyer Says
Faithwire – The Canadian pastor imprisoned for violating COVID-19 mandates put in place by the government will likely be released from jail this week, his attorneys announced Wednesday.
GraceLife Church Pastor James Coates has been behind bars since Feb. 16, when he was arrested by officers with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for holding in-person worship services in violation of Edmonton, Alberta, health orders demanding he limit attendance to just 15% of the facility’s total capacity.
Attorneys with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Rights, which is representing Coates, announced prosecutors “have agreed to withdraw all but one of the Public Health Act offenses that Pastor James Coates has been charged with.” The organization noted Coates will be released from jail “without any conditions,” a change from mid-February, when the minister refused to sign a bail condition that required him to stop preaching unless he came into compliance with all government edicts.
Afghan Gov’t Preparing for Whatever Decision US Takes on Troop Pullout, Official Says
Sputnik – The Afghan government believes that only the United States can decide when to pull troops from the country and leave Kabul in charge of its own security, a senior presidential adviser told Sputnik on Thursday.
“We, as the Afghan government, are trying to make sure that we are on our feet, that our forces are defending out people. So, the decision of withdrawal is of the United States, not us,” Nader Nadery said in Moscow.
US President Joe Biden said Wednesday that the withdrawal could still happen by May 1 but warned that meeting the deadline would be “tough.” The Taliban militancy reacted by threatening the US with consequences if it failed to stick to the agreed timeline.
Nadery, an Afghan government negotiator at the Moscow conference on Afghan peace, noted that the US troop withdrawal was conditions-based. The US and NATO are considering whether conditions set in the Doha agreement have been met.
UK Warns EU There Will Be ‘Consequences’ to Breaking Law Over Vaccines Amid Export Row
Sputnik – The European Union and the United Kingdom are currently engaged in a bitter row over the export of coronavirus vaccines. Earlier this week, Brussels accused Britain of blocking the export of inoculations as the bloc struggles to get sufficient supplies to speed up its vaccination programme.
British Health Secretary Matt Hancock issued a stern warning to the European Union on Thursday, saying that Brussels must respect the law regarding COVID-19 vaccine supply contracts and that there would be consequences if the bloc acts “illegally.”
“There is of course a need for all countries to respect contract law… and I’m sure that the European Union will live up to the commitments and statements that it has made”, Hancock told politicians. “We fully expect those contracts to be delivered on, because there are very significant consequences to breaking contract law”.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab also addressed the threats, telling Reuters that he thinks the commission’s move “takes some explaining because the world’s watching”, adding that the move “also cuts across the direct assurances that we had” from EU authorities.
“We expect those assurances and legal, contracted supply to be respected”, the foreign secretary said.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Biden issues gag order on Border Patrol, does all he can to cover up illegal alien surge
American Thinker – oe Biden has triggered a massive border surge, with the latest stats showing 100,000 detentions in last month alone. Count the people who escaped detention, as much as 80% of them, according to this 2019 exploration of the issue from leftist Politifact, and the total is much, much, higher.
What’s old Joe who created this mess with his many invitations to illegals to come on in to do? Instead of warning of deportations, or vowing to yank amnesty, or promising new fences, or warning of prison, or something, his cowardly solution is to deny it.
Anybody notice that suddenly, there are no news pictures? No kids in cages, no human squalor, such as leaked out during the Obama administration, when Obama triggered a surge.
The Border Patrol, meanwhile, reports that it’s under gag orders from the White House. According to The Hill:
President Biden’s administration is preventing Border Patrol agents and sector chiefs from speaking to the media via an unofficial gag order passed down verbally, NBC reported Wednesday.
NBC reported that Border Patrol staff have been told to refer all media requests, even those from local outlets, to Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staffers in Washington and to deny all “ride-along” requests. The network attributed the information to officials who asked to remain anonymous.
NBC News had itself requested and was denied access to “overcrowded border processing facilities holding unaccompanied migrant children” according to its report.
No facility inspections, no interviews, no ridealongs for reporters? Every request for information to be processed with the bureaucrats in Washington, who are undoubtedly going to be too busy?
Biden says Russia’s Putin will ‘pay a price’ for election meddling
Yahoo – ‘We had a long talk, he and I… I know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me,’ Biden said.
President Joe Biden joined Good Morning America anchor George Stephanopoulos and discussed the COVID-19 vaccine, bringing American troops from Afghanistan, and potential action against Vladimir Putin.
During the interview that aired on Wednesday, Biden revealed he met with the Russian leader and discussed foreign meddling in the 2020 election. The men shared a phone call where POTUS claimed to have warned Putin of possible consequences.
“He will pay a price,” Biden said. “We had a long talk, he and I…know him relatively well. And the conversation started off, I said, ‘I know you and you know me. If I establish this occurred, then be prepared.”
Stephanopoulos then asked “So you know Vladimir Putin. You think he’s a killer?”
The president responded “I do.”
White House offers support for Dem backed immigration bills that include citizenship path, ahead of House vote
Fox – The White House offered its support for Democrat-backed immigration bills that include a path to citizenship, ahead of a vote in the House of Representatives on the pieces of legislation set for Thursday afternoon.
The House is set to vote on two immigration bills Thursday — one to provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrant youth, also known as “Dreamers,” and and a second to provide legal status to certain migrant agriculture workers.
“The Administration supports House passage of H.R. 6, the American Dream and Promise Act of 2021, which would provide a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrant youth, known as “Dreamers,” as well as individuals with Temporary Protected Status (TPS),” the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement Thursday.
“Americans recognize that our Nation is enriched by the contributions of immigrants,” OMB said, adding that the bill is a “critical milestone toward much-needed relief for the millions of undocumented individuals who call the United States home.”
The Dream Act legislation would allow conditional permanent resident status for 10 years to those who arrived in the United States illegally as a minor and those with deferred enforced departure (DED) status or temporary protected status (TPS). The immigrants would have to meet qualifying requirements, such as passing a background check and enrollment in or completion of certain educational programs.
New Jersey district pays $325K in Trump yearbook censorship
A New Jersey school district is paying $325,000 to a former New Jersey teacher who claimed she was forced to edit a Donald Trump T-shirt worn by a student in a yearbook photo
ABC – A New Jersey school district is paying $325,000 to a former New Jersey teacher who claimed she was forced to digitally edit a Donald Trump T-shirt worn by a student in a yearbook photo.
The Wall Township school board approved the settlement agreement with Susan Parsons on Tuesday, NJ Advance Media reported. The district made no admission of wrongdoing or liability. The money will be paid by the district’s insurance carrier.
Parsons was the high school’s yearbook adviser when she said a secretary acting on behalf of the principal ordered her in 2017 to remove “Trump Make America Great Again” and make it appear as if the student was wearing a plain navy blue T-shirt.
“That has to go,” the suit alleged Parsons was told.
Parsons, who said she voted for Trump in 2016, said she was made a scapegoat and received death threats. She was suspended with pay after the incident. She claimed she regularly complained about being forced to alter photos.
Parsons will receive about $204,000 and the remainder of the settlement will cover attorney fees, according to the agreement.
The school district reissued the yearbook with the original unaltered photo.
Postal Service: No evidence to support Pennsylvania worker’s fraud claims
The Hill – The U.S. Postal Service’s internal watchdog says there’s no evidence to support a Pennsylvania postal worker’s claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The conclusion was part of a report from the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) released on its website in late February regarding a claim from staffer Richard Hopkins accusing supervisors of telling workers to tamper with ballots that were mailed-in.
The Washington Post noted that the claim was also published to the blog 21st Century Postal Worker on Monday.
Hopkins allegedly “acknowledged that he had no evidence” of his claims when interviewed by the OIG’s investigators.
The claim garnered the attention of Republicans after the right-wing media organization Project Veritas posted a video of Hopkins accusing a postmaster of telling workers to backdate ballots that were mailed after Nov. 3 despite them being collected the day after or later.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), then chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called on the Department of Justice to investigate the claims after he said he received a sworn affidavit signed by Hawkins. Then-Attorney General William Barr also authorized the Justice Department to investigate allegations of voter fraud, though the agency later said it had found no evidence of substantial wrongdoing.
The House Oversight Committee later announced that Hopkins had recanted his claim after being interviewed by the Postal Service’s OIG, but didn’t explain why he signed a false affidavit.
Biden DHS Will Build Two New Migrant Detention Centers in Arizona, Texas
Breitbart – DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced plans to construct new migrant detention facilities in Arizona and Texas in a recent statement. Breitbart Texas has learned those facilities will be in Yuma, Arizona, and El Paso, Texas.
According to law enforcement sources, the facilities are intended to ease overcrowding at Border Patrol stations. The facilities will be constructed from the ground up and are similar in nature to the soft-sided facilities currently being constructed in Eagle Pass, Texas. These facilities will be managed and operated as processing centers by Border Patrol.
The rapid movement of materials and equipment seen recently at the construction site in Eagle Pass shows the administration is anticipating the influx to continue. Secretary Mayorkas says swift removals for some migrants under the Trump era CDC emergency COVID-19 order are still occurring in a statement released yesterday. Despite the message, the DHS plan to increase detention is likely a sign that the department recognizes the influx of unaccompanied children and migrant family units will continue–if not worsen.
Acknowledging the challenge is worsening, Mayorkas touches on the detention and transfer of unaccompanied migrant children left in Border Patrol custody for far longer than current law allows.
Economy & Business
Bitcoin Surges After Fed Signals Loose Monetary Policy
RT – The price of bitcoin continues to rise as investors opt for crypto assets in an effort to find shelter from the decline of the US dollar’s purchasing power.
The world’s most valuable cryptocurrency climbed 6% over the past 24 hours, trading at nearly $58,480 per token at 10:39 GMT.
Another daily surge has been reportedly evoked by the latest decision of the US Federal Reserve to keep interest rates close to zero at least through 2023. The move predictably caused deep concerns among crypto investors, bolstering the cryptocurrency’s appeal as a hedge against rising inflation.
Bonds Getting Blown Out – Rates Rising – Biden Already Set to Break “No Taxes Unless You Earn $400k+” Pledge – Will Propose $1 Trillion in New Taxes
Investment Watch – This could get ugly fast. Ten year yield just hit 1.75%
This could be the end of a 40 year bull market in bonds/40 year bear market in rates.
Philly Fed Explodes To Highest Since Interest Rates Were 14%
As a reminder, the mid to late ’70s were not a fun time for inflation and markets… and 10Y Yields were at 14%!!
New jobless claims surge to 770,000, Bureau of Labor reports
WND – The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims increased to 770,000 last week as the economy continued to suffer the effects of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics figure released Thursday represented an increase in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending March 6, when 725,000 new jobless claims were reported. That number was revised up from the 712,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.
Science & Technology
Autonomous Vehicles Will Automatically Stop For Police, Roll Down Windows And Unlock Doors
Activist Post – The National Institute of Justice, the RAND Corporation and the Police Executive Research Forum want to give law enforcement real-time access to autonomous vehicles.
Last month, this so-called expert panel identified 17 high-priority law enforcement needs for autonomous vehicles. And as you can imagine some of them are very disturbing.
Cybersecurity and Vehicle Communication Needs:
- Research on systems to enable law enforcement to identify a vehicle’s authorization to run in automated mode.
- Research on technology that enables law enforcement to communicate with vehicles in automated mode.
Allowing law enforcement access to a vehicle’s authorization is just a fancy way of saying they want backdoor access to an owner’s personal information.
If you thought license plate readers were invasive before, just wait until a year or two from now, when they send officers all kinds of personal information related to the vehicle’s owner[s].
Stakeholder Communication Needs:
- Surveys to identify the most useful data the autonomous vehicle industry can make available to law enforcement for investigations of crashes and other incidents.
Police working with auto manufacturers to help them identify which embedded telematic surveillance devices they should have access to is not about public safety: it’s about money.
As this Medium article explained, the real reason police want to be able to pull driverless vehicles over is so they can cite the owner[s] for any number of infractions.
Energy & Environment
Severe weather shifts into Southeast, bringing tornadoes, dangerous storms
Fox – Massive thunderstorms and devastating tornadoes slammed the Deep South and Gulf Coast on Wednesday, with tens of thousands losing power overnight.
Twisters tore through homes in Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana with just a handful of people reported injured and no deaths.
In Texas, storms brought strong winds that wrapped a boat around a telephone pole in Dallas and tornadoes shuttered dozens of schools, COVID-19 vaccination sites and downed power lines in Alabama.
More than 30,000 homes and businesses were without power in Mississippi and Alabama on Wednesday evening, and PowerOutage.us showed Thursday that more than 16,000 Alabamians were still in the dark by the morning.
Trees were felled and hail the size of baseballs was reported near the Alabama-Mississippi line, according to The Associated Press.
Health
After ‘rigorous scientific review’, UK drugs regulator says people should still get AstraZeneca Covid jab
RT – The UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has said there is no evidence that the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine is linked to blood clotting and no reason why it should not still be used against Covid-19.
The agency said on Thursday that it had conducted a “rigorous scientific review” of the vaccine’s use after reports in Europe of at least two deaths and blood-clotting incidents in a small number of people who received a dose of the AstraZeneca jab. It concluded, however, that the vaccine is safe and its continued use far outweighed any risk that might be associated with it.
In a statement, the MHRA said it is still carrying out a detailed review into five UK reports of a very rare and specific type of blood clot in veins in the brain, reported in less than one in a million people vaccinated so far in the UK. The condition “can also occur naturally in the absence of vaccination,” it noted.
Food Is Medicine: More Evidence
Alliance for Natural Health – A large study found that prenatal diets are linked to obesity in childhood. Action Alert!
A study of more than 16,000 mother-child pairs in seven European countries found that prenatal diets high in fruits and vegetables and low in refined carbohydrates and processed meat through pregnancy may help prevent childhood obesity. This study once again supports the notion that food is medicine. Federal rules undermine our ability to take advantage of the healing power of food and supplements. Help us reform this broken system.
The findings of the study are hardly earth-shattering: eat lots of fruits and vegetables, avoid pro-inflammatory foods like white bread, white rice, desserts, soft drinks, etc. But it speaks to the common-sense notion that that foods can help us be healthy and prevent disease. Yet in many instances we are blocked from learning about these benefits from our federal government.
We’ve written before about the federal government clamping down on cherry and walnut growers. Peer-reviewed research tells us that ingesting walnuts improves vascular health and may lower the risk of heart attack; research also tells us that cherries reduce inflammation and pain. Yet when cherry and walnut companies cite these benefits using university studies, the FDA sent warning letters threatening legal penalties and jail time if this truthful dissemination of scientific research did not stop immediately. Why? Because only FDA-approved drugs can claim to treat or prevent disease.
It’s no secret that our country is in the midst of an epidemic of chronic disease. In the last two decades, the prevalence of chronic disease has grown by seven to eight million people every five years; today chronic disease affects 50% of the US population and accounts for more than 85% of healthcare costs. Communities of color suffer the most, being twice as likely to suffer from a chronic disease than non-Hispanic whites.
One way to address this epidemic is to arm Americans with the information to take care of their own health using the healing power of food and supplements. Legislation ANH is proposing would tackle this head-on by allowing food and supplement companies to cite reputable studies about the benefits of these products. This will allow us to take control of our own health to prevent disease and reduce the need for a lifetime of disease management and expensive pharmaceutical drugs. We’ve already sent 1.2 million messages to lawmakers in support of this fix; we need your help to sustain this momentum.
GE Salmon Coming
Alliance for Natural Health – AquaBounty, the purveyor of the genetically engineered (GE) salmon, said the fish could reach store shelves by April of 2021. Action Alert!
In a recent online press conference, a chief executive for AquaBounty said that its genetically engineered salmon would be on sale to the US public in April, adding that seven out of ten consumers might buy GE salmon, presumably once they learned more about it. This underscores the necessity of passing into law legislation that mandates the labeling of these fish telling us that they are GE.
The GE AquAdvantage salmon is a descendant of the Atlantic salmon; the Atlantic salmon’s growth hormone-regulating gene has been replaced with the Pacific Chinook salmon’s gene, with an additional sequence from ocean pout. This genetic change enables the AquAdvantage salmon to grow year-round rather than just in the spring and the summer.
Note that, due to the sham GE food labeling law that Congress passed, the GE salmon would not be required to have clear labeling that it was genetically altered.
The sale and production of GE salmon makes the issue of transgenic contamination—when GE species contaminate non-GE plants or animals—even worse. This has already cost farmers millions of dollars over the years when organic crops are contaminated by GE crops. We recently reported on a case in which the court ruled that the FDA violated environmental laws in approving genetically engineered (GE) salmon.
The court’s ruling, however, does not seem to substantially threaten AquaBounty’s plans to sell the salmon. The company’s chief executive said after the ruling, “This case did not call into question FDA’s approval regarding the health and safety of our AquAdvantage salmon. The focus of this decision was on the potential environmental impacts, and the judge confirmed the ‘low’ threat to the environment of our salmon,” and that the “decision will not have an impact on our on-going operations.”
Major retailers (Safeway, Target, Trader Joe’s, and Whole Foods, to name just a few) pledged years ago not to carry the GE salmon. We will see if that pledge holds when the rubber meets the road.
There are a number of bills in Congress that would require clear labeling of genetically engineered salmon, among other things:
- HR 270 requires any genetically modified salmon to include the words “genetically engineered” or “GE” prior to the market name.
- HR 271 requires any food that contains genetically engineered fish to bear a label stating that the food contains genetically engineered fish.
- HR 273 prohibits a person from shipping, transporting, offering for sale, selling, or purchasing a genetically altered finfish (e.g., salmon), or a food product containing those fish, in commerce, among other provisions.
Cronyism is at the center of this: Congress, in passing the sham labeling bill completely caved to Big Food, which has a vested interest in keeping Americans in the dark about the contents of food. We must ensure that GE salmon is properly labeled.
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