Today's News: April 30, 2020

World News

Ireland to consider easing restrictions every 2 to 4 weeks

RT – A roadmap for gradually easing coronavirus restrictions in Ireland will lay out how changes will be made every two to four weeks, Acting Prime Minister Leo Varadkar said. The government will intervene earlier if things go off track, he added.

Taiwan Emerging From Pandemic With a Stronger Hand Against China

Bloomberg – Few governments around the world are likely to emerge from the pandemic with a stronger standing than before. Taiwan is one of them — and that’s not good for China.
Taiwan was forced to contain the outbreak without official help from the World Health Organization and other international bodies, thanks to China’s longstanding push to isolate the democratically ruled island that it claims as its territory. For weeks, leaders in Taipei struggled to evacuate residents from the virus epicenter in Wuhan, as Beijing rejected basic conditions such as having Taiwanese medical personnel aboard the aircraft.
Around the same time, the People’s Republic of China flew bombers and fighter jets around the island, prompting President Tsai Ing-Wen to scramble warplanes.
Despite those hurdles, Taiwan has led the world in its fight against the virus, with only about 400 infections and six deaths for a population of 23 million. By comparison, New York state — with slightly fewer people — had almost 300,000 cases and more than 22,000 deaths.

China says it ‘expelled’ U.S. Navy vessel from South Sea

NBC – China’s military has said it “expelled” a U.S. navy vessel from the hotly contested waters of the South China Sea this week. It said the “USS Barry” had illegally entered China’s Xisha territorial waters on Tuesday.
China’s Southern Theater army command “organized sea and air forces to track, monitor, verify, and identify the U.S. ships throughout the journey, and warned and expelled them,” said Chinese military spokesperson Li Huamin, in a statement.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

Report: Dr Fauci Backed Wuhan Lab Doing ‘Crazy’ Coronavirus Research

Infowars – Newsweek has highlighted that the Chinese scientists who were said to have been doing ‘crazy’ things with coronavirus in the Wuhan Institute of Virology, were funded by the White House senior health advisor Dr Anthony Fauci just last year.
The report notes that in 2019 Fauci, as head of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), backed the National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding commitment of $3.7 million for a further six years of research on bat coronaviruses in the Chinese lab.
The report also noted that the research outline included manipulating viruses in the lab in order to gauge the potential for infection in humans.
The funding, which has now been halted by the Trump administration, was in addition to the previous $3.7 million provided to the Chinese lab between 2014-2019.
Therefore, a total of $7.4 million had been provided for the Chinese coronavirus research, according to the report.

FBI official questioned whether goal of Flynn interview was ‘to get him to lie’

Daily Caller – FBI notes unsealed on Wednesday show that bureau officials discussed whether the goal of an interview with Michael Flynn just days into the Trump administration was “to get him to lie” in order to get him fired or in legal jeopardy, Flynn’s lawyers say.
“What is our goal? Truth/Admission or to get him to lie so we can prosecute him or get him fired?” an FBI official wrote in the notes, according to a transcription from Flynn’s attorneys.

‘Dirty cop Comey got caught!’: Trump unloads on FBI after documents reveal effort to set up General Flynn

RT – President Donald Trump has bashed former FBI Director James Comey, after unsealed documents revealed an agency plot to entrap Gen. Michael Flynn in a bid to take down the Trump presidency.

Fmr AG Jeff Sessions: Vote-by-Mail a ‘Huge Threat to Democracy’ — ‘They’ll Pass This Over My Dead Political Body’

Breitbart – Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions argues if the push to use federal power to require voting by mail as an election offering is successful, it could threaten democracy in the United States.
During a telephone town hall with the Tuscaloosa County, AL Republican Party, Sessions, a candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, explained how changing the election process would be a deviation from American traditions

Report: New York Nursing Home Let Coronavirus-infected Staff Treat Residents

Breitbart – New York State officials allowed nursing home employees infected with coronavirus to continue to work and to treat residents at the Hornell Gardens facility in rural Steuben County, according to a New York Post report.

Georgia governor suspends road test requirement for driver’s licenses

CNN – New Georgia drivers will not be required to take a road test in order to get their license.
Gov. Brian Kemp announced in his most recent executive order that — provided they meet all other requirements — those holding instructional permits can qualify for their licenses without the “comprehensive on-the-road driving test.”
That means teens can get their license when they turn 16 without getting in a car with a test administrator.
The change is in effect until the expiration of the state’s Public Health State of Emergency, which Kemp has extended to May 13.

Economy & Business

Beef Prices Soar to Record High as Meatpacking Plants Shutter

Zerohedge – The surge in beef prices comes at a time when the nation’s food supply chain network has been severely damaged by meatpacking plants going offline due to virus-related shutdowns and worker shortage.
Soaring food inflation came one day after President Trump said he would be issuing an executive order to address meat shortages.
“Because of the virus, meat slaughtering is 40% below where it needs to be to handle all of the animals coming to market, said Arlan Suderman,” chief commodities economist at INTL FCStone.
“Processing plants were generally in favor of the executive order that would give them liability cover when reopening,” Suderman said. “Yet, the order still does not solve the problem of employee absenteeism.” At least 20 workers in meat and food processing have died and 5,000 have tested positive or forced to self-quarantine due to coronavirus, according to the United Food and Commercial Workers International union.
Just days ago, Tyson Foods warned in a full-page ad in the New York Times on Sunday that the “food supply chain is breaking.”
And with tens of millions of Americans out of work, a crashed economy that is plunging into depression, and rapid food inflation — this could all suggest that the evolution of the virus crisis is not just an economic crisis but also social instabilities are ahead.

U.S. states grapple with reopening as virus forces millions more jobless claims

Reuters – More than two dozen U.S. states moved ahead with plans to relax restrictions on business and social life, hoping to reverse the economic blows of the coronavirus that led to another 3.89 million Americans filing jobs claims last week.

Science & Technology

Trump calls newly released UFO footage ‘a hell of a video’

CNN – President Donald Trump on Wednesday called footage from the Pentagon showing “unidentified aerial phenomena” a “hell of a video” and told Reuters he wonders “if it’s real.”
Earlier this week, the Pentagon officially released three videos that show what appear to be unidentified flying objects rapidly moving while recorded by infrared cameras. Two of the videos contain service members reacting in awe at how quickly the objects are moving. One voice speculates that it could be a drone.
“I just wonder if it’s real,” Trump said of the videos. “That’s a hell of a video.”
The Navy had acknowledged the veracity of the videos — which had been previously released by a private company — in September. They officially released them this week “in order to clear up any misconceptions by the public on whether or not the footage that has been circulating was real, or whether or not there is more to the videos,” according to Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gough.
In 2017, one of the pilots who saw one of the unidentified objects in 2004 told CNN that it moved in ways he couldn’t explain.
“As I got close to it … it rapidly accelerated to the south, and disappeared in less than two seconds,” said retired US Navy pilot David Fravor.
Trump, who has often spread conspiracy theories, is skeptical of UFOs. In an interview with ABC News last year, the President said he’d had a meeting on the subject, but that he’s skeptical the fast-moving objects are anything extraterrestrial.
“I did have one very brief meeting on it,” he said in the interview. “But people are saying they’re seeing UFOs. Do I believe it? Not particularly.”

Even WITH Social Distancing, Pets Can Be Affected by 5G, WiFi, and Other Sources of “Electrosmog”

Activist Post – Because more incidents of animals testing positive for the coronavirus have been reported, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has extended social distancing guidelines for them too.
From the New York Post:
Now even dogs have to roll over for the coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is telling pet owners that their furry family members need to follow the same social-distancing rules as everyone else during the COVID-19 pandemic — including keeping away from their other four-legged friends.
“Treat pets as you would other human family members — do not let pets interact with people or animals outside the household,” the agency said in an advisory. “If a person inside the household becomes sick, isolate that person from everyone else, including pets.”
The organization is also advising pet owners to avoid dog parks or public places where a large number of people and dogs gather.
The advice comes after reports of animals becoming infected after having contact with a person with the virus.
Read full article

Health

Huge Financial Incentive For Doctors And Hospitals To Diagnose All Illnesses As COVID-19

Dr. Leonard Coldwell – Last week, Minnesota State Senator Scott Jensen, MD, told Fox News that Medicare pays $13,000 to hospitals for COVID-19 admissions and $39,000 if they are placed on ventilators.
In a followup interview with Jon Rappoport, Dr. Jensen says the money is a one-time lump-sum payment, and some hospitals have a pay-share plan with their staff doctors, which means there is strong incentive to call everything COVID-19. Since these single, are lump-sum payments, treating a patient with one 30-minute session produces as much revenue as treating the same patient twenty or more over many days. Therefore, it is incredibly profitable to diagnose those with very light symptoms as COVID-19, give them 30 minutes on a ventilator, send them home, hook up the next patient for 30 minutes, and so-on. [The word racket comes to mind, but that is too gentle. The criminality is much greater that. A New York ER doctor, Cameron Kyle-Sidell, says that, in some cases, ventilators actually cause injury and death because of the mechanical pressure they create on the lungs. See his comments in the first video below – and also check out the response from Dr, Jason Sonners in the second video. This is critically important information.] -GEG

Study: E-Cigarettes as Bad for Arteries as Regular Cigarettes

Newsmax – Electronic cigarettes are touted by some as safer than smoking tobacco. But a new study finds they damage blood vessels just like traditional cigarettes do.