Today's News: August 03, 2020

World News

Victoria announces stage four coronavirus lockdown restrictions including overnight curfew

The Guardian – Premier Daniel Andrews has announced tougher rules, including a limit of travelling 5km for shopping and exercise, in an attempt to contain rising community transmission.
Melbourne residents will be subject to an overnight curfew for the next six weeks, and be banned from travelling more than 5km to go shopping or to exercise, as Victoria attempts to get the number of new coronavirus cases under control.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, announced that from 6pm on Sunday, residents in the Melbourne metropolitan area would be under curfew for six weeks until 13 September.
Andrews also declared a state of disaster in Victoria for the first time since the bushfires earlier this year.
Under the new restrictions, people would only be able to leave their home once a day for essential supplies and food, and once for one hour of exercise, within a 5km radius.
“We can no longer have people simply out and about for no good reason whatsoever. It is not an easy decision to make but it is necessary and that’s why I’ve made it and that’s why police will be out in force and you will be stopped and you will be asked and need to demonstrate that you are lawfully out and you are not breaching that curfew,” Andrews said on Sunday.
Between 8pm and 5am, people living in Melbourne will not be able to leave home except for work, medical care and caregiving.
People will still be able to visit their partners – including if it is further than 5km from home.
There is also an exception to the 5km rule if the nearest supermarket is further than 5km from home.
Golf and tennis venues, which were allowed to stay open in stage 3, will be closed again and people will no longer be allowed to exercise in groups larger than two, even for those living in the same household.
Regional Victoria will move to stage 3 restrictions from midnight on Wednesday.
Food and grocery stores will stay open, amid reports of people queuing up outside Coles and Woolworths outlets across the state.
On Sunday, Woolworths announced restrictions in Victoria on buying more than two of certain essential items, including dairy, meat, vegetables, fish and toilet paper.
Andrews said there was no need for people to be panic buying again.
The state of disaster declaration will empower the police minister, Lisa Neville, to appoint police as authorised officers. This means when doing spot checks on people’s homes, if the residents did not give permission for them to enter, police will be authorised to enter without a warrant.

Singapore to make travellers wear electronic tags to enforce quarantine

The devices will track wearers’ movements, and any attempt to leave home will trigger an alert to the authorities
Reuters – Singapore will make some incoming travellers wear an electronic monitoring device to ensure that they comply with coronavirus quarantines as the city-state gradually reopens its borders, authorities said on Monday.
From August 11, the devices will be given to incoming travellers, including citizens and residents, from a select group of countries who will be allowed to isolate at home rather than at a state-appointed facility.
Similar measures using electronic wristbands to track peoples’ movements during quarantine have been used in Hong Kong and South Korea.
Travellers to Singapore are required to activate the device, which use GPS and Bluetooth signals, upon reaching their home and will receive notifications on the device which they must acknowledge.
Any attempt to leave home or tamper with the device will trigger an alert to the authorities.
Hong Kong in March introduced a scheme for incoming travellers to use a slim electronic wristband, similar to a tag worn by hospital patients, to enforce quarantines for arriving passengers. South Korea has also used such wristbands connected to smartphone apps for those who violate quarantine.
Singapore, which has not given details on what the device will look like, said in a statement that it will not store any personal data and does not have any voice or video recording function.
Those aged 12 and below will not have to wear the devices.
The city-state, which is also planning to give all residents a wearable virus-tracing dongle, has tough punishments for breach of its quarantine and social distancing rules.
Under the Infectious Diseases Act, punishments can be fines of up to S$10,000 ($7,272) or imprisonment of up to six months, or both. It has also revoked the work passes of foreigners who flouted the rules.
Singapore has reported 52,825 coronavirus infections, mostly due to mass outbreaks in cramped migrant workers dormitories, but imported cases have been creeping up in recent days.

China retaliates after Trump closes consulate, threatens “real pain”

NaturalNews – In response to President Donald Trump’s ordered shutdown of the Chinese consulate in Houston, communist China has threatened major retaliation in the form of “real pain.”
According to China’s state-run Global Times paper, Trump’s closure of this facility is “reckless and dangerous,” and will soon result in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) taking retaliatory action against the United States.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin announced in an official statement that closing the Houston consulate represents a “political provocation unilaterally launched by the U.S. side” that “seriously violates international law.”
“As the U.S. flagrantly drums up stigmatization and fans hatred against China, our embassy in the U.S. recently has even received bomb and death threats on Chinese diplomatic missions and personnel in the U.S.,” Wang added.
Adding on to Wang’s statements, the Global Times urged the U.S. to “immediately correct its mistakes” by reopening the consulate, otherwise China “will make a legitimate and necessary response.”
The Global Times went on to claim that the U.S. has been attacking and “launching smear campaigns” against communist China for a while now, as well as “unreasonably” making “trouble” for staff members at Chinese consulates.
The impetus behind the closure was the revelation that several Chinese “researchers” who had worked or studied at the University of California, Davis were actually communist Chinese spies in disguise.
This led to Sen. Marco Rubio opening up a can of worms about the Chinese consulate in Houston, followed by President Trump taking immediate action in accordance with an ongoing investigation being conducted by the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

THE COMING INTERNET PURGE OF VACCINE RELATED TRUTH

By Jack Mullen – Richie Allen, a UK based alternative media radio show host explained that he had information from insiders at google/youtube saying a purge would take place just before Coronavirus (“plandemic”) vaccines were made ready to”plunge into the arms” of the people.
“I heard from him this morning. He told me two things. He said that when the covid vaccine is ready, or shortly before then, Google/YouTube is planning to takedown thousands of channels that have traditionally hosted open discussion around vaccine safety. They will do this he said, in tandem with Facebook and Twitter. According to him, discussions between all three have already taken place. He reckons it’ll be the biggest culling to date, of content creators and independent vloggers/commentators.” – Richie Allen Show Facebook Channel
Continuing Richie Allen was also told by the same people working for the enemy of Western Civilization, (ALPHABET/Google/Youtube) that his show would be removed from Youtube AND removed from Google’s search engine data – ie., delisted.
“This morning, my Google mate said that The RA Show is on a shortlist of programmes to not only be removed from YouTube (which I don’t care about at all), but also to be removed from Google search results too. He said the RA show replacement channel, which has 31,000 subs, has in reality many more, but they’re not being counted. Worse still he said, the viewing numbers are fixed so that less than one in ten views are shown. The point of this he went on, is to dissuade people from watching, people apparently being more inclined to watch content that’s showing hundreds of thousands of views.” – DITTO
Evil has crossed the Rubicon and is coming for us all. Generational psychopaths at the top of the power pyramid – those with the “all seeing eyes”, control compromised and mentally ill servants who are now carrying out orders and completing the final tasks of an ages-old plan to destroy the present world order and from it build a New World Order. The NWO is the creation of dark and demented malevolence; a world with much lower population – those remaining will toil away their lives as slaves of the deranged – themselves crowned(corona) gods of their own incestuous creation.
A Vaccine Holocaust (offering) is Being Made Ready
“Let me put it very clearly you have no constitutional right to endanger the public and spread the disease. Even if you disagree. You have no right not to be vaccinated. You have no right not to wear a mask. You have no right to open up your business… And if you refuse to be vaccinated, the state has the power to literally take you to a doctor’s office and plunge a needle into your arm….you have no right to refuse to be vaccinated against a contagious disease,public health, the police power of the Constitution, gives the state the power to compel that and there are cases in the United States Supreme Court.” -Alan Dershowitz, debate with Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
We have very little time to slow or stop the planned culling of American and Western civilization’s population.
Vaccines have never been shown to reduce incidence of “disease”.
Vaccineshave been shown to harm, maim and kill people.

New Jersey Assembly passes bill that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain professional licenses

Approved by the State Assembly, the bill would immediately take effect if signed by Gov. Murphy
Fox – New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy is expected to sign legislation passed in the State Assembly Thursday that would allow illegal immigrants to obtain professional and occupational licenses in the state, raising concerns about the supply of jobs during a pandemic.
Approved by the State Assembly, the bill would immediately take effect if signed by Murphy. The State Senate passed the bill last week. It would maintain all other requirements for licenses but allow immigrants to obtain them regardless of their status, NorthJersey.com reported.
Alyana Alfaro, a spokesperson for Murphy, told the outlet the governor “believes that immigrants are a critical part of the fabric of life in New Jersey, and that they should not face unnecessary barriers as they seek to participate in our society and economy.”
The bill would presumably open the floodgates for illegal immigrants to enter into a variety of professions — including as accountants, cosmetologists and pharmacists.

PROFESSOR CALLS FOR HALT TO ‘TERRORISING’ CORONAVIRUS REACTION BY ‘NARROW MINDED SCIENTIFIC ELITE’

“It is time for a sense of proportion.”
Infowars – A UK sociology professor has penned an impassioned editorial calling for governments to stop “terrorising” people with extreme reactionary measures in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, saying that a “sense of proportion” is desperately needed.
Writing in the Express, Robert Dingwall, professor of sociology at Nottingham Trent University, called the virus a “nasty infection” that “simply brought deaths forward be a few weeks”.
“Covid-19 has been linked to about 50,000 deaths in the first 16 weeks of the UK pandemic – but about 1,000 people normally die every week,” the professor urges.
“In the past five weeks, fewer than usual have died. Covid-19 simply bought deaths forward by a few weeks or months,” Dingwall adds, noting that over 80% of victims all had serious underlying conditions anyway.

MINNEAPOLIS AUTHORITIES WARN RESIDENTS ‘PREPARE’ TO BE ROBBED & OBEY CRIMINALS

“Do as they say.”
Infowars – Authorities in Minneapolis sent out a letter to residents telling them to ‘prepare’ to be robbed and to obey criminals following a recent surge in robberies and carjackings.
“Be prepared to give up your cell phone and purse/wallet,” states the email, which also says that if a resident encounters a criminal, they should “do as they say.”
The advisory comes off the back of over two months of rioting, protests and unrest following the death of George Floyd.
Minneapolis has experienced a 46% increase in carjackings and a 36% increase in robberies compared to this same time last year, while “Police in the city’s Third Precinct alone have received more than 100 reports of robberies and 20 reports of carjackings in just the last month,” reports Alpha News.
Minneapolis’ Congressional representative Ilhan Omar has also repeatedly called for the police force to be dismantled and replaced with an army of glorified social workers.
It appears as though authorities in the city have waved a white flag to criminals who will now be emboldened to target more victims who are less likely to put up any resistance.

Shakedown: BLM Demands Cut of Louisville Business Profits for Protection

Breitbart – Black Lives Matter (BLM) protesters issued “social justice” and “black liberation” demands regarding “diversity” to a restaurant owner in Louisville, KY, including a directive for “donations” to organizations run by non-whites.
Listed demands from a BLM affiliate in Louisville include racial quotas for staff and ownership of business suppliers, donations to organizations run by non-whites, and adjustment to dress codes. The posters used the acronym “BIPOC” (“black or indigenous persons of color”) as a euphemism for non-white persons:
c23% of Staff is BIPOC in Front of House
23% of inventory is from BIPOC retailer(s)
Regular donations to BIPOC organization
Dress code policy does not discriminate against BIPOC patrons of employees.
Additional demands issued via the letter included the option to give 1.5 percent of revenues to a local “black nonprofit or organization” in lieu of purchasing a minimum of 23 percent of the business’s inventory from “black retailers,” mandated “diversity and inclusion training” for all employees, and displaying of left-wing messaging to support “reparations.”
The posters include a stated commitment to be publicly visible as a public service announcement pending future “inspections” of restaurants and other businesses.
Three varieties of posters with the message, “YOU CAN’T STOP THE REVOLUTION,” were directed at restaurants in Louisville’s NuLu neighborhood with the grades A, C, and F according to a “NuLu Social Justice Health and Wellness Code.”
Posters with the C-grade declare, “A facility that fails two (2) consecutive regular inspections will be under administrative review.” Those with an F-grade include the following message, “[This] facility has failed to meet minimum requirements of the Nulu Social Justice Health and Wellness Code inspection. This includes [a] failure to create a safe space for black inclusion.”
The letter includes neo-Marxist assertions, decrying “gentrification” as a “process [that] has been happening to black, indigenous, and persons of color at the hands of white, heterosexual patriarchy since the inception of this nation we call home. Black folx [sic] can’t ‘have their own space’ when wealthy white folks see an opportunity to make more money.”
“Repercussions of non-compliance” are listed in the letter:

Reduction in Racial Index Score/bias report to the Better Business Bureau.
Social Media Blast: Notification, via all social media platforms, of non-compliance.
Boycott: Public boycott, coordinated through social media and mail announcements, of yours NuLu establishment AND any other business ventures owned by you.
Protest: Visible, media-covered demonstration/sit-in outside your establishment.
Invasive Reclamation: Placement of booths/tables outside your establishment where competing Black proprietors will offer items comparable to those offered by you.

Fernando Martinez, the owner of La Bodeguita de Mima, a restaurant serving Cuban cuisine, described Black Lives Matter’s demands as a Mafia-style shakedown. He characterized them as “Mafia tactics,” according to Courier-Journal, a Kentucky-based newspaper.
PJ Media reported on a public Facebook post from Martinez: “There comes a time in life that you have to make a stand and you have to really prove your convictions and what you believe in. … All good people need to denounce this. How can you [justify] injustice with more injustice?”
Local supporters and some from Louisville’s Cuban community held a rally to support Martinez’s restaurant on Sunday, which was vandalized in recent days. They said the restaurant “has been subject to vandalism and extortion in recent days.”

Deroy Murdock ‘horrified and disgusted’ by Kaepernick tweet denouncing July 4 holiday

Ex-NFL quarterback accused of spilling ‘hot acid across the whole nation’ on day of celebration
Fox – Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock told “The Story” Tuesday that he was “horrified and disgusted” by Colin Kaepernick‘s tweet denouncing the Fourth of July over the weekend.
“I was just horrified and disgusted that he would take this opportunity where we’re all trying to unify the country, trying to come together if at all possible,” Murdock told host Trace Gallagher.
The former San Francisco 49ers quarterback described the nation’s 244th birthday as a “celebration of white supremacy” in a Twitter message on Saturday.
Along with a video showing images of the Ku Klux Klan, police brutality, slavery and lynchings, Kaepernick wrote: “Black ppl have been dehumanized, brutalized, criminalized + terrorized by America for centuries, & are expected to join your commemoration of ‘independence’, while you enslaved our ancestors. We reject your celebration of white supremacy & look forward to liberation for all.”
“Everybody can enjoy the Fourth of July as long as you’re an American and you love this country,” Murdock explained. “You don’t have to belong to any particular race or sex … and he just spills this hot acid across the whole nation and creates another opportunity for us to engage in a screaming match.”

Columbia hosts ‘deconstructing whiteness’ workshop for ‘white-identified students’

Campus Reform – For weeks, Columbia University Health has been hosting Zoom workshops as part of a series titled “From Ally to Accomplice at Columbia: Working Group for Examining and Deconstructing Whiteness to Mitigate Racial Trauma.”
The weekly online “interactive curriculum,” which began July 7 and concludes Monday, is designed for “white-identified students” to “engage in exploration of their white identities and build community and accountability around deconstructing whiteness and white privilege to facilitate the development of an antiracist lens.”
“This virtual group aims to begin to equip students with the time, space, and skills for the self-reflection and processing of privilege that is necessary to meaningfully dismantle systems of racial oppression from a position that has privilege,” the university explained on its website.
In an email that was reportedly sent to Columbia University Law students, the department said that the workshop “will not be a support group for white students. Nor will it be comfortable or easy.”
“What it will be is a meaningful, challenging step for those who feel called in and ready to start taking their appropriate place in creating a more just Columbia community,” the email continued.
“There are numerous ways to address the issue of structural racism. This program is intended to engage students from a public health perspective,” Columbia Health Associate Director of Communications Gayle Gatchalian told Campus Reform. “The intent is to provide an alternative angle by which to tackle the issue.”
The department stated that the Zoom sessions had filled up following “overwhelming interest!”

Donald Trump rails against ‘illegal late night coup’ in Nevada that he claims will ‘steal’ the election amid warnings it will take a week or more to know whether he or Joe Biden is the winner in November

Daily Mail – President Donald Trump on Monday railed against what he called an ‘illegal late night coup’ in Nevada that he characterized as an attempt to ‘steal’ the election as pundits warn it could take a week or more to know November’s results thanks to mail-in voting.
Lawmakers in Nevada on Sunday passed a bill to have November’s vote be conducted by all mail-in ballots. The governor is expected to sign it, meaning Nevada will join several other states that have taken that option as a way to combat the coronavirus epidemic.
Trump and Republicans have warned that such moves will lead to voter fraud despite repeated studies that show that is not the case. The president decried Nevada’s move in a tweet Monday morning. The state is a critical one for November’s election.

Trump Threatens Legal Action After Nevada OKs Mail-In Voting

Sputnik – US President Donald Trump threatened on Monday to take legal action after the state of Nevada said it would mail all voters ballots so they can safely take part in the November presidential election amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“In an illegal late night coup, Nevada’s clubhouse Governor made it impossible for Republicans to win the state. Post Office could never handle the Traffic of Mail-In Votes without preparation. Using Covid to steal the state. See you in Court!” Trump said via Twitter.
Late Sunday, Nevada lawmakers approved a bill authorising mail-in voting in the state. If Governor Steve Sisolak signs the legislation, as expected, Nevada will join other states that plan to conduct voting by mail due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Republican Trump has repeatedly opposed plans to hold voting by mail to reduce the US population’s exposure to the novel coronavirus virus on election day.
Democrats have strongly supported the practice of mail voting, arguing that it will enfranchise large numbers of ethnic minorities and poor people who otherwise would not come to vote or be unable to do so.

Economy & Business

The Fed Is Planning To Send Money Directly To Americans In The Next Crisis

ZeroHedge – Over the past decade, the one common theme despite the political upheaval and growing social and geopolitical instability, was that the market would keep marching higher and the Fed would continue injecting liquidity into the system. The second common theme is that despite sparking unprecedented asset price inflation, price as measured across the broader economy (at least using the flawed CPI metric) would remain subdued (as a reminder, the Fed is desperate to ignite broad inflation as that is the only way the countless trillions of excess debt can be eliminated and yet it has so far failed to do so).
The Fed’s failure to reach its inflation target has sparked broad criticism from the economic establishment, even though as we showed in June, deflation is now a direct function of the Fed’s unconventional monetary policies as the lower yields slide, the lower the propensity to spend. In other words, the harder the Fed fights to stimulate inflation, the more deflation and more saving it spurs as a result (incidentally this is not the first time this “discovery” was made, in December we wrote “One Bank Makes A Stunning Discovery – The Fed’s Rate Cuts Are Now Deflationary“).
In short, ever since the Fed launched QE and NIRP, it has been making the situation it has been trying to “fix” even worse, all the while blowing a massive asset price bubble.
And having recently accepted that its preferred stimulus pathway has failed to boost the broader economy, the blame has fallen on how monetary policy is intermediated, specifically the way the Fed creates excess reserves which end up at commercial banks instead of “tricking down” all the way to the consumer level.
To be in the aftermath of the covid pandemic shutdowns the Fed has tried to short-circuit this process, and in conjunction with the Treasury it has launched “helicopter money” which has resulted in a direct transfer of funds to US corporations via PPP loans, as well as to end consumers via the emergency $600 weekly unemployment benefits which however are set to expire unless renewed by Congress as explained last week, as Democrats and Republicans feud over which fiscal stimulus will be implemented next.

Rhode Island Mails Tax Refund Checks Signed by Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney

Breitbart – Rhode Island state officials said a technical glitch was to blame for 176 tax refund checks being mailed out bearing the signatures of Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney.
Jade Borgeson, chief of staff for the Rhode Island Department of Revenue, confirmed the checks were mailed out this week with the signatures of Walt Disney and his most famous cartoon creation instead of Rhode Island General Treasurer Seth Magaziner and State Controller Peter Keenan.
“As a result of a technical error in the Division of Taxation’s automated refund check printing system, approximately 176 checks with invalid signature lines were printed and mailed to taxpayers on Monday,” Borgeson in a statement to WJAR-TV.
“The invalid signature lines were incorrectly sourced from the Division’s test print files,” she said.
Borgeson said most of the erroneous checks were corporate tax refunds.
“Corrected checks will be reissued to impacted taxpayers within one week,” she told WPRI-TV.

Delta flight turns around after 2 passengers refuse to wear coronavirus masks

The plane eventually made it to its destination
Fox – A Delta flight departing from Detroit had to turn around when customers refused to wear face masks amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“On July 23, Flight 1227 from Detroit to Atlanta returned to the gate following two customers who were non-compliant with crew instructions,” Delta confirmed to FOX Business. “After a short delay, the aircraft departed to Atlanta.”
The incident occurred as airlines are grappling with both reduced passenger numbers and passengers’ fears of contracting the virus in close quarters.

Fed official says another lockdown needed to save economy.

The Hill – The government should again impose strict coronavirus-related lockdowns for a month or longer across the U.S. in order to boost the economy, a top Federal Reserve official said Sunday.
Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, said the nation needs to control the spread of the virus, which is increasing across much of the country, to get back on a path to economic health.
“That’s the only way we’re really going to have a real robust economic recovery. Otherwise, we’re going to have flare-ups, lockdowns and a very halting recovery with many more job losses and many more bankruptcies for an extended period of time unfortunately,” Kashkari said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
To do so, he suggested strict shutdowns, which is contrary to what President Trump and many of his allies have been pushing in recent months as measures to aid the economy.
“I mean if we were to lock down really hard, I know I hate to even suggest it, people will be frustrated by it, but if we were to lock down hard for a month or six weeks, we could get the case count down so that our testing and our contact tracing was actually enough to control it the way that it’s happening in the Northeast right now,” Kashkari said. “They had a rocky start, but they’re doing a pretty good job right now.”
He warned the virus will spread throughout the country with flare-ups and local lockdowns for the “the next year or two,” causing more businesses to fail, without such measures.
“We’re going to see many, many more business bankruptcies, small businesses, big businesses, and that’s going to take a lot of time to recover from to rebuild those businesses and then to bring workers back in and re-engage them in the workforce. That’s going to be a much slower recovery for all of us,” Kashkari said.
He also said that Congress can afford large sums for coronavirus relief efforts, though Republican lawmakers are looking to lessen the amount of supplemental aid for unemployed Americans as part of the next relief bill.

Energy & Environment

Isaias strengthens slightly as it crawls up Florida coast

The National Hurricane Center said the storm strengthened slightly earlier in the evening with maximum sustained winds just under a Category 1 hurricane
Fox – Bands of heavy rain from Isaias lashed Florida’s east coast Sunday, with the tropical storm strengthening slightly in the evening on its way up the Eastern seabord.
Officials dealing with surging cases of the coronavirus in Florida kept a close watch on the storm that was weakened from a hurricane to a tropical storm Saturday afternoon, but still brought heavy rain and flooding to Florida’s Atlantic coast.
The National Hurricane Center advised at 8 p.m. EDT Sunday that the storm was about 55 miles off the east coast of Central Florida, and about 385 miles south of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
It strengthened slightly earlier in the evening with maximum sustained winds just under a Category 1 hurricane, taking a north-northwest path, according to the center.
“Don’t be fooled by the downgrade,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis warned at a news conference after the storm — pronounced ees-ah-EE-ahs — spent hours roughing up the Bahamas.
Upper-level winds took much of the strength out of Isaias, said Stacy Stewart, senior hurricane specialist at the hurricane center in Miami.
“We were expecting a hurricane to develop and it didn’t,” Stewart said Sunday. “It’s a tale of two storms. If you live on the west side of the storm, you didn’t get much. If you live east of the storm, there’s a lot of nasty weather there.”

Food security under threat – Study links dwindling bee populations to decreasing crop yields in America

NaturalNews – Bees may be tiny, but home gardeners and farmers rely on these hardworking insects for pollination. However, a recent study has found that crop yields in the U.S. are declining because of a lack of pollinators.
The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, has researchers from Rutgers University worried that the decline in bee populations may affect global food security.
Data from the study showed that pollination by both wild and managed insects is essential for the growth of most crops, particularly those that provide essential micronutrients. Pollination is also crucial for food security.
In America alone, the production of crops that depend on pollinators generates more than $50 billion annually. Unfortunately, recent findings show that populations of European honey bees (Apis mellifera) and some native wild bee species are dwindling.

Fires Are Raging in the Amazon—Again

Global Research – One year has passed since the world was shocked by the images of the fires blazing across the Amazon in Brazil. But since then, the forest hasn’t stopped burning —and 2020 could be even more devastating for the rainforest and the Indigenous Peoples who call it home. Last week, Greenpeace Brazil flew over the state of Mato Grosso to capture images of the Amazon. Even though the government had ordered a ban on forest fires in the state starting at the beginning of July, the photos show smoke, flames, and just how ineffective the ban has been.
Last year, more than 1 million hectares of forest were burned, and the trend shows the destruction is far from over. Last June, more than two thousand fire hotspots were registered in the Amazon, the highest number in the last thirteen years. Since Brazil’s President Bolsonaro took office in January 2019, his government’s agenda has been very clear: dismantle environmental protection law and agencies, so that forest destroyers can burn the forest freely, clearing the land to turn it into pastures, without being held accountable.
The consequences of this destruction are dire. From Siberia to the Amazon, fires are raging across the world. Losing our forests means losing the fight against the climate crisis, putting biodiversity at risk of extinction, and threatening the lives of Indigenous Peoples who depend on the forest standing for their survival. Fighting to protect the forest and Indigenous lands from fires and deforestation become even more difficult—and crucial —during a pandemic.

Science & Technology

Microsoft, TikTok officials in White House talks to prevent total ban

Trump is weighing his options and is expected to have an answer Monday or Tuesday
Fox – As Microsoft considers a buyout of social media app TikTok, officials from the big tech company and well as executives representing TikTok have been in discussions with the White House to prevent the Trump administration from issuing a complete ban of the app, FOX Business has learned.
Those discussions come as President Trump is poised to issue an order that could ban the app from being used in the U.S. over security concerns or allow a U.S.-based company to buy the outfit, pending a security review. A decision is expected either Monday or Tuesday, people close to the matter tell FOX Business.
Confirming talks between CEO Satya Nadella and Trump, Microsoft said Sunday it is prepared to continue discussions to purchase TikTok’s U.S. operations until Sept. 15.
“Microsoft fully appreciates the importance of addressing the President’s concerns,” the company said in a statement. “It is committed to acquiring TikTok subject to a complete security review and providing proper economic benefits to the United States, including the United States Treasury.”
The Trump administration has been weighing TikTok’s fate since last year, launching an investigation into the short video company amid fears that its Bejing-based parent ByteDance shares customer information with the Communist Chinese government.
As first reported by FOX Business, ByteDance entered into talks about a month ago with Microsoft to buy TikTok’s U.S. operations as a way to save the business from a decision by the administration that would prevent the popular app from being used by U.S. consumers.
Microsoft has not made a final decision on buying TikTok’s U.S. business, and even with a green light from the White House, it could still walk away, these people add. People close to TikTok say other potential U.S. suitors exist.
Over the weekend, as the administration weighed TikTok’s fate, two powerful GOP lawmakers, Sens. Marco Rubio of Florida and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina voiced support for the administration’s review of TikTok as well as for the Microsoft purchase as a way to allow TikTok’s 80 million U.S. users to continue to use the app.

Virgin Galactic debuts design of future Mach 3 high-speed aircraft, signs deal with Rolls-Royce

TechCrunch – Virgin Galactic is making strides towards its goal of creating high-speed commercial aircraft that operates a little closer to Earth than its existing passenger spacecraft. The company revealed the initial design of the commercial passenger airplane it’s creating that’s designed to fly at speeds in excess of Mach 3 – faster than the average cruising speed of around Mach 2 that the original Concorde achieved.
This concept design comes alongside a new partnership for Virgin Galactic, by way of a memorandum of understanding that the company signed with Rolls-Royce, one of the world’s leading aircraft engine makers. Rolls-Royce is also responsible for the engine of the Concorde, the only supersonic commercial aircraft ever used for passenger travel.
Virgin Galactic announced in May that it would be partnering with NASA to work towards high-speed, high altitude point-to-point travel for commercial airline passengers. The plan is to eventually create an aircraft that can fly above 60,000 feet (the cruising altitude of the Concorde) and carry between 9 and 19 people per fly, with a cabin essentially set up to provide each of those passengers with either Business or First Class-style seating and service. One other key element of the design is that it be powered by next-gen sustainable fuel for more ecological operation.

Health

There might never be a ‘silver bullet’ for Covid-19, WHO chief warns

RT – The World Health Organization has warned that, despite high hopes from ongoing vaccine-development efforts, there might never be a “silver bullet” to put an end to the Covid-19 virus.
According to The WHO’s Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stopping more coronavirus outbreaks for now comes down to “the basics of public health and disease control,”namely“testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts.” Ghebreyesus then specified that for individual people the most important things are social distancing, wearing a mask, washing their hands and being careful not to cough around others.
The DG shared his doubts during a Monday media briefing, saying that, although“we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines” there is still “no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be.”
He stressed that “it’s never too late to turn this Covid-19 pandemic around”, noting that several countries that previously had a high number of cases are now bringing their respective outbreaks under control.

Red Flags Soar As Big Pharma Will Be Exempt From COVID-19 Vaccine Liability Claims

ZeroHedge – Last week we warned readers to be cautious about new COVID-19 vaccines, highlighting how key parts of the clinical trials are being skipped as big pharma will not be held accountable for adverse side effects for administering the experimental drugs.
A senior executive from AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, told Reuters that his company was just granted protection from all legal action if the company’s vaccine led to damaging side effects.
“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in … four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” said Ruud Dobber, a top exec at AstraZeneca.
“In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries, it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest,” said Dobber, adding that Astra and regulators were making safety and tolerability a top priority.
AstraZeneca is one of the 25 pharmaceutical companies across the world, testing experimental drugs that could be used to combat the deadly virus. And, of course, if testing yields positive results, AstraZeneca could manufacture hundreds of millions of doses, with no legal recourse if side effects are seen.
European officials told Reuters that product liability was a significant discussion to secure new vaccine drugs from Pfizer, Sanofi, and Johnson & Johnson.
As for the US, well, when it comes to the legal framework around vaccines, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already has a law called the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which provides immunity to vaccine companies if something goes wrong.
With AstraZeneca, and many US big pharma companies rushing COVID-19 vaccines to market with governments granting them immunity if the vaccine has side effects, all suggest corporate elites and government regulators have very little faith in these drugs.
For more color on leading vaccines in development that produce “severe” side effects, read our latest piece titled “Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Induced Adverse Reactions In “More Than Half” Of Trial Participants.”
Maybe these rushed vaccines are more for optics, get consumers back into airplanes, hotels, resorts, and malls.
The major red flag is how governments are allowing big pharma to rush experimental vaccines, with no legal recourse if something goes terribly wrong.

The winged-stem passionflower can selectively kill cancer cells, says study

NaturalNews – Studies have described several plants that belong to the Passiflora (passionflower) genus as cytotoxic to cancer cells. These plants have also demonstrated impressive anti-tumor or chemopreventive properties. Notable examples include P. edulis (passion fruit), P. ligularis (sweet granadilla), P. incarnata (maypop) and P. tetrandra (New Zealand passionfruit).
Because of the rising cancer mortality rate and the increasing number of reports about the anticancer potential of Passiflora plants, Brazilian researchers decided to evaluate the cytotoxicity of different Passiflora species cultivated in Brazil. They also identified the mechanisms underlying the cytotoxicity of the most promising plant extract.
The researchers reported their findings in an article published in the Journal of Medicinal Plants Research.
The winged-stem passionflower selectively kills cancer cells
For their experiment, the researchers obtained extracts from the leaves of 14 Passiflora plants using ethanol as solvent. They then evaluated the in vitro toxicity of the extracts using MTT assay at a concentration of 50 mcg/mL.
The researchers also determined the half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the most cytotoxic leaf extract against different cancer cells (HCT-116, SF-295, OVACAR-8 and HL-60) and non-cancer cells (PBMC).
Among the tested extracts, the leaf extract from P. alata (winged-stem passionflower) showed the highest cytotoxicity (IC50 = 19.37 mcg/mL), followed by the extracts from P. capsularis (red granadilla) and P. quadrangularis (giant granadilla).
But while the winged-stem passionflower extract easily killed cancer cells, it did not have the same effect on PBMC, suggesting selectivity for cancer cells.
The researchers then used liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry to identify the chemical components of the winged-stem passionflower extract. They also performed morphological analyses, as well as cell cycle and DNA fragmentation analyses, to study the mechanism of cell death induced by the extract in HL-60 (human leukemia) cells.
The researchers linked the cytotoxicity of the winged-stem passionflower extract to the presence of several flavonoids, namely, vitexin, isovitexin, orientin, isorientin, 8-C-glucosyldiosmetin, 6-C-glucosyldiosmetin, 6-C-glucoronylvitexin and 8-C-glucoronylisovitexin. According to studies, these compounds are capable of inhibiting the proliferation of various types of cancer cells.
The cells treated with the winged-stem passionflower extract also showed hallmarks typical of apoptosis (programmed cell death) and necrosis (cell death caused by infections or toxins). The extract induced either by arresting the cell cycle arrest at the G2/M phase.
Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that the winged-stem passionflower can kill cancer cells through the synergistic actions of its flavonoid components.

Flavanols in grape seed have potential anti-obesity properties – study

NaturalNews – Eating fatty foods is associated with a lot of health problems. Studies show that people on a high-fat diet are more likely to sustain arterial damage, suffer from a heart attack and develop insulin resistance than people who eat healthy.
However, according to researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and The Ohio State University, the negative effects of a high-fat diet can be neutralized by supplementing with flavanols.
Flavanols are a class of active plant compounds known as flavonoids. Well-known flavanols, which are commonly found in plant-based foods, include catechin, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, gallocatechin and procyanidins. These compounds are all well-known for their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities.
In a recent study published in the journal Nutrition Research, researchers examined whether flavanols from grape seed and pine bark could protect mice from the negative consequences of a high-fat diet.
They found that, despite an increase in weight gain, flavanol supplementation prevented high-fat diet-induced inflammation. Inflammation is the body’s natural response to chronic overeating and is linked to the development of serious diseases, such as diabetes and certain types of cancer.
The mechanism behind the protective effects of flavanols
Weight gain and obesity are associated with increased levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines. Cytokines, such as interferons and interleukins, are signaling molecules released by immune cells that influence their behavior or the behavior of neighboring or distant cells. Cytokine production is a necessary part of many important processes, such as immune regulation and hematopoiesis — the development of mature red blood cells.
Following the ingestion of a high-fat diet, immune cells in the brain and other organs release pro-inflammatory cytokines that trigger inflammation. In the intestine, fatty foods also cause alterations in the gut microbiota that lead to chronic systemic inflammation. The activation of these inflammatory pathways eventually affects the ability of fat cells to get rid of circulating free fatty acids, which promotes obesity and increases the risk of complications, such as Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, atherosclerosis and cancer.
According to studies, dietary flavanols can reduce the severity of metabolic aberrations caused by a high-fat diet. The degree of polymerization of flavanols also appears to play a role in determining the extent of their protective effects.
To investigate these interactions, the researchers fed mice flavanol-rich grape seed or pine bark (35 mg/kg body weight) daily for 13 weeks together with a high-fat diet. They then compared these groups to mice fed a low-fat diet and mice fed a high-fat diet without flavanol supplementation (control).
The researchers found that the groups given grape seed and pine bark had significantly reduced levels of the pro-inflammatory cytokine, interleukin-6. The mice supplemented with grape seed — whose flavanols have a lower degree of polymerization than pine bark flavanols — had the lowest levels of interleukin-6, despite gaining the most weight. This suggests that low-dose flavanol supplementation, regardless of the degree of polymerization, can reduce high-fat diet-induced inflammation.
Based on these findings, the researchers concluded that flavanols in plant-based foods can be used to prevent inflammation linked to obesity and diabetes. They also believe that flavanol-induced hyperphagia (a strong desire to eat) may help attenuate cachexia, or weakness caused by severe chronic illness.
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Red Flags Soar as Big Pharma Will be Exempt from COVID-19 Vaccine Liability Claims

Global Research – Last week we warned readers to be cautious about new COVID-19 vaccines, highlighting how key parts of the clinical trials are being skipped as big pharma will not be held accountable for adverse side effects for administering the experimental drugs.
A senior executive from AstraZeneca, Britain’s second-largest drugmaker, told Reuters that his company was just granted protection from all legal action if the company’s vaccine led to damaging side effects.
“This is a unique situation where we as a company simply cannot take the risk if in … four years the vaccine is showing side effects,” said Ruud Dobber, a top exec at AstraZeneca.
“In the contracts we have in place, we are asking for indemnification. For most countries, it is acceptable to take that risk on their shoulders because it is in their national interest,” said Dobber, adding that Astra and regulators were making safety and tolerability a top priority.
AstraZeneca is one of the 25 pharmaceutical companies across the world, testing experimental drugs that could be used to combat the deadly virus. And, of course, if testing yields positive results, AstraZeneca could manufacture hundreds of millions of doses, with no legal recourse if side effects are seen.
European officials told Reuters that product liability was a significant discussion to secure new vaccine drugs from Pfizer, Sanofi, and Johnson & Johnson.
As for the US, well, when it comes to the legal framework around vaccines, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) already has a law called the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act, which provides immunity to vaccine companies if something goes wrong.
With AstraZeneca, and many US big pharma companies rushing COVID-19 vaccines to market with governments granting them immunity if the vaccine has side effects, all suggest corporate elites and government regulators have very little faith in these drugs.
For more color on leading vaccines in development that produce “severe” side effects, read our latest piece titled “Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine Induced Adverse Reactions In “More Than Half” Of Trial Participants.”
Maybe these rushed vaccines are more for optics, get consumers back into airplanes, hotels, resorts, and malls.
The major red flag is how governments are allowing big pharma to rush experimental vaccines, with no legal recourse if something goes terribly wrong.

Ohio reverses ban on hydroxychloroquine, now says medicine choices are between patient and doctor

NaturalNews – Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has ordered the Ohio Board of Pharmacy (OBP) to withdraw a rule preventing the prescription and use of hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) for treating the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19).
After receiving a barrage of support for the drug, which America’s Frontline Doctors’ (AFD) Dr. Stella Immanuel publicly announced helped cure more than 350 of her own patients, as well as at the request of Gov. DeWine, the OBP decided to withdraw a proposed rule that would have banned the controversial medication.
“Therefore, prohibitions on the prescribing of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine in Ohio for the treatment of COVID-19 will not take effect at this time,” the OBP announced.
Earlier in the week, Gov. DeWine indicated that he supports the position of FDA (Food and Drug Administration) commissioner Steven Hahn, who has publicly stated that he believes the decision to use HCQ – or any other medication or remedy, for that matter – should be between doctor and patient, and nobody else, despite the eventual outcome.
“I agree with the statement from Dr. Steven Hahn, Commissioner of @US_FDA, that the decision about prescribing hydroxychloroquine to treat #COVID19 should be between a doctor and a patient,” Gov. DeWine stated.
“Therefore, I am asking the Ohio Board of Pharmacy to halt their new rule prohibiting the selling or dispensing of hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19.”