Today’s News: December 10, 2020

World News

German state agreed on the forced ‘hospital admission’ of citizens who stubbornly refuse quarantine

ZeroHedge  – According to recent reports, the first federal state in Germany has agreed on forced admissions of citizens who had refused to quarantine themselves. Hospitals are being specifically set up for this very purpose. The global pandemic is making matters worse in Baden-Württemberg, the patients number appear to be higher in the German state. Therefore, difficult decisions need to be made to curb the spread of the deadly virus. The government is to set up two or three forced quarantine hospitals in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.

Forced quarantine hospitals in Baden-Württemberg, Germany

A user tweeted, “NEW – The first federal state in Germany agreed on the forced admission of citizens who stubbornly refuse quarantine. Certain hospitals are to be set up specifically for this purpose.” The hospitals will accommodate those citizens who refused to quarantine as per government identified protocols. This was agreed upon by the Health Minister and Interior Minister after a lengthy discussion today. Both Ministers took adequate steps in order to curb the spread of the virus, given the present situation.

The government has mandated orders that citizens of Thuringia should celebrate New Year’s eve and Christmas with their closest family. The government does not want the country to fall prey to the second wave. The state parliament and municipalities are playing a key role in enacting the ordinance.

Following the agreement between the Prime Minister and Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), important directives have been issued in the form of Thuringian Corona Ordinance. The Ordinance states that a maximum number of five citizens can meet from two households, this restriction is to be strictly complied with. However, this limit does not include children aged under 14.

Secret military documents: Trudeau invited Chinese troops to train at Canadian military bases

Exposed: Government documents showing Trudeau ordering Canadian Armed Forces to train members of People’s Liberation Army in Canada.

Israelnationalnews – Rebel Media revealed government documents showing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ordering the Canadian Armed Forces to train members of the People’s Liberation Army in Canada.

Rebel Media’s Ezra Levant wrote: “Justin Trudeau invited China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to send its troops for cold weather training at CFB Petawawa in Ontario — and Trudeau raged at the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) for cancelling the training after China kidnapped Canadian citizens Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig.

“This is only one of many bombshell revelations in The China Files, a 34-page access to information document released by the Trudeau government to Rebel News, seen below.

“Documents that normally would have been completely blacked out by government censors were instead greyed out — the documents remain completely readable. Rebel News has chosen to black out a very small portion that would otherwise compromise the safety of an individual.

“In April of 2019, Rebel News first wrote to the government asking for any records corroborating a Russian report that Canada had sent a delegation to China for the 70th anniversary celebrations for the PLA Navy — a propaganda exercise held just months after the kidnapping of the two Michaels. The Trudeau government delayed replying to Rebel News for 19 months, but when they finally did, they not only confirmed their attendance at that macabre event, but listed other exchanges between the PLA and the CAF. Those include training Chinese commanders at the Canadian Forces College in Toronto, as well as other military facilities in Kingston. Chinese military participants included 1- and 2-star generals and an entire contingent who would learn Canadian cold weather military tactics.

“The CAF’s decision to cancel the cold weather training panicked Trudeau, who demanded that Canada’s military not cancel any more engagements with the PLA without explicit permission first, and that the news of the cancellation had to be told to the PLA gently, to let them save face.

“Other revelations in the documents that were clearly meant to be redacted include:

• Disgraced cabinet minister Catherine McKenna jetted to China for a three-day conference just months after the two Michaels were taken hostage
• Trudeau sent nearly 200 CAF personnel to Wuhan in October of 2019 to participate in the Military World Games, a propaganda bonanza for China
  diplomatic reports that China is using its “belt and road” negotiations to demand that countries drop human rights complaints if they want trade deals
• Chinese censorship of Twitter use.
• Chinese use of a smartphone app to track Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang
• Bureaucrats bizarre protocol of referring to accused fraudster and Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou as “Ms. Meng”, but refusing to even mention the two Michaels by name
• Bureaucrats deriding concerns about military knowledge transfer to China as figments of the “Trump Administration”.

“The China Files show that Trudeau’s submissive approach to China isn’t just his personal obsession — it’s the official policy of his entire government and it has deeply infected Canada’s civil service, too. Trudeau’s right-hand man, Ian Shugart, was tasked with silencing the CAF’s legitimate concerns about China, and forcing our military to continue acting as if China, not the U.S., was our most important ally.

“As a public service, Rebel News is publishing the documents in full in the hopes that other reporters will continue to unlock the truth about how Trudeau is turning Canada away from our democratic allies, and towards the world’s greatest dictatorship.”

View the original documents here.

Portuguese Court Rules PCR Tests “Unreliable” & Quarantines “Unlawful”

Important legal decision faces total media blackout in Western world

Off Guardian – An appeals court in Portugal has ruled that the PCR process is not a reliable test for Sars-Cov-2, and therefore any enforced quarantine based on those test results is unlawful.

Further, the ruling suggested that any forced quarantine applied to healthy people could be a violation of their fundamental right to liberty.

Most importantly, the judges ruled that a single positive PCR test cannot be used as an effective diagnosis of infection.

The specifics of the case concern four tourists entering the country from Germany – all of whom are anonymous in the transcript of the case – who were quarantined by the regional health authority. Of the four, only one had tested positive for the virus, whilst the other three were deemed simply of “high infection risk” based on proximity to the positive individual. All four had, in the previous 72 hours, tested negative for the virus before departing from Germany.

In their ruling, judges Margarida Ramos de Almeida and Ana Paramés referred to several scientific studies. Most notably this study by Jaafar et al., which found that – when running PCR tests with 35 cycles or more – the accuracy dropped to 3%, meaning up to 97% of positive results could be false positives.

The ruling goes on to conclude that, based on the science they read, any PCR test using over 25 cycles is totally unreliable. Governments and private labs have been very tight-lipped about the exact number of cycles they run when PCR testing, but it is known to sometimes be as high as 45. Even fearmonger-in-chief Anthony Fauci has publicly stated anything over 35 is totally unusable.

You can read the complete ruling in the original Portuguese here, and translated into English here. There’s also a good write up on it on Great Game India, plus a Portuguese professor sent a long email about the case to Lockdown Sceptics.

OMINOUS: U.S. POSITIONING NAVAL VESSELS OFF EAST & WEST COASTS; MASSIVE TROOP MOVEMENTS IN CONUS

Hal Turner – Over the past four days, there have been MASSIVE movements of troops, equipment and supplies WITHIN the continental United States (CONUS).  Today (Tue.), the US Navy is positioning Aircraft carriers and their strike groups off both the US east and west coasts.  It appears we are preparing to defend ourselves from an invasion.  China?

Late Saturday, no fewer than 25 C-17 aircraft were in the skies over the USA, carrying troops and equipment from around the nation . . . ALL going to Nellis Air Force Base. (Story Here).

Also late Saturday, no fewer than 12 C-130 aircraft were also on the move, ALSO ALL heading into Nellis.

On Sunday, locals on and around Nellis reported the base was “swarming” with soldiers and Marines.  They also reported seeing a vast array of land fighting vehicles coming out of cargo aircraft. 

NAVAL DEPLOYMENTS

This morning, according the the US Naval Institute, the Navy has deployed THREE (3) Aircraft Carriers, plus a Landing Helicopter Dock (LHD) off the US West Coast, and TWO (2) Aircraft carriers and their Strike Groups plus another LHD off the US East Coast.

Off the West Coast is the USS Carl Vinson in the Pacific (NOT AT PORT) along the Oregon/Washington Border, the USS Essex (LHD) off the coast of San Francisco,and the USS Theodore Roosevelt and its Strike Group off the coast of Los Angeles .Off the East Coast are the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower off the Coast of Connecticut,the USS Gerald R. Ford off the coast of New Jersey,and the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of South Carolina . . .   

Given these new naval deployments, and the very large, sudden, movement of troops into Nellis AFB, one gets the impression that the United States is preparing to defend its homeland from actual invasion.

Hint:  That may actually be the case.

Word in Intelligence circles says that if the Supreme Court voids any or all of the November 3 election due to the massive fraud and violations of the US Constitution with changes to election laws, the lawless extension of voting for weeks, in violation of 3 USC 1 & 2, the Democrats are planning on asking the United Nations to INVADE to depose Trump as a “Dictator.”   There is also word within Intelligence circles that the states of California, Oregon, and Washington, plus New York, might actually try to secede from the Union if Trump gets four more years,  and may need to be forcibly brought back under US control, the same way renegade southern states were handled back in the 1860’s Civil War.”  (HT Note: It would gladden my heart to see the US military bombing egomaniac Governor Andrew Cuomo and filthy Commie  NYC Mayor Bill DeBlasio back into the Union . . . or to Kingdom come . . .)

China and Russia are deploying their naval assets in such a way that transit to the US would not take long!   

China is positioning out in the Pacific.

Just this morning, the British revealed they have been tracking “the entire Russian Northern Fleet” off the British Coast this month, as the Russians head out into the North Atlantic for . . . . something.  (Story HERE)

U.S. News, Politics & Government

FDA Denies That Four Volunteers Developed Bell’s Palsy From Pfizer’s Covid-19 Vaccine Shot

Charlie Kirk – According to U.S. regulators, four people that received Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine in a trial developed Bell’s palsy which causes temporary facial paralysis.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Bell’s palsy could not have been caused by the vaccine but doctors should keep track of anyone else who gets it going forward.

Daily Mail reports:

This isn’t the first time it’s been linked to vaccines, but scientists have ultimately ruled that shots did not trigger Bell’s in all but one case – a Swiss flu vaccine that was sold during the 2001-2002 flu season there, then promptly taken off the market.

So far, the FDA said that the number of Bell’s palsy cases seen in the Pfizer vaccine trial was ‘consistent with the background frequency of reported Bell’s palsy in the vaccine group that is consistent with the expected background rate in the general population, and there is no clear basis upon which to conclude a causal relationship at this time,’ but will keep a close watch on future cases.

The four cases of Bell’s palsy were the only side effect that the FDA saw as ‘imbalanced’ with more occurring in the vaccine group than the placebo group, and fewer than 0.5 percent of the trial participants had serious side effects.

Among the four people who developed Bell’s palsy, one saw facial paralysis or weakness within three days after they received the shot. But the participant’s face returned to normal about three days after that.

Although doctors are not sure exactly what causes Bell’s palsy, there are some factors that can leave someone more prone to getting it such as diabetes or an upper respiratory infection like the cold or flu.

They don’t believe that Pfizer’s vaccine is the cause of the issue but if given the green light to move forward, the FDA says Pfizer will be required to track data on future vaccine recipients if they develop temporary facial paralysis.

House GOP removes Detroit Democrat from committees, citing ‘threats’ in her Facebook video

Detroit Free Press – Republican leaders of the Michigan House of Representatives have removed Rep. Cynthia Johnson, D-Detroit, from her committee assignments in response to comments she made in a video she posted Tuesday on Facebook. 

House Speaker Lee Chatfield, R-Levering, and Speaker-elect Jason Wentworth, R-Clare, issued a joint news release Wednesday stating Johnson made threats in the video.

At the end of a roughly three-minute video posted Tuesday evening to Facebook, Johnson referenced law enforcement tracking down someone who made a threat against her before issuing what she called a warning. 

“So, this is just a warning to you Trumpers. Be careful. Walk lightly. We ain’t playing with you. Enough of the shenanigans. Enough is enough,” Johnson states in the video. 

“And for those of you who are soldiers, you know how to do it. Do it right. Be in order. Make them pay. I love y’all.” 

The last few seconds of the video have received considerable attention on social media, and were specifically cited in a news  release Wednesday from the Michigan Republican Party. But in the same video, Johnson also calls on supporters to “hit ’em in their pocketbooks” and thanks people for “doing things right and in order.”

Biden picks former Obama national security adviser Susan Rice for WH domestic policy council

RT – Projected US president-elect Joe Biden has named Susan Rice, another Obama administration veteran, as head of the White House Domestic Policy Council, a position that does not require Senate confirmation.

Rice, who was previously reported to be under consideration for both vice president and secretary of state, was named to the position on Thursday.

Under the role, Rice would oversee the implementation and coordination of the Biden administration’s domestic policies. News of the appointment came as something of a surprise for those expecting the former national security adviser and UN ambassador to be picked for a more outward-facing role.

Rice, who recently described last month’s election as “our democracy’s near-death experience,” is one of dozens of former Obama staffers whom Biden has summoned from think tank positions to serve in his administration.

Federal criminal investigation into Hunter Biden focuses on his business dealings in China

CNN – After going quiet in the months before the election, federal authorities are now actively investigating the business dealings of Hunter Biden, a person with knowledge of the probe said. His father, President-elect Joe Biden, is not implicated.

Now that the election is over, the investigation is entering a new phase. Federal prosecutors in Delaware, working with the IRS Criminal Investigation agency and the FBI, are taking overt steps such as issuing subpoenas and seeking interviews, the person with knowledge said.

Activity in the investigation had gone covert in recent months due to Justice Department guidelines prohibiting overt actions that could affect an election, the person said.

CNN contacted Biden’s attorney and the campaign this week seeking comment about the investigation. On Wednesday, they released a statement acknowledging the probe.

“I learned yesterday for the first time that the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware advised my legal counsel, also yesterday, that they are investigating my tax affairs. I take this matter very seriously but I am confident that a professional and objective review of these matters will demonstrate that I handled my affairs legally and appropriately, including with the benefit of professional tax advisors,” Hunter Biden said in a statement.

Investigators have been examining multiple financial issues, including whether Hunter Biden and his associates violated tax and money laundering laws in business dealings in foreign countries, principally China, according to two people briefed on the probe.

China is successfully targeting US members of Congress with communist influence campaigns, warns DNI Ratcliffe

NaturalNews – The Chinese today are behaving a lot like Imperial Japan did in the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s — they’re slowly but surely implementing a globalist domination scheme and using their military to enforce and defend it.

The only exception is that there are far too many American financial and political elite helping them accomplish their objectives.

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo this week that the Chinese Communist Party is conducting a “massive influence campaign” aimed at dozens of U.S. lawmakers and their staffs that involve attempts to blackmail or bribe them.

The Washington Examiner notes further: 

Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, a former Republican congressman from Texas who has overseen the United States’s 17 intelligence agencies since May, said Thursday that he briefed the House and Senate Intelligence Committees about the Chinese influence operations. He did so as he went on a small media tour warning about the growing challenge posed by the Chinese Communist Party. Ratcliffe said the intelligence indicates it is the greatest national security threat facing the U.S.

“This year China engaged in a massive influence campaign that included targeting several dozen members of Congress and congressional aides,” Ratcliffe previously wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he noted that China utilizes public and behind-the-scenes pressure to push American lawmakers to do Beijing’s bidding, consciously or unconsciously.

“Our intelligence shows that Beijing regularly directs this type of influence operation in the U.S. I briefed the House and Senate Intelligence committees that China is targeting members of Congress with six times the frequency of Russia and 12 times the frequency of Iran,” Ratcliffe said.

As I looked at” the evidence, Ratcliffe told Bartiromo, “it was so overwhelmingly related to China that I had a look at the numbers and what we’ve learned is that China engages in that activity at a level six times greater than Russia, 12 times greater than Iran.

“It’s a massive influence campaign” aimed at making sure Congress is “passing laws that are favorable to China and not passing laws that are anti-China,” he told Bartiromo.

“They’ve been successful, so I’ve briefed members of Congress on this, it was so disturbing,” he added, noting he made a “special trip to Capitol Hill” just to inform them. (Related: As Hunter Biden scandal gets ready to explode in their faces, Big Tech, the MSM and the Democrat Party are committing mass suicide by attempting to ‘rig’ the election for Joe Biden.)

Aliens struck a deal with the US to keep their existence secret, says ex-Israeli space chief

NaturalNews – An alien race has been in hiding on Earth but has chosen to keep their existence secret until mankind is ready, according to Haim Eshed, the Israel Space Agency‘s former chief of security.

Eshed, 87, said that the aliens struck a deal with the U.S. government to stay silent about their existence while they carry out experiments. They also set up camp on Mars, where they sometimes hold talks with American astronauts. The extraterrestrial beings, according to Eshed, came in peace and are seeking humanity’s help.

US government aware of aliens’ existence

Eshed, who served as Israel’s space security chief from 1981 to 2010, said that the aliens are waiting before having their existence divulged to prevent “mass hysteria.”

“The aliens have asked not to announce that they are here [because] humanity is not ready yet,” said Eshed in a promotional interview for a new book by Hagar Yanai, “The Universe Beyond the Horizon – Conversations with Professor Haim Eshed.”

The former space boss bared that President Donald Trump had been in contact with the senior members of the “Galactic Federation” during calls to world leaders such as Supreme Leader of North Korea Kim Jong-un.

“Trump was on the verge of revealing [the alien’s existence], but the aliens in the Galactic Federation are saying, ‘Wait, let people calm down first,’” said Eshed. The term “Galactic Federation” refers to a major galactic or intergalactic organization that rules areas of the universe. The term is commonly used in science fiction writing.

Eshed said that the U.S. government signed an agreement with the aliens to allow them to perform experiments while they’re on Earth. The extraterrestrials, he continued, are also researching about the cosmos in an attempt to understand the whole fabric of the universe. “They want us as helpers,” said Eshed.

He added that the aliens hope that human civilization will evolve and reach a stage where people will have a better understanding of what space and spaceships are. (Related: Scientists say that aliens are looking at us like “animals in a zoo”.)

Eshed also claims that Americans have already landed on Mars, where the aliens built an underground base to house their representatives and hold talks with astronauts. American astronauts have never been to Mars and the last time they set foot on the Moon was in 1972.

Despite his age, Eshed is well aware that his claims are outlandish: “If I had come up with what I’m saying today five years ago, I would have been hospitalized.” He brought up the claims before to colleagues but was told he has “lost his mind.”

But Eshed isn’t backing down from his assertions: “I have nothing to lose. I’ve received my degrees and awards, I am respected in universities abroad.”

Government staff comments on Eshed’s claims

A spokesperson for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) issued a statement saying that the search for alien life is still ongoing.

“NASA is exploring the solar system and beyond to help us answer fundamental questions, including whether we are alone in the universe,” the spokesperson said. Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesperson Sue Gogh declined to comment.

Nick Pope, who used to investigate unidentified flying objects (UFOs) such as “flying saucers” for the British Ministry of Defense, said that while the claims may be “some sort of practical joke or publicity stunt,” Eshed may also be someone in the know who is breaking ranks.

Claims that aliens visited Earth have been circulating for a long time. Many alien enthusiasts point to the 1947 “Roswell Incident” where a flying saucer was reported to have crash-landed outside Roswell in New Mexico. The Roswell Army Air Field also issued a statement saying that they had retrieved the remnants of a flying saucer. However, other government authorities disputed the statement and insisted that the debris was from a weather balloon.

Economy & Business

US unemployment claims hit their highest level since mid-September

CNN – America’s job market recovery has hit a bump in the road.

Another 853,000 Americans filed for first-time unemployment benefits last week on a seasonally adjusted basis, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was the largest number of claims since mid-September.

Not adjusting for seasonality, initial claims stood at nearly 950,000.

Initial jobless claims rose versus the prior week, marking the third increase in the past four weeks. Last week’s decline came on the heels of the Thanksgiving holiday.

“The surge in initial claims is especially concerning when claims are still above levels near the peak of the Great Recession,” said Glassdoor senior economist Daniel Zhao.

On top of regular applications for jobless benefits, 427,609 workers filed claims under the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which is designed to help people such as the self-employed. It was also an increase from the prior week. This number is not adjusted for seasonality.

Together, first-time claims totaled 1.4 million last week, not adjusted for seasonal changes, also the highest level since mid-September.

The numbers don’t bode well for the labor market recovery.

Science & Technology

Cyber Polygon looks at ways to forge a secure digital future

Euronews – The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic caused an irrevocable shift in working practices around the globe. Companies were forced to rethink and restructure, creating new strategies to avoid disruption to their day-to-day interactions. In the vast majority of companies, these strategies pivoted on remote working and an increase in online interactions.

Inevitably, this has led to an exponential increase in cyber crimes, already a major concern in a digitised world, where social engineering and fake news are causing profound shifts in working practices and leading to fears that a ‘digital pandemic’ will follow hard on the heels of the crisis caused by Covid-19.

These were the issues discussed at the Cyber Polygon 2020, an annual online event held on July 8. Organised by the World Economic Forum’s Center for Cybersecurity, the Sberbank Group and Russian cybersecurity company BI.ZONE, with the support of INTERPOL, this comprised a live stream for non-technical specialists, and, in parallel, technical training for cybersecurity teams.

The Sberbank Group is known for cyber crime resilience, and saw off every attempted attack on its infrastructure in 2019, thanks to its AI-driven fraud monitoring system, saving a total of $2 billion of its customers’ money over the last three years. This made it uniquely placed to host the event, which was held in Sberbank’s Security Operation Center, the hub of its cybersecurity operation, and was attended by companies from around the world, including the Spanish National Cybersecurity Institute (INCIBE), Banco Santander, Ernst & Young, MTS, Post Bank and many others.

“This year Cyber Polygon became a truly global event,” said Dmitry Samartsev, CEO of BI.ZONE. “One hundred and twenty organisations from 29 countries joined the technical exercise for cybersecurity teams. There were representatives from banks, the telecom and energy sectors, healthcare and academia, as well as governmental bodies and law enforcement agencies.”

He added that the results of the training would be presented at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on Cybersecurity in November 2020.

>> Related: Obama: The internet is “the single biggest threat to our democracy” – President Obama loved the internet. Now he has second thoughts.

Recode – Back in 2008, Barack Obama famously harnessed the internet and social media to help win the White House. He kept up the embrace once he got there.

Now he worries that the internet and social media have helped create “the single biggest threat to our democracy.”

Obama has been saying a version of this for four years — since he left the White House — but his words are getting steadily more pointed. He’s clearly sounding an alarm, but it’s not exactly clear what he thinks we should do about it.

His latest critique comes in a new interview between Obama and Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg, and before we go any further we should put it in full context: Obama was discussing a media landscape dominated not just by Facebook but by Fox News that allows Americans to choose their own distorted reality. Which means, he says, we no longer have a shared set of facts.

That assessment is now conventional wisdom among many critics of the TV and internet ecosystem. There’s almost no practical, constructive argument about how we should respond to that problem. Obama doesn’t offer one in his interview, either.

And again, it’s incorrect to say that Obama is laying the problems of our broken information landscape solely at the feet of Facebook or any other particular tech company. But he is certainly lacing into them now in a way he didn’t do prior to leaving the White House.

Obama: Now you have a situation in which large swaths of the country genuinely believe that the Democratic Party is a front for a pedophile ring…I was talking to a volunteer who was going door-to-door in Philadelphia in low-income African American communities, and was getting questions about QAnon conspiracy theories.

Goldberg: Is this new malevolent information architecture bending the moral arc away from justice?

Obama: I think it is the single biggest threat to our democracy.

Later in the interview, Obama makes it quite clear that much of his concern is specifically about the internet — which he is also quite clear isn’t “going away” — and the big platforms that sort and distribute most of the internet for most people:

Obama: I don’t hold the tech companies entirely responsible, because this predates social media. It was already there. But social media has turbocharged it. I know most of these folks. I’ve talked to them about it. The degree to which these companies are insisting that they are more like a phone company than they are like The Atlantic, I do not think is tenable. They are making editorial choices, whether they’ve buried them in algorithms or not. The First Amendment doesn’t require private companies to provide a platform for any view that is out there. At the end of the day, we’re going to have to find a combination of government regulations and corporate practices that address this, because it’s going to get worse. If you can perpetrate crazy lies and conspiracy theories just with texts, imagine what you can do when you can make it look like you or me saying anything on video. We’re pretty close to that now…

Goldberg: It’s that famous Steve Bannon strategy: flood the zone with shit.

Obama: If we do not have the capacity to distinguish what’s true from what’s false, then by definition the marketplace of ideas doesn’t work. And by definition our democracy doesn’t work. We are entering into an epistemological crisis.

Obama’s criticisms of Fox News and the Rupert Murdoch empire predate his time in the White House. It continued once he was there.

>>> From 2013: The Government’s Secret Plan to Shut Off Cellphones and the Internet, Explained

“I find it hard to imagine why an internet kill switch would ever be a good idea, short of some science fiction scenario.”

Health

Living near Nature may help improve your mental health amid coronavirus pandemic, study suggests

NaturalNews – Living near nature might just help mitigate some of the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on people’s mental health, according to a study by researchers from the University of Tokyo (UTokyo).

Published recently in Ecological Applications, it revealed that more frequent use of green spaces, such as parks and forests, and the presence of a green window view from within the home were associated with greater levels of life satisfaction, self-esteem and subjective happiness among adults living in a densely populated urban area.

Overall, the findings suggest that nearby nature may serve as a buffer in reducing the impact of a very stressful event, such as the pandemic, on humans, said Masashi Soga, the study’s lead author and an associate professor at UTokyo’s Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences.

“Protecting natural environments in urban areas is important not only for the conservation of biodiversity, but also for the protection of human health,” added Soga.

A “nature-based” solution

During the first few months of the pandemic, numerous governments worldwide implemented strict lockdown measures and enforced public health policies like social distancing in an effort to stem the spread of COVID-19.

While these measures did help slow the transmission of the coronavirus to some extent, millions of people had to learn to adjust to the drastic changes in their routines, which included coping with the negative effects of the pandemic on their mental well-being.

In fact, recent studies suggest that social distancing guidelines, coupled with the fear of contracting COVID-19, are likely to result in a wide range of mental health issues, from an increased sense of loneliness to depression.

Interestingly, some recent studies found that spending time outdoors increases positive emotions and reduces negative ones. Other studies also showed that people visited green spaces more often during the pandemic. But it remains unclear how proximity to nature affects mental health patterns.

To this end, Soga and his colleagues conducted a survey on 3,000 adults living in Tokyo. The survey quantified the association between five mental health outcomes (subjective happiness, loneliness, depression and anxiety, self-esteem and life satisfaction) and three measures of experiences with nature (green views through windows of the home and frequency and duration of green space use).

When the researchers assessed the responses, they found that experiences with nature around the home and in green spaces can help prevent poor mental health or keep it from deteriorating during stressful times.

In particular, the responses indicated a positive relationship between mental health outcomes (life satisfaction, self-esteem and subjective happiness) and frequency of green space use around the home and green views from within the home. Respondents who reported using green spaces more frequently and lived in homes with green views from windows also showed reduced levels of loneliness, depression and anxiety.

According to the researchers, there are three possible pathways through which green space use promotes better mental health.

The first is the health benefits of direct interactions with nature. Spending time in nature gives a person access to multi-sensory experiences, such as smelling flowers or listening to birds, which may help improve his or her mental health status.

Second, green space use is likely to encourage people to exercise. Exercising is considered beneficial for mental health, too. Third, green spaces also provide avenues for members of local communities to interact.

But even if social distancing guidelines limit these interactions, seeing other people or signaling to others from a distance may already be beneficial for people’s mental health. The researchers are also inclined to believe the three pathways work synergistically.

Furthermore, the responses indicated that people with green views from their windows reported better mental status for all five of the mental health measures considered than those who used greenspaces but had no green views.

This suggests that even less immediate experiences with nature, like looking out the window to trees, can have beneficial effects on mental health comparable to those of more immediate and direct experiences with nature.

Overall, the results suggest that promoting experiences with nature can be used as a “nature-based solution” for better public health at a time when people are under higher levels of stress and are confined within their homes.

“Prescribing” nature

With the pandemic showing no signs of letting up, restrictions are expected to stick around for a while. During extraordinary times like these, it is important to take steps to prevent stress from affecting your mental health.

As Soga and his colleagues found, just looking out the window to trees, grass and shrubs can be restorative. It would also help to go down to a local park or wooded area and spend a few minutes there to relieve stress and reduce anxiety.

Be mindful of the breeze and take a moment to notice the colors of flowers or the smell of leaves. Listen to the sound of rushing water or twittering birds. Jog through a tree-lined street in the morning or take a short stroll around the neighborhood after lunch.

As the UTokyo study shows, such experiences with nature can confer immense benefits on one’s mental health. (Related: Forest bathing: Spend time in nature to reduce your stress.)