World News
EU reveals plan to regulate Big Tech
BBC – Big tech firms face yearly checks on how they are tackling illegal and harmful content under new rules unveiled by the European Commission.
Fresh restrictions are also planned to govern their use of customers’ data, and to prevent the firms ranking their own services above competitors’ in search results and app stores.
The measures are intended to overhaul how the EU regulates digital markets.
Large fines and break-ups are threatened for non-compliance.
It is proposed that if companies refuse to obey, they could be forced to hand over up to 10% of their European turnover.
And “recurrent infringers” are warned that they could be made to divest “certain businesses, where no other equally effective alternative measure is available to ensure compliance”.
The two new laws involved – the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act – have yet to be passed, so would only come into force after the Brexit transition period has ended.
The UK’s own regulator – the Competition and Markets Authority – announced its own plans to place limits on the tech giants last week, and ministers have just detailed how they plan to tackle online harms.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Justin Haskins: Joe Biden’s Electoral College win is a big deal, so is his scary ‘Great Reset’ agenda
Fox – On Monday, a majority of presidential electors, 306 to 232 cast their votes for Joe Biden, formally making the 78-year-old the new president-elect of the United States.
Although Biden campaigned as a “moderate” who would unify the country, his various progressive policy proposals and numerous efforts to appease the Democratic Party’s far-left base suggest strongly that Biden could very likely end up becoming — in the words of comrade Bernie Sanders — the “most progressive president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
What, exactly, will Joe Biden’s presidency look like? The answer to that question depends almost entirely on the outcome of the two Senate runoff elections in Georgia.
If Republicans win just one of the two Senate seats in contention, Democrats would likely be incapable of passing any legislation without the consent of several Republicans and, in many cases, the blessing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. That would severely handicap the ability of congressional Democrats and Biden to pass many of the sweeping reforms they called for throughout the 2020 campaign.
However, if Democrats manage to win both races, they would control 50 seats in the Senate plus benefit from the tiebreaking vote of Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, giving them the power to enact expansive new government programs and regulatory schemes that would stifle economic growth, drive up the national debt and limit individual freedom.
At a November virtual event hosted by the World Economic Forum promoting the far-left “Great Reset” movement, John Kerry — who was recently named Biden’s “climate czar” — provided insight into what the incoming Biden administration has planned for the American people.
At panel discussion about the Great Reset led by WEF President Borge Brende, Brende asked Kerry whether those calling for a “great reset” of global capitalism and dramatic changes to society and national economies are “expecting too much too soon from the new president, or is he going to deliver first day on this [sic] topics?”
After a few brief introductory statements and greetings, Kerry responded, “And yes, it [the Great Reset] will happen. And I think it will happen with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine.”
How does the incoming Biden administration plan to usher in this promised Great Reset, and what would it mean for you and your family?
Biden’s platform includes several major Great Reset policy reforms covering three important public policy areas: the economy, energy and climate change.
Top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell recognizes Joe Biden as president-elect
RT – Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ victory following the electoral college vote – despite hoping for a “different result.”
McConnell, a Republican, noted that “as of this morning, our country has a president-elect and a vice president-elect” in a public address on Tuesday, admitting “our system of government has processes to determine who will be sworn in,” even though “many millions of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result.”
Sidney Powell: Trump could trigger 2018 executive order
WND – With time running out for President Trump, attorney Sidney Powell is raising the option for the commander in chief to invoke his 2018 executive order concerning foreign interference in U.S. elections.
The order, signed by Trump on Sept. 12, 2018, states “not later than 45 days after the conclusion of a United States election, the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the heads of any other appropriate executive departments and agencies (agencies), shall conduct an assessment of any information indicating that a foreign government, or any person acting as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign government, has acted with the intent or purpose of interfering in that election.”
Attorney General William Barr resigns after recent clashes with Trump, still defends president
USA Today – Attorney General William Barr, who has served as President Donald Trump’s most effective shield and advocate for broad presidential authority, will resign next week as the administration draws to a disputed close.
Trump announced the news of Barr’s departure Monday evening on Twitter.
Trump lauded his attorney general as “a man of unbelievable credibility and courage” just months ago, but turned on Barr after he declared there was no widespread evidence of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and resisted Trump’s public pressure to prosecute President-elect Joe Biden and other former Obama administration officials on baseless claims of corruption and the surveillance of the 2016 race.
Results of Dominion forensic analysis to be released in Antrim County, Mich.
NaturalNews – A security company tasked with forensically auditing 16 Dominion Voting Systems machines in Antrim County, Mich., has been given the green light by a circuit court judge to release its findings.
Judge Kevin A. Elsenheimer of Michigan’s 13th district told attorney Matthew DePerno that Allied Security Operations Group can furnish evidence in a lawsuit filed by Central Lake resident William Bailey showing that thousands of votes in the county were illegally flipped from President Donald Trump to Democrat contender Joe Biden.
There is also a dispute over a ballot initiative that plaintiffs say was illicitly altered following a tie vote. Ballots were re-fed through the Dominion tabulator, the lawsuit claims, producing results that do not accurately reflect the will of voters.
“We conclude that the Dominion Voting System is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results,” stated Russell Ramsland Jr., co-founder of Allied Security Operations Group.
“The system intentionally generates an enormously high number of ballot errors. The electronic ballots are then transferred for adjudication. The intentional errors lead to bulk adjudication of ballots with no oversight, no transparency, and no audit trail. This leads to voter or election fraud. Based on our study, we conclude that The Dominion Voting System should not be used in Michigan. We further conclude that the results of Antrim County should not have been certified.”
California as Ground Zero for Cultural Change — What the Heck Happened?
Activist Post – It was, at one time, established fact, or at least commonly held opinion that “Everything starts in California.” That would include hula hoops, freeways, the internet, hippies, and—for those who remember this still—the Free Speech movement.
In 1964, Mario Savio stood on the steps of Sproul Hall at UC Berkeley and made a short speech, which has resonated through the decades:
There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part! You can’t even passively take part! And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels…upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop! And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
That speech, according to some pundits, marked the birth of the counterculture. What followed then—the Free Speech Movement, the protests against the Vietnam War, the LSD culture, Angela Davis and the Black Panthers, even the Symbionese Liberation Party–all began in California.
Berkeley today is quiet. Dead, almost. The soap boxers of the ’60s, the shirtless young men throwing frisbees in Sproul Plaza on a Spring Day, the leafletters, all seem to have gone the way of psychedelia and tie dye t-shirts.
The political climate in California has also done a 180. And nothing portrays that more clearly than the general subservience to the mainstream mandates about Covid.
California is a special case. It has a history as a trendsetter and as a hotbed of innovation. However, the California of today bears little resemblance to the maverick of yore. One might go as far as to say that California has been brought into the fold.
Kamala Harris Pushes Gun Control ‘To Keep Our Children Safe’
Bretibart – Kamala Harris remembered the December 14, 2012, Sandy Hook Elementary attack by pushing gun control “to keep our children safe.”
On Monday she tweeted:
The “common-sense gun safety” being pushed for the Biden administration includes a ban on the sale of firearms which Democrats label “assault weapons,” as well as a ban on “high capacity” magazines, and the implementation of universal background checks.
These types of gun controls have been pursued by Democrats like Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) at the federal level for years and they have been in place in New York since 2013.
In New York City, the laws are correlating with gun violence at record levels. Despite the bans and background check requirements, shootings are on track to break a 14-year high in Mayor Bill de Blasio’s (D) NYC.
When the heinous attack on Sandy Hook Elementary occurred, teachers and staff were unarmed, and there were no armed resource officers on campus. In fact, the Sandy Hook Advisory Commission concluded the attacker had over nine minutes inside the school without armed resistance.
But on April 13, 2019, Harris made clear her position that teachers should get a raise rather than a gun.
One of the “gun safety” pledges of the incoming Biden administration is to “prohibit the use of federal funds to arm or train educators to discharge firearms.”
The Biden campaign page says, “We should be passing rational gun laws, not requiring educators who already have too much on their plates to also protect the safety of their students.”
Scalise: Silence ‘Deafening’ Over Swalwell Spy Scandal
Newsmax – The silence is “deafening” from Democrats about Rep. Eric Swalwell’s connections with a suspected Chinese spy and how he’s able to remain on the powerful House Intelligence Committee, Senate Minority Whip Steve Scalise said Tuesday.
“Reports are that it goes back to when he was a councilman, long before he was in Congress,” the Louisiana Republican said on Fox News’ “Fox and Friends.” “The Chinese spy helped raise money for him, actually helped infiltrate his office. (She) got some other people in his office that were probably spies, and then he gets on the House Intelligence Committee.”
Swalwell, D-Calif., has denied wrongdoing in connection with his relationship with suspected spy Fang Fang, aka Christine Fang, who has been linked with several politicians while their careers were growing. He also says he cooperated with the FBI when he was alerted about Fang.
“The real question there, did Speaker(Nancy) Pelosi know that he had a relationship with a Chinese spy prior to putting him on the House Intelligence Committee?” said Scalise. “All these questions need to be asked and the bottom line is he should be removed.”
The appointment also raises questions about why Pelosi backed away from a bipartisan commission on China with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif, said Scalise.
“(Rep.) Mike McCaul put together a great report from that commission (and the) alarming questions that it raises about China,” said Scalise. “Why did Speaker Pelosi back away from that just a few months ago?”
Veteran News
Iraq to Sue US over Use of Depleted Uranium Weapons: Official
Global Research – An adviser to the Iraqi parliament’s foreign affairs committee said the Baghdad government is planning to lodge an international lawsuit against the US for using internationally-banned munitions in civilian areas.
Hatif al-Rikabi told Arabic-language al-Maalomah news agency in an interview that Iraq is going to file the case at Swedish and German courts over appalling crimes that Washington has perpetrated in the Arab country, including the use of depleted uranium weapons.
Rikabi went on to say that such a measure will ensure international accountability for the US, and will not give it the chance to procrastinate the case.
“Hundreds of cancer cases are recorded every month (in Iraq), and the figure is clear evidence for the extent of the damage that US forces have committed,” he stated, calling on the Iraqi Health Ministry to “release facts and figures about casualties caused by US bombing campaigns,” Press TV reported.
US-led wars in Iraq have left behind hundreds of tons of depleted uranium munitions and other toxic wastes.
Official Iraqi government statistics show that, prior to the outbreak of the First Persian Gulf War in 1991, the rate of cancer cases in Iraq was 40 out of 100,000 people. By 1995, it had increased to 800 out of 100,000 people, and, by 2005, it had doubled to at least 1,600 out of 100,000 people. Current estimates show the increasing trend continuing.
Contamination from depleted uranium munitions and other military-related pollution is suspected of causing a sharp rise in congenital birth defects, cancer cases, and other illnesses throughout much of Iraq.
Many doctors and scientists maintain that the recent emergence of diseases that were not previously seen in Iraq, such as new illnesses in the kidney, lungs, and liver, as well as total immune system collapse, are connected to public exposure to war contaminants.
Depleted uranium (DU) contamination may also be related to the substantial rise in leukemia, renal, and anemia cases, especially among children.
Moreover, there has also been a dramatic jump in miscarriages and premature births among Iraqi women, particularly in areas where heavy US military operations occurred, such as Fallujah.
During 2004, the US military carried out two massive military sieges of the city of Fallujah, using large quantities of DU ammunition, as well as white phosphorous.
Economy & Business
Chinese state-owned companies are in trouble.
CNN – Chinese state-owned companies are starting to default on their debts. It’s a problem that could ripple through the country’s financial system, threatening to slam the brakes on the nation’s economy and hobble the global recovery from the pandemic.
State firms defaulted on a record 40 billion yuan ($6.1 billion) worth of bonds between January and October, according to Fitch Ratings. That’s about as much as the last two years combined.
The problem has only gotten worse in recent weeks. A slew of major companies — including BMW’s (BMWYY) Chinese partner Brilliance Auto Group, top smartphone chip maker Tsinghua Unigroup, and Yongcheng Coal and Electricity — declared bankruptcy or defaulted on their loans last month, sending shock waves through the nation’s debt market. Bond prices have plummeted and interest rates have spiked, and the turmoil has even spilled over into the stock market, where shares of state-owned firms have been sinking.
It’s alarming on a couple of fronts. First of all, the close relationships between these companies and local Chinese governments typically make them safe bets in times of trouble. If investors are worried that the state is no longer willing to support them, they suddenly become much riskier propositions.
Science & Technology
Twitter fined €450,000 under EU data privacy rules in world first
RT – Social networking site Twitter has been fined €450,000 ($547,000) under the EU’s GDPR law in a world first, for failing to provide a timely report about a data breach that made some private tweets public.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC) slapped Twitter with the fine for infringing the European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by failing to swiftly inform users about and ensure it documented a data breach.
The 2019 incident saw private tweets posted by individuals who used Twitter’s Android app exposed, due to a security flaw, when they made changes to the accounts, such as updating their email addresses.
Health
FDA review clears path for second coronavirus vaccine, this one developed by Moderna
Washington Post – By the end of the week, the United States could have two coronavirus vaccines.
A vaccine developed by biotechnology company Moderna appears poised for regulatory clearance after a detailed data review by Food and Drug Administration scientists confirmed the two-shot regimen was 94 percent effective in a clinical trial and carried no serious safety concerns.
The FDA is likely to authorize the Moderna vaccine as soon as Friday, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the issue. Anticipating that decision shortly, Gen. Gustave Perna, who is overseeing the federal effort to distribute vaccines, said Monday that the U.S. was preparing to ship almost 6 million doses of the Moderna vaccines to 3,285 locations in the first week.
New strain of Covid-19 may be cause of rise in cases, Hancock tells MPs
Guardian – A new Covid-19 variant has been identified in the UK, the health secretary has revealed, suggesting it could be linked to the rapid spread of the virus in south-east England as millions more people in London are being moved into the toughest restrictions.
Cases of the strain have been found in almost 60 areas, Matt Hancock disclosed, although he stressed that clinical advice suggested it was “highly unlikely” the mutation would fail to respond to a vaccine.
It came as he confirmed that the capital, as well as the majority of Essex and parts of Hertfordshire, would be placed into tier 3 from Wednesday after an “exponential” rise in cases.
Updating the Commons on Monday, Hancock told MPs: “Over the last few days, thanks to our world-class genomic capability in the UK, we have identified a new variant of coronavirus which may be associated with the fastest spread in the south-east of England.
Several COVID-19 Vaccines Are Made Using Aborted Fetal Cells
Mercola – The claim made by some citizen journalists is that certain COVID-19 vaccines “contain cells from an aborted fetus.” One video headline stated: “CONFIRMED — aborted fetus in COVID-19 vaccine”.
Fact checkers have “debunked” these claims and labeled them false, in one instance because the name of the fetal cell line was incorrect and in others because the vaccines do not literally “contain” these cells; rather, the fetal cell lines were used as a growth medium for the virus during the production phase.
Fact checkers’ claim that fetal cells are not used in vaccine development because they are clones of the original is perhaps the most ludicrous. There’s no difference between cells growing and multiplying indefinitely in a petri dish and cells growing and multiplying in your body during your lifetime. If the cells in your body are still you, then the cells in the petri dish are still that of the original fetus that was aborted.
Aside from ethical concerns, some may also object to vaccines manufactured through the use of fetal cell lines on the basis that there may be health risks involved, due to potential DNA contamination. Human fetal cell lines in vaccine production have been linked to both autism and autoimmune diseases.
Vaccine makers using a fetal cell line in the development of their COVID-19 vaccines include AstraZeneca, Jansen Research and Development/Johnson & Johnson, CanSino Biologics, University of Pittsburgh, ImmunityBio and Altimmune
Coca Cola Tests COVID-19 Positive In Austrian Parliament
Health Impact News – An Austrian parliamentary member exposed the defectiveness of the government’s COVID-19 tests by demonstrating in the parliament how a glass of Coca Cola tested positive for COVID-19.
In footage from the meeting in Vienna Friday, FPO General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz brings a glass of Coca Cola to the podium, from which he proceeds to collect drops to use on an antigen rapid test being used on a mass scale.
After going to the lectern and starting his speech, the politician sprinkled few drops of cola on corona rapid test. Three minutes later the test showed a result: Coca Cola was COVID-19 positive.
After demonstrating a positive result, Schnedlitz goes on to slam the tests as a waste of taxpayer resources.
“Mr. President, we are likely to have a problem now, we have a positive corona test in parliament, namely this cola triggered a positive corona test. I don’t know how to deal with it now!
With things like this you are throwing tens of millions of euros in tax money out of the window instead of providing real protection for old people’s and nursing homes, instead of investing money in our hospitals.
The corona mass tests are worthless! This was also shown by a simple experiment in parliament, in which a cola had a positive result! But this black-green government spends tens of millions in tax money on precisely these tests.”
Earlier, the Tanzanian President John Magufuli growing suspicious of the World Health Organization (WHO), decided to investigate the claims of the tests himself. He sent the WHO samples of a goat, a papaya and a quail for testing, all of which came COVID-19 positive.
Because of such massive COVID-19 false positive cases scandal, the Australian Government has scrapped a billion dollar coronavirus vaccine agreement with Australian biotech company CSL Limited to supply 51 million doses of a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by the University of Queensland after several trial participants returned false positive HIV test results.
It should be noted that the Portuguese appeals court has ruled that PCR tests are unreliable and that it is unlawful to quarantine people based solely on a PCR test.
Read the full article at GreatGameIndia.com.
Prisoners in nine states will be among first to receive COVID-19 jabs
NaturalNews – Before the general public is given access to them, President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccines for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) will first be administered to prisoners in at least nine states.
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Nebraska, North Carolina, Montana, Nevada and the territory of Puerto Rico will all be putting their prisoners at the front of the line for injection alongside healthcare workers, long-term care facility residents, police officers and fire personnel.
In North Carolina, prisoners in jails will be part of what is called Phase 1B, which includes elderly people living in nursing homes, adult care homes, family care homes, group homes and homes serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Phase 1B comes after Phase 1A, the latter of which includes healthcare workers and medical first responders “who are at high risk of exposure based on work duties or who are vital to the initial COVID-19 vaccine distribution.”
The other states will be executing something similar, where prisoners are either in the first or second group to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, followed by people over the age of 65, school personnel, grocery store workers, and eventually everybody else once there are enough vaccines for the entire population.
These states will all presumably be receiving Pfizer’s COVID-19 jab, which the company claims, without evidence, is highly effective with minimal side effects.
Entertainment
Cleveland’s plans to drop ‘Indians’ from team name is a welcome change but it’s long overdue, Native Americans say
CNN – A Major League Baseball team’s decision to remove “Indians” from its name is being hailed as historic, but Native American advocacy groups insist their fight to remove all racist sports mascots is far from over.
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