Today's News: July 28, 2020

World News

There Are Signs of Second COVID-19 Wave in Europe, UK PM Johnson Warns

Sputnik – European countries fear a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic as people begin to relax and stop following the restrictions though the virus is still present.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has warned that signs of a “second wave” of the COVID-19 pandemic are emerging in Europe as he backed a decision to urge travellers returning home from Spain to quarantine for 14 days.
“What we have to do is take swift and decisive action where we think that the risks are starting to bubble up again. Let’s be absolutely clear about what’s happening in Europe, amongst some of our European friends, I’m afraid you are starting to see in some places the signs of a second wave of the pandemic“, Johnson said.
The prime minister earlier today announced the launch of a government scheme worth 2 billion pounds ($2.57 billion) to encourage the country’s citizens to cycle and walk more frequently.
The scheme aims to create thousands of miles of protected bike lanes, establish free bicycle training for all adults and children, and strengthen the country’s Highway Code to protect cyclists.
“From helping people get fit and healthy and lowering their risk of illness, to improving air quality and cutting congestion, cycling and walking have a huge role to play in tackling some of the biggest health and environmental challenges that we face”, Johnson said in a government press release.
Starting Tuesday, the first batch of government bike repair vouchers, each worth $64, will be distributed to citizens to encourage them to use active forms of transport.
The latest scheme follows on the heels of a new government programme announced on Monday to tackle obesity in the UK. The government has set out to ban commercials for foods high in sugar, fat, or salt content before 21:00 [20:00 GMT], and will look to restrict the types of food that can be included in “buy one get one free” offers.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

COVER-UP: NIH REMOVES 5G-CORONAVIRUS STUDY FROM WEBSITE FOLLOWING INFOWARS EXPOSÉ

Medical establishment scrambles to censor scientific info — read the bombshell study for yourself here!
Infowars – The National Institute of Health (NIH) removed a study from its website linking 5G radiation with the coronavirus after Infowars first brought attention to it.
The international study, called 5G Technology And Induction Of Coronavirus In Skin Cells, claims that 5G millimeter waves stimulate DNA in a way that causes cell nuclei to actually produce coronaviruses.
According to the Internet Archive, the NIH removed the study from their website in the afternoon of Friday July 24th, two days after Infowars first reported on it.
The July 2020 study was jointly produced by scientists from Guglielmo Marconi University, Central Michigan University and First Moscow State Medical University.
“In this research, we show that 5G millimeter waves could be absorbed by dermatologic cells acting like antennas, transferred to other cells and play the main role in producing Coronaviruses in biological cells,” the study states.

Paper blaming COVID-19 on 5G technology withdrawn

Retraction Watch – A paper which argued that 5G cellphone technology could lead to infection with the novel coronavirus has been retracted, but not before scientific sleuth Elisabeth Bik wondered whether it was the “worst paper of 2020.”
The article, “5G Technology and induction of coronavirus in skin cells,” came from a group from Italy, the United States and Russia, and appeared in the Journal of Biological Regulators and Homeostatic Agents. The journal is published by Biolife, which asserts that it’s peer reviewed but has not responded to a request for comment. [Please see an update on this post.]
The abstract is now marked “WITHDRAWN” on PubMed and the paper has disappeared from the journal’s website. The abstract has been preserved here. According to the authors:
In this research, we show that 5G millimeter waves could be absorbed by dermatologic cells acting like antennas, transferred to other cells and play the main role in producing Coronaviruses in biological cells.
The authors of the paper clearly have a problem with 5G:
In another study, it was argued that 5G technologies cause great harm to human health. Cancer is only one of the many problems. 5G causes 720! (factorial) different diseases in human beings, and can kill everything that lives except some forms of microorganisms.

Nolte: Violent Crime Explosion Forces Minneapolis Residents to Form Militias

Breitbart – “Minneapolis residents in some areas still recovering from rioting and unrest are forming community watch and security groups, some bearing firearms, to fight a surge of crime,” reports the Wall Street Journal.
While no one can blame the residents — in fact they should be applauded for doing what it takes to protect their own – this is, in ways I’ll explain below, not good. It is, however, a sign of things to come in countless Democrat-run cities:
In late June, residents near a commercial strip that had been looted, and the 3rd Precinct station that was abandoned and burned, were seeing a surge of shooting and drug-related crime on their block.
“It got to the point where crime had no consequences,” said Tania Rivera, 30, who runs a child-care center with her mother. “It was being done deliberately out in the open. Drive-through drug dealing, drive-through prostitution, everything from gunshots to assaults to sex out in the public. Everything you didn’t want your neighborhood to look like.”
So after a number of community meetings, neighbors began constructing a barrier to close off two blocks of their street, first with trash cans, then debris. For a while, a boat on a trailer protected one intersection. Eventually, a nearby iron maker constructed a permanent gate. Police gave their approval as long as emergency responders could get through if requested by the neighborhood.
It goes on to say that men in the neighborhood “began an armed patrol, kicking out anyone who didn’t belong on the block after dark.”
The Journal provides a number of other examples.
So what we have now, in a major America city, are desperate residents constructing barriers to keep out people who, in their opinion, do not belong…
Listen, the first, the very first priority of government is to protect our God-given rights from being violated, most especially by others. We have a God-given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and the government has no higher purpose than to see to it those rights are not interfered with.
To say the Democrat-run city of Minneapolis is failing on this point would be an understatement.
The city, which has not had a Republican mayor in nearly 50 years, slashed the police budget and turned its police department into eunuchs who are either unable to respond due to budget cuts and ridiculous policies that make it impossible to enforce the law or are unwilling to respond for fear they will become CNNLOL’s Villain of the Day…
And now the city’s residents are forced to go to extraordinary lengths to protect their family and property.
This is no way to live.
This is why, even in the Old West, townspeople elected a sheriff.

‘It looks like downtown Baghdad’: Feds protecting Portland’s courthouse ‘fear for their lives’ after 61 nights of unrest – but protesters say they’re just fighting back to protect themselves as DOJ shares photos of confiscated Molotov cocktails

Daily Mail – Federal officers who are protecting Portland’s courthouse under the orders of the Trump administration have revealed that they ‘fear for their lives’ after 61 nights of protests in the city, but demonstrators say they are fighting back to protect themselves from the agents.
President Donald Trump sent federal agents to Portland earlier this month and has since said he would be sending 100 more troops into the city to protect federal property.
Demonstrators have taken to the streets to demand justice for black men and women who have died at the hands of police officers across the US, including George Floyd who took his last breath under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer on May 25.
And while many protests have been peaceful, some have turned violent for both officers and protesters.
‘It’s scary. You open those doors out, when the crowd is shaking the fence, and … on the other side of that fence are people that want to kill you because of the job we chose to do and what we represent,’ said a Deputy US Marshal who has been protecting the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse for weeks.
He requested anonymity because protesters have identified him and posted his personal information online.
‘I can’t walk outside without being in fear for my life,’ he said. ‘I am worried for my life, every time I walk outside of the building.’
The agent then said that downtown Portland has started to look a lot like downtown Baghdad.
‘I finally get outside at 7am, after being in the building since 3pm the day prior, and I look east and I’m like, “Oh, the world’s normal over there and people are driving to work and the city is clean and functioning,’ the Deputy US Marshal said.
‘And I look out on the street and it looks like downtown Baghdad.’

Twitter Suspends Donald Trump Jr. for Tweeting COVID-19 Misinformation

“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy.”
Vice – Twitter has temporarily suspended the account belonging to Donald Trump Jr, the son of U.S. President Donald Trump after he posted content that violated the company’s policies on misinformation related to the coronavirus pandemic.
The account will be suspended for 12 hours, during which time Don Jr. will be barred from posting new messages, liking or retweeting other posts. He will still be allowed to use Twitter’s Direct Message service to contact his followers. A Twitter spokesperson said this was not a suspension, that it was a “temporary lockout until the Tweet is deleted—not a suspension.”
The tweet that triggered the suspension linked to a video that contains multiple falsehoods and dubious claims about COVID-19 and its treatments. The post was deleted and replaced with a message simply saying “this tweet is no longer available.”
President Trump also posted several tweets linking to the video on Monday night. While his account was not suspended, the tweets were also deleted.
The video showed a group of people dressed in white lab coats claiming to be from an organization called “America’s Frontline Doctors.” The video, which was live-streamed by right-wing news outlet Breitbart, contained people claiming masks were not needed and that hydroxychloroquine was a “cure.”
“Tweets with the video are in violation of our COVID-19 misinformation policy. We are taking action in line with our policy,” the Twitter spokesperson said.

The NFL Just Declared War On Church

The Federalist – A deal reached by the National Football Leauge and the NFL Players Association bans players from attending any indoor church services that are above 25 percent capacity, multiple sources told NBC Sports on Saturday.
Alongside its restrictions on attending worship services, the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) also prohibits players from attending indoor nightclubs and bars (except for take-out), indoor concerts, professional sports games, and indoor parties that include 15 or more people.
The deal has not been publicly released, but NBC Sports made no mention of any restrictions on attending protests. Meanwhile, the NFL’s Twitter account has been sharing and celebrating pictures of players engaging in protests around the country.
A June 5 tweet from the NFL also affirmed that “We, the NFL…encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest.”
As with more typical CBAs, players can face fines if they don’t comply with the restrictions on church and the other activities listed. The fines for each offense can vary, and while they haven’t been revealed for this agreement, violating the CBA used to regulate conduct on the field can result in fines from $5,000 to over $70,000.
NBC Sports also reported that players who test positive for Covid-19 after violating the CBA won’t be paid for games they aren’t able to attend. They would also forego any future guarantees made in their contracts.

NFL Player Takes Bold Stance Against Kneeling for the Anthem

The Western Journal – While many NFL players, coaches and administrators have announced they intend to turn to activism during the 2020 season, one veteran player has indicated he will not be kneeling for “The Star-Spangled Banner.”
Pittsburgh Steelers defensive end Stephon Tuitt said on Twitter this week that he will stand for his country’s flag.
The 27-year-old also doesn’t care what any of his critics have to say.

Vaccine developer says people must wear masks and socially distance even after vaccine is available

The Blaze – A vaccine developer at the Baylor College of Medicine told Business Insider that people should not expect an immediate return to normal life once a vaccine is available.
Several companies are working as quickly as possible to develop a safe and effective vaccine, which has been viewed by some as necessary for lockdowns to end and schools to reopen. While a vaccine may significantly reduce the risk of serious disease from the novel coronavirus, social distancing and face masks may still be a part of life, said vaccine developer Maria Elena Bottazzi.
“They automatically are going to say, ‘oh great, I’m just going to get my little vaccine, and I can go back and do exactly the things I was doing last year,'” Bottazzi told Business Insider. “That is absolutely not true.”
Ideally, Bottazzi said, a vaccine would give sterilizing immunity, meaning it would totally prevent people from becoming infected. Many vaccines don’t reach that level of effectiveness, however, and only reduce the chance of developing severe symptoms of a particular disease.

Georgia governor withdraws request for emergency hearing to block Atlanta mask order

The Hill – Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) withdrew a request for an emergency hearing in a lawsuit that aims to block his state’s largest city from ordering people to wear masks in public or imposing other pandemic-related restrictions.
Kemp spokesperson Cody Hall told The Hill Tuesday morning that the governor was heartened by Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’s (D) recent decision to impose economic restrictions on restaurants on a voluntary basis.
The governor’s office did not withdraw the suit, but said that having the hearing at a later date instead of Tuesday afternoon would make for “productive, good faith negotiations with city officials.”
“Given the threat of economic harm and immediate backlash from Atlanta’s business community, this overreach by the Mayor was our top concern and the primary reason behind the litigation,” Hall said. “Now, Mayor Bottoms has taken several opportunities to publicly explain that the Phase One rollback is purely voluntary, and we appreciate this concession.”

Bill Gates: Benefits almost always outweigh the costs for younger students to return to schools

The Hill – Bill Gates argued for the reopening of schools amid the coronavirus pandemic, telling CNBC on Tuesday that the “benefits outweigh the costs for younger students to return for in-person learning.”
“I’m a big believer that for young children, the benefits in almost every location — particularly if you can protect the teachers well — the benefits outweigh the costs,” Gates said on “Squawk Box.”
Gates also said the dynamics begin to change when talking about relatively older students.
“As you get up to age, like, 13 and higher, then you’ll have to look at your locale to decide what you’ll do with high schools,” he said. “And if they’re not in, then you have to put massive effort into trying to get there to be continued learning online.”
The perspective from the billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft co-founder comes as school districts across the country continue to grapple with how to reopen classes safety in the late summer and fall as coronavirus cases jump in many states and fears of a second wave later in the year escalate.
President Trump has strongly advocated reopening schools, while prominent Democrats have strongly disagreed.

US Attorney: Agents will stay in Portland as long as attacks on federal property, personnel last

The Hill – Billy Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Oregon, on Monday, signaled that federal officers stationed in Portland would not be removed as long as damages and threats to federal property, namely the city’s federal courthouse, continue.
“It is not a solution to tell federal officers to leave when there continues to be attacks on federal property and personnel. We are not leaving the building unprotected to be destroyed by people intent on doing so,” Williams said via teleconference, The Associated Press reports.
Williams comments came after another night of conflict in the city between protestors and federal agents. Like nights before, agents tear gassed the crowd, while protestors set off fireworks in the vicinity of the courthouse.

Nonprofit Flips Abandoned Prison into Sustainable Farm With the Help of At-Risk Youth and Jobless Veterans

Good News Network – On the grounds of an abandoned and decommissioned prison in North Carolina, vegetables are being tended by hands that, if not for the opportunity to learn the world’s oldest occupation, might have ended up in a real prison with nowhere to go but down.
But Growing Change is an organization that believes the best solution to a problem is one that strikes at the root, not at the stem—and they have been tilling that soil since 2011.
In converting old prisons to year-round-farming and education centers, Growing Change solves several problems at once. The program synergistically brings together young men on the edge of the criminal justice system, and jobless wounded veterans returning from deployment.
Recruiting the discipline and leadership skills of the latter to teach and guide the former, Growing Change creates an environment whereby at-risk youth who need to fulfill long hours of community service can learn life skills, sustainable farming practices, and animal husbandry, with an opportunity to receive clinical therapy in an environment much more suited to young men.
“North Carolina is one of the last two states in which youth are adjudicated as adults for all charges at age 16,” explains the founder Noran Sanford. “By the time some 16 year-olds arrive in the courts they are permanently limited in their employment due to their ‘adult’ criminal record.”
In 2016, the farm in Wagram also began admitting young men facing chaos at home, failure at school, trouble with mental health or substance abuse—to salvage lives before the criminal justice cycle begins.
Sanford’s model of intensive therapy and “flipping their prisons” has seen a 92% reduction in recidivism rate among youth participants, while the national average of criminal recidivism is 43%.
“At the core level, we are instilling hope,” Sanford explains to Civil Eats. “When hope is gone, it creates a pretty vicious void that a lot of other grimmer things can get pulled into. And as low-wealth rural America is left further behind, then that vacuum is stronger. We’re breaking that stream.”
Meanwhile, the veterans work toward university degrees in environmental sciences and sustainable agriculture. Together, these individuals young and old who may have been on the fringes of society work to rehabilitate abandoned brownfields (land that might be contaminated and must be cleaned before future use) and the prison property decaying into dysfunction.

Economy & Business

Kodak wins $765M federal loan in push to produce domestic pharmaceuticals

The Hill – Eastman Kodak Co. has received a $765 million government loan to help expedite the domestic production of drugs to treat a variety of medical conditions and loosen the country’s reliance on foreign sources, the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) announced Tuesday.
The loan, which is the first of its kind under the Defense Production Act (DPA), will be used to produce ingredients for generic drugs.
According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news, those drugs include the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine, which President Trump has continued to tout as a potential coronavirus treatment.

He got $4 million in loans. Then bought LAMBORGHINI

Miami Herald – One of the first things David T. Hines bought when he got $4 million in COVID-19 relief loans from the feds for his supposedly ailing South Florida moving business was a super-luxury Lamborghini Huracan Evo, authorities say.
Needless to say, the Italian-made sports car — purchased by Hines in May for $318,497 — was not on the list of permissible expenses under a Small Business Administration loan program meant to protect employees and cover other legitimate costs like rent during the coronavirus pandemic.
Hines, who was arrested Friday, also spent thousands of dollars on dating websites, jewelry and clothes, along with stays at high-end hotels such as the Fontainebleau and Setai on Miami Beach.
The SBA’s Payroll Protection Program totaling nearly $650 billion was approved by Congress as part of the CARES Act after the coronavirus struck the nation in March, but Hines’ and other similar fraud cases are starting to pop up in South Florida and other parts of the country. The PPP loans are forgiven by the government if they are properly used by businesses. Congress is considering another major SBA loan infusion as the raging pandemic continues to hurt the U.S. economy.
Federal investigators linked the Lamborghini to Hines, who appeared in Miami federal court on fraud and other charges Monday, after he was involved in a hit-and-run accident on July 11. Miami police impounded his car, and now prosecutors plan to seize it.
Hines, 29, held over the weekend at the Federal Detention Center, was granted a $100,000 bond by Magistrate Judge John O’Sullivan and will be allowed to stay at his mother’s home with a GPS monitor. His defense attorney, Chad Piotrowski, declined to comment after Monday’s hearing. Hines’ arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 14.

CNN Forces Sinclair Broadcast Group To Axe Interview With ‘Plandemic’ Author Dr Judy Mikovit

Freedom’s Phoenix – CNN created an online campaign to bombard conservative broadcast company Sinclair over an interview it was scheduled to broadcast with Dr Judy Mikovits, the author and creator of the ‘Plandemic’ film and book, and it worked as Sinclair eventually agreed to pull the interview.
Mikovits, who contends that the Coronavirus outbreak is being inflated and used to push vaccines on people, had already filmed the interview with ‘America This Week’ host Eric Bolling, but the interview did not air this weekend as planned.
Despite the interview also featuring a doctor who refutes Mikovits’ claims, CNN complained that it didn’t push back hard enough.
Leftists on Twitter then made it their mission to get Sinclair to drop the broadcast.
Initially, Sinclair refused to do so declaring that “at no juncture are we aligning with or endorsing the viewpoints of Dr Mikovits.”
But just hours later the broadcaster had completely capitulated to the censorship mob.
Sinclair also noted that “we valiantly support Dr Fauci and the work he and his team are doing to further prevent the spread of Covid-19,” referencing the criticism Dr Mikovits has levelled at Fauci.