World News
Video: Dramatic arrest of a mother protesting in Sydney
Nzherald – Dramatic footage has surfaced of a woman being pulled away from her screaming son by a number of police officers while protesting during the coronavirus pandemic.
Two clips shared to Facebook depict the woman speaking with police officers near Parliament of New South Wales in Sydney’s CBD at around 3.50pm on Saturday, then being dragged into a police van as her screaming son is torn from her arms.
Wearing a yellow sign that read: “If you don’t know your rights, you don’t have any. Magna Carta,” the woman was protesting with around 40 people against the coronavirus lockdown, as part of the “Exercising My Rights” group, news.com.au reports.
She was issued an infringement notice for failing to comply with direction relating to Covid-19 social distancing restrictions.
In the footage, she is first seen refusing to give her name to a group of officers, before walking away down the street.
“I don’t know how you guys are going home in honour tonight and trying to infringe me with a notice which I don’t consent to because we’re doing nothing wrong,” she told the group of officers.
“You guys should be here holding the signs with us, defending us. I don’t consent to what you’re doing,” she said, as a female officer asked for her name.
“We’re doing nothing wrong … We’re not acting in aggression … Am I under arrest?,” she responded.
“No, I’m just trying to speak to you … I am asking for your name because I do believe you are committing an offence,” the officer explained.
“I’m here fighting for not just myself and my kids, but for your children too,” the woman then said as she walked away.
IT’S OFFICIAL! BENJAMIN NETANYAHU PROPOSES MARK OF THE BEAST, CALLS FOR ALL CHILDREN TO BE MICROCHIPPED FIRST
Infowars – Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is calling for all children to be microchipped in the name of protecting public health.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Netanyahu suggested the Health Ministry use new technology to help Israel socially adapt ahead of lifting the coronavirus lockdown. “That is, technology that has not been used before and is allowed under the legislation we shall enact,” he clarified.
“I spoke with our heads of technology in order to find measures Israel is good at, such as sensors. For instance, every person, every kid – I want it on kids first – would have a sensor that would sound an alarm when you get too close, like the ones on cars,” Netanyahu said.
China Conducts Violent Raid on Christian Church, Drags Worshipers Out of Service
Breitbart – ChinaAid, a religious freedom watchdog group, published a smartphone video this week that showed Chinese officials conducting a violent raid on a church in Fujian province.
The invaders assaulted congregants, stole their phones to prevent them from documenting the raid, and dragged people out of the service. Eyewitnesses said police did not present a warrant for the raid.
The raid was conducted against Xingguang Church in the southeastern city of Xiamen. The venue is one of the famed “house churches” in China, with services held at a private residence.
ChinaAid described the raid, which was evidently captured on a phone the authorities were unable to confiscate or uploaded before they could take the phone away.
POLL FINDS THAT 9 OUT OF 10 IN UK WANT LOCKDOWN TO CARRY ON
Only 4% want government enforced home confinement scrapped.
Infowars – A new poll has revealed that the vast majority of people in Britain are happy for the government mandated lockdown to continue, with just 4 percent expressing a desire to see it lifted immediately.
According to the Deltapoll survey, published Sunday, the masses are happy to continue to follow orders to stay at home, with close to half saying that they don’t want the lockdown lifted until sometime beyond June.
The poll also found that 50 per cent of Britons are happy not working, as long as they are getting paid or receiving government subsidies.
Only 11 per cent said they wanted everyone to go back to work now.
U.S. News, Politics & Government
Ex-Obama official, in released transcript, admits she didn’t know about Trump-Russia collusion despite prior claims
Fox – Evelyn Farkas, a former Obama administration official who previously encouraged congressional staffers to gather evidence of alleged collusion between President Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia and said she “knew” there was additional such information out there, admitted she did not know such information existed in a 2017 interview with congressional investigators.
Transcripts from dozens of such interviews were released Thursday by the House Intelligence Committee.
Farkas, who previously served as the deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia, said on MSNBC in 2017 that she “was urging my former colleagues, and, frankly speaking, the people on the Hill… Get as much information as you can, get as much intelligence as you can, before President Obama leaves the administration, because I had a fear that somehow that information would disappear with the senior people that left. So it would be hidden away in the bureaucracy.”
She continued to say she was concerned “the Trump folks, if they found out how we knew what we knew about their, the staff, the Trump staff’s dealing with Russians, that they would try to compromise those sources and methods, meaning we would no longer have access to that intelligence. So I became very worried, because not enough was coming out into the open, and I knew that there was more.
Colorado restaurant draws large Mother’s Day crowds in defiance of state order
Fox – A restaurant in Colorado drew large crowds on Sunday despite a public health order limiting businesses in the state to takeout and delivery services amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Crowds packed into Castle Rock’s C&C Coffee and Kitchen for its Mother’s Day rush.
The restaurant’s owner, April Arellano, had reportedly said she would go out of business if she didn’t “do something.”
The lines were long and it appeared that in some cases social distancing was not enforced. Some customers were without masks.
“It was unbelievable,” said one resident, who went to pick up food at the restaurant, but left before paying after seeing the crowds, according to the Denver Post.
“I wasn’t even going to eat the food even if I had gotten it,” he said. “I walked in, took the picture, and turned right around.”
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ office issued a statement on Sunday denouncing the actions of C&C Coffee and Kitchen.
“These restaurants are not only breaking the law, they are endangering the lives of their staff, customers, and community,” said deputy press secretary Shelby Wieman, according to the Denver Post.
A health official told the paper that violating the state’s public health order could result in a $1,000 fine or up to a year in jail. Businesses who violate the order could also have their licenses revoked.
While delivery and takeout options are available if restaurants follow social distancing guidelines, the order says dine-in services cannot be offered until at least May 26.
Armed anti-lockdown demonstrators seen ordering at Subway restaurant in North Carolina
Fox – A group of anti-lockdown demonstrators walked the streets of Raleigh, N.C., over the weekend, holding various types of weaponry, and were seen ordering from a local Subway restaurant to protest the state’s stay-at-home order.
The roughly dozen protesters — including one carrying an AT4 rocket launcher on his back — headed out on the first day of North Carolina’s Phase 1 plan to reopen the state.
Others entered the Subway holding shotguns and one member was seen taking a selfie outside the restaurant while carrying a large .50-caliber prop wooden machine gun over his right shoulder, according to The News & Observer.
“You guys cool with us being in here?” one protester asked as he entered the fast-food restaurant that was limited to takeout and curbside to-go orders. “We don’t want to make it look like we’re threatening or intimidating anyone. That’s why we ask.”
The photos, taken of group members by photojournalist Travis Long, soon went viral and drew the ire of certain celebrities on Twitter — including Patton Oswalt, Kathy Griffin and Mia Farrow.
“A——. Frightened, dipshit a——-, every single one of them,” said Oswalt. “The guy in the first pic brought an AT4. To buy a sandwich. And chips and probably a cookie. ‘I feel safe wif mah gun and Imma get a cookie I wanna cookie yay guns.'”
Pennsylvania Sheriffs Say They Won’t Enforce Business Shutdown
Activist Post – Cumberland County Sheriff Ronny Anderson says “I have no intentions of turning local business owners into criminals.”
Resistance is growing against unconstitutional orders from Democrat governors around the country.
Pennsylvania Sheriffs are denouncing Governor Tom Wolf’s orders to turn business owners into criminals.
Cumberland County Sheriff Ronny Anderson made a popular Facebook post that assured citizens that the Sheriff office would not enforce any order that violates the Constitution.
Washington governor allows one-on-one Bible study during coronavirus pandemic after lawsuit
Fox – Washington Gov. Jay Inslee amended his March order banning religious gatherings of any size Friday to allow home-based Bible study and prayer after one man sued the state.
Joshua Freed, represented by First Liberty Institute and the North Creek Law Firm, sued the state last month demanding he is allowed to hold a one-on-one Bible study amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“After the governor twice refused to respond to our requests seeking a one-on-one Bible study exemption, his lawyers finally conceded in open court,” Hiram Sasser, First Liberty executive general counsel, told Fox News, adding, “Based on some of the comments made in court by the Washington Attorney General’s office, it appears the governor does not intend to enforce any of his shutdown orders against religious activities.”
The Democratic governor’s March 23 order prohibited religious gatherings of any size, with exemptions for “essential” businesses, including retail, grocery, media and cannabis.
GOP worry Trump, COVID-19 could cost them majority
The Hill – Senate Republicans looking at polls showing GOP incumbents losing ground are concerned that President Trump‘s handling of the pandemic has put their majority in danger.
The two biggest criticisms of Trump that GOP lawmakers express privately are that his administration took too long to deploy coronavirus tests and that the president’s statements and demeanor have been too cavalier or flippant.
The biggest headwind Republicans face this fall is the faltering national economy, which now has a 14.7 percent unemployment rate, according to a Friday report by the Labor Department.
While Republican senators acknowledge that Trump’s popular support is tough to poll, some are concerned about surveys showing his approval rating below that of all 50 governors and other world leaders.
Compounding their anxiety are recent polls showing Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), a once-safe incumbent, now trailing his Democratic opponent, Gov. Steve Bullock, and Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), who was also seen as cruising to reelection, in a dead heat with Democrat Theresa Greenfield.
Incumbent GOP Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Martha McSally (Ariz.) are well behind in the polls, while Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) are in toss-up races.
Democrats need to net three seats and the White House to win the Senate majority.
“There’s concern,” said one Republican lawmaker describing apprehension over Trump’s job performance over the past two months.
The lawmaker acknowledged that Trump is “hard to poll” and that he has defied pollsters’ predictions he would lose to Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in 2016. But the Republican also pointed to recent data that shows “every governor and every world leader is way up the polls but Trump isn’t.”
Report: Universities All Across America Still Have Chinese Propaganda Centers
“They’re exploiting the very open research and development environment that we have”
Infowars – Many universities throughout America are still allowing what have been described as Chinese propaganda centers to operate on their campuses, despite warnings from intelligence officials that the communist state is using them to infiltrate US society and indoctrinate Americans.
Campus Reform reports that multiple Chinese-funded Confucius Institutes remain in operation, even as US lawmakers seek to hold China accountable for its handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
The report notes that “more than 75 Confucius Institutes are still in operation in the U.S., most of them on college campuses.”
Economy & Business
Musk Emerges as Loudest Reopen Proponent With TESLA Threats
Bloomberg – Tesla Inc. asserts that restarting its operations in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic doesn’t make the company an outlier, nor is it going against the grain.
But its chief executive officer’s handling of the health crisis has been anything but ordinary. Tesla sued the county blocking its car plant from reopening, with Elon Musk calling the local health officer — a former infectious diseases professor with a master’s degree in public health — “unelected & ignorant.” He threatened to move Tesla’s headquarters out of California, warning that all its manufacturing may leave the state, too.
The weekend flare-up was without precedent in the three months since the first confirmed Covid-19 death in the U.S. — a resident of Santa Clara County, home to Tesla’s headquarters and neighbor to its factory in Fremont, California. As the nation’s death toll approaches 80,000, Musk has emerged as arguably the loudest voice in corporate America advocating for the economy to reopen.
“I’m not messing around,” the 48-year-old billionaire tweeted after Tesla filed its lawsuit against Alameda County. “Absurd & medically irrational behavior in violation of constitutional civil liberties, moreover by *unelected* county officials with no accountability, needs to stop.”
As meat workers fall sick and supplies dwindle, exports to China soar
Reuters – U.S. President Donald Trump ordered meat processing plants to stay open to protect the nation’s food supply even as workers got sick and died. Yet the plants have increasingly been exporting to China while U.S. consumers face shortages, a Reuters analysis of government data showed.
Trump, who is in an acrimonious public dispute with Beijing over its handling of the coronavirus outbreak, invoked the 1950 Defense Production Act on April 28 to keep plants open. Now he is facing criticism from some lawmakers, consumers and plant employees for putting workers at risk in part to help ensure China’s meat supply.
Meat buyers in China ramped up imports from around the world as a pig disease decimated its herd, the world’s largest, and pushed Chinese pork prices to record highs. The supply shock drove China to pay more for U.S. meat than other countries, and even U.S. consumers, since late 2019.
“We know that over time exports are critically important. I think we need to focus on meeting domestic demand at this point,” said Mike Naig, the agriculture secretary in the top U.S. pork-producing state of Iowa who supported Trump’s order.
Processors including Smithfield Foods, owned by China’s WH Group Ltd, Brazilian-owned JBS USA and Tyson Foods Inc temporarily closed about 20 U.S. meat plants as the virus infected thousands of employees, prompting meatpackers and grocers to warn of shortages. Some plants have resumed limited operations as workers afraid of getting sick stay home.
The disruptions mean consumers could see 30% less meat in supermarkets by the end of May, at prices 20% higher than last year, according to Will Sawyer, lead economist at agricultural lender CoBank.
Factories Close for Good
WSJ – heavy damage the coronavirus pandemic and shutdowns are exerting on the industrial economy.
Makers of dishware in North Carolina, furniture foam in Oregon and cutting boards in Michigan are among the companies closing factories in recent weeks. Caterpillar Inc. CAT 4.49% said it is considering closing plants in Germany, boat-and-motorcycle-maker Polaris Inc. PII 6.87% plans to close a plant in Syracuse, Ind., and tire maker Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. GT 7.44% plans to close a plant in Gadsden, Ala.
Those factory shutdowns will further erode an industrial workforce that has been shrinking as a share of the overall U.S. economy for decades. While manufacturing output last year surpassed a previous peak from 2007, factory employment never returned to levels reached before the financial crisis.
Health
De Blasio: 38 NYC children diagnosed with Kawasaki disease, tough to detect
Fox – As many as 38 children in New York City have contracted a rare disease linked to the coronavirus but doctors are having a hard time diagnosing it, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday.
Cases of Kawasaki disease have affected children 5 and under. The disease has caused inflammation of the heart and blood vessels. Typical symptoms included fever, rash, swelling of the hands and feet, irritation and redness in the whites of the eyes, swollen lymph glands in the neck and irritation and inflammation of the mouth, lips and throat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC].
Still, there’s been no official criteria for diagnosing the deadly disease and health officials have been scrambling to identify children who may be affected by it.
“Of the cases that have been verified, 47 percent of the kids involved tested positive for the coronavirus at that point; of those who tested negative, 81 percent had the antibodies,” de Blasio said. “Suffice it to say that, for the past 10 weeks, all day, every day, we’ve all been talking about the coronavirus nonstop and looking at so many different elements around it, and this particular challenge around kids came up literally days ago.”
Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration has been investigating the disease, which has infected an estimated 85 people in the state and killed three children overall.
De Blasio added that testing for the coronavirus could be helpful in identifying children with Kawasaki disease.
Astaxanthin Helps Alleviate Cytokine Storm
Mercola – Part of what makes COVID-19 such a dangerous disease in severe cases is because it can trigger a cytokine storm reaction leading to sepsis, organ failure and death
Astaxanthin, a potent antioxidant supplement derived from microalgae, has many health effects that render it an ideal candidate as an adjunct therapy against COVID-19
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Astaxanthin blocks oxidative DNA damage, lowers C-reactive protein and other inflammation biomarkers, inhibits cell death in alveolar epithelial cells, modulates the immune response and much more
Studies have shown it alleviates cytokine storms, acute lung injury, acute respiratory syndrome and sepsis, all of which are common in cases of serious COVID-19 infection
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Optometrists Warn About Digital Eye Strain During Quarantine
Newsmax – Staying home is one of the most important ways we can contain the coronavirus. But experts warn that this directive has triggered an alarming increase in the use of digital devices and screen time for both work and recreation, leading to eye strain and other ocular complications.
Some of the symptoms of digital eye strain include sore, itchy eyes, dry eyes or blurred vision, headaches, increased sensitivity to light, and difficulty concentrating, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“During this time of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, it is important for us as eye health physicians to keep the big picture in mind,” said Jonathan Andrews, OD, of the Optometric Associates in New Holland, Pennsylvania, according to online medical journal Healio. “The much-needed rest and relaxation that this pandemic is forcing upon all of us could easily be taken away by nonhygienic digital device practices.”
Andrews says that sitting at home and watching the blue and violet light emitted from these devices can disrupt normal circadian rhythm cycles.
Virus found in feces more than month after patient tests negative
Mirror – Coronavirus has been found in human faeces, more than a month after the patient tested negative for COVID-19.
Scientists from the University of Stirling have warned that the findings indicate that coronavirus could spread via sewage.
Professor Richard Quilliam, who led the study, said: “We know that COVID-19 is spread through droplets from coughs and sneezes, or via objects or materials that carry infection.
“However, it has recently been confirmed that the virus can also be found in human faeces – up to 33 days after the patient has tested negative for the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19.
“It is not yet known whether the virus can be transmitted via the faecal-oral route, however, we know that viral shedding from the digestive system can last longer than shedding from the respiratory tract.
“Therefore, this could be an important – but as yet unquantified – pathway for increased exposure.”
Good News
People Use Chalk to Write Plant Names on Sidewalks to Help People Connect With Nature – ‘More Than Weeds’
Good News Network – Across the paved streets of the UK and France, sidewalk chalk is beginning to be employed by more than just children as rebel botanists regularly break street-chalking laws to write the names of wild plants and flowers growing through cracks in the cement.
Beginning in France—and leading to a campaign called More Than Weeds in London—this act of highlighting the names of wildflowers and other plants has drawn significant attention on social media, where images and videos are racking up hundreds of thousands of fans.
In one video viewed 7 million times from the French website Brut, Boris Presseq, a botanist at the Toulouse Museum of Natural History, walks around his city chalking the names of the plants he finds on sidewalks and walls to help raise awareness of the diversity and richness of plant citizens in the heart of the southern French city.
“I wanted to raise awareness of the presence, knowledge and respect of these wild plants on sidewalks. People who had never taken the time to observe these plants now tell me their view has changed. Schools have contacted me since to work with students on nature in the city,” Presseq told the Guardian.
In one of those “every day you break 3 laws you didn’t know existed” moments, it is illegal to use sidewalk chalk on public pavement without permission for any reason. However, no one in London, Cambridge, or Hackney seems to mind the graffiti, with one selection of identified plants posted by a London resident on Twitter receiving over 100k likes.
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