Today's News: October 19, 2020

World News
Greece to expand wall on Turkish border to block migrants
RT – Athens said on Monday it had finalized plans to build a wall along Greece’s border with Turkey, to prevent large numbers of migrants from crossing into the country illegally.
About 26 kilometers (16 miles) of wall will be added to an existing 10 km section of fence, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said, adding that the project is due to be completed by the end of April. The five-meter (15-foot) barrier would cost €63 million ($74 million).
The wall will be made of galvanized square steel tubes and concrete foundations, Greece’s public order ministry has said. In addition, a surveillance camera network is planned for covering the entire 192-km Greek-Turkish border, police officials told AP, and trials with high-powered mobile sirens have started.
The construction of the wall “was the least the government could do to provide a sense of security to Greek citizens,” PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Saturday.
US Blacklists Chinese, Australian Citizens and Organizations Over Iran
Sputnik – On Sunday, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Washington would sanction “any individual or entity that materially contributes to the supply, sale, or transfer of conventional arms to or from Iran” after a decade-long UN arms embargo on Iran expired.
The US has imposed Iran-related sanctions on five Hong-Kong shipping companies, one Australian entity and one Chinese investment group, the US Department of the Treasury said.
Delight Shipping Co Ltd, Gracious Shipping Co Ltd, Noble Shipping Co Ltd, Reach Holding Group, Reach Shipping Lines, Supreme Shipping Co Ltd were added to Specially Designated Nationals list, according to the statement.
The Treasury also slapped three individuals with sanctions for dealings with Iran.
On 18 October, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the US was ready “to use its domestic authorities to sanction any individual or entity that materially contributes to the supply, sale, or transfer of conventional arms to or from Iran.” He added that if a country supports the fight against terrorism it “should refrain from any arms transactions with Iran.”
Pompeo’s statement came after a decade-long UN arms embargo on Iran expired, allowing Tehran to buy foreign weapons.
US Indicts Russians Accused of Hacking 2018 South Korea’s Olympics and 2017 French Elections
Sputnik – On Monday, the US Justice Department issued a press release which featured charges against a number of Russian individuals.
The United States Justice Department has indicted six Russians over allegedly hacking the 2018 Winter Olympic Games held in South Korea’s PyeongChang and the French presidential election three years ago.
The indictment states that the defendants, said to be part of the Russian GRU agency, sought to take part in malicious actions against the French election, athletic targets and American businesses in a bid to promote Russia’s geopolitical goals.
According to the department’s top national security official, General John Demers, these were “the most disruptive and destructive series of computer attacks ever attributed to a single group.”
“No country has weaponized its cyber capabilities as maliciously or irresponsibly as Russia, wantonly causing unprecedented damage to pursue small tactical advantages and to satisfy fits of spite,” Demers said.
The department’s press release states that the hackers and their conspirators have conducted their alleged activities on behalf of the Russian government.
The indictment does not allege though that the actions in question were in any way related to interfering in the US presidential elections in the past or future – accusations that have long been made by some parts of American political establishment.
The allegations against Russian citizens also inlcuded their alleged cyberattacks on Ukraine’s electricity companies that took place during the summer of 2017. According to prosecutirs, Russia was also behind a ransomware “NotPetya” attacks that primarily targeted Ukrainian websites.
Back in 2018, the White House claimed that it was Russian military that orchestrated the hacking with a goal to “destabilise Ukraine”. Russia strongly denied the claims then, with presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that the accusations were “nothing more than the continuation of the Russophobic campaign without any evidence”.
In relation to 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, from which Russian athletes were banned because of doping accusations, the defendants have been accused of trying to knock out internet connections during the opening ceremony.
World leaders are planning new lock downs to introduce “The World Debt Reset Program” which includes universal basic income and vaccination requirements
Dr. Leonard Coldwell – World leaders are preparing for a second and third wave of covid-19 cases and are fine-tuning their lock down strategies which will be implemented late in 2020 and into 2021. Their planning involves the development of a new world economy, one that introduces medical fascism as a permanent way of life.
A Canadian whistle blower came forward with the plans. The whistle-blower is on the Liberal Party of Canada’s Strategic Planning Committee, which operates under the direction of Canada’s Office of the Prime Minister (PMO).
The historic lock downs have engineered mass poverty and will continue to weaken people’s financial and food security, making them more vulnerable and eventually making them more desperate to accept the new world economy and its bodily requirements.
New world economy includes universal basic income and vaccination requirements
The new world economy includes the introduction of a digital currency, a universal basic income, vaccine requirements for travel, and “The World Debt Reset Program.” A continuous cycle of lock downs into 2021 will eventually lead to an international economic collapse. Governments worldwide will offer citizens an alluring way out by promising to eliminate all personal debts (mortgages, loans, credit cards, etc.)
In the U.S. this idea has already been implemented in 2020 through the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) – a guaranteed loan program that forgives the debt if the borrower follows specific instructions. Under an impending economic collapse, any and all loans will be forgiven if the citizen agrees to participate in the “World Debt Reset Program, funded by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In order to get all debts forgiven, citizens will have to forfeit ownership of any and all private property, accept a universal basic income, and enroll in the covid-19 and covid-21 vaccination schedule.
As the rolling lock downs and economic sanctions commence, citizens will be permitted all their previous freedoms to travel and gather in stadiums and public venues as long as they provide an ID showing they were inoculated with all the mandated covid-19 and covid-21 vaccinations. In Canada, detainment camps are being installed in all provinces and territories to coerce people to comply with the new plans. The Canadian whistle-blower revealed that this vaccine ID will be referred to in Canada as Canada’s HealthPass.
The whistle-blower warns that world leaders in Australia, the US, the UK, Canada and New Zealand will push for a “complete and total secondary lock down much stricter than the first and second rolling phase restrictions.” These new lock downs will be pushed in November 2020 through January 2021 by hyping up covid-19 testing and case counts.
2020 lock down tyranny is just the beginning of a much larger plan
The upcoming lock down plans are congruent with the “Great Reset” plan outlined by the World Economic Forum and Event 201, both funded and pushed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which seeks worldwide compliance with vaccine experiments and genetic modification of humans. The Prime Minister’s National covid-19 Advisory Commission (established in lockstep in March 2020) is now advising and pushing the Canadian PMO and the Department of Prime Ministers and Cabinet in Canberra to carry out these totalitarian plans.
The whistle-blower said at least thirty percent of the committee members strongly oppose these plans but their voices are being drowned out. It has been made “very clear that nothing will stop the planned outcomes,” said the whistle-blower.
The Canada’s Office of the Prime Minister has laid out the plan, which includes a secondary lock down by December 2020, that will implement restrictions on a rolling basis, beginning with major metropolitan areas and expanding outward. The media will project that daily covid-19 cases exceed testing capacity and must be curbed using a complete and total secondary lock down much stricter than the first and second rolling phase. The unemployment program will be configured into a universal basic income program by the end of quarter one, 2021.
As the vaccines are rolled out, all viral shedding, mutations, and vaccine injuries will be blamed on a “third wave” which includes a higher mortality rate and higher rate of infection. Anyone who does not agree to the vaccines will be stripped of their right to travel freely and will either be detained in the isolation centers or monitored on home arrest until they agree to comply.
During this time, medical facilities will reach peak capacity, and government will enhance lock down restrictions, implementing a Third Lock Down by quarter two, 2021. Large inventory shortages, supply chain break down and economic instability is expected, as all individuals are put on a universal basic income program to curb hunger, homelessness and civil unrest. By quarter three, governments are expected to deploy military personnel to major metropolitan areas and roadways to create travel checkpoints. These tactics have already been tested out in 2020. Everyone who is dependent on these systems will be forced onto the HealthPass vaccination schedule. Anyone who disagrees will be deemed a “public health threat” or “enemy of the state.”
The whistle-blower said that dissenters will not be tolerated. “Essentially we were told it was our duty to make sure we came up with a plan to ensure that would never happen. We were told it was in the individual’s best interest to participate.”
“When several committee members pushed relentlessly to get an answer, we were told that those who refused would first live under the lock down restrictions indefinitely. Those who refuse “refused to participate” in the debt forgiveness program “would be deemed a public safety risk and would be relocated into isolation facilities.”
“Once in those facilities they would be given two options, participate in the debt forgiveness program and be released, or stay indefinitely in the isolation facility under the classification of a serious public health risk and have all their assets seized.”
U.S. News, Politics & Government
US Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump’s appeal on border wall funding while reviewing legality of ‘stay in Mexico’ policy
RT – The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal by Donald Trump’s administration over a ruling that he overstepped his constitutional boundaries when funneling military funds to border wall construction.
The legal battle around Trump’s 2016 campaign cornerstone – the US-Mexico border wall – continued on Monday when the Supreme Court agreed to hear his appeal.
Back in June, a lower court ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to shift military money to construction of a border wall, after Congress had refused to appropriate funds for the project, was illegal. Trump took $2.5 billion from military counter-narcotics programs for the wall’s construction in California, New Mexico, and Arizona. The court argued that the US government purse lays exclusively in the hands of Congress, citing the Appropriations Clause in the US Constitution.
While the wall-funding saga continues, another Trump policy has come under Supreme Court scrutiny. The Court has agreed to decide the legality of the ‘remain in Mexico’ policy which obliges asylum seekers arriving by land at the US border to stay in Mexico while their applications are being reviewed.
Trump Trashes Fauci as ‘A Disaster,’ Openly Discusses Firing Him on a Campaign Call: Reports
Mediaite – One night after a 60 Minutes interview in which Dr. Anthony Fauci criticized behavior from the White House during the coronavirus pandemic, President Donald Trump is firing back in a big way.
According to multiple reports, the president thoroughly trashed the infectious disease expert as a “disaster” during a campaign call on Monday.
“People are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots,” Trump said of health officials, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
The president went on to claim that if he’d listened to Fauci, the U.S. would have 500,000 deaths or more from the coronavirus. He also seemed to be unconcerned about his comments being made public.
“If there’s a reporter on, you can have it just the way I said it, I couldn’t care less,” Trump said, according to Collins.
Trump also openly speculated about firing Fauci, but was concerned about the potential fallout — noting “there’s always a bomb” when Fauci appears on television, but there’s “a bigger bomb if you fire him.”
The president’s new comments are the latest salvo in the feud between him and Fauci. On Sunday night, Fauci told 60 Minutes that he was not surprised Trump contracted Covid-19 following the Rose Garden event to introduce Judge Amy Coney Barrett as his Supreme Court nominee.
“I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded, no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask,” Fauci said. “When I saw that on TV, I said, ‘Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come out of that, that’s gotta be a problem.’ And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event.”
Former Biden Business Associate Flips, Confirms Hunter Traded on His Dad’s Influence
Western Journal – Evidence is mounting that former Vice President Joe Biden not only knew his man-child son, Hunter Biden, was profiting from his powerful perch in government, but that Joe Biden himself may have financially benefited from these arrangements.
A new story of Biden family corruption has emerged, and it is independent of the New York Post bombshell last week about the emails found on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Breitbart News editor and president of the Government Accountability Institute Peter Schweizer broke the news on Friday that associates of Hunter Biden quickly arranged a White House meeting in November 2011 for a delegation of Chinese business leaders and Communist Party officials. This visit apparently included a meeting with the vice president himself.
Ratcliffe says Hunter Biden laptop, emails ‘not part of some Russian disinformation campaign’
Fox – Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Monday said that Hunter Biden’s laptop “is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” amid claims from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff suggesting otherwise.
Ratcliffe, during an exclusive interview on FOX Business’ “Mornings with Maria,” was asked about the allegations from Schiff, D-Calif., who over the weekend said that the Hunter Biden emails suggesting Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden had knowledge of, and was allegedly involved in, his son’s foreign business dealings.
“It’s funny that some of the people who complain the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing the intelligence,” Ratcliffe said. “Unfortunately, it is Adam Schiff who said the intelligence community believes the Hunter Biden laptop and emails on it are part of a Russian disinformation campaign.”
He added: “Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress.”
Ratcliffe went on to say that it is “simply not true.”
Georgetown University hires Peter Strzok to teach at foreign service school
Fox – Former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, who drew notoriety for anti-Trump text messages he sent during an extramarital affair with FBI attorney Lisa Page while employed by the bureau, is now an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.Georgetown University’s website lists Peter Strzok II as an adjunct in its undergraduate program, and Strzok has added his position at Georgetown to his Twitter bio.
The Walsh School of Foreign Service offers undergraduate and graduate studies and describes itself as a “premier school of international affairs.” Prominent alumni include former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen, Bloomberg Media Group CEO Justin B. Smith and conservative commentator Daniel Henninger.
Opposing Boston protest groups go head-to-head, with some burning flags
Fox – Opposing groups of protesters went head-to-head in Boston, where they were largely peaceful despite some tense moments, including when demonstrators burned flags and one man poured “blood” on himself, according to photographs and local reports.
Dozens of protesters from pro-Trump group “Super Happy Fun America” gathered on one side of Boston’s Copley Square from 12 to 2 p.m. on Sunday while at least three groups of counterprotesters demonstrated just feet away around the same time, according to Boston.com.
Super Happy Fun America, otherwise known as SHFA, was reportedly rallying for President Trump’s reelection and pushing back against “Democratic violence,” local FOX affiliate Boston 25 News wrote.
“Police are being attacked, our country, our cities are burning down, and you can only expect at some point someone’s going to want to stand up and talk about it,” SFHA director Eli Larabee told Boston 25.
Group administrators wrote on their Facebook page that they planned to “peacefully demonstrate with speeches and patriotic banners in order to send a message” to the “leftist mob.”
The opposing groups were separated by metal barriers and police barricades, according to multiple reports and photographs.
Economy & Business
Beijing Calls US Threats to Impose Sanctions Over Arms Supply to Iran Senseless
Sputnik – The US threats to impose sanctions on anyone supplying weapons to Iran are senseless, as such restrictions would be illegitimate, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Zhao Lijian said at a briefing on Monday.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry stated on Sunday, referring to the UN Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), that all restrictions on the transfer of arms to the country were terminated. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded by saying that the US was ready to sanction any individual or entity that supplied conventional arms to Iran.
“The US actions are absolutely senseless. The US has even stated that China is going to supply arms to Iran. Chinese arms export policy has demonstrated our responsibility, while the US peddles arms and ammunition everywhere, uses military trade to serve geopolitical interests, and even openly interferes in the internal affairs of other countries,” Zhao told reporters.
He added that “the US has withdrawn from the Arms Trade Treaty and does not have any right to make irresponsible statements concerning China.”
The Chinese official stressed that the UN Security Council had already lifted the arms embargo from Iran.
Pelosi Points to Election as Reason for 48-Hour Deadline on Stimulus Deal
Western Journal – House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has given the Trump White House a deadline to agree to a coronavirus relief package if it wants passage before Election Day.
Pelosi and President Donald Trump have been going back and forth over the terms of any deal for weeks. Drew Hamill, Pelosi’s spokesman, tweeted Saturday that progress was taking shape.
“The Speaker and Secretary Mnuchin spoke at 7:40 p.m. by phone tonight for just over an hour. While there was some encouraging news on testing, there remains work to do,” he tweeted.
Science & Technology
NASA Launching 4G Phone Network On The Moon
CNet – It’s one small step for phones, one giant leap for phonekind. NASA and Nokia are planning the first cellular network on the moon.
Finnish phone company Nokia has announced it’s working with the US space administration to build a 4G LTE network for moonwalkers by late 2022. As well as voice communication and data transmission, the mobile network could power navigation, stream biometric data so controllers can keep an eye on each astronaut’s health and fitness, and direct remote-control robots and sensors on the lunar surface.
It’s a part of NASA’s Artemis program, intended to establish a sustainable base on the lunar surface by 2028. Several companies have been contracted by NASA in deals adding up to more than $370 million.
Nokia is best known for making a number of much-loved early cellphones (and Snake, the game loaded on those phones), but it’s also big in back-end communications equipment, from cell towers to satellites. Largely using off-the-shelf, commercially available tech such as lightweight 4G base stations, Nokia promises the lunar network will be “ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened, end-to-end LTE.” It will also be upgraded to 5G over time. Exciting news for moonwalkers; possibly a bit annoying for anyone who can’t get a signal right here on Earth.
For more on NASA, SpaceX and other cosmic news, check out CNET’s Watch This Space series.
Twitter Censors Top White House COVID Adviser for Mask Post
Western Journal – Twitter has censored a White House coronavirus adviser for suggesting that widespread mask mandates were not a magical defense against the coronavirus.
Dr. Scott Atlas, in a post published Saturday that Twitter censored but can be read on the Web archive, wrote, “Masks work? NO: LA, Miami, Hawaii, Alabama, France, Phlippnes, UK, Spain, Israel. WHO:’widesprd use not supported’ + many harms; Heneghan/Oxf CEBM:’despite decades, considerble uncertainty re value’; CDC rvw May:’no sig red’n in inflnz transm’n’; learn why.”
He followed that up with a tweet that Twitter allowed to remain.
Health
Work underway on UTS 15-minute COVID test
Campus Review – Australian researchers say their coronavirus test, which can deliver a positive result in under 15 minutes, is set to be manufactured in Western Australia.
Have You Ever Heard of This Healthy Alternative to Flour?
Mercola – Breadfruit is a funny sounding name for a fruit that can be dried and ground to flour. The protein is easier to digest that wheat.
The gluten-free fruit is high in fiber and has a low glycemic index. The trees produce up to 200 fruits in one year and have been a staple in the tropics for centuries.
Breadfruit flour could reduce exposure to gluten in baked products; it could also mitigate diabetes and help with food shortages around the world.
High fiber in breadfruit helps to feed the gut microbiome; it may prevent leaky gut syndrome and lower the risk of heart disease
9 Impressive Health Benefits of Pumpkin
Healthline – Pumpkin is a type of winter squash that belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family.
In the US, pumpkin typically refers to Cucurbita pepo, an orange type of winter squash. In other regions, such as Australia, pumpkin may refer to any type of winter squash.
While commonly viewed as a vegetable, pumpkin is scientifically a fruit, as it contains seeds. That said, it’s nutritionally more similar to vegetables than fruits.
Beyond its delicious taste, pumpkin is nutritious and linked to many health benefits.
Here are 9 impressive nutrition and health benefits of pumpkin