1312: iPhony

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 19:05

WASHINGTON '' Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took additional action against seven individuals and four entities that are part of a Russia-linked foreign influence network associated with Andrii Derkach. Russian agent Derkach was designated on September 10, 2020, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13848, for his attempt to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

''Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,'' said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. ''The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our election systems and processes.''

Treasury Targets Derkach's Inner CircleSince at least 2019, Derkach and his associates have leveraged U.S. media, U.S.-based social media platforms, and influential U.S. persons to spread misleading and unsubstantiated allegations that current and former U.S. officials engaged in corruption, money laundering, and unlawful political influence in Ukraine. Former Ukrainian Government officials Konstantin Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, Andriy Telizhenko, and current Ukraine Member of Parliament Oleksandr Dubinsky have publicly appeared or affiliated themselves with Derkach through the coordinated dissemination and promotion of fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations involving a U.S. political candidate. They have made repeated public statements to advance disinformation narratives that U.S. government officials have engaged in corrupt dealings in Ukraine. These efforts are consistent with and in support of Derkach's efforts, acting as an agent of the Russian intelligence services, to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. Kulyk, a former prosecutor for the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine, formed an alliance with Derkach to spread false accusations of international corruption. Onyshchenko, a fugitive from Ukrainian justice due to charges of corruption, provided edited audio tape copies of purported audio recordings of conversations between former Ukrainian and U.S. officials, which Derkach released between May and July 2020 to discredit U.S. officials and influence the U.S. elections. Telizhenko, a former low-level Ukrainian diplomat, orchestrated meetings between Derkach and U.S. persons to help propagate false claims concerning corruption in Ukraine. Dubinsky, who serves alongside Derkach in Ukraine's parliament, joined Derkach in press conferences designed to perpetuate these and other false narratives and denigrate U.S. presidential candidates and their families.

Kulyk, Onyshchenko, Telizhenko, and Dubinsky are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for having directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign influence in a United States election.

Treasury Targets Disinformation Apparatus Supporting DerkachNabuLeaks and Era-Media TOV are media front companies in Ukraine that push false narratives at Derkach's behest. Derkach has been the de facto owner of Era-Media-related companies since the 1990s. More recently, Derkach created the NabuLeaks platform to disparage the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). NABU was created in 2015 as one of three specialized anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine. Derkach and Dubinsky have lobbied against NABU in an effort to replace NABU leadership, discredit NABU as an organization, and deny their own corrupt practices.

NabuLeaks and Era-Media TOV are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for being owned or controlled by Derkach. Derkach has also used a network of media professionals and assistants to operate these entities, supporting his influence campaign centered on cultivating false or unsubstantiated narratives and spurring corruption investigations in both Ukraine and the United States.

Petro Zhuravel is a key member of Derkach's media team. He acts as Derkach's media manager, and serves as website administrator for NabuLeaks, a cornerstone of Derkach's election influence platform. Zhuravel provides technological support that underpins Derkach's online activities. Zhuravel owns Only News and Skeptik TOV, which are media front companies in Ukraine that spread disinformation. These entities host websites that are part of a network of news sites that are controlled by Derkach's media team and that help spread Derkach's disinformation.

Dmytro Kovalchuk is a long-time supporter of Derkach. Most recently, he served in the ranks of Derkach's media team, where he provided profiles on U.S. political figures. Anton Simonenko served as Derkach's assistant for nearly a decade and helped Derkach hide financial assets. Simonenko continues to be one of Derkach's closest associates.

Zhuravel, Kovalchuk, and Simonenko are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for having materially assisted, sponsored or provided financial, material or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Derkach. Only News and Skeptik TOV are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for being owned or controlled by Zhuravel. The Treasury Department encourages the American people to confirm information received via social media intelligently by going to multiple trusted sources for news and information, particularly when the source or suspected source of the information is from outside the United States. More information specific to the U.S. 2020 election and disinformation campaigns can be found here: https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol.

As a result of today's designations, all property and interests in property of these targets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, any entities 50 percent or more owned by one or more designated persons are also blocked.

View identifying information on the individuals and entities sanctioned today.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:33

Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order taking further steps to deal with the threat posed by the People's Republic of China's (PRC) increasing exploitation of United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses which continue to allow the PRC to directly threaten the United States homeland and United States forces overseas, including by developing and deploying weapons of mass destruction, advanced conventional weapons, and malicious cyber-enabled actions against the United States and its people.

Through the national strategy of Military-Civil Fusion, the PRC increases the size of the country's military-industrial complex by compelling civilian Chinese companies to support its military and intelligence activities. Those companies, though remaining ostensibly private and civilian, directly support the PRC's military, intelligence, and security apparatuses and aid in their development and modernization. At the same time, they raise capital by selling securities to United States investors that trade on public exchanges both here and abroad, lobbying United States index providers and funds to include these securities in market offerings, and engaging in other acts to ensure access to United States capital. In that way, the PRC exploits United States investors to finance the development and modernization of its military.

To deal with that threat, I signed Executive Order 13959 on November 12, 2020. Executive Order 13959 prohibits certain purchases involving publicly traded securities, or any securities that are derivative of, or are designed to provide investment exposure to such securities, of any Communist Chinese military company. Those companies are ones the Department of Defense has listed, or will list, pursuant to section 1237 of Public Law 105-261, as amended, or are identified as Communist Chinese military companies or their subsidiaries by the Secretary of the Treasury using similar criteria.

Today, I signed an Executive Order amending Executive Order 13959. The amendments prohibit certain sales as well as purchases of publicly traded securities, or any securities that are derivative of, or are designed to provide investment exposure to such securities, of any Communist Chinese military company. They also prohibit possession of such securities by United States persons 1 year after a company is determined to be a Communist Chinese military company. And, finally, they allow the Secretary of Defense publicly to list whether a company is a Communist Chinese military company using the criteria in section 1237(b)(4)(B) of Public Law 105-261, as amended by section 1233 of Public Law 106-398 and section 1222 of Public Law 108'‘375, regardless of whether the Secretary must report that determination under section 1237(b)(2).

I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.

Sincerely,

DONALD J. TRUMP

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:31

The Washington Post has reported that the outgoing Capitol Police Chief, Steve Sund, believes his efforts to secure the premises were undermined by a lack of concern from House and Senate security officials who answer directly to Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate leader Mitch McConnell. The National Pulse can also report the Washington Post's timeline proves it was impossible for Trump speech attendees to have made it to the Capitol in time for the breach.In addition to the fact that Trump openly called for the ''cheering on'' of Congressman, and ''peaceful'' protests, the timeline as established from numerous, establishment media reports simply doesn't stack up.

The admission that House and Senate security leaders failed to provide Capitol Police with resources on the day will raise questions over their role in the day's events.

WaPo reported late Sunday night:

Two days before Congress was set to formalize President-elect Joe Biden's victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest.

To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup.

But, Sund said Sunday, they turned him down.

In his first interview since pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, Sund, who has since resigned his post, said his supervisors were reluctant to take formal steps to put the Guard on call even as police intelligence suggested that the crowd President Trump had invited to Washington to protest his defeat probably would be much larger than earlier demonstrations.

House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he wasn't comfortable with the ''optics'' of formally declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstration, Sund said. Meanwhile, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger suggested that Sund should informally seek out his Guard contacts, asking them to ''lean forward'' and be on alert in case Capitol Police needed their help.

Irving could not be reached for comment. A cellphone number listed in his name has not accepted messages since Wednesday. Messages left at a residence he owns in Nevada were not immediately returned, and there was no answer Sunday evening at a Watergate apartment listed in his name. A neighbor said he had recently moved out.

Sund recalled a conference call with Pentagon officials and officials from the D.C. government. He said on the call: ''I am making an urgent, urgent immediate request for National Guard assistance'... I have got to get boots on the ground.''

But the request was apparently denied over optics.

''I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background,'' an Army official replied.

John Falcicchio, chief of staff for D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser admitted: ''Literally, this guy is on the phone, I mean, crying out for help. It's burned in my memories.''

The Dodgy Timeline. And while the Washington Post clumsily attempts to blame President Trump for the violence '' despite the President calling for ''peaceful'' protests and the ''cheering on'' of Congressmen '' their own article admits the ''first wave of protesters arrived at the Capitol about 12:40pm.''

President Trump's speech didn't conclude until 1:11pm, and with at least a 45-minute walk between the two locations with crowd-related delays, that would put the first people from Trump's speech at Capitol Hill no earlier than 1:56pm '' a full hour and sixteen minutes after troublemakers arrived.

In fact, rioters who breached the perimeter would have had to leave before Trump's speech even began (at 12pm precisely) to make it in time for the events as they are detailed by authorities.

The Washington Post also states: ''Sund's outer perimeter on the Capitol's west side was breached within 15 minutes,'' meaning the Capitol was breached over an hour before Trump speech attendees could have even begun to arrive.

This correlates with Sund's interview, where he admits: ''I realized at 1pm, things aren't going well'... I'm watching my people getting slammed.''

Again, 1pm would have been a full 56-minutes before any Trump speech-attendees could have begun arriving, let alone breaching the perimeter and clashing with police. Downtown Washington, D.C. roads were closed. There was no way of arriving faster, let alone before the President had finished speaking.

At 1:09pm, still before the President had finished speaking, Sund called the Sergeants-at-arms of the House and Senate. He told them it was time to call in the National Guard. He even said he wanted an emergency declaration. Both, however, said they would ''run it up the chain'' and get back to him.

At 1:50pm the Capitol itself was breached. Still before most Trump speech attendees could have arrived.

What happened after this point was a back and forth over hours between D.C. officials, Army officials, and Capitol police.

Eventually '' at past 5pm '' the National Guard arrived.

And while Sund is quoted in the Washington Post as blaming President Trump's speech for the violence that ensued '' the timeline means that makes no sense.

The President's fans are not known for leaving his speeches 5 or 10 minutes in. And by the time the Capitol was breached, those who had stayed to listen to even the first 15 minutes would not have even made it there in time.

SUPPORT THE NATIONAL PULSE

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 02:22

The actions of Your T1 WIFI, which provides internet services to North Idaho and the Spokane area, could violate Washington state's Net Neutrality law.

SPOKANE, Wash. '-- A North Idaho internet provider, Your T1 WIFI, confirmed it is blocking Facebook and Twitter from its WIFI service for some customers due to censorship claims.

Your T1 WIFI provides internet services to North Idaho and the Spokane area.

The move comes after Twitter and Facebook banned President Trump from their platforms due to incitement of violence and undermining the transition of power to President elect Joe Biden.

The social media sites banned the President due to violations of their terms of service. Because Twitter and Facebook are private companies, their bans on the President do not violate the First Amendment, which protects speech from being limited by the government.

Your T1 WIFI's actions, however, could violate Washington state's Net Neutrality law.

Your T1 WIFI said it decided to block Twitter and Facebook after the company received several calls from customers about both websites.

"It has come to our attention that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in censorship of our customers and information," an email to customers reads.

The service provider said the change would go into effect on Wednesday, Jan. 13.

In an email posted to Twitter by a customer, Krista Yep, the company says it was fielding calls from customers asking that the service not display the sites on the internet, and that they didn't want their children to be able to access them.

"Our company does not believe a website or social networking site has the authority to censor what you see and post and hide information from you, stop you from seeing what your friends and family are posting," the email reads. "This is why with the amount of concerns, we have made this decision to block these two websites from being accessed from our network."

The company did not specify what complaints customers had made.

Yep said she found the company's email to customers alarming.

"I was pretty shocked that they were just coming out and saying that," Yep said. "If it's not illegal, it's highly unethical."

Initially, the company said too many customers had requested the sites be blocked, so it would block them for all customers except for those who called the company and requested access. However, the company backtracked on Monday and said those who didn't request the sites be blocked would still have access.

"Just because you don't like what Twitter and Facebook have done, then you decide to block it for everyone else, so in your opposition to censorship, you're going with censorship," Yep said.

Yep said she plans to cancel her service, regardless of the company's backtracking.

"Their original email was pretty alarming and I don't trust them anymore," she said.

Yep forwarded additional emails from the company to KREM. In them, the company states that two-thirds of customers asked for Twitter and Facebook to be blocked.

In the emails, the company also wrote that their contract and acceptable use policy allows them to block websites if they deem the content "break any rules (sic) or illegal or harmful to our customers and more."

In a phone call with KREM, the owner of the company, Brett Fink, again said the websites would only be blocked for customers who asked.

"We've had customers asked to be blocked by it. That is what the email was about, so no we are not blocking anybody, only the ones that have asked for it," Fink said.

While Your T1 WIFI says they acted in response to censorship, the company's actions could also be considered censorship. In addition, they may violate Washington state's Net Neutrality law, which states that internet providers may not manipulate access to content.

The law contains the following language:

A person engaged in the provision of broadband internet access service in Washington state, insofar as the person is so engaged, may not:(a) Block lawful content, applications, services, or nonharmful devices, subject to reasonable network management;(b) Impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on the basis of internet content, application, or service, or use of a nonharmful device, subject to reasonable network management; or(c) Engage in paid prioritization

A spokesperson for Washington Gov. Jay Inslee's office said the attorney general's Consumer Protection Division was "taking a look at the matter." Brionna Aho, a spokesperson for Attorney General Bob Ferguson, said he takes enforcement of the net neutrality law "very seriously."

Idaho does not have the same net neutrality law. A representative for the Idaho Attorney General said their office lacks the original jurisdiction to be the enforcement authority in this matter.

KREM has also reached out to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for comment.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 12:51

Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund resigned after thousands of supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday. Sund says his requests to superiors to get the National Guard to respond to the riot at the Capitol were rebuffed. Spencer Platt/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption Spencer Platt/Getty Images Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund resigned after thousands of supporters of President Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday. Sund says his requests to superiors to get the National Guard to respond to the riot at the Capitol were rebuffed.

Spencer Platt/Getty Images The former chief of U.S. Capitol Police says security officials at the House and Senate rebuffed his early requests to call in the National Guard ahead of a demonstration in support of President Trump that turned into a deadly attack on Congress.

Former chief Steven Sund -- who resigned his post last week after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for him to step down -- made the assertions in an interview with The Washington Post published Sunday.

Sund contradicts claims made by officials after Wednesday's assault on Capitol Hill. Sund's superiors said previously that the National Guard and other additional security support could have been provided, but no one at the Capitol requested it.

Sund told the Post that House Sergeant-at-Arms Paul Irving was concerned with the "optics" of declaring an emergency ahead of the protests and rejected a National Guard presence. He says Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Michael Stenger recommended that he informally request the Guard to be ready in case it was needed to maintain security.

Like Sund, Irving and Stenger have also since resigned their posts.

Sund says he requested assistance six times ahead of and during the attack on the Capitol. Each of those requests was denied or delayed, he says.

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser also wanted a light police presence at the Capitol. She reportedly wanted to avoid a similar scenario as last summer, when federal forces responded to demonstrators opposed to police abuses who assembled near the White House.

During Wednesday's violence, Bowser requested, and received, a limited force of 340 from the D.C. National Guard. Those troops were unarmed and their job was to help with traffic flow '-- not law enforcement, which was meant to be handled by D.C. police.

When the mob reached the Capitol complex at about 12:40 p.m. ET on Wednesday, it took about 15 minutes for the west side perimeter of the building to be breached, he says. The Capitol Police contingent, which numbered around 1,400 that day, was quickly overrun by the estimated 8,000 rioters.

"If we would have had the National Guard we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive," he says.

Sund says during a conference call with several law enforcement officials at about 2:26 p.m., he asked the Pentagon to provide backup.

Senior Army official Lt. Gen. Walter E. Piatt, director of the Army Staff, said on the call he couldn't recommend that Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy authorize deployment, Sund and others on the call told the Post. Piatt reportedly said, "I don't like the visual of the National Guard standing a police line with the Capitol in the background," the Post reported.

It would be more than three hours before any National Guard troops arrived, well after the damage at the Capitol had been done.

In the interview, Sund also issued a warning to federal officials, saying "if they don't get their act together with physical security, it's going to happen again."

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:44

The Facts Inside Our Reporter's NotebookPentagon officials held a table-top planning exercise the morning of Jan. 6 to rehearse how the Defense Department might respond to events that day in Washington, D.C., defense officials confirmed. The exercise was held some two hours before Capitol Police ordered the evacuation of the besieged U.S. Capitol complex.

"The table-top was requested by the highest levels inside the Department of Defense," one official said. "The two top guys '-- Miller and Milley '-- were part of this." The comment references acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

Table-top exercises are widely used within the U.S. military and other organizations to simulate emergency situations, and to assign roles and look for gaps in plans and procedures.

The Jan. 6 exercise was held after Miller and Milley examined the Defense Department's plan to support local law enforcement agencies, according to a Pentagon memo.

Miller and Milley requested the exercise at 8:30 a.m., according to a memorandum from Miller's executive secretary, Navy Capt. David Soldow. Three hours later, the exercise commenced.

"1130: [Miller] participates in table-top exercise regarding DoD contingency response options," Soldow wrote in the memo bearing a date with the typographical error of Jan. 00.

Neither the Pentagon official nor Soldow revealed specific details about the exercise. But, the official noted: "You don't need a table-top to see that things went downhill fast."

In the wake of the Capitol siege that resulted in death, injury, arrests, and destruction of property, blame has been cast at various agencies and officials for failing to prevent and repel the violent assault. Steven Sund, who resigned as chief of the Capitol Police shortly after the Capitol breach, has said that his pleas for backup were rebuffed by House and Senate security officials and a Pentagon commander.

"If we would have had the National Guard, we could have held them at bay longer, until more officers from our partner agencies could arrive," Sund told the Washington Post.

But in the days leading up to Jan. 6, Soldow wrote, Sund's agency twice said it did not need help from the National Guard.

On Jan. 3, "DoD confirms with U.S. Capitol Police that there is no request for support," Soldow wrote. On Jan. 4, he added, Capitol Police "confirms there is no requirement for DoD support in a phone call with [Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy]."

The situation at the Capitol had turned dire by 1:26 p.m. on Wednesday, when Sund's agency ordered the evacuation of the building complex. The desperate call for help came at 1:59 p.m., according to the Pentagon memo. "Chief Sund communicates request for immediate assistance," Soldow wrote.

"At that point, bureaucracy kicked into gear," the defense official told Just the News.

The sequence of events that eventually brought the National Guard to help the embattled Capitol Police will be the subject of intense official scrutiny.

Miller has declared support for how his people addressed the Jan. 6 mayhem.

"In the midst of this tragedy, I was proud of the professionalism of our Department of Defense personnel," Miller said in a statement. "I want to specifically recognize the service of the District of Columbia National Guard. They performed with honor, integrity and alacrity to protect people and property from unlawful acts."

President Donald Trump on Monday declared an emergency in Washington, D.C., and ordered federal assistance in advance of the Jan. 20 inauguration of Joe Biden. Additionally, 15,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen have been authorized to stand duty in various capacities inside the District, according to the National Guard Bureau.

The plans include more table-top exercises regarding contingency response options, the defense official said.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 20:21

NYC Scanner : BREAKING: Aaron Mostofsky, the son of a NY Supreme Court judge was arrested in Midwood Brooklyn on Tuesday morning'... https://t.co/nnQpPxCXEf

Tue Jan 12 14:59:24 +0000 2021

slontone bushinsky : @NYScanner @JoeExecutive1 Blanket immunity.

Tue Jan 12 20:16:27 +0000 2021

DontGetParked718 : @NYScanner Pops a high ranking judge watch him tap dance all over that case ðŸ‘

Tue Jan 12 20:14:48 +0000 2021

WeCanDoBetter : @NYScanner No kicking down the door with guns drawn like they do with non-white suspects?

Tue Jan 12 20:14:38 +0000 2021

shelcan : @NYScanner @1barbsnz What a nice jewish boy -NOT !

Tue Jan 12 20:12:41 +0000 2021

Rock & Patriot Riot Review : @NYScanner @Breaking911 Word is he was found with a shofar, 5 smooth stones and the jawbone of an ass in his back pocket.

Tue Jan 12 20:10:07 +0000 2021

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 01:50

The CIA has declassified a trove of more than 700 documents about UFO sightings and research dating back to the 1970s.

The remarkable dossier filled with what the CIA claims is every single one of its files on Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs) - the government's official term for what are commonly called UFOs - was published on The Black Vault website on Thursday.

Black Vault's founder John Greenewald Jr has spent the past two decades suing the CIA to release the records and then scanning the pages one by one.

The dossier was released ahead of a June deadline for US intelligence agencies to reveal everything they know about UFOs to Congress under a clause slipped into the $2.3trillion coronavirus relief bill signed into law by President Donald Trump in December.

A DailyMail.com review of about one-tenth of the files in the Black Vault database - which could take weeks to comb through in its entirety - revealed a few perplexing examples of UAP sightings.

More than 700 declassified CIA reports about UFOs dating back to the 1970s were published on The Black Vault website on Thursday (file photo)

Urgent UFO information is hand-delivered to the CIA's top scientist for review in 1976

Asked about which documents had piqued his interest, Greenewald highlighted a report about seemingly urgent UFO information being hand-delivered to an Assistant Deputy Director for Science & Technology at the CIA in April 1976.

Most details about the information were redacted in the document, but Greenewald said he is determine to uncover more through further FOIA requests.

The name of the deputy director was also redacted but records indicate that Carl Duckett served in that position at the time.

The document states: 'We contacted A/DDS&T (Dr [redacted]) to see if he knew of any UFO program and also to answer the questions posed by [redacted].

'Dr [redacted] exhibited interest in [redacted] which was handcarried to his office. After a short examination of its contents Dr [redacted] advised us that he would personally look into the matter and get back to us.'

A second document from June of 1976 appears to request an update on the review, but there is no record of the ordeal after that.

The heavily redacted report above describes seemingly urgent UFO information being hand-delivered to an Assistant Deputy Director for Science & Technology in April 1976

CIA officials discuss the possibility that UFOs were behind a 'mysterious blast' in the small Russian town of Sasovo in 1991

In another report, CIA officials discuss the possibility that UFOs were behind a 'mysterious blast' in the small Russian town of Sasovo - about 400 kilometers southwest of Moscow - in 1991.

Residents reported seeing a 'fiery sphere' descend from the sky before a shockwave tore through the town, leveling an entire block.

The report said investigators had failed to come to a conclusion about the cause of the explosion, leaving open the possibility of UFOs.

It states: 'Some people are talking about munitions left buried since the last war, while others claim that a powerful bomb fell. A third group blame it on a meteorite, and a fourth group blame UFOs... There are people who supposedly saw a moving "fiery sphere".'

Among the more than 700 files in the Black Vault database is this report, where CIA officials discuss the possibility that UFOs were behind a 'mysterious blast' in a small Russian town

UFO enthusiast hounds the CIA for information about a sighting at Ohio Air Force Base

Several of the files appeared to reference the same incident, in which a possible UFO was sighted at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in 1978.

The reports refer to someone named Dr Leon Davidson who made multiple requests for information about the matter and did not appear to be getting any response.

He is believed to be the same Dr Leon Davidson who studied UFOs for decades beginning in 1949, according to Columbia University, which was gifted a collection of the engineer's research on the subject after his death in 2007.

One report states: '[Redacted] received a letter from Davidson [redacted] in which Davidson asked if the [redacted] tape had been analyzed at Wright Field.

'[Redacted] replied that the tape was forwarded to proper authorities for evaluation and no information was available concerning results.

'[Redacted] then received a second letter dated 19 March from Davidson in which he said since [redacted] was not in a position to make enquires he would like the address of proper parties to make them to.

'[Redacted] replied that he understood the proper address for forwarding information on "flying saucers" is Air Technical Intelligence Center, Wright Patterson Air Force Base.

'Subsequently, [redacted] learned that Davidson made enquiries there. Apparently they stalled him.'

In May of that year another report asks: 'What progress has been made? This correspondence is more than a month old. I am afraid the longer we procrastinate the more fuel we add to the fire. Also, the people at Wright Field are holding their breaths awaiting advice.'

A third report, for which the date is illegible, says: 'Davidson is on our backs again. He wants a verbatim translation of the "space" message and the identification of the transmitter from which it came.'

In a fourth report - which indicates that the case is 'closed' - the author states that Davidson was writing an article about the incident entitled: 'The Air Force and the Saucers, Part Three: The Central Intelligence Agency becomes involved with Saucers.'

It indicates that the CIA did provide Davidson with some information, but does not disclose what that information was.

In the final report on the matter, the author indicates that the CIA will no longer be responding to Davidson's correspondence.

Wright-Patterson AFB has long been linked to conspiracy theories about alien life, after serving as the headquarters of an Air Force program- dubbed 'Project Blue Book', which studied UFOs from 1947 to 1969.

Over the course of those two decades the project garnered more than 12,600 reports of UFO sightings - 701 of which were never 'identified', according to the Dayton Daily News.

Several of the files appeared to reference the same incident, in which a possible UFO was sighted at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio in 1978. The reports refer to someone named Dr Leon Davidson who made multiple requests for information about the matter and did not appear to be getting any response

In May of that year another report asks: 'What progress has been made?'

A third report, for which the date is illegible, says: 'Davidson is on our backs again. He wants a verbatim translation of the "space" message and the identification of the transmitter from which it came'

In a fourth report - which indicates that the case is 'closed' - the author states that Davidson was writing an article about the incident entitled: 'The Air Force and the Saucers, Part Three: The Central Intelligence Agency becomes involved with Saucers'

In the final report on the matter, the author indicates that the CIA will no longer be responding to Davidson's correspondence

UFO sighted in Morocco in 1976

One of the most heavily-redacted documents reviewed by DailyMail.com is dated September 23, 1976, and features the words: 'To immediate director - with personal request to investigate UFO sighted in Morocco.'

The full-page report is covered in 25 black lines that appeared to have been made directly with a pen.

The report was first approved for release in February of 2010, a footnote indicates.

One of the most heavily-redacted documents reviewed by DailyMail.com is dated September 23, 1976, and features the words: 'To immediate director - with personal request to investigate UFO sighted in Morocco'

Many of the files are similarly redacted to remove nearly every little detail beyond the word UFO.

Some in the mix merely mention the keywords 'UFO', 'UAP' or 'extraterrestrial' in the context of unrelated topics, offering little to no insight about the CIA's overall knowledge about those keywords.

For example, one document entitled 'Hypervelocity Test Techniques Discussed' describes a French study of a force which could be used to deflect UFOs - defined in the document as 'undesired flying objects' - not unidentified ones.

Another document joined the pile because it features a newspaper column about a Bosnian fugitive, in which the author mocks the Pentagon's failure to find the man despite 'communicating regularly with extraterrestrial beings'.

One document entitled 'Hypervelocity Test Techniques Discussed' describes a French study of a force which could be used to deflect UFOs - defined in the document as 'undesired flying objects' - not unidentified ones

Another document joined the pile because it features a newspaper column about a Bosnian fugitive, in which the author mocks the Pentagon's failure to find the man despite 'communicating regularly with extraterrestrial beings'

'It was like pulling teeth': Greenewald recounts the 20 years he's spent fighting for access to CIA records on UFOs

Black Vault's founder John Greenewald Jr (pictured) has spent the past two decades suing the CIA to release the records and then scanning the pages one by one

Greenewald began investigating the US government's research on UFOs when he was just 15 years old in 1996.

He described his painstaking efforts to Motherboard on Monday, saying he filed countless Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to unseal the records.

'Around 20 years ago, I had fought for years to get additional UFO records released from the CIA,' Greenewald said.

'It was like pulling teeth. I went around and around with them to try and do so, finally achieving it.

'I received a large box, of a couple thousand pages, and I had to scan them in one page at a time.'

The dossier contains both the records that Greenewald requested and others that the CIA had already released publicly and compiled into a CD, which Black Vault purchased last year.

In a blog post Greenewald noted that while the CIA claims it has released all of its UAP documents, there is no way to verify whether some documents may have been withheld.

In a Twitter thread on Tuesday he explained how the records available on the CIA's website are incomplete, despite the agency 'giving the illusion' that everything is there.

He posted screengrabs of a CIA site search which produced 415 results for UFO-related FOIA requests - compared to the 713 files on the Black Vault.

In a Twitter thread on Tuesday Greenewald explained how the records available on the CIA's website are incomplete, despite the agency 'giving the illusion' that everything is there

Greenewald also emphasized how the CIA releases its records in a format that is far from user-friendly.

'The CIA has made it incredibly difficult to use their records in a reasonable manner,' Greenewald told Motherboard.

'They offer a format that is very outdated (multi page .tif) and offer text file outputs, largely unusable, that I think they intend to have people use as a "search" tool.

'In my opinion, this outdated format makes it very difficult for people to see the documents, and use them, for any research purpose.

'Researchers and curious minds alike prefer simplicity and accessibility when they look at data dumps such as these.'

Despite the inconvenience, Greenewald said thousands of people had already downloaded the archive on the first day it was posted on the Black Vault.

He's offering the archive for free but set up a Patreon account for anyone who wants to donate money to support his past and future efforts to uncover CIA records.

'Plain and simple, the public has a right to know,' Greenewald said.

'When I began researching nearly 25 years ago at the age of 15, I knew there was something to this topic. Not because of viral internet hoaxes. Not because of back door meetings wherein I can't tell you who, but I promise it was mind-blowing information. No, none of that.

'It was simply because of the evidence that I got straight from the CIA. And the NSA. And the Air Force. And the DIA. I feel I am achieving what I set out to do. Easy access, to important material, for people to make up their own minds on what is going on.'

Greenewald (pictured) began investigating the US government's research on UFOs when he was just 15 years old in 1996. His Black Vault database is the result of countless different Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests

US intelligence faces six-month deadline to submit unclassified UFO report to Congress

UFO detectives like Greenewald may soon have even more intel to sift through, with the upcoming deadline for US intelligence agencies to submit an unclassified report about 'unidentified aerial phenomena' to congressional intelligence and armed services committees.

The director of National Intelligence and the secretary of defense have just under six months to do so, after a stipulation in the 'committee comment' section of the Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 was included in the huge bill, according to CNN.

The Senate intelligence committee's directive said that the report should be unclassified, but it can contain a classified annex. Therefore, it is unlikely to reveal the discovery of extra-terrestrial life reaching earth.

It does, however, state that the report must contain detailed analysis of UFO data and intelligence collected by the Office of Naval Intelligence, the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force and the FBI.

Detail of 'an interagency process for ensuring timely data collection and centralized analysis of all unidentified aerial phenomena reporting for the Federal Government' must be included, and it should designate an official responsible for that process.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed the requirement for the report to the fact-checking website Snopes.

Navy pilots believe they spotted a UFO just off the coast in Jacksonville in 2015 (pictured)

In April last year, the Pentagon released three short videos - one from 2004 and two from 2015 - that showed 'unidentified aerial phenomena', which had earlier been confirmed to be real by the US Navy.

The videos, recorded by infrared cameras, showed what appeared to be unidentified flying objects quickly moving across the sky.

In the background of two of the videos, service members can be heard reacting as they watch the objects, with one speculating it could be a drone.

In August, the Pentagon announced that it was setting up a task force to investigate the objects, but it is still unclear what the objects are or where they came from.

Both Pentagon officials and members of Congress have been concerned about the appearance of unidentified objects flying over US military bases, with some suggesting the objects in the video could be drones collecting intelligence.

In June last year, the Senate Intelligence Committee voted to have the Pentagon and intelligence community provide public analysis of such encounters.

This is not the first time the Pentagon has investigated aerial encounters with UFOs, having previously studied recordings of such incidents as part of a classified program launched by former Senator Harry Reid, that has since been shut down.

That program was launched in 2007 and closed in 2012, the Pentagon says, after it decided there were higher priority areas that required funding.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 05:42

According to a report in the Washington Post, the FBI had warned that extremists were preparing to come to Washington, attack Congress and engage in ''war.''

The report said the warning was issued internally by the FBI's field office in Norfolk, Va., a day before the violent riot at the U.S. Capitol.

The warning directly contradicted statements from the Justice Department and FBI officials that they had no intelligence to suggest a storming of the Capitol.

The Post said the memo described how people had been sharing maps of the Capitol's tunnels and discussing rallying points to meet up to travel to Washington. The newspaper reported that the document detailed posts calling for violence, including that ''Congress needs to hear glass breaking, doors being kicked in, and blood from their BLM and Antifa slave soldiers being spilled.''

It also said to ''go there ready for war.''

The Associated Press has not obtained the document. The FBI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 13:01

by Jeff Foust '-- January 12, 2021 One section of the executive order directs NASA and other agencies to work together to identify technologies that can be used in both space nuclear power systems like Kilopower (above) with small, modular terrestrial nuclear reactors. Credit: NASAWASHINGTON '-- Less than a month after issuing a policy directive on space nuclear power, the White House released an executive order Jan. 12 seeking to promote the development of small nuclear reactors for space and defense applications.

The executive order, ''Promoting Small Modular Reactors for National Defense and Space Exploration,'' includes separate directions for NASA and the Defense Department to pursue small nuclear reactors for their uses, while cooperating on common technologies for those systems.

For space exploration, the executive order directs the NASA administrator to prepare a report within 180 days defining ''requirements for NASA utilization of nuclear energy systems for human and robotic exploration missions through 2040 and analyze the costs and benefits of such requirements.'' Those requirements include details such as power levels, reactor size and mass, and specific issues associated with operating such reactors in the space environment.

The executive order comes less than a month after the Dec. 16 publication of Space Policy Directive (SPD) 6, which outlined a roadmap for both space nuclear reactors and nuclear propulsion systems. It also prioritized development of surface nuclear power systems over nuclear thermal propulsion.

''One of the things that this executive order does it take it a little further,'' said an administration official, speaking on background about the executive order. ''It takes the goals we have from SPD-6 and develops a more detailed roadmap that integrates those space development programs together with terrestrial advances and developments.''

''SPD-6 is a really good start that takes us to a really good place,'' the official added. ''The executive order continues that advancement more broadly.''

Another section of the executive order directs the Department of Energy to complete a three-year effort to develop technology for the production of high-assay low enriched uranium (HALEU). NASA and the Energy Department previously identified HALEU as a potential fuel for space nuclear power systems, providing higher performance than low enriched uranium but without the nonproliferation issues of highly enriched uranium.

The order also directs the Energy Department to transition the HALEU technology to the commercial sector for larger-scale production. There is currently no commercial source of HALEU in the United States, administration officials said.

Other sections of the order focus on defense applications of small modular nuclear reactors, including a demonstration of a ''micro-reactor'' licensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission at domestic military installation as a test to see if such systems could meet Defense Department needs elsewhere. It also calls on the Defense Department to work with other agencies, including NASA, to identify national security applications of space nuclear power systems.

The executive order directs NASA and the Defense Department, along with the Energy Department and other agencies, to collaborate on a common technology roadmap ''that coordinates, to the extent practicable, terrestrial-based advanced nuclear reactor and space-based nuclear power and propulsion efforts'' through 2030.

Administration officials acknowledge there may be limits to technology cooperation between terrestrial micro-reactors developed for Defense Department applications, capable of producing megawatts of power, versus systems designed for the space environment that may produce only a few tens of kilowatts, like the ongoing Kilopower effort at NASA and the Energy Department.

''There's sometimes a risk of forcing too much commonality,'' an official said. ''What this executive order does is ensure that there is a deliberate look at what those opportunities may be.''

The executive order comes with just eight days left in President Donald Trump's term and amid one of the most chaotic, contested presidential transitions in American history, including riots at the U.S. Capitol Jan. 6 that killed several people and interrupted the formal certification of Joe Biden's victory in the November general election.

Administration officials said there was no ''race to the finish line'' to publish the executive order before the end of President Trump's term. The timing, they said, was driven by the interagency review process, stressing that the policy was in development for an extended period. ''It's the culmination of a lot of work by a lot of people at a lot of different agencies,'' one official said.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 16:26

Randy Fine : This morning I asked the Governor and Cabinet to divest the state from Amazon, Twitter, Apple, Google, and Facebook'... https://t.co/OWAzGMAjEN

Tue Jan 12 13:44:43 +0000 2021

PatriotMWoodhall : @VoteRandyFine @Fla_Pol Someone some since of integrity.. finally!!

Wed Jan 13 16:21:00 +0000 2021

Tricia Gilbert : @VoteRandyFine @Fla_Pol Awesome!!!! Fight for ALL voices!!!

Wed Jan 13 16:17:25 +0000 2021

Sojulida 🇺🇸🇪🇸 🌎 : @VoteRandyFine @Fla_Pol Only an id..t can do that

Wed Jan 13 16:14:35 +0000 2021

Lulu : @VoteRandyFine @DonaldJTrumpJr @Fla_Pol If you're doing this on behalf of Trump who tried to destroy our democracy,'... https://t.co/FHQt75506o

Wed Jan 13 16:14:19 +0000 2021

Se±or Covfefe : @VoteRandyFine @Fla_Pol Not only should you stop giving them your money, you should stop giving them the 'ore' they'... https://t.co/Jj4faANaCc

Wed Jan 13 16:13:49 +0000 2021

Merry Mudcakes : @VoteRandyFine @Fla_Pol So you're a proponent of state controlled media. "Got it"

Wed Jan 13 16:03:13 +0000 2021

Scott Farhat : @VoteRandyFine @Fla_Pol Tit for tat isn't quite so effective when YOU are demonstrably on the ethically and morally repugnant side. WEAK!

Wed Jan 13 15:59:49 +0000 2021

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:17

@amuse : BREAKING: Biden election official has been arrested for widespread election fraud in Texas. Felony charges include'... https://t.co/mNPQ6W3Mvi

Wed Jan 13 18:54:30 +0000 2021

Shirley Zohar- Holistic Evolution Medicine : @amuse Why the media is not going crazy for this

Thu Jan 14 01:16:25 +0000 2021

Robert Bouchard : @amuse @famillecg C'est la provocation des r(C)seaux sociaux qui coupent le droit de parole 75 millions d'am(C)ricain'... https://t.co/kz4aEW3q7S

Thu Jan 14 01:16:20 +0000 2021

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 12:11

The Independent employs over 100 journalists around the world to bring you news you can trust. To support truly independent journalism, please consider making a contribution or taking a subscription.

Panic buttons installed in Ayanna Pressley's congressional office were torn out before rioters stormed the Capitol last week, her staff have said.

Sarah Groh, who serves as Ms Pressley's chief of staff, was with the congresswoman when president Donald Trump's supporters stormed the US Capitol building last Wednesday.

She told the Boston Globe that she had reached for the panic buttons installed in Ms Pressley's office as they tried to barricade themselves in.

But, when they went to press panic buttons, Ms Pressley's staff saw that they weren't there, and appeared to have been ripped out.

''Every panic button in my office had been torn out - the whole unit,'' Ms Groh told the paper.

She added that she could not believe why the panic buttons were removed, and that Ms Pressley's staff had used the panic buttons in the past, including during drills.

Nor had Ms Pressley and her staff moved offices, said Ms Groh.

She went on to say that the panic buttons were installed because Ms Pressley, a member of the progressive group of House Democrats dubbed the ''Squad'', had been on the receiving end of racist attacks by the US president and his supporters.

Bennie Thompson, the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, asked Capitol Police to heighten the security surrounding Ms Pressley and other Democratic congresswoman in 2019, after the president wrote a series of racist tweets attacking members of the ''Squad''.

Mr Trump, who was rebuked for the remarks, told the congresswomen to ''go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came.''

Ms Pressley had warned in response that the president's ''cruel efforts to rile up his base have serious consequences on our collective safety and well-being."

Ms Groh added that she was ''deeply concerned'' about arriving at the Capitol Building last Wednesday, aware that Mr Trump was addressing his supporters, who were told to march on Congress with ''strength''.

She added: ''It felt like the heat was being turned up in terms of the rhetoric and Trump's aims to incite violence''.

Social media users have since expressed outrage at reports the panic buttons were removed from Ms Pressley's office, with a senior adviser to incoming US Transport Secretary Pete Buttigieg saying ''what happened and is happening - but it's very bad. The Democratic women, especially women of colour, are in my head and heart today.''

Authorities announced on Tuesday that around 70 arrests had been made in relation to last week's attack, and that ''hundreds'' were being investigated.

Among those arrested were rioters who carried plastic restraints and ammunition into the Capitol, and one person who was said to have wanted to shoot House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

The attack led to the resignations of the head of the US Capitol police, amid criticism at the agency's planning and response to the rioters.

According to CNN, two US Capitol Police officers have since been suspended and at least 10 more are under investigation for playing potential roles in the riot.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 12:18

Published January 14, 2021

Last Update 3 minutes ago

Blair House, the president's guest house, sits across from the White House on Pennsylvania Ave.The White House has offered President-elect Joe Biden use of Blair House for the night before the inauguration and he has accepted, a State Department spokesperson told Fox News.

Blair House, the president's guest house, sits across from the White House on Pennsylvania Ave. Presidents-elect have for decades spent the night there on the eve of Inauguration Day. It is larger than the White House and closed to the public.

The State Department oversees use of Blair House, a complex of four buildings comprising primarily used to house guests of the state. Still, the invitation to use the home typically comes from the president.

FAST FACTSTrump said last week he would not be attending Biden's inaugurationBiden's inauguration is expected to take place on the steps of the Capitol, though this year with a much smaller audience"As is customary, the White House offered use of the Blair House for Jan 19th and it was accepted," the spokesperson said.

Follow below for more updates on the Biden transition. Mobile users click here.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:10

National Guardsmen working a 24-hour rotation to protect lawmakers against further threats of violence have been forced to sleep in the hallways of the Capitol.

Pictures of the guardsmen sleeping in any spot they could find with their weapons nearby as lawmakers walked past circulated online Wednesday morning.

I try to stay clear of politics. However I am enraged to see photos of our National Guard people who give their lives to defend us sleeping on the floor to protect our elected officials that whine and complain about going through metal detectors. Seriously! pic.twitter.com/DnlE98H9tr

'-- Laura Larson-Greiert (@SuzLGreiert) January 13, 2021

TRENDING: Blue Lives Matter Organization Calls Out Democrats Over Their Sudden Change of Heart

The troops were reportedly taking their breaks and trying to nap during a 24-hour rotation of troops stationed along Pennsylvania Avenue, ABC News reported.

They are stationed in Washington, D.C., to prevent a repeat of the incursion of the Capitol that happened last week. However, many online were not pleased that the guardsmen were not provided more comfortable sleeping arrangements.

''As a former Guardsmen who got called up for the L.A. riots, I have to say, floors like that are as hard as they look,'' Scott Shuey tweeted.

''If you see these guys when this is over, buy 'em a beer '' at least.''

As a former Guardsmen who got called up for the L.A. riots, I have to say, floors like that are as hard as they look. If you see these guys when this is over, buy 'em a beer '' at least.

'-- Scott Shuey (@ScottShuey) January 13, 2021

Another commenter asked, ''How about some beds or cots for these protectors????!!!!'' according to the New York Post.

An additional 5,000 members of the National Guard are expected to arrive to support security measures taken in the lead-up to Inauguration Day, The Washington Post reported.

''I think you can expect to see somewhere upwards beyond 20,000 members of the National Guard that will be here in the footprint of the District of Columbia,'' Acting D.C. Police Chief Robert J. Contee III said at a news conference.

Do you think these troops should be provided sleeping arrangements?

94% (542 Votes)

6% (32 Votes)

RELATED: Trump Releases Video Message to Supporters: 'You Have To Go Home Now'

Defense officials are still discussing a plan to provide security support, but have said 10,000 forces will be in place by the weekend.

''Right now [Jan. 11], we have approximately 6,200 National Guard soldiers and airmen from six states and the District of Columbia on the ground in the NCR supporting civilian authorities,'' Army Gen. Daniel Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said in a news release.

''We have received support requests from the Secret Service, Capitol Police, and Park Police, and have been authorized to provide up to 15,000 Guard members to meet current and future inauguration support requirements.''

The Washington Post reported the National Guardsmen who were deployed to the capital last week were drawn from emergency mobilization units, according to defense officials.

Troops have been pulled from Virginia and Maryland, but defense officials have expressed concern about balancing the security support needs with the needs of individual states.

''We're not going to pull too much out of their states and put them at risk, so a very delicate risk management process is underway,'' Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:33

A small Idaho Internet Service Provider (ISP) has decided to protest censorship...by blocking its users from accessing Twitter and Facebook.

"It has come to our attention that Twitter and Facebook are engaged in censorship of our customers and information," Priest River, Idaho ISP Your T1 WIFI told its subscribers in an email.

The ISP says all users will have Facebook and Twitter blocked by default, and those that want access will need to be whitelisted. The company claims it was responding to calls from customers demanding their families and children be prevented from accessing both websites."Our company does not believe a website or social networking site has the authority to censor what you see and post and hide information from you, stop you from seeing what your friends and family are posting," the email states. "This is why with the amount of concerns, we have made this decision to block these two websites from being accessed from our network."

The provider did not respond to a request for comment, and it's unclear what specific mechanisms it intends to use to filter access to both platforms. ISPs normally only filter access to websites that are clearly illegal, usually via an IP address blacklist on the domain name server (DNS) level.

During the Trump era, Trump allies have repeatedly claimed that social media giants are unfairly ''censoring Conservatives'' despite no evidence to support those claims. In fact, Facebook has been repeatedly caught letting many prominent rightwing pundits violate their terms of service to boost revenue and attention, often with no meaningful repercussion.Those who are removed from the platforms, like Trump's expulsion from Twitter for inciting a fatal riot at the Capitol'--or conspiracy theorists being ejected for spreading false claims of electoral fraud'--are usually just violating site terms of service. As such it's not so much ''censorship,'' as it is a natural consequence of behaving like an asshole on the internet.

ISP owner Brett Fink confirmed the email's authenticity to a local CBS affiliate, but contradicted his company's own email to subscribers saying all users would have Facebook and Twitter blocked by default.

"We've had customers asked to be blocked by it,'' Fink said. ''That is what the email was about, so no we are not blocking anybody, only the ones that have asked for it.''

Often when ISPs do engage in website filtering, it causes more problems that it solves. Research has repeatedly shown such efforts are expensive to implement, easy to bypass, and frequently result in legal websites being inadvertently caught in the censorship web.As such it's a slippery and costly slope most internet service providers tend to avoid. Still, Blake Reid, Associate Clinical Professor at Colorado Law, told Motherboard that in the wake of the Trump administration repeal of net neutrality rules the ISP isn't breaking federal guidelines'--because they no longer exist.

''Federally speaking, in the absence of FCC net neutrality rules, ISPs certainly can do this,'' Reid said. ''Even under a restoration of the Obama-era net neutrality rules, this particular ISP might or might not be covered depending on what happens with the small business exemption'' originally tacked onto the rules to avoid saddling small ISPs with extra costs, he added.The ISP could still run afoul of state and local regulations, Reid said.

''If it is ultimately covered under the rules, it will no doubt inflame debates about the intersection of net neutrality and the First Amendment,'' Reid said. ''The notion of ISPs seeking to provide 'curated' Internet access has always lurked on the fringes of the debate, but an ISP blocking popular application platforms on political grounds is a very new fact pattern, especially if a lot of other ISPs followed suit.''Providers like AT&T have been known to block access to copyrighted or illegal content, but have generally avoided heavy-handed political censorship. With current FCC boss and industry ally Ajit Pai headed for the exit and the Biden administration looking to police net neutrality violations, it's unlikely that any major ISP would be willing to test its luck in the same way.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 04:42

Parler CEO John Matze said today that his social media company has been dropped by virtually all of its business alliances after Amazon, Apple and Google ended their agreements with the social media service.

''Every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day,'' Matze said today on Fox News.

Matze conceded that the bans could put the company out of business while raising free speech issues, calling it ''an assault on everybody.''

''They all work together to make sure at the same time we would lose access to not only our apps, but they're actually shutting all of our servers off tonight, off the internet,'' Matze said. ''They made an attempt to not only kill the app, but to actually destroy the entire company. And it's not just these three companies. Every vendor from text message services to email providers to our lawyers all ditched us too on the same day.''

The remarks come a day after Amazon dropped Parler from its servers, joining Apple and Google. They all cited the potential of spreading violent content on the site, which is favored by conservatives as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook.

Matze said that the services are unfairly targeting Parler. ''They're trying to falsely claim that we're somehow responsible for the events that occurred on the 6th,'' he said, the date of the Capitol building takeover by protesters.

''It would put anybody out of business,'' he said of the tech bans. ''This thing could destroy anybody.''

He added: ''We're going to try our best to get back online as quickly as possible. But we're having a lot of trouble because every vendor we talk to says they won't work with us. Because if Apple doesn't approve and Google doesn't approve, they won't.''

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 05:20

Financial-technology company's move follows last week's riot at the Capitol

Updated Jan. 10, 2021 5:53 pm ETStripe Inc. will no longer process payments for President Trump's campaign website following last week's riot at the Capitol, according to people familiar with the matter.

The financial-technology company handles card payments for millions of online businesses and e-commerce platforms, including Mr. Trump's campaign website and online fundraising apparatus. Stripe is cutting off the president's campaign account for violating its policies against encouraging violence, the people said.

Spokespeople...

Stripe Inc. will no longer process payments for President Trump's campaign website following last week's riot at the Capitol, according to people familiar with the matter.

The financial-technology company handles card payments for millions of online businesses and e-commerce platforms, including Mr. Trump's campaign website and online fundraising apparatus. Stripe is cutting off the president's campaign account for violating its policies against encouraging violence, the people said.

Spokespeople for the Trump campaign didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Stripe asks users to agree that they won't accept payments for ''high risk'' activities, including for any business or organization that ''engages in, encourages, promotes or celebrates unlawful violence or physical harm to persons or property,'' according to its website.

The company has previously disabled accounts in the wake of violent acts. After a gunman killed 11 people in an attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue in 2018, Stripe cut off Gab.com'--the right-wing social-media platform where the alleged shooter posted anti-Semitic messages.

A number of companies have cut ties with Mr. Trump's since Wednesday's attack, which left five people dead. Twitter Inc. on Friday banned Mr. Trump's personal account from its platform, citing a risk of further incitement of violence, while Canadian e-commerce company Shopify Inc. took stores run by Mr. Trump's business and campaign offline. Some political-action committees are also halting donations to Republican lawmakers who objected to President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College win after supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the Capitol.

After the election, Mr. Trump's campaign launched a fundraising blitz to raise money for legal battles challenging Mr. Biden's victory in several states. The effort brought in hundreds of millions of dollars for Mr. Trump's political committees and the Republican party.

Write to AnnaMaria Andriotis at annamaria.andriotis@wsj.com, Peter Rudegeair at Peter.Rudegeair@wsj.com and Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:03

The National Association or Realtors' new ban on "hate speech" extends beyond work activities into its 1.4 million members' private lives.By John Murawski, RealClearInvestigationsJanuary 8, 2021In what some consider one of the most far-reaching social policy moves in the corporate world, the National Association of Realtors, called the nation's largest trade organization, has revised its professional ethics code to ban ''hate speech and harassing speech'' by its 1.4 million members.

Under the new policy, real estate agents who insult, threaten or harass people based on race, sex, or other legally protected characteristics can be investigated, fined or expelled. Its

online training sessions offer a glimpse at how difficult the rules can be to enforce.The sweeping prohibition applies to association members 24/7, covering all communication, private and professional, written and spoken, online and off. Punishment could top out at a maximum fine of $15,000 and expulsion from the organization.

Mary Wagner, a Buffalo real estate agent who is white and lesbian, says the move, announced in November, fits her vision for creating a fairer society. She predicts thousands of complaints this year, given the realtor association's enormous size and the overheated climate of social media.

''I was thrilled to hear it,'' Wagner said in a phone interview. ''I think it's long overdue.''

NAR's decision, allowing any member of the public to file a complaint, has alarmed other real estate agents, and also some legal and ethics experts, who say the hate speech ban's vagueness is an invitation to censor controversial political opinions, especially on race and gender. While that's not the association's stated intention, the skeptics say their fears are justified by the hyperactive ''cancel culture'' online that has jettisoned hapless workers for posting ''all lives matter'' and objecting to gay marriage.

''The dam has broken and other organizations will look at this,'' predicted Robert F¶ehl, a professor of business ethics and business law at Ohio University.

''If this is good for real estate agents, why not attorneys, why not doctors?'' F¶ehl said. ''They're going to be pressured to do what NAR has done. And that pressure is going to be very real, because what organization wants to argue they should allow hate speech by their members?''

Charlie Oppler, NAR president:

Apologizes for NAR's historic role in housing discrimination and redlining.A week after the association approved the ban, its president, Charlie Oppler, profusely apologized for NAR's historic role in housing discrimination and redlining, the former practice of denying loans to buyers in certain neighborhoods based on their race, during an online fair-housing summit. NAR is still a predominantly white organization, where African Americans account for just 6% of members.

NAR's hate speech policy is noteworthy because it sweeps up 1.4 million people under an ethics standard that explicitly places limits on private speech, to be adjudicated through formal procedures. The organization's new policy provides an avenue for the NAR to investigate, fine '' and potentially expel '' real estate agents who insult, threaten or harass people or social groups based on race, sex, gender or other legally protected characteristics.

''It is taking something that's been happening on a kind-of informal and occasional basis '' indeed, people do sometimes end up losing jobs because of their political expression '' and shifting it to something that's institutionalized, that's bureaucratized, and that's being enforced through quasi-legal tribunals,'' said Eugene Volokh, a UCLA law professor who specializes in the First Amendment.

Volokh said such policies pose significant risks for abuse, and should be assessed not for their good intentions but for their potential to misfire.

Eugene Volokh, UCLA School of Law: ''What we're talking about is a new blacklist.'' He says the NAR is "trying to deploy the organized economic power of this group in order to suppress dissenting political views among members.''

''What we're talking about is a new blacklist,'' Volokh said. ''One of the things that's troubling about the National Association of Realtors' position is that it is trying to deploy the organized economic power of this group in order to suppress dissenting political views among members.''

In the current climate of cancel culture and vigilante justice on Twitter, where a single misdeed can become amplified into the defining act of one's life, some real estate agents fear the new speech code will be used to censor agents who express disapproval of affirmative action, gay marriage, transgender pronouns, Black Lives Matter, undocumented immigrants or other politicized issues. Such concerns were validated last month by a federal judge who struck down an anti-discrimination speech code imposed on Pennsylvania lawyers, saying that the ban's vagueness amounted to open season on politically unpopular opinions.

NAR's speech code has sowed such confusion and anxiety among the rank-and-file that NAR plans to issue ''case interpretations'' this year to reassure its members and offer guidance on what is and isn't allowed.

Among those caught up in the uncertainty are real estate agents who are Christian preachers or Sunday school teachers, or anyone who expresses traditional religious views on gender and sexuality that are out of vogue in some circles today.

''We're getting a lot of people asking about whether or not they can say that they are against gay marriage,'' NAR staffer Diane Mosley said during an online training session on Nov. 30. ''Specifically, if they can back it up with Scriptures, or say it in a sermon.''

The association's speech code is still being hashed out, and in a very public way, thanks to Zoom. While the initial debate and votes by its Professional Standards Committee and board of directors were conducted in secret, NAR's subsequent monthly online training sessions offer a glimpse at how such rules come into being, how difficult they can be to interpret and to enforce '' and what other corporations and organizations can expect if they follow NAR's example.

Matt Defanis, point man on the new speech code: ''Colleagues, remember: We quite literally drew the color lines."

''Are we worried about losing members? We may, but I'm certainly not losing sleep over that,'' said Matt Difanis, the Champaign, Ill., broker who chairs NAR's Professional Standards Committee, in a Dec. 16 training session.

''We want being a Realtor to mean something,'' Difanis stated, ''and if somebody says, 'I feel so strongly about continuing to have access to hate speech on demand that I don't want to be a Realtor anymore' '' okay.''

NAR did not make Difanis, who is white and serves as its point man on the new speech code, available for an interview; all his comments in this article were taken from two hour-long training sessions and one eight-minute explanatory video available online.

In these recordings, Difanis makes an impassioned plea to the nation's Realtors, citing the moral debt he says the real estate industry has incurred as a leading participant in the perpetuation of racism in the 20th century.

''Colleagues, remember: We quite literally drew the color lines. Our fingerprints as Realtors are all over the redlining maps, which decades '' 52 years '' after Fair Housing became the law of the land, those Fair Housing maps still scar our landscape by continuing to define color lines in our residential housing patterns,'' Difanis said.

A Wider National Remorse on Race

His collective mea culpa echoes the remorse and anguish other organizations, most notably universities, have expressed for their historical role in profiting from slavery and segregation. It also evokes the personal penitence expressed in recent months by corporate chief executives for their own white privilege and cluelessness about how systemic racism has benefited them personally.

''I view it as a moral imperative,'' Difanis said. ''I won't live long enough to see us undo the economic damage that we inflicted in the years that predate Fair Housing.''

NAR membership offers access to training, education and networking, as well as the privilege of referring to oneself as a ''Realtor,'' NAR's pedigreed title for its members that the organization has trademarked.

NAR membership is required to gain access to the Multiple Listing Service. ''If I were to lose access to that it would potentially devastate my ability to perform my career duties,'' a Realtor commented.

Perenic/Columbus Dispatch/AP

NAR does not issue real estate licenses '' that function is the domain of state licensing boards '' so expulsion is not an automatic banishment from the profession. But in many parts of the country, NAR membership is required to gain access to the Multiple Listing Service, a searchable online database that sorts available real estate properties by parameters such as square footage, acreage, architectural style and much more. ''If I were to lose access to that it would potentially devastate my ability to perform my career duties,'' a Realtor commented on NAR's Facebook page.

The complaints and cases, which are to be adjudicated like mini-trials with evidence and lawyers, will be assigned to some 1,100 local NAR associations across the country, but many of the locals delegate the ethics reviews to state associations. The legalistic procedures set NAR's internal process apart from employers who impulsively jettison employees as liabilities to appease the Twitter mob.

However, the local and state chapters don't have to report total complaints, dismissals and resolutions to the national office, so it won't be known how the new policy is playing out and if local chapters are issuing wildly inconsistent decisions or dismissing legitimate complaints. NAR can't say how many complaints have been filed since the hate speech ban was adopted Nov. 13.

All hate speech complaints and decisions against Realtors would be confidential so there would be no public knowledge of a case against someone, unless the Realtor or another person disclosed it. But as part of the new speech code, NAR now requires its local and state associations to notify the state licensing authority that a Realtor violated the ''public trust'' if an ethics complaint led to a finding that the Realtor was guilty of hate speech in the course of a real estate transaction. Additionally, it is possible that state laws and brokerage policies in some parts of the country may also require a Realtor to disclose the accusation or the adjudication to the brokerage for whom they work.

F¶ehl noted that private employers have a legal incentive to make sure employees' social media activity isn't contributing to a discriminatory or hostile work environment, but it's virtually unheard of for a membership organization to adopt such a restrictive policy with respect to its members.

''It feels unprecedented,'' F¶ehl said. ''The stretch and reach into the personal lives of the association members is a very intrusive move.''

Private employers and membership organizations are not bound by the First Amendment. And private employers are protected by the ''at will'' employment doctrine that allows them to fire workers for arbitrary reasons (as long as they are not discriminating based on race, sex, religion or other protected classes). About two dozen states have laws limiting the ability of a private employer from firing a worker for political speech or other personal conduct the boss might not personally like.

'Sword of Damocles' Over Pennsylvania Lawyers

Nevertheless, there are signs that the expansion of such policies may be bumping up against other rights. Last month, a federal court struck down a professional conduct rule for Pennsylvania lawyers; the rule stated that it is professional misconduct for a lawyer to express or engage in bias, prejudice, harassment or discrimination. The rule was limited to ''the practice of law'' but it expanded that concept, adding continuing education, seminars, conferences and bar association activities where education credits are offered.

The rule was challenged by Zach Greenberg, a staff attorney for the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), who said it would expose him to endless ethics complaints because his work often involves describing and citing examples of speech many people find hateful and offensive, including the N-word or expressions such as ''God hates fags.''

The judge agreed, saying the Pennsylvania ban was too vague and would ''hang over Pennsylvania attorneys like the sword of Damocles.''

''The big issue with these rules is that they create unbridled discretion for organizations to enforce the rules however they like,'' Greenberg said by phone. ''That's a really dangerous game they're playing because the question of what is offensive is really in the eye of the beholder.''

The NAR prohibition states: ''Realtors must not use harassing speech, hate speech, epithets, or slurs based on race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, national origin, sexual orientation, or gender identity.'' NAR plans to assess context as much as content when evaluating speech that is subject of a complaint. NAR's intention is to target what Difanis calls ''weaponized hate speech, the sort of stuff that gets turned on like a blowtorch and aimed against other people.''

Difanis said the speech code is not intended to penalize expressions of religious belief or public policy, or comments that someone happens to find politically disagreeable, personally upsetting or generically offensive '' for example: inadvertently misgendering someone.

While the ban applies to all hate speech '' written and spoken '' it will require ''clear and convincing'' evidence to prove in a hearing, he said. And it equally protects people who are white, male and Christian from a Realtor's hate speech, he noted.

Cory Kammerdiener, Christian minister and realty brokerage owner in Texas, on discussing beliefs about homosexuality: ''There's people that are believers that may say, 'Hey, I can't talk about these things?' No, that's not what it's saying.''

Those protections give peace of mind to Cory Kammerdiener, a nondenominational Christian minister in Spring, Tex., who owns Newhomeprogram.com and employs about a dozen Realtors and contractors.

Kammerdiener, who is biracial, believes that the Scriptures teach that homosexuality is an unnatural sexual act, similar to premarital sex, adultery and pornography. But he says that a real estate license obligates agents to treat all people equally regardless of sexual preference or gender identity.

''There's people that are believers that may say, 'Hey, I can't talk about these things?''' Kammerdiener said. ''No, that's not what it's saying.''

His understanding is that an opinion becomes hate speech only ''if you're weaponizing it '' which is a term you're going to see they use over and over '' which results in hurting or alienating another person, like, 'Hey, you're going go to hell.'''

A white Realtor, Tracy Watson of Fuquay-Varina, N.C., suggested that the new speech code should trouble no one except those who are prone to get in trouble.

''Before I got into real estate I worked in the corporate field and I was held to the same standards,'' Watson said by email. ''I think those that need to worry about the change may need to take a look as to why.''

NAR's speech code was prompted by a spike in reports this year of Realtors posting racist and homophobic comments on social media, causing a huge embarrassment to the organization and frustration that the group was powerless to discipline its members.

The examples Difanis cited offer some clues as to what could be considered hate speech. That includes one Realtor's post: ''I think black people bring out the worst in us.'' And another post: ''We always knew black people were violent '' they are not Christian.''

Realtors also used the N-word and other epithets, which Difanis repeated in the video. In one case, a Realtor waved an assault rifle on camera saying he was eager to shoot looters and protesters.

Difanis, whose Illinois brokerage firm employs about 60 Realtors, said he has fired two agents this year, one for making ''racially insensitive comments on social media'' and the other for making ''an outright racist slur in a comment thread on a public figure page.'' Both agents had no trouble finding work with other brokers.

''There's nothing that prevents them from being picked right back up, reaffiliating and staying in the marketplace with no actual sanctions,'' Difanis said.

Difanis described the process of evaluating ethics complaints as ''making judgment calls within procedural guardrails,'' to be undertaken by hundreds of local panels, usually comprising three or five Realtors.

''We can't give you the 'Here's the words you can't say or use, and if it's one of these words they're in violation, and if it's not it's not,''' Difanis said. ''It doesn't work that way.''

And this uncertainty is that causes angst in the profession and beyond.

"We live in an era where there's a lot of witch hunts going on," said Rebecca D'Angelo, a white Realtor in Richmond who doesn't oppose NAR's new policy. "There's a lot to keep up with these days on who you're offending."

Email: jmurawski@realclearinvestigations.com

Twitter: @johnmurawski

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 10:34

Authored by Kipp Jones via The Western Journal,

As part of the Democratic Party, establishment media and Washington swamp campaign to tear down the legacy of President Donald Trump this week, the political director for ABC News called for a ''cleansing'' of Trump's movement.

Rick Klein, who is the rudder on the corrupt ABC News political coverage ship, must have been feeling awfully emboldened Thursday after Democrat Joe Biden was officially certified as the country's next president. Perhaps a little too emboldened, as is evident by what he said on Twitter.

''Trump will be an ex-president in 13 days. The fact is that getting rid of Trump is the easy part. Cleansing the movement he commands is going to be something else,'' Klein said in a tweet, which he later deleted.

Thank the good lord for screen shots.

Political Director for @ABC News based in Washington DC appears to have deleted his tweet about the 75 million Americans who voted for Trump that talked about the challenge of "cleansing the movement." pic.twitter.com/HS1Rwrn94S

'-- Omri Ceren (@omriceren) January 7, 2021But this was no mere slip-up of a lone network employee on social media. ABC News published a piece in which Klein echoed his message. His views are apparently shared by others at the legacy media outlet.

Thursday on the website's political analysis page ''The Note,'' Klein and Mary Alice Parks, ABC News deputy political director, co-wrote a piece that called for a similar ''cleansing'' of the Trump movement before it was later stealthily edited to change that vague and dark language, Fox News reported.

Pointing to Wednesday's Capitol incursion as a reason to use the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office or impeach him, Klein and Parks wrote, ''Even aside from impeachment and 25th Amendment talk, Trump will be an ex-president in 13 days. The fact is that getting rid of Trump is the easy part.''

''Cleaning up the movement he commands, or getting rid of what he represents to so many Americans, is going to be something else.''

That last section originally read, ''Cleansing the movement he commands, or getting rid of what he represents to so many Americans, is going to be something else.''

ABC News and Klein cleaned up their creepy genocidal language, but the veil is off, and we know who they are. We know that these people want.

The majority of the establishment media wants a one-party state where every man, woman and child knows his or her place. Trump's awakening of the GOP base and others is a threat to that, and it became even more threatening after he began successfully courting Democratic voters last year.

Leftists have used words such as ''reconciliation'' and ''re-education'' with regard to how to deal with us since the election. Now ABC News has called for a ''cleansing'' of the political movement the president created.

While for most of us that movement equates to a robust economy, individual liberty, national sovereignty and a strong military, the hateful establishment media always viewed it as a threat to the status quo.

The actions of a relatively small number of Trump supporters at the Capitol on Wednesday have given these people what they view as a valid reason to delegitimize every one of the tens of millions of Americans who voted against the corrupt Washington and media establishment.

Rogue conservatives roaming the halls of Congress is exactly what the corporate media wanted. Remember, this is the same establishment media that joined Democrats in inciting or excusing violence for a great deal of last year, and even before that.

SUERCUT!Media: Yes, violence is the answer pic.twitter.com/1juSdYtKvD

'-- Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 7, 2021Oops, wouldn't want this highlight reel of Democrat leaders calling for uprisings to go viral pic.twitter.com/onBBfhMA3f

'-- Rogan O'Handley 🇺🇸 (@DC_Draino) January 8, 2021Save for the late Peter Jennings, ABC News has always been awful. The network never attempted to hide its bias during the election or during the four years when Trump was called ''illegitimate'' and a Russian plant. Klein was silent as fake news stories led the coverage for four years, and he never denounced Biden for going around talking about punching people '-- but now the mask is off.

Klein and his colleagues want to put us all in a corner and shame us over the D.C. spectacle, which 99.9 percent of us were not a party to. We can't ask valid questions about election integrity if we're all too afraid to show our faces, and maybe that's the point. The Klein message highlights the depths of the establishment media's desperation to make us go away and fall in line. No thanks.

It was the corporate media and its sponsors, Democrats, and those who threw bricks and molotov cocktails for months on end who brought shame to our republic, not Trump or the movement he has led. That's an inconvenient fact that is being written over in a mad dash to turn the president's legacy into ash by attempting to portray him as a man who simply spent four years inciting a riot.

It's a lie, just like all the others. Let the dust settle and don't be shamed.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 10:35

Silicon Valley's moves to eject President Trump from social media represent a display of power the companies have avoided making for nearly four years. Now Twitter Inc., Facebook Inc. and others must reckon with what comes next.

In a span of a couple of days, Twitter and Facebook'--Mr. Trump's main social-media megaphones'--took action to silence the president's personal accounts or online communities devoted to him, citing rules prohibiting content that incites violence. They were joined by companies such as Snap Inc. and Reddit Inc.

Apple Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google also took steps to boot Parler, a social-media app and website that has grown in popularity among conservatives'--and which some rioters had used to promote Wednesday's attack at the U.S. Capitol, according to screenshots viewed by The Wall Street Journal.

The actions against Mr. Trump and Parler illustrate more starkly than ever the companies' influence over conversation online'--and the political nature of their decisions. While lauded by many, ejecting the president and some of his supporters also infuriated others who said it amounts to censorship, and the moves risked driving off some users in a way that, especially for Twitter, could reshape their businesses. It also illustrates the political nature of how they determine what content to remove, what content to allow and what to amplify.

''Right or wrong, they made a political decision,'' said Jonathon Hauenschild, director of the communications and technology task force for the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative nonprofit group, regarding the companies' moves. Attention on the tech giants ''was there to begin with. Now the spotlight is fully on,'' he said.

The tech companies acted in response to Wednesday's attack by Trump supporters in Washington, in which five people died. That mob was mobilized largely on social media, and Mr. Trump's posts before and during the episode were criticized by Democrats and Republicans for inflaming and supporting the crowd. Many people outraged by the event'--including employees working for those companies'--demanded that Twitter, Facebook and others take more aggressive action than they had in previous controversies involving Mr. Trump. The companies said removing Mr. Trump and Parler from their platforms was necessary to prevent online posts that could lead to further violence.

''It's a seismic change,'' said Chris Nolan, chief executive of San Francisco-based ad-buying firm Spot-On, of companies' actions to ban the president. ''It's a step on the part of the platforms to recognize that what happens on their platforms has consequences in real life.''

The decisions added fuel to an already raging debate over whether the platforms do too much to police content on their platforms or not enough.

Many conservatives, including Sen. Marco Rubio (R., Fla.) and others, said the impact of the platforms' decisions suggests the tech industry's sway over public conversation is too great.

''We are now living in a country where four or five companies, unelected, unaccountable, have the monopoly power to decide, we're gonna wipe people out, we're going to erase them, from any digital platform, whether it's selling things and the like,'' he told Fox News on Sunday.

Some allies of Mr. Trump have said they would shift their activity on Twitter to other platforms'--including Parler and Gab'--deemed more tolerant of speech. Twitter on Friday also suspended some other accounts related to Mr. Trump and his backers, including those of his campaign and one of its senior officials, as well as several associated with the far-right conspiracy group QAnon that Twitter said violated its policy on coordinated harmful activity.

For Twitter, in particular, it is unclear how the decision will affect the company's business. The president's personal Twitter account had more than 88 million followers, which equated to nearly half of Twitter's total number of average daily users. And while Mr. Trump wasn't Twitter's most widely followed member, his tweets stirred conversation and engagement for Twitter users across the political spectrum. Having the president embrace Twitter as his platform of choice reinforced the company's pitch to the broader public that it serves as the go-to place to know what is happening.

At the same time, Mr. Trump's frequently contentious tweets also created headaches for the company, as it tried to enforce its rules and ensure the platform is hospitable for big-name advertisers.

''From a business standpoint, I don't see this as a problem for the social-media companies,'' said Eric Ross, chief strategist at Cascend Securities, who covers publicly traded technology companies. ''It seems like they were already moving in the direction of limiting people's political commentary and discourse, and advertisers seemed to be following them.''

A spokesman for Twitter declined to comment.

Facebook and other companies might feel less impact to their businesses from moderating the accounts of Mr. Trump and his followers. Yet their actions showed how companies have evolved during the Trump era.

Before Mr. Trump took office, most major platform operators preferred to moderate as little content as possible, employing fairly small teams of content moderators. Some Twitter executives called their company ''the free-speech wing of the free-speech party.''

Now, companies such as Facebook employ thousands of moderators and use artificial intelligence and other technology to keep tabs on what their users post. At Twitter, acrimony on the platform began to pose a liability to business, a former executive said.

''It got to a point where there became an expectation that Twitter needed to police it more, or people wouldn't use the platform for fear of being subjected to abuse,'' the former executive said.

Companies' actions will likely come under even more scrutiny as regulators pursue antitrust cases against several tech giants, and as Congress and the incoming Biden administration look to revamp 25-year-old legislation known as Section 230 that has long provided a liability shield for the platforms' decisions over content regulation.

In recent months, Parler had become a refuge for some conservatives upset about what they saw as overreach and bias by the mainstream platforms. On Friday, Parler had been downloaded 182,000 times across Apple and Google's app stores, a 14-fold increase in its number of downloads from the previous Friday, according to app-analytics firm Sensor Tower Inc.

Yet Parler has also faced criticism for its hands-off approach to moderation, including speech from neo-Nazis and other groups that call for violence.

Parler's future is unclear. Amazon said it would stop providing cloud-computing services to Parler as of late Sunday Pacific time, potentially grounding the platform's operations. Google and Apple removed it from their app stores, meaning even if it can restart, its app would be unavailable to many smartphone users.

Apple and Google require apps in their stores to moderate content. Google pointed to examples of content it found on Parler that threatened elected officials and called for plans to organize a militia march. One user posted: ''How we take back our country? It's simple'...we hunt them down!'' Google also flagged images of fliers shared on Parler that called on armed militias to march on Washington, D.C., the day of the inauguration.

Parler executives told the Journal the company has doubled its team of volunteer moderators and instructed them to search ''hot'' hashtags to gauge whether users are inciting violence. Parler Chief Executive John Matze said the company has been removing users who violate its terms.

Mr. Matze said keeping his business running will be difficult because companies it has relied on to operate have suddenly stopped working with it. ''Our vendors dropped us all at once,'' he told the Journal. With Amazon planning to cut off Parler's data storage and processing contract at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time Sunday, he expects Parler to become temporarily unavailable. ''In the best-case scenario, it'll be 12 hours. In the worst, worse-case scenario, weeks,'' he said.

Though Parler and other smaller platforms might grow, longtime observers of social media say the significant scale of Twitter and Facebook make those platforms unlikely to lose their influence.

Smaller venues full of like-minded users don't give users the chance to reach new audiences, leaving participants competing with each other for attention, said Joan Donovan, director of research at Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. ''Once someone's been removed from the mainstream networks,'' she said, ''they tend to become very marginal.''

'--Keach Hagey and Jeff Horwitz contributed to this article.

Write to Sarah E. Needleman at sarah.needleman@wsj.com and Georgia Wells at Georgia.Wells@wsj.com

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 10:49

Marriott is among a growing list of companies suspending donations to campaigns of lawmakers who voted against certifying Joe Biden's election as president. (Danny Johnston/AP)

Marriott, the world's largest hotel chain, said last week's chaos at the Capitol caused the company to halt campaign donations to lawmakers who voted against certifying the electoral college results of President-elect Joe Biden's win '-- a fresh sign of corporate America's uneasiness with the violent attacks inspired by President Trump's words.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said it would do the same. The provider of health insurance to more than 100 million people said in a statement that its political action committee was suspending contributions ''to those lawmakers who voted to undermine our democracy.''

Commerce Bank also said in a statement that its PAC has ''suspended all support for officials who have impeded the peaceful transfer of power.'' It has bank branches in five states, mostly in the Midwest.

The violence at the Capitol appears to have companies scrambling to figure out how to react, as they increasingly realize that this is not an ordinary political dispute and the option of sitting on the sidelines grows increasingly unsatisfying.

As Trump leaves office, Republicans wonder if his political wounds are fatal

''These corporations are doing something very new, and something that could potentially alienate an important base for them,'' said Craig Holman, government affairs lobbyist for Public Citizen, a money-in-politics group. ''I've never heard of this happening before.''

Watch more!

Capitol Police were unable to stop a breach of the Capitol. Washington Post reporter Carol Leonnig and a former Senate Sergeant at Arms describe the events. (The Washington Post)The decisions by Marriott, the insurance company and bank were first reported by the online newsletter Popular Information.

Shortly after a mob breached the Capitol, companies and trade groups rushed to register their outrage, with statements ranging from condemnations to direct calls for Trump's removal from office.

Marriott, based in Bethesda, Md., said its decision was motivated by ''the destructive events at the Capitol to undermine a legitimate and fair election.''

Marriott's PAC '-- which is funded by employee donations '-- gave more than $410,000 in the last election cycle, according to Federal Election Commission data.

The hotel chain also has a direct business relationship with Trump. It books travel to Trump Turnberry through the Marriott Luxury Collection program.

Companies backed Trump for years. Now they're facing a reckoning after the attack on the Capitol.

Marriott's decision '-- along with ones such as from Blue Cross Blue Shield '-- would hurt the fundraising efforts of the 139 Republican representatives and eight Republican senators who voted last week against certifying the presidential election results.

More pressure on companies is coming. The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump group, in the coming days will launch a multimillion-dollar ad campaign targeting companies that bankroll Republicans who voted against certifying the results of the election, pushing those firms to cease donations to these and other Republicans.

The project will launch both broadcast and cable advertising aimed at these companies and their senior leaders. The Lincoln Project will also target advertising for these corporation's workers, hoping to ''destabilize the companies' operations by fomenting employee rebellions,'' said Steve Schmidt, co-founder of the Lincoln Project.

Schmidt declined to comment on the companies the Lincoln Project plans to campaign against but pointed out that AT&T, BlackRock and Charles Schwab are among the corporate entities that donate to Republican lawmakers.

How members of Congress voted on counting the electoral college vote

''Eighty-$90 million was spent by corporate America on political committees '... on extremist groups that have destabilized American democracy,'' Schmidt said. ''After this point, nothing goes back to normal.''

Jena McGregor and David A. Fahrenthold contributed to this report.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 22:13

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she believes President Donald Trump should be impeached because "every minute" he stays in office "represents a clear and present danger" to Congress and the Country.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would could move to impeach Trump this week if Vice President Mike Pence does not answer the chamber's calls to invoke the 25th amendment."It is an act of insurrection. It is an act of hostility," Ocasio-Cortez said. "And we must have accountability because without it, it will happen again."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she believes President Donald Trump should be impeached in light of the Capitol siege because "every minute" he is in office "represents a clear and present danger."

Ocasio-Cortez appeared on a Sunday segment of "This Week" with ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos, where she said she believes impeachment should be scheduled for the president.

"Our main priority is to ensure the removal of Donald Trump as president of the United States," Ocasio-Cortez said Sunday. "Every minute and every hour that he is in office represents a clear and present danger, not just to the United States Congress but frankly to the country."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in a letter obtained by CNN that impeachment proceedings could be set into motion as early as this week if Vice President Mike Pence does not respond to calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, which would allow the vice president and some of Trump's cabinet to depose the president.

In addition to removing the president, Ocasio-Cortez said the House is also considering the "complete barring" of Trump from "running for office ever again" and to prevent him from "pardoning himself from those charges that he was impeached for," she said during the interview.

'--This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 10, 2021Some GOP lawmakers wrote a letter to President-elect Joe Biden, asking him to formally request that Pelosi and the House stop their pursuit of Trump's impeachment for a second time "in the spirit of healing and fidelity to our Constitution."

The New York congresswoman said the "process of healing" doesn't require dropping a potential impeachment, but "accountability."

"We have to understand that what happened on Wednesday was insurrection against the United States," Ocasio-Cortez said. "That is what Donald J. Trump engaged in, and that is what those people in the Capitol engaged in. So when we talk about healing, the process of healing is separate, and in fact, requires accountability."

"So if we allow insurrection against the United States with impunity '-- with no accountability'-- we are inviting it to happen again. That is how serious it is," she said. "Perhaps my colleagues weren't in that room, perhaps my colleagues were not fully present for the events on Wednesday, but we came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday."

Ocasio-Cortez said if another head of state had "ordered an attack" on Congress," then lawmakers would not allow it to go unanswered, and therefore, Wednesday's siege on the Capitol should not be treated that way.

"It is an act of insurrection. It is an act of hostility," she said. "And we must have accountability because without it, it will happen again."

'--This Week (@ThisWeekABC) January 10, 2021 Loading Something is loading.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 01:37

Michael McCormack, the acting Australian Prime Minister, accused Twitter of censorship for suspending Trump's account permanently. He also compared the January 6 riots to the George Floyd riots that swept the world last year.

In an interview on Monday, McCormack, who is standing in for PM Scott Morrison, who is on leave, suggested that Twitter should not have permanently suspended Trump's account.

''There's been a lot of people who have said and done a lot of things on Twitter previously that haven't received that sort of condemnation or indeed censorship. But I'm not one who believes in that sort of censorship,'' McCormack said, speaking to ABC Radio National on Monday.

At a press briefing later, McCormack doubled down on his criticism of Twitter.

''I say to the owners of Twitter that if you are going to take down the comments of [the person] who is still the American president, you need to think also about the photo, the doctored photo, the doctored image,'' McCormack told reporters, referring to the faked photo posted by a Chinese government official of an Australian soldier holding a knife to an Afghani kid's throat.

The Deputy PM also described the events that took place on Wednesday last week in the US Capitol as ''unfortunate.''

''It is unfortunate that we have seen the events at Capitol Hill, that we've seen in recent days '' similar to those race riots that we saw around the country last year,'' McCormack said.

Australia isn't the only country to call out Twitter and Facebook for their banning of the US President '' France and Germany have also weighed in.

Germany and France both attacked Big Tech platforms that banned President Trump, continuing their war against Big Tech.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel objected to the bans.

''The chancellor sees the complete closing down of the account of an elected president as problematic,'' Steffen Seibert, her chief spokesman, said in a news conference, adding that rights such as the freedom of speech ''can be interfered with, but by law and within the framework defined by the legislature, not according to a corporate decision.''

Merkel's stance was also echoed by the French government. The Junior Minister for European Union Affairs Clement Beaune expressed that he was ''shocked'' to see Big Tech's actions over the last week.

''This should be decided by citizens, not by a CEO,'' he said on Bloomberg TV. ''There needs to be public regulation of big online platforms.''

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire called Big Tech giants, ''the digital oligarchy,'' and called Big Tech ''one of the threats'' to democracy.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 11:50

Jan. 11, 2021, 8:52 p.m. ET

Jan. 11, 2021, 8:52 p.m. ET By Karen Weise

A woman wore a QAnon hat at a Trump rally in September. Amazon said it would remove QAnon merchandise from its website. Credit... Al Drago for The New York Times Amazon said on Monday that it was removing products promoting QAnon, a baseless conspiracy, from its website, after QAnon supporters were prominent in the riot at the Capitol last week.

The move followed Amazon's decision to boot Parler, a right-wing social network, from its web servers and cloud services.

About 60 percent of the products sold on Amazon are offered by third-party merchants, who list items on the site and often use the company's advertising and delivery services. Flags, shirts, hats and other merchandise, as well as self-published books promoting QAnon, still showed up on a search on Monday afternoon, many with favorable customer reviews and indications that they were shipped to customers from Amazon's warehouses. Amazon said removing items could take several days.

Amazon's policies prohibit products that ''promote, incite, or glorify hate or violence toward any person or group,'' though it has faced criticism for not swiftly enforcing its own rules. If sellers try to evade detection systems, they could risk losing the ability to sell on the site entirely.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 04:24

By Brian Fung, CNN Business

Updated 10:19 PM EST, Tue January 12, 2021

(CNN Business) Amazon Web Services filed its response to Parler's lawsuit on Tuesday, blaming the social media platform favored by the far-right for filing a "meritless claim" against the cloud computing giant and citing a liability shield often maligned by President Donald Trump: Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934.

AWS's legal brief argues that it is Parler, not Amazon ( AMZN ) , that breached the terms of its contract and that Parler's removal from AWS's hosting platform was a "last resort."

"This case is about Parler's demonstrated unwillingness and inability to remove from the servers of Amazon Web Services ('AWS') content that threatens the public safety," Amazon wrote, "such as by inciting and planning the rape, torture, and assassination of named public officials and private citizens."

The response highlights more than a dozen examples that Amazon said it reported to Parler, including calls for a civil war and the deaths of Democratic lawmakers; tech company CEOs including Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey; members of professional sports leagues; former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao; and US Capitol Police, among others.

Parler didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amazon denied that it interfered in Parler's relationship with its users, and claimed that Parler's antitrust allegations do not meet the basic threshold required for a Sherman Act claim. Parler had alleged Amazon was engaged in a conspiracy to eliminate a competitor from the marketplace; Amazon said Parler's suit fails to define a relevant market or specify how competition was harmed.

Amazon also leans on Section 230, the law that has been heavily criticized by President Donald Trump and that grants tech platforms immunity for their content moderation efforts.

"That is precisely what AWS did here: removed access to content it considered 'excessively violent' and 'harassing,'" the brief said.

The litigation could thus become a high-profile test of the law that has come under scrutiny by both Democrats and Republicans.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:02

censorship Cites 'ongoing potential for violence'

Published

16 hours ago

on

13 January, 2021

Steve Watson

Drew Angerer/Getty ImagesFalling into line with the ongoing purge, YouTube has suspended President Trump, claiming he uploaded a video that violates its polices.

Trump will be banned from the platform for a week, effectively until the end of his presidency, with comments on all other videos on his channel also disabled indefinitely due to 'safety concerns'.

YouTube also stated that the suspension was enacted due to the 'ongoing potential for violence':

2/ Given the ongoing concerns about violence, we will also be indefinitely disabling comments on President Trump's channel, as we've done to other channels where there are safety concerns found in the comments section. https://t.co/1aBENHGU5z

'-- YouTubeInsider (@YouTubeInsider) January 13, 2021The Google owned company said the suspension may be extended beyond a week, stating ''in accordance with our long-standing strikes system, the channel is now prevented from uploading new videos or livestreams for a minimum of seven days '' which may be extended.''

In the videos that Trump uploaded to YouTube, prompting the ban, Trump said that big tech is making ''a catastrophic mistake'' in its actions to silence him, and that it is intent on ''dividing people''.

The Trump team uploaded several videos to YouTube Tuesday night and it is not clear which one 'violated' YouTube's policies. However, the videos appear to have been clips from his speech in Texas, which TV networks also refused to carry.

The full speech can be viewed below:

President Donald Trump addresses the nation from the southern border where he reiterated the law and order movement of peace to empower the American people.

Commenting on the ongoing effort to erase Trump from the face of the planet, Brexit architect, and Trump's friend, Nigel Farage warned Democrats that it could lead to ''very sinister'' consequences.

Farage said that Democrats are ''so certain of their moral superiority, so filled with hatred and contempt, not just for Trump, but for the values of tens of millions of Americans, that they're going down a course where this guy could be martyred or silenced.''

''That is the biggest mistake anybody could make at this moment in time. Donald Trump didn't radicalise tens of millions of Americans. Tens of millions of Americans had already become upset about the mainstream media, increasingly distrustful of social media, had a loathing for Washington and the way that it operates,'' Farage added.

''If you take Trump out of the picture then what follows Trump, what follows Trump could be very sinister indeed,'' Farage urged, adding ''So I would urge everybody'... they won't listen, I know, but I would urge the Democrats not to be vindictive, and I would urge social media platforms to think again. Otherwise, I think America could be heading into a very, very bad place.''

Listen:

censorship 25 million new users joined in the last 72 hours.

SOPA Images via Getty Images25 million new users joined social media platform Telegram in the last 72 hours alone as its founder slammed people ''being held hostage by tech monopolies.''

The messaging app surpassed 500 million monthly active users in the first week of January and is now adding millions more in the wake of Big Tech's latest censorship purge.

''People no longer want to exchange their privacy for free services,'' said founder Pavel Durov. ''They no longer want to be held hostage by tech monopolies that seem to think they can get away with anything as long as their apps have a critical mass of users.''

The surge was partly driven by Twitter's unprecedented banning of President Trump, a move condemned by even the governments of France and Germany.

However, the main reason for the surge in new downloads was undoubtedly a WhatsApp privacy update which led to concerns that the app would hand over user data to Facebook.

Durov also noted that Apple and Google were far more dangerous than Twitter because of the monopoly they enjoy via app stores.

Telegram is preparing to offer ''a feature-rich web app which will run in Safari almost as smoothly as the native app,'' in case the app gets banned by Google and Apple.

Meanwhile, Parler, which was banned by both Google and Apple and subsequently had its servers pulled by Amazon, could be set to return after it was revealed that the company had registered its domain with Epik, a company known for hosting right-wing content.

Gab, another free speech platform, has also enjoyed record user growth in the past few days.

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censorship Corporate and tech elite want Trump erased from history

Published

1 day ago

on

12 January, 2021

Steve Watson

Mark Wilson/Getty ImagesIn an unprecedented move, two major banks have announced they will refuse to do business with President Trump, and will shut down accounts he holds with them.

Bloomberg News reports that the German based Deutsche Bank, and the New York based Signature Bank are both refusing to do further business with Trump following the events of last week at the Capitol.

Signature issued a statement noting that they believe Trump should resign from office.

''We believe the appropriate action would be the resignation of the president of the United States, which is in the best interests of our nation and the American people,'' the statement from Signature Bank declared.

Trump holds two accounts with the bank, according to reports, with over 5 million dollars invested in them.

The bank says it will now close those accounts, and will also refuse to do business with any elected representative who voted to disregard the electoral college vote count.

''We have never before commented on any political matter and hope to never do so again,'' the bank also stated.

Deutsche Bank, with which Trump has loans of around $340 million outstanding, has decided to sever ties with the President, after almost 20 years of doing business with him.

Last month, two private bankers at Deutsche who had worked most closely with Trump resigned their positions.

While there has been no formal statement concerning Trump, Deutsche's head of U.S. operations Christiana Riley spoke out against the Capitol unrest last week, stating on LinkedIn that the bank stands only with Americans who support a 'peaceful transition of power.'

''Violence has no place in our society and the scenes that we witnessed are a shame on the whole nation,''Riley wrote, adding ''We are proud of our Constitution and stand by those who seek to uphold it to ensure that the will of the people is upheld and a peaceful transition of power takes place.''

The relationship between Trump and Deutsche has been strained for some time, with ongoing investigations by the Manhattan District Attorney's office and New York Attorney General seeing subpoenas issued to the bank.

Court filings have revealed that investigators are looking for any evidence that the Trump Organization misled or defrauded the lender by inflating the value of some of its assets.

The actions of the two banks against Trump are part of a larger ongoing purge by the corporate and tech elite.

The Trump campaign's funding and e-commerce operations have also been cut off by Stripe and Shopify, while a raft of other companies have suspended relations with the President.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:10

In anticipation of more violence in Washington, D.C., next week ahead of or during President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, Airbnb has announced it canceled all reservations for the event.

"We have canceled all Airbnb reservations in DC for Inauguration week. Guests will be issued a full refund and hosts will still be paid in full for these canceled bookings," co-founder and CEO Brian Chesky wrote on Twitter.

sponsor''We are announcing that Airbnb will cancel reservations in the Washington, D.C. metro area during the Inauguration week,'' said a statement from the company. "Additionally, we will prevent any new reservations in the Washington, D.C. area from being booked during that time by blocking such reservations.''

It's not clear whether the company is canceling similar reservations in state capitals, but according to private source intelligence, some groups -- left and right -- may be planning protests in various capitals, some of which could involve armed elements (which would be really stupid).

The Daily Caller has more:

This decision was made following a joint request by Democratic D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser, Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, and Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. The request asked Americans to not travel to the nation's capital, but rather to watch the inauguration virtually, according to Airbnb's statement.

Airbnb's announcement is a pivot from its original plan for increased safety and security measures, according to CNBC. The platform stated it would remove people associated with the Jan. 6 Capitol riots from its mobile app.

The company's decision comes after the announcement that the National Guard will deploy ''at least'' 10,000 troops by Saturday in preparation of Biden's Jan. 20 inauguration, according to the AP Press.

In addition, the travel and reservation platform said that it has identified several people who "are either associated with known hate groups or otherwise involved in the criminal activity at the Capitol Building," add that those individuals have been banned from using Airbnb.

Seriously, anyone who dares to bring weapons to the nation's capital or any state capital is either not playing with a full deck or out of their minds.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 14:29

AR15.com, the biggest gun forum in the world, was deplatformed on Monday by web hosting company GoDaddy.

''ARFCOM IS DOWN. We've been booted from GoDaddy and are looking for an alternative solution,'' the site announced Monday afternoon on Twitter.

ARFCOM Is Down. We've been booted from GoDaddy and are looking for an alternative solution.

The site will return athttps://www.ar15-backup.com

Standby for more information

'-- AR15.COM (@AR15COM) January 11, 2021

The swift termination by internet host GoDaddy forced AR15.com's leadership to think on their feet and quickly create a temporary URL so ''freedom lovers and firearm enthusiasts'' could continue to access the information and resources on the site.

Instead of offering specifics about kicking the gun site off the internet, GoDaddy merely claimed that AR15.com violated its terms of service, which resulted in instant termination.

''On Monday, January 11, 2021, I received notice from our site registrar that AR15.com had violated their terms of service and that AR15.com would be shut down immediately,'' President and Co-Founder of the gun site Juan Avila told The Federalist in a statement. ''The registrar's decision to de-platform AR15.com was final and no method to appeal was offered.''

''It remains unclear specifically what content allegedly violated the registrar's terms of service,'' he added.

When asked by The Federalist about the decision to remove AR15.com, GoDaddy claimed that the site ''both promotes and encourages violence,'' but did not offer any specific examples. Instead, they offered AR15.com 24 hours to relocate its business.

The decision from GoDaddy follows of series of bans and contract terminations by big tech companies such as Amazon, Google, Apple, Twitter, and Facebook targeting conservatives and supporters of President Donald Trump. In addition to using their acquired power to ban and distance themselves from the president and his supporters, many have also engaged in what some have labeled anti-competitive behavior, encouraging and pushing each other to nuke alternative sites such as Parler.

Despite the abrupt change in AR15.com's site domain and traffic, Avila said that AR15.com already found ''a new, First Amendment-friendly site registrar'' that will accommodate the forum during its transition, which may take a few days.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 05:12

As Britain adjusts to life outside of the European Union, businesses are contending with delays, service cancellations and piles of paperwork.

The House of Parliament in London. Many British businesses, simply trying to stay afloat in the pandemic, had set aside planning for Brexit. Credit... Andrew Testa for The New York Times LONDON '-- Britain started 2021 in a new relationship with its biggest trade partner, and it has immediately brought a litany of headaches and lost business.

Within a week, implications of the Brexit trade deal with the European Union are being felt by businesses up and down the country as food deliveries are delayed for not having the right customs paperwork, logistics companies halt the shipment of goods, and retailers discover their supply chains might be obsolete.

After decades inside the European Union's customs union and single market, Britain's businesses have unearthed new challenges and changes every day.

Here's a sampling from the first week:

MONDAY The first day of financial trading under the new agreement meant the stock of European companies could no longer be traded on the London-based platforms they have historically been exchanged on. The trades have migrated to trading platforms in cities including Amsterdam and Paris.

TUESDAY The British retailer Marks & Spencer had trouble getting its fresh salads and other prepared foods across the English Channel to its stores in France, leaving some shelves bare in Paris. ''Due to new UK/EU import legislation, we're sorry some of your favorites might be missing,'' a sign said.

WEDNESDAY The governor of the Bank of England, Britain's central bank, told a parliamentary committee that the Brexit deal would cost the British economy about 2 percent of gross domestic product over the next few years. Part of that expense, said Andrew Bailey, the governor, would be caused by additional paperwork for customs declarations and other expenses of trade '-- what he called ''the grit in the mechanism.''

THURSDAY Scottish salmon farmers, who take pride in getting their fillets from sea to French markets within 24 hours, reported delays in their sleek process under the new Brexit terms. The deal's ''new, complex'' trading rules had caused holdups as seafood companies struggled with the paperwork, the trade group Scotland Food and Drink said. ''We have warned for months about the lack of preparation time for everyone involved and these problems sadly come as little surprise,'' said the head of the group.

FRIDAY The large European delivery company DPD, which moved more than one billion parcels around the world in 2019, said it would stop sending packages from Britain to the European Union until at least the middle of next week as it tried to figure out new cross-border systems.

Image Debenhams, a large but now bankrupt chain of department stores, had to shut down its Irish website. Credit... Andy Rain/EPA, via Shutterstock For many businesses, this is what Brexit has quickly become: a logistical, regulatory and administrative burden for which they were unprepared. It will only add to the malaise in Britain, where the coronavirus pandemic is raging '-- last week one in 50 people in England had the virus, and the country is under its third national lockdown. And analysts say the economy is heading for a double-dip recession.

Some businesses had put aside efforts to plan for Brexit last year in favor of trying to keep their companies afloat during the pandemic. But even those that tried to prepare faced a fundamental obstacle: an agreement on the trade deal with the European Union wasn't reached until Dec. 24, and the text of the 1,246-page pact wasn't circulated until Dec. 26.

Other documents, providing full details of how Britain's border would work, with illustrative examples and flow charts, weren't published until Dec. 31, the day before the new rules took effect.

''No wonder people are struggling,'' said Sally Jones, who leads the trade strategy and Brexit team at EY, the consulting and accounting firm. For the first time since 1993, British businesses need to deal with customs checks, additional food safety forms, and myriad other paperwork to trade with the European Union.

Image Trucks waited to board ferries bound for France in Dover. One company said numerous trucks had been turned away, lacking the correct paperwork. Credit... Andrew Testa for The New York Times ''People forget just how difficult things were in the past,'' Ms. Jones said.

On Friday, DFDS, a large Danish logistics company that runs ferries from the English port of Dover to France, said a ''high volume'' of trucks were being refused or delayed for not having the correct paperwork.

DPD, the parcel delivery company, said it paused service to the European Union after up to 20 percent of parcels it handled had incorrect or incomplete data, and so would need to be returned to the sender.

''The things which are proving problematic are the things that we expected to be problematic,'' Ms. Jones said. ''So for goods, it's all about the speed and accuracy with which people are preparing the right paperwork.''

Many U.K. businesses '-- at least 150,000, according to data from Britain's tax agency '-- have never traded beyond the European Union, and so have no experience dealing with the customs systems.

The situation in Northern Ireland is an added wrinkle. Northern Ireland will remain partially in the European Union's single market, an exception that avoids a border with the Republic of Ireland but creates a border in the Irish Sea. Logistics experts say the Trader Support Service, a free government service to help companies complete customs forms to send goods from England, Wales and Scotland to Northern Ireland, has been overwhelmed.

Some businesses anticipated cross-border problems with Europe, and filled warehouses with stockpiled goods '-- auto parts and pharmaceuticals, for example '-- before the end of the Brexit transition period. That has kept cross-border shipments at a fraction of their normal level so far. Over the next few weeks, as those stockpiles run down, business activity will pick up, exacerbating delays.

Another new problem faced by large retailers with international locations: ''Rules-of-origin requirements,'' which determine whether a product leaving Britain is ''British enough'' to qualify for tariff-free trade with the European Union. International retailers who use sites in Britain as distribution centers are now finding that they can't automatically re-export their products to their stores in the European Union without facing tariffs '-- even if the product came from the bloc.

For example, a company could not import jeans from Bangladesh or cheese from France into a hub in England and then send it on to a store in Ireland without facing export tariffs. The British Retail Consortium said at least 50 of its members face such tariffs. Debenhams, a large but now bankrupt chain of department stores, shut down its Irish website because of confusion over trade rules.

As companies scramble to catch up to the rule changes, the question is: What does Britain do with the sovereignty and freedom it has secured from leaving the European Union? The government has to decide how much it wants to diverge from Europe's rules, where it might want to deregulate, and if it wants to pay the price for that.

''Modern trade and modern regulation does require a level of integration,'' especially if a country is not as large as the European Union or the United States, said David Henig, director of the U.K. Trade Policy Project at the European Center for International Political Economy. Smaller countries may find they have to ''follow other people's rules, and that can be uncomfortable.''

''The U.K. is experimenting to try and find if it can maintain our position while not having to do that,'' he said.

So far, there are few immediate tangible benefits of Brexit for businesses '-- beyond the fact that ending years of stormy debate and uncertainty may be counted as a benefit. (For many supporters, Brexit was always about sovereignty, not business, and it has allowed Britain to revise its immigration laws.)

The Treasury has taken one step in the last week that it could not have done under E.U. law: On Jan. 1 it scrapped the collection of V.A.T., a type of sales tax, on tampons and other sanitary products, pleasing campaigners who called it a sexist tax.

But it will be hard to realize any substantial short-term gains from Britain's new trading arrangement with the European Union, especially since the pandemic continues to take a toll on the economy. Last year, the British economy experienced its deepest recession in more than 300 years, and the lockdowns continue as vaccines are slowly rolled out.

''A lot of the disruption that Brexit brings is going to be hidden by the pandemic,'' said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics and foreign affairs at King's College London.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 05:16

Published January 10, 2021

Last Update 4 hrs ago

The cover was not the one Harris' team expected to be used, one writer claimedThe cover of February's upcoming issue of Vogue, which features Vice-President-elect Kamala Harris, has been widely criticized on social media.

Some fans of the future VP are claiming Harris looks washed out in the photo while others say the cover's style doesn't give her the respect she deserves.

And some say it's just plain bad.

"What a mess up. [Editor-in-Chief] Anna Wintour must really not have Black friends and colleagues," author Wajahat Ali wrote.

"Kamala Harris is about as light skinned as women of color come and Vogue still f---ed up her lighting. WTF is this washed out mess of a cover?" Twitter user E. Vaughan said.

HARRIS EMPHASIZES COVID-19 VACCINE IS 'PAINLESS' AND 'SAFE'

She added, "Vogue knows Kamala Harris loves her sorority, suits, comfortable pants and chuck taylors. So they just jumbled it all together for the cover. Except they couldn't decide whether she is going to a luxe French salon, the Senate floor, or taking a jog."

BIDEN, HARRIS ACCUSED OF 'GASLIGHTING' FOR SUGGESTING CAPITOL HILL RIOTERS, 'PEACEFUL' BLM DOUBLE STANDARD

User MVP Harris said the cover proves it's time for 71-year-old Wintour to step down as Vogue's editor.

"If the only time her team can properly style a black women is when she's covered in couture then her tenure has ran it course. Look at how Kamala Harris' Elle cover straight up bodied Vogue. Electric chair!"

"Folks who don't get why the Vogue cover of VP-elect Kamala Harris is bad are missing the point," activist Charlotte Clymer tweeted. "The pic itself isn't terrible as a pic. It's just far, far below the standards of Vogue. They didn't put thought into it. Like homework finished the morning it's due. Disrespectful."

"Vogue has Kamala Harris in some f---ing Converse. Someone needs to throw a cinderblock at Anna Wintour fr," user miss mullet said.

However, it wasn't hated by everyone.

One Twitter user said it spoke to her generation. "I had a pair of @Converse in middle school! #1984 now this is the #BRAND #GENZ WANTS!" She added it sets an example for realistic fashion.

The cover was not the one Harris' team expected to be used, according to a source familiar with the publication, New York magazine contributor Yashar Ali tweeted.

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"In the cover that they expected, Vice President-elect Harris was wearing a powder blue suit. That was the cover that the Vice President-elect's team and the Vogue team, including Anna Wintour, mutually agreed upon...which is standard for fashion magazines," Ali added.

He said it meant someone changed the cover without informing Harris' team.

Harris has not commented on the cover.

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Archived Version

Mon, 11 Jan 2021 05:18

A FEW MONTHS AGO, the United States of America was in free fall. No one knew which way the election was headed, record numbers of people were losing their jobs, homelessness was worsening, COVID cases were spiking, and winter lockdowns loomed. Then, at the end of their steady, dutiful campaign, California Senator Kamala Harris and former Vice President Joe Biden swept a series of likely and unlikely states, thanks to unprecedented voter turnout and a tide of mail-in ballots that carried Pennsylvania and Georgia. Biden earned over 80 million votes'--more than any other presidential candidate in history. Despite those victories, Harris, Biden, and the rest of us had to wait for nearly a week for news outlets to declare them the winners, and another two weeks for the federal government to approve the transition. All the while, President Donald J. Trump refused to concede, telling his followers that he had won the election, spreading conspiracy theories about fraud, and demanding recounts in as many states as he could. In January, a mob of Trump's supporters followed his lead: they rioted at the Capitol, violently raging through the halls and offices of Congress as lawmakers hid; they looted and fought police officers, leaving five people dead.

Mrs. AmericaVice President''elect Kamala Harris in a Michael Kors Collection suit. Hair, Bre Jaggers; makeup, Marquia James. Set design, Julia Wagner. Sittings Editor: Gabriella Karefa-Johnson. Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, February 2021 Cover LookAgainst colors inspired by those of her Howard university sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha, Vice President''elect Kamala Harris wears a Donald Deal jacket. Converse sneakers. Photographed by Tyler Mitchell, Vogue, February 2021This is the second time Harris, 56, has been through a dragged-out contest; when she ran for attorney general of California in 2010, the race was so close that ballot counting went on for more than three weeks. (On election night that year, her opponent had declared victory, too.) On the chilly, sunny morning of November 7, Harris started the day by power walking with her husband, entertainment lawyer Douglas Emhoff. She then headed back to the inn where they were staying, near Biden's campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, to take a shower and prepare for meetings; Emhoff decided to continue on by himself. Harris ran the shower to get it hot. ''Then I looked at my phone, and the texts came that they had called the race, and I ran downstairs to find Doug'--never turned off the water,'' Harris says to me with a laugh. ''Luckily enough there were people in the house. 'Somebody go turn off the water!' '' We all saw a clip of what came next: Harris standing on a grassy lawn, still in workout wear, on the phone with President-elect Joe Biden. ''We did it. We did it, Joe,'' she tells him, and laughs with a tired happiness. What they had done was remarkable'--ousting a bigoted and cruel president from office'--but, given the wreckage left behind, it was only the beginning.

That night, in a suit so white it glowed, she and Biden gave their victory speeches in front of a drive-up rally and millions of people watching from home. ''It was very important for me to speak to the moment, and the moment includes understanding that there is a great responsibility that comes with being a first,'' Harris says of that evening. We are talking over Zoom, and she's dressed in a deep brown blazer and black pearls, sitting in front of not one but two American flags, on a week in which she and Biden have begun naming their Cabinet. She wanted to say something that night that young Americans would remember. ''I always say this: I may be the first to do many things'--make sure I'm not the last,'' she tells me. ''I was thinking of my baby nieces, who will only know one world where a woman is vice president of the United States, a woman of color, a Black woman, a woman with parents who were born outside of the United States.'' Harris was also emotional that night, thinking of her mother, an Indian immigrant and breast cancer researcher named Shyamala Gopalan who passed away 12 years ago. ''I thought about what her life meant'' and how it had gotten Harris to that victory. And she was thinking about the weight on her and Biden ''to unify our country and to heal.''

A FEW WEEKS before our interview, on November 2, I followed Harris around the state of Pennsylvania. In the city of Bethlehem, sunken into the green-lit farmland of the Lehigh Valley, Harris was holding a drive-up rally to ignite a furiously long day of campaigning. Pennsylvania was a key swing state that had gone Trump's way in 2016. It's also a place where people care deeply about the land, about who has long lived on the land, and who is moving in, and about how to protect the values they believe the land represents: family, honorable work, a sense of home. The press pool and I watched her take the stage in front of young families; white men, including a group of metal­worker-union members in neon-yellow sweatshirts; and middle-aged Black girlfriends in bright jackets.

''I was feeling that there's not much more we can do,'' Harris recalls of that day in Pennsylvania. ''But because I had been going to states like Florida and North Carolina during early voting, I was feeling a sense of joy in seeing how many people were voting.'' The hours-long voting lines around the country, to her, showed what she had always felt about American democracy: that it was only as strong as the people willing to fight for it. To others the lines were troubling, demonstrating state attempts at voter suppression, but to Harris, they also suggested love for our country, despite the coronavirus pandemic and the worst economic conditions Americans had experienced in generations.

All TogetherIn a family portrait taken in 1972, Harris (center) stands next to her younger sister, Maya. Her mother, Shyamala Gopalan, is flanked by her parents. Bright FutureA young Harris, photographed in Berkeley, California.In Bethlehem, Harris was charismatic at the microphone, sounding down-home and authoritative, even when she stumbled: She praised the anniversary of the 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote, before falling into that sometimes-awkward laugh of hers, and adding that Black women had been excluded from that right'--''Gotta deal with that,'' she said. As the audience cheered, she added, ''Let's honor the ancestors.'' I met a Black woman in the crowd named Tracie Garvin-Springer who was dressed in hazard-red heels and a cheetah-print coat, and had lived in Lehigh for 15 years. She told me, ''I'm representing my mom, I'm representing my husband. This country is more than two centuries old, and our country needs to show diversity, and diversity means leadership comes in all races, all colors. It's time for a change.'' Some minutes later, I talked to two young men who were raising their fists and whooping; they help run Black Lives Matter Lehigh Valley. ''I had mixed feelings about her'--her history as a DA and how that related to Black people,'' one said. ''But where she's at now, trying to be progressive, especially with the LGBTQ community'--'' His partner interrupted: ''Not only are we minorities, but we're gay, and she's for us.''

On the Saturday I woke up to start writing this story, the morning of Harris's and Biden's victory speeches, I did the same thing I had done every day since the election: found my phone under the duvet and doomscrolled through Twitter, news sites, and Insta­gram to check for updates on the vote count. We were still waiting on Pennsylvania, on Nevada, on Georgia. But 10 minutes later, a new headline appeared: CNN had declared Biden the president-elect. Photos from friends in New York and Atlanta showed crowds of people celebrating on the street, dancing and popping Champagne bottles. I texted my friends and family and set my phone down, overwhelmed with both surprise and grief'--for a pandemic and state-directed violence that continued to take Black, brown, and poor lives. I put YG and Nipsey Hussle's ''FDT,'' a pledge of disloyalty to our outgoing commander-in-chief, on repeat, to the soundtrack of fireworks in my East Los Angeles neighborhood. Then I wondered how people who had voted for Trump were reacting to the election being called, if they even thought the race was over.

After the historic congressional wins in Georgia's January runoff elections, Biden and Harris will have the narrowest possible control of the Senate. Harris says the first 100 days of their administration will focus on tackling the coronavirus. ''The first line of approach has to be to get control of this pandemic,'' she says. She is worried about children who are missing school and frontline workers who don't have protective equipment and are suffering from trauma, and says that her first priorities are distributing the vaccine and utilizing the Defense Production Act, which will increase the production and distribution of masks, gowns, and gloves. When it comes to the economy, Harris's focus is on small businesses, on using federal funds to help them adapt to life under COVID. She also wants to push a congressional bill that will help protect home­owners and renters against evictions and foreclosures. Harris says that behind all of these measures is the idea of ''investing in the American workforce.'' Even before the pandemic, ''far too many people were working two and three jobs. In the world that Joe Biden and I believe can and should exist, people should only have to work one job.''

Science will matter, too, in helping the country mitigate future disasters. Harris's mother was a scientist who took Kamala and her younger sister to the lab on weekends and after work when they were growing up in Berkeley, California. Harris sees science as the only way to hold on to the country's infrastructure through climate change. ''You look at that tunnel between New Jersey and New York; if there is another Hurricane Sandy, it'll probably be wiped out,'' Harris says. ''You look at the wildfires in California'--the whole West Coast, from Washington and Oregon, to California and Colorado. And the storms ravaging the Gulf States.'' Science also has to shape the end of the pandemic. ''What we want is to get everyone vaccinated, and we intend to make sure that they are free vaccinations,'' Harris tells me, mentioning the COVID-19 Racial and Ethnic Disparities Task Force she aims to create in Congress. ''You look at our Black and Latino and Native American populations, and you see that all the [health and economic] disparities before the pandemic have been highlighted and exacerbated.'' Focusing on the coronavirus, Harris believes, will help bring together Americans, no matter who they voted for. ''We think about the first 100 days in terms of what we need to do to support mayors and governors and local officials around their distribution and their public-health systems,'' she says. ''When we get control of this pandemic, that's going to be a critical factor in being able to reopen our economy.''

A More Perfect UnionHarris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, on their wedding day in 2014, in Santa Barbara, California. Photo courtesy Kamala Harris campaignYET, DURING THE DAY she spent campaigning in Pennsylvania, occasionally armed Trump supporters protested nearly every one of her events, including a man shouting into a bullhorn that Latinos were for Trump. As I drove around Philadelphia, I saw a billboard advertising Asian-Americans for Trump. More people'--at least 10 million more'--voted for President Donald Trump last year than in 2016. When I ask Harris how she will govern a deeply fractured electorate, she returns to her oft-repeated ''3:00 a.m. agenda'' talking point: the idea that all Americans share the same concerns that keep them up at night, anxieties that unite Americans regardless ''of where they live, the color of their skin, the God they pray to. It's about, How can I get a job, keep a job, pay the bills by the end of the month, make sure that my kids have a decent education and an opportunity to succeed, especially amid COVID?'' she says. ''It's about, How can I buy a home and keep a home?''

We're also united by the fundamental challenge of keeping our families healthy and safe, she argues. It's a belief that has guided Harris and Biden through the winter, as Trump and his surrogates have mocked his opponents and denied their win, dreaming up fantasies of election rigging, losing one court challenge after another. ''At the risk of oversimplifying it, you don't meet hate with hate,'' Harris says. ''You don't meet one line of division with another line of division. We believe that the vast majority of American people don't agree with that approach, don't accept it, and don't like it.'' Through congressional hearings, political debates, and much of her interactions with the public, Harris has an almost regal ability to let hostility or criticisms glide off her; she shrugs them away with a tilt of her head and an amused, knowing smile. That implacability could help her and Biden lead even if part of their constituency remains in a state of revolt, or it could alienate them further from Americans who refuse to support the new administration.

Last year also saw the most widespread and sustained protests against police brutality and racism in the country's history, ignited by the killing of George Floyd in May; even Mitt Romney (with his ''shirtsleeves turned up,'' Harris says) joined a march. The uprising, Harris tells me, didn't affect her thinking on the ways in which Black people are policed, charged, and prosecuted. ''What it did do was made it easier to point out that the fight for criminal-justice reform, the fight for racial justice should be everyone's fight,'' she says. ''I was out there with the folks who were protesting the murder of George Floyd, and it was the first time I saw so much diversity in who was marching arm in arm, shouting, speaking, crying that Black lives matter.''

The first 100 days of the Biden administration will focus on tackling the coronavirus. ''The first line of approach has to be to get control of this pandemic,'' Harris says

Harris's parents, Gopalan and Donald Harris, a Jamaican-born professor emeritus of economics at Stanford, met as young graduate students in the civil rights movement at the University of California, Berkeley. Harris describes a childhood surrounded by her politically active aunties and uncles: ''I always joke about being in a stroller at that moment,'' she says. ''The Black Lives Matter movement, this movement that we are witnessing and had witnessed through the summer, is an extension of that movement.'' She says that she wants to help high-crime neighborhoods deal with the causes of crime: ''Triple Title I funding'' to low-income school districts, and stop funding public schools solely from the tax bases of communities, which hurts poor kids the most. But despite the connection between BLM and her own parents, Harris has not advocated for the reforms activists have pushed for in reducing or eliminating police budgets to divert funds to social programs, and has instead talked generally about funding alternative forms of public safety.HARRIS'S NATURAL CHARISMA and relatability lend her a version of what you might call the Obama effect. She, too, has often been the only Black person in the room, the only woman, the only Black and Indian American woman, forced to prove she's as good as, if not better than, everyone around her. My friend Nientara, a psychiatry resident at the Yale School of Medicine, doesn't agree with some of Harris's neoliberal views but tells me, ''As a brown-skinned South Asian woman who has and is making her professional life in primarily white institutions, it was impossible not to see myself in her. Hearing the names Kamala Devi Harris and Shyamala Gopalan Harris read out loud during a presidential press conference was flat-out thrilling.''

Harris knows that continually being the first, while promising not to be the last, is part of her appeal. ''Vice President Harris has already been the 'first' many times in her career,'' says Michelle Obama. ''This is a woman who knows what she's doing. It can't be about trying to please everybody or prove to certain people you're good enough for the job. And the vice president wouldn't be where she is today if she let that kind of thing get to her.''

The Obama effect, though, has its limits; to some, Obama himself was too often preoccupied with making white voters feel comfortable with his race, and rarely challenged establishment politics. And so the emotion of Harris and Biden's win was immediately followed by questions about how they would govern and what kind of coalition they might build in Congress. Would they embrace members on their left, or younger moderates in the party? How would they gain trust from the progressive voters who had reluctantly cast votes for them?

During the pandemic, as is usually the way in American history, Black women working low-wage service jobs have suffered the most'--from the lack of economic relief that would allow them to stay home during lockdowns, to the absence of affordable health and child care. (Black Americans are still dying of the coronavirus at nearly three times the rate of white ones.) Black women also have the highest levels of student debt of any group, which Biden and Harris do not plan to cancel (despite calls for them to do so). And so for many Black women, Harris's talk of national unity and reconciliation is far from a vision of genuine social reform. As the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, professor Tressie McMillan Cottom put it on the podcast she cohosts, ''Hear to Slay,'' reconciling those differences may not be possible. ''This is as close as a Black woman has come to entering the White House as something other than a spouse'--and even that was novel enough. So to have a woman of color '... is a fundamental shift in how we see power, privilege, and statecraft in the United States of America.'' But, Cottom went on, ''I am still unsure as to how much it means for 'progress.' '' My friend Nana, an actor and writer, feels similarly: ''We know representation is beautiful, but we saw firsthand in Ferguson in 2014 how it prevented Obama from engaging in real, meaningful dialogue and change during the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement.'' Harris has yet to convince all Americans that she plans to radically change the circumstances for the most vulnerable among us.

''Vice President Harris has already been the 'first' many times in her career,'' says Michelle Obama. ''This is a woman who knows what she's doing''

Around the country, the election spurred a debate about the pragmatism of winning office by courting moderate voters versus pushing for progressive change. Harris says she thinks, for most people, there is no distinction. ''There are a lot of issues where we just need to speak truth, difficult though it may be to hear. If there is a rape, if there is a child who is molested, if there is a homicide, every community wants to know that there will be a police officer who responds to that. We also know we need to decriminalize marijuana and expunge the records of people'--I'm reluctant to accept false choices,'' she tells me. ''I think the vast majority of Americans, when presented with the facts, when presented with the truth, will agree we need to have reform of policing'--and we need police officers!''

AS WE WAIT to see what Harris will do, Biden appears to know enough about his vice president. ''He decided that I would be a partner for him,'' Harris says of why he chose her as his running mate. Besides her professional accomplishments while district attorney of San Francisco, attorney general of California, and senator from California'--often the first woman and person of color in those roles'--the two were ''raised the same way, with the same values,'' meaning they care about ''family and hard work.'' She sees herself as a vice president who ''will always speak truth, always give him my opinion, which will be based on fact and knowledge and life experience, and do it in a way that allows him, when he makes a decision, to make it with full information about the impact'--and he has asked me to do that.''

The glimpses of Harris we do see are of a woman who cares deeply about her family and her friends. ''Even with all the craziness of the campaign, she never lost sight of what's really important. She would just be there for all of us: the kids, the little nieces and her sister, and my parents. She kept close tabs on everyone,'' Emhoff, Harris's husband, tells me. When the couple were campaigning in different locations'--Emhoff in Ohio, Harris in Georgia, for example'--she sent him a stream of messages and photos from the road, including the now-viral video of her dancing in the rain at a rally in Florida. ''I'm drenched!'' she texted him. Most mornings, they work out immediately after waking up, listen to ''old-school hip-hop, real old-school jazz, the classics like Prince and Stevie Wonder,'' and try to cook together as much as they can. ''Loves to cook is an understatement'--it just connects her to so many things. Food is family, and family is love,'' Emhoff says. Harris taught Emhoff, usually a non-cook, ''three moves'': baked chicken thighs with brown rice and spinach, a string-bean stir-fry, and swordfish. When Emhoff once tried to grill burgers and steak inside their apartment, Harris had to fan away the smoke with her briefing binder. ''That was a low point,'' Emhoff jokes.

Dreaming BigHarris in Los Angeles with beneficiaries of the DREAM Act. Photographed by Zo Ghertner, Vogue, 2018Harris is perhaps closest with her younger sister, Maya, a lawyer and the former campaign chair for her presidential run. Maya tells me that she sees the influence of their mother in the kind of leader Harris has become: ''Our mother broke barriers, and she brought other people along with her.'' She argues, ''There were a number of people who characterized what they were running on as among the most progressive platforms in Democratic party history....When Kamala and Joe ran, they brought people to the table and made public commitments to keep people at the table,'' notably politicians like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who advised Harris and Biden on their policy proposals.

In the days after our conversation, Harris alternated between tweeting about how we needed to help one another get through the end of the pandemic, and sharing her family's Thanksgiving cornbread-dressing recipe on Instagram. Meanwhile, the Electoral College affirmed Biden's win, and there was a new sense of assuredness and lightness to her posts. She also made White House staff hires: All of her senior positions have so far been filled by women who have previously worked in government, including the Washington veteran Tina Flournoy as her chief of staff.

Weeks after we talked, I thought of the Harris rally back in Bethlehem before Election Day, when the Trump-supporting protesters turned their attention to Harris's motorcade as it pulled out of the venue. ''You don't belong here!'' one woman shouted. For much of the last four years, for millions of Americans, that statement felt true'--when it seemed impossible to belong to a place that had elected a leader who ruled by hate, when it sometimes seemed unlikely we would find a way out of the darkness. Harris remembers, too. But she's looking ahead now and wants the country to follow her lead. ''We can agree that we have more in common than what separates us,'' she says. ''And agree that it's not in the best interest of who we are as a nation to have any one group suffer for who they are.''

Editor's Note: This story has been updated to reflect news events that have transpired since Vogue's February issue went to press in mid-December.

The Vogue February issue featuring Kamala Harris is here! Subscribe now to guarantee your copy.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 12:51

An elementary school in Cupertino, California'--a Silicon Valley community with a median home price of $2.3 million'--recently forced a class of third-graders to deconstruct their racial identities, then rank themselves according to their ''power and privilege.''

Based on whistleblower documents and parents familiar with the session, a third-grade teacher at R.I. Meyerholz Elementary School began the lesson on ''social identities'' during a math class. The teacher asked all students to create an ''identity map,'' listing their race, class, gender, religion, family structure, and other characteristics. The teacher explained that the students live in a ''dominant culture'' of ''white, middle class, cisgender, educated, able-bodied, Christian, English speaker[s],'' who, according to the lesson, ''created and maintained'' this culture in order ''to hold power and stay in power.''

Next, reading from This Book Is Antiracist, the students learned that ''those with privilege have power over others'' and that ''folx who do not benefit from their social identities, who are in the subordinate culture, have little to no privilege and power.'' As an example, the reading states that ''a white, cisgender man, who is able-bodied, heterosexual, considered handsome and speaks English has more privilege than a Black transgender woman.'' In some cases, because of the principle of intersectionality, ''there are parts of us that hold some power and other parts that are oppressed,'' even within a single individual.

Following this discussion, the teacher had the students deconstruct their own intersectional identities and ''circle the identities that hold power and privilege'' on their identity maps, ranking their traits according to the hierarchy. In a related assignment, the students were asked to write short essays describing which aspects of their identities ''hold power and privilege'' and which do not. The students were expected to produce ''at least one full page of writing.'' As an example, the presentation included a short paragraph about transgenderism and nonbinary sexuality.

The lesson caused an immediate uproar among Meyerholz Elementary parents. ''We were shocked,'' said one parent, who agreed to speak with me on condition of anonymity. ''They were basically teaching racism to my eight-year-old.'' This parent, who is Asian-American, rallied a group of a half dozen families to protest the school's intersectionality curriculum. The group met with the school principal and demanded an end to the racially divisive instruction. After a tense meeting, the administration agreed to suspend the program. (When reached for comment, Jenn Lashier, the principal of Meyerholz Elementary, said that the training was not part of the ''formal curricula, but the process of daily learning facilitated by a certified teacher.'')

The irony is that, despite being 94 percent nonwhite, Meyerholz Elementary is one of the most privileged schools in America. The median household income in Cupertino is $172,000, and nearly 80 percent of residents have a bachelor's degree or higher. At the school, where the majority of families are Asian-American, the students have exceptionally high rates of academic achievement and the school consistently ranks in the top 1 percent of all elementary schools statewide. In short, nobody at Meyerholz is oppressed, and the school's high-achieving parents know that teaching intersectionality instead of math is a waste of time'--and potentially dangerous.

One parent told me that critical race theory was reminiscent of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. ''[It divides society between] the oppressor and the oppressed, and since these identities are inborn characteristics people cannot change, the only way to change it is via violent revolution,'' the parent said. ''Growing up in China, I had learned it many times. The outcome is the family will be ripped apart; husband hates wife, children hate parents. I think it is already happening here.''

The small fight at Meyerholz reflects a larger development: for the first time, Asian-Americans on the West Coast have become politically mobilized. In 2019, Asian-Americans ran a successful initiative campaign against affirmative action in Washington State; in 2020, Asian-Americans ran a similar campaign in California, winning by an astonishing 57 percent to 43 percent margin. In both cases, they defended the principles of meritocracy, individual rights, and equality under the law'--and roundly defeated a super-coalition of the states' progressive politicians, activists, universities, media, and corporations.

The stakes are high for the Asian-American community. For progressives insisting on the narrative of ''white supremacy'' and ''systemic racism,'' Asian-Americans are the ''inconvenient minority'': they significantly outperform all other racial groups, including whites, in terms of academic achievement, college admissions, household income, family stability, and other key measures. Affirmative action and other critical race theory-based programs would devastate their admissions to universities and harm their futures.

At Meyerholz Elementary, the Asian-American families are on high alert for critical race theory in the classroom. Since their initial victory, they have begun to consider campaigning against the school board. ''We think some of our school board members are [critical race theory] activists and they must go,'' said one parent. The capture of our public institutions by progressives obsessed by race and privilege deserves opposition at every level. The parents of Cupertino have joined the fight.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 13:06

doi: 10.1081/jas-100001497. Affiliations

Affiliation 1 Department of Medicine, Dammam Central Hospital, Saudi Arabia. PMID: 11515979 DOI: 10.1081/jas-100001497 Item in Clipboard

E F Ahmad et al. J Asthma . 2001 Aug .

doi: 10.1081/jas-100001497. Affiliation 1 Department of Medicine, Dammam Central Hospital, Saudi Arabia. PMID: 11515979 DOI: 10.1081/jas-100001497 Item in Clipboard

Abstract It is customary in clinical practice and elsewhere to put on a mask for protection against infection, dust, and so forth. The veil, which is traditionally worn by women in many Muslim countries, especially in Saudi Arabia, may have a similar effect. The study was carried out during 1998-1999 in the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. Adult women were asked to answer a structured questionnaire related to the occurrence of respiratory tract problems and about veil wearing. Veil wearing was practiced by 58% of the sample. Respiratory infections and asthma were significantly more common in veils users (p < 0.00001 and p < 0.0003, respectively). This unexpected finding was probably secondary to infection. More and bigger studies are recommended.

Similar articles Pulmonary effects of occupational exposure to Portland cement: a study from eastern Saudi Arabia. Ballal SG, Ahmed HO, Ali BA, Albar AA, Alhasan AY. Ballal SG, et al. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2004 Jul-Sep;10(3):272-7. doi: 10.1179/oeh.2004.10.3.272. Int J Occup Environ Health. 2004. PMID: 15473080

Breastfeeding practice and its association with respiratory symptoms and atopic disease in 1-3-year-old children in the city of Riyadh, central Saudi Arabia. Al-Makoshi A, Al-Frayh A, Turner S, Devereux G. Al-Makoshi A, et al. Breastfeed Med. 2013 Feb;8(1):127-33. doi: 10.1089/bfm.2011.0137. Epub 2012 Oct 5. Breastfeed Med. 2013. PMID: 23039399

Current care services provided for patients with COPD in the Eastern province in Saudi Arabia: a descriptive study. Alsubaiei ME, Cafarella PA, Frith PA, McEvoy RD, Effing TW. Alsubaiei ME, et al. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2015 Nov 4;10:2379-91. doi: 10.2147/COPD.S89456. eCollection 2015. Int J Chron Obstruct Pulmon Dis. 2015. PMID: 26604736 Free PMC article.

Environmental Determinants of Bronchial Asthma among Saudi School Children in Southwestern Saudi Arabia. Alqahtani JM, Asaad AM, Awadalla NJ, Mahfouz AA. Alqahtani JM, et al. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016 Dec 28;14(1):22. doi: 10.3390/ijerph14010022. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2016. PMID: 28036050 Free PMC article.

[Epidemiologic study of risk factors associated with the development of respiratory pathology in children]. Sanz Ortega J, Martorell Aragon(C)s A, Alvarez Angel V, Bermºdez Edo JD, Saiz Rodr­guez R, Fuertes Fortea A, Torro Dom(C)nech I, Colomer Sala J, D­az Mart­nez A, Mora Navarro O. Sanz Ortega J, et al. An Esp Pediatr. 1990 May;32(5):389-98. An Esp Pediatr. 1990. PMID: 2205136 Review. Spanish.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 14:01

In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, medical workers take swabs from residents in Shijiazhuang in north China's Hebei province on Jan. 6. Authorities have announced new restrictions to contain the coronavirus. Mu Yu/AP hide caption

toggle caption Mu Yu/AP In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, medical workers take swabs from residents in Shijiazhuang in north China's Hebei province on Jan. 6. Authorities have announced new restrictions to contain the coronavirus.

Mu Yu/AP Authorities in China are imposing new coronavirus restrictions near Beijing after a spate of recent outbreaks.

The Associated Press reports that the cities of Shijiazhuang and Xingtai, in the Hebei province, have issued seven-day stay-at-home orders after a week in which more than 300 people tested positive for the coronavirus.

Multiple outlets have reported that local officials announced restrictions on outbound travel from Shijiazhuang, which is home to 11 million residents, as well as bans on gatherings, school suspensions and the closing off of some villages and residential communities.

Beijing is also requiring workers from the province to provide proof that they work in the city and a negative coronavirus test to enter. Entry points into Beijing, the AP says citing Chinese media, had hourslong backups on Friday.

The South China Morning Post quotes province officials as saying the lockdown in Shijiazhuang is necessary for the "political security" of Beijing, which borders the province.

The SCMP goes on to report that many cases in Shijiazhuang were tied to a series of weddings, funerals and other events in a rural village under the city's administration.

CNN reported this week that some 3,000 health care workers had been dispatched to the city to carry out a massive testing drive. By Thursday, more than 6 million samples had been collected, and some 2 million tested.

By Saturday, more than 40,000 medical professionals had been mobilized to conduct tests on some 13 million people in four cities, the SCMP reported.

These newest restrictions are drawing comparisons to the lockdown in Wuhan, which began last January, ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday. The city in Hubei province, which was the pandemic's first epicenter, closed its border and restricted movement for 76 days before new cases started to dwindle.

Since then, China was thought to turn something of a corner on the pandemic, maintaining relatively low new cases compared to the U.S. and much of the world.

Reuters reports that the outbreak in Shijiazhuang accounted for most the country's new cases on Thursday. In all, China has confirmed more than 96,600 coronavirus cases and 4,700 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 12:22

(WHDH) '-- While mask-wearing is mandatory in many public spaces and an essential tool in guarding against the spread of COVID-19, dentists have been seeing a rise in serious oral health issues since people began wearing masks for extended periods of time, according to a new report.

''Mask mouth'' has become a trend since the beginning of the pandemic, with people developing bad breath, dry mouth, tooth decay, bleeding gums, mouth ulcers, and other oral health issues, a new report from Express Dentist indicates.

''Wearing a face mask can have serious consequences for oral health. However, avoiding this protective measure is not advisable, because of its critical role in slowing the spread of COVID-19,'' the report stated.

The report identified a number of possible causes for mask mouth, including disruption of breathing, disruption of thermoregulation, dehydration, and breathing recycled air.

The good news is that mask mouth is a treatable and preventable condition.

Express Dentist recommends deep breathing, staying hydrated, and taking regular breaks from mask wearing by finding a safe outdoor area as ways to prevent mask mouth. The report also suggests washing your cloth face mask every day and throwing out disposable masks after use.

Anyone who notices symptoms like bleeding gums, bad breath, discolored teeth or dental pain should contact their dentist immediately.

For more on mask mouth and how to prevent it, click here.

(Copyright (c) 2020 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 12:27

January 11, 2021 | 9:35pm | Updated January 12, 2021 | 7:03am

Immunity from Moderna Inc's COVID-19 vaccine should last at least a year, the company said on Monday at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference.

The drugmaker said it was confident that the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology it used was well suited to deploy a vaccine based on the new variant of the coronavirus which has emerged in a handful of countries.

The company's vaccine, mRNA-1273, uses synthetic mRNA to mimic the surface of the coronavirus and teach the immune system to recognize and neutralize it.

Moderna said in December it would run tests to confirm the vaccine's activity against any strain.

The company said on Monday it expects to deliver between 600 million doses and 1 billion does of its vaccine in 2021 and forecast vaccine-related sales of $11.7 billion for the year, based on advance purchase agreements signed with governments.

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration''The team feels very comfortable with the track record we have now '... that we are on track to deliver at least 600 million doses,'' Chief Executive Officer St(C)phane Bancel said.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 05:47

December 11, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) '-- In the development of vaccines against coronaviruses like SARS-COV-1 and MERS in the early 2000's, researchers found evidence of a serious problem. Teams of U.S. and foreign scientists vaccinated animals with the four most promising vaccines. At first, the experiment seemed successful as all the animals developed a robust antibody response to coronavirus. However, when the scientists exposed the vaccinated animals to the wild virus, the results were horrifying. Vaccinated animals suffered hyper-immune responses including inflammation throughout their bodies, especially in their lungs.

This issue is well known. Early in the COVID-19 scenario, Dr. Peter Hotez, of Baylor College of Medicine, testified before Congress about the dangers of accelerating coronavirus vaccine development, saying ''(The) unique safety problem of coronavirus vaccines'' was discovered 50 years ago while developing the Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) vaccine.''

He went to register that this '''paradoxical immune enhancement phenomenon' means vaccinated people may still develop the disease, get sicker and die.''

Researchers had seen this same ''enhanced immune response'' during human testing of the failed RSV vaccine tests in the 1950s. The vaccines not only failed to prevent infection; 80% of the children infected required hospitalization, and two children challenged with the RSV died (see Openshaw, 2005). In April of 2020, Hotez told CNN, ''If there is immune enhancement in animals, that's a showstopper.''

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There's been a serious terminology problem with this issue. The problem, of course, is not ''immune enhancement,'' which sounds like something helpful to the immune system. In fact, it is quite the opposite. The problem is, in reality ''disease enhancement''; in fact, that is what it was called in the original RSV study. Disease enhancement now appears to be caused by initial exposure to a pathogen's proteins, or parts of proteins, which primes the body to autoimmunity. That is ''pathogenic priming.'' In COVID-19, every protein in the SARS-CoV-2 has at least one epitope that matches human proteins someplace in the human body. About one-third of the epitopes in SARS-CoV-2 virus that match human proteins match immune system proteins.

The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Briefing Document on the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine contains disturbing indications that might be a safety signal on pathogenic priming, especially in older adults. Before those are reviewed, there are fundamental issues with the classification of serious adverse events that reflect the short-term thinking and externalization-of-cost mindset of the vaccine safety science paradigm.

The first issue is the categorization of ''Serious vs. Non-Serious'' adverse events in the study and in the report. To a person experiencing neurologic adverse events including Bell's Palsy, neuroinflammatory and thrombotic events, these events are not ''non-serious'' and can, over time, develop into life-threatening conditions that require continuous medical intervention and repeated billable office visits for care. The short-term study excludes any means of detecting whether the initial exposure may play a fundamental root cause role in setting up patients for life-long chronic illness. The vaccine adverse events themselves seen in the Pfizer study may be indicative of pathogenic priming, especially since more serious adverse events were seen with the second dose.

The second issue is that the design and analysis set-up of the study are biased against finding adverse events.

The report states:

''Among non-serious unsolicited adverse events, there was a numerical imbalance of four cases of Bell's palsy in the vaccine group compared with no cases in the placebo group, though the four cases in the vaccine group do not represent a frequency above that expected in the general population.''

The comparison to baseline rates is meaningless because other vaccines are in use in the population. Thus, any risk due to the COVID-19 vaccine adds to or multiplies existing risk present in the population from other vaccines.

A 10-fold increase of serious adverse events on second dose in older adults on second dose, compared to 3.6-fold for those under 55Among the 18-55 year-old participants, there were 370 solicited serious adverse events (SSAEs) in the vaccinated group and 73 in the unvaccinated. Of the vaccinated, 18% experienced SSAEs; in the placebo group, only 3% did, implying that SSAEs can be expected at a rate five times greater in the vaccinated compared to the unvaccinated.

These included severe fatigue, headache, chills, vomiting, diarrhea, muscle and joint pain. Whether these conditions represent instances of pathogenic priming, identifying individuals who are now at higher risk of serious morbidity and mortality if they become infected with SARS-CoV-2 is unknown, but given past studies, seems likely.

In the over 55 group, which was a smaller group, there were 60 SSAEs in the vaccinated group and 24 in the unvaccinated. Of the vaccinated, 6.5% experienced SAEs, compared to 1.4% in the unvaccinated, implying a 4.46% increased risk overall of SSAEs due to vaccination.

However, in the older group, the vaccinated group was 10 times more likely to have a SSAE upon receipt of the second vaccine dose than the first dose compared to the 1:1 ratio in the unvaccinated. In the younger group, the vaccinated were only 3.61 times more likely to have second-dose SSAEs than the age-matched placebo group, which had about as many SSAEs in the first and second dose.

Animal trials insufficientThe patients in the study reviewed were healthy '-- and thus the spectrum of adverse events is not representative of those that might occur if the vaccine comes to market. In the previous animal trials, the first dose was a vaccine, but the second was natural infection, leading to severe injury and often death. In these human trials, both doses were from the vaccine, so it is also not reassuring that these adverse events did not include the more serious and deadly conditions that afflicted animals.

These human trials did not rule out pathogenic priming in any way. Both the Moderna and Pfizer animal studies, which used non-human primates, failed to examine organ sites other than lung, and while they studied potential markers of pathogenic priming, they failed to measure one: interleukin-5 (IL-5), which had been found in prior coronavirus studies to be elevated in conjunction with pathogenic priming-induced disease enhancement.

Recalling that animal studies conducted on prior COVID vaccines found pathogenic priming leading to disease enhancement in older animals more than younger animals, older adults may be at highest risk of serious chronic illness due to autoimmunity resulting from vaccine-induced pathogenic priming. Dr. Anthony Fauci has informed the public that these vaccines do not stop transmission. Therefore, the next dose of the viral proteins in the form of a natural infection for these study participants '-- a SARS-CoV-2 infection leading to COVID19 '-- may be their last. The study should be extended to long-term follow up, including any further vaccination or exposure to SARS-CoV-2 viral proteins by infection.

So why have the world's top vaccine promoters, like Paul Offit and Peter Hotez, been warning us frantically about the unique and frightening dangers inherent in developing a coronavirus vaccine?

In this video footage, Offit, Hotez and even Fauci (in an unguarded moment), warn that any new coronavirus vaccine could trigger lethal immune reactions, ''vaccine enhancement,'' when vaccinated people come in contact with the wild virus. Instead of proceeding with caution, Fauci made the reckless choice to fast track vaccines, partially funded by Gates, without critical animal studies before moving into human clinical trials that could provide early warning of runaway immune responses.

Gates (in this video) is so worried about the danger of adverse events that he says vaccines shouldn't be distributed until governments agree to indemnify against lawsuits. On Feb. 4, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, there were only 11 active CV cases in the U.S., yet the U.S. quietly pushed through federal regulations giving coronavirus vaccine makers full immunity from liability.

Are you willing to take the risk? Decide for yourself, based on the evidence.

Read these related studies:

2012 study: Immunization with SARS coronavirus vaccines leads to pulmonary immunopathology on challenge with the SARS virus.

2005 study: Openshaw PJ, Tregoning JS. Immune responses and disease enhancement during respiratory syncytial virus infection. Clin Microbiol Rev. 2005 Jul;18(3):541-55. doi: 10.1128/CMR.18.3.541-555.2005. PMID: 16020689; PMCID: PMC1195968.

Read the Emergency Declaration under the law:

Federal Register giving liability protection, The PREP Act

Read these related articles:

Gates Pushes Experimental Technology on Seven Billion Humans

The Dengvaxia Disaster Was Twenty Years in the Making'--What Will Happen With a Rushed COVID-19 Vaccine?

Susceptibility of People to Pathogenic Priming is a Prime Reason to Eschew COVID19 Vaccine Mandates

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Children's Health Defense.

(C) December 10, 2020 Children's Health Defense, Inc. This work is reproduced and distributed with the permission of Children's Health Defense, Inc. Want to learn more from Children's Health Defense? Sign up for free news and updates from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the Children's Health Defense.

LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page.'¯ View it here.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 13:00

As the coronavirus pandemic rages on across the country and around the world, health officials in California are sharing a dire warning about family gatherings.

In a press conference on Monday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Hilda Solis opened her remarks with the reminder that ''dying from COVID in the hospital means dying alone.''

She added families have been saying their goodbyes on tablets and mobile phones.

''One of the more heartbreaking conversations that our healthcare workers share is about these last words when children apologize to their parents and grandparents for bringing COVID into their homes, for getting them sick. And these apologies are just some of the last words that loved ones will ever hear as they die alone,'' she said.

''Please don't let this be your family. Don't let this be your parents or your grandparents,'' she continued. ''Please, for your loved ones, stay home, stay safe, keep your loved ones alive.''

Download the TODAY app for the latest coverage on the coronavirus outbreak.

California has been especially hard hit by the virus, with the most cases per state in the nation, according to data compiled by NBC News. The Los Angeles Department of Public Health said Tuesday that in the county alone, more than 1,600 people have died from the coronavirus over the past seven days. That's a rate of roughly one death every six minutes, NBC Los Angeles reported. Across the state, more than 30,000 people have died from the coronavirus.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 01:08

The Commons on St. Anthony nursing home in Auburn

Auburn, N.Y. '' A Covid-19 outbreak at a Cayuga County nursing home that began two weeks ago has infected 137 residents, 24 of whom have died.

The outbreak at The Commons on St. Anthony in Auburn started Dec. 21 as a wave of post-Thanksgiving Covid-19 cases began hitting the county, said Julie Sheedy, an official of Loretto which operates the 300-bed nursing home.

Forty-seven employees have tested positive.

Since the outbreak began, 21 residents have died at The Commons and three in the hospital, Sheedy said. Eleven residents have died since Wednesday, she said.

There had been no nursing home Covid-19 deaths in Cayuga County until the first three deaths at the Commons were reported Dec. 29. The three other nursing homes in Cayuga have not reported any Covid-19 deaths.

''Our team is always deeply affected by any loss of life, and our hearts are with the families of these individuals,'' Sheedy said.

The total Covid-19 death toll in the county has increased from 13 on Dec. 21 to 44 as of Thursday. The nursing home deaths account for 54% of the county's Covid-19 fatalities.

There have been 3,650 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Cayuga since the pandemic began. Nearly half of those cases have been reported since Dec. 21.

The average percentage of people testing positive for Covid-19 in Cayuga County is 12%, the highest rate in Central New York. Here are the average positive test rates for other counties in the region: Onondaga, 7.8%; Oswego, 9.7%; Madison, 8.5%; and Cortland, 8%.

During the outbreak Commons employees are wearing gowns, gloves and face shields at all times when working with residents, Sheedy said. The nursing home also is isolating residents who test positive on Covid-19 floors.

Sheedy said the nursing home is testing residents on a schedule established by the state Health Department. The facility also is testing employees weekly. Sheedy said the state Health Department inspected the nursing home's infection control practices Wednesday and found no deficiencies.

The Commons gets a one-star rating, the lowest, from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. The one-star rating means the nursing home is considered much below average based on health inspections, staffing and quality of care.

The nursing home began vaccinating residents Dec. 22. So far 193 residents, or 80%, and 113 employees, or less than half the staff, have been vaccinated. The nursing home plans to do more vaccinations Jan. 12.

Kaylee Gabak, a certified nursing assistant at The Commons, is on life support at Upstate University Hospital after becoming infected with Covid-19. Her family believes Gabak was infected at The Commons before she went on maternity leave Dec. 16. Gabak gave birth to a baby girl Dec. 26, went home, then had to be hospitalized after developing breathing problems.

If you live or work at The Commons on St. Anthony we'd like to hear from you. We want to learn from your experience and tell your story. Contact James T. Mulder at jmulder@syracuse.com or (315) 470-2245.

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 12:41

A vaccine is being tested, but as of yet there is no estimate of when the project may be completed. Image: EPA-EFE/All Over PressA vaccine providing protection from the coronavirus for minks and raccoon dogs (Nyctereutes procyonoides) is being developed by the Finnish Fur Breeders' Association in cooperation with the University of Helsinki.

According to current data, mink are easily susceptible to coronavirus. Under laboratory conditions, the virus has also infected raccoon dogs. Foxes are not known to have become infected.

The vaccine is currently in the testing phase, and testing is expected to take several months. Researchers say that as of yet it is not possible to provide an estimate as to when the vaccine will be ready for production and distribution.

Mink farms in the Netherlands and Denmark have seen coronavirus outbreaks among their animals. The coronavirus is a zoonosis, a disease that can be transmitted between animals and humans.

A vaccine providing protection to animals would eliminate major concerns by Finnish fur farmers about the future of the industry, according to Fur Breeders' Association research director Jussi Peura.

Coronavirus infections among mink have been detected in 10 countries. In most cases, both the infected animals and other minks have been destroyed on the farms where the virus has been found. Sweden has taken a different approach, monitoring animals and fur farms showing infections, but not ordering the animals to be put down.

Peura says that the Finnish Fur Breeders' Association has created working methods since last spring to reduce the risk of infection. No coronavirus infections have been detected during monitoring of mink farms by the Finnish Food Authority.

"In Finland, fur breeders have done double work, both protecting themselves and also animals on the farms. The vaccine would greatly ease their job," Peura points out.

Peura also notes that Finland is in a better position to fight the virus than many other countries, as some of the fur animals raised are foxes in which the virus has not been detected. In addition, the network of fur farms is spread out over a large area.

Coronavirus vaccines for pets are also reportedly being developed in the USA and Russia. The coronavirus has also been found to infect cats.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 13:04

Under a winter's snow cover on the outskirts of Quebec City, a high-tech greenhouse, set at a balmy 23 C, is growing row after row of a weed that could help end the coronavirus pandemic.

It's called Nicotiana benthamiana, a relative of the tobacco plant, native to Australia, and it is a key to biopharmaceutical company Medicago's COVID-19 vaccine.

Medicago is the leading Canadian-based contender to produce a vaccine, with an agreement to provide the federal government with 76 million doses if approved for use.

Read more: Canadian company sees positive results in early coronavirus vaccine tests

Medicago's vaulting onto the mainstage could provide a breakthrough for vaccine science. It involves a new technology that's rapid and nimble, and a vaccine that can be stored at normal fridge temperatures, of 2 C to 8 C, unlike the two other vaccines currently in circulation, which each require frozen or ultra-cold frozen storage.

While it's possible the company may emerge as the new wunderkind of the Canadian biotech sector, it wasn't without adversity.

For years, Medicago warned that Canada needed to prepare itself for a pandemic and lobbied government officials for funding to build a domestic manufacturing site for a vaccine. But Medicago didn't get what it needed from the federal government until after the COVID-19 crisis struck.

On top of that, in the middle of a pandemic, Medicago is restructuring.

In July, it announced plans to distance itself from a significant shareholder, Philip Morris International, which owns about one-third of the company '-- a controversial association with Big Tobacco that has been the source of roadblocks and criticism. Then in December, the company replaced its president and CEO.

But despite this, Medicago hasn't lost sight of its goal: a vaccine.

A Medicago employee works on the company's COVID-19 vaccine candidate. Courtesy: Medicago''I'm not just optimistic, I'm confident that it will work,'' said Dr. Brian Ward, medical officer at Medicago.

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In phase one of its clinical trials, 100 per cent of people who received its COVID-19 vaccine developed significant antibody responses with no severe adverse effects.

Phase two clinical trials are currently wrapping up and phase three is expected to begin later this month. It will involve 30,000 people in 11 countries '-- including Canada '-- and will ultimately determine if the vaccine protects people from COVID-19. The vaccine requires two doses, 21 days apart, and if approved by Health Canada, could be in the arms of Canadians by the second half of this year.

Read more: 1st Canadian human trial for coronavirus vaccine is underway. Here's what that means

While Medicago's vaccine may not be first out of the gate, its technology is still far quicker than traditional ones, like influenza and MMR, which are cultured in chicken eggs '-- a cumbersome process that can take up to six months. By using plants instead of eggs, Medicago produced a COVID-19 vaccine candidate within 20 days of receiving the genetic sequence.

2:00 Plants key for Canada's COVID-19 vaccine contender Plants key for Canada's COVID-19 vaccine contender ''The plant is basically acting as a factory to produce the spike protein,'' said Dr. Scott Halperin, director of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology in Halifax.

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Once injected with the genetic material for the spike protein, the plant forms what's called ''virus-like particles'' or VLPs.

''The human who gets that sees that as, 'Oh, that looks like a virus,''' Dr. Halperin explains. ''It's not a virus that can infect you because it's just a plant capsule surrounding the spike protein, but because the immune system is tricked into seeing it as a viral particle, it responds very well.''

Medicago uses the leaves of Nicotiana Benthamiana, a cousin of the tobacco plant, to produce its vaccine. Courtesy: MedicagoThe use of VLP technology has already proven an effective platform, most notably with HPV vaccines, Gardasil and Cervarix '-- but developing VLPs in plants for use in a commercial vaccine has never been done. Medicago has conducted 15 trials for seasonal influenza using this approach and says it ''works quite well.'' That vaccine is currently under review with Health Canada for approval. ''We are hopeful that in the next influenza season we will have a licensed influenza vaccine for the world,'' Dr. Ward said.

Pandemic warningsBut if and when Medicago gets the green light from Health Canada to start shipping its COVID-19 vaccine later this year, the bulk of its doses will initially come from the U.S., not Canada.

That's because Medicago's Quebec City manufacturing site is still under construction and won't be ready until the end of 2023, possibly 2024.

Medicago says its production facility in Quebec city won't be ready until late 2023 or early 2024. Courtesy: Medicago''It is extremely disappointing. It's discouraging and it's unnecessary,'' said Bruce Clark, Medicago's CEO and president from 2017 until December 2020.

For years, he explained, Medicago had been asking the federal government for funds to assist with pandemic preparedness and to develop a manufacturing plant at home.

''Everybody's saying this is a wonderful idea, it's a made-in-Canada solution and then crickets. Nothing.''

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A Global News analysis of the federal lobby registry shows that from 2017 to March of 2020, when the pandemic was declared, Medicago representatives met with government officials 24 times, seeking ''partnerships and funding to support research, development and commercialization of vaccines'' and to prepare against ''future outbreaks of emerging infectious disease.''

''If they had made the decision two years ago when we were in discussions with them, we'd have a facility by now,'' Clark said.

Medicago had been betting on a pandemic.

But its expectation was that when it came, it would be an influenza strain, like the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic, and not a coronavirus.

Medicago produced a COVID-19 vaccine candidate within 20 days of receiving the genetic sequence. Phase 3 clinical trials are set to begin next month. Courtesy: Medicago In 2005, then-CEO Andy Sheldon, who had much experience with pandemic development, started the shift to influenza vaccine development. By the next year, he said there were ''frequent meetings'' with the federal government, in an effort to secure funds to scale up.

But the money Medicago needed to build a manufacturing site didn't arrive. At least, not in Canada.

The vision and follow-through for a production plant came in the U.S, from DARPA, an R&D agency of the defence department. In 2009, under the Obama administration, DARPA launched the Blue Angel project as a response to the deadly swine flu that year to show that if another pandemic were to hit, it could respond rapidly with a vaccine.

Read more: Fauci predicts U.S. will gain control of coronavirus pandemic by next autumn

Medicago won a contract worth US$21 million one year later to manufacture 10 million doses of flu vaccine a month. As part of that agreement and cash infusion, it developed a 9000 m2 R&D facility in North Carolina, raising the rest of the capital required itself.

Not only did Medicago hit its target of making 10 million doses a month, the once fledgling biotech startup now had a production plant. It wasn't producing at a commercial scale, but it was a start.

''DARPA had money and they had a program,'' Sheldon said. ''But there was no such program in Canada.''

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Should Medicago's COVID-19 vaccine be approved, the bulk of the supply will initially come from this North Carolina plant. Only 10 per cent will actually be ''made in Canada'' the first year, coming from its pilot plant on the west side of Quebec City.

Medicago built a facility in Durham, North Carolina after getting U.S. funding for pandemic preparedness in 2010. Courtesy: Medicago. Courtesy: Medicago''I think what comes to mind is the classic Canadian dilemma,'' said Bruce Clark, the CEO from 2017 to 2020. ''You have capability that's sound and proven, but it has to go somewhere else in the world to get validated, typically south of the border, and then the Canadians say, 'Oh it's pretty good, maybe we should use it.'''

With the U.S. plant operational, the money started to come in Canada.

In 2015, the provincial government of Quebec came through with a loan for $60 million, while the federal government and the City of Quebec lent $8 million and $6.5 million, respectively.

''They were loans. These were not free gifts,'' Sheldon said.

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While the Quebec support was ''substantial,'' Sheldon said the federal contribution was ''a bit disappointing.''

Still, it was the capital Medicago needed to start building a commercial-grade production plant in Canada: a facility with a price tag of almost $300 million. But without a federal contract to develop a flu vaccine, Clark said Medicago's shareholders were skittish about dumping cash into a building that didn't yet have a purpose '-- and at the start of 2020, it still wasn't finished.

''And so they're trying to figure out, when do they write the big cheques for the facility when they don't really have a commitment from the Canadian government as to how it's going to play in their strategy,'' Clark said.

Read more: Israel is leading the world in COVID-19 vaccine rollout. Here's what Canada can learn

It wasn't until the pandemic struck that the money and a purpose came together.

In March, the federal government announced it would fund Medicago's COVID-19 vaccine efforts. Seven months later, the federal government signed an agreement worth up to $173 million to accelerate Medicago's vaccine development, secure doses, and complete the manufacturing plant.

1:09 Coronavirus: Trudeau announces $214M investment for made-in-Canada vaccine development Coronavirus: Trudeau announces $214M investment for made-in-Canada vaccine development '' Oct 23, 2020 ''It's good that the Canadian government is now supporting a Canadian company, since the U.S. government supported the Canadian company first,'' Dr. Halperin of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology said.

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Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada acknowledged a ''decades-old decline'' in federal funding, stating that ''specific large-scale direct support initiatives, such as the Technology Partnership Canada program '... were ended in 2006.'' It says it is now ''actively working to support the rebuilding of biomanufacturing capacity in Canada.''

''The reality is it took COVID to get a decision made,'' Clark said.

From garage to global commercial enterprise''There aren't very many companies in the pharma industry that have gone from a garage to a global commercial enterprise,'' said Dr. Ward, Medicago's medical officer.

The garage was double-wide, in a house still under construction, overlooking the St Lawrence River. There, in 1997, a recent MBA grad, Fran§ois Arcand, and his childhood friend, Louis-Philippe V(C)zina, a plant researcher with Agriculture Canada, set up one of the first offices for what was to become Medicago.

''Medicago could be a major disruptive factor, in the fact that it could offer something better, faster and cheaper,'' recalls Arcand. Neither he nor V(C)zina remain with the company.

The company's name, Medicago, was Latin for the plant they were using at the time: alfalfa. But it wasn't until Medicago shifted to Nicotiana benthamiana, a cousin of the tobacco plant, that it attracted an investor that would accelerate its growth as well as lead to some of its greatest controversy: tobacco giant Phillip Morris International (PMI).

In the late 2000s, PMI had a mandate to ''explore adjacent technologies that could lead to new lines of profitable business'' and a robust R&D division that knew the potential of the plant.

Medicago uses Nicotiana Benthamiana, a cousin of the tobacco plant, to produce its vaccine. Courtesy: Medicago''There was a small group at PMI '... that were producing proteins in the tobacco plant,'' recalls Nathalie Landry, executive vice president of scientific and medical affairs at Medicago. ''We were using a different plant that is in the same family '... but it's not the one used to produce cigarettes.''

Medicago, which had gone public a year earlier, was in a precarious spot. Much of its funding had dried up and it needed an infusion of cash.

''It was a tough time,'' recalls Andy Sheldon, the CEO from 2003 to 2017.

So when Sheldon realized PMI representatives were attending the same biotech conference he was in Vancouver in 2007, he quickly brokered a meeting.

A year later, PMI invested $16 million in Medicago to become a 49.8 per cent shareholder of the company.

''They were our major lifeline, an economic lifeline for the start of the company,'' Dr. Ward said.

''Their involvement was actually probably critical for the survival of the company.''

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In 2013, a new investor came along with experience developing pharmaceutical products: Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma. The Japanese-based firm became the majority shareholder of Medicago, taking the company private. PMI's interests were reduced to a 40 per cent stake at that time, which today stand at approximately one third.

But regardless of PMI's ownership share, Medicago's relationship with Big Tobacco has been an ongoing source of friction.

When trying to attend WHO meetings, Medicago found it difficult to get a formal invitation.

''We manage to always get the notification and invitation. But it's not through the 'big door,''' Landry said. ''WHO, although they love the product and the technology, they have to deal with the fact that we're supported by tobacco. '... It's difficult for Medicago to be associated with WHO.''

The WHO has a detailed framework about who it will partner with, stating it ''does not engage with the tobacco industry or with non'‘State actors that represent the interests of the tobacco industry.'' However, a spokesperson for the WHO said ''Medicago has been treated the same as all other influenza vaccine manufacturers and they have been in various WHO meetings.''

Read more: Canadian company to collaborate on potential coronavirus vaccine with GSK

Last July, Medicago announced a new partnership with another major pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline '-- one of the leading makers of smoking cessation products, with brands like Nicorette and the NicoDerm patch. Medicago would be using GSK's adjuvant in its COVID-19 vaccine to amplify its effectiveness.

1:31 Coronavirus: Health Canada says some clinical questions remain on outstanding vaccine approvals Coronavirus: Health Canada says some clinical questions remain on outstanding vaccine approvalsAt the bottom of the press release, Medicago signalled it was planning to distance itself from PMI. It said PMI was seeking offers from investors who might be ''better suited to help Medicago on the next phase of its journey.''

''You can anticipate that having a big pharma working with a tobacco company could be a challenge,'' Landry said.

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GSK declined to comment on PMI's potential exit and whether it was spurred by its recent partnership with Medicago.

''Any attempt to divert attention away from a vaccine candidate is irresponsible,'' PMI spokesperson Corey Henry said. ''Medicago has completed its first phase of clinical trials, which yielded positive results and require progression.''

Despite signalling its intent to look for a more suitable partner, the impact of Medicago's association with PMI endures.

Read more: Canada's pharmacies 'ready and willing' to join coronavirus vaccination effort

Notably, last November, the medical journal The Lancet, which had published Medicago's influenza study only a month earlier, decided not to publish the Quebec company's phase one COVID-19 results over concerns about who was supporting the research.

Medicago's use of Nicotiana Benthamiana, a cousin of the tobacco plant, attracted PMI as an investor, company insiders say. Courtesy: MedicagoIn an email obtained by Global News, a senior executive editor from The Lancet explained to Medicago: ''We have no major issue with the science of this trial, and it seems to be a promising public health advance. '... I'm afraid the editorial meeting concluded that we should follow the guidelines and not publish research supported by the tobacco industry.''

The Lancet said it does not comment on individual cases and would not explain why it had accepted Medicago's influenza study earlier this fall and not its subsequent COVID-19 research.

Meanwhile, Medicago's medical officer Dr. Brian Ward vigorously defends the integrity of his work.

''We are not publishing tobacco science.''

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The federal government would not answer questions about whether Medicago's association with PMI impacted its earlier decisions whether or not to fund Medicago.

Read more: Canada investigating timing of second coronavirus vaccine dose, Tam says

In the most recent chapter of its corporate makeover, in early December, Medicago parted ways with Clark, a former PMI VP, and replaced him with Takashi Nagao, former chairman of the Medicago board and Mitsubishi Pharma Tanabe executive.

While Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma declined to comment on the change in leadership, Medicago's Nathalie Landry said that while Clark was ''instrumental in leading Medicago to where we are today '... Takashi is qualified to lead Medicago through this business model change.''

80 million doses expected in 2021Today, the pace of construction at Medicago's new production plant on the north-east side of Quebec City plant mirrors the urgency in its labs.

A greenhouse, the size of 10 football fields will soon grow thousands of plants which could satisfy far more than the Canadian demand.

Medicago's commercial-grade production plant on the north-east side of Quebec City is expected to be complete in late 2023, early 2024. Courtesy: MedicagoIf Health Canada gives it the go-ahead, Medicago expects to deliver 80 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine this year, doubling that in 2022. By the time the new facility is fully functioning in late 2023 or early 2024, it hopes to produce a billion doses a year.

''The pressure is high, and I think everybody in the company is tired,'' Dr. Ward said. ''But we're also among the few people in the world that are actively working to try to make things better.''

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 12:25

By Justin RowlattBBC News

Published duration 5 hours ago

image copyright BBC Panorama

image caption Kaye Flitney is one of those enrolled on the clinical trialA large-scale trial of a new treatment it is hoped will help stop Covid-19 patients from developing severe illness has begun in the UK.

The first patient received the treatment at Hull Royal Infirmary on Tuesday afternoon.

It involves inhaling a protein called interferon beta which the body produces when it gets a viral infection.

The hope is it will stimulate the immune system, priming cells to be ready to fight off viruses.

Early findings suggested the treatment cut the odds of a Covid-19 patient in hospital developing severe disease - such as requiring ventilation - by almost 80%.

It was developed at Southampton University Hospital and is being produced by the Southampton-based biotech company, Synairgen.

A course of treatment with the new drug could cost around £2,000, which is not that expensive for a hospital treatment.

"To be viable it will have to represent good value for money," Synairgen's chief executive Richard Marsden said.

Alexandra Constantin, 34, was the first person to receive the treatment as part of this new trial, after she was admitted to the hospital with coronavirus on Monday.

She has a young daughter at home she is desperate to get back to.

Demonstrating the treatment, the nurse handed her a nebuliser that makes the drug into a fine mist, which Alexandra inhaled as deep into her lungs as she could.

How does the treatment work?

Interferon beta is part of the body's first line of defence against viruses, warning it to expect a viral attack.

The coronavirus seems to suppress its production as part of its strategy to evade our immune systems.

The new drug is a special formulation of interferon beta delivered directly to the airways via a nebuliser which makes the protein into an aerosol.

The idea is that a direct dose of the protein in the lungs will trigger a stronger anti-viral response, even in patients whose immune systems are already weak.

Interferon beta is commonly used in the treatment of multiple sclerosis.

Previous clinical trials conducted by Synairgen have shown that it can stimulate an immune response and that patients with asthma and other chronic lung conditions can comfortably tolerate the treatment.

The results of a smaller, phase two clinical trial of the treatment conducted last year were promising.

It suggested the chances of a Covid-19 patient in hospital getting severe disease - requiring ventilation, for example - were reduced by almost 80%.

Patients were two to three times more likely to recover to the point where everyday activities were not compromised by their illness, Synairgen claimed.

It said the trial also indicated "very significant" reductions in breathlessness among patients who received the treatment.

In addition, the average time patients spent in hospital is said to have been reduced by a third, for those receiving the new drug - down from an average of nine days to six days.

But the trial was small, just 100 patients, and more testing is needed before it can be authorised for use.

This new "phase three" trial is much larger. It will involve more than 600 patients in 20 countries.

As in the earlier trial, half the participants will be given the drug, the other half will get what is known as a placebo - an inactive substance.

The team running the trial say they hope it will be completed by early summer.

If the results are anywhere near as good as in the earlier trial, they expect authorisation for the drug to be used in patients in the UK and other countries to follow shortly afterwards.

media caption Synairgen CEO Richard Marsden explains how the treatment uses the protein interferon beta to help fight the virus"If we had a positive study, we would hope to move rapidly into scaled manufacture and delivery of the drug in clinical practice," said Prof Tom Wilkinson, of the University of Southampton, who is overseeing the trial.

He added that he believes the new drug - if it proves effective - will be a complement to the vaccines that are being rolled out.

He also pointed out it would take a long time for the whole world to be vaccinated. There will need to be treatments for people who miss out on vaccination or choose not to get the jab.

There is also the risk the virus mutates and vaccines become less effective - meaning people begin to develop the disease again.

The treatment is the result of the discovery by a team from Southampton University that people with lung diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) often had low levels of interferon beta.

"We thought why not boost patients' interferon beta levels by getting them to inhale the protein," Prof Donna Davies, who was part of that team, said.

She said research has now shown that Covid-19 can suppress the interferon beta response. But experts warn that drugs often do not live up to the promise of early trials.

"This is exciting, but we have to see what the phase three results show," says Dr Lamis Latif, a south London GP who has been working in emergency care with Covid-19 patients.

"We've had other drugs in similar circumstances, we've had hydroxychloroquine, for example, but again, when that reached further trials, it wasn't as promising as it initially made up to be.

"So that's something to really take note for this current drug."

Have you been affected by any of the issues raised here? You can get in touch by emailing haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 12:27

Interferon beta-1a (also interferon beta 1-alpha) is a cytokine in the interferon family used to treat multiple sclerosis (MS).[5] It is produced by mammalian cells, while interferon beta-1b is produced in modified E. coli.[6] Some claims have been made that Interferons produce about an 18''38% reduction in the rate of MS relapses.[7]

Interferon beta has not been shown to slow the advance of disability.[8][9][10][11] Interferons are not a cure for MS (there is no known cure); the claim is that interferons may slow the progress of the disease if started early and continued for the duration of the disease.[12]

Medical uses Edit Clinically isolated syndrome Edit The earliest clinical presentation of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis is the clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), that is, a single attack of a single symptom. During a CIS, there is a subacute attack suggestive of demyelination which should be included in the spectrum of MS phenotypes.[13] Treatment with interferons after an initial attack decreases the risk of developing clinical definite MS.[14][15]

Relapsing-remitting MS Edit Medications are modestly effective at decreasing the number of attacks in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis[16] and in reducing the accumulation of brain lesions, which is measured using gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).[14] Interferons reduce relapses by approximately 30% and their safe profile make them the first-line treatments.[14] Nevertheless, not all the patients are responsive to these therapies. It is known that 30% of MS patients are non-responsive to Beta interferon.[17] They can be classified in genetic, pharmacological and pathogenetic non-responders.[17] One of the factors related to non-respondance is the presence of high levels of interferon beta neutralizing antibodies. Interferon therapy, and specially interferon beta 1b, induces the production of neutralizing antibodies, usually in the second 6 months of treatment, in 5 to 30% of treated patients.[14] Moreover, a subset of RRMS patients with specially active MS, sometimes called "rapidly worsening MS" are normally non-responders to interferon beta 1a.[18][19]

While more studies of the long-term effects of the drugs are needed,[12][14] existing data on the effects of interferons indicate that early-initiated long-term therapy is safe and it is related to better outcomes.[12]

Side effects Edit Injectable medications can produce irritation or bruises at injection site. The bruise depicted was produced by a subcutaneous injection.

Interferon beta-1a is available only in injectable forms, and can cause skin reactions at the injection site that may include cutaneous necrosis. Skin reactions with interferon beta are more common with subcutaneous administration and vary greatly in their clinical presentation.[20] They usually appear within the first month of treatment albeit their frequence and importance diminish after six months of treatment.[20] Skin reactions are more prevalent in women.[20] Mild skin reactions usually do not impede treatment whereas necroses appear in around 5% of patients and lead to the discontinuation of the therapy.[20] Also over time, a visible dent at the injection site due to the local destruction of fat tissue, known as lipoatrophy, may develop, however, this rarely occurs with interferon treatment.[21]

Interferons, a subclass of cytokines, are produced in the body during illnesses such as influenza in order to help fight the infection. They are responsible for many of the symptoms of influenza infections, including fever, muscle aches, fatigue, and headaches.[22] Many patients report influenza-like symptoms hours after taking interferon beta that usually improve within 24 hours, being such symptoms related to the temporary increase of cytokines.[14][20] This reaction tends to disappear after 3 months of treatment and its symptoms can be treated with over-the-counter nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, such as ibuprofen, that reduce fever and pain.[20] Another common transient secondary effect with interferon-beta is a functional deterioration of already existing symptoms of the disease.[20] Such deterioration is similar to the one produced in MS patients due to heat, fever or stress (Uhthoff's phenomenon), usually appears within 24 hours of treatment, is more common in the initial months of treatment, and may last several days.[20] A symptom specially sensitive to worsening is spasticity.[20] Interferon-beta can also reduce numbers of white blood cells (leukopenia), lymphocytes (lymphopenia) and neutrophils (neutropenia), as well as affect liver function.[20] In most cases these effects are non-dangerous and reversible after cessation or reduction of treatment.[20] Nevertheless, recommendation is that all patients should be monitored through laboratory blood analyses, including liver function tests, to ensure safe use of interferons.[20]

To help prevent injection-site reactions, patients are advised to rotate injection sites and use an aseptic injection technique. Injection devices are available to optimize the injection process. Side effects are often onerous enough that many patients ultimately discontinue taking interferons[citation needed ] (or glatiramer acetate, a comparable disease-modifying therapy requiring regular injections).

Edit Interferon beta balances the expression of pro- and anti-inflammatory agents in the brain, and reduces the number of inflammatory cells that cross the blood brain barrier.[23] Overall, therapy with interferon beta leads to a reduction of neuron inflammation.[23] Moreover, it is also thought to increase the production of nerve growth factor and consequently improve neuronal survival.[23] In vitro, interferon beta reduces production of Th17 cells which are a subset of T lymphocytes believed to have a role in the pathophysiology of MS.[24]

Society and culture Edit Brand names Edit Avonex Edit Avonex was approved in the US in 1996, and in the European Union in 1997, and is registered in more than 80 countries worldwide.[citation needed ] It is the leading MS therapy in the US, with around 40% of the overall market, and in the European Union, with around 30% of the overall market.[citation needed ] It is produced by the Biogen biotechnology company, originally under competition protection in the US under the Orphan Drug Act.

Avonex is sold in three formulations, a lyophilized powder requiring reconstitution, a pre-mixed liquid syringe kit, and a pen; it is administered via intramuscular injection.[1]

Rebif Edit Rebif is a disease-modifying drug (DMD) used to treat multiple sclerosis in cases of clinically isolated syndromes as well as relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis and is similar to the interferon beta protein produced by the human body. It is co-marketed by Merck Serono and Pfizer in the US under an exception to the Orphan Drug Act.[citation needed ] It was approved in the European Union in 1998, and in the US in 2002; it has since been approved in more than 90 countries worldwide including Canada and Australia.[citation needed ] EMD Serono has had sole rights to Rebif in the US since January 2016.[25][26] Rebif is administered via subcutaneous injection.[2]

CinnoVex Edit CinnoVex is the trade name of recombinant Interferon beta-1a, which is manufactured as biosimilar/biogeneric in Iran. It is produced in a lyophilized form and sold with distilled water for injection. Cinnovex was developed at the Fraunhofer Society in collaboration with CinnaGen, and is the first therapeutic protein from a Fraunhofer laboratory to be approved as biogeneric / biosimilar medicine. There are several clinical studies to prove the similarity of CinnoVex and Avonex.[27] A more water-soluble variant is currently being investigated by the Vakzine Projekt Management (VPM) GmbH in Braunschweig, Germany.

Plegridy Edit Plegridy is a brand name of a pegylated form of Interferon beta-1a. Plegridy's advantage is it only needs injecting once every two weeks.[28]

Betaferon (interferon beta-1b) Edit Closely related to interferon beta-1a is interferon beta-1b, which is also indicated for MS, but is formulated with a different dose and administered with a different frequency. Each drug has a different safety/efficacy profile.[29] Interferon beta-1b is marketed only by Bayer in the US as Betaseron, and outside the US as Betaferon.

Economics Edit In the United States, as of 2015[update], the cost is between US$1,284 and US$1,386 per 30 mcg vial.[30] As of 2020, the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost (NADAC) in the United States for Avonex was $6,872.94 for a 30 mcg kit.[31]

Avonex and Rebif are on the top ten best-selling multiple sclerosis drugs of 2013:[32]

It is an example of a specialty drug that would only be available through a specialty pharmacy. This is because it requires a refrigerated chain of distribution and costs $17,000-a-year.[33]

Research Edit Evidence that insufficient production of interferon beta-1a in lung cells in older people may lead to increased susceptibility to respiratory viral infections such as SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV[citation needed ] has led to investigations into whether replenishing a deficiency of this interferon can protect against the dire effects of these diseases. Company Synairgen began clinical tests of SNG001, a special inhalation formulation of interferon beta-1a in patients with COVID-19.[34][35]

COVID-19 Edit The British biotech company Synairgen announced in July 2020, that clinical trials with an inhaled form of interferon beta suggest that it reduces the likeliness of a COVID-19 patient developing a severe form of the disease, such as requiring ventilation, by 79%. The underlying peer reviewed data from the trial was published in the esteemed medical publication the Lancet in November 2020.[1]

References Edit ^ a b "Avonex- interferon beta-1a kit Avonex Pen- interferon beta-1a injection, solution Avonex- interferon beta-1a injection, solution". DailyMed. 30 March 2020 . Retrieved 1 October 2020 . ^ a b "Rebif- interferon beta-1a kit Rebif Rebidose- interferon beta-1a kit Rebif- interferon beta-1a injection, solution Rebif- interferon beta-1a injection, solution Rebif Rebidose- interferon beta-1a injection, solution". DailyMed. 5 June 2020 . Retrieved 1 October 2020 . ^ "Avonex EPAR". European Medicines Agency (EMA) . Retrieved 1 October 2020 . ^ "Rebif EPAR". European Medicines Agency (EMA) . Retrieved 1 October 2020 . ^ Murdoch D, Lyseng-Williamson KA (2005). "Spotlight on subcutaneous recombinant interferon-beta-1a (Rebif) in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis". BioDrugs. 19 (5): 323''5. doi:10.2165/00063030-200519050-00005. PMID 16207073. S2CID 3122427. ^ Giovannoni G, Munschauer FE, Deisenhammer F (November 2002). "Neutralising antibodies to interferon beta during the treatment of multiple sclerosis". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 73 (5): 465''9. doi:10.1136/jnnp.73.5.465. PMC 1738139 . PMID 12397132. ^ Stachowiak PhD., Julie (2008). "Is Avonex Right for You?" . Retrieved 2008-05-07 . ^ Shirani A, Zhao Y, Karim ME, Evans C, Kingwell E, van der Kop ML, Oger J, Gustafson P, Petkau J, Tremlett H (2012). "Association between use of interferon beta and progression of disability in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis". JAMA. 308 (3): 247''56. doi:10.1001/jama.2012.7625 . PMID 22797642. ^ Kappos L, Kuhle J, Multanen J, Kremenchutzky M, Verdun di Cantogno E, Cornelisse P, Lehr L, Casset-Semanaz F, Issard D, Uitdehaag BM (November 2015). "Factors influencing long-term outcomes in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: PRISMS-15". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 86 (11): 1202''7. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2014-310024. PMC 4680156 . PMID 26374702. ^ Calabresi, Peter A; Kieseier, Bernd C; Arnold, Douglas L; Balcer, Laura J; Boyko, Alexey; Pelletier, Jean; Liu, Shifang; Zhu, Ying; Seddighzadeh, Ali; Hung, Serena; Deykin, Aaron (July 2014). "Pegylated interferon beta-1a for relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (ADVANCE): a randomised, phase 3, double-blind study". The Lancet Neurology. 13 (7): 657''665. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(14)70068-7. PMID 24794721. S2CID 45183415. ^ Jacobs LD, Cookfair DL, Rudick RA, Herndon RM, Richert JR, Salazar AM, Fischer JS, Goodkin DE, Granger CV, Simon JH, Alam JJ, Bartoszak DM, Bourdette DN, Braiman J, Brownscheidle CM, Coats ME, Cohan SL, Dougherty DS, Kinkel RP, Mass MK, Munschauer FE, Priore RL, Pullicino PM, Scherokman BJ, Whitham RH (March 1996). "Intramuscular interferon beta-1a for disease progression in relapsing multiple sclerosis. The Multiple Sclerosis Collaborative Research Group (MSCRG)". Annals of Neurology. 39 (3): 285''94. doi:10.1002/ana.410390304. PMID 8602746. S2CID 24663294. ^ a b c Freedman MS (January 2011). "Long-term follow-up of clinical trials of multiple sclerosis therapies". Neurology. 76 (1 Suppl 1): S26-34. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e318205051d. PMID 21205679. S2CID 16929304. ^ Lublin FD, Reingold SC, Cohen JA, Cutter GR, S¸rensen PS, Thompson AJ, Wolinsky JS, Balcer LJ, Banwell B, Barkhof F, Bebo B, Calabresi PA, Clanet M, Comi G, Fox RJ, Freedman MS, Goodman AD, Inglese M, Kappos L, Kieseier BC, Lincoln JA, Lubetzki C, Miller AE, Montalban X, O'Connor PW, Petkau J, Pozzilli C, Rudick RA, Sormani MP, St¼ve O, Waubant E, Polman CH (July 2014). "Defining the clinical course of multiple sclerosis: the 2013 revisions". Neurology. 83 (3): 278''86. doi:10.1212/WNL.0000000000000560. PMC 4117366 . PMID 24871874. ^ a b c d e f Compston A, Coles A (October 2008). "Multiple sclerosis". Lancet. 372 (9648): 1502''17. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61620-7. PMID 18970977. S2CID 195686659. ^ Bates D (January 2011). "Treatment effects of immunomodulatory therapies at different stages of multiple sclerosis in short-term trials". Neurology. 76 (1 Suppl 1): S14-25. doi:10.1212/WNL.0b013e3182050388. PMID 21205678. S2CID 362182. ^ Rice, G. P.; Incorvaia, B.; Munari, L.; Ebers, G.; Polman, C.; D'Amico, R.; Filippini, G. (2001). "Interferon in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis". The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (4): CD002002. doi:10.1002/14651858.CD002002. ISSN 1469-493X. PMC 7017973 . PMID 11687131. ^ a b Bertolotto A, Gilli F (September 2008). "Interferon-beta responders and non-responders. A biological approach". Neurological Sciences. 29 Suppl 2 (S2): S216-7. doi:10.1007/s10072-008-0941-2. PMID 18690496. S2CID 19618597. ^ Buttinelli C, Clemenzi A, Borriello G, Denaro F, Pozzilli C, Fieschi C (November 2007). "Mitoxantrone treatment in multiple sclerosis: a 5-year clinical and MRI follow-up". European Journal of Neurology. 14 (11): 1281''7. doi:10.1111/j.1468-1331.2007.01969.x. PMID 17956449. S2CID 36392563. ^ Boster A, Edan G, Frohman E, Javed A, Stuve O, Tselis A, Weiner H, Weinstock-Guttman B, Khan O (February 2008). "Intense immunosuppression in patients with rapidly worsening multiple sclerosis: treatment guidelines for the clinician". The Lancet. Neurology. 7 (2): 173''83. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(08)70020-6. PMID 18207115. S2CID 40367120. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Walther EU, Hohlfeld R (November 1999). "Multiple sclerosis: side effects of interferon beta therapy and their management". Neurology. 53 (8): 1622''7. doi:10.1212/wnl.53.8.1622. PMID 10563602. S2CID 30330292. ^ Edgar CM, Brunet DG, Fenton P, McBride EV, Green P (February 2004). "Lipoatrophy in patients with multiple sclerosis on glatiramer acetate". The Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences. 31 (1): 58''63. doi:10.1017/s0317167100002845 . PMID 15038472. ^ Eccles R (November 2005). "Understanding the symptoms of the common cold and influenza". The Lancet. Infectious Diseases. 5 (11): 718''25. doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(05)70270-X. PMC 7185637 . PMID 16253889. ^ a b c Kieseier BC (June 2011). "The mechanism of action of interferon-β in relapsing multiple sclerosis". CNS Drugs. 25 (6): 491''502. doi:10.2165/11591110-000000000-00000. PMID 21649449. S2CID 25516515. ^ Mitsdoerffer M, Kuchroo V (May 2009). "New pieces in the puzzle: how does interferon-beta really work in multiple sclerosis?". Annals of Neurology. 65 (5): 487''8. doi:10.1002/ana.21722. PMID 19479722. S2CID 42050086. ^ Rebif; July 29, 2016 ^ EMD Serono Takes on Exclusive Promotion of Rebif (interferon beta-1a) in the US; January 19, 2016 ^ Nafissi S, Azimi A, Amini-Harandi A, Salami S, shahkarami MA, Heshmat R (September 2012). "Comparing efficacy and side effects of a weekly intramuscular biogeneric/biosimilar interferon beta-1a with Avonex in relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis: a double blind randomized clinical trial". Clinical Neurology and Neurosurgery. 114 (7): 986''9. doi:10.1016/j.clineuro.2012.02.039. PMID 22429566. S2CID 9236986. ^ "Plegridy- peginterferon beta-1a kit Plegridy Pen- peginterferon beta-1a kit Plegridy- peginterferon beta-1a injection, solution". DailyMed. 19 July 2019 . Retrieved 30 March 2020 . ^ Nikfar S, Rahimi R, Abdollahi M (October 2010). "A meta-analysis of the efficacy and tolerability of interferon-β in multiple sclerosis, overall and by drug and disease type". Clinical Therapeutics. 32 (11): 1871''88. doi:10.1016/j.clinthera.2010.10.006. PMID 21095482. ^ Langreth, Robert (June 29, 2016). "Decoding Big Pharma's Secret Drug Pricing Practices". Bloomberg . Retrieved 15 July 2016 . ^ "NADAC as of 2020-02-12 | Data.Medicaid.gov". Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services . Retrieved 2020-02-18 . ^ Top 10 best-selling multiple sclerosis drugs of 2013; September 9, 2014 ^ Gleason PP, Alexander GC, Starner CI, Ritter ST, Van Houten HK, Gunderson BW, Shah ND (September 2013). "Health plan utilization and costs of specialty drugs within 4 chronic conditions". Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy. 19 (7): 542''8. doi:10.18553/jmcp.2013.19.7.542. PMID 23964615. ^ SG016 - Treatment for patients with confirmed COVID-19 ^ University-led COVID19 drug trial expands into home testing External links Edit "Interferon beta-1a". Drug Information Portal. U.S. National Library of Medicine. "Interferon Beta-1a Intramuscular Injection". MedlinePlus.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 13:19

Despite widespread vaccination campaigns, herd immunity to the coronavirus will not be achieved this year, the WHO's top scientist has said. Until then, preventive measures such as masks will be necessary.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said Monday that herd immunity to the coronavirus would not be achieved in 2021, despite the growing availability of vaccines.

Mitigating factors to herd immunity include limited access to vaccines in developing countries, skepticism about vaccination and the potential for virus mutations, according to health experts.

A growing number of countries around the world '-- including the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, and Germany and other EU countries '-- are in the first stages of mass-vaccination campaigns.

Herd immunity occurs when enough people in a population have immunity to an infection so that it prevents the disease from spreading.

Making progress, but vaccines 'take time' "We are not going to achieve any levels of population immunity or herd immunity in 2021," Swaminathan told a briefing, while emphasizing that measures such as physical distancing, handwashing and wearing masks continue to be necessary in containing COVID-19's spread for the rest of the year.

Swaminathan commended the "incredible progress" made by researchers to develop several safe and effective vaccines at unprecedented speed. Countries are currently administering vaccines developed by BioNTech-Pfizer, Oxford University/AstraZeneca and Moderna.

The WHO scientist called on people to be "a little patient," saying the rollout of vaccines "does take time," as the scale of dose production is in the billions.

"The vaccines are going to come," she said. "They are going to go to all countries ... but meanwhile we mustn't forget that there are measures that work," she added, referring to hygiene and social distancing.

In the United States, which currently has the world's highest daily case numbers, officials said Monday that over 25.4 million vaccine doses have so far been distributed, with nearly 9 million doses having been administered. In Germany, more than 600,000 people have so far been vaccinated against COVID-19, according the Robert Koch Institute for public health.

Herd immunity must be global "We won't get back to normal quickly," Dale Fisher, chairman of the WHO's Outbreak Alert and Response Network, told a conference hosted by the Reuters news agency.

"We know we need to get to herd immunity and we need that in a majority of countries, so we are not going to see that in 2021," Fisher said.

"There might be some countries that might achieve it but even then that will not create 'normal,' especially in terms of border controls," he added.

wmr/rt (AFP, Reuters)

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 12:04

(CNN) Early stage trials of Johnson & Johnson's experimental coronavirus vaccine show it generated an immune response in nearly all volunteers, with minimal side-effects, after a single dose.

The company expects to report details of more advanced trials later this month and is hoping to apply for authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration soon after.

Researchers who tested the vaccine in a combined Phase 1-2 trial -- mostly meant to show safety -- found either one or two doses of the vaccine generated both antibody and T-cell responses against the coronavirus. The trials were not designed to show whether the vaccine protected people against either infection or symptoms of coronavirus -- that's what the ongoing Phase 3 trials are designed to do.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of researchers who tested the vaccine in around 800 volunteers said the early stage trials showed it was safe and probably should work.

The researchers -- in the Netherlands, the United States and Belgium -- tested the vaccine in a group of people 65 and older and a group ages 18 to 55.

Vaccination elicited neutralizing antibodies -- expected to stop the virus from infecting cells -- in 90% of all participants by the 29th day after the first dose of vaccine and in all of them by two months after the first dose. The levels of these antibodies stayed stable for at least 71 days, they reported.

The FDA has given emergency use authorization to two coronavirus vaccines -- one made by Pfizer with its partner BioNTech, and another by Moderna. Both were about 95% effective in preventing symptomatic disease in their Phase 3 trials. They use messenger RNA or mRNA -- a new vaccine technology.

Johnson & Johnson's vaccine arm, Janssen, uses a different approach for its vaccine, called for now by its experimental name, Ad26.COV2.S. It uses a weakened version of a common cold virus called adenovirus 26 to carry genetic material from the virus into the body, prompting human cells to produce pieces of the virus which are then recognized by the immune system.

"A single dose of Ad26.COV2.S elicited a strong humoral response in a majority of vaccine recipients, with the presence of S-binding and neutralizing antibodies in more than 90% of participants, regardless of either age group or vaccine dose," the researchers wrote.

"An efficacious single-dose Covid-19 vaccine have obvious logistic advantages over a two-dose vaccine, especially during a pandemic." The company is studying whether a second dose increases efficacy or durability of the immune response.

Side effects included headache, body ache and, more rarely, fever.

"The Company anticipates announcing topline Phase 3 data for its single-dose Janssen COVID-19 vaccine candidate in late January 2021; however, as this trial is dependent on disease events, the timing is approximate," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement. But with the pandemic raging in the US and Europe, vaccine experts say, answers are coming quickly for vaccine trials.

"If the single-dose vaccine is shown to be safe and effective, the Company expects to submit an application for Emergency Use Authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration shortly afterwards, with other regulatory applications around the world to be made subsequently," Johnson & Johnson added.

All of the companies making coronavirus vaccine have been manufacturing doses even as they test them, so they can roll them straight out to people should they get FDA authorization. Johnson & Johnson is contracted to deliver 100 million doses to the US government if it wins EUA from the FDA.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Johnson & Johnson was behind schedule in its production, however.

"The pandemic shows no signs of slowing, and we, like everyone, are eager for more tools to help stop it. At the same time, it is premature to get into the specifics of the supply of our vaccine candidate, as we do not yet have Phase 3 data, nor have we filed for or been granted Emergency Use Authorization," Johnson & Johnson said in a statement Wednesday.

"We remain in active discussions with regulators, including on the approval and validation of our manufacturing processes."

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 12:16

Brazil says CoronaVac has an efficacy rate just over 50 percent, much lower than previously announced. More than 380 million doses have already been ordered.

Inspecting vials containing the CoronaVac vaccine, made by the Chinese company Sinovac, at the Butantan Institute in S£o Paulo, Brazil. Credit... Amanda Perobelli/Reuters Scientists in Brazil have downgraded the efficacy of a Chinese coronavirus vaccine that they hailed as a major triumph last week, diminishing hopes for a shot that could be quickly produced and easily distributed to help the developing world.

Officials at the Butantan Institute in S£o Paulo said on Tuesday that a trial conducted in Brazil showed that the CoronaVac vaccine, made by the Beijing-based company Sinovac, had an efficacy rate just over 50 percent. That rate, slightly above the benchmark that the World Health Organization has said would make a vaccine effective for general use, was far below the 78 percent level announced last week.

The implications could be significant for a vaccine that is crucial to China's global health diplomacy. At least 10 countries have ordered more than 380 million doses of CoronaVac, though regulatory agencies have yet to fully approve it.

A senior official in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that had already ordered CoronaVac, said on Wednesday that an advisory panel would strictly review the vaccine based on clinical trial data before it was rolled out there.

''Those countries that have ordered the Chinese-made vaccines are probably going to question the usefulness of these vaccines,'' said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations and an expert on health care in China.

''Countries with opposition parties might use this to challenge the decision made by the incumbent government, and that will likely have domestic political implications in these countries,'' Mr. Huang said.

Sinovac did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

For months, Chinese officials had said the vaccines made by Sinovac and Sinopharm, a state-owned vaccine maker, would be important tools for fighting the pandemic in poorer countries that do not have extensive health care infrastructures. Unlike the vaccines made by the American drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna, they do not need to be frozen.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, which can be refrigerated and are more effective than their Chinese counterparts, could provide an alternative. But it is now unclear if the governments that have bought CoronaVac can scrap their deals and turn to others.

CoronaVac, unlike some of the other vaccines, relies on older technology that uses chemicals to weaken or kill the virus, which is then put into a vaccine to spark antibodies in the recipient. But the process of killing the virus can weaken a vaccine's potency, resulting in an immune response that could be shorter or less effective.

The lower efficacy announced Tuesday would mean it would take longer for countries that used CoronaVac's vaccine to reach ''herd immunity,'' the point at which enough people are resistant to the virus '-- roughly 70 percent, many scientists have said '-- that it is vanquished in a population. By contrast, the vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech have been shown to have an efficacy rate of about 95 percent.

''This was one of the reasons the Americans and Europeans didn't go with this older technology,'' said John Moore, a vaccine expert at Cornell University. ''A well-maintained Ford Model T would probably get you from Wuhan to Beijing, but personally I would prefer a Tesla.''

Brazil's health regulatory agency, Anvisa, is reviewing data from the trial, which relied on volunteers who are health care professionals. If Anvisa approves emergency use of CoronaVac, officials hope to start giving out shots in Brazil late this month. It has roughly 10.8 million doses of CoronaVac on hand. Last week, Brazil's health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, said the government intended to buy 100 million doses of CoronaVac.

Natalia Pasternak, a microbiologist and the president of Instituto Quest£o de Ciªncia, a Brazilian nongovernmental organization, told reporters on Tuesday that the results of the trial meant it would not be a panacea.

Covid-19 Vaccines 'ºAnswers to Your Vaccine QuestionsWhile the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, most will likely put medical workers and residents of long-term care facilities first. If you want to understand how this decision is getting made, this article will help.

Life will return to normal only when society as a whole gains enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries authorize a vaccine, they'll only be able to vaccinate a few percent of their citizens at most in the first couple months. The unvaccinated majority will still remain vulnerable to getting infected. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines are showing robust protection against becoming sick. But it's also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they're infected because they experience only mild symptoms or none at all. Scientists don't yet know if the vaccines also block the transmission of the coronavirus. So for the time being, even vaccinated people will need to wear masks, avoid indoor crowds, and so on. Once enough people get vaccinated, it will become very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people to infect. Depending on how quickly we as a society achieve that goal, life might start approaching something like normal by the fall 2021.

Yes, but not forever. The two vaccines that will potentially get authorized this month clearly protect people from getting sick with Covid-19. But the clinical trials that delivered these results were not designed to determine whether vaccinated people could still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. That remains a possibility. We know that people who are naturally infected by the coronavirus can spread it while they're not experiencing any cough or other symptoms. Researchers will be intensely studying this question as the vaccines roll out. In the meantime, even vaccinated people will need to think of themselves as possible spreaders.

The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered as a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection won't be any different from ones you've gotten before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccines, and none of them have reported any serious health problems. But some of them have felt short-lived discomfort, including aches and flu-like symptoms that typically last a day. It's possible that people may need to plan to take a day off work or school after the second shot. While these experiences aren't pleasant, they are a good sign: they are the result of your own immune system encountering the vaccine and mounting a potent response that will provide long-lasting immunity.

No. The vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer use a genetic molecule to prime the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse to a cell, allowing the molecule to slip in. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. At any moment, each of our cells may contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules, which they produce in order to make proteins of their own. Once those proteins are made, our cells then shred the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules our cells make can only survive a matter of minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is engineered to withstand the cell's enzymes a bit longer, so that the cells can make extra virus proteins and prompt a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only last for a few days at most before they are destroyed.

''It is not the best vaccine in the world,'' she said at the news conference during which the efficacy rate was disclosed. But she called it a ''perfectly acceptable vaccine'' that would lead to fewer patients developing serious cases or dying from the virus.

Dimas Covas, the director of the Butantan Institute, called the vaccine an ''excellent'' tool ''waiting to be used in a country where currently 1,000 people are dying per day.''

Many of the countries that have ordered CoronaVac are relatively poor, desperate to halt the pandemic and protect their populations.

Indonesia, for example, has ordered 125.5 million CoronaVac doses. The country has reported nearly 850,000 coronavirus cases and nearly 25,000 deaths, the highest numbers in Southeast Asia.

On Wednesday morning, its president, Joko Widodo, was injected with CoronaVac on live television, kicking off a national vaccination program. ''Covid vaccination is important for us to break the chain of transmission of this coronavirus and provide health protection for all of us,'' Mr. Joko said after getting his shot.

Sulfikar Amir, an Indonesian associate professor of disaster sociology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, said the latest results from Brazil were a cause for concern.

''Why doesn't Indonesia wait for a better vaccine?'' he asked. ''My impression is that this is rushed and forced.''

In the short term, some countries may have few viable options. Governments, many of them in richer nations, have already locked in more than half the doses that could come onto the market by the end of next year.

To its comparative advantage, Sinovac has immense manufacturing capacity. The company has said it can make 600 million doses this year.

In China, the weaker efficacy data from Brazil could be a setback for the country's biotech ambitions. It had pinned its hopes on making a Covid-19 vaccine that would burnish its credentials as a global scientific power.

The tepid results could also be problematic for Chinese officials, given that they had touted the efficacy of the vaccines made by Sinovac and Sinopharm. Even though the vaccines had not received regulatory approval, and data from late-stage trials had not been made public, Beijing gave them to thousands of Chinese people under an emergency use policy; it plans to vaccinate 50 million people by the middle of next month.

State media in China played down the news from Brazil. Global Times, a state-owned nationalist tabloid, ran a headline that said the Sinovac vaccine was ''100 percent effective in preventing severe cases, could reduce hospitalizations by 80 percent.''

The new data could heighten skepticism among people around the world who are already wary of Chinese-made vaccines, given that the country has a history of vaccine quality scandals. A study from the Chinese University of Hong Kong found that just 37.2 percent of respondents in Hong Kong were willing to be vaccinated.

Scientists had already raised questions about the piecemeal way in which efficacy data about the Chinese vaccines had been released. Indonesia said on Monday that its interim analysis found CoronaVac to have an efficacy rate of 65.3 percent. Last month, Turkey said it had an efficacy rate of 91.25 percent, but that was based on preliminary results from a small clinical trial.

The vaccine had long taken on a political dimension in Brazil. President Jair Bolsonaro had spoken derisively about CoronaVac, fueling an growing anti-vaccination movement in the country, where more than 200,000 people have died from Covid-19. The vaccine had been championed by S£o Paulo's governor, Jo£o Doria, who is widely expected to run for president in 2022 and is among Mr. Bolsonaro's most vocal critics.

In Brazil, officials say the higher efficacy rate previously announced for CoronaVac pertained to the protection it offered against developing Covid-19 symptoms significant enough to require treatment. While officials had asserted last week that the vaccine provided absolute protection against moderate to severe symptoms, they had not disclosed another group who had ''very mild'' infections despite having been vaccinated.

Denise Garrett, a Brazilian-American epidemiologist and vaccine expert, said there was no reason to doubt CoronaVac's safety, adding that the data presented so far suggested it would provide a satisfactory level of protection. But Dr. Garrett said the vague and sometimes misleading manner in which information about the vaccine had been made public could shake people's confidence in its reliability and fuel the political battle over the vaccine.

''The lack of transparency really damages people's trust,'' she said. ''They've just reinforced the narrative that this vaccine is not good.''

Reporting was contributed by Manuela Andreoni, Let­cia Casado, Richard C. Paddock and Muktita Suhartono. Elsie Chen contributed research.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 12:56

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel

Steven Ferdman | Getty Images

The CEO of Covid-19 vaccine maker Moderna warned Wednesday that the coronavirus that has brought world economies to a standstill and overwhelmed hospitals will be around "forever."

Public health officials and infectious disease experts have said there is a high likelihood that Covid-19 will become an endemic disease, meaning it will become present in communities at all times, though likely at lower levels than it is now.

Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel appeared to agree Wednesday that Covid-19 will become endemic, saying "SARS-CoV-2 is not going away."

"We are going to live with this virus, we think, forever," he said during a panel discussion at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference.

Health officials will have to continuously watch for new variants of the virus, so scientists can produce vaccines to fight them, he said. Researchers in Ohio said Wednesday they've discovered two new variants likely originating in the U.S. and that one of them quickly became the dominant strain in Columbus, Ohio, over a three-week period in late December and early January.

Pfizer researchers said its vaccine developed with BioNTech appeared to be effective against a key mutation in the U.K. strain as well as a variant found in South Africa.

Moderna's vaccine has been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for use in Americans who are 18 years old and older. Additional studies still needed to be completed in children, whose immune systems can respond differently to vaccines than those of adults.

U.S. officials are racing to distribute doses of both vaccines, but it will likely take months before the U.S. can vaccinate enough people to achieve herd immunity, meaning the virus won't have enough new hosts to spread. Still, Bancel said Wednesday he expects the U.S. will be one of the first large countries to achieve "sufficient protection" against the virus.

There are already four coronaviruses that are endemic across the world, but they aren't as contagious or deadly as Covid-19, according to the World Health Organization.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 15:16

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Acquisitive Chinese conglomerate HNA Group is in talks to buy a controlling stake in the owner of the publisher of Forbes magazine, two sources with knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Hong Kong-based investor group Integrated Whale Media Investments (IWM), which holds 95 percent of Forbes Media, is also in talks with another Chinese media firm and is scouting for more potential buyers for most or all of its stake, said one of the sources, who declined to be identified as the talks are confidential.

Reuters was not able to confirm the names of the other possible bidders.

HNA, ranked 353rd in the 2016 Fortune Global list of the world's biggest 500 companies, has been in discussions for a couple of weeks with IWM for a deal worth at least $400 million, said the source.

IWM and Forbes Media declined to comment, while HNA didn't respond to a Reuters request for comment.

The move comes three years after the Forbes family, which founded the American financial magazine 100 years ago, gave up its controlling stake in Forbes Media to IWM.

That transaction valued the Forbes company at $475 million, a source familiar with the transaction has said. [reut.rs/2mTiy5j]

HNA, which has more than $100 billion in assets, has been on an acquisition spree expanding out of its traditional business of aviation and logistics into financial, media and cultural sectors.

Late last year, HNA Capital, the group's financial arm, bought an 80 percent stake in Beijing Lianban Caixun Cultural Media, a media firm that runs the website of influential financial publication Caijing magazine, for an undisclosed sum, records with China's state-run corporate register showed.

''Going forward, HNA will continue to scout for good-quality domestic and international media assets,'' the second source said. ''HNA wants to display publications owned or invested by it on its planes, in its hotels across the world.''

The media deals are taking place at a time when Beijing is flexing its ''soft power'' muscles to extend its global influence.

Last year, China Central Television, the country's largest TV network, said it would launch a new global media platform to help re-brand China overseas.

Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd BABA.N has also acquired or invested in a growing portfolio of media and content firms in the past few years. It snapped up Hong Kong's flagship English-language newspaper the South China Morning Post and other media assets of SCMP Group Ltd 0583.HK for $266 million in late 2015.

Reporting by Julie Zhu; Additional reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York, Michelle Price in Hong Kong and Liana B. Baker in San Francisco; Editing by Anshuman Daga and Will Waterman

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 15:15

After 97 years of family ownership, Forbes Media has announced it has sold a majority stake in the company to a Hong Kong-based group of international investors.

Forbes Media '' which includes Forbes magazine '' was sold to Integrated Whale Media Investments for an undisclosed sum.

The Forbes family said it would still have a ''significant'' stake.

Article continues after advertisementSteve Forbes will remain as chairman and editor-in-chief.

''While today marks a fundamental turning point in this 97-year-old company founded by my grandfather, it should be seen as an opportunity to continue and strengthen our mission,''

Forbes '' which says it reaches 75 million people worldwide every month through its print, digital, TV, conferences and research ventures '' began looking for a buyer last November.

Forbes will continue to be headquartered in the US, but announced plans for an international expansion.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 15:33

Jan. 12, 2021Updated: Jan. 12, 2021 3:06 p.m.

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill on February 4, 2010 in Washington, DC.

Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe inaugural committee for President-elect Joe Biden reportedly returned a $500 donation from former California Sen. Barbara Boxer after it was learned she registered as a foreign agent for a Chinese surveillance firm.

Axios reported that the committee rejected Boxer's donation since the Chinese firm '-- named Hikvision '-- has been "accused of abetting the country's mass internment of Uighur Muslims." According to Justice Department documents published Friday, Boxer provides ''strategic consulting services" to Hikvision's subsidiary in the United States.

Hikivision was banned from doing business with U.S. firms absent a government-issued license in 2019, and was accused by the Trump administration of having ties to the Chinese military.

In a statement to Axios, Boxer stated, "When I am asked to provide strategic advice to help a company operate in a more responsible and humane manner consistent with U.S. law in spirit and letter, it is an opportunity to make things better while helping protect and create American jobs.''

During his presidential campaign, Biden said the internment of Uighur Muslims is "among the worst abuses of human rights in the world today."

"The U.S. cannot be silent '-- we must speak out against this oppression and relentlessly defend human rights around the world," he tweeted in November 2019.

Boxer is the latest California Democrat with reported ties to agents of the Chinese government. In December, Axios published another story revealing that Rep. Eric Swalwell had close ties to a suspected Chinese spy who was sent to gain influence with young, up-and-coming American politicians.

In 2018, it was revealed that Sen. Dianne Feinstein had a suspected Chinese spy on her staff for about 20 years without her knowledge.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:33

Dear Madam Speaker: (Dear Mr. President:)

Pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) (IEEPA), the National Emergencies Act (50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.), and section 301 of title 3, United States Code, I hereby report that I have issued an Executive Order taking further steps to deal with the threat posed by the People's Republic of China's (PRC) increasing exploitation of United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses which continue to allow the PRC to directly threaten the United States homeland and United States forces overseas, including by developing and deploying weapons of mass destruction, advanced conventional weapons, and malicious cyber-enabled actions against the United States and its people.

Through the national strategy of Military-Civil Fusion, the PRC increases the size of the country's military-industrial complex by compelling civilian Chinese companies to support its military and intelligence activities. Those companies, though remaining ostensibly private and civilian, directly support the PRC's military, intelligence, and security apparatuses and aid in their development and modernization. At the same time, they raise capital by selling securities to United States investors that trade on public exchanges both here and abroad, lobbying United States index providers and funds to include these securities in market offerings, and engaging in other acts to ensure access to United States capital. In that way, the PRC exploits United States investors to finance the development and modernization of its military.

To deal with that threat, I signed Executive Order 13959 on November 12, 2020. Executive Order 13959 prohibits certain purchases involving publicly traded securities, or any securities that are derivative of, or are designed to provide investment exposure to such securities, of any Communist Chinese military company. Those companies are ones the Department of Defense has listed, or will list, pursuant to section 1237 of Public Law 105-261, as amended, or are identified as Communist Chinese military companies or their subsidiaries by the Secretary of the Treasury using similar criteria.

Today, I signed an Executive Order amending Executive Order 13959. The amendments prohibit certain sales as well as purchases of publicly traded securities, or any securities that are derivative of, or are designed to provide investment exposure to such securities, of any Communist Chinese military company. They also prohibit possession of such securities by United States persons 1 year after a company is determined to be a Communist Chinese military company. And, finally, they allow the Secretary of Defense publicly to list whether a company is a Communist Chinese military company using the criteria in section 1237(b)(4)(B) of Public Law 105-261, as amended by section 1233 of Public Law 106-398 and section 1222 of Public Law 108'‘375, regardless of whether the Secretary must report that determination under section 1237(b)(2).

I am enclosing a copy of the Executive Order I have issued.

Sincerely,

DONALD J. TRUMP

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 12:02

Photo: Shannon Stapleton/REUTERS

The warnings were frequent. In September, FBI director Christopher Wray said domestic terrorism was the greatest threat to American citizens, adding that white supremacists made up the largest share of that threat. On October 6, the Department of Homeland Security named white-supremacist groups as ''the most persistent and lethal threat in the homeland.'' Two days later, the FBI announced the arrest of 13 men in Michigan for allegedly plotting to kidnap and execute the governor of Michigan. Which is why national-security experts were shocked, but not surprised, by Wednesday's riots, in which Trump loyalists and far-right extremists stormed the Capitol.

President Trump approached violent extremism the same way he approached climate change and the pandemic. He ignored it and then tended to it for political gain, even as his own security officials sounded the alarm. From his infamous ''very fine people on both sides'' remarks after Charlottesville, to his refusal to disavow QAnon conspiracists, to his incessant demands to ''liberate'' states where strict COVID-19 rules were in effect, to his defense of Kyle Rittenhouse, the militia member charged with killing two George Floyd protesters in Wisconsin, Trump made the country more vulnerable to far-right extremist violence. Experts agree Wednesday's violence is an escalation, not a climax.

''This is an enduring issue for the rest of the country, not just Washington, D.C.,'' said Javed Ali, a former senior director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council. ''Empirically, [Wednesday's riot] showed a proof of concept '-- it worked. Beyond inauguration, what events, statehouses, or government buildings, will be subjected to this? People can swarm these places quite easily thanks to social media.''

On Thursday, President-elect Joe Biden called Wednesday's rioters ''domestic terrorists,'' which some have interpreted as a willingness to give federal prosecutors and law enforcement officers broader authority to investigate and charge extremists. In recent years, lawmakers have debated whether a federal statute should criminalize domestic terrorism, simplifying the current process which requires prosecutors to make cases against violent extremists using a wide range of charges that often don't explicitly mention the word terrorism, even when the crimes meet the federal definition of domestic terrorism. For example, prosecutors charged Christopher Hasson, a Coast Guard lieutenant who stockpiled arms and ammunition with the intent of carrying out a mass murder in the name of a white homeland, with firearms and drug charges despite the fact that prosecutors had explicitly called Hasson a domestic terrorist.

''A domestic-terrorism statute would certainly help investigators,'' said Seth Jones, a counterterrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. ''But the data suggests that there are plenty of people who aren't associated with a group that are still going to be willing to conduct attacks. You're not going to be able to use a domestic-terrorism statute or designation on someone who may be sympathetic to Atomwaffen Division, but he's operating on his own. He's never had any ties. He's not providing material support.'' While the Trump administration avoided the issue for nakedly political purposes, resistance to a new statute isn't divided along neat partisan lines. Those who oppose one say it would run the risk of infringing on First Amendment rights.

''You wouldn't expect a new law that gives more authority to be used on white supremacists and far-right militants '-- you'd expect it to be used on groups being investigated, but prosecutors don't have a way to charge,'' said Mike German, a former FBI agent and fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice's liberty and national security program. ''You see the way the Trump administration went after protesters involved in the DisruptJ20 protests, the way the Obama administration's FBI and Justice Department went after environmental groups and Standing Rock water protectors and Black Lives Matter activists. The problem isn't a lack of authority, but a lack of attention on white supremacists and far-right militants. It's not as if they're charging a lot of white supremacists for decades but not successfully convicting them. They have a pretty good record when they actually pay attention to the violence.''

For some, the Trump administration's efforts to label Antifa a terrorist organization was a parable, proof that any new statute granting the government broad authority to classify groups of Americans could be misused. In 2018, Jason Blazakis, a former counterterrorism official at the State Department and a professor at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, argued in favor of a law that would allow federal agencies to label individuals as ''Specially Designated Terrorists'' and groups as ''Domestic Terrorist Organizations.''

''I've walked back my view over the past two years,'' Blazakis said recently. ''Unfortunately, politics being what it is, I worry that politicians would use it as a mechanism to chill free speech.''

Despite his comments on Thursday, Biden has yet to map out a clear plan to address domestic far-right extremism. Biden launched his presidential bid with a video that recounted the violent 2017 white-supremacist rally in Charlottesville, and he continued to reference that rally throughout his campaign. During the first presidential debate in September, he pushed Trump to disavow the Proud Boys. Now, as Inauguration Day draws near, counterterrorism experts are eager to see where homegrown extremism will rank on the new administration's list of priorities.

While domestic terrorism isn't mentioned on Biden's transition website, his campaign website includes a plan to establish a task force to ''focus on the connection between mass shootings, online harassment, extremism, and violence against women.'' Jake Sullivan, Biden's choice for national security adviser, has said the president-elect asked him to ''reimagine national security'' to include ''threats to democracy, racial justice, and inequality in all forms.''

''My concern is that the Biden administration will think things were going swell during the Obama administration and that all we have to do is go back to what we were doing then without recognizing that there was a problem during that period as well,'' German said. ''What I would hope the Biden administration is focused on is collecting the appropriate data and presenting a clear picture of the threat before we develop new methods to address the threat.''

Across the board, experts agree that more data is essential. The FBI does not share its data on domestic terrorism, and when it does, it's packaged in imprecise categories such as ''racially motivated violent extremists,'' which doesn't distinguish between violence perpetrated by white supremacists and acts by so-called Black Identity Extremists (a term that should make anyone familiar with the FBI's history of investigating civil-rights activists uneasy).

For some, Biden's experience is an auspicious starting point. ''Just the fact that Biden's going to run a normal process, that alone will make us safer because you'll actually have people paying attention and addressing these issues,'' Elizabeth Neumann, a former senior Homeland Security official in the Trump administration, told USA Today. Incoming Attorney General Merrick Garland, for one, who oversaw the prosecutions of the Oklahoma City bombers and the Unabomber, seems to offer an indication of Biden's intention to prioritize domestic terrorism. Garland's deputy attorney general, Lisa Monaco, previously served as chief counterterrorism advisor to Barack Obama. But conspicuously absent from Biden's recent announcement of National Security Council posts were key positions that address counterterrorism and homeland security.

''I have a hard time believing they're going to come up with a status quo approach,'' said Ali. ''It wouldn't square with the reality of the threat.''

Sign Up for the Intelligencer NewsletterDaily news about the politics, business, and technology shaping our world.

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. What Experts on Extremism Want From the Biden Administration

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 12:52

Tracker:This bill has the status Introduced

Here are the steps for Status of Legislation:

IntroducedArray( [actionDate] => 2021-01-04 [displayText] => Introduced in House [externalActionCode] => 1000 [description] => Introduced [chamberOfAction] => House)

Passed HousePassed SenateTo PresidentBecame Law Summary (0) Text Actions (2) Titles (1) Amendments (0) Cosponsors (0) Committees (1) Related Bills (0) Go to: Summary: H.R.127 '-- 117th Congress(2021-2022)All Information (Except Text)A legislative analyst in the Congressional Research Service will begin analyzing this legislation after text becomes available.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 12:56

Text: H.J.Res.14 '-- 117th Congress (2021-2022)All Information (Except Text)There is one version of the bill.

Shown Here: Introduced in House (01/11/2021) 117th CONGRESS 1st Session

H. J. RES. 14

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the electoral college and to provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

Mr. Cohen (for himself, Ms. Lofgren , Ms. Eshoo , Ms. Schakowsky , Ms. Brownley , Mr. DeFazio , Mr. Espaillat , Mr. Garamendi , and Mr. Cooper ) submitted the following joint resolution; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to abolish the electoral college and to provide for the direct election of the President and Vice President of the United States.

Whereas the Founders of the Nation established the electoral college in an era of limited nationwide communication and information sharing;

Whereas the electoral college is premised on an antiquated theory that citizens will have a better chance of knowing about electors from their home States than about Presidential candidates from out of State;

Whereas the development of mass media and the internet has made information about Presidential candidates easily accessible to United States citizens across the country and around the world;

Whereas citizens now have a far better chance of knowing about out-of-State Presidential candidates than about Presidential electors from their home State;

Whereas Thomas Jefferson wrote, ''I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and constitutions, but laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors.'';

Whereas since the Nation's founding, United States citizens have amended the Constitution to expand the opportunity for citizens to directly elect their elected leaders;

Whereas the 15th Amendment guarantees the right of all citizens to vote regardless of race;

Whereas the 19th Amendment guarantees the right of all citizens to vote regardless of gender;

Whereas the 26th Amendment guarantees the right of all citizens 18 years of age and older to vote regardless of age;

Whereas the 17th Amendment establishes both a precedent and a preference for the direct election of citizens' elected representatives; and

Whereas the electoral college has become an anachronism: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate and House ofRepresentatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of eachHouse concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:

'' article '--

'' section 1.

''The President and Vice President shall be elected by the people of the several States and the district constituting the seat of government of the United States.

'' section 2.

''The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most populous branch of the legislature of the State; although Congress may establish uniform age qualifications.

'' section 3.

''Each elector shall cast a single vote for two persons who have consented to the joining of their names as candidates for President and Vice President. No elector shall be prohibited from casting a vote for a candidate for President or Vice President because either candidate, or both, are inhabitants of the same State as the elector.

'' section 4.

''The pair of candidates having the greatest number of votes for President and Vice President shall be elected.

'' section 5.

''The times, places, and manner of holding such elections and entitlement to inclusion on the ballot shall be determined by Congress.

'' section 6.

''The Congress may by law provide for the case of the death or any other disqualification of any candidate for President or Vice President before the day on which the President-elect or Vice President-elect has been chosen; and for the case of a tie in any election.

'' section 7.

''This article shall take effect one year after the first day of January following ratification.''.

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 18:33

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 15:34

Bitcoin is 'highly speculative' and needs to be regulated, says ECB's Lagarde We're sorry but www.theblockcrypto.com doesn't work properly without JavaScript enabled. Please enable it to continue.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 12:21

Yellow mealworm finger foods, smoothies, biscuits, pasta and burgers could soon be mass produced across Europe after the insect became the first to be found safe for human consumption by the EU food safety agency.

The delicacies may not be advisable for everyone, however. Those with prawn and dustmite allergies are likely to suffer a reaction to the Tenebrio molitor larvae, whether eaten in powder form as part of a recipe or as a crunchy snack, perhaps dipped in chocolate.

The conclusion of scientists at the EU food safety agency, following an application by France's first insect-for-food production company, Micronutris, is expected to lead to EU-wide approval within months of yellow mealworm as a product fit for supermarket shelves and kitchen pantries across the continent.

The insect's main components are protein, fat and fibre, offering a potentially sustainable and low carbon-emission source of food for the future. When dried, the maggot-like insect is said to taste a lot like peanuts.

Ermolaos Ververis, a scientific officer at the agency, said: ''This first EFSA risk assessment of an insect as novel food can pave the way for the first EU-wide approval. Our risk evaluation is a decisive and necessary step in the regulation of novel foods by supporting policymakers in the EU in making science-based decisions and ensuring the safety of consumers.''

For leading players in the insects-as-food industry, the potential for their high-protein food has been held back by a lack of EU-wide approval. The products are prohibited from sale in France, Germany, Italy and Spain, among other European countries. Without approval from the EFSA, they faced being banned elsewhere on the continent too.

The UK, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark and Finland have previously taken a permissive approach to an EU law that requires foods not eaten before 1997 to get novel food authorisation from Brussels.

British, Dutch, Belgian, Danish and Finnish regulators had decided the EU directive did not pertain to animals products used for food. But in 2018 a new EU law sought to bring some clarity. It stipulated that insect-based dishes would require novel food authorisation, putting the nascent insect-food industry in the EU on death row.

The products have remained available in those countries as a result of a transition period to allow companies already producing food from insects to operate until they received the final judgment. And the potential for mass production and expansion in product ranges in Britain, among others, has been held back.

Companies such as Micronutris, Protifarm in the Netherlands, Essento in Switzerland and Entogourmet in Spain are understood to be preparing to ramp up their operations.

Insect-based food has long been seen as a part of the solution to cutting the emission of greenhouse gases in food production. Yellow mealworm is the larval form of Tenebrio molitor, an insect species that belongs to the family of Tenebrionidae, or darkling beetles. They are usually fed in farms on wheat flour or bran, although they are omnivorous.

The eggs are separated from mating adults by sieving so that larvae can grow separately. The post-harvesting process includes rinsing the larvae with water, killing them by immersion in boiling water for up to five minutes, and dehydration in ovens, packaging and storage.

Mario Mazzocchi, an economic statistician and professor at the University of Bologna, said: ''There are clear environmental and economic benefits if you substitute traditional sources of animal proteins with those that require less feed, produce less waste and result in fewer greenhouse gas emissions. Lower costs and prices could enhance food security and new demand will open economic opportunities too, but these could also affect existing sectors.''

There have been 15 applications for insect-based food products. The four at the final stages of the EFSA process are fresh and dried adult crickets, locusts and litter beetles, also known as lesser mealworm. From the time of publication of the EFSA's opinion, the EU's member states have seven months to table a proposal for authorisation, which will then go to a vote.

Giovanni Sogari, a social and consumer researcher at the University of Parma, said the squeamishness of many consumers towards insect-originated food products may eventually fall away. ''There are cognitive reasons derived from our social and cultural experiences '' the so-called 'yuck factor' '' that make the thought of eating insects repellent to many Europeans,'' he said. ''With time and exposure, such attitudes can change.''

EFSA scientists examining the safety of yellow mealworm recommended that it should not be eaten by people with allergies to crustaceans and dustmites as it risked an oral and skin reaction.

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The former US cybersecurity official and former Facebook security chief will help SolarWinds respond to its recent attack and improve security.SolarWinds, the company targeted in a major cyberattack affecting US government agencies and private organizations, has hired Chris Krebs and Alex Stamos to recover from the incident and improve its overall security posture.

Krebs is a former US security official who previously led the Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) until he was fired by President Trump following efforts to ensure the security of the 2020 election. Stamos, former security chief for Facebook, is now a Stanford professor and director of the Stanford Internet Observatory.

The two have formed a consulting business that will help SolarWinds respond to a security incident widely considered one of the most severe attacks to target the United States in recent years. Attackers who infiltrated SolarWinds sent backdoored versions of its software to some 18,000 customers, including federal agencies and companies such as Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel.

SolarWinds had already hired CrowdStrike to help assess the attack and improve its security, Reuters reports. Now it's bringing in the two experts as part of larger efforts to strengthen its security strategy, which had been criticized in the past.

"We have brought in the expertise of Chris Krebs and Alex Stamos to assist in this review and provide best-in-class guidance on our journey to evolve into an industry leading secure software development company," a SolarWinds spokesperson said in a statement.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 11:08

IT reads like the most outlandish of Hollywood spy scripts: Angelina Jolie '' one of Tinseltown's biggest stars '' working undercover with the CIA.

Yet there is a growing dossier of evidence which suggests that such a wild claim about the 45-year-old actress and humanitarian may not be quite as crazy as it sounds.

13

Angelina played a CIA operative in the movie Salt Credit: (C)Sony PicturesAnd if a leading expert on the relationship between Hollywood and the US government is to be believed, Angelina may have been recruited as an asset by the spy agency at some point in the 2000s.

Since then, the Oscar-winner has twice been accused by angry foreign officials of being a CIA ''agent'', held meetings with and played a role in the downfall of a CIA director and starred in two movies supported by the CIA.

She also joined one of Washington D.C.'s most influential foreign policy think tanks and interviewed the outgoing boss of the UK's MI6 secret service '' one of the CIA's strongest allies.

Expert Tom Secker has spent years using the Freedom of Information Act to investigate the connection between the movie industry and the intelligence community, and says that the evidence hints that ''something is going on'' between Angelina and the CIA.

13

Now an expert on Hollywood-government relations believes she could be a spy in real life Credit: Alamy 13

Author Tom Secker believes the actress may have been recruited as a PR asset by the agency Credit: AFPThe author, who wrote a book called National Security Cinema, says he believes that Jolie is an ideal ''front person'' for the intelligence community.

''Under the first Obama administration there was an attempt to redraw US foreign policy," he told The Sun.

''It continued to look like US foreign policy has for decades but they very much promoted the notion of humanitarian intervention and the doctrine of the responsibility to protect, known as R2P.

''That's how they branded the Libyan war and the Syria intervention and the general expansion of the War on Terror with the drone program.

''The notion of getting a theoretically liberal Hollywood star as a front person fits in entirely with how foreign policy was being rebranded in that period.

13

Angelina has starred in two CIA-backed movies Credit: Handout 13

Tom Secker has been investigating the links between the entertainment industry and the intelligence community Credit: Coleman-Rayner 13

He has obtained documents such as this, which shows the CIA's support for two of Angie's movies Credit: Coleman-Rayner''I wouldn't have thought Angelina is a salaried CIA officer - she could be although I don't think so.

''I think somewhere along the line in the 2000s she was in effect recruited as some kind of PR asset.

''Throughout the Cold War both the CIA and the FBI were recruiting people in Hollywood for various purposes, not least hyping up the Red Scare and informing on people within the film industry."

I think somewhere along the line in the 2000s she was in effect recruited as some kind of PR asset.

Tom Secker Over the past decade foreign officials have gone much further than Secker and suggested Angelina is a full-blown CIA ''agent'' who uses her humanitarian work for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to promote US foreign policy.

Most recently, Angelina was blasted by then president of Venezuela's National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, following a visit she made to Venezuelan refugees in Peru in October 2018.

'Evidence' that may suggest Angelina is a spy

Held meetings with and played a role in the downfall of a CIA DirectorSpoke to CIA agents when she starred in two movies which were supported by the CIAJoined one of Washington D.C.'s most influential foreign policy think tanksAccused by two foreign politicians of being a CIA operativeInterviewed the outgoing boss of the UK's MI6 secret service '' one of the CIA's strongest alliesSimilar claims had already been put forward six years earlier when Angelina praised the Turkish government following her visit to camps for Syrian refugees in September 2012.

A deputy with Turkey's main opposition party Mehmet Kesimoğlu asked: ''Is Angelina Jolie an agent of the CIA, and is there any intelligence report about Angelina Jolie that indicates she is used as the face of CIA's war politics?''

Angelina's name has also been linked to disgraced former CIA Director David Petraeus.

The pair held talks and posed for a picture in Baghdad in February 2008 while Petraeus was serving as the top commander in Iraq.

13

Angelina has been pictured with former CIA boss David Patraeus Credit: Getty Images - Getty 13

The CIA has supported several films, documentaries and books, according to this document Credit: Coleman-Rayner 13

Angelina has even visited the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia Credit: Getty - ContributorAfter he took the top CIA job, the pair met again at the service's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, on January 11, 2012, the same day Angelina and her then partner Brad Pitt visited President Barack Obama in the White House.

The meeting would later come to play a minor role in the sex scandal that ended Petraeus' CIA career.

Early concerns about the director's relationship with his biographer Paula Broadwell were reportedly raised amongst CIA staff after the writer posted an unofficial photo of the Angelina meeting on Facebook, in breach of security protocols.

In October this year, Angelina conducted an extraordinary interview with the outgoing head of Britain's foreign intelligence service, MI6.

During her conversation with Sir Alex Younger, published in Time magazine, Angelina admiringly quizzed the British spymaster about his secret life.

Secker believes that the actress's link to the British intelligence service may have been made through the UK's Foreign Office, which she began working with on a campaign against wartime sexual violence in May 2012.

13

Angelina played CIA officer Evelyn Salt in the 2010 movie Salt Credit: AFP 13

She spoke to real CIA agents to prepare for the role Credit: HandoutAngelina's movie collaborations with the CIA are also well-documented.

To date she has starred in at least two spy films which were directly supported by the CIA '' The Good Shepherd in 2006 and Salt in 2010.

The CIA's first ever entertainment liaison Chase Brandon, who served from 1996 to 2007, listed The Good Shepherd as one of the movies he had worked on.

Just months after The Good Shepherd was released in December 2006 Angelina became a member of the influential Council on Foreign Relations think tank.

The Council's links to the CIA date back to the early days of the intelligence service and continue to this day.

Angelina is amongst just a handful of Hollywood stars to have been made a member of the exclusive organization, along with George Clooney and Warren Beatty.

13

Angelina has previously claimed she couldn't be a spy because she 'couldn't live a secret life' Credit: HandoutThen in 2010 Angelina starred in Salt, a story about a Russian sleeper spy who has infiltrated the CIA.

CIA documents obtained by Secker list Salt as an example of one of the movies that it provided ''entertainment industry outreach'' for ''in an effort to ensure an accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA''.

Secker says that to prepare for Salt, director Phillip Noyce went on a tour of CIA's headquarters in Langley, Virginia, with Angelina and they had a video conference with CIA operatives who were active at the time.

In production notes for the movie distributed by Sony Pictures, Angelina stated: ''We talked to a lot of the women in the CIA.

''One after the other, they are just these lovely, sweet women that you can't imagine being put in a dangerous situation, but they really are.''

13

Tom Sicker authored this book about the ties between Hollywood and government Credit: Coleman-Rayner''The interesting thing is that they were talking to CIA operations officers,'' Secker said.

''Normally if you want to have a look around Langley to do research and talk to a couple of people, that is organized through the CIA's Office of Public Affairs.

''The fact they were sitting down and having a conference with currently serving operations officers, people who work undercover '' that's unusual.

''On Salt it is evident that the relationship went deeper.''

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In the past the actress has claimed she couldn't ever be a spy, telling AFP in 2010, "I couldn't keep a secret life because it is just not natural to me and my family, but I think it is a great sacrifice people make."

The Sun reached out to a representative for Angelina on Secker's claims.

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Thu, 14 Jan 2021 14:43

Biden Will Restore White House Pet Tradition With 2 German Shepherds President Trump did not have pets. President-elect Biden's dogs are named Champ and Major. The Delaware Humane Society is honoring Major's journey from the shelter to the White House.

TONYA MOSELY, HOST:

Donald Trump has been the first president in more than a century without a dog. Next week, Joe Biden restores the tradition with two German shepherds, Major and Champ. Major's story in particular is a wags-to-riches tale.

PATRICK CARROLL: We had someone from the community reach out to us who had a litter of German shepherd puppies, and they weren't doing well.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Patrick Carroll is executive director to the Delaware Humane Association. He says Major and his five littermates were hospitalized for days.

(SOUND OF PUPPY CRYING)

CARROLL: They had gotten into a toxic substance - we're not sure what. But it was curable, but it just required medical care.

(SOUND OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You're so cute.

CARROLL: So we put them into foster homes once we got them better.

MOSELY: One of those fosters was Joe Biden. Major found his forever home. Biden fully adopted him in November of 2018.

(SOUND OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: You're adopted. You did it. You did such a good job.

JOE BIDEN: Thank you very much.

UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Thank you. Congratulations. Bye, Major.

MARTIN: Major will be the first dog to go from a shelter to the White House, but he follows in the footprints of another rescue dog, Yuki.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

PRESIDENT LYNDON JOHNSON: He is the friendliest and the smartest and the most constant in his attention of all the dogs that I've known.

MARTIN: That's President Lyndon Johnson, whose daughter picked up the pup at a gas station in Texas.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JOHNSON: Do you want to go (howling)?

(SOUND OF YUKI HOWLING)

JOHNSON: Come on. Sing for me (howling).

(SOUND OF YUKI HOWLING)

LADY BIRD JOHNSON: (Laughter) Oh, you silly dog.

MOSELY: The Delaware Humane Association is holding a virtual indoguration (ph) for the first dog-elect on Sunday to benefit the shelter.

CARROLL: Major is highlighting adoption. I think, also, it's shining a light on all the resources that animal shelters bring to a community. So if you need pet food because you're struggling or you need low-cost vaccinations to keep your pet healthy - all of the things that people need, they should see their shelter as a resource.

MOSELY: Carroll says if Major is good enough for the White House, a shelter dog is good enough for your house.

Copyright (C) 2021 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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Published Tue, Jan 12 2021 3:54 PM EST

Updated Tue, Jan 12 2021 4:53 PM EST

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A mutated and more infectious coronavirus strain first identified in South Africa is "disturbing" and could pose a threat to Covid antibody treatments, White House advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said. Through discussions with health experts in South Africa, Fauci said preliminary data shows there's "more of a threat" the strain would evade some of the protections antibody treatments provide.The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said there's no evidence so far to show the mutations alter the effectiveness of current vaccines.Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, sits ahead of a Senate Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020.

Graeme Jennings | Bloomberg | Getty Images

A mutated and more infectious coronavirus strain first identified in South Africa is "disturbing" and could pose a threat to antibody treatments that are used to prevent people from falling seriously ill from Covid-19, White House health advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday.

New coronavirus strains first identified in the United Kingdom and South Africa have caused some concerns among scientists who say the mutated variants are highly infectious, though they don't appear to be any deadlier compared with previous strains.

So far, health experts have said there's no evidence the mutations alter the effectiveness of current vaccines. However, there's some concern that the variant found in South Africa, known as 501Y.V2, might be more resistant to monoclonal antibodies, which have helped some people fight the virus when administered early on in their infection.

Through discussions with health experts in South Africa, Fauci said preliminary data shows there's "more of a threat" the strain would evade some of the protections antibody treatments provide.

"It could be having some impact on protection for the monoclonal antibodies and perhaps even for the vaccine. We don't know that," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said during a Q&A session at Schmidt Futures' Forum on Preparedness.

He added that researchers in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health and across the country are quickly trying to determine the possible impact of the strain found in South Africa.

"People ask me, 'Are you worried about it?' These are not the kind of things I worry about, but it's the kind of thing that I take very seriously," Fauci said.

As viruses spread, they're expected to mutate over time as the spikes on their surfaces change, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. The 501Y.V2 variant gets its name from the N501Y mutation found in the spike protein that the virus uses to gain entry into cells within the body.

This mutation is also seen in the variant U.K. health authorities identified in December, known as B.1.1.7. While both variants found in the U.K. and South Africa shared the N501Y mutation, they are different, according to the World Health Organization.

Fauci has previously said the mutated Covid-19 variations could pose a risk to the coronavirus therapeutics. Unlike vaccines, which trigger an immune response that attacks different parts of the virus, monoclonal antibodies target a very specific component, Fauci told California Gov. Gavin Newsom in late December.

Eli Lilly Chairman and CEO Dave Ricks told CNBC earlier Tuesday that he expects the company's monoclonal antibody treatment to be effective against the variant found in the U.K., though the one in South Africa could pose more challenges. Eli Lilly's drug was given emergency authorization in the U.S. in November and was followed by another drug from Regeneron.

"The South African variant ... is the one of concern. It has more dramatic mutations to that spike protein, which is the target" of these antibody drugs, Ricks said on "Squawk Box." "Theoretically, it could evade our medicines."

The CDC has yet to identify any strains of the 501Y.V2 variant in the United States, though the agency has found at least 72 cases with the B.1.1.7 strain found in the U.K. as of Monday, according to data from the CDC.

'-- CNBC's Holly Ellyatt and Kevin Stankiewicz contributed to this report.

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from 153NewsNet by Mathew North RIP MattyI'm SO glad I stopped watching this individual many years ago...he NEVER talks about the joos... can you say controlled opposition?Bill Hicks is Alex Jones.I can not stand Joe Rogan either...

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MORE LESS BigTech just purged the president of the United States and untold numbers of creators and users. We are working around the clock to keep up, but could do with extra help. Consider a $5 donation today. Thank you - BitChute.

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The social network of the future: No ads, no corporate surveillance, ethical design, and decentralization! Own your data with Mastodon!

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Carolynn Look , Bloomberg News

The European Central Bank's latest projections for economic growth in the euro area are still ''very clearly plausible'' despite the resurgent coronavirus and latest lockdowns, President Christine Lagarde said.

The ECB chief stressed that many of the uncertainties that previously clouded the outlook have now been cleared, including U.S. elections, the Brexit trade deal with the U.K., and the start of vaccinations.

''We start on a more positive basis than some would like to look at,'' she said in an online event organized by Reuters, while adding that continued monetary and fiscal support will still be needed.

The euro-area economy is on track to shrink again at the start of 2021 as the resurgent pandemic plunges the region into a double-dip recession. Numerous economists have downgraded forecasts in recent days to account for renewed restrictions, which in some places are tougher than ever.

To support the economy through turbulent times, Lagarde's central bank extended out its bond-buying program to March 2022 when it last updated stimulus in December. Policy makers meet to set policy next week.

The president also said policy makers will be ''extremely attentive'' to the rise of the euro against the dollar, which pushes down on inflation by cutting import costs.

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 15:41

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By David Wilcock, Whitehall Correspondent and James Tapsfield, Political Editor and Jack Elsom and Connor Boyd Assistant Health Editor For Mailonline 11:54 12 Jan 2021, updated 19:24 12 Jan 2021

He risked a diplomatic row with the remarks in a virtual speech to the One Planet Summit yesterdayPangolins are heavily-trafficked scaly anteater-like creatures found across Asia used in Chinese medicineEndangered species blamed for transmitting the virus from wild bats to humans via wet market in WuhanBoris Johnson has come under fire from his own party for publicly shaming China's use of traditional medicine and blaming the 'demented' practice of harvesting pangolin scales for causing coronavirus.

Conservative insiders detected the Prime Minister's fianc(C)e Carrie Symonds' influence in his incendiary remarks, which has sparked a furious row with Beijing.

In an environmental speech to world leaders yesterday Mr Johnson tore into people who 'grind up the scales of a pangolin' in a bid to become more 'potent' - a thinly veiled attack on Chinese remedies.

Ms Symonds has been vocal in her opposition to wet markets, where the animals are sold, gaining praise from Peta as it announced her as one of its most influential activists of 2020

Former Tory aides told MailOnline she was 'definitely' behind Mr Johnson's conservation push and are growing concerned that her enthusiasm for such issues are eating up too much of the Government's bandwidth at the expense of other policy areas.

One Tory insider said: 'When the f*** was he talking about the environment before he got with her? I've never seen Boris talk about the environment.

'It's also a tangential issue. It is completely lacking any political antennae. it is not mission critical. This government should be about the public's agenda, not Carrie's agenda.'

The Tory said there was a 'time and a place' to talk about conservation issues, and this was 'not it'.

Mr Johnson made the remarks in a virtual speech to the One Planet Summit, hosted by France's President Macron, citing the illegal trade in the scaly anteater-like creatures.

They are widely used in Chinese medicine and their trafficking has been blamed for transmitting the virus from bats found in the wild to humans.

The first documented cases of the Covid-19 were in the Chinese city of Wuhan, with a wet market trading in exotic animals being seen as the probable source.

Mr Johnson's attack on China was followed today by a broadside by Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab over the treatment of the Uighur minority.

On another day of chaos for Britons battling the worst crisis for a generation:

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned furlough is masking unemployment and the true rate could be 6.5 per cent not 4.9 per cent; The government is facing more pressure to make the vaccination programme 24-hours and start giving more frontline workers jabs; Matt Hancock has denied there is a national oxygen shortage as the strain on the NHS increases but admitted patients might have to be moved to where there are supplies; One in every three deaths in England and Wales was linked to coronavirus in the final days of 2020, official figures revealed today as a separate analysis claimed the virus was behind the sharpest rise in fatalities since 1940; Downing Street has admitted pictures of the random contents in some free school meal food parcels are 'completely unacceptable' after the issue was highlighted by Marcus Rashford; Seven vaccination hubs have come into use, including London's ExCeL and Birmingham's Millennium Point; Derbyshire Police has cancelled £200 fines for two women penalised for driving five miles to go for a walk; Nearly a quarter of care home residents have received their first shot of Covid vaccine, with nearly 2.7million doses now administered across the UK; Hospitals started rationing oxygen as it emerged that one in four coronavirus patients is under 55. Former Tory aides told MailOnline that Carrie was 'definitely' behind Mr Johnson's conservation push, pointing out he rarely talked about such issues before they were linked She has been vocal in her opposition to wet markets where they are sold, gaining praise from Peta as it announced her as one of its most influential activists of 2020. Boris Johnson in a Protect The Pangolin t-shirt in 2018, while jogging with then Australian counterpart foreign minister Julie Bishop Two suspects surrounded by dead pangolin that were among 457 confiscated from a wild animal smuggling ring in Guangdong Province, China Pangolins are heavily-trafficked scaly anteater-like creatures, which have been blamed for transmitting the virus from bats to humans Carrie backed ban on wet markets as she boosted her wildlife activismCarrie Symonds won a wildlife award last year for her environmental work, including support for endangered pangolins.

Last April she publicly revealed she had signed a petition calling for an end to the wet markets where they are often sold.

The Prime Minister's fianc(C)e, who was pregnant with son Wilfred at the time, took to social media to share the 'End the Trade' petition.

The 32-year-old wrote: 'Have signed this petition calling for an end to the global wildlife trade once and for all. Please do consider doing the same.

'This crisis gives us the chance to start doing things better. Let this be one of those things.'

Ms Symonds tweets support for then Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's call to end pangolin traffickingHer championing of the heavily-trafficked animal's plight stretches back years, and in 2018 she threw her weight behind Boris Johnson, then Foreign Secretary, who was calling to stamp out the trade.

Hardline environmental group Peta later named her Person of the Year, saying her 'activism gets results,' after she campaigned against the plight of monkeys being used to pick coconuts.

Ms Symonds has been vocal in her opposition to wet markets, the fur trade and trophy hunting.

Last year she also raised awareness of monkeys being used as slave labour to pick coconuts, helping to get products support the practice taken off British shelves.

Ms Symonds has long burnished her environmentalism credentials and works as a senior adviser to conservation charity Oceana.

In comments that are likely to risk fury from Beijing, Mr Johnson said: 'Obviously it's right to focus on climate change, obviously it's right to cut CO2 emissions, but we won't achieve a real balance with our planet unless we protect nature as well.

'One final thought, don't forget that the coronavirus pandemic was the product of an imbalance in man's relationship with the natural world.

'Like the original plague which struck the Greeks I seem to remember in book one of the Iliad, it is a zoonotic disease.

'It originates from bats or pangolins, from the demented belief that if you grind up the scales of a pangolin you will somehow become more potent or whatever it is people believe, it originates from this collision between mankind and the natural world and we've got to stop it.'

But China hit back at the PM after his comments. Today Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: 'We've said many times that origin tracing is a scientific matter.

'There is no room, no place, for people making speculations, hyping up - otherwise it will only disrupt international co-operation.'

Meanwhile Chinese web users labelled Boris Johson 'laughable' and 'very ignorant'.

Under a Weibo post by the state-run Vhina Daily, one user who claimed to be a medical student said: 'As a medical student majoring in traditional Chinese medicine, I feel the comment from the British Prime Minister is very ignorant, to be honest.'

Another critic wrote: 'This is laughable. Does the British Prime Minister have a brain?'

Some took a step further and suggested that coronavirus had affected the PM's ability to think.

One such user stated: 'It seems that the novel coronavirus has affected not only Johnson's lungs but also his brain.'

Mr Raab this afternoon said British firms will face heavy fines if they are lined to Chinese human rights abuse and companies will have to meet requirements showing their supply chains are free from forced labour in the Xinjiang province, the Foreign Secretary told the Commons this afternoon.

The Beijing government has been accused of widespread abuse in the area, home to the Muslim Uighurs, including allegations of forced sterilisation, slave labour and mass internment.

Members of the Uighur minority group have reportedly been made to pick cotton in Xinjiang province, leading to concerns British consumers could inadvertently be buying tainted goods.

Mr Raab said companies will be given robust guidance on how to carry out due diligence checks to make sure they are not sourcing products tainted by the human rights violations in the province.

He told MPs the picture of human rights abuses in Xinjiang was 'harrowing' and the UK had a 'moral duty to respond'.

Pangolins inhabit tropical forests in India, China, south-east Asia and parts of Africa.

Out of the eight existing sub-species, three are critically endangered, and all of them are protected by international treaty.

The general hunting and trading of pangolins have been banned in China since the late 1980s, but the exotic mammals are still trafficked by the thousands for their perceived nutritional value.

Their scales are deemed as a previous ingredient by believers of traditional Chinese medicine and its than 123 tons were sold in 2019 on the black market.

People also eat their meat for the supposed health benefits and the animals' blood is seen as a healing tonic.

China has previously denied pangolin are a vector for moving the virus from bats to humans.

Last year researchers in the Communist state found that the animals are indeed natural hosts for various coronaviruses, but do not appear to be the direct source of Covid-19.

In November a different team from the Chinese Academy of Sciences claimed the virus likely originated in India in summer 2019 - jumping from animals to humans via contaminated water - before travelling unnoticed to Wuhan, where it was first detected.

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In a further attac on China, companies will have to meet requirements showing their supply chains are free from forced labour in the Xinjiang province, the Foreign Secretary told the Commons this afternoon Members of the Uighur minority group have reportedly been made to pick cotton in Xinjiang province, leading to concerns British consumers could inadvertently be buying tainted goods Britain yesterday recorded a further 529 Covid deaths - marking a 30 per cent rise on the 407 reported on the same day last week. It is also the deadliest Monday since April 20 when 570 people lost their lives Pictured: A map showing the nine countries China has blamed for the outbreak of Covid-19 What has Covid got to do with pangolins?Pangolins - which have been illegally traded for centuries and used in traditional Chinese medicine - have been implicated in the emergence of coronavirus in China last winter.

Scientists are almost certain the virus first emerged in bats. But, because bats are not usually able to infect humans directly, they believe the virus was passed to an intermediate species before jumping to people.

Pangolins appear to be immune to Covid-19, which makes them a prime carrier of the virus and would have allowed them to act as an unharmed vector carrying the virus from bats deep in the wild, where they live, to public markets where the scaly creatures are illicitly traded.

All eight species of pangolin are supposed to be protected from trafficking by international law. Yet they are one of the most bought and sold mammals in Asia and Africa, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Based on reported seizures between 2011 and 2013, more than 230,000 pangolins are killed every year. But experts believe the official seizures represent as little as 10 per cent of the actual number being traded on the black market.

In Asian countries, particularly China and Vietnam, pangolin meat is a delicacy and their scales are used as ingredients for traditional medicine, to treat ailments such as skin diseases, menstrual disorders and arthritis.

Chinese law states that selling pangolins is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The prevailing theory is that Covid-19 emerged in Wuhan's infamous wet market, where hundreds of different species of animals were kept in cramped cages dangerously close to one another, sometime last winter.

Scientists have described such markets as the perfect breeding ground for new, pandemic-causing viruses.

Pangolins were not listed on an inventory of items sold at the Huanan Seafood Market, however the illegality of trading pangolins could explain their exclusion from the list.

The black market trade in the creature has also been previously implicated in oubreaks of bird flu.

World Health Organization experts will visit the city of Wuhan, where the coronavirus was first detected in late 2019, on Thursday at the start of their investigation into the origins of the pandemic, Chinese authorities have said.

China has denied that the market - or pangolins - are involved in the spread of the virus, and its authoritarian regime has blamed other countries such as India for the outbreak.

Another theory is that the virus was engineered at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a high-security biochemical lab in the city.

One of America's most senior government officials last week claimed this was the most 'credible' origin theory.

Matthew Pottinger, president Donald Trump's Deputy National Security Adviser, told politicians from around the world that even China's leaders now openly admit their previous claims that the virus originated in a Wuhan market are false.

Mr Pottinger said that the latest intelligence points to the virus leaking from the top-secret Wuhan Institute of Virology, 11 miles from the market, saying: 'There is a growing body of evidence that the lab is likely the most credible source of the virus.'

In a zoom call with UK MPs he claimed the pathogen may have escaped through a 'leak or an accident', adding: 'Even establishment figures in Beijing have openly dismissed the wet market story.'

Like the wet markets, China has denied the lab having anything to do with the outbreak.

The visit to Wuhan by the WHO team is already mired in controversy after it published terms of reference revealing it will not investigate the Wuhan institute '' the only laboratory in China with the highest international bio-security grading '' as a possible source of Covid-19.

Scientists have previously said that Covid-19 unique spike protein and its ability to latch onto human cells so efficiently mean generic engineering shouldn't be ruled out.

Mr Johnson has previously called for greater protection for pangolins.

In 2018 he wrote a newspaper article calling for greater efforts to track down on hunting and smuggling the mammal.

He wrote: 'As we get older we human beings are capable of all manner of self-deception. We go under the knife in the hope of looking younger. We take pills and potions of dubious efficacity.

'But in the annals of human folly there is surely nothing more delusional than the belief still prevalent in large parts of Asia that a man can somehow rectify his waning virility by grinding and eating the scales of a pangolin.

'And yet that is what they do. The tragedy is that all eight species of pangolin are now endangered, two of them critically so.

'We are losing them to poachers at a rate of 100,000 a year. They are smuggled, butchered and cooked '' all for the sake of their mythical medicinal qualities.'

Mr Johnson gathered Cabinet today amid fears lockdown could be tightened within days unless coronavirus numbers ease.

The PM has been holding a virtual meeting with his senior team as they consider the next move in the crisis wreaking havoc on the country.

Ministers have been desperately pleading with Britons to limit their contacts as the NHS struggles to cope with the volume of Covid patients, as police ramp up enforcement of the brutal restrictions.

But the government has made clear it is ready to get even tougher, with leading figures on SAGE pushing for a three metre social rule distancing rule and threats to axe the loophole allowing people to exercise with a friend from another household.

Other options thought to have been considered include stopping non-essential click-and-collect shopping, and closing more workplaces.

Matt Hancock hinted at a crackdown on exercising with one other person at a Downing Street briefing last night, saying the exception was being abused to socialise.

In another ominous sign this morning, Mr Johnson tweeted saying that 'meeting others from outside your household or support bubble puts you and others at risk of serious disease'.

However, in a round of interviews policing minister Kit Malthouse risked muddying the message by saying a 70-mile cycle ride would count as 'staying local' under the lockdown rules.

Mr Johnson gathered Cabinet today amid fears lockdown could be tightened within days unless coronavirus numbers ease.

The PM has been holding a virtual meeting with his senior team as they consider the next move in the crisis wreaking havoc on the country.

Ministers have been desperately pleading for people to limit their contacts as the NHS struggles to cope with the volume of Covid patients, and police ramp up enforcement of the brutal restrictions.

But the government has made clear it is ready to get even tougher, with leading figures on SAGE pushing for a three metre social rule distancing rule and threats to axe the loophole allowing people to exercise with a friend from another household.

Other options thought to have been considered for England include restricting click and collect to essential retail, and closing more workplaces.

Nicola Sturgeon said today that she is considering harsher click and collect limits in Scotland, as well as tightening the rules on takeaways. She is expected to announce any changes tomorrow.

Matt Hancock hinted at a crackdown on exercising with one other person at a Downing Street briefing last night, saying the exception was being abused to socialise.

In another ominous sign this morning, Mr Johnson tweeted saying that 'meeting others from outside your household or support bubble puts you and others at risk of serious disease'.

However, in a round of interviews policing minister Kit Malthouse risked muddying the message by saying a 70-mile cycle ride would count as 'staying local' under the lockdown rules.

The comments came after Mr Johnson faced a backlash for cycling with his security detail in the Olympic Park over the weekend - seven miles from Downing Street.

There is also fresh confusion after No10 sources insisted it is not against the rules to sit on park benches, but only for a 'short pause' during exercise.

The scale of the problem confronting the UK was starkly illustrated again last night with another 529 Covid deaths recorded - marking a 30 per cent rise on the 407 reported on the same day last week.

It was the deadliest Monday since April 20 when 570 people lost their lives and it marked the worst week for deaths in the UK since the pandemic began.

An average of 931 people have lost their lives on each of the past seven days, compared to the highest seven-day average of 920 in April's first wave.

But, in a glimmer of hope the UK's soaring case load may be leveling out, 46,169 people tested positive for the virus - down 20 per cent in a week.

The effects of the widespread Tier 4 lockdown that came into force on Boxing Day, and the national lockdown from last week, should be starting to feed into the daily infection figures

Boris's First Lady who saw off Dominic Cummings in No10 power struggleCarrie Symonds and the question of how much power she wields over the Prime Minister has very much been in the spotlight in recent months, after she helped throw his chief advisor out of Downing Street

Dominic Cummings left No10 in November after a bitter and very public civil war over the direction of the Government.

He had wanted Mr Johnson's now former director of communications Lee Cain to be made the PM's chief of staff.

But the appointment was said to have been blocked by Ms Symonds and her supporters, prompting Mr Cain to resign as Mr Cummings also then quit his post.

It was claimed allies of Cummings used a cruel 'Princess Nut Nut' nickname for months.

The slur went viral as the extraordinary power struggle between the PM's fiancee and the Vote Leave cabal emerged in public.

There has long been frustration that Ms Symonds was running a shadow PR operation, while she is said to have been incensed at the aggressive behaviour of Mr Cummings and his cadre.

Ms Symonds, herself a former government special adviser and Conservative Party head of media, emerged triumphant on in the struggle for control with Mr Cummings.

In December Mr Cummings launched a thinly veiled revenge attack on Boris Johnson and Carrie Symonds as he said politicians now focus more on 'gossip-column stories about their dogs' than on 'issues of existential importance'.

The remark will almost certainly be seen in Number 10 as a jab at Mr Johnson, Ms Symonds and Dilyn, with the Jack Russell rescue dog having become a familiar face in photographs since he moved into Downing Street in September 2019.

Both Ms Symonds and Mr Johnson have been repeatedly pictured with Dilyn, with the PM even taking the dog out on the campaign trail ahead of the 2019 general election.

Boris Johnson gathers Cabinet amid fears lockdown could get tighter in DAYS unless Covid numbers turn '' with options including a THREE-metre rule and banning people from different households from exercising togetherBoris Johnson gathered Cabinet today amid fears lockdown could be tightened within days unless coronavirus numbers ease.

The PM has been holding a virtual meeting with his senior team as they consider the next move in the crisis wreaking havoc on the country.

Ministers have been desperately pleading with Britons to limit their contacts as the NHS struggles to cope with the volume of Covid patients, as police ramp up enforcement of the brutal restrictions.

But the government has made clear it is ready to get even tougher, with leading figures on SAGE pushing for a three metre social rule distancing rule and threats to axe the loophole allowing people to exercise with a friend from another household.

Other options thought to have been considered include making all shopping click and collect, and closing more workplaces.

Matt Hancock hinted at a crackdown on exercising with one other person at a Downing Street briefing last night, saying the exception was being abused to socialise.

In another ominous sign this morning, Mr Johnson tweeted saying that 'meeting others from outside your household or support bubble puts you and others at risk of serious disease'.

However, in a round of interviews policing minister Kit Malthouse risked muddying the message by saying a 70-mile cycle ride would count as 'staying local' under the lockdown rules.

The comments came after Mr Johnson faced a backlash for cycling with his security detail in the Olympic Park over the weekend - seven miles from Downing Street.

There is also fresh confusion after No10 sources insisted it is not against the rules to sit on park benches, but only for a 'short pause' during exercise.

The scale of the problem confronting the UK was starkly illustrated again last night with another 529 Covid deaths recorded - marking a 30 per cent rise on the 407 reported on the same day last week.

It was the deadliest Monday since April 20 when 570 people lost their lives and it marked the worst week for deaths in the UK since the pandemic began.

An average of 931 people have lost their lives on each of the past seven days, compared to the highest seven-day average of 920 in April's first wave.

But, in a glimmer of hope the UK's soaring case load may be leveling out, 46,169 people tested positive for the virus - down 20 per cent in a week.

The effects of the widespread Tier 4 lockdown that came into force on Boxing Day, and the national lockdown from last week, should be starting to feed into the daily infection figures.

On another day of chaos for Britons battling the worst crisis for a generation:

Bank of England governor Andrew Bailey warned furlough is masking unemployment and the true rate could be 6.5 per cent not 4.9 per cent; The government is facing more pressure to make the vaccination programme 24-hours and start giving more frontline workers jabs; Seven vaccination hubs came into use, including London's ExCeL and Birmingham's Millennium Point; Derbyshire Police has cancelled £200 fines for two women penalised for driving five miles to go for a walk; Nearly a quarter of care home residents have received their first shot of Covid vaccine, with nearly 2.7million doses now administered across the UK; Hospitals started rationing oxygen as it emerged that one in four coronavirus patients is under 55. Mr Johnson held a virtual meeting with his senior team as they consider the next move in the crisis wreaking havoc on the country The distance was set at two metres in March after experts said coronavirus was up to ten times more transmissible at one metre than at two. Now experts want the public to maintain the distance on public transport, in supermarket lines and while out and about Nearly 2.7million vaccine doses have been administered across the UK, according to government figures from last night In another ominous sign this morning, Mr Johnson tweeted saying that 'meeting others from outside your household or support bubble puts you and others at risk of serious disease' PM is given March deadline by Tory lockdown-sceptics Boris Johnson has been given a March 8 target by Tory lockdown sceptics to start easing coronavirus curbs.

Former chief whip Mark Harper, chairman of the Tory backbench Covid Recovery Group, said restrictions should not remain in place for 'a second longer' once the vaccine has protected priority groups.

Around 15 million people are expected to be vaccinated by mid-February, covering care home residents, the over-70s, clinically extremely vulnerable people and frontline health and care staff.

Those groups accounted for 88% of fatalities in the first wave and the Government is in a race against time to protect them with a first dose of vaccine.

Mr Harper suggested that once they had received their jab '' and it has been given time to become effective '' there should be no excuse for keeping England's national lockdown in place.

More than 2.3 million people have so far received a jab and Mr Harper said achieving the mid-February goal must remain the 'central, overriding focus' for ministers.

He said that 'like the disease, lockdowns and restrictions cause immense harm'.

'So for today's progress to really mean something to the millions of people across the country who are doing the right thing and obeying the law, the Government must urgently set out exactly how today's progress begins to translate into a return to normal life for us all and show a clear exit strategy '' a route back to freedom.'

With a lag of three weeks between the vaccine being administered and offering its full protection, Mr Harper said 'if we hit the crucial February 15 deadline, the four top-risk groups will have immunity by March 8'.

'At that point '' once all the key groups have become immune to Covid '' what possible reason could there be for keeping severe restrictions in place a second longer?

Mr Johnson warned yesterday that 'complacency' among the public could plunge the country into a deeper crisis at what was already a 'very perilous moment'.

The warnings came amid mounting Government concern that the third lockdown may fail to bring the latest spike in coronavirus infections under control.

Chief medical officer Chris Whitty said Britain was 'now at the worst point of this epidemic' and urged people to stop seeing friends and family, even in the limited circumstances still allowed, saying every 'unnecessary' contact risked spreading the virus.

The only assurances so far offered are that support bubbles will remain in place and nurseries can stay open.

Mr Johnson has been given a March 8 target by Tory lockdown sceptics to start easing coronavirus curbs.

Former chief whip Mark Harper, chairman of the Tory backbench Covid Recovery Group, said restrictions should not remain in place for 'a second longer' once the vaccine has protected priority groups.

Around 15 million people are expected to be vaccinated by mid-February, covering care home residents, the over-70s, clinically extremely vulnerable people and frontline health and care staff.

Those groups accounted for 88% of fatalities in the first wave and the Government is in a race against time to protect them with a first dose of vaccine.

Mr Harper suggested that once they had received their jab '' and it has been given time to become effective '' there should be no excuse for keeping England's national lockdown in place.

More than 2.3 million people have so far received a jab and Mr Harper said achieving the mid-February goal must remain the 'central, overriding focus' for ministers.

He said that 'like the disease, lockdowns and restrictions cause immense harm'.

'So for today's progress to really mean something to the millions of people across the country who are doing the right thing and obeying the law, the Government must urgently set out exactly how today's progress begins to translate into a return to normal life for us all and show a clear exit strategy '' a route back to freedom.'

With a lag of three weeks between the vaccine being administered and offering its full protection, Mr Harper said 'if we hit the crucial February 15 deadline, the four top-risk groups will have immunity by March 8'.

'At that point '' once all the key groups have become immune to Covid '' what possible reason could there be for keeping severe restrictions in place a second longer?

Mr Johnson is facing growing pressure to launch round-the-clock vaccinations as ministers 'race against time' to get jabs in arms.

Labour has demanded the Government 'sorts out' a 24/7 operation despite No10 claiming there is no 'clamour' for appointments after 8pm.

Tory MPs are urging ministers to 'look carefully' at whether the hours can be extended while some have said there is 'no excuse why it shouldn't be 24/7'.

Armed police were on duty at Waterloo Station today as the government considers tightening the lockdown rules again The concourse was all-but deserted at Waterloo as the public gets used to the draconian restrictions being in place Pressure mounts for 24-hour vaccinations Boris Johnson is facing growing pressure to launch round-the-clock vaccinations as ministers 'race against time' to get jabs in arms.

Labour has demanded the Government 'sorts out' a 24/7 operation despite No10 claiming there is no 'clamour' for appointments after 8pm.

Tory MPs are urging ministers to 'look carefully' at whether the hours can be extended while some have said there is 'no excuse why it shouldn't be 24/7'.

The PM has promised that around 13million of the most vulnerable Britons will be vaccinated by mid-February.

The aim is for everyone over the age of 50 to be offered a Covid jab by the end of April.

But doubts have been raised about the target with numbers standing at around 2.7million as of yesterday, and there are also calls for frontline workers such as teachers and police officers to be pushed up the priority list.

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick today said her officers should be 'properly recognised' in the prioritisation list for vaccines as she warned her colleagues are 'not immune to the virus'.

The latest ambitious timetable means vaccinating 32million Britons '' six in ten adults '' within 16 weeks. Two million jabs will have to be given every week in the 'greatest logistical challenge of our time'.

A 47-page masterplan published last night said the nation's remaining adults '' another 21million '' would be inoculated by autumn.

The PM has promised that around 13million of the most vulnerable Britons will be vaccinated by mid-February.

The aim is for everyone over the age of 50 to be offered a Covid jab by the end of April.

But doubts have been raised about the target with numbers standing at around 2.7million as of yesterday, and there are also calls for frontline workers such as teachers and police officers to be pushed up the priority list.

Met Police Commissioner Cressida Dick today said her officers should be 'properly recognised' in the prioritisation list for vaccines as she warned her colleagues are 'not immune to the virus'.

The latest ambitious timetable means vaccinating 32million Britons '' six in ten adults '' within 16 weeks. Two million jabs will have to be given every week in the 'greatest logistical challenge of our time'.

A 47-page masterplan published last night said the nation's remaining adults '' another 21million '' would be inoculated by autumn.

The Daily Mail has been told that Leading members of the Sage scientific advisory panel want the one-metre plus rule raised to 'two metres plus'.

In practice this would change the limit to three metres '' nearly 10ft. The drastic proposal emerged as a furious Matt Hancock denounced individuals who flout social distancing rules.

Speaking at a Downing Street press conference the Health Secretary said that he would 'not rule out further action if needed.'

He was backed by Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty, who sits on Sage and said it was time to 'double down' on Covid curbs '' including outdoor contact.

Asked if a three-metre rule would be imposed in England, a Downing Street spokesman said last night: 'There are no current plans to change social distancing rules. However, everything is kept under review.'

Several members of Sage say the lockdown needs to be even tougher than the first one in March last year.

The idea of a Chinese-style ban on residents leaving their homes was raised at one meeting.

Ministers are furious that some people have been using their right to daily exercise simply as an excuse to meet friends for a coffee in the park.

One source said: 'If it means limiting people to a single one-hour walk on their own once a week that is what we must do. We cannot let a few selfish idiots put the whole country in danger.'

It is feared that the failure to observe the restrictions is fuelling the number of deaths and risks hospitals becoming overwhelmed.

Increasing the social distancing rule to three metres is seen as one way of stopping the spread of the new variant of the virus, which can be passed on more easily.

In a round of interviews this morning policing minister Kit Malthouse risked muddying the message by saying a 70-mile cycle ride would count as 'staying local' under the lockdown rules What are the government's rules on taking exercise? You should minimise time spent outside your home, but you can leave your home to exercise.

This should be limited to once per day, and you should not travel outside your local area.

You can exercise in a public outdoor place:

by yourselfwith the people you live withwith your support bubble (if you are legally permitted to form one)in a childcare bubble where providing childcareor, when on your own, with one person from another householdThis includes but is not limited to running, cycling, walking, and swimming.

Personal training can continue one-on-one unless everyone is within the same household or support bubble.

Public outdoor places include:

parks, beaches, countryside accessible to the public, forestspublic gardens (whether or not you pay to enter them)the grounds of a heritage siteplaygroundsOpponents of the move say it would have little impact, cause more confusion and be a logistical nightmare.

Two-metre signs have been painted on pavements across the nation, with similar notices found in tens of thousands of shops, factories, offices and public places.

Changing them all would add to the soaring cost of fighting the pandemic.

Supporters claim the benefit in saving lives and protecting the NHS means the move is worth it. They argue it is a response to the new variant which is thought to be up to be 70 per cent more transmissible.

If it goes ahead it would be the Government's third policy on social distancing.

The distance was set at two metres in March after experts said coronavirus was up to ten times more transmissible at one metre than at two.

But it was reduced to 'one metre plus' in July after the first lockdown '' mainly to make it easier for restaurants and cafes to reopen.

A 'two metre plus' rule would in practice mean staying three metres apart '' nearly 10ft '' unless steps were taken to limit the danger of transmission, such as screens.

Social distancing gaps vary around the world.

In China, Hong Kong and Singapore, which were successful in controlling the pandemic, the gap was one metre.

However, they imposed other, far stricter, rules including curfews. Spain and Canada followed the two-metre rule.

The three other home nations have different versions of the two-metre rule.

In Scotland people are advised to keep two metres apart and in Wales they are told to stay two metres apart unless it is not practical, with young children exempt.

The gap in Northern Ireland came down to one metre but is two again.

Professor Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia said: 'Risk declines the further you are away from someone.

'So three metres will reduce risk somewhat compared to two metres '' but it is difficult to say how much and whether that would make a big difference. I suspect the main issue is people not sticking to the two-metre rule.'

Mr Hancock warned against trying to 'push the boundaries' on exercise, adding: 'If too many people break this rule we are going to have a look at it. Don't say you are exercising if really you are just socialising.'

He said the two-metre rule had to be obeyed, not seen 'as a limit to be challenged'.

Shortly after Mr Hancock's Downing Street press briefing on Monday, the PM released a short video filmed during his visit to the Ashton Gate vaccination centre in Bristol.

Mr Johnson faced a backlash for cycling with his security detail in the Olympic Park over the weekend - seven miles from Downing Street In it, he urged Britons to 'follow the guidance, stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives' as Covid continues to spread rapidly in several parts of the country.

Britons shouldn't 'lose focus on the pandemic' as coronavirus is 'still causing huge, huge problems for our NHS', Mr Johnson added.

Mr Hancock also used the briefing to defend the PM after he was spotted cycling in the Olympic Park seven miles from Downing Street in apparent breach of government advice.

The Health Secretary said it is allowed to cycle that distance from where you live to take exercise, despite also insisting that people must 'stay local'.

But he also warned that rules on two people from different households being able to exercise outdoors together could be torn up if people keep abusing them.

'If too many people keep breaking this rule we are going to have to look at it but I don't want to do that,' Mr Hancock told a No10 briefing yesterday evening.

The PM was seen wearing a hat and a face mask on his bike at the venue seven miles away from Downing Street yesterday afternoon.

A source told the Evening Standard that Mr Johnson was exercising, accompanied by his security detail.

Extraordinarily the premier is said to have 'noted how busy' the park was and remarked on it at a meeting later.

Official Government guidance says exercise should be limited to once a day and 'you should not travel outside your local area'.

Two women were fined £200 each by Derbyshire Police for driving five miles from their home for a walk, while in Whitby officers have slammed people for going sledging.

A witness said: 'He was leisurely cycling with another guy with a beanie hat and chatting while around four security guys, possibly more, cycled behind them.

'When I realised the person looked like Boris I cycled past them to hear his voice and be sure it's him. It was definitely Boris.

'Considering the current situation with Covid I was shocked to see him cycling around looking so care free,' added the woman, who asked not to be named.

Also considering he's advising everyone to stay at home and not leave their area, shouldn't he stay in Westminster and not travel to other boroughs?'

The PM's spokesman was unable to give any information yesterday on why Mr Johnson had gone to Stratford and why it was within the rules.

It is also not clear whether Mr Johnson was driven to the park with his bike, or cycled the whole way there and back.

Lib Dem MP Tim Farron said: 'Government guidance on travelling to exercise is as clear as mud.

'People are travelling hundreds of miles to the Lake District while others are afraid to drive 5 minutes to the local park.

'I've written to the Prime Minister, asking him to set out clear guidance once and for all.'

In a video shared to the PM's official Twitter account yesterday evening - which features footage of Mr Johnson's visit to Bristol on Monday- the PM heaped praise on the Government's vaccine programme.

But he warned Britons that it should not lead to complacency, as the new Covid variant is still spreading rapidly.

Mr Johnson said: 'Hi folks. I am here at this amazing Bristol mass-vaccination centre in a football stadium and it's one of the 50 that we are going to be rolling out by the end of the month to help all the 1,000-plus GP surgeries, the 233 hospital sites, plus the 200 pharmacies.

'And that's, of course, just a start that we're using to dispense the vaccine.

'As I speak to you this morning I think we've done about 2.4 million jabs, 2 million people in the country already who have been vaccinated, and we will be massively ramping that up in the course of the next few weeks as we get up to, we hope, 15 million by the middle of February.

'And that's a very ambitious programme, we're confident we can do it.

'But, as we get the jabs into people, it's incredibly important that we don't lose focus on the pandemic that is still, alas, surging in so many parts of the country, still filling our hospitals with Covid patients, still causing huge, huge problems for our NHS.

'So everybody has got to follow the guidance. Stay at home, protect the NHS and save lives.'

Along with his video, the PM tweeted: 'As we get jabs into arms, we must not lose sight of the state of the pandemic - which is putting huge pressure on our NHS.

'So, please follow the rules and stay home to protect the NHS, and save lives.'

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Wed, 13 Jan 2021 12:38

368 rumbles

Rumble '-- In an interview with a physician, a news reporter spills the beans about the real intentions of COVID-19.

... and disable advertisements! No kidding :)

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:42

James O'Keefe : BREAKING: @PBS Principal Counsel Michael Beller Incites Political Violence In Radical Left-Wing Agenda ''Go to the'... https://t.co/tBI2oAm8VZ

Tue Jan 12 16:00:01 +0000 2021

look how happy ðŸ"¸'ðŸŒ''¨ðŸ'– : @JamesOKeefeIII @disclosetv @PBS He is one person and PBS is a wonderful public asset that has helped educate generations of children.

Tue Jan 12 17:41:39 +0000 2021

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 12:53

NEW YORK (WABC) -- New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is continuing her call for President Donald Trump to be removed from office following Wednesday's attack on the Capitol.

Ocasio-Cortez spoke out on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday morning days after her experience inside the Capitol during the riots.

The Democratic congresswoman said what happened Wednesday was "insurrection against the United States."

Ocasio-Cortez said accountability is required for the healing process to begin.

"If we allow insurrection against the United States with impunity, with no accountability, we are inviting it to happen again, that is how serious it is," she said.

ALSO READ | Trump supporter who died from apparent trampling in US Capitol riots followed QAnon, family saysShe believes the president must be removed from office. She said every minute and every hour the president remains in office is a clear and present danger to the country.

Ocasio-Cortez also said it's important to bar him from running for office ever again and prevent him from pardoning himself from charges he was impeached for.

"We came close to half of the House nearly dying on Wednesday... and if another head of state came in and ordered an attack on the United States Congress, would we say that that should not be prosecuted?" Ocasio-Cortez said. "It is an act of insurrection, it's an act of hostility, and we must have accountability because without it, it will happen again."

Ocasio-Cortez said she believes the House will move forward with impeachment.

However, she said it's not a question of debating which avenue to pursue when it comes to removing Trump from office -- impeachment, 25th Amendment or investigating other avenues through the 14th Amendment -- she believes Congress will take an all-of-the-above approach.

RELATED | Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells Eyewitness News she feared for her life----------

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Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:41

3...2..1.🕶¸ß·ðŸ‡ºðŸ‡²ðŸ•¶¸ : ðŸ--7yr anniversary of famous occult speech by Lagarde about magic of #71/15/14 + 7yrs ... 1/15/21Thread below'... https://t.co/yD0UasalFG

Mon Jan 11 01:50:33 +0000 2021

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 20:00

Frontex : For the first time, the European Union has its own uniformed service '' the European Border and Coast Guard standing'... https://t.co/VyRcVNHX1Z

Mon Jan 11 15:28:46 +0000 2021

Juanillo "Ranigan" : @Frontex La skin the fornite de @TheGrefg

Mon Jan 11 20:00:02 +0000 2021

Marc : @Frontex @morte_oscar flipant

Mon Jan 11 19:59:34 +0000 2021

Ian Bourns : @Frontex Some dissimilarity but it did make me think of Captain Black https://t.co/aqKhVhlZ8X

Mon Jan 11 19:57:34 +0000 2021

Das Perlchen : @Frontex The uniforms of murderers.

Mon Jan 11 19:56:51 +0000 2021

Jay Spears : @Frontex It's sneak PEEK not "peak".

Mon Jan 11 19:56:01 +0000 2021

Wokebubbleburster : @Frontex Oh look, ANOTHER #REMOANER LIE EXPOSED. Glad to see the remain campaign are being proven wrong in every si'... https://t.co/hnEdqKd77l

Mon Jan 11 19:55:49 +0000 2021

carles vidosa : @Frontex https://t.co/bzCf15xiUH

Mon Jan 11 19:55:36 +0000 2021

Charlie Grummit : @Frontex It's just a dangerous fantasy.

Mon Jan 11 19:54:06 +0000 2021

von Hagestolz-Schneetag ðŸ·ðŸ‡ªðŸ‡º : @Frontex 🤮

Mon Jan 11 19:53:43 +0000 2021

CaptainSala : @Frontex By chance designed by Hugo Boss? Theres a tradition with police force breaking human rights, you know.

Mon Jan 11 19:53:41 +0000 2021

Lukas : @Frontex Hopefully not the last uniformed service of the Union.

Mon Jan 11 19:53:33 +0000 2021

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 14:57

Published January 10, 2021

She said if foreign head of state ordered attack on Congress, most people would call for prosecutionRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., on Sunday assailed last week's storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, saying that half of House lawmakers "came close to dying."

Ocasio-Cortez made the comments during an appearance on ABC's "This Week" with host George Stephanopoulos.

Stephanopoulos read a letter by GOP lawmakers to President-elect Joe Biden in which they opposed efforts to impeach President Trump so close to Inauguration Day. The lawmakers said that moving forward with the effort was "unnecessary" and "inflammatory."

Ocasio-Cortez slammed the tone of the letter, calling Wednesday's storming of the U.S. Capitol "insurrection against the United States." She said both Trump and the rioters were complicit.

Ocasio-Cortez said any "healing" '' as the GOP lawmakers alluded to in their letter to Biden '' would require accountability.

"And so, if we allow insurrection against the United States with impunity, with no accountability, we are inviting it to happen again," Ocasio-Cortez said. "We came close to nearly half of the House dying on Wednesday."

A violent group of Trump supporters overpowered police, broke through security lines and windows, and rampaged through the Capitol on Wednesday, forcing lawmakers to scatter as they were finalizing Biden's victory over Trump in the Electoral College.

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Ocasio-Cortez noted that if a foreign head of state ordered an attack on the United States Congress, most people would call for prosecution.

"Would we say that there should be absolutely no response to that? No. It is an act of insurrection. It's an act of hostility. And we must have accountability because, without it, it will happen again," she said.

Her comments came hours before House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Sunday the House will proceed with legislation to impeach Trump as she pushes the vice president and Cabinet to invoke constitutional authority to force him out, warning that Trump is a threat to democracy after the deadly assault on the Capitol.

In a letter to her colleagues, Pelosi said the House will first vote to push Vice President Mike Pence to invoke the powers of the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. After 24 hours, she said, the House would proceed with legislation on impeachment. Trump could become the only U.S. president to be impeached twice.

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"In protecting our Constitution and our Democracy, we will act with urgency, because this President represents an imminent threat to both," Pelosi said, and added: "The horror of the ongoing assault on our democracy perpetrated by this President is intensified and so is the immediate need for action."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 11:13

First published at 08:37 UTC on January 11th, 2021.

Dr David Martin describes what this ' vaccine ' really is . It's not a vaccine . It's a chemical pathogen device. It's a CRDH definition of a device. It comes in a molecular package.

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BigTech just purged the president of the United States and untold numbers of creators and users. We are working around the clock to keep up, but could do with extra help. Consider a $5 donation today. Thank you - BitChute.

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Mon, 11 Jan 2021 10:46

Published Mon, Jan 11 2021 3:21 AM EST

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Over the weekend, Pompeo announced the lifting of all "self-imposed restrictions" in U.S. relations with Taiwan '-- a democratic and self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory.The move could further complicate a tense U.S.-China relationship days before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, said former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.Rudd said Pompeo may be motivated to harden U.S. stance on China now so that he could attack Biden as "having gone soft" on China should it make any policy changes.Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's latest move on Taiwan could upend a major foundation underpinning the U.S.-China relations '-- further complicating a tense bilateral relationship just before President-elect Joe Biden takes office, said former Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

"What Pompeo is doing is laying a whole series of landmines for the incoming Biden administration '... salting the earth in the U.S.-China relationship in general, and laying landmines on Taiwan in particularly," Rudd told CNBC's "Squawk Box Asia" on Monday.

Over the weekend, Pompeo announced the lifting of all "self-imposed restrictions" in U.S. relations with Taiwan '-- a democratic and self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory.

Pompeo said in a statement on Saturday that the U.S. had unilaterally limited contact between its officials and their Taiwanese counterparts for several decades "in an attempt to appease the Communist regime in Beijing." He then declared all those restrictions are "no more."

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks at the U.S. State Department

Win McNamee | Getty Images

The move could mark the end of the "one China policy," said Rudd, who's now president of Asia Society Policy Institute.

The one China policy is the principle in which the U.S. and the international community recognize that there's only one Chinese government '-- under the Communist Party of China in Beijing.

"That has been the mainstay of strategic stability for the last 40 years or so," said the former Australian leader.

"I think we need to understand that we are moving to the end of the 'one China policy.' And what does that mean for markets? What does that mean for the international community? It means a new period of real strategic instability given this is a fundamental item of faith in Beijing," he added.

The communist party has never governed Taiwan, but Beijing considers the island's reunification with the mainland an eventuality and so Taiwan has no right to participate in international diplomacy of its own.

China and Taiwan react to Pompeo's moveChina reportedly slammed the U.S. decision to lift restrictions on Taiwan, while the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked Pompeo on Twitter.

Zhao Lijian, a spokesman from Chinese foreign ministry, said China opposed Pompeo's move and will resolutely fight back attempts to sabotage its interest, reported Reuters.

Meanwhile, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu said Pompeo's removal of U.S. restrictions on contact with Taiwan is a "big thing," the news agency reported.

"Taiwan-U.S. relations have been elevated to a global partnership. The foreign ministry will not let our guard down and hope to continue to boost the development of Taiwan-U.S. ties," Wu reportedly said.

Rudd said Pompeo may be motivated to harden U.S. stance on China now so that he can attack Biden as "having gone soft" on China should the new administration make any policy changes. Some media reports have named Pompeo as a potential 2024 presidential candidate.

Nevertheless, the Biden administration is unlikely to shift away from the "strategic ambiguity" that has long been U.S. foreign policy on Taiwan, said Rudd.

The ambiguity helps maintain "sufficient doubt" that the U.S. would immediately defend Taiwan should the island embrace any "reckless policy" such as a unilateral declaration of independence from China, explained Rudd.

The other dimension of the U.S. stance involves challenging any assumption by Beijing that Washington will not react if the mainland takes any military action on Taiwan, added Rudd.

"That's the strategic ambiguity up until now. I don't see that as changing."

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