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Gates and Soros-backed organization buys U.K. Covid-19 testing company for $41 million
The U.K.-based maker of Covid-19 tests, Mologic, has been bought out by Global Access Health, a new Bill Gates and George Soros-backed consortium.
George Soros’ Open Society Foundation confirmed the deal on Monday in a statement, which says Global Access Health members will invest ‘at least’ $41 million into the project.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is also behind the initiative led by the Soros Economic Development Fund.
Mologic was founded in 2003 and has previously worked with the Gates Foundation. . . .
Wireless Radiation Exposure for Children Should Be ‘Hundreds of Times Lower’ than FCC Limits, Environmental Group Says
A peer-reviewed study by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) recommends stringent health-based exposure standards for both children and adults for radiofrequency radiation emitted from wireless devices. EWG’s children’s guideline is the first of its kind and fills a gap left by federal regulators.
The study, published in the journal Environmental Health, relies on the methodology developed by the Environmental Protection Agency to assess human health risks arising from toxic chemical exposures. EWG scientists have applied the same methods to radiofrequency radiation from wireless devices, including cellphones and tablets.
EWG recommends the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adjust its woefully outdated health standards for wireless radiation, last revised a quarter-century ago, well before wireless devices became ubiquitous, heavily used appliances synonymous with modern life.
The recommendation draws on data from a landmark 2018 study from the National Toxicology Program, or NTP, one of the largest long-term studies on the health effects of radiofrequency radiation exposure.
EWG’s new guidelines, the first developed in the U.S. to focus on children’s health, recommend that children’s exposure overall be 200 to 400 times lower than the whole-body exposure limit set by the FCC in 1996.
The EWG recommended limit for so-called whole-body Specific Absorption Rate, or SAR, for children is 0.2 to 0.4 milliwatts per kilogram, or mW/kg. For adults, EWG recommends a whole-body SAR limit of 2 to 4 mW/kg, which is 20 to 40 times lower than the federal limit.
The FCC has not set a separate standard for children. Its standards for radiofrequency radiation set a maximum SAR of 0.08 watts per kilogram, or W/kg, for whole-body exposure and an SAR for localized spatial peak — the highest exposure level for a specific part of the body, such as the brain — of 1.6 W/kg for the general population.
The NTP studies examined the health effects of 2G and 3G wireless radiation and found there is “clear evidence” of a link between exposure to radiofrequency radiation and heart tumors in laboratory animals. Similar results were reported by a team of Italian scientists from the Ramazzini Institute.
Cellphone radiation was classified a “possible carcinogen” in 2011 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, a conclusion based on human epidemiological studies that found an increased risk of glioma, a malignant brain cancer, associated with cellphone use.
EWG scientists say that more research is needed on the health impacts of the latest generation of communication technologies, such as 5G. In the meantime, EWG’s recommendation is for strict, lower exposure limits for all radiofrequency sources, especially for children. . . .
Harvey Weinstein pleads not guilty to sexual assault charges in LA court
Harvey Weinstein pleaded not guilty to a slew of sex-crime charges Wednesday during his first appearance in court in California, where he will stand trial on the new round of allegations.
The 69-year-old convicted rapist was rolled into a Los Angeles courtroom in a wheelchair, dressed in a brown jail jumpsuit and face mask, for his arraignment on an indictment charging him with 11 sexual assault counts, including four counts of rape.
Defense attorney Mark Werksman entered the plea, and Weinstein spoke only to say “thank you” to Judge Sergio Tapia, who wished him good luck as the hearing ended.
The disgraced producer is already serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault following his conviction in Manhattan in February 2020.
On Tuesday, he was whisked away from the Wende Correctional Facility in upstate New York and booked into a downtown LA jail — ending a lengthy fight to stop his extradition to the Golden State. . . .
Eliminating virus risk at Tokyo Olympics is impossible, WHO leader says
How infections are handled is what matters most, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting.
TOKYO — The Tokyo Olympics should not be judged by the tally of COVID-19 cases that arise because eliminating risk is impossible, the head of the World Health Organization told sports officials Wednesday as events began in Japan.
How infections are handled is what matters most, WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a speech to an International Olympic Committee meeting.
“The mark of success is making sure that any cases are identified, isolated, traced and cared for as quickly as possible and onward transmission is interrupted,” he said.
The number of Games-linked COVID-19 cases in Japan this month was 79 on Wednesday, with more international athletes testing positive at home and unable to travel.
“The mark of success in the coming fortnight is not zero cases,” Tedros said, noting the athletes who already tested positive in Japan, including at the athletes village in Tokyo Bay, where most of the 11,000 competitors will stay.
Teammates classed as close contacts of infected athletes can continue training and preparing for events under a regime of isolation and extra monitoring.
Health experts in Japan have warned of the Olympics becoming a “super-spreader” event bringing tens of thousands of athletes, officials and workers during a local state of emergency.
“There is no zero risk in life,” said Tedros, who began his keynote speech minutes after the first softball game began in Fukushima, and added Japan was “giving courage to the whole world.”
The WHO leader also had a more critical message and a challenge for leaders of richer countries about sharing vaccines more fairly in the world.
“The pandemic is a test and the world is failing,” Tedros said, predicting more than 100,000 deaths from COVID-19 worldwide before the Olympic flame goes out in Tokyo on Aug. 8.
It was a “horrifying injustice,” he said, that 75% of the vaccine shots delivered globally so far were in only 10 countries.
Tedros warned anyone who believed the pandemic was over because it was under control in their part of the world lived in “a fool’s paradise.”
The world needs to produce 11 billion doses next year and the WHO wanted governments to help reach a target of vaccinating 70% of people in every country by the middle of next year.
“The pandemic will end when the world chooses to end it,” Tedros said. “It is in our hands.” . . . .
Drug Distributors and J.& J. Announce $26 Billion Deal to End Opioids Lawsuits
After nearly two years of wrangling, the country’s three major drug distributors and a pharmaceutical giant have reached a $26 billion deal with states that would release some of the biggest companies in the industry from all legal liability in the opioid epidemic, a decades-long public health crisis that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
The agreement, announced Wednesday afternoon by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general, lays the framework for billions of dollars to begin flowing into communities across the country for addiction treatment, prevention services and other steep expenses from the epidemic.
If the agreement is finalized, thousands of local governments as well as states would drop lawsuits against the companies and also pledge not to bring any future action.
The deal comes as the addiction crisis is worsening. Overdose deaths from opioids hit a record high in 2020, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported earlier this month, a rise driven partly by the isolation and shutdown of services during the coronavirus pandemic. In all, more than 500,000 have died from overdoses to prescription and illegal street opioids since 1999, according to federal data.
“The urgency of the problem continues,” said Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III of Tennessee at the news conference announcing the deal. “It’s just relentless.” Tennessee, whose own spike in opioid deaths was particularly sharp in 2020, could receive more than $500 million if the agreement is finalized.
The four companies that would be bound by the settlement — Johnson & Johnson and the drug distributors Cardinal Health, AmerisourceBergen and McKesson — are widely seen as having some of the deepest pockets among the corporate opioid defendants and this agreement was eagerly anticipated as a major pillar in the national litigation.
Bezos says he’s creating a space industry with Elon Musk and Richard Branson
‘It’s NOT a competition’: Jeff Bezos says he’s not racing Branson and Musk to space and they’re all working to create a space ‘industry’ with plans for internet satellites, tourist flights and moving pollution away from Earth
- Bezos told Gayle King on Tuesday he is not competing against SpaceX and Virgin Galactic
- He said there was room in space for all of them and that it would become an ‘industry’
- Bezos wants to create reusable, operable capsules and rockets that will allow industries to be moved to space
- He says it’ll save the planet by protecting its fragile environment from pollution
- Virgin boss Richard Branson wants to establish space tourism with flights to the edge of earth’s atmosphere
- Elon Musk wants to colonize Mars and set up broadband internet satellites
- Branson was the first of the three to go to space on his VSS Unity earlier this year
- Musk hasn’t yet made it but SpaceX has sent two teams of astronauts up
EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans Demand Answers From Biden Over Work With Facebook To Flag ‘Disinformation’
Republican Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs wrote a Wednesday letter to President Joe Biden demanding answers from the White House regarding their work with Facebook to flag posts deemed disinformation.
Biggs was joined by twelve other House Republicans, who signed the letter. In it, they mention the White House’s “tyrannical decision” to monitor and flag Facebook posts of U.S. citizens. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced Thursday that the White House is working with Facebook to flag disinformation on vaccines and that it is also asking Facebook to share data on the reach and engagement of posts that have been deemed disinformation.
“We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,” Psaki said in the briefing.
The lawmakers called the news “abhorrent to all freedom- loving Americans.” Adding, that it “is antithetical to America’s founding and is more in line with the authoritarian regimes in Russia, China, and Cuba. You must immediately stop these actions and fire all federal employees who worked with Facebook to implement this policy.”
In the letter, they ask Biden a list of questions and ask for a response by August 1. . . .
GOP leader rips Pelosi for rejecting Banks, Jordan on Jan 6 panel, threatens boycott
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has effectively voted U.S. Reps. Jim Banks and Jim Jordan off the island in what Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is condemning as an “abuse of power.”
The two congressmen were set to serve on the so-called bipartisan select committee to investigate the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, but apparently they were too pro-Trump and too resistant to hyperbole, if not propaganda, for Pelosi’s liking, who has the final say.
“With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee. The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision,” Pelosi announced today.
Pelosi is evidently taking exception to the fact that both congressmen objected to the certification of the Election 2020 presidential outcome.
In her announcement, the speaker also claimed, “The violent domestic attack on Congress on January 6th was the worst assault on the Capitol since the War of 1812 and the worst domestic assault on American Democracy since the Civil War.” . . .
Biden Homeland Security Announces Travel Restrictions for Americans at Border Due to COVID Variant But Southern Border Will Remain Open to Illegals
At least one million illegals and fake refugees flooded across the US southern border this year. Another million is expected by the end of the year.
The Biden Department of Homeland Security announced on Wednesday that they will be cracking down on Americans and limiting non-essential travel across the border due to the very dangerous Delta COVID variant.
DHS is in constant contact with Canadian and Mexican counterparts to identify the conditions under which restrictions may be eased safely and sustainably.
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 21, 2021
This is at the same time tens of thousands of illegal migrants and fake refugees are flooding across our border every week.
That’s OK.
For something calling itself Homeland Security they sure have no idea of the lack of security going on at our homelands Southern border. pic.twitter.com/2V1uAuaJtE
— Kevin Dalton (@NextLAMayor) July 21, 2021
The post Biden Homeland Security Announces Travel Restrictions for Americans at Border Due to COVID Variant But Southern Border Will Remain Open to Illegals appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
Canada: Modern but No Longer Very Democratic or Western
I lived in two developing African countries for 16 years: Kenya and Tanzania. Despite their countries having been wracked by tribalism, corrupting Marxist ideologies, and violence, when you get to know East Africans one on one and in small groups, you will find them looking for the joy of life, deeply appreciative of what they have, funny, down to earth, tolerant of strangers, yet loyal to family and clan and desirous of development.
What do they mean by development? They mean a “country that functions,” a modern country with proper roads, clean water, dependable electricity, and border security, where financial corruption is minimal and nepotism disappears among a growing middle class that slowly takes over representative government from the tribal oligarchs. They would tell me, “A country just like yours—Canada!”
Is Canada that kind of country anymore? I am afraid not. The COVID-19 pandemic has allowed municipal, provincial, and national bureaucrats, both elected and selected, to grab enormous power, all in the name of the “common good.” The various draconian and near endless lockdowns have taken away basic rights of assembly and freedom of movement that go back to the Magna Carta. The lockdowns have beggared the working classes and have contributed to rising unemployment.
The “one size fits all” of the closure of schools has ignored the growing scientific evidence from around the world that kids from 1 to 12 are at a lower risk from COVID-19 than is the adult population. The near ongoing public “non-discussion” of the Swedish health model for handling the pandemic is also worth noting. . . .