© picture-alliance/dpa/BelTA/N. PetrovBelarus President Alexandr Lukashenko
One day at the beginning of April this year I had an awakening. It dawned on me that Russia had been leaned upon to change its policy regarding COVID-19. By that time the virus had spread through the UK like wildfire and was reaching its peak whereas in Russia there had been few infections and very few deaths.
It disturbed me that Russia Today (RT), a favoured TV channel, had changed course. It had always been a safe harbour in which to dock alternative viewpoints and seek solace from the lies and dogma of our own major news broadcasters. With the exception of events of 9/11 Russia Today seemed to offer a refreshing and often incisively critical insight into world affairs, throwing new light on the Skripal affair and the alleged chemical attacks in Syria, among other worthy reporting.
When the viral spread of SARS-COV-2 hit the west, forcing lockdowns and facial masks,
RT was praising Russia's efforts in controlling the spread and keeping deaths to a minimum. By all measures it looked like Russia had bucked the trend and everything was under control.
Suddenly all that changed. News readers, regular anchors and reporters were pushing a totally different message. In essence the coronavirus rhetoric had gone east. Accompanying footage suddenly contained repetitive images of people wearing masks and RT's UK viewers were being advised to follow the guidelines on lockdown for our own safety and the safety of others.
I might just as well have been watching the BBC.
Comment: It did appear that Russia changed Covid horses in mid-stream and questions arose regarding its abrupt turn. With its a-typical response to Covid-19 indoctrination and protocols, Belarus increased our understanding of the 'pandemic' along with the nature and agenda of the forces behind it.
See also:
Sam Jacobs
Ammo.comMon, 10 Aug 2020 03:29 UTC
The NJ National Guard, with bayonets fixed on guns sent to quell riots in Newark
The
Book of Ecclesiastes says that there is nothing new under the sun. And while many have spoken of the "unprecedented" nature of the rioting in the early summer of 2020, it is actually quite precedented.
The
Long, Hot Summer of 1967 was the peak of urban unrest and rioting in the United States in the lead up to the 1968 election. While there are certainly a number of key differences, there are also a number of striking parallels that make the topic worthy of discussion and examination.
The long-term impact of the urban unrest of the summer of 2020 is unclear, but the long-term impact of the Long, Hot Summer of 1967 and related urban rioting was a victory for
Richard Nixon in 1968, and a landslide re-election in 1972. One must resist the temptation to make mechanistic comparisons between the two, and we will refrain from doing so here. But the reader is encouraged to look for connections between these events and more recent ones.
Aleksandr Lukashenko
Huge foreign loans are given to sovereign nations by the World Bank, IMF and the likes. But the conditions that come attached to these loans are seldom told by governments to their citizens. A recent case in Belarus has exposed the conditions laid by these agencies for loans being provided for COVID-19. The President of
Belarus has exposed that the World Bank coronavirus aid comes with conditions for imposing extreme lockdown measures, to model their coronavirus response on that of Italy and even changes in the economic policies which he refused as being "unacceptable".
Additional conditions which do not apply to the financial part are unacceptable for Belarus, Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko said when speaking about external lending during a meeting to discuss support measures for the real economic sector on the part of the banking system, reported Belarusian Telegraph Agency, BelTA.
OK, I want to preface this article by stating that it is entirely anecdotal and based on my experience working as a doctor in the emergency room of one of the big hospitals in Stockholm, Sweden, and of living as a citizen in Sweden. As many people know, Sweden is perhaps the country that has taken the most relaxed attitude of any towards the covid pandemic.
Unlike other countries, Sweden never went in to complete lockdown. Non-essential businesses have remained open, people have continued to go to cafés and restaurants, children have remained in school, and very few people have bothered with face masks in public.Covid hit Stockholm like a storm in mid-March. One day I was seeing people with appendicitis and kidney stones, the usual things you see in the emergency room. The next day all those patients were gone and the only thing coming in to the hospital was covid. Practically everyone who was tested had covid, regardless of what the presenting symptom was.
People came in with a nose bleed and they had covid. They came in with stomach pain and they had covid.
© TwitterExplosion in Beirut's port, August 4, 2020
Hezbollah apparently planned to use the ammonium nitrate stockpile that caused a massive blast at Beirut's port this week
against Israel in a "Third Lebanon War," according to an unsourced assessment publicized on Israel's Channel 13 Friday night.The report was broadcast hours after Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah,
gave a speech "categorically" denying that his group had stored any weapons or explosives at Beirut's port, following the massive explosion there Tuesday that has claimed over 157 lives and wounded thousands. He said:
"I would like to absolutely, categorically rule out anything belonging to us at the port. No weapons, no missiles, or bombs or rifles or even a bullet or ammonium nitrate. No cache, no nothing. Not now, not ever."
Israel has not formally alleged that Hezbollah was connected to the Tuesday blast.
Comment: IF this was an Israeli operation, then you really have to hand it to them; they have quite possibly won the 'Third Lebanon War' in one (vicious) strike.
But, maybe that's ascribing too much cunning to them. Maybe they're just cleverly taking advantage of a scenario ('kick Hezbollah while they're down') they wish to overlay on an otherwise tragic accident.
See also:
© satimageAftermath in Beirut
The narrative that the Beirut explosion was an exclusive consequence of negligence and corruption by the current Lebanese government is now set in stone,
at least in the Atlanticist sphere. And yet, digging deeper,
we find that negligence and corruption may have been fully exploited, via sabotage, to engineer it.Lebanon is prime John Le Carré territory. A multinational den of spies of all shades - House of Saud agents, Zionist operatives, "moderate rebel" weaponizers, Hezbollah intellectuals, debauched Arab "royalty," self-glorified smugglers - in a context of
full spectrum economic disaster afflicting a member of the Axis of Resistance, a perennial target of Israel alongside Syria and Iran.
As if this were not volcanic enough, into the tragedy stepped President Trump to muddy the - already contaminated - Eastern Mediterranean waters.
Briefed by "our great generals," Trump on Tuesday said: "According to them - they would know better than I would - but they seem to think it was an attack." Trump added, "it was a bomb of some kind."
Comment: Who benefits? As they say...follow the money, match the fingerprints, sit back and watch.
Darryl Coote
UPIFri, 07 Aug 2020 16:01 UTC
© Ahmad Terro/UPIResidents inspect the damage of a massive explosion in Beirut, Lebanon, on Wednesday August 5, 2020
Lebanese security forces and protesters clashed in Beirut as demonstrators took to the streets in anger as the death toll from Tuesday's devastating explosion continued to climb.
Officials said the death toll from the blast that damaged several city blocks in downtown Beirut has climbed to at least 157 but it is expected to further rise as search-and-rescue operations continue,
Al Jazeera reported.
The blast near the Beirut port was the equivalent of a 3.3-magnitude earthquake that razed buildings and injured more than 5,000. Officials believe its cause was nearly 3,000 tons of ammonium nitrate stored at a nearby warehouse.
Protesters who blame the explosion on government negligence demonstrated near parliament Thursday night and clashed with security forces who attempted to disperse them with tear gas,
the BBC reported.
Local law enforcement
has arrested 16 people in connection to their investigation into the explosion.
Comment: In the mean time, the number of those killed in Tuesday's huge blast in the port of Beirut has
risen to 158 and over 6,000 have been injured, local media said Saturday, citing the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The police action was taken response to protesters trying to
break into the Parliament Building.
Protesters are calling for the
resignation of the entire Lebanese government
Update 08/08/2020: Clashes between police and protesters in Beirut has
claimed one life, with 240 injured. One government building was set fire amid the chaos, while the Foreign Ministry and Water and Energy Ministry offices were
occupied by protesters.
A local paper reported that
"a smash and burn operation" was underway at the office of the country's Banking Association.
Protesters also built gallows and used nooses
to hang the cardboard cutouts of the country's top political figures. Among others, their 'victims' were Lebanese PM Hassan Diab, President Michel Aoun, and the leader of the country's influential political and military movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
The military was
called out to attempt to restore order in the capital.
According to Lebanese Red Cross
figures, over 230 protesters have been injured, with 55 transferred to hospital. At least one police officer has been killed and multiple others have also been injured in the unrest.
UPDATE 09/08/2020: The protests have
continued into early Sunday morning. A total of 490 people have been injured, and one law enforcement officer died in the unrest.
© BuzzFeed
When nurse Meleney Gallagher was told to line up with her colleagues on the renal ward at Sunderland Royal Hospital, for her swine flu vaccination, she had no idea the injection she was about to have had not gone through the usual testing process.
It had been rushed into circulation after the swine flu virus had swept across the globe in 2009, prompting fears thousands of people could die. From the moment the needle broke Gallagher's skin, her life would never be the same.
"I remember vividly we were all lined up in the corridor and we were told we had to have it. It wasn't a choice," she claimed. "I was pressured into it. We were given no information."
The date was 23 November 2009 and Gallagher was one of thousands of NHS staff vaccinated with Pandemrix, a vaccine made by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
BBCFri, 07 Aug 2020 11:57 UTC
Dr Scally is from the govt. He sez: 'wear a muzzle'
The Welsh Government should "think again" about making face masks compulsory in shops,
a member of the Independent Sage group has said.
Dr Gabriel Scally, a visiting professor of public health, said
wearing a face mask "acts as a reminder that these aren't normal times"."Each individual action adds together," he told BBC Wales.
The Welsh Government has
advised the use of face masks where social distancing is difficult.
On Thursday, Labour leader Keir Starmer
failed to back the Welsh Government's stance on face masks in shops in an interview with BBC Wales, saying it was "for each government to decide".
Comment: This doctor's bio
reads:
Dr Scally is currently visiting Professor of Public Health at both the University of the West of England (UWE) and the University of Bristol. His most recent academic role was as Director the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Healthy Urban Environments at the UWE.
Melbourne, that glorious city in the state of Victoria in Australia, granted me some of the best travel days of my life during two separate trips each lasting a full week.
A happy, civilized, highly educated people are here living amidst modern architecture, inspiring bridges, and natural beauty, a place where even the police are kind, and when you ask them for directions they reply with a smile, and when you say thank you, they say "No worries."
Now there are big worries in Melbourne.
Comment: It did appear that Russia changed Covid horses in mid-stream and questions arose regarding its abrupt turn. With its a-typical response to Covid-19 indoctrination and protocols, Belarus increased our understanding of the 'pandemic' along with the nature and agenda of the forces behind it.
See also: