A clinic in Ireland has been ordered to pay a patient over $3,000 after it was found to have discriminated against him due to him being unable to wear a mask.

Ireland's Workplace Relations Commission (WRC) has found in favour of a patient in the case of alleged discrimination, during which an unnamed clinic refused to provide a procedure to an individual over his inability to wear a mask.

The incident is said to have occurred during a period of so-called 'Level 3' lockdown in Ireland, during which there remained in place significant restrictions on religious services, such as Sunday masses, weddings, and funerals.

On July 5th, Jouke, a 16-year-old farmer's son from the Dutch village of Akkrum, and his 17-year-old brother Sytse joined a group of farmers to protest at a distribution center near the Dutch city of Heerenveen. Around 10 PM they decided to go to McDonald's and then drive home in their tractors.

As Jouke drove around a police barricade near highway A32 in Heerenveen, following other tractors who had done the same, his tractor was shot at by the police.

According to the police, "tractor drivers tried to run into officers and service vehicles." As a 'threatening situation' arose, the police fired warning shots and also shot at a tractor - it was Jouke's. Soon after, his tractor was seized and he was arrested. A picture shows a bullet hole in the frame of his vehicle, near the cabin.

Mother of the two boys, Tjitske, explains that the brothers encountered a police barrier at the start of highway A32 in Heerenveen and that Jouke did not drive towards the officers. "He wanted to drive around it, over the slope. I don't understand why they pulled the trigger. I really don't. And if you decide to shoot, why not aim at the tires? The bullet hole is near the cabin. He could have died."

Footage on social media show a cop shooting at a tractor with trailer that drives over the slope and then drives away. The vehicle is not seen driving towards police officers.

Meanwhile, Jouke's family is shocked by the events. "My son has just graduated from agricultural livestock farming. We are livestock farmers ourselves, we have 120 cows, and that is what Jouke wants to do. But we are in an area where we have been told to reduce our nitrogen emissions by up to 87 percent. Can the business even continue with these measures? It's because of these questions that the boys are protesting."

A day later, Jouke was released and according to the Public Prosecution Service (OM) is no longer suspected of attempted manslaughter due to 'insufficient leads'. The OM said he's still a suspect, but they're not revealing on what grounds. The family's lawyer suspects that, if anything, he'll get a note of traffic violation. A couple of hours after his release, Jouke thanked many for their support and kind messages in a message posted on one of the farmer protest groups on social media. In addition, he said:

I'm lucky I'm still alive. I was also very shocked by it all myself. [...] I was driving very slowly and carefully and suddenly I hear a BANG in my right ear. My ears start ringing. In a panic I quickly drove away before a second shot was fired. I thought it was a rubber bullet, but I was shocked once I saw the bullet hole in my tractor. It's really incomprehensible. A lot of things were going through my head. I would've been finished if I drove a bit faster or a bit slower, then I wouldn't have been able to tell you all this. I still can't figure out why the police were shooting, the footage also clearly shows that I'm not doing anything wrong. [...] It was shock after shock, but thankfully I was freed today.

On whether on not the family will sue the police, the lawyer said that 'it's a personal decision of the family', but that he can imagine they'll file a report.

China has fined ride-hailing giant Didi Global 8.026 billion yuan ($1.2 billion) following a year-long probe into the company's data-collecting practices, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) announced on Thursday.

According to the CAC statement published on its official website, the regulator concluded that Didi had violated Chinese laws governing network security, data security, and personal information protection by illegally collecting information on the users of its ride-hailing app over a seven-year period starting in June 2015. It was also concluded that the company's data-processing activities had jeopardized national security.

Syrian media say five Assad regime soldiers have been killed and others wounded in the latest Israeli airstrikes on positions near Damascus.

The reports said four strikes, just after midnight on Friday, targeted sites of the regime and pro-Iranian militias and a temporary storage warehouse belonging to Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

One Syrian journalist reported that the strike on the Guards complex caused casualties among fighters of Lebanon's Hezbollah. He said "large numbers" of wounded were taken to the nearby Imam Sadr Hospital.

Author and mathematician Dr. James Lindsay was locked out of Twitter on Thursday for responding to a Media Matters journalist's tweet with the words, "ok groomer."

New Discourses, an apolitical educational site that Lindsay contributes to, announced that Twitter has locked Lindsay's account for 12-hours after the author violated its rules against "hateful conduct."

"Hi all, @ConceptualJames has been locked out of his Twitter account. Stay tuned...," New Discourses said on Twitter Thursday night.

Covid death rates have reached pandemic highs in New Zealand as the country battles another havoc-inducing Omicron wave.

Weekly virus fatalities hit 151 in the seven days ending July 16, compared to 115 in the worst week of the previous flare-up in March, according to Health Ministry data. It means the country's current mortality rate is twice as high as the UK's and four times higher than the US.

In the latest 24 hours, all 26 Covid deaths occurred among over-60s — the group known to be most vulnerable to the virus.

I've been looking again at Covid's origins and the start of the pandemic. Last time I wrote on it I argued that Italy brought in China-style lockdowns on March 8th and 10th 2020 mainly as a result of panic owing to the leap in the death rate, with it being clear from the hospital situation there were many more deaths to come. I still believe that that was the immediate trigger for imposing lockdowns at the time. However, I now recognise that that is far from the full story. What it leaves out is the backdrop of who was pushing for lockdowns throughout the preceding two months, and why.

Two key pieces of data have emerged in the last few months that help to bring the picture into clearer focus. The first is that with the arrival of Omicron the Chinese have continued fanatically to pursue lockdowns, crippling their economy as they do it. To my mind, this is convincing evidence that the Chinese are sincere about their belief in the radical new disease management strategy they inaugurated on January 23rd 2020 in Wuhan. I initially (in 2020) thought it may be an elaborate ruse to convince the world to do something monumentally and pointlessly self-destructive. But it appears they really do think lockdowns are highly effective and the right way to fight a disease like COVID-19. I'm aware some suggest it could just be a cunning strategy to strengthen the grip of the ruling party on the population, but all the evidence indicates to me that they actually are trying to fight the disease in this way.

If this is accepted then one of the key pieces of the puzzle snaps into place: the global Covid narrative has, both behind closed doors and in front of them, been driven in part by the Chinese Government's commitment to its extreme suppression strategy and its desire for other countries to adopt it as well. It's been suggested this derives from a sense of national pride and seeking vindication of their efforts and ideas, and is part of a wider aim of achieving global Chinese cultural supremacy, which sounds plausible to me.

You walk into a shopping centre to buy some groceries. Without your knowledge, an electronic scan of your face is taken by in-store surveillance cameras and stored in an online database. Each time you return to that store, your "faceprint" is compared with those of people wanted for shoplifting or violence.

This might sound like science fiction but it's the reality for many of us. By failing to take our digital privacy seriously - as former human rights commissioner Ed Santow has warned - Australia is "sleepwalking" its way into mass surveillance.

Privacy and the digital environment

Of course, companies have been collecting personal information for decades. If you've ever signed up to a loyalty program like FlyBuys then you've performed what marketing agencies call a "value exchange". In return for benefits from the company (like discounted prices or special offers), you've handed over details of who you are, what you buy, and how often you buy it.

Consumer data is big business. In 2019, a report from digital marketers WebFX showed that data from around 1,400 loyalty programs was routinely being traded across the globe as part of an industry worth around US$200 billion. That same year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's review of loyalty schemes revealed how many of these loyalty schemes lacked data transparency and even discriminated against vulnerable customers.

It all started with the complications at the airports. With the increased lack of personnel due to the pandemic, the airports became a real nightmare. Cancelled or delayed flights were common.

Then the passport offices got out of control, causing Canadian citizens to lose many travel opportunities. Now, it is the ArriveCAN application that is mandatory to enter Canada, regardless of citizenship. The application sometimes does not work, creating delays and flight cancellations. A hefty fine of $5,750 is given to people who refuse to comply with the application.


You've probably heard horror stories of Canadians trying to get back into the country, only to have a quarantine imposed on them due to difficulties with the application. Tickets of $5000 and more are given for not complying with border requirements, even for travellers who are quadruple vaccinated!

David Freiheit, also known as Viva Frei, speaks out about the forced quarantine on his 12-year-old daughter, as well as problems related to the new electronic pass imposed on Canadians as well as tourists.