"More than half of Australia's 25 million people were under lockdown on Tuesday after a third state adopted movement curbs to rein in the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus.Once upon a time, I used to recommend Australia as a potential relocation destination.
"Australia's infections and deaths are well below other developed nations, but its use of lockdowns, prompted by a sluggish vaccination campaign, is putting pressure on the national government, with polls at their lowest in a year and just months before elections are due to be held."
A bipartisan group of senators unveiled legislation Tuesday to give Congress a more active role in approving arms sales, authorizing the use of military force and declaring national emergencies, in an across-the-board effort to claw back national security power from the executive branch. The bill aims, for the first time, to define what type of "hostilities" require a president to seek congressional approval before committing military resources; establish expiration dates for national emergencies and military authorizations; and automatically curtail funding for any operation a president continues without explicit congressional support....
The comprehensive measure imposes more stringent restrictions than current law does, and comes as Washington grapples with whether and how to repeal long-running authorizations for use of military force, or AUMFs, including those passed nearly two decades ago to greenlight U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan..... It would define "hostilities" as any operation involving the use of force, remotely or directly — superseding the unofficial custom of administrations interpreting the law as applying only when there are combat troops on the ground. It also would shorten the time that presidents have to engage in those hostilities from 60 to 20 days and automatically terminate funding for an operation if a president fails to secure congressional support for the venture by that deadline....
"We've increased disinformation research and tracking within the Surgeon General's office. We're flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. We're working with doctors and medical professionals to connect ... medical experts ... who are popular with their audiences with accurate information and boost trusted content. So we're helping get trusted content out there."In other words, if respected epidemiologists and health professionals from Harvard Medical School, the University of Oxford, and Stanford University, such as Dr. Martin Kulldorff, Dr. Sunetra Gupta, and Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, respectively, disagree with the so-called White House-approved "experts" as to whether wearing masks provides any significant safety benefits to children (it doesn't) or whether there is a medical imperative for healthy adolescents to be vaccinated (there isn't), then that could be grounds for them to be deplatformed or banned from sharing content on social media channels.
Ben & Jerry's Independent Board of Directors wanted to boycott Israel in its entirety, but was stopped from doing so by the ice-cream maker's CEO and the British-based parent company Unilever.
"The statement released by Ben & Jerry's regarding its operation in Israel and the Occupied Palestine Territory does not reflect the position of the Independent Board nor was it approved by the Independent Board," read a statement by Ben & Jerry's Independent Board of Directors.
Unilever has clarified that it plans to continue sales to areas of Israel within the pre-1967 lines, but would do so with a different local company.
Avi Zinger, owner of the Israeli Ben & Jerry's franchise, who always sold his ice cream on both sides of the Green Line, has for years resisted pressure by the parent company to boycott West Bank settlements.
But he ultimately has no control over the decision by Unilever, which has owned the global ice cream company since 2000.
Zinger told The Jerusalem Post he hopes the government of Israel and a persistent public campaign would sway Unilever to change its mind.
The Israeli online platform Act.IL, which was developed in June 2017 to recruit and organise a troll army of thousands of people to insert themselves in digital discussions regarding Israel-Palestine, has directed its users to wade in on the decision.And finally:
The app urged trolls to comment under relevant Facebook and Twitter posts from various news organisations, including the Daily Mail and the New York Times, criticising Ben & Jerry's.
"Comment on these posts stating that boycotting does nothing to solve the conflict, and like all pro-Israel comments you can," one alert stated, as documented by @AntiBDSApp, a Twitter account that monitors Act.IL's activities.
Act.IL was launched in partnership with the Israeli Ministry of Strategic Affairs, whose minister has referred to it as an "iron dome of truth". It has received both funding and guidance from the Israeli state.
The app has been described as "astroturfing": organised and deceptive government-backed public relations activity that falsely creates the impression of a spontaneous grassroots campaign.
Michael Bueckert, a researcher and vice president of Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, who runs the @AntiBDSApp account, believes the campaign will not be effective.
Comment: The video mentioned has been viewed 27 million times:
See also:
- Tony Blair's anti-freedom project continues, but 'War on Terror' is replaced by 'War on Covid'
- Covid-19 reverse psychology: Bojo plays the fool but the UK government had advertising deals for lockdown weeks before announcement
- Failed London Garden Bridge project cost £53m - overseen by London Mayor Boris Johnson then Sadiq Khan
- 'Carrie's coup': UK PM's fiancée tried to damage career of two top female civil servants, one refused excessive redecoration bill for No.10
And check out SOTT radio's: Behind the Headlines: Perfidious Albion: If Russia is a Rogue State, What is the UK?