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Passport

U.K. PM Boris Johnson says he wants a deal with G7 on vaccine passports


Yahoo News
Sun, 30 May 2021 11:00 UTC
Johnson
© Toby Melville/ReutersBritain's PM Boris Johnson
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he is looking to the G7 to come to an agreement on implementing vaccine passports and to start discussions on a global pandemic preparedness treaty at next month's meeting in the United Kingdom. Johnson told CBC News chief political correspondent Rosemary Barton in an exclusive Canadian interview airing today:
"We need to have agreements on issues such as vaccine passports, COVID status certification and the rest. There has to be some sort of agreement then, at the G7 level, to start, on how travel and passports are going to work going forward."
While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that it's too early to discuss reopening the country to international travel, a statement put out by the Prime Minister's Office after Thursday's virtual meeting between the premiers and Trudeau said that discussions on the subject have begun:
"A broad consensus emerged out of the discussion between first ministers on collaborative efforts to develop a proof of vaccine credential to enable international travel based on sound principles, including respect for provincial and territorial jurisdiction and privacy of health information."
The provinces need to find a way to work with the federal government on the issue because immunization records are held at the provincial level, while international borders and the issuing of passports fall under federal jurisdiction.

Comment: The devil has not been taken out of the details when it comes to quickly-made vaccines and the global arm-twist to conform to demand.

Greece has taken a lead in rolling out the passport:
The Greek government has unveiled the first EU Covid passport, described by the country's prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as a "fast lane to facilitate travel", after a successful dry run of the technology.

At a launch in Athens, Mitsotakis, who had led calls for a way to open up Europe in time for the summer tourism season, said the system would be up and running in Greece before a deadline set by Brussels for 1 July.
"This is particularly important for Greece as a tourism country but I think important for every single state because what we want to do is we want to restore freedom of movement. Essentially, it includes all the information that a member state would need to welcome a traveller without imposing additional restrictions: proof of vaccination, a proof of negative test PCR, or antigen or a proof of [past] illness."
The technology was presented followed a successful trial of the interoperability of the Greek passport with systems in Germany and Iceland.

Hospitals, test centres and health authorities, among others, will issue digital or paper certificates providing proof of a negative PCR test result, full vaccination or proof of having had the virus. A QR code on the certificate, which can be stored on a mobile, can be scanned by border guards.

The EU system will tie up with those of other countries, such as the US and the UK, although the British government is yet to provide details of its model. Should the UK government not launch such a passport, fully vaccinated Britons who wish to travel will be issued with the EU's digital or paper certification in their destination country on providing the appropriate paperwork from home.

Every EU citizen or third-country national legally staying or residing in the bloc who holds the so-called "digital green certificate" should be exempted from free movement restrictions. If an EU country continues to require those with a certificate to quarantine or test, it must notify the European Commission and all 26 member states to justify this decision.

Charles Michel, the former prime minister of Belgium who is president of the European Council, said:
"The free movement of people is a great European achievement, and it's why it's so important to demonstrate after this Covid crisis that you are able to guarantee the free movement of citizens."
Greece has moved more quickly than most of the EU's 27 member states by opening to tourists before the Covid passport is in operation. The government is allowing tourists from the UK to visit without any requirements to quarantine if they have proof of a negative PCR test undertaken within 72 hours of arrival or proof of two vaccinations completed at least 14 days before travel.
The EU Commission added its positive spin:
The European Commission has proposed that EU member states start to ease their border restrictions for Europeans with Covid-19 vaccine certificates. The Commission on Monday declared:
"As the epidemiological situation is improving and vaccination campaigns are speeding up all over the EU, the Commission is proposing that Member States gradually ease travel measures, including most importantly for the holders of the EU Digital COVID Certificate."
It also proposed an "emergency brake" system to border travel should new variants of Covid-19 start to rise, which would quickly reintroduce restrictions "if the epidemiological situation deteriorates rapidly."

The commission advised that those with a "vaccination certificate" - more commonly known as a "vaccine passport" - should be exempt from "travel-related testing or quarantine 14 days after having received the last dose."

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, over 234,000,000 Covid-19 vaccine doses have been administered in the European Union and European Economic Area, with Germany, France, Italy, and Spain receiving the most doses from manufacturers.


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Chart Pie

Biden aims to address racial wealth disparity on centennial of Tulsa massacre

Brett Samuels
The Hill
Tue, 01 Jun 2021 05:00 UTC
Biden
© Getty ImagesThe darkening halo of pearl-clutching Joe Biden
President Biden on Tuesday will lay out his administration's efforts to close the racial wealth gap during a visit to Tulsa, Okla., to mark the 100th anniversary of the Black Wall Street Massacre, in which white mobs killed hundreds of Black people in the city's Greenwood neighborhood.

Biden will announce an initiative to target federal purchasing power to benefit more minority-owned businesses, and the administration will also detail multiple housing-focused rules that strengthen anti-discrimination measures rolled back during the Trump administration, administration officials said.

The administration will expand contracting opportunities for small disadvantaged businesses, which includes minority-owned businesses. Roughly 10 percent of federal agencies' contracting money typically goes to small disadvantaged businesses in a typical year, administration officials said.

Under the Biden proposal, the administration would aim to increase the amount of federal contracting dollars given to small disadvantaged business by 50 percent over five years, amounting to an additional $100 billion in funding for those businesses. One administration official said increasing the pool of money for minority-owned businesses via contracting opportunities "will strongly impact lessening the racial wealth gap."

Comment: Spending money like there is no tomorrow? Biden could be right.

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Arrow Down

Former President Medvedev: Current relationship between Russia and US is, in some ways, worse than during the Cuban missile crisis

Jonny Tickle
RT
Tue, 01 Jun 2021 12:35 UTC
Medvedev
© Sputnik/Yulia ZyryanovaDeputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council; Chairman of the United Russia political party Dmitry Medvedev
Today's relationship between Moscow and Washington is, in some respects, worse than the most challenging moments of the Cold War, because the US believes that Russia is declining and doesn't see it as a force to be reckoned with. That's according to former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of the country's Security Council. He told Moscow daily Kommersant, in comments published on Tuesday:
"I'm not talking about a situation like the Cuban Missile Crisis, when everything was hanging by a thread at all. But in some ways, the current situation is worse. And it is worse because our partners assume that Russia can be neglected.

"In the past, the US believed that the Soviet Union was not a friend, but an adversary to be taken seriously. And now they believe, at least for the time being, that Russia is a dying country. That [Russia] can be disregarded and can be neglected in foreign policy discourse, and that is why they have made many mistakes."
In his opinion, Western nations have let power go to their head, especially since the collapse of the Warsaw Pact in 1991. But, even before that, foreign countries were not as willing to escalate with Moscow as they are today, he says.
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No Entry

Russia may be cut off from SWIFT banking payment system as part of West's 'spiral of sanctions'

Jonny Tickle
RT
Mon, 31 May 2021 12:44 UTC
Swift logo
© Reuters/Chris Helgren
Russian banks may be blocked from using SWIFT, a payment system that enables reliable and secure financial transactions, as part of restrictions against Moscow, in what one official has called a potential "spiral of sanctions."

"It's no secret that there are threats, primarily from the United States, to disconnect Russia from the SWIFT system," said Dmitry Birichevsky, director of the Economic Cooperation Department of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Speaking on RIA Novosti on Monday, the diplomat noted that Russia has concerns that SWIFT could get caught up in a "spiral of sanctions," led by Washington.

However, the senior official doesn't think America will act on this threat any time soon. Noting that Russia would be able to come to payment agreements with their trading partners anyway, he said:
"I'm actually confident that we won't be disconnected from SWIFT anytime soon, and maybe never. Since 2014, Russia has been working on its own payment system. This system already exists. We all use the MIR card. It is also accepted in a number of neighboring countries and in Turkey. Negotiations are also underway with other partners."
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Arrow Up

Russia to marshal 20 new military formations with latest weaponry in response to heightened NATO activity near its borders


RT
Mon, 31 May 2021 15:38 UTC
Tanks floating bridge
© Sputnik/Vitally AnkovA Russian army T-72 tank crosses a water obstacle via a floating bridge
Sergeyevsky Training Ground, Russia
Russia has announced that it will revamp and upgrade its military presence along its European borders in response to a reported buildup by the US-led NATO bloc, as well as stepping up the presence of both its navy and warplanes.

Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said on Monday that more than a dozen new units would be formed in the Western Military District, which covers much of the European portion of Russia, following increased activity in the region.
"The actions of our Western colleagues destroy the security system in the world and force us to take adequate countermeasures. We are constantly improving the combat composition of our troops. By the end of the year, about 20 formations and military units will be set up."
Shoigu added that the move would be "synchronized with the supply of modern weapons and military equipment" and that 2,000 new pieces of hardware would be deployed throughout 2021. This, he argued, was a necessary response to the presence of NATO troops, vessels and cruise missiles in the region.

Comment: Relevance and posturing, sound and fury...so far they signify nothing.

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USA

Disunited States - Without truth there is no freedom

Paul Craig Roberts
Paul Craig Roberts Org
Tue, 01 Jun 2021 18:55 UTC
Disunited States
© The Nassau Institute
June brings my quarterly request for donations. Your financial support for the website tells me that my efforts are valued and worthwhile. Your donations support me in standing up to the smears. Telling the truth in America in these days is a punished, not a rewarded, activity.

The United States is best understood today as the Disunited States. There is less unity than in 1860. Civility is gone from debate; indeed, debate itself is gone. Integrity and respect for truth have lost out to worship of money and the rule of power. Ideology has shoved aside facts.

Money and power are all. We have seen this in the intentional exaggeration of the Covid threat for Big Pharma profits and the institutionalization of arbitrary government power over civil liberty. Today, with the exception of some free Red states, such as Florida, in the Disunited States our exercise of our civil liberty requires the government's permission. You are free only by the government's permission. In other words, the US Constitution has lost its authority. We now live under the authority of the power seekers.

Government and corporate spying have destroyed privacy, another Constitutionally protected right.

Education has been replaced with cult indoctrination. In blue states and in some local school districts of red states, white American students are taught that they are racist by nature. They are infused with personal guilt for slavery that ended 156 years ago. Speech codes are imposed that prevent any challenge to the propaganda masquerading as education. The brainwashing of white Americans is imposed by law in blue states such as California, Washington, Oregon, and New York. Parents who complain are fired by their corporate employers who have imbibed the Critical Race Theory kool-aid. No American who works for a US corporation has freedom of speech.
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Star of David

Bibi bluster: Vows 'not to allow a nuclear Iran,' even at cost of Israel's 'friction with US'

Svetlana Ekimenko
Sputnik
Tue, 01 Jun 2021 18:36 UTC
Netanyahu
© REUTERS / POOLIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken shake hands after a joint statement and meeting at the Prime Minister's office, in Jerusalem May 25, 2021
US President Joe Biden has promised to return to the Iran Nuclear Deal but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insists there "must be no return to the previous nuclear agreement."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he believes there's no bigger threat to the country than "the existential threat posed by Iran's attempts to arm itself with nuclear weapons," reports Haaretz.

"Whether it is threatening us directly with extermination as a small and concentrated state with atomic weapons, or threatening us with tens of thousands of missiles backed with the threat of nuclear deterrence, it is a threat that threatens the continuation of the Zionist enterprise, and we must fight against this threat to no end," Netanyahu said.

Comment: Netanyahu is desperate to maintain his status on the home front, both politically and personally, if he is publicly stating he will bite the hand that feeds Israel if they go against his wishes. But it may be too late.

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Bullseye

The verdict is in: Not a shred of doubt that Sweden's Covid policy was right

Eyal Shahar
shahar-26393.medium.com
Fri, 28 May 2021 18:17 UTC
sweden no lockdown covid coronavirus
Sweden took a 'free will' approach to covid safety
Counting the dead used to be the work of epidemiologists, statisticians and demographers. So was analyzing the numbers and drawing conclusions. In the past year many are counting deaths, but the numbers have no meaning without the context of a relevant time period, population and history. That is, epidemiology.

The most counted country is probably Sweden, a stubborn dissenter that refused lockdowns, mask mandates and contact tracing. By the time of this writing, 14,349 Swedes have reportedly died from the coronavirus. Has the Swedish model failed? Were the lockdowns justified? Were the economic and social upheavals in most of the world an unavoidable necessity?

The answer to all is a resounding no. The first (and not the only) witness: Sweden. To understand the testimony, we need to learn only two concepts: "flu year" and "excess mortality".

Comment:

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Stormtrooper

Defense Secretary Austin bleats about criticism about 'woke' recruiting, says military not 'soft'

Joseph Weber
JusttheNews
Mon, 31 May 2021 16:38 UTC
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin
© Anthony Behar/Sipa USADefense Secretary Lloyd Austin ripped Ted Cruz for his "pansies" remark about the Army.
Austin also said he won't "lose one minute of sleep" over what China, Russia are doing.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is deflecting criticism by GOP lawmakers, conservatives and others that the U.S. military's latest efforts to be inclusive and attract a more diverse force is weakening America's security.

Austin made the comments in a CNN interview aired Memorial Day in which he also suggested he wasn't concerned about what the leaders of China and Russia are doing.

Comment:

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Bullseye

Even 'democracy dies in darkness' WaPo is forced to walk back "debunked conspiracy theory" Wuhan Lab leak reporting

Paul Joseph Watson
Summit News
Tue, 01 Jun 2021 16:06 UTC
wahsting post retraction wuhan lab leak story
© The Washington Post/Summit News
Wrong again.

Over the weekend Senator Rand Paul and former CIA director and secretary of state Mike Pompeo both warned that the Wuhan Institute of Virology is still up and running, and that evidence points to involvement with the Chinese military in bioweapons research.

Appearing on Fox News, Paul told Jeanine Pirro that he is worried US funding is still being used by the lab to conduct biological warfare experiments.

"I'm very worried that this stuff still goes on and that the U.S. government's been funding it," Paul said, adding "We've got a lot of evidence pointing to this lab now," as the origin of the virus outbreak.

Referring to the gain of function research with coronavirus that is known to have taken place in the lab, Paul warned "it's making it more transmissible to humans and often times making it more deadly in humans."

Comment: It's becoming crystal clear that Fauci, along with researcher Peter Daszak, were determined to continue gain-of-function research, and went around the US government (at the behest of whom?) to fund the work in China.

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