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British govt plans October 'firebreak' lockdown, blames pressure on NHS and rising cases

london anti lockdown protest
© Lockdown Sceptics
The Government has drawn up plans for an October "firebreak" Covid lockdown should hospitalisations continue at their current level and threaten to overload the NHS, a senior Government scientist has told i.

The member of the Government's Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage) said the UK is about to enter "an extended peak" of infections and hospitalisations, which are in danger of pushing the NHS beyond breaking point and could force the Government to re-introduce restrictions over the school half term period at the end of next month.

A full lockdown is unlikely and would be a last resort, but there are a range of measures the government could introduce.

Comment: If Britain's ponerized politicians are brazen enough to chance another lockdown, we can expect to see other countries taking part in the sinister agenda to act in lockstep anytime soon: Also check out SOTT radio's:



Sheriff

Nord Stream 2 to be completed in few days, America's efforts to stop it failed - Russian foreign minister

nord stream 2
© Getty Images / Jens Büttner
FILE PHOTO.
Construction on the controversial Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline took a major step to completion Monday.

According to the company, the final piece of piping has been welded together. It will then be lowered into place in the Baltic Sea. It must then be connected and will then be expected to begin operating.

Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom said once the project has been completed the pipeline will begin supplying Germany in October. The €10 billion ($12 billion) project is expected to double the carrying capacity to Germany.

The construction of the pipeline has been dogged by delays and should have been completed by December 2019.

Comment: RT reports:
American efforts to stop Nord Stream 2 have failed & gas pipeline will be completed in next few days - Russian foreign minister

Years of economic sanctions and political efforts from Washington have come to nothing, and work on the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline is now nearing the final stages of completion, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

Speaking at a meeting in St. Petersburg on Monday, the veteran diplomat announced that final preparations are being made on the underwater link, which will connect the gas fields of Siberia to consumers in Western Europe. "It will be completed in a few days and will begin working," he said.

According to him, efforts by the US government to sink the pipeline now have no chance of success, despite the introduction of new sanctions in recent days. "There is still a full-frontal attack, in spite of everything, on Nord Stream 2," he said, despite the fact "everyone knows the Americans have realized [it will be completed.]"

Lavrov's comments came as Russia's state energy firm Gazprom announced that the final pipe of Nord Stream 2's second string was being welded into place. "The next step will be to connect the section of the gas pipeline from the coast of Germany," the company behind the project stated.

Last month, US President Joe Biden signed into force a new package of sanctions aimed at companies involved in the construction. In a letter sent to Congress, the White House said that "certain Russian energy pipeline projects" would expand Russia's influence in the region and weaken "Ukraine and Eastern flank NATO and EU countries," thereby threatening "the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States."

The news came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Both countries have continued to back the scheme despite opposition from the US, and Biden had previously acknowledged that work on the gas link was at an advanced stage. Shortly after taking office, he said that "to go ahead and impose sanctions now, I think is counterproductive in terms of our European relations."

The month before, American and German officials reached a deal to allow the construction to go ahead in exchange for commitments from Berlin to support sanctions against Moscow if it shows "aggression" toward Ukraine. Kiev has warned that it could stand to lose billions of dollars in gas transit fees each year if Moscow turns off the taps on its Soviet-built overland network of pipelines after the completion of Nord Stream 2.
See also:


Sherlock

German ambassador to China dies less than two weeks into posting, cause of death not given

Jan Hecker
© Hayoung Jeon/EPA
Angela Merkel with Jan Hecker, who has died at the age of 54, only two weeks after taking up the post of ambassador to China.
Germany's ambassador to China, Jan Hecker, has died suddenly at the age of 54, less than two weeks into his Beijing posting.

Hecker was a former foreign policy adviser to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

"We are deeply saddened and shocked to learn of the sudden death of the German ambassador to China," a statement on the embassy's website said. "Our hearts are with his family and his friends and colleagues at this time."

A cause of death has not been given. Hecker began his posting in Beijing on 24 August, having arrived earlier that month with his wife and three children, according to German media. Frank Rückert, Hecker's deputy, would take over his duties for the time being, Deutsche Welle reported.

Comment: It remains to be seen just what the cause of death was, but judging from the information provided, as well as ambassador Hecker's recent posting to China, it would appear that he was in overall good health and his death was unexpected.


Syringe

On child vaccines, the experts are suddenly reluctant to follow 'the science'

rats and vacs
© Unknown
"We" are "Them"
In some of these blogs I have been trying to gently highlight what should be a very obvious fact: that "the science" we are being constantly told to follow is not quite as scientific as is being claimed.

That is inevitable in the context of a new virus about which much is still not known. And it is all the more so given that our main response to the pandemic - vaccination - while being a relatively effective tool against the worst disease outcomes is nonetheless an exceedingly blunt one. Vaccines are the epitome of the one-size-fits-all approach of modern medicine.

Into the void between our scientific knowledge and our fear of mortality has rushed politics. It is a refusal to admit that "the science" is necessarily compromised by political and commercial considerations that has led to an increasingly polarised - and unreasonable - confrontation between what have become two sides of the Covid divide. Doubt and curiosity have been squeezed out by the bogus certainties of each faction.

No Entry

Why do journalists hate 9-11 truthers?

flag/911
© shutterstock
It seems that there are to be no dissenting voices on the twentieth anniversary of 9-11. Even film director Spike Lee was forced by media outcry to edit out of his documentary mini-series the half-hour dedicated to skeptics of the official version of the event. Thus the citizenry has been saved from "a bog of heinously dangerous ideas."

This phrase comes from Slate.com columnist Jeremy Stahl, for whom the alternative theories of 9-11 are "arguments that have been debunked a thousand times." This, of course, is nonsense. The debate rages to this day. But as with the issue of vaccination against coronavirus, the mainstream media will not brook the least opposition. Stahl puts great stock, for example, in the "three-year-long, $16 million investigation into the collapse of the World Trade Center for the National Institute of Standards and Technology," as if these numbers and a solemn-sounding agency title could not possibly be challenged. It doesn't seem to occur to him that the U.S. Government is itself the accused party here, and in similar circumstances has been caught fudging facts. The NIST report has actually taken heavy criticism from Architects and Engineers for 9-11 Truth, the most important group pushing alternative theories of the attack.

Why do journalists favor the government version so fiercely? The sheer vitriol of their attacks on Truthers reflects deep personal anger; clearly no Deep State maven stands over them dictating their articles. In theory, the more onerous discoveries of 9-11 investigators — the presence of explosive material in the dust that spread through Manhattan, the dubious cell-phone calls made from the hijacked aircraft, the impossibly high speeds of low-altitude flight by three of the airplanes — should be red meat to reporters. But all of it is ignored, if not ridiculed. What has happened to this "fifth column" of democracy?

Comment: What is obvious cannot be said. No inconvenient truths allowed. Those who run these networks run the news. We know who they are and why they do it.


Headphones

'Inherently politicized case': Political scientist subjected to massive wiretapping by US denies acting as Iran's 'foreign agent'

Afrasiabi
© Fars News
Kaveh Afrasiabi
Political scientist Kaveh Afrasiabi, accused by the US of acting as a "foreign agent" for Iran, believes the case against him is purely political, with charges brought against him in the final hours of the Trump administration.

Afrasiabi told RT that according to the US's own complaint, Washington was aware of his "completely legitimate" activity as a consultant to Iran's UN mission for over a decade.

The political scientist, who has penned multiple books and numerous articles for such leading media outlets like The New York Times and Huffington Post, was targeted by US federal prosecutors back in January.

Afrasiabi was briefly arrested in January and accused of violating the notorious Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). Prosecutors alleged that Afrasiabi received some $260,000 from the Iranian government through its UN mission and purveyed "propaganda" on its behalf. The political scientist also turned out to be the subject of a massive wiretapping campaign, with a US attorney presenting the court with a haul of 33,000 recordings of Afrasiabi's private phone calls.


No Entry

US military knew dozens of Americans were at the gates of Kabul airport but refused entry during evacuation

US Marine and passengers
© Reuters/US Air Force
US Marine provides security during evacuation of Hamid Karzai Intl. Airport in Kabul.
The US commanders in charge of evacuation abandoned dozens of American citizens at the gates of Kabul airport amid a chaotic rush to leave Afghanistan, US war correspondent and former special forces soldier Michael Yon told RT.

On Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was forced to acknowledge that around 100 Americans still remained in the turbulent country a week after the Biden administration's August 31 deadline to get everybody out expired.

Former special forces soldier-turned-journalist Michael Yon, who was among the volunteers helping to airlift Americans out of Afghanistan, has shared with RT some disturbing details of how holders of US passports were left behind by their own military.

On August 30, Taliban members delivered a mother with three children as well as 45 other American citizens to the gates of Kabul airport. Three civilian jets, which had been paid for by volunteers, were waiting for them at the airfield.

Comment: This incident was not the only frustrating complication due to half-baked US exit plans.

See also: Americans in 'hostage situation' with Taliban, stuck on planes for days


Arrow Up

Taliban say UN promises aid after meeting with officials in Kabul

Shaheen
© Reuters/Tatyana Makeyeva
Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen • Moscow, Russia, July 9, 2021
Senior Taliban officials met in Kabul on Sunday (Sep 5) with the UN undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs, who promised to maintain assistance for the Afghan people, Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said.

Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban's political office and other officials met Martin Griffiths as Afghanistan faces a potentially catastrophic humanitarian crisis caused by severe drought and a collapsing economy. Shaheen said on Twitter:
"The UN delegation promised continuation of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, saying he would call for further assistance to Afghanistan during the coming meeting of donor countries."
Shaheen said the Taliban assured the UN delegation of "cooperation and provision of needed facilities".

The United Nations is expected to convene an international aid conference in Geneva on Sep 13 to help avert what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called a "looming humanitarian catastrophe".

Bad Guys

Iran strongly condemns Taliban assault on Panjshir Valley rebels

Afghanistan bike
© STRINGER/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock
Iran on Monday "strongly" condemned the Taliban's military offensive against holdout fighters in Afghanistan's Panjshir Valley, as the extremist group claimed it had taken control of the area.

"The news coming from Panjshir is truly worrying," Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters.

"The assault is strongly condemned."

Iran, the region's dominant Muslim Shia power, had until now refrained from criticizing the Taliban since the Sunni group seized Kabul on August 15.

The Taliban on Monday claimed victory in the mountainous Panjshir area, with a spokesman declaring "our country is completely taken out of the quagmire of war," three weeks after the extremist group captured the capital.

But the National Resistance Front (NRF) - made up of anti-Taliban militia and former Afghan security forces - said its fighters were still present in "strategic positions" across the valley, and that they were continuing the struggle.

Comment: Meanwhile in Kabul, there are signs of infighting. Taliban co-founder Baradar was reportedly injured in a gunfight with Haqqani Network fighters.




Heart - Black

British vaccines minister slammed for lying after announcing jab passports WILL be introduced for certain venues

covid app nhs
© AFP / JUSTIN TALLIS
Some Britons have gone online to campaign for the sacking of the UK's vaccines minister, Nadhim Zahawi, accusing him of lying about vaccine passports after he promised in January that there were no plans to introduce them.

On Monday, angry Brits demanded Zahwai, the British minister responsible for the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines, be sacked over the about-face on vaccine passports. "No one has been given or will be required to have a vaccine passport," he tweeted in January.

Despite previously ruling the passports out, however, on Sunday, Zahawi announced that they will be used in England, in certain circumstances, from the end of the month.

The vaccines minister said the end of September would be the right time to start using the passports as everyone over the age of 18 will have been offered two shots by then. The document will purportedly only be needed at large gatherings, like nightclubs and other large indoor venues.