The premier of the state of Victoria, who's instituted some of the most draconian lockdown rules in the world, is under mounting pressure and calls for his resignation are mounting by the day.

There is an old political adage that politicians should never establish an inquiry unless they know the likely outcome.

Evidence presented this week at an inquiry into Victoria's Covid-19 second wave, established by Premier Dan Andrews, suggests that he may have failed to heed this advice. That evidence was so damning of Andrews that calls for him to resign have reached fever pitch and the Victorian opposition has foreshadowed a motion of no confidence in him.

Andrews is due to give evidence to the inquiry on Friday, and only an extraordinary performance can end the crisis that has engulfed him.

Andrews established the inquiry in July in a cynical attempt to shut down criticism of his government's decision to employ inexperienced security guards to supervise Victoria's Covid-19 hotel quarantine regime. It was the catastrophic failure of this regime that led to Victoria's second wave, despite Andrews instituting some of the most draconian lockdown restrictions in the world.

These include police being able to enter properties without a warrant, and arrest people for not wearing their face masks properly or for posting things on social media that contradict the dear leader, as a pregnant woman found out.

Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Friday morning that Florida is moving into full Phase 3 of its reopening.

The order specifically lifts COVID-19 restrictions on restaurants.

Restaurants can now operate at a minimum of 50% capacity -- meaning they are fully open. Gov. DeSantis says if local governments try to restrict the reopening of any restaurant, they need state's approval.

Phase 3 also states that bars, pubs and nightclubs that derive more than 50 percent of sales from alcohol should operate at full capacity with limited social distancing protocols.

Since the state's number of cases peaked in July, the number of new infections have steadily declined.

Earlier this year, despite failing to find any substantive evidence of Russian meddling in the US elections process in 2016, some American officials began alleging that Moscow is once again using a "range of measures" to interfere in the 2020 race, ostensibly to "denigrate" Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has invited the United States to exchange pledges of non-interference in internal politics as part of a large-scale programme aimed at resetting Russian-US cooperation in the field of international information security.

"One of today's major strategic challenges is the risk of a large-scale confrontation in the digital field. A special responsibility for its prevention lies with the key players in the field, for ensuring international information security. In this regard, we would like to once again address the US with a suggestion to agree on a comprehensive programme of practical measures to reboot our relations in the field of security in the use of information and communication technologies," a statement by the president released by the Kremlin on Friday said.

Rep. Scott from Georgia warns that "food shortages are coming." Farms are destroying crops, plowing under fields without the labor to harvest them!

As new laws accelerate the demise of California's agriculture, Washington's governor commits an act of agricultural terrorism, emblematic of the wholesale attack on food production across the world.

UK's Morrisons resumes rationing of pasta and canned goods, and "Safety Marshalls" and police are being deployed to ensure social distancing -- as Boris Johnson deploys the Army to assist. The scene is set for food shortages. Start growing your own today.


Sources

The Spanish government has recommended reimposing a partial lockdown on all of Madrid city to curb the spread of coronavirus after local authorities imposed restrictions on just some areas of the wider region, the health minister said on Friday.

"These are the minimum measures we have to take to control the spread of the virus in the city," Salvador Illa told reporters.

Spain, one of the countries in Europe worst-affected by the pandemic, was under a draconian lockdown from March until May in which people could not leave their homes. But after restrictions were totally lifted on June 21, the pandemic has surged again.

Less than a week before the first presidential debate, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she still doesn't think Joe Biden should face off against President Trump.

The California Democrat said on Friday her concerns have nothing to do with the Democratic nominee, noting she has no doubt Biden would be "excellent," but rather, they are about Trump's relationship with the truth.

"I just think that the president has no fidelity to fact or truth and, actually in his comments the last few days, no fidelity to the Constitution of the United States," Pelosi said on Morning on CBS. "He and his henchmen are a danger, with their comments, are a danger to our democracy."

The office of Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu denied that he has been bringing laundry for dry-cleaning on state trips, calling the allegations "groundless" and aimed to "belittle" the peace agreement brokered by the White House for Israel, the UAE and Bahrain.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife have allegedly been bringing "suitcases" of dirty laundry to the White House when arriving for state trips, the Washington Post reported.

According to the report, the Netanyahus have been misusing the hospitality of the presidential guest house, where all visitors have their clothes dry-cleaned as a perk, by bringing a lot more dirty laundry with them than they plan to use in the state trip.

Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) was hospitalized on Friday after apparently suffering a medical incident during a livestream event.

Paul, 85, was hospitalized in Texas for "precautionary" reasons, Fox News reported.

The former congressman later tweeted from his hospital bed that he's "doing fine."

On August 20th, Russian opposition figure and self-styled "anti-corruption" activist Alexei Navalny fell seriously ill while in mid-flight from Tomsk, Siberia to the Russian capital. The Moscow-bound plane was abruptly re-routed to make an emergency landing in the Siberian city of Omsk where the anti-Kremlin politician was subsequently hospitalized for suspected poisoning and placed in a medically-induced coma.

Two days later, Navalny was airlifted to Germany in an evacuation arranged by a Berlin-based "human rights" NGO at the request of Pussy Riot spokesman Pyotr Verzilov. His transport on a medically-equipped plane with German specialists was permitted by the Russian authorities who now stand accused of culpability in the alleged attack, all in the midst of the ongoing pandemic.

While the Russian doctors in Omsk (who saved Navalny's life) maintain they did not find any evidence of chemical weapons substances in his system, upon examination the German government quickly announced that its military lab had discovered "unequivocal evidence" Navalny was poisoned by a Soviet-era Novichok nerve agent and demanded an explanation from the Kremlin — without providing any of said evidence to Moscow or the public, of course.

Despite being the supposed victim of an extremely deadly military-grade nerve agent, three weeks later Navalny came out his comatose state and off ventilation, defiantly vowing a return to Russia. Was he ever tested for COVID-19? At this point it seems more likely than this propaganda stunt we are expected to believe.

Trump is under heavy pressure to take a punitive stance on Moscow's alleged poisoning of opposition figure Alexei Navalny

On September 24, a bipartisan group of US senators proposed sanctions against Russian officials over the alleged poisoning of the opposition politician Alexei Navalny in Siberia recently.

A targeted bill titled Holding Russia Accountable for Malign Activities Act of 2020 has been introduced by five prominent senators - Chris Coons, Marco Rubio, Ben Cardin, Mitt Romney and Chris Van Hollen.

The bill directs the administration to determine if the Kremlin has violated US laws prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons.

Significantly, it also requires a report on the personal wealth amassed by the corrupt practices of Russian President Vladimir Putin and his inner circle.


Senator Coons, who is leading the initiative, represents Delaware, the senate seat held by Joe Biden for 36 years from January 1973 till he took over as vice-president.

The senators have demonized Putin. Senator Coons said, "this bipartisan bill seeks to hold Putin and his inner circle accountable."