RTMon, 17 Jan 2022 07:59 UTC
© Luke Dray/Getty Images
Oxfam, a charity confederation, has said that while the wealth of
the world's top 10 richest people has doubled during the pandemic, the poor around the globe continue to suffer due to a dearth of vaccines and treatment.
In a report published on Monday, Oxfam
claimed that a
99% windfall tax on the pandemic gains of the world's 10 richest men would raise enough money to pay for vaccines for everyone on the planet.
"A 99% one-off windfall tax on the Covid-19 wealth gains of the 10 richest men alone would generate $812bn," the report states, noting these 10 men have six times more money than the poorest 3.1 billion people.
Novak Djokovic winning the 2021 Australian Open
Tennis star Novak Djokovic is being deported from Australia, after losing his final appeal the WTA's top-ranked player will not be allowed to defend his Australian Open title.
It was reported this morning that an Australian court had refused Djokovic's appeal against the cancellation of his visa, and as such he's being put on a plane and flown out of the country.
To be clear: This is all because he's not "vaccinated" against Covid19, and vocally speaks out against the practice. The government have clearly and publicly admitted as much...but we'll get to that.
The rejection of Djokovic's medical exemption and subsequent deportation has been accompanied by a wave of vitriol in the press the likes of which we have rarely seen.
One Australian sports presenter was "accidentally" recorded calling him a
"lying, sneaky arsehole" in a video that was later
"leaked" to the press.
UPIMon, 17 Jan 2022 12:27 UTC
© James Ross/EPA-EFE
Serbian tennis star
Novak Djokovic was deported Sunday after losing an 11th-hour bid in an Australian federal court to save his chances to compete in the Australian Open after refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
The Australian federal court unanimously found that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke was within his legal rights to
cancel Djokovic's visa for the second time Friday on the grounds that
the tennis star's views on vaccines posed a risk to the public health and "good order" of the country.
Djokovic has won nine Australian Open titles, including the past three, and was seeking a record 21st Grand Slam title. He is tied with Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer.
Comment: Sky News
detailed responses to Djokovic deportation from the Serbian president and Djokovic's family:
Behaviour towards Novak 'scandalous', says family
Djokovic's family have reacted for the first time since the decision to deport him was finalised.
Their statement said: "We are very disappointed with the decision of the Federal Court and the fact that Novak has to leave Australia.
"This was not just about sport, and playing in the first Grand Slam of the season, which Novak has dominated for a decade, but also politics and all the interests that prevailed in this case.
"Despite the scandalous behaviour towards Novak, we believed that sport would win.
"We believed that the fact confirmed by the court would be respected - that Novak has a valid visa, that justice will be served and that no 'public interests' will be an excuse for the decision made.
"What we all need to do, and first of all us as his family, is to give him support now more than ever.
"We will be here to share the blows he received, to help him regain his energy, his faith in this sport, above all in fair play, which was completely absent here.
"We are proud of him and the strength he showed and the fight he led with dignity.
"We believe that he will come out of this situation stronger and that time will show what he has indisputably always confirmed so far, and that is that he is a great champion and a man."
[...]
'Australian authorities humiliated themselves' - Serbian president
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has said he's already spoken to his countryman.
"I spoke to Djokovic and told him we cannot wait to see him," Mr Vucic told reporters.
The president said there had been a "witch hunt" against Djokovic and criticised the way he was treated.
"I think the Australian authorities humiliated themselves with these kind of procedures pressing against Novak Djokovic, 10 days of torturing him and after all, the terrible media campaign that was launched by them and by many others in the West was really something very terrible," he said.
"And we wait for our Novak here. He is the world champion, but he is our champion. And of course, he's in our hearts."
Scott Morrison
said he would consider ending Djokovic's three-year ban into Australia early, given the right circumstances...
But he has left the door open for Djokovic to compete at next year's Australian Open, despite the tennis star facing an automatic three-year ban from entering the country.
"I'm not going to pre-condition any of that or say anything that would not enable the minister to make the various calls he has to make," Mr Morrison told 2GB radio on Monday.
"It does go over a three-year period, but there is the opportunity for (a person) to return in the right circumstances, and that will be considered at the time."
Mr Vucic expressed disappointment at the ruling, and accused the Australian government of "harassing" Djokovic.
The Serbian Tennis Association said the "farce is over" and "politics has beaten sports" with Australia's decision to deport Djokovic.
What would be classed as the "right circumstances"; if he was vaccinated?
His former coach Boris Becker wrote an
op-ed for the
Daily Mail, titled "Novak Djokovic is like family to me but he is making a BIG mistake in not getting vaccinated... it is a decision that threatens his chance to cement himself as the GREATEST player of all time".
Here are some excerpts:
I did not have the chance to speak to Novak but I would urge him to get vaccinated — although whether he would listen is another matter. I also accept that as someone in my fifties I look at my health in a different way from those in their twenties and thirties who feel more invincible.
I have had conversations with my own children who are in that bracket, eventually persuading them to have the jab. Will Novak take that step? I am not sure that he will.
He is incredibly strong-willed, with very firm beliefs. If he does not, then in 10 years he will look back on it and realise he made a mistake.
It is not just about Australia. The fact is that we are living in a different world and he is going to find it very hard to live the life of a professional tennis player travelling around without the vaccination.
Those are the rules, whether one likes them or not, and you have to accept it. Maybe one day we will get back to a more normal situation, but at 34 he does not have much time left to pursue his goals.
He has an extreme diet and an extreme lifestyle to give himself the best chance, and ultimately you have to say he has made the right decisions because the results show it.
This is why the PTB fear him! If he has consistently made choices for this health and wellbeing that have paid off, then you can bet he made an informed decision about the covid vaccination. The PTB cannot have their narrative questioned. Given the
alarming increase in mortality rates particularly in young males after taking the covid vaccine, it's no wonder he is staying well away.
We only have to look at the long list of athletes that have dropped dead or who have incurred life-altering conditions after taking the vaccine to see that for those in professional sports, it's not a good idea. Reports suggest that at least one player has already
dropped out of the Australian Open due to breathing problems. And it's not just the players, Pedro Martinez & Federico Delbonis rushed to the aid of a ballboy who collapsed.
© Flickr
Emma Watson
It's an obvious point, but the obvious bears repeating.
The absurd accusations of antisemitism against actress Emma Watson last week for expressing solidarity for Palestinians have backfired against Israeli leaders and in one bright flash
helped to discredit an ancient tried-and-true strategy of the Israel lobby: maligning critics of Israel's policies as antisemites.
Israel's supporters have been effective for years at muzzling critics by doing just that. The good news of the Emma Watson's smearing is that this time even establishment types raised an eyebrow over the strategy- and may even have noticed the anti-Palestinian bigotry that animates it.
So we should embrace the Emma Watson moment, as another landmark in the march to the mainstream of Palestinian solidarity.
Back to the episode: On January 2, Watson
published a rather anodyne declaration of Solidarity with Palestinians with an image of a demonstration from last May, and
Israeli ambassador Gilan Erdan lectured her about supporting "evil" and former Israeli ambassador Danny Danon called her an antisemite.
Comment: It takes two minutes to falsely accuse and a decade or more to undo it.
© Getty Images
Over 40 Palestinian villages in the Negev Desert are unrecognised by the Israeli state.
A top Israeli reserve general had called for a repeat of the 1948 military operation that led to Israel's control over the
Negev ("Naqab") Desert and the displacement of thousands of Palestinians.
The general was commenting on
protests by Palestinians in the Negev against Israeli razing of their lands.
Major General Yom-Tov Samiah, who served as commander of the Southern Zone in the Israeli Army during the Second Intifada, said in a tweet:
"Operation 'Yoav' will soon return to liberate the Negev. Luckily General Shaike Gavish [who led the operation at the time] is alive. He will pass on some lessons. If we continue at this rate of loss of control we will have to retake the Negev and Galilee. Civil war is on the doorstep."
Operation 'Yoav' was launched by Israeli forces in October 1948 to capture the Negev Desert, when 23 Palestinian towns and villages were destroyed and their populations made refugees in Jordan, the West Bank, and Gaza.
Sir Keir Starmer pictured with a beer in hand with a group of colleagues during the lockdown.
Sir Keir Starmer has said he did not break any rules after being photographed drinking a beer with his staff during the spring lockdown.
The Labour leader defended the photo, which re-emerged over the weekend, saying he was working on the Hartlepool by-election campaign and stopped to eat a takeaway with colleagues at a constituency office in Durham last May.
At the time, people in England were not allowed to mix indoors apart from for work.
"We were working, a takeaway turned up, and we stopped to eat it,"
Sir Keir told LBC. "We didn't break any rules, we did nothing wrong."
Comment: Leave it to pathological types to excuse their own behavior while excoriating the same behavior when it's done by others. Despite Starmer's protestations, the incidents of Sir Keir and Boris both breaking lockdown protocols are not a million miles apart but more like a socially distanced 2 meters.
© AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
A woman holds a cross that reads 'Mario Draghi Stop' as people stage a protest against the COVID-19 vaccination Green Pass, in Rome, Saturday, Jan. 15, 2022
Human rights group Amnesty International urged Italy to change tough anti-COVID-19 restrictions to avoid discrimination against unvaccinated people.
In a recent decree, Mario Draghi's government made vaccination mandatory for everyone over the age of 50 and for use of public transport and a range of other services, one of very few countries to take similar steps, in an attempt to ease pressure on Italian health services and reduce fatalities.
Comment: Mario Draghi has been on board with the Covid show since the beginning.
China's trade surplus hit a record high in 2021, boosted by strong exports that have topped market expectations since their pandemic recovery.
For the full year, China's exports rose 29.9% to a new high of $3.36 trillion, beating 2020's record of $2.6 trillion, according to data released by the General Administration of Customs on Friday.
Imports increased 30.1% in 2021, buoyed in part by soaring commodity prices. That translated to an annual trade surplus of $676.43 billion, surpassing the previous high of $593.9 billion in 2015, according to data provider Wind.
Comment: Another way of putting this is: China's economy (as measured by GDP) grew by
a staggering 8.1% in 2021.
That's the highest rate of growth for the Chinese economy since 2011.
Here's the question this begs: if 'the world' is 'suffering the consequences of supply chain issues brought on by Covid/lockdowns', why isn't China?
It's still clearly doing business -
record business! - somewhere, so... is it only the West undergoing shortages? And if so, can that really be China's 'fault'?
Tyler Durden
ZeroHedgeThu, 13 Jan 2022 19:15 UTC
In August, Germany's top newspaper,
Bild, apologized for the outlet's
fear-driven Covid coverage - with special message to children, who were told "that they were going to murder their grandma."
Now, a newspaper in Denmark has
publicly apologized for reporting government narratives surrounding the Covid-19 pandemic
without questioning them.
"
We failed," reads the article's headline from tabloid
Ekstra Bladet, which goes on to admit that "For ALMOST two years, we - the press and the population -
have been almost hypnotically preoccupied with the authorities' daily coronavirus figures. "(translated).
© United Nations Photo/Rick Bajornas via AP
Former palace officer Paul Page suspects Prince Andrew dated Ghislaine Maxwell in 2001.
Prince Andrew may have once dated Ghislaine Maxwell, according to friends and a former royal protection officer who claims Jeffrey Epstein's madam was constantly "in and out" of Buckingham Palace.
Former palace cop Paul Page said in a new
documentary that Maxwell became a regular visitor from 2001, the year Andrew and his sex accuser,
Virginia Roberts Giuffre, were photographed in Maxwell's London home.
"From the way she was allowed to
enter and exit the palace at will, we realized — suspected — that she may have had an intimate relationship with Prince Andrew," Page said.
Comment: See also: