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Russian economy reviving faster than expected as Moscow opts against another Covid lockdown

circle trees
© file/KJN
A crucial decision by Moscow not to impose further anti-Covid restrictions has reportedly helped Russia's economy to continue rebounding from the recession it saw in the fourth quarter of last year.

Lighter Covid-19 restrictions following the initial total lockdown secured the necessary support for the economy of the world's biggest energy exporter, which managed to decline less than many of its peers did in 2020.

The nation's gross domestic product (GDP) contracted 1.8% from October through December against the same period in the previous year, the Federal Statistics Service reported Thursday. That decline beat the median forecast of Bloomberg economists, who expected the economy to drop by 2.2%. At the same time, the full-year contraction was revised to 3% from 3.1%.

"After a surprisingly small contraction in 2020, the recovery is broadening, fueled by slowing outbreaks, progress in vaccinations and higher oil prices," Scott Johnson, an analyst for Bloomberg Economics, said.

The decline seen in the fourth quarter of 2020 was triggered by inflation provoked by rising global food prices and a relative weakness of the national currency.

NPC

Programming complete? Poll claims nearly HALF of Americans think 'vaccine passports' are a 'good idea'

vaccine passport
© Shutterstock
Biden admin coordinating with Big Tech for pass apps

As the White House works with tech corporations to develop a flurry of coronavirus vaccine passport apps, almost half of US voters believe the scheme is the right way "back to normal," according to a recent poll.

Some 44% of likely voters said that requiring proof of vaccination to return to their daily lives is a "good idea," though another large segment, 41%, were outright opposed to it, a Rasmussen survey published on Thursday shows, noting that 15% remain on the fence.

Comment:


Mr. Potato

Spain passes law mandating face masks even while swimming in the sea

masked beach
© picture alliance via Getty Images
Backlash from holidaymakers who say they won't visit.

Spain has passed a new law forcing people to wear face masks everywhere outside and even while swimming in the sea.

Yes, really.

The legislation, which came into effect on Wednesday, mandates face coverings for children as young as six, with refusniks facing fines of โ‚ฌ100 euros.

Comment: The stunning stupidity of it all...


Bullseye

Pundits weigh in on CNN's trainwreck Wen interview tying basic freedoms to vaccination

covid vaccine station new york city
© Reuters / Carlo Allegri
CNN medical analyst Leana Wen sounded the totalitarian alarm, warning that Americans may take back their pre-pandemic freedoms without being vaccinated if the Biden administration doesn't quickly make the jabs a precondition.

"We need to make it clear to them that the vaccine is the ticket back to pre-pandemic life," said Wen, who was previously president of Planned Parenthood, the largest US abortion provider.

Wen lamented to CNN host Chris Cuomo that many states have begun to fully reopen their economies and remove Covid-19 restrictions, leaving a "very narrow window" to tie normalization of everyday life to vaccination status.

Comment: Others on social media was not impressed either:





CNN 'expert' goes there: Proposes withholding Americans' basic freedoms if they don't get vaccine


Stop

Capitol attack suspect was apparent Farrakhan follower - left's 'white supremacist' narrative crumbles

capitol noah green
The suspect in the attack at the Capitol on Friday was an apparent follower of Louis Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam.

Noah Green, a 25-year-old Indiana man, was reported by multiple media outlets as the suspect in Friday's attack, which killed one Capitol Police officer and wounded another.

Police said the suspect rammed a car into two Capitol Police officers before hitting a barricade on the north side of the Capitol. He then exited the vehicle and allegedly lunged at officers before being shot and killed by police.

Screenshots from Green's now-deleted Facebook page showed that he promoted speeches from Farrakhan and Elijah Muhammad, the previous leader of the Nation of Islam, according to multiple reports.

His Facebook posts were reported by The New York Times and NBC News, and Facebook confirmed that the page had been taken down.

Comment: Ilhan Omar felt the need to point out that if Green had used an AR-15, the death toll would have been worse. She wasn't the only one to take up this line of "reasoning":


"Imagine something that didn't happen. Then make policies based on these things that didn't happen, because I planted them in your imagination."

Speaking of imagination:


See also:


Eye 1

'New world order?' Creepy video of celebs promoting 'health seal' worth thousands of dollars raises eyebrows

Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro
© REUTERS/Andrew Kelly (L)/REUTERS/Henry Nicholls (R)
Lady Gaga, Robert De Niro, and other high-profile celebrities have teamed up for a vague commercial promoting the so-called 'WELL Health-Safety Seal,' an expensive endorsement for business owners that many are panning as useless.
"If you want to get back to your favorite places and feel confident they have put your health and safety first," Jennifer Lopez says as the video opens, followed by numerous other celebs chiming in to inform viewers: "look for the WELL Health-Safety Seal."

"Everything may look the same, but the WELL Health-Safety Seal means that your health and safety are top of mind," De Niro later says, as generic corporate-style music plays in the background.



Comment: Just a few years ago De Niro helped promote the excellent documentary called "VAXXED - From Cover-Up to Catastrophe" (despite being compelled/coerced into pulling it from his theater). The film exposed many of the lies about vaccines that De Niro felt important to share because of his own vaccine-injured autistic son. How and why did he change his mind despite all his efforts in the past to expose the dangers of vaccines?


Comment: The PTB are using brainwashed Hollywood and TV celebrities to program the masses in the hopes of having a population that will accept a totalitarian and fascistic society - with two major categories of people:

1. The obedient vaccinated sheeple who will have some privileges, and

2. The unvaccinated dirty rebels who will be excluded from much of society - as well as hated and perceived by the "upper" vaccinated class as irresponsible savages who are killing innocent people by spreading the virus.

No, this is not a sci-fi movie scenario. This is what they want their "new normal" to look like. And they have a good chance to make it real.

See also:


Info

Ukraine to regain 'occupied territory' in Crimea and Sevastopol

ukraine soldiers
© EFEThree Ukrainian soldiers head to their positions in Luhansk, April 23, 2019.
In 2014, the Russian-speaking population living in the Donbas region set the Donetsk and Luhansk republics. Ukraine does not recognize that decision to date.

Over the last week, Ukraine has been moving military vehicles and troops to the front lines, a measure that increases its military tensions with Russia.

On March 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the Decree 117/2021 approving the "strategy of disoccupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Sevastopol city."

Comment: See also:


Pills

George Floyd's girlfriend: Floyd hospitalized for overdose months earlier, drug dealer with him during arrest

george floyd mural
© EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images
George Floyd's girlfriend gave a glimpse into her deceased partner's history of drug abuse and struggles with addiction in court on Thursday.

Courteney Ross testified about how she met Floyd, their life together, and their shared struggle with addiction and drug abuse. Her testimony comes as former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin stands trial for second-degree murder, third-degree murder, and second-degree manslaughter in Floyd's death.

Chauvin's defense team has argued that drugs played a crucial role in Floyd's death. Ross said that both she and Floyd struggled with opioid addiction and that she suspected that Floyd had relapsed several months before his encounter with the Minneapolis police in May based on the way he was behaving.

Comment: Meanwhile, lawyer representing the deceases Floyd are arguing the drugs found in his system during the autopsy were not enough to kill him. From RT:
Lawyers representing slain Minneapolis man George Floyd have argued that his high fentanyl tolerance meant he would have survived the drugs found in his system, had ex-officer Derek Chauvin not knelt on his neck.

The attorneys' memo joins a growing body of evidence in the murder case against Chauvin and was submitted following Thursday's testimony from Floyd's girlfriend Courteney Ross. She described the pair's drug dealer, Maurice Hall, as the passenger in the car with Floyd when he was apprehended by the police.


...

Crump appeared to be pushing back against the efforts of Chauvin's lawyer Eric Nelson to claim Floyd, a fentanyl addict, died from an overdose of the powerful opioid. The 46-year-old security guard perished with multiple drugs in his system, including methamphetamine, in addition to the fentanyl. In his statement on Thursday, Crump pointed out that despite his client's massive drug consumption, Floyd was "walking, talking, laughing and breathing just fine before Derek Chauvin held his knee to George's neck, blocking his ability to breathe and extinguishing his life for all to see."

However, video from one of the officers' (not Chauvin's) body cameras portrays the situation somewhat differently, showing Floyd repeatedly protesting he could not breathe several minutes before Chauvin pinned him to the ground with his knee for an excruciating eight minutes and 46 seconds.



Also from RT:
Minneapolis Police Lt. Richard Zimmerman appeared to condemn his ex-colleague, former cop Derek Chauvin, testifying that not only was he never trained to kneel on a suspect's neck โ€” but that doing so can be potentially "deadly."

Zimmerman called Chauvin's decision to kneel on Floyd's neck for upwards of eight minutes "totally unnecessary" and "uncalled for." During the trial of the fired officer on Friday, the lieutenant roundly condemned the defendant's actions.

He said that "once a person is cuffed, the threat level goes down all the way" and it becomes the officer's responsibility to take care of the person in his charge.





Sherlock

Best of the Web: Hungary sees world record in daily deaths, has highest Covid-19 vaccination rates in Europe

hungary covid
© Zoltan Balogh/MTVA - Media Service Support and Asset Management FundA Hungarian soldier wearing a hazmat suit clears himself after completing the disinfection of a combined kindergarten and elementary school in Budapest, Hungary
Hungary is suffering a devastating surge in COVID-19 deaths, despite the fact it has the highest vaccination rate in the European Union.

It set a new daily death record on Wednesday with 302 fatalities and currently has the highest weekly death rate per one million inhabitants in the world.

The country is in its fourth week of a new round of lockdown measures as the government tried to get hospitalisations and deaths under control.

Comment: A similar correlation between high Covid vaccinations rates, death, infections and serious side effects is evident elsewhere, too:


Syringe

CDC loosens travel restrictions for the fully vaccinated after recent backlash on guidance

Rochelle Walensky
© Reuters / Kevin LamarqueRochelle Walensky prepares to speak at a press conference with Joe Biden in Wilmington, Delaware, December 8, 2020.
People who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 will be able to resume domestic and overseas travel without a mandatory self-quarantine or return testing if they wear masks in public, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has determined.

CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters Friday that the updated guidance is based on new studies that show fully vaccinated people are unlikely to transmit the coronavirus.

"The science on COVID-19 is constantly evolving," she said.

Comment: It sounds like the message is more muddled than what is presented in this article. More from RT:
Vaccinated Americans have been cleared to travel again, per updated CDC guidelines. But agency director Rochelle Walensky insists that they shouldn't. The mixed messaging is the latest Covid-related muddle from Walensky.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a set of updated guidelines on Friday, which allow Americans to travel internationally and domestically without a negative Covid-19 test, as long as they received their last vaccine shot no less than two weeks before departure. Walensky announced the new rules at a White House press conference on Friday.

...

While the news was no doubt well received by frustrated Americans and the beleaguered airline industry, Walensky immediately tempered her optimism.

Despite saying it was "low risk" to do so, Walensky reminded listeners that cases of Covid-19 are on the rise in the US, and regardless of vaccination status, the CDC is still "not recommending travel at this time."

"The science on Covid-19 is constantly evolving," Walensky stated. However, so too is Walensky's messaging. The CDC was forced earlier this week to walk back a statement by the CDC boss on Tuesday, in which she declared that "vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don't get sick, and that is not just in the clinical trials but it's also in real world data."