In Error, Tricare Tells 600K Beneficiaries They've Had COVID-19

More than 600,000 Tricare users in the military health system's East Region received emails Friday asking them to consider donating blood for research as "survivors of COVID-19."

But given that just 31,000 persons affiliated with the U.S. military have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, the email came as a surprise to beneficiaries.

"Just wondering [if] anybody [got] an email from Tricare saying since you are a COVID survivor, please donate your plasma.?? I have NOT been tested," wrote a beneficiary on Facebook. "Just remember all those people inputting data are human and make mistakes."

Humana Military, the company that manages Tricare for part or all of 31 states and the District of Columbia, issued a call to blood donors located near military installations that are collecting plasma from recovered coronavirus patients, also known as convalescent plasma, as a potential treatment for the illness.

But the message went to every beneficiary located near a collection point.

"As a survivor of COVID-19, it's safe to donate whole blood or blood plasma, and your donation could help other COVID-19 patients. Your plasma likely has antibodies (or proteins) present that might help fight the coronavirus infection. Currently, there is no cure for COVID-19. However, there is information that suggests plasma from COVID-19 survivors, like you, might help some patients recover more quickly from COVID-19," the email stated.

Six hours later, Humana issued a mea culpa.

"In an attempt to educate beneficiaries who live close to convalescent plasma donation centers about collection opportunities, you received an email incorrectly suggesting you were a COVID-19 survivor. You have not been identified as a COVID-19 survivor and we apologize for the error and any confusion it may have caused," the company wrote.

Marvin Hill, Humana's corporate communications lead, said the company apologizes "for the confusion caused by the original message," which was sent to recipients based on their proximity to a plasma collection facility and not "on any medical information or diagnosis."

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/07/22/error-tricare-tells-600k-beneficiaries-theyve-had-covid-19.html

>>10046145

They are killing us now

Israeli impunity is coming to an end

The days of Israel’s impunity are dwindling as the International Criminal Court inches closer towards opening a full investigation into war crimes in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

An Israeli diplomatic offensive and sanctions by the US have so far not bullied the court into submission.

A pre-trial chamber’s determination on court jurisdiction in Palestine is expected soon (the ICC just adjourned for the summer holiday and will reconvene in mid-August), and the Israeli government doesn’t anticipate the judges will rule in its favor.

The Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reported this week that Israel is compiling “a secret list of military and intelligence officials who might be subject to arrest abroad” should an ICC investigation proceed.

The paper said it was told the list “now includes between 200 and 300 officials.”

The document remains secret because the ICC “is likely to view a list of names as an official Israeli admission of these officials’ involvement in the incidents under investigation,” Haaretz added.

Likely suspects include top ministers and military brass who oversaw and carried out Israel’s 2014 offensive on the Gaza Strip. Among the senior-ranking potential suspects named by Haaretz are Benjamin Netanyahu and former army chief Benny Gantz, who jointly head Israel’s coalition government.

The list may also include lower-ranking officials involved in the building of West Bank settlements.

The number of personnel liable for war crimes prosecutions only grows larger with each street execution of a Palestinian by Israeli police and military.

“Unarmed and defenseless”

Dozens of human rights groups told the United Nations this week that the perpetrators of the extrajudicial execution of 26-year-old Ahmad Erakat at a checkpoint last month must be held accountable.

Israel said that Erakat had intentionally rammed the checkpoint with his car, causing minor injuries to a soldier. Video of the incident shows that soldiers shot Erakat when he exited his vehicle with hands in the air.

Erakat was running errands ahead of his sister’s wedding when he was slain. The bride “was already wearing her wedding dress when she learned that her brother had been killed,” the rights groups state in the appeal.

Erakat was due to be married in September after his wedding was postponed in May because of the pandemic.

“Clearly unarmed and defenseless,” Erakat was left to bleed to death for around 90 minutes while occupation forces denied him medical care, the rights groups state.

Israeli soldiers present did not provide Erakat with emergency treatment. Ten minutes after the shooting, an Israeli ambulance arrived at the checkpoint. Those medics treated only the lightly injured soldier and did not provide aid to Erakat.

“In treating a wounded Israeli soldier but leaving [Erakat] without medical assistance despite his critical injury, Israel’s conduct amounts to prohibited racial discrimination,” the rights groups add.

Israeli soldiers prevented Palestinian paramedics from reaching Erakat.

Denial of treatment of Palestinians injured by Israeli forces “must be understood as part and parcel of Israel’s widespread and systematic shoot-to-kill policy targeting Palestinians,” the rights groups say.

Until justice is served, there will be yet another Palestinian family bereaved of a son or daughter week after week, month after month, year after year.

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/maureen-clare-murphy/israeli-impunity-coming-end

Dear humans: face masks don’t work; the study-review was published by your very own CDC

Alert to citizens, governors, mayors, presidents, prime ministers, and public health officials—

You want science. You always state that. Well, here is your very own science.

The reference is: “Nonpharmaceutical Measures for Pandemic Influenza in Nonhealthcare Settings—Personal Protective and Environmental Measures.” Published in: “Emerging Infectious Diseases, Vol.26, No. 5, May 2020.” (That journal is published by the CDC.)

I quote from the abstract: “Here, we review the evidence base on the effectiveness of nonpharmaceutical personal protective measures and environmental hygiene measures in non-healthcare settings and discuss their potential inclusion in pandemic plans. Although mechanistic studies [*] support the potential effect of hand hygiene or face masks, evidence from 14 randomized controlled trials of these measures did not support a substantial effect on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza. We similarly found limited evidence on the effectiveness of improved hygiene and environmental cleaning.”

Here are quotes from pages 970-972 of the review: “In our systematic review, we identified 10 RCTs [randomized controlled trials] that reported estimates of the effectiveness of face masks in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infections in the community from literature published during 1946–July 27, 2018. In pooled analysis, we found no significant reduction in influenza transmission with the use of face masks…”

“Disposable medical masks (also known as surgical masks) are loose-fitting devices that were designed to be worn by medical personnel to protect accidental contamination of patient wounds, and to protect the wearer against splashes or sprays of bodily fluids… There is limited evidence for their effectiveness in preventing influenza virus transmission either when worn by the infected person for source control or when worn by uninfected persons to reduce exposure. Our systematic review found no significant effect of face masks on transmission of laboratory-confirmed influenza.”

“In this review, we did not find evidence to support a protective effect of personal protective measures or environmental measures in reducing influenza transmission.”

“We did not find evidence that surgical-type face masks are effective in reducing laboratory-confirmed influenza transmission, either when worn by infected persons (source control) or by persons in the general community to reduce their susceptibility…”

[*] In case you want to quibble about the value of what the authors refer to as “mechanistic studies,” the authors are correctly setting those studies off to the side, in favor of the material they preferred to examine: randomized controlled trials—which are widely considered to be more valuable, relevant, and meaningful.

So there you have it.

Your science.

Take off your masks. Governors and mayors and presidents and prime ministers, cancel the orders to wear masks. You’re non-scientific. In the extreme.

SOURCE:

https://www.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/19-0994_article

https://www.cdc.gov/eid/article/26/5/pdfs/19-0994.pdf

https://blog.nomorefakenews.com/2020/07/20/face-masks-dont-work-study-published-by-your-very-own-cdc/

Pompeo: China ‘Bought’ the WHO, Responsible for British Coronavirus Deaths

The Secretary of State for the United States, Mike Pompeo, reportedly said that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) “bought” the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), adding that the Tedros’s leadership has resulted in “dead Britons” during the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Pompeo is said to have made the accusations against WHO Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in a meeting with a bipartisan group of British MPs from the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China during his visit to London on Monday.

The Secretary of State said that the United States had a “firm intelligence foundation” to make the claim that the Chinese “bought” Tedros, per multiple sources quoted by The Times.

According to The Telegraph, Mr Pompeo also compared the World Health Organization to the United Nations Human Rights Council, saying that the international body is a “political, not a science-based organisation”.

Mr Pompeo reportedly said that “when push came to shove, when it really mattered most”, people had died “because of the deal that was made”, referring to the alleged collusion between the CCP and the WHO, which he claimed resulted in “dead Britons” from their failures to contain the Wuhan-born virus.

Disgraceful https://t.co/IdX2myuS71

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 3, 2020

The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is a member of a Marxist-Leninist Ethiopian party. When he served as the foreign minister of the country, he organised partnerships with the Chinese Communist Party under Beijing’s debt trap diplomatic programme, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which saw Ethiopian debt to China massively increase.

The Marxist’s ascension to become the head of the World Health Organization was backed by China, despite him not being a medical doctor, a first in the organisation’s history.

A report from the German newspaper Der Spiegel claimed that the Chinese dictator, Xi Jinping, personally called Tedros, demanding that the WHO delay declaring the Wuhan virus a pandemic, as well as discouraging him from telling the world that about person-to-person transmission of the virus.

Tedros finally declared that the Chinese coronavirus was a pandemic on March 11th — months after the initial outbreak — just one day after Xi Jinping visited Wuhan for the first time since the beginning of the epidemic.

According to Johns Hopkins University, to date, some 45,507 British people have died as a result of the Chinese coronavirus.

The WHO denied the conversation between Tedros and Xi took place.

China Lied, People Died: Five Eyes Report Details CCP Coronavirus Cover-up https://t.co/sHLCxA7ZRt

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 2, 2020

During his meeting with MPs in London, Mr Pompeo also revealed that the United States government had shared intelligence on Chinese officials that are said to be involved in the mass internment of Uighur Muslims in the Chinese province of Xinjiang.

Mr Pompeo said that “the intelligence has now been shared. All but a little bit was Five Eyes”, in reference to the intelligence alliance that is comprised of the UK, the U.S., Australia, Canada, and New Zealand.

The move by the U.S. to provide evidence of the humanitarian crisis committed by the communist party is seen as an effort to increase pressure on the UK to speed up imposing sanctions on Chinese officials. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has suggested that it may take months to build the evidentiary basis to impose sanctions.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/22/pompeo-china-bought-who-responsible-british-coronavirus-deaths/

Miami Enforcing Mandatory Face Coverings with Dedicated Unit

Miami, the area of Florida hit hardest by the Chinese coronavirus, is doubling down on its mask order, reportedly deploying a team of dedicated police officers to enforce the requirements.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos A. Gimenez announced the updated mask order on July 1, requiring masks “in all public spaces inside and outdoors throughout Miami-Dade County.” The order essentially expanded on his April mask order, requiring coverings to be worn outdoors “with few exceptions.”

Penalties for non-compliance include up to $500 in fines or jail time.

City officials are now looking to ramp up enforcement, reportedly dedicating a team of 39 police officers to back the mandate, according to the Sun-Sentinel. The first three offenses will come with a fine of $50, $100, and $500 depending on if it was a first, second, or third violation. After that, the individual can face jail time.

Miami-Dade has been hit hardest by the virus, comprising roughly 24 percent of Florida’s total cases, 25 percent of the state’s overall coronavirus-related fatalities, and 22 percent of total hospitalizations. A Wednesday morning snapshot from the state’s Agency for Health Care Administration showed that 2,011 are hospitalized in Miami-Dade with the “primary diagnosis” of the novel coronavirus, of 9,530 statewide.

While there are several reports of individual Miami-area hospitals running out of adult ICU beds, adult bed capacity across the county showed 18.52 percent availability, with the availability of adult ICU beds standing at 13.54 percent as of Wednesday morning.

Florida reported 9,785 additional cases of the virus on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative total to 379,619. The state has reported 5,345 related fatalities, bringing the mortality rate to 1.4 percent.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/22/miami-cracking-down-on-mandatory-face-coverings-with-mask-enforcement-unit/

UK Govt Loaning Troops to Oman to Prop up Dictatorship

91 British operatives, paid for by the Sultan of Oman, wearing Omani uniforms, but still remaining part of the British military, hold key positions, training and leading local forces to help the monarchy stay in power.

The United Kingdom keeps dozens of army operatives — “respectable mercenaries” in its own words — to help prop up the Omani dictatorship, a new report from the investigative team at Declassified U.K. has found. Rooted in half a century of covert cooperation between the two countries that receives virtually no public attention, 91 British operatives, paid for by the Sultan of Oman, wearing Omani uniforms, but still remaining part of the British military, hold key positions, training and leading local forces to help the monarchy stay in power.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has refused to inform parliament on what the rules of engagement are for these secret soldiers, leading to increased speculation, particularly over the roles of the air force pilots in the country flying the 12 extremely costly, British-made Typhoon fighter jets Oman purchased in 2012 for 3.75 billion U.S. Dollars. Neither Britain’s Royal Air Force nor arms manufacturer BAE Systems would tell investigative journalist Phil Miller, who broke the story, if the pilots were contracted to fly the planes at times of conflict.

https://www.mintpressnews.com/respectable-mercenaries-uk-govt-loaning-troops-oman-prop-dictatorship/269639/

Steve Daines: Republican Senate Majority a ‘Firewall for Freedom’

Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) told Breitbart News Daily that the Senate Republican majority is the “firewall for freedom” from leftists such as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D), his campaign opponent.

Daines spoke to Breitbart News Daily host Alex Marlow about his efforts to defend his seat from Bullock during the 2020 Senate elections.

While polls have shown a close race between him and Bullock, Daines says his oppoenent’s slide to the left and unwillingness to protect Montana’s values would help him as the state approaches its Senate election in November.

He told Breitbart News Daily, “Well, first of all, he has been our governor now for two terms. This is his eighth year as governor; he is well known, the economy in Montana has been doing well. I was the first Republican U.S. senator elected to this seat in 101 years. So Montanans go down to ballots, and they vote in much according to who they think is going to protect Montana values more so than what party they represent. But, let me just tell you something simple in this race: I will fight for our Montana values, and Steve Bullock is too liberal. This is about protecting who we are as Montanans and our way of life. My liberal opponent Steve Bullock won’t do that.”

Daines said that he had served Montana as a staunch conservative, while Bullock has increasingly adopted leftist positions that run counter to Montana’s values.

“Let me share some contrast: I am a staunch defender of the Second Amendment. He wants to take people’s guns away, he said on national TV, while he was running for president he wanted to ban semiautomatic firearms. I think Montanans’ jaw dropped when he said that. I stand with President Trump on securing our borders. He’s pro-sanctuary cities. I want to build the Keystone XL pipeline, in fact, that comes through Montana. He doesn’t. I wanted to dismiss that sham impeachment, and I voted not to impeach the president; Steve Bullock wanted him impeached and removed from office. The list goes on and on, Alex.”

https://www.breitbart.com/radio/2020/07/22/steve-daines-republican-senate-majority-firewall-freedom/

Top Tory Calls for ‘Alliance of the Free World’ to Challenge China

Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, has called for an urgent “alliance of the free world” to stand up to China’s authoritarian regime.

The Brexiteer and chairman of the Sino-sceptic Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China said that the West must unite in its condemnation of China, calling the communist nation “a far greater threat” than Russia.

Writing in The Telegraph on Tuesday, Mr Duncan Smith warned that the threat posed by China has increased in recent months — Hong Kong security laws; the oppression of Uighur and Falun Gong minorities; expansionism in the South China Sea and threats against Taiwan — making the need for an alliance against the “totalitarian regime” more urgent.

“While the UK has begun to toughen its position, government after government has in effect kow-towed apologetically. A picture of the Chinese regime, all-powerful at home and aggressive abroad, is enough to leave Western governments fearful of upsetting them,” he wrote.

The UK has become emboldened to confront China, with Boris Johnson calling for an independent inquiry into the outbreak of coronavirus following China’s coverup and the prime minister recently reversing his decision to allow Huawei to build Britain’s 5G over security concerns.

However, Johnson’s Huawei decision may not have occurred had it not been for pressure from the China Research Group, another group comprised solely of Tory MPs that led the Conservative rebellion against the prime minister’s initial judgment.

Farage Compares Communist China to Nazi Germany over Treatment of Minorities, Dissenting Voices https://t.co/b5TsLZsZTn

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 20, 2020

The importance of these Sino-sceptic bodies and the weight they hold in international circles was demonstrated this week when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo chose to meet first with the cross-party Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China during his UK visit, rather than the foreign secretary or the prime minister, both of whom he met after.

Reflecting on the meeting, its chairman said: “What struck me most was the sense of agreement around the room – we are not engaged in Sinophobia, and we do want to engage with China, but Beijing cannot be allowed to set the terms. The terrible human rights abuses, the disregard of the rules governing the free market and the aggression against its neighbours have to be called out.”

Mr Duncan Smith continued: “…what came out loud and clear from the meeting was the desire of the United States to work with its friends and allies, particularly with the UK. For if we are to ensure that our hard-fought liberties and freedoms are not to be trampled on and the terrible lessons of the past are to be heeded, we need an alliance of the free world and urgently.”

The leading Tory had echoed Mr Pompeo’s desire for a “coalition” of democratic nations that recognise the “threat” posed by China.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/07/22/top-tory-calls-alliance-free-world-challenge-china/

Report: Netanyahu has decided to go to new elections in November

Sources close to PM cited by newspaper say he won’t allow budget to pass by August deadline, leading to new national vote; reportedly fears courts will ban him from post over trial

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decided not to pass the 2020 state budget by August as required, leading to a new election in November, Haaretz reports, citing sources who have spoken to the premier.

The sources claimed Netanyahu is seeking to create a sense that there is chaos in the coalition to shore up public support for breaking up the current coalition.

The report further says Netanyahu made the decision after the Jerusalem District Court ruled that it will begin to hear testimony from witnesses in his criminal cases in January 2021, with hearings to be held three times a week. The premier is said to fear that petitions to the High Court will demand he be prevented from serving in his post while focused on his trial, and that such appeals will be accepted by the court.

Netanyahu plans to take control of the Justice Ministry after such an election to help his legal prospects, the report says.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog-july-22-2020/

Wray Protects Senior FBI Official Who Watched Child Porn — and WORSE — Of Girls As Young As 9 Years Old

A senior FBI intelligence analyst admitted during a polygraph test that he viewed child pornography of girls as young as nine years old, according to a report of the investigation.

The analyst, who is not identified in the report, was fired from the FBI, but the Justice Department and its child exploitation unit declined to file criminal charges against him.

The report goes into greater detail about the investigation into the analyst than did a summary of the probe released by the Justice Department’s inspector general in April.

That summary said that the supervisory intelligence analyst (SIA) admitted to viewing and downloading child pornography several years earlier, but did not give any other details about the nature of the content.

The report paints a more disturbing picture of the analyst’s activities.

The analyst admitted during a routine counterintelligence polygraph that “viewing and downloading of girls ranging in age between 9 and 17,” the report said.

The analyst “admitted to masturbating” to child pornography, said the report, which is dated Feb. 21.

https://truepundit.com/wray-protects-senior-fbi-official-who-watched-child-porn-and-worse-of-girls-as-young-as-9-years-old/

NBA Will Shutter Chinese Training Center

League operated center in same city as Muslim concentration camps

The NBA announced Tuesday that it has terminated its relationship with a league-run training academy in Xinjiang, China—the region in which the communist nation is reportedly holding roughly one million Uyghur Muslims in concentration camps.

The announcement follows a June 30 letter from Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. Blackburn highlighted the league’s operation of an NBA academy in Xinjiang, which Blackburn described as "one of the world’s worst humanitarian zones."

The Tennessee Republican detailed ongoing atrocities in the region. Her letter noted that the "800,000 and possibly more than 2 million Uyghurs and ethnic Kazakhs" detained in Xinjiang concentration camps endure "torture, physical abuse, and prolonged detention without trial." The letter also said China used "sterilization treatments and forced abortions in a barbaric attempt to reduce Uyghur birth rates."

"The NBA reportedly continues to operate a training center [in] Xinjiang," Blackburn wrote. "What steps is the NBA taking to shutter this location?"

NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum responded to Blackburn’s letter Tuesday, writing that the league "has had no involvement with the Xinjiang basketball academy for more than a year, and the relationship has been terminated."

Blackburn praised the league's decision to "abandon its footprint in Xinjiang," calling it "the right way to condemn Chinese oppression." However, the GOP senator criticized Tatum's response to scrutiny over the league’s relationship with Chinese tech giant Alibaba, which Blackburn described as a "state-owned enterprise."

Tatum revealed that the league has a "multi-year contractual relationship" with the company and downplayed its ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), noting that "Alibaba is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and Hong Kong Stock Exchange, and most shares are held by institutional investors." Alibaba’s founder and former chairman, Jack Ma, is a CCP member. Blackburn said the league’s continued partnership with the company "remains a cause for concern."

"Chinese companies are notorious for stealing American intellectual property and technology, and these thefts have cost our businesses billions of dollars," Blackburn said in a statement. "The NBA’s continued financial relationship with Alibaba requires a closer look."

https://freebeacon.com/national-security/nba-will-shutter-chinese-training-center/

The Rival Iraqi Jewish Clans Who Changed the Face of Shanghai

The Sassoons and Kadoories created huge, competing business empires, helped open China to the West and aided Jewish refugees in Shanghai during the Shoah – but their fates differed greatly, as revealed in a new book

The chefs were French, the managers Swiss, the jazz musicians American. In the 1930s, the Majestic was Asia’s most luxurious hotel. The world’s high and mighty would stop over in Shanghai just to spend a night there. International celebrities made the gleaming hotel a regular stop on their trips to the region.

But then another hotel – the Cathay – was built in the city, and overnight the Majestic became a second-class place. In the Cathay the carpets were brought in from France, the rugs from Japan, the armchairs from India. Crystal chandeliers adorned the corridors, and a spectacular mosaic ceiling welcomed guests in the lobby. The Cathay was “one of the most luxurious hostelries in the world, rivaling the best in Manhattan,” Fortune magazine gushed in 1935.

The battle between the two luxury hotels embodied the rivalry between their proprietors: two wealthy families that both managed economic empires in Shanghai. They also had something else in common: Their roots were in the Jewish community of Baghdad.

The Sassoon and Kadoorie families were two dynasties, linked by blood ties, who had immigrated to China a century earlier and established flourishing businesses. They owned prestigious buildings and controlled a wide range of industries – from gas and infrastructures to banks, a casino and, in the case of one of them, also the local opium trade. They transformed Shanghai into an international mecca of tourism, commerce and leisure during the interwar period. They changed the face of the city – and of China.

The Sassoons and the Kadoories “played an important role in opening China to the world,” says journalist and writer Jonathan Kaufman, whose newly published book, “The Last Kings of Shanghai,” tells the story of the two families.

“In the 1920s and 1930s,” Kaufman writes, “middle-class and wealthy Chinese flocked to Shanghai, drawn by economic opportunity and a life unavailable anywhere else in China: glamorous department stores, hotels, nightclubs, gambling casinos.” The city the Sassoons and the Kadoories helped to shape “inspired and enabled a generation of Chinese businessmen to be successful capitalists and entrepreneurs.”

Kaufman, a former reporter and editor for the Boston Globe, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, and currently director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism, spent six years working on the book, traveling the globe to pore through archives, and speak to relatives, acquaintances and Chinese government officials, to trace the history of the two families.

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium.MAGAZINE-the-rival-iraqi-jewish-clans-who-changed-the-face-of-shanghai-1.8999365

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>>10046406

At the same time, there were people in England, especially missionaries but also from other groups, who urged that opium be outlawed. Still, Kaufman says, “it’s clear to me from reading through the papers in their archives that the Sassoons, like British businessmen and rulers, looked upon the Chinese as second-class citizens, so the devastation opium was inflicting on people who were addicted didn’t matter, because they were Chinese.”

In the Sassoons’ case, he sums up, “the moral balance-sheet has to say that they knew they were selling a product that was addictive and caused great damage, but it was legal and they decided to go ahead with it.”

Indeed, the family fought the British authorities’ intention to outlaw opium.

“Under pressure from anti-opium groups, the British government set up a Royal Opium Commission in India in 1893,” Kaufman writes. “Testifying before the commission, representatives of the Sassoons insisted that, if used in moderation, opium was safe. It was ‘a mere entertainment activity for the upper classes,’ one Sassoon executive declared, while another added that ‘if taken moderately opium was very beneficial.’ … Indeed, ‘the Chinese who smoked or imbibed opium were better behaved, quieter, and far more sensible than those addicted to alcoholic drinks,’ the Sassoons declared.”

In their effort to block the outlawing of opium, the Sassoons went all the way to the heir apparent to the British throne, the future King Edward VII (1901-10). Family members went on the prince’s cruises, in various places, entertained him, provided his favorite foods and spent nights at card games and dance parties.

The moment David Sassoon settled in the city, in the 1840s, he created a local Jewish community from scratch, becoming a one-man immigrant absorption ministry.

“Most important,” Kaufman continues, “they helped cover his gambling debts,” in part by enabling the prince to acquire opium stock in India and “reaping a profit when it sold in Shanghai.” In fact, “the family made [him] so much money that he joked that he should appoint Reuben Sassoon… as his chancellor of the exchequer, Great Britain’s treasury secretary.”

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>>10046448

Says Kaufman, about all these eye-popping construction projects: “The Kadoories had come up from nothing. I think it was their way of announcing their arrival and showing they were influential. They had the biggest mansion in Shanghai, which meant that when Charles Lindbergh flew to Shanghai, they gave a party for him. This was something they probably learned from traveling to England: that a lot of business was done in social settings. The fact that the Kadoories and the Sassoons ran the best hotels and gave the best parties was a way to connect with the elites. When you look at the private papers of the British, what I found out was that they were deeply antisemitic. And how do the Sassoons and the Kadoories cope with that? They could get angry, but instead they decide to give the best parties, the best entertainment, [thinking] we’ll work with people and force them to dine with us and do deals with us. They become the center of social life in Shanghai, it’s a

With their luxury hotels and glittery soirees, both the Sassoons and the Kadoories made a critical contribution to turning mundane Shanghai into a lively, attractive, colorful city – a kind of cross between New York and Paris, Monte Carlo and London. Kaufman quotes from the diary of Elly’s son Lawrence Kadoorie, written years later: “There never was and never will be another city like Shanghai between the two wars. A city of extreme contrasts, combining the attributes of East and West… Shanghai was a place where one could dance all night, go riding at 6 o’clock in the morning, work all day and yet not feel tired.”

But the Kadoorie family’s investment portfolio contained more than just luxury hotels and prestigious high-rises. Elly Kadoorie was one of the first to identify the vast, latent potential in China, and to a large degree also in Hong Kong, and began to invest in infrastructure there. These encompassed railways, mining companies and above all China Light and Power, which he established together with Chinese investors, Kaufman explains. The company supplied – and continues to supply – power to South China and to a large part of Hong Kong. In Shanghai, Kadoorie did something similar, investing in gas companies, construction firms and transportation. He believed in the city’s potential to grow and rightly decided to invest in its infrastructure.

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Israel and Iran both set to join Russia-led free trade zone

12 February 2019

After two rounds of negotiations, Jerusalem close to agreement with Eurasian Economic Union; separately, Tehran also set to sign deal ‘in the near future’

Israel is set to sign a free-trade agreement with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in the near future, according to officials in Moscow and Jerusalem.

Incidentally, Iran is also in advanced talks about creating a free trade zone with the union, known as EAEU. However, each country would sign its own free-trade agreement (FTA) with the union, which would mean that Jerusalem would not be able to trade freely with Tehran, or other states signing similar agreements.

“The negotiations with the EAEU were launched in Moscow in April 2018, following positive results of a comprehensive Joint Feasibility Study conducted by the parties,” a spokesperson for the Economy Ministry told The Times of Israel on Monday.

Hollander, Pool/File)

Israel is set to sign a free-trade agreement with the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union in the near future, according to officials in Moscow and Jerusalem.

Incidentally, Iran is also in advanced talks about creating a free trade zone with the union, known as EAEU. However, each country would sign its own free-trade agreement (FTA) with the union, which would mean that Jerusalem would not be able to trade freely with Tehran, or other states signing similar agreements.

“The negotiations with the EAEU were launched in Moscow in April 2018, following positive results of a comprehensive Joint Feasibility Study conducted by the parties,” a spokesperson for the Economy Ministry told The Times of Israel on Monday.

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“The agreement will cover various aspects of trade in goods, such as rules of origin, customs cooperation, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, e-commerce, dispute settlement, and others.”

Tehran’s ambassador to Moscow Mehdi Sanaei said Friday that he expects the Iranian parliament to ratify the free-trade agreement with the EAEU “in the near future,” according to Iran’s Mehr news agency.

“The agreement is very important for Iran… because it opens the gates to a big market for our country, and also opens the Iranian market to Russia and northern countries,” he said.

Asked what significance, if any, Iran’s joining the EAEU free trade zone would have for Israel, the ministry spokesperson referred this reporter to the Prime Minister’s Office. The PMO did not respond to a query by the time of publication.

“The State of Israel supports increasing the economic pressure on Iran so that it will change its behavior,” a senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel, speaking on condition of anonymity and declining to elaborate.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-and-iran-both-set-to-join-russia-led-free-trade-zone/

German Prosecutors Arrest Two More Former Wirecard Executives, Ex-CEO Back In Custody

The former executives are accused of forming an organized criminal enterprise designed to cheat creditors out of billions of euros

Prosecutors plan to charge them with organized commercial criminal fraud, breach of trust, false accounting and market manipulation

Forner COO Jan Marsalek may be in Russia

Prosecutors in Germany arrested two more former executives of bankrupt payment processing firm Wirecard AG on Wednesday while re-arresting the company’s former chief executive officer.

Officials in Munich said they suspect the former executives of forming an organized criminal enterprise designed to cheat creditors out of billions of euros based on fake accounts.

Wirecard’s former Chief Executive Markus Braun, along with the former chief financial officer and chief accounting officer are now being held in custody.

Under German privacy laws, the latter two executives could not be named – Braun was named since he is already a well known public figure in Germany.

Prosecutors plan to charge them with organized commercial criminal fraud, breach of trust, false accounting and market manipulation.

Anne Leiding, a spokeswoman for the Munich State Prosecutor’s Office, said the three are alleged to have conspired to inflate company revenues by forging nonexistent business with third-party partners. This misconduct created a false impression of a financially strong company which eventually allowed Wirecard to borrow some 3.2 billion euros ($3.7 billion) from various banks.

“In reality it was clear, at the latest by the end of 2015, that Wirecard’s real business was losing money,” Leiding said.

https://www.ibtimes.com/german-prosecutors-arrest-two-more-former-wirecard-executives-ex-ceo-back-custody-3015462

Senators Demand Answers From Trump Administration on Expired Surveillance Operations

Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) are asking the Trump administration to provide information on whether and how it has ended surveillance programs authorized under several provisions of a federal intelligence law that have since expired.

Leahy and Lee wrote to Attorney General William Barr and Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday raising their concerns that the departments may still be continuing their surveillance activities by relying on Executive Order 12333 after three surveillance tools under the USA Freedom Act, a 2015 intelligence law, expired in March.

Previous administrations have “tenuously relied” on Executive Order 12333—issued in 1981—to conduct surveillance without statutory authorization or congressional oversight, the senators said. With the expiry of the three key authorities—commonly known as the roving wiretap, lone wolf, and business records—they were worried that the Trump administration may be relying on the executive order’s inherent power to continue its surveillance operations.

“This would constitute a system of surveillance with no congressional oversight potentially resulting in programmatic Fourth Amendment violations at a tremendous scale,” the senators wrote in their letter (pdf).

They also added they believe relying on the power of Executive Order 12333 to conduct surveillance would be “plainly illegal.”

“The rights of all Americans depend on their government exercising its power responsibly, adhering to the rule of law, and upholding its duty to act transparently.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/senators-demands-answers-from-trump-admin-on-expired-surveillance-operations_3434156.html

Yale professor says hydroxychloroquine could save 100,000 lives — but it's being stifled by a 'propaganda war'

Yale epidemiology professor Dr. Harvey Risch said Tuesday that he believes the President Trump-touted drug, hydroxychloroquine, could save up to 100,000 lives if used properly to treat the coronavirus.

Speaking with Fox News' Laura Ingraham Monday night, Risch insisted that the controversial drug is proven to be effective against the disease and safe for people to use, but lamented that it has become the victim of a "propaganda war."

"It's a political drug now, not a medical drug," Risch said. "I think we are basically fighting a propaganda war against the medical facts, and that colors not just population people, how they think about it, but doctors, as well.

"There are many doctors that I've gotten hostile remarks [from] saying that all the evidence is bad for it and, in fact, that is not true at all," he said. "All the evidence is actually good for it when it's used in outpatient uses.

"Nevertheless, the only people who actually see that are a whole pile of doctors who are actually on the front lines treating those patients across the country — and they are the ones who are at risk of being forced not to do it."

All in all, Risch asserted that "75,000 to 100,000 lives would be saved" if the drug was used widely and perhaps as a prophylactic, meaning in a preventative manner.

Risch, who is a researcher at the Yale School of Public Health, published a study into the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine in early June and concluded that the drug should be made "widely available."

At the time, he said that the drug, in combination with "azithromycin or doxycycline and probably with zinc," could serve as a "game changer" in the fight against the pandemic.

Hydroxychloroquine was touted by President Trump early on in the pandemic despite warnings from some public health officials that the drug's effectiveness against COVID-19 was anecdotal. Ever since, it has become a hot-button political issue.

After fast-tracking approval in March, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration pulled its emergency use authorization in June after studies showed it was ineffective and potentially dangerous.

One of the major studies causing concern, however, was retracted after the data it was based on was found to be inaccurate.

Since then, a new study conducted by the Henry Ford Health System found that "treatment with hydroxychloroquine cut the death rate significantly in sick patients hospitalized with COVID-19."

http://www.hideoutnow.com/2020/07/yale-professor-says-hydroxychloroquine.html

Chinese Embassy in US Reportedly Received Bomb Threats Over Phone

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying on Wednesday lashed out at the US government for the bomb and death threats which have been made against the Chinese embassy in Washington.

In a Twitter post made hours after Washingtom moved to shut down China's consulate in Houston, Texas, she said that the US government has been fanning smears and hatred against the Chinese.

The Chinese embassy in the United States has received bomb threats from an unknown caller, the Paper media outlet reported on Wednesday, citing an informed source, amid the rising tensions between Washington and Beijing.

According to the news portal, the diplomatic mission’s visa office received phone calls from an unknown man on Monday. The caller reportedly spoke in English and hung up after the embassy staff answered the phone.

"Chinese Embassy Visa Office?" the caller asked, as cited by the media outlet. After hearing a positive response, the man continued, "do you know what’s in your lobby?"

He then simulated the sound of an explosion and hung up, the portal added.

According to the source, the embassy also received a threatening letter on 21 March. Chinese diplomatic institutions and personnel have received an increased number of threats and insults recently, after which the Chinese Embassy and Consulates General in the United States have beefed up security measures.

US sanctions against China's tech giant, Huawei, for allegedly working with the Chinese government have sparked a new diplomatic confrontation between the two countries. Huawei has rejected the claims as unjustified and politically motivated and said they contradict competitive practices. Washington has demanded that Beijing close its diplomatic mission in Houston. The media subsequently reported that China was considering closing the US consulate in Wuhan in response.

https://sputniknews.com/us/202007221079956857-chinese-embassy-in-us-reportedly-received-bomb-threats-over-phone/

Jews controlling the Australian collapse

Facebook's Neutral "Fact Checkers" Exposed As Ex-CNN Staffers And Democratic Donors

Today in news about the radical left-wing censorship machines our social media companies have become, it was exposed this week that Facebook's fact-checker, Lead Stories, is an outfit that is stocked to the brim with ex-CNN staffers.

The organization presents itself as neutral yet "most of its employees" have donated to the Democratic party, according to RT.

The National Pulse reached out to Facebook's fact checkers this week after a story they published about Black Lives Matter was flagged as "partly false" by the platform. This led TNP to "do some digging" on who was behind the smear.

What they found was stunning: an organization "staffed almost entirely by Democratic donors, half of whom had worked for CNN in the past."

https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/facebooks-neutral-fact-checkers-exposed-ex-cnn-staffers-and-democratic-donors

Jordan: Obama Biden Admin Had No Proper Predicate For FBI Trump Probe. There Must Be Indictments.

Rep. Jim Jordan told Fox News Wednesday that former FBI and Obama officials must be held accountable for dragging the nation through four years of turmoil in an investigation against President Donald Trump and his campaign that in “their own words” was not predicated on any real evidence.

Jordan, the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, said the “Obama- Biden intelligence community told us” they didn’t have any evidence showing the Trump campaign was conspiring with Russia. The investigation into Trump was purely political and based on lies, he added.

Senior Obama officials worked against congressional investigations to hide the truth from the American people, Jordan said. He added “they didn’t want to tell us – but thanks to Rick Grenell who released their sworn testimony we have all what they said.”

Grenell, who recently served as the acting Director of National Intelligence, declassified and released a mountain of congressional testimony from former Obama officials that revealed they had no predicate to believe Trump, nor anyone in his campaign, was conspiring with Russia in the 2016 election.

Jordan pointed to testimony from former national security advisor Susan Rice, who was intimately involved in the FBI’s probe into Trump, stating that there was never any evidence of a conspiracy. Moreover, he noted that former Obama DNI James Clapper also admitted there was no evidence of a conspiracy. Still, both Rice and Clapper, along with Obama’s other top officials, continued to investigate Trump and propagate lies in the media that the campaign had somehow colluded with Russian intelligence officials.

“Let’s hope John Durham has some indictments coming real soon,” said Jordan, noting that Durham’s investigation has criminal prosecution power. Jordan said there should absolutely be indictments against FBI officials, like former FBI agent Peter Strzok and others, who falsified information to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to spy on Trump campaign advisor Carter Page.

He noted that Attorney General William Barr, among others, believe that there were members of the FBI, and possibly senior officials within the Obama administration, that were aware illegal spying was taking place on a political opponent.

Jordan also stressed that DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s investigation uncovered that the FBI agents involved in obtaining Page’s FISA warrant, lied to the FISA court 17 times.

Watch the interview with Jordan below:

The Obama-Biden-Comey Cabal spied on President Trump’s campaign.

They knew Michael Flynn would figure it out. So they destroyed his life.

Thank goodness the cover-up didn’t work. But there must be consequences. pic.twitter.com/BKqiJr5d5Z

— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) July 22, 2020

https://saraacarter.com/jordan-obama-biden-admin-told-us-there-was-no-proper-predicate-for-fbi-trump-probe/

Soros’ Sophistry and the Fight to Shape a New Economic Science

In my previous articles The Great Reset Fraud and Putin’s Anti-Fascist Open System and You, I made the point that the trans-Atlantic System’s meltdown has precipitated a flood of “false solutions” promoted by those same arsonists who have done much to set it ablaze under a post-industrial bubble economy over many decades.

The form of these false solutions has taken the form of the Green New Deal which proposes to use the two fold economic crisis/COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate the transition into a de-carbonized world order driven by around green energy grids, cap and trade/carbon tax schemes and general population reduction. The insipid outlook behind this paradigm is rooted in a devout misanthropy aims at solving humanity’s problems by establishing technocratically management post-nation state regime.

The other paradigm advanced by Presidents Putin and Xi Jinping is in simple terms, a Multi-polar alliance under the guiding spirit of the Belt and Road/Polar Silk Road. Based upon their words and actions, both leaders have committed to open system models premised around the view that resources and growth are only as limited as the cognitive powers of the members of their nations. Vast megaprojects driven by high-speed rail, water programs, and space development highlight in practice just how their anti-Malthusian view has expressed itself in real time as 135 nations have already joined the framework at various levels and hundreds of millions have been lifted out of poverty.

The Institute for New Economic Thinking

Today, I would like to address an often overlooked but highly important part of those false solutions in a bit more detail. This will unfortunately involve looking into the disturbing mind of George Soros and an Oxford-based organization which this billionaire, regime-change-funding, world-government-loving, anti-nation state creep co-founded in 2008 entitled the Institute For New Economic Thinking (INET).

Founded in 2008, the Institute for New Economic Thinking was designed to absorb young creative minds who might otherwise make actual discoveries in economic science into a controlled environment where they would be granted an apparent (but not actual) freedom and funding. In this environment, they would be free to innovate new alternative theories of economics as long as they adopted certain specific assumptions and axioms conducive to oligarchical societies committed to zero growth/closed system thinking.

The idea behind INET was simple: The crash of 2008-2009 all but guaranteed that new ideas would be searched for to put out the impending fire as sheep would awaken in droves under the chaos of the ruined order, and a wide net had to be created to capture all the fish leaping out of the pond in search of new ideas.

Other co-founders included Jim Balsillie, and William Janeway while the former INEP chairman is none other than Lord Adair Turner.

Balsillie is a Canadian billionaire who ran the Canadian Roundtable Group renamed the Canadian International Council (CIC) after it merged with his Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI) in 2007. Working in tandem with the American Chatham House (aka: the CFR), Balsillie said in 2007:

George Soros Talks With Rob Johnson

https://youtu.be/0DL7aFbsD-A

More

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2020/07/22/soros-sophistry-and-the-fight-to-shape-a-new-economic-science/

Australian ships confronted by Chinese navy in South China Sea

The Chinese navy has confronted Australian warships in the South China Sea during a voyage that saw them sail close to contested islands claimed by Beijing.

The ABC has learnt an Australian Defence Force joint task group consisting of five warships last week travelled through the disputed waterways, including close to the Spratly Islands, which China claims as its own.

It is understood the Australian warships did not come within 12 nautical miles of the contested islands, unlike American warships, which have recently conducted freedom of navigation exercises to challenge Beijing's territorial claims.

In a statement, Defence insisted all "unplanned interactions with foreign warships throughout the deployment were conducted in a safe and professional manner".

The Australian warships, led by HMAS Canberra, were transiting through the increasingly tense region as they made their way to the Philippine Sea for training exercises with the American and Japanese navies.

Soon HMAS Canberra, HMAS Hobart, HMAS Stuart, HMAS Arunta and HMAS Sirius will arrive in Hawaii for larger military war games known as RIMPAC.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-23/australian-warships-confronted-by-chinese-navy-south-china-sea/12481514