UK Officially Admits Its Test And Trace Program is Unlawful, Breaches Citizens’ Privacy

LONDON – The UK government admitted its contact tracing program is unlawful in a legal letter which confirms it has been running in breach of data protection laws since it was launched in May. Confirmation the program failed to adhere to privacy regulations comes as Sky News can reveal that contractors working for NHS Test and Trace have been told they may be fired following reports of dozens of staff sharing patients’ confidential data on social media.

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According to the legal letter, the government did not conduct a data privacy impact assessment (DPIA) which is required to ensure that breaches of patients’ information don’t take place. The letter was sent in response to a legal challenge brought by Open Rights Group (ORG) against the government for failing to confirm whether it had met the required safeguards for the program.

In the letter, which has been seen by Sky News, the government’s lawyers accept that the government was legally required to have a completed DPIA at the time Test and Trace launched on May 28. The lawyers add that a single one covering the whole of the project has still not been completed, but was being worked on and that a number of DPIAs covering different parts of it were in place.

A Spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care claimed the program is “not being used unlawfully” and that it was “only handling NHS patients’ data”, claiming, “There is no evidence of data being used unlawfully.” They stressed that the contact-tracing program had been “developed quickly as part of the public health emergency caused by the pandemic”.

“NHS Test and Trace is committed to the highest ethical and data governance standards – collecting, using, and retaining data to fight the virus and save lives, while taking full account of all relevant legal obligations,” they added.

The spokesperson did not respond when asked whether a report in The Sunday Times, which found Test and Trace workers were sharing patients’ confidential data on social media sites, was evidence of data being used unlawfully. Sky News has seen internal communications from NHS Test and Trace warning contractors that “patient identifiable information must never be posted” on social media.

The spokesperson said, “Any such examples which come to light will be dealt with through the appropriate employment processes.”

This message was first circulated to workers on July 13 before being repeated on July 16. Jim Killock, the executive director of ORG, described the government as reckless in “ignoring a vital and legally required safety step”.

“A crucial element in the fight against the pandemic is mutual trust between the public and the government, which is undermined by their operating the programme without basic privacy safeguards,” Killock noted.

“The Information Commissioner’s Office and Parliament must ensure that Test and Trace is operating safely and lawfully,” he said, adding, “As we have already seen individual contractors sharing patient data on social media platforms, emergency remedial steps will need to be taken.”

https://fort-russ.com/2020/07/major-uk-officially-admits-its-test-and-trace-program-is-unlawful-breaches-citizens-privacy/

Twitter responsible for half of child abuse material UK investigators found on web platforms

Twitter is responsible for almost half of the child abuse material found by UK investigators being hosted openly on popular tech sites, according to figures seen by the Telegraph.

Statistics from the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) show that 49 percent of the images, videos and url links it found on social media, search engines and cloud services in the last three years were on the social network, making up 1,396 of the total 2,835 incidents found.

Child protection figures warned the each incident could represent hundreds or thousands of images or videos, as they included urls linking back to child abuse websites.

The IWF, the UK's online abuse watchdog, can only find child abuse material on the open web, meaning all the abuse images and videos found had slipped through tech companies' filters and were available for anyone to see.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/10/twitter-responsible-half-child-abuse-material-uk-investigators/

Explained: America’s Fact-Free Lockdown Hysteria

Nothing about the current lockdown hysteria makes any sense. The same could be said for how government and the mainstream media are reporting the actually coronavirus and COVID-19 disease. The numbers simply do not add up, nor does the the level of hysteria in relation to the actual threat to overall public health posed by the virus itself. Clearly, the ‘cure’ is already way worse than the disease. Can western society recover from this epic boondoggle?

Author and Fellow at Mises University, Thomas Woods, puts America and the world’s current COVID crisis into proper perspective. The following presentation was recorded at the Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, on 16 July 2020. Watch:

https://21stcenturywire.com/2020/07/26/explained-americas-fact-free-lockdown-hysteria/

Report: 17,000 South Africans Have Died During Coronavirus Lockdowns of Other Treatable Ailments

A new report by the South African Medical Research Council (SAMRC) released this week suggested that thousands of South Africans have died from ailments other than coronavirus in recent months because they went untreated due to pandemic constraints.

The study revealed a “huge discrepancy” in the number of coronavirus-related deaths and the number of “excess deaths” from natural causes reported during the coronavirus pandemic.

Released on Wednesday, the SAMRC report said that South Africa recorded “17,000 excess deaths from May 6 to July 14, while 6,000 coronavirus-related deaths were reported.”

“[T]he excess deaths could be due to other diseases such as tuberculosis or HIV going undertreated as resources were pooled together to fight the coronavirus,” SAMRC President Glenda Gray said.

“The numbers have shown a relentless increase — by the second week of July, there were 59 percent more deaths from natural causes than would have been expected [compared to data from the last two years],” the SAMRC report asserted.

Some health experts suspect that South Africans may be avoiding medical facilities despite a need for treatment out of fear of contracting coronavirus, which has been documented in other African nations.

In June in Cameroon, an estimated 600 medical patients fled hospitals while undergoing treatment for ailments unrelated to the Chinese coronavirus because they feared either contracting the virus or being placed under mandatory quarantine during their stay in a medical facility. The phenomenon was especially alarming because “not getting needed treatments for other health issues can put [people] at higher risk” for contracting the Chinese coronavirus, Cameroon’s health officials said at the time.

On Friday, South Africa reported a total of 421,996 infections and 6,343 deaths from the Chinese coronavirus. The country now has the fifth-highest number of cases in the world. South Africa’s coronavirus cases account for more than half of the total reported cases for the African continent, currently estimated at 769,000.

Health experts believe the true number of coronavirus cases in South Africa and across the African continent remain much higher than officially reported due to insufficient testing and a lack of transparency by most African nations’ governments. So far, Africa has administered just 7.2 million coronavirus tests, a relatively low number for the continent’s total population of 1.3 billion people.

https://www.breitbart.com/africa/2020/07/25/report-17000-south-africans-have-died-during-coronavirus-lockdowns-of-other-treatable-ailments/

Cruz accuses Democrats of coordinated effort to keep schools, businesses closed to hurt Trump

Teachers' unions have sought to defund the police, tax the rich before reopening

Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Sunday accused Democrats of deliberately seeking to extend coronavirus lockdowns of businesses and schools so that President Trump suffers politically ahead of the presidential election.

Democratic-aligned teachers' unions have remained opposed to opening schools. In Los Angeles, the teachers' union has made overtly political demands as part of its reopening plan, including defunding the police, taxing the wealthy, implementing a moratorium on charter schools, providing "Medicare-for-all," and obtaining more federal funding.

"We're 100 days out from the presidential election – the only objective Democrats have is to defeat Donald Trump," Cruz told CBS News' "Face the Nation," anchored by Margaret Brennan. "And they've cynically decided [the] best way to defeat Donald Trump is shut down every business in America, shut down every school in America."

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Cruz specifically took issue with Democrats' plan for a new coronavirus relief bill, which Congress is expected to take up this week. Brennan noted that top Republicans and the White House have also signaled support for a new round of stimulus relief, including $1,200 stimulus checks and tax credits for businesses. Top White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow also suggested Sunday the White House would extend the federal eviction moratorium.

But, Cruz urged them to focus on a broader recovery bill.

"The policy that [House Speaker] Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats are pushing adds an additional $600 a week of federal money to unemployment," Cruz said. "Except, the problem is, for 68 percent of people receiving it right now, they are being paid more on unemployment than they made in their job."

That was a concern that some Republicans voiced back in March, although it prompted some skepticism from economic analysts urging for a quick jumpstart to the economy. ("The weird thing about this hypothetical 'generous unemployment pay will discourage people from entering critical industries' is… they could just raise wages?" Alex Godofsky wrote on Twitter at the time. "Amazon has already raised wages. Like, it's okay if wages and prices go up for a while. It's fine.")

On Sunday, though, Cruz said the problem has become more than hypothetical.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/cruz-accuses-democrats-of-coordinated-effort-to-keep-schools-businesses-closed-to-hurt-trump

Clinton

MP Bob Katter and campus activist join forces to call for parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference at Australian universities

Federal MP Bob Katter has called for a parliamentary inquiry into foreign interference at Australian universities, after joining forces with 21-year-old activist and suspended student Drew Pavlou.

Katter has thrown his support behind Mr Pavlou, who was kicked out of the University of Queensland until next year, after protesting China's human rights violations.

The Independent MP not only wants Mr Pavlou's suspension lifted but says "heads will roll" when the tertiary institution's links to China are put under the microscope.

"We will get to the bottom of why the Queensland University punished a person for expressing his opinion in the public arena and an opinion which every decent person on earth would agree with," Katter told 60 Minutes.

The university insists its disciplinary action against Mr Pavlou did not relate to his activism, but to other charges of misbehaviour on campus and online.

But Mr Pavlou believes those charges are a front for the university's true aim; to silence him as a critic of the communist regime and protect its access to Chinese money.

"I think the University of Queensland suspended me because they realised my protests threatened a relationship with the Chinese government that was worth hundreds of millions of dollars every year, worth billions over the long-term,"Mr Pavlou told 60 Minutes reporter Tom Steinfort.

The accusations against university management have this week sparked outrage across the political spectrum in Canberra.

Government MP and former Ambassador, Dave Sharma, and Liberal Senator James Patterson took aim at the University of Queensland for appearing to side with China.

https://9now.nine.com.au/60-minutes/drew-pavlou-bob-katter-mp-call-for-inquiry-into-foreign-influence-universities/9b662ca4-7085-4e97-90e1-ff6910821fcd

China aggressively responds to Australia’s opposition to South China Sea claims

Beijing has threatening to slap more sanctions on Australian exports after Canberra rejected China’s claims in the South China Sea.

China has fired a direct message in response to Australia declaring Beijing’s claim in the South China Seas are illegal, accusing Canberra of “recklessly making provocations” and blindly following the United States.

The Australian government formally rejected China’s maritime claims in the South China Sea on Thursday with a message to the United Nations.

Through its government mouthpiece, The Global Times, China responded with an article titled “Australia unwisely boards US leaky boat to meddle in South China Sea”.

It declared sanctions on beef and wine exports were warranted and warned broken diplomacy between the two countries was unsalvageable.

“The relationship between China and Australia has now deteriorated to a very bad point and the chance for a turnaround is slim in the near future,” according to the article penned by Guangdong Research Institute professor Zhou Fangyin.

“One of the main reasons is that Australia’s policy lacks independence and its current choice is to closely follow the US lead.

“If Australia further provokes China, not only on political relations, but also economic relations, the damage to Australia should be expected.”

https://www.news.com.au/finance/work/leaders/china-aggressively-responds-to-australias-opposition-to-south-china-sea-claims/news-story/00e202ab6558b8fb1a623508d89e0f4d

Israeli Military Drone Crashes in Lebanon

The Israeli military apparently continues to regularly patrol the border area with Lebanon after sealing off several underground tunnels last year that were built by Hezbollah from the country's territory.

The Israel Defence Forces has said that one of its military drones crashed on the territory of Lebanon as it was patrolling the border between the two countries. A spokeswoman for the IDF assured that the incident poses no risk to the Israeli military.

"There is no concern that any information was leaked", the IDF spokeswoman said.

According to a report by the Israeli Channel 12 broadcaster, the drone crashed due to a technical failure and was not shot down.

Tensions With Hezbollah

The Israeli military has intensified its monitoring operations along the border with Lebanon following the killing of a member of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah in an airstrike in southern Syria. The IDF said it was responding to "munitions" being fired from Syrian territory controlled by Damascus at Israel.

While Tel Aviv has not commented on the news of the killing the Hezbollah member, the IDF said that it would be securing the border with Lebanon in an apparent attempt to defend against a possible retaliation from the group.

"In accordance with the situation assessment and defence plan of the Northern Command, changes will be applied to the positioning of IDF units in the military and civilian districts in order to reinforce security along the northern border", the IDF statement said.

Last year, the IDF claimed to have delivered a major blow to Hezbollah's operations, saying it had sealed off numerous underground tunnels that the group had dug from Lebanon's territory leading into Israel in order to covertly cross the border between the two countries.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202007261079987358-israeli-military-drone-crashes-in-lebanon/

Pro-Life Group Puts Giant ‘Baby Lives Matter’ Mural Outside Planned Parenthood in DC

A pro-life group used chalk to create a giant “baby lives matter” mural outside Planned Parenthood in DC late Saturday evening.

The activists styled the chalk mural after the “Black Lives Matter” street murals being placed in cities across the country.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/pro-life-group-puts-giant-baby-lives-matter-mural-outside-planned-parenthood-dc/

Driver and Antifa-BLM Protester in Armed Standoff in Eugene, Oregon

A driver and and Antifa-Black Lives Matter protester faced off against each other with drawn handguns In Eugene, Oregon Saturday night when protesters blocked a street, preventing the driver from passing through.

Video of the incident was posted to Twitter by C. Francis O’Leary, Managing Editor of the Daily Emerald. No one was shot and the impasse ended peacefully, reported O’Leary.

“Someone in traffic apparently pulled a gun and said “get the fuck out of my way”…”Truck guy pulled his gun again, BLM protester ran up with their own gun and said drop it. (I usually avoid posting faces, but I would be negligent in my journalistic duty to modify this)…After close to a minute the truck driver drove off. I didn’t see who lowered their weapon first because I stopped recording to warn people down range from the truck driver’s barrel that they were in danger.”

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/driver-antifa-blm-protester-armed-standoff-eugene-oregon-video/

Unhinged Lunatic PEPPER SPRAYS Couple for Not Wearing Masks at California Dog Park

An unhinged lunatic has taken mask policing to a new level, pepper spraying a couple who was having lunch with their puppy at the dog park because they were not wearing masks.

The shocking incident at Dusty Rhodes dog park in San Diego was captured on camera.

The victims, Ash O’Brien and her husband Jarett Kelley, had taken their masks off to eat their lunch.

“This is my husband getting maced by a random old lady. We had our 3 month old pug with us. We were just sitting down eating lunch and minding our own business. We were not wearing masks because we were eating. You can’t wear a mask and eat at the same time,” O’Brien wrote in a Facebook post along with video of the incident.

The woman berated the couple before unloading the entire can on Kelley.

So this happened today at dusty rhodes dog park today in ocean beach. This is my husband getting maced by a random old lady. We had our 3 month old pug with us. We were just sitting down eating lunch and minding our own business. We were not wearing masks because we were eating. You can’t wear a mask and eat at the same time. She kept calling us idiots and flipping me off. Then she started saying more stuff and I told her to leave the park and stop harassing us. She then came right up to our table wear we were eating, pointed the mace at me first and got a little on me, and then my husband stepped in and took the entire can. Thank god for the bystander that took this video because we are going to the police now to press charges. I am sharing this because people need to watch out for this lady in San Diego. Please share to spread awareness. That is me crying hysterically in the background because my innocent husband just got maced for no reason. We want justice.

Posted by Ash Sherilynn OBrien on Thursday, July 23, 2020

“She kept calling us idiots and flipping me off. Then she started saying more stuff and I told her to leave the park and stop harassing us. She then came right up to our table wear we were eating, pointed the mace at me first and got a little on me, and then my husband stepped in and took the entire can. Thank god for the bystander that took this video because we are going to the police now to press charges. I am sharing this because people need to watch out for this lady in San Diego. Please share to spread awareness,” the post continued. “That is me crying hysterically in the background because my innocent husband just got maced for no reason. We want justice.”

In California, masks are required in public at nearly all times, but you are allowed to remove them while eating.

O’Brien has said that she would like to see the woman go to jail, but it is unclear if an arrest has been made.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/video-unhinged-lunatic-pepper-sprays-couple-not-wearing-masks-california-dog-park/

Riots are driving Portland’s small businesses under, but mainstream media wants to sell you a different story

After nearly 60 straight nights of violence, business owners in Portland are sick and tired of riots. But as their stores go under, the coastal media treats the rioters to glowing coverage and city authorities do nothing.

Portland is a liberal stronghold, and as ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests fizzle out around the country, anger remains at boiling point in the Oregonian city. The protests there have not been all banner-waving and slogan-chanting affairs though. Instead, droves of ‘Antifa’ types have laid siege to the city’s Justice Center for almost 2 months, tearing down barricades, lobbing fireworks, setting fires and stabbing each other.

Most of those involved in the riots would probably say they’re fighting police brutality or fascism, or something of the sort, but besides those injured in that fight there are other victims of the unrest - local business owners have repeatedly complained about the riots to the local media.

In articles published every few days, these store owners, barmen and restaurateurs describe how the riots have driven them to the brink of bankruptcy. One clothing store manager told Oregon Live on Saturday that within days of coronavirus restrictions being lifted, he reopened his family’s store, only to watch rioters trash the premises in late May, days after the killing of George Floyd kicked off the season of unrest.

Other business owners told the news site that the city’s usually vibrant downtown is “desolate,” with tourism down and even locals giving the city center a wide berth. One bar owner shut down his watering hole in early July, after closing out one day with only $18.75 in sales.

“We work very hard to build our businesses and be successful and employ people, and when they come in and destroy it by breaking the window and everything else, we’re the ones who have to pay for that,” one Subway franchise owner told another local news outlet last week.

The police, he said, “haven’t been in touch” in the two months since.

The damage is not just limited to broken windows. A jewelry store in downtown Portland was robbed in late May, with looters taking nearly a million dollars worth of jewelry. According to the family who own the store, nobody from the city or state has reached out to them.

Mayor Ted Wheeler has pinned the blame for the riots squarely on the federal agents sent in by President Trump three weeks ago to deal with the “anarchists and agitators.” Wheeler claimed last Sunday that “before the federal troops got here, violence was way down, vandalism was way down,” even though the courthouse had been lit on fire days before their deployment, and police had declared three riots in the week beforehand.

https://www.rt.com/usa/495926-portland-riots-damage-business/

Turley Blasts Media's Willful Blindness To Obama's Criminal Spying

The Washington press corps seems engaged in a collective demonstration of the legal concept of willful blindness, or deliberately ignoring the facts, following the release of yet another declassified document which directly refutes prior statements about the investigation into Russia collusion. The document shows that FBI officials used a national security briefing of then candidate Donald Trump and his top aides to gather possible evidence for Crossfire Hurricane, its code name for the Russia investigation.

It is astonishing that the media refuses to see what is one of the biggest stories in decades. The Obama administration targeted the campaign of the opposing party based on false evidence. The media covered Obama administration officials ridiculing the suggestions of spying on the Trump campaign and of improper conduct with the Russia investigation. When Attorney General William Barr told the Senate last year that he believed spying did occur, he was lambasted in the media, including by James Comey and others involved in that investigation. The mocking “wow” response of the fired FBI director received extensive coverage.

The new document shows that, in summer 2016, FBI agent Joe Pientka briefed Trump campaign advisers Michael Flynn and Chris Christie over national security issues, standard practice ahead of the election. It had a discussion of Russian interference. But this was different. The document detailing the questions asked by Trump and his aides and their reactions was filed several days after that meeting under Crossfire Hurricane and Crossfire Razor, the FBI investigation of Flynn. The two FBI officials listed who approved the report are Kevin Clinesmith and Peter Strzok.

Clinesmith is the former FBI lawyer responsible for the FISA surveillance conducted on members of the Trump campaign. He opposed Trump and sent an email after the election declaring “viva the resistance.” He is now under review for possible criminal charges for altering a FISA court filing. The FBI used Trump adviser Carter Page as the basis for the original FISA application, due to his contacts with Russians. After that surveillance was approved, however, federal officials discredited the collusion allegations and noted that Page was a CIA asset. Clinesmith had allegedly changed the information to state that Page was not working for the CIA.

Strzok is the FBI agent whose violation of FBI rules led Justice Department officials to refer him for possible criminal charges. Strzok did not hide his intense loathing of Trump and famously referenced an “insurance policy” if Trump were to win the election. After FBI officials concluded there was no evidence of any crime by Flynn at the end of 2016, Strzok prevented the closing of the investigation as FBI officials searched for any crime that might be used to charge the incoming national security adviser.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/turley-blasts-medias-willful-blindness-obamas-criminal-spying

>>10085199

No one is surprised