‘They’re Sick Of The Country’: Number Of Russians Seeking Asylum In The US Jumps Amid Pandemic, Protests

People who are leaving Russia and Belarus want out of the repressive regimes, an immigration consultant told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Despite repercussions such as jail sentences and fines, over 100,000 Russians participated in demonstrations in support of the anti-Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

In Russia, discrimination against religious and ethnic minorities are by the government spurs many to seek a way out, while in Belarus the president heavily censors the media and has downplayed the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the immigration consultant.

People in eastern Europe are increasingly seeking asylum in the U.S. due to government restrictions on freedoms including religion, speech and personal expression, the founder of an immigration consulting firm told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

A significant amount of people from Russia and Belarus have contacted the Second Passport, an immigration consulting firm, about applying for asylum in the U.S. Recent protests in support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny have spurred another spike in people seeking assistance applying for asylum, Yury Mosha, the founder and CEO of Second Passport, told the DCNF.

“Right now, people are telling us that they are scared of being put in jail for their opinions about the protests. They are going to protests and meetings, but it is a risk. Some people only posted on social media, and they received calls from the police to scare them,” Mosha told the DCNF.

Mosha’s assistant Jennifer Katsov told the DCNF that “there’s a lot of government regulation to what you do. You’re being watched constantly and if you say anything that is against what the government believes then you’re going to be prosecuted in various ways which is essentially just going to jail because they don’t have a court of law like the U.S. does.”

More

https://dailycaller.com/2021/02/03/russians-belarusians-asylum-us/

Here we go Joe will let another 10k+ bolsheviks in

ACLU declares ‘transgender myths DEBUNKED,’ says trans girls don't have any ‘unfair advantage’ in women’s sports

The American Civil Liberties Union, which has been AWOL from the fight over free speech on social media, has apparently kept itself busy studying science, finding that biological males don't have physical advantages over females.

The ACLU posted a series of Twitter messages on Wednesday, taking on various beliefs about transgender athletes that it called “myths.” The group said those beliefs, such as transgender girls having physiological advantages over biological girls, have been “debunked.”

“Trans athletes vary in athletic ability, just like cisgender athletes,” the ACLU tweeted. “In many states, the very same cis girls who have claimed that trans athletes have an unfair advantage have consistently performed as well as or better than transgender competitors.”

The messages, which are part of the ACLU's campaign to fight a proliferation of state laws banning participation in girls' sports by biological males, also included debunking the notion that boys and girls have different biological characteristics. “There are no set hormone ranges, body parts or chromosomes that all people of a particular sex or gender have,” the group said.

The ACLU argued that excluding transgender females from girls' sports hurts female athletes by potentially subjecting them to “gender policing” and robbing them of “caring environments where teammates are supported by each other and by coaches.” The group created and attacked a straw-man myth that “trans students need separate teams,” apparently ignoring the fact that all students can compete in sports based on their biological sex.

https://www.rt.com/sport/514554-aclu-transgender-athletes-myths/

Warning labels: TikTok introduces Twitter-like censorship measures to curb ‘misinformation’

Video sharing app TikTok will slap warning labels on videos it suspects contain “misinformation” and discourage users from sharing them. The move brings TikTok’s policies closer in line with those of Twitter.

TikTok already removes videos that its fact-checkers deem contain “false” information. However, the Chinese-owned company is expanding on this policy, and announced on Wednesday that videos suspected of, but not proven to contain, “misinformation” will be restricted.

Starting on Thursday in the US and Canada, and later this month globally, suspect videos will be “flagged as unsubstantiated content,” and viewers attempting to share them will be reminded of this and offered a chance to cancel their share.

Twitter introduced a similar policy in the runup to the 2020 US presidential election, labeling certain tweets (usually ones raising concerns about voter fraud) as “disputed” and limiting retweets in order to protect “the integrity of the election conversation.” More recently, Twitter unveiled ‘Birdwatch,’ a feature that lets certain verified users add notes to posts they identify as “misinformation.” Amid cries of censorship from conservatives, Twitter reportedly plans further crackdowns, following its permanent suspension of former President Donald Trump from its platform last month.

Under its community guidelines, updated in December, TikTok bans“misinformation that incites hate or prejudice, misinformation related to emergencies that induces panic, medical misinformation, content that misleads community members about elections,” and “conspiratorial content that attacks a specific protected group.”

Even before last year’s election, TikTok banned “misinformation” related to Covid-19 and climate change, and partnered up in August with PolitiFact and Lead Stories (both of whom have been accused by conservatives of bias) to screen out election-related wrongthink before the vote in November.

In its announcement on Wednesday, TikTok said that its new labeling system decreased the rate at which users shared videos by 24 percent, and reduced ‘likes’ on flagged videos by 7 percent. Twitter reported a similar drop in sharing when it banned the retweeting of “misinformation” before the election.

https://www.rt.com/news/514545-tiktok-bans-misinformation-censorship/

Switzerland delays approval of AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccines due to 'insufficient data'

The Swiss drugs regulator will delay its approval of the two Covid-19 vaccines developed by AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson until it receives more data on their efficacy at preventing the virus, the agency said on Wednesday.

Swissmedic, the country's regulator, said the current data for the AstraZeneca jab is "not yet sufficient for approval" and it has now called for more information on the vaccine's "safety, effectiveness and quality."

Specifically, the Swiss agency has asked for efficacy data from the ongoing phase III trial being carried out in North and South America, where the AstraZeneca vaccine is being tested on 30,000 people.

Swissmedic is currently conducting "rolling reviews" of both the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, meaning in theory that a quick decision can be made once the relevant data is available and reviewed.

"When the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines can be approved depends on the quality of the missing documents. A prognosis is difficult," Swissmedic said in a statement.

The AstraZeneca vaccine, which was developed with the University of Oxford, has already been approved by drug regulators in the UK and the EU, and is now being rolled out.

The US and some European nations have been cautious about the jab however, after a dosing mistake during clinical trials saw some participants under the age of 55 accidentally given half doses of the vaccine, followed by full second doses.

But on Tuesday hopes for the vaccine's efficacy were buoyed, as researchers at Oxford said the jab was shown to be 76 percent effective 12 weeks after a first dose was given, according to a preprint study published in The Lancet.

Switzerland has already approved the Covid-19 vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.

The Swiss government has also signed agreements for 5.3 million doses of the AstraZeneca jab, six million doses of the Novavax jab, and five million doses of a vaccine by Curevac and GlaxoSmithKline, which is still in the pipeline.

https://www.rt.com/news/514512-switzerland-astrazeneca-covid-vaccine-data/

Covid denier mom banned from ALL HOSPITALS after repeatedly posting footage of ‘empty wards’

A British woman questioning the Covid-19 crisis in the UK has been banned from visiting any hospital across the country save for emergency, after she repeatedly filmed and shared videos of what she claimed were “empty wards.”

Serial lockdown breaker and prominent coronavirus denier Hannah Dean, 30, has been banned from all the hospitals across the country following her new endeavors over the weekend. On Saturday, she entered the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, roaming it for about 10 minutes before getting caught by a nurse and being kicked out. The following day, she visited Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth.

Footage posted by Dean on Facebook shows her trying to approach the hospital, only to be confronted by a security guard who immediately recognized her.

“What are you doing here, Hannah?” the guard asked. Dean tried to flatly deny it was her, but had to back off after a brief verbal spat.

The ill-fated hospital visit came hours after Dean was issued a warning, Sussex police have said. As she violated the warning on the same day it was given, the woman received a stricter notice, prohibiting her from visiting any hospitals and from encouraging others to breach Covid-19 guidelines.

“On Sunday, Sussex Police issued a community protection warning to a 30-year-old woman from Fareham which prevents her from attending any hospital apart from when she has a prior appointment, is a dependent or there is a medical emergency; and to not encourage, endorse or incite another person to breach COVID restrictions,” the police said.

The woman breached the conditions of the community protection warning on the same day of the order being issued and on Monday she was issued with a community protection notice.

Further violations may yield Dean heavy fines of up to £2,500 and even a jail sentence if she ignores the community protection notice.

Dean had made headlines after repeatedly posting videos from various hospitals and questioning why they were not packed to the brim amid the pandemic. Early in January, she received a £200 fixed-penalty notice for not having a valid reason to leave her home during the lockdown.

https://www.rt.com/uk/514486-hannah-dean-banned-hospitals-covid/

>>12817320

so 1916

11 Iranian Migrants Arrested for Illegally Crossing Border into Arizona

Yuma Sector Border Patrol agents arrested a group of Iranian migrants who illegally crossed the border from Mexico into Arizona on Monday. Agents identified the group of Special Interest Aliens as six males and five females.

Yuma Station agents patrolling the border near San Luis, Arizona on Monday evening encountered a group of migrants who illegally entered the U.S. from Mexico near the Salinity Canal. The agents identified the group of 11 migrants as Iranian citizens, according to information obtained from Yuma Sector Border Patrol officials.

Agents arrested the group and transported them to the Yuma Station for processing and a background investigation. Officials reported they arrested five women and six men. They did not disclose the ages of the migrants.

“The primary mission of the Border Patrol is to prevent nefarious people and devices from entering the United States,” Yuma Sector officials stated. “Iran is a designated Special Interest Country and the agents of Yuma Sector work diligently to protect our borders for the safety of our nation.”

The Yuma Sector continues to lead the nation in the apprehension of Iranian illegal aliens, officials stated. During the last fiscal year, which ended on September 30, 2020, Yuma Sector agents arrested eight Iranians. This compares to a total of 14 from the other eight sectors along the U.S. southwest border with Mexico. So far this fiscal year, they arrested a total of 14 Iranian nationals in this single sector.

https://www.breitbart.com/border/2021/02/03/11-iranian-migrants-arrested-for-illegally-crossing-border-into-arizona/

81

Hells Angels

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-04/number-of-homes-lost-in-perth-hills-bushfire-revised-up-to-81/13117488

Sen. Bill Hagerty: ‘China Is Singing All the Way to the Bank’ Thanks to Joe Biden’s Policies

Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) told Breitbart News exclusively that the Chinese Communist Party is “singing all the way to the bank” thanks to President Joe Biden’s various policies in his first two weeks in office.

Hagerty, in an exclusive interview on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM 125 the Patriot Channel, said that Biden’s orders closing down the Keystone XL pipeline and shutting down leases for drilling on federal lands embolden China and undermine the United States.

“Broadly look at what the Biden Administration is doing on energy,” Hagerty said. “By canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, Biden is giving a huge gift to China. Look at what it did to Canada. If Canada can’t move their oil through the XL pipeline, they’re going to sell it to China. Well, guess what? China now has a huge store of oil headed its way courtesy of the Biden administration. And this Paris Climate Accord that they want to get back into? That’s going to put an immediate burden on the U.S. economy. China is not going to have to comply anywhere in the near term. Theirs was the only economy that grew last year. Ours didn’t. They’re going to put more burden on us while China is singing all the way to the bank thanks to the Biden administration. So we have some real reasons to be concerned.”

The Chinese have another friend in Biden’s selection for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas Greenfield, Hagerty said. A speech that Greenfield gave to a Confucius Institute event in 2019 that surfaced last week saw her praising the Chinese Communist Party’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. Hagerty argued that CCP Belt and Road efforts compromised the man who would become the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, by trapping his native Ethiopia in debt.

“Look at this U.N. representative that they put forward, Linda Thomas Greenfield, she clearly doesn’t get it,” Hagerty said. “She’s praising China’s Belt and Road Initiative in Africa. Look no further than Ethiopia and what happened there with this Belt and Road Initiative. When Dr. Tedros was the health minister and the foreign minister, the Ethiopian government took billions of dollars in the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative. Then, when it was necessary, China had Dr. Tedros running the WHO and he stepped right up and parroted their line and helped cover up the pandemic when they wanted him to do it. This is textbook debt trap diplomacy, they’re using their influence for nefarious means, and I cannot imagine a U.N. representative who does not understand that.”

Asked about the speech and whether it could jeopardize Greenfield’s confirmation prospects in the U.S. Senate, where Democrats have a narrow majority in the 50-50 split chamber when Vice President Kamala Harris v0otes to break the tie, Hagerty said he thinks she could.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2021/02/03/exclusive-sen-bill-hagerty-china-is-singing-all-the-way-to-the-bank-thanks-to-joe-bidens-policies/

>>12817713

>>12817709

>>12817727

China and Israel in the Belt and Road Initiative

What is Israel’s role in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)?

While cutting-edge technology and innovation have been the bedrock on which the China-Israel relationship has flourished over the past years, other sectors of its economy should further define the long-term economic and political relationship between the countries. Israel ranked as the second lowest investment risk on the Economist Intelligence Unit BRI risk index, making investment in the market highly attractive for China, which is currently looking for a more strategic regional footprint.

China should pay close attention to the developments within Israel’s economy beyond the tech sector, which are due to turn Israel to an even more significant economic power than it is today. Massive developments of energy resources in the Eastern Mediterranean, new ports coming online on its Mediterranean shores, new trade routes between Israel and its Arab Neighbors, a growing geoeconomic alliance between Israel, Cyprus and Greece, and significant financial resources in Israeli investment intuitions, make it a highly attractive BRI market for China.

https://thediplomat.com/2018/09/china-and-israel-in-the-belt-and-road-initiative/