Brazil Pulls Out of US$324 Million Covaxin Contract Amid Cries of Corruption

Brazil will suspend its US$324 million contract for India’s Covaxin COVID-19 vaccine upon the recommendation of Brazil’s Comptroller General office (CGU), Health Minister Marcelo Queiroga said Tuesday.

“According to preliminary analyses, there are no irregularities in the contract but, for compliance, the health ministry opted to suspend the contract for further analysis,” Queiroga tweeted.

The CGU, Brazil’s audit branch, will decide whether to terminate the contract after a complete investigation.

Queiroga said the government has not yet paid for the Covaxin vaccine and that the measure will not compromise the pace of vaccine distribution in Brazil.

The Covaxin saga has generated public ire and distrust in the government’s vaccination response. Covaxin is not only more expensive than BioNTech Pfizer but is also still unapproved by the World Health Organization (WHO) — leaving many to question why the Bolsonaro administration has pursued this particular shot while cheaper, authorized options were on the market.

A CGU evaluation of the Covaxin contract obtained by CNN Brasil on Tuesday lists several reasons to be suspicious of the deal, including that the government attempted to make an advance payment outside of the terms laid out in the contract and may have also paid through a third-party company not included in the contract. According to the CGU report, Bharat Biotech also did not meet deadlines for vaccine delivery and did not include a pricing justification in the contract.

Allegations of corruption and graft within the Bolsonaro administration have been mounting all week.

The contract’s suspension arrives shortly after Monday’s news that Senator Randolfe Rodrigues filed a criminal complaint against Bolsonaro with the country’s highest court, urging an investigation into potential graft in COVID-19 vaccine purchases.

Brazilian newspaper Folha de S. Paulo also reported on Tuesday that Ministry of Health logistics chief Roberto Ferreira Dias had attempted to negotiate a bribe of a dollar per dose of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to a medical supply company representative. He was dismissed from his post that same day.

The same deal is currently being investigated by Brazil’s federal prosecutor’s office after prosecutors noted the high price per dose and that ministry officials apparently disregarded a history of alleged irregular government contracts with Bharat Biotech representatives.

Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, has defiantly rejected measures to control viral spread and continues to deny calls of graft and corruption.

https://www.occrp.org/en/daily/14739-brazil-pulls-out-of-us-324-million-covaxin-contract-amid-cries-of-corruption

Russia Now Requires Foreign Social Media Companies To Open In-Country Offices

In the continuing saga and standoff between US tech giants and the Russian state, the Kremlin just took a bold, creative step in its long-running efforts to reign in foreign "propagandistic" attempts to both censor official Russian sources and at the same time promote "obscene" content, as its officials have long complained.

Russian President Putin on Thursday signed a law that seeks to force major social media companies to open offices on Russian soil if they continue to want their platforms unrestricted inside Russia.

"A foreign entity, carrying out activities on the internet in Russia, is obliged to create a branch, open an office or establish a Russian legal entity," the new law reads, according to Reuters.

More details of the law were reported in Reuters as follows:

Alexander Khinshtein, the head of the information policy and IT committee at the State Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, said the law applied to internet giants with a daily audience in Russia of at least 500,000 people.

The firms must register a personal account on the website of Roskomnadzor, Russia's state communications regulator, he wrote on his Telegram channel. Companies that violate the legislation could face penalties such as advertising bans.

This in effect targets at least 20 US-based and other international companies, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Telegram YouTube, and TikTok - many of which already have multi-million dollar fines against them inside Russia based on allegations they promote and elevate "banned" anti-government activity, including recent pro-Navalny protests dubbed by the state "illegal gatherings".

Putin on Wednesday actually addressed the immense power of Silicon Valley during his annual "call-in" telethon which allows citizens to ask questions of the Russian leader directly:

"We tell them 'you are distributing child pornography, instructions on how to make Molotov cocktails and suicide, you must remove that'," Putin said.

Last Spring the country began throttling Twitter speeds for some of these very issues and lack of compliance to Russian law.

While the threat of outright banning some platforms remains, many of the big platforms are so popular among Russians that it's not believed leaders could pull it off politically, given the massive domestic backlash that would ensue. Putin this week emphasized that there's currently no plans to ban social media companies, however, he stressed "they must comply with our laws" and remain available to state authorities "to enable dialogue".

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-signs-law-requiring-foreign-social-media-companies-open-offices-russian-soil

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/putin-signs-law-requiring-foreign-social-media-companies-open-offices-russian-soil

Mobile and internet customers reporting Optus outage

Optus customers are taking to social media to report their mobile and internet services are down.

Dozens of Optus customers across Australia are taking to social media to report their mobile and internet services are down.

The provider’s website is also down, and those trying to make calls have been met with the following message: “Due to temporary service difficulties we are unable to connect your call during this time.”

“Optus is aware of an outage that may be impacting Optus services. We are aiming to restore these services as a priority,” they wrote on Twitter.

“We thank customers for their patience and will provide an update as soon as possible.”

https://www.news.com.au/national/mobile-and-internet-customers-reporting-optus-outage/news-story/d82911b9946f4c453bf37aa4632e127b

Cy Vance’s Trump case is straight from a banana republic — punish your political enemies

Donald Trump has long claimed that investigations of him are a partisan “witch hunt.” Manhattan DA Cy Vance seems determined to make Trump’s point for him by indicting the Trump Organization along with its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.

The 15-count indictment throws a kitchen sink of charges, including grand larceny, conspiracy, scheme to defraud,and tax fraud. But the whole thing comes down to paying perks to Weisselberg — such as his parking garage fees, tuition for family members and reimbursement of holiday gratuities — and not reporting them as taxable income, or reporting that the wrong Trump entity paid them.

For this they slapped Weisselberg in handcuffs Thursday and paraded him in front of the media — a stage-managed political show trial.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/cy-vances-trump-case-is-straight-from-a-banana-republic/

https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/cy-vances-trump-case-is-straight-from-a-banana-republic/

‘To Catch a Predator’ host Chris Hansen wanted in Michigan for skipping court

Maybe he’ll catch himself.

“To Catch a Predator” host Chris Hansen has a warrant out for his arrest after skipping court in Michigan on Thursday, a report said.

Hansen was supposed to appear in a Shiawassee County courtroom in connection to a sting operation he assisted authorities with that led to the October 2020 arrests of three men who sought to meet up with underage girls, NBC 25 reported.

The sting operation is akin to the work Hansen did as host of the popular NBC series, which ended in 2007.

Shiawassee County Prosecuting Attorney Scott Koerner told the outlet that Hansen was subpoenaed to appear Thursday, but did not.

In January 2019, Hansen was arrested in Connecticut and charged with larceny for allegedly purchasing about $13,000 in merchandise with checks that later bounced, TMZ had reported.

https://nypost.com/2021/07/01/to-catch-a-predator-host-chris-hansen-wanted-for-arrest/

>>14033868

Now Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer says SHE should be freed in wake of Cosby's release because a prosecutor 'promised Epstein that she wouldn't be charged'

Maxwell's appellate lawyer David Oscar Markus, said prosecutors in New York should never have gone after her

He wrote in the New York Daily News that she should have been protected by Epstein's 2010 sweetheart deal with Alex Acosta

It said that Florida prosecutors wouldn't go after Epstein's 'co-conspirators'

Maxwell was charged in New York last year, a year after Epstein's death

Cosby was told in 2005 that he wouldn't be charged for assaulting Andrea Constand

As a result, he went on to incriminate himself in civil depositions

Years later, he was charged by a different prosecutor

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court said it was unconstitutional and let him go

Ghislaine Maxwell's attorney claims she should be let out of jail now because Bill Cosby has been freed, claiming prosecutors promised not to charge her when they gave Jeffrey Epstein a sweetheart deal in 2010.

Cosby was freed on Wednesday because of a promise a prosecutor made in 2005 that he would not be charged. He went on to incriminate himself in a civil case and another prosecutor, years later, used those remarks to charge him.

Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday that it was unconstitutional and that had he not thought he was beyond reproach, he wouldn't have made the incriminating remarks.

Writing for The New York Daily News on Thursday, Maxwell's appellate lawyer David Oscar Markus, said prosecutors in New York should never have gone after her because years earlier, a different prosecutor in Florida promised Epstein in a deal that he wouldn't charge his 'co-conspirators.'

Maxwell wasn't named as one of the co-conspirators and it is in a different state that she is facing sex trafficking charges now.

But Markus argues it's another example of people not being able to trust prosecutors at their word.

'If a prosecutor promises something, he should be bound by his word — just like the rest of us,' he wrote.

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9746105/Ghislaine-Maxwells-lawyer-says-freed-jail-Bill-Cosbys-release.html

>>14033840 ‘To Catch a Predator’ host Chris Hansen wanted in Michigan for skipping court

>>14033868 Judge rules to unseal dozens of documents about Ghislaine Maxwell's personal affairs, including those that reveal her and Jeffrey Epstein's relationship with the Clintons

>>14033899 Now Ghislaine Maxwell's lawyer says SHE should be freed in wake of Cosby's release because a prosecutor 'promised Epstein that she wouldn't be charged'

>>14033905