Moderna Stock Crashes – Losses Top $130 Billion, Stock Down 67% from Highs Last Year Following Lackluster COVID Vaccine Results

Moderna stocks plunged on Friday during the market selloff this week. The company has lost $130 billion in value this year over the lackluster COVID vaccine results with the new Omicron variant. The stock is down 67% from its all-rime high last year.

Via Jonathan Ponciano at Forbes.

Battered by a steep broad-market selloff this week, Moderna shares fell for a sixth straight day Friday as experts questioned whether Covid-19 vaccine sales alone will help justify the firm’s meteoric valuation, intensifying a crash that’s wiped out more than 60% of the value in one of last year’s top stocks and turned it into this year’s worst performer.

Moderna stock fell 4.4% Friday to an eight-month low of $160, pushing shares down more than 20% over the past week amid growing research suggesting Moderna’s Covid-19 booster, while very effective against previous strains, has been less effective against the rapidly spreading omicron variant…

…SURPRISING FACT

Shares of Moderna have plunged 67% from an all-time closing high of $484 on August 9, wiping out about $133 billion from the firm’s market capitalization, which now stands at roughly $65 billion.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/moderna-stock-crashes-losses-top-130-billion-stock-67-highs-last-year-following-lackluster-covid-vaccine-results/

New York Governor Hochul Signs Bill to Allow Mail-in Voting in 2022 Election — It Will Help Her Reelection

It’s January and Democrats are desperate. Even New York Democrats are worried.

They know they don’t have a chance without stuffing the ballot boxes and ballot harvesting by their paid operatives. They need the votes.

On Friday New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation to push mail-in voting in the Empire State for the 2022 elections.

6News reported:

Governor Kathy Hochul signed legislation that will allow voting by absentee ballot due to the COVID-19 pandemic through 2022.

This legislation continues from a law put into place in July 2020, to allow New Yorkers to request an absentee ballot during the pandemic where there is a risk of contracting or spreading disease that may cause illness to the voter or other members of the public. The intial law expired on December 31, 2021.

No one should have to choose between exercising their right to vote and protecting their health and safety,” Governor Hochul said. “This legislation will ensure the pandemic does not create inaccessibility for voters during upcoming elections and help protect New Yorkers’ access to the ballot.

Absentee ballot applications for the February 15th special elections in the 60th and 72nd assembly districts are open through January 31st by mail, until February 14th in-person and can be submitted by mail or in-person until February 15th. More information on absentee voting and how to apply for an absentee ballot is available here.

So who’s next? Wisconsin, Pennsylvania or Michigan? You know it’s coming.

These people have no regard for the law or for the future of this country.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/first-blocks-new-york-governor-hochul-signs-bill-allow-mail-voting-2022-election-will-help-reelection/

“I’M DONE” Former NYT Journalist Bari Weiss Slams Tyrannical US Public Health Response to COVID-19 – This Period Will Be “Remembered as a Catastrophic MORAL CRIME”

Day by day, the left’s narrative keeps crumbling.

On Friday, Bill Maher hosted Journalist and author Bari Weiss on his show “Real Time with Bill Maher” to have a discussion about COVID-19 and the unwavering hysteria surrounding it.

During the interview, the former New York Times writer, who is now on Substack, slammed school closures and the crippling restrictions that have been forced through by way of public health measures as a ‘catastrophic moral crime.’

Weiss began her rant by defiantly declaring that she is ‘done with covid!’ Apparently she has taken part in all of the recommended rituals throughout, but, as she points out, nothing has worked the way people have been told

The hysterics surrounding this virus are “ridiculous at this point,” she concludes.

“We were told you get the vaccine, you get the vaccine and you get back to normal. And we haven’t gotten back to normal. And it’s ridiculous at this point.

‘I know that so many of my liberal and progressive friends are with me on this and they do not want to say it out loud because they are scared to be called anti-vaxxed or to be called science deniers or to be smeared as a Trumper.”

Somewhat surprisingly, the traditionally left-leaning crowd burst out into raucous applause after she made her point.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2022/01/done-former-nyt-journalist-bari-weiss-slams-tyrannical-us-public-health-response-covid-19-period-will-remembered-catastrophic-moral-crime-video/

Ex-US soldiers with alleged neo-Nazi links arrive at Ukrainian front line

The soldiers of fortune shared pics and footage of them sporting combat gear at Ukrainian army positions

At least half a dozen former US military servicemen have landed in Ukraine amid rapidly escalating tensions in the east of the country.

The group, known as Forward Observations, has posted a string of photos and videos on its official Instagram, with geotags showing that the men are in the war-torn Donbass region. The Americans are seen wearing combat gear, apparently inspecting the Ukrainian army’s battle positions and trenches. Some of the men in the photos are also holding assault weapons, though it is not clear whether these are American or Ukrainian soldiers. All of those featured in the photos have their faces blurred.

A short clip shot from inside a vehicle shows the group’s passing through several Ukrainian army checkpoints, with the car stopping by what appears to be a war memorial erected for fallen Ukrainian soldiers. It ends with a slideshow featuring the Americans in trenches, followed by a message reading “I’m beginning to think you aren’t in Paris?” and a photo showing coordinates for the Donbass. The video culminates with a map of Ukraine, apparently showing the possible scenario of an alleged Russian invasion, titled “Russian Seizure of Ukraine up to the Dnepr River.”

Russian commentators have speculated that the US veterans have allegedly come to the region to train the Ukrainian military.

The photos and videos were posted by Forward Observations Group, which describes itself as a military lifestyle brand. However, multiple reports indicate its members also provide security consulting and tactical training.

The group’s founder, Derrick Bales, paid a visit to Ukraine in May last year, as reported by VICE World News at the time. He is said to have posted a slew of photos of himself surrounded by armed men clad in military gear in the conflict zone. One of the photos Bales posted was captioned “up to some sh*t in Ukraine,” another picture featured the US citizen brandishing an assault rifle.

His trip to the front line sparked an outcry among his subscribers, however, given some of the photos tagged Vadim Lapaev, alias ‘Balak,’ who Bellingcat back in 2018 described as a radical neo-Nazi who’d served with the ultranationalist Azov Battalion. Speaking to VICE at the time, the African American founder of Forward Observations Group said he apologized to anyone his posts might have offended. He maintained, however, that he’d never taken part in fighting while in the country, collecting material for his article about the war being the sole purpose of his trip to Ukraine.

The conflict between government forces and separatists in the Donbass region flared up in 2014 following violent street protests overthrew the Ukrainian government. Parts of the Russian-speaking Donetsk and Lugansk regions refused to recognize the new government, with Kiev sending in troops to quell the insurrection. By March 2015, the conflict had stalled, with sporadic fighting breaking out in the years that followed. According to UN estimates published in June 2021, more than 13,000 people had lost their lives since the start of the conflict.

https://www.rt.com/russia/546847-former-us-servicemen-ukraine-frontline/

US To Close Borders To Unvaccinated Canadian, Mexican Truckers On Saturday

The U.S. will close its borders to unvaccinated and partially vaccinated Canadian and Mexican truck drivers on Saturday, the Department of Homeland Security said on Thursday.

“These updated travel requirements reflect the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to protecting public health while safely facilitating the cross-border trade and travel that is critical to our economy,” Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement.

The restrictions, which apply to all foreign essential workers, had been expected since U.S. officials announced them in October. They follow a similar rule that took effect at the Canadian border last Saturday.

The border COVID-19 vaccine mandates are coming into force despite pushback from the truck industry. The impact will be felt most acutely for the U.S.-Canada freight market, where around 160,000 truckers regularly cross the border — 75% of whom are Canadian.

Already capacity has tightened significantly, with huge price increases in the spot market. It adds to existing pressures, including COVID-19 itself, which left many fleets operating below full strength.

“The supply chain is already fragile — so it puts all of us in a precarious situation,” Dan Einwechter, CEO of Canadian trucking and logistics firm Challenger Motor Freight, told FreightWaves.

The Canadian Trucking Alliance and American Trucking Alliance have projected that 10%-15% of drivers may leave cross-border trucking as a result of the mandates, and exacerbate existing supply chain issues. On Monday, several dozen Canadian truckers protested near the U.S. border in Emerson, Manitoba.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/us-close-borders-unvaccinated-canadian-mexican-truckers-saturday

US carrier heads to surprise NATO wargames

USS Harry S. Truman joins Neptune Strike ‘22 wargames in the Mediterranean Sea amid tensions with Russia

The nuclear-powered fleet aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman will take part in next week’s NATO exercise in the Mediterranean Sea dubbed “Neptune Strike ‘22,” the Pentagon has announced.

The 12-day exercise kicks off Monday and is supposed to “demonstrate NATO's ability to integrate the high-end maritime strike capabilities of an aircraft carrier strike group to support the deterrence and defense of the alliance,” Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told reporters Friday.

Though the Truman and its strike group will be placed “under NATO operational control,” the overall command of the exercise will be in the hands of Vice Admiral Eugene H. Black III, who commands the US Navy’s 6th Fleet.

Kirby called Neptune Strike a “long-planned activity” that has been under consideration since 2020 and is not related to the current tensions with Russia. “The exercise itself is not designed against the kinds of scenarios that might happen with respect to Ukraine,” Kirby said, but is intended to test “a wide range of maritime capabilities that we want to make sure we continue to improve.”

According to Kirby, the US discussed with its NATO allies whether to move ahead with the exercise “given tensions right now,” but ultimately decided to do so.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg “welcomed” the Truman’s participation as “a strong sign of transatlantic unity,” adding that the alliance “will always do what is necessary to protect and defend all allies.”

Moscow has consistently rebutted claims made by Western media and senior officials, according to which Russia is allegedly planning to invade its neighbor any day now. The Kremlin has called the idea “fake news,” while the Russian military claimed that the US might be helping Kiev stage a false-flag operation that would justify a military operation in eastern Ukraine.

https://www.rt.com/news/546816-aircraft-carrier-nato-wargames/

British Medical Journal Demands Immediate Release of All COVID-19 Vaccine, Treatment Data

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) has demanded the full and immediate release of all data related to COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, saying it is in the public’s interest to do so.

BMJ, a weekly peer-reviewed medical trade journal published by the trade union the British Medical Association, called for the release of the data in an editorial published on Wednesday.

“Today, despite the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments, the anonymized participant-level data underlying the trials for these new products remain inaccessible to doctors, researchers, and the public—and are likely to remain that way for years to come,” BMJ said.

“This is morally indefensible for all trials, but especially for those involving major public health interventions.”

BMJ also accused pharmaceutical companies of “reaping vast profits without adequate independent scrutiny of their scientific claims,” pointing to Pfizer, whose COVID vaccine trial was “funded by the company and designed, run, analyzed, and authored by Pfizer employees.”

New York-headquartered Pfizer still holds that trial data and has indicated that it won’t begin considering requests for such data until May 2025—24 months after the primary study completion date of May 15, 2023, which is listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.

Meanwhile, The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had asked a judge to give it 75 years to produce all the data concerning the Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine.

However, a judge earlier this month ordered that the FDA make public 12,000 pages of the data it used to make decisions regarding approvals for the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the month. The FDA must also release Pfizer’s vaccine data at a rate of 55,000 pages a month until all of the requested pages are public.

BMJ also noted that AstraZeneca has indicated that it may be ready to entertain requests for data from a number of its phase III trials. However, the Cambridge-headquartered company says that the timeline for such data can “vary per request and can take up to a year upon full submission of the request for analysis, decision, anonymization, and sharing of the requested data or documents.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/british-medical-journal-demands-immediate-release-all-covid-19-vaccine-treatment-data

Over 97,000 Americans Are Waiting For Kidney Transplants

A genetically modified pig's heart has been successfully transplanted into a human for the first time.

The operation, performed in Baltimore in the United States on Friday, offers a potential future solution to long transplant waiting lists. Dr. Bartley Griffith, who performed the operation, described the situation on Monday:

“It creates the pulse, it creates the pressure, it is his heart,” adding: “It’s working and it looks normal. We are thrilled, but we don’t know what tomorrow will bring us. This has never been done before.”

In the infographic below, Statista's Katharina Buchholz takes a look at the size of the transplant waiting list problem in the U.S. According to the Health Resources & Services Administration, almost 120 thousand people were waiting for an organ in September 2021, with a kidney being the most needed (over 97 thousand) by far. A heart transplant was needed by around 3,500 people.

While the operation is being described as a watershed moment, Dr. David Klassen, the chief medical officer of the United Network for Organ Sharing, warns that there is still a long way to go before this is a valid option for a large number of patients:

“Doors are starting to open that will lead, I believe, to major changes in how we treat organ failure" but “Events like these can be dramatized in the press, and it’s important to maintain perspective. It takes a long time to mature a therapy like this.”

For now, the kidney is the organ most often transplanted in the U.S., and the number of transplants has more than doubled since the late 1980s. Kidneys, as well as livers, are donated by both deceased and living patients, which is why transplant numbers for these organs are higher than those for hearts and lungs.

In the case of kidneys, transplant numbers started rising more quickly in 2010 – a clear connection to the ongoing opioid crisis in the U.S. In a bittersweet twist of events, younger and healthier organ donors dying from overdoses increased the size of the donor pool significantly, since deceased donors can donate both, not just one, of their kidneys.

Similarly, one in six donor hearts in the U.S. is now coming from a person who died from an overdose.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/over-97000-americans-are-waiting-kidney-transplants

Instagram, Snapchat sued over alleged role in girl’s suicide

The social media platforms are addictive to an extent that caused a kid to kill herself, mother claims in lawsuit

Eleven-year-old Selena was apparently so addicted to Instagram and Snapchat that she suffered depression, eating disorders and sleep deprivation, before eventually killing herself, her mother Tammy Rodriguez claims. The woman, from Connecticut, sued the companies in San Francisco federal court this week.

According to the lawsuit, filed on Thursday against the platforms’ respective parent companies, Meta (formerly Facebook) and Snap, the photo-sharing and messaging apps lack parental control and “seek to exploit users’ susceptibility.” As an alleged result, the girl had “struggled for more than two years with an extreme addiction” and then took her own life in July last year.

While there are terms of service that warn that a person can only create an account from age 13 and older, the platforms lack strong age-verification checks, the lawsuit asserts. The absence of parental controls made it almost impossible for the mother to limit her child’s screen time on the social media, and apparently only caused further confrontations in the family.

“The only way for Tammy Rodriguez to effectively limit access to Defendants’ products would be to physically confiscate Selena’s internet-enabled devices,” the suit claims. To access her accounts through other means, the girl simply ran away from home.

A therapist to whom the girl had been taken evaluated the harm, saying that the practice has never before seen “a patient as addicted to social media.”

“There is a mental health epidemic among American teens,” attorney Matthew Bergman, founder of Social Media Victims Law Center in Seattle, told Bloomberg. His company represents Tammy Rodriguez in the case. The attorney also filed a separate complaint this week, representing a mother in Oregon. “Numerous mental health conditions” of a 15-year-old are blamed on Snap and Meta.

Last year, anxiety over the wellbeing of young social-media users came under a spotlight and reached the US senate. Tech companies appeared in hearings, after product-manager-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen accused Mark Zuckerberg’s company of prioritizing money over children’s and teenagers’ safety. She called for more regulation, in particular of Instagram. Haugen also spoke before a European Parliament committee, discussing the social media companies’ negative impact on users.

https://www.rt.com/news/546842-child-suicide-meta-snap-lawsuit/

UK govt seeks to spike ‘highly sensitive’ BBC spy story – reports

The government is to argue for a injunction on the grounds it would compromise overseas intelligence activities

The UK government is reportedly seeking a gagging order to prevent the BBC airing a news segment that apparently identifies a spy working overseas. A secret High Court hearing is expected to be convened next week to listen to arguments on the “highly sensitive case,” according to The Telegraph.

While the broadcaster insists the story is “overwhelmingly in the public interest,” Attorney General Suella Braverman is expected to claim that airing it would present a “risk to people’s lives” and would impact overseas British intelligence activities, the paper reported on Friday.

Although neither party has divulged additional details about the broadcast’s content, an unnamed source told The Telegraph that identifying the spy would be a “massive compromise” for national security, and warned of “very serious consequences for the BBC.”

“These people are doing very, very difficult jobs in incredible circumstances. They are risking their lives. This is not James Bond – these are real people.”

If the judge agrees with the government’s contention at Thursday’s interim hearing, he or she could grant either a full or a temporary injunction on airing the segment. They will produce two judgments: one for the press and the wider public that is redacted so it does not reveal any sensitive information, and another that discloses all the details but can only be accessed by those with the necessary security clearance, the paper reported.

The BBC, which has claimed the story is “fully in line” with its “editorial standards and values,” will be able to challenge any injunction in the Court of Appeal.

A number of UK media outlets have compared the incident to the infamous Spycatcher affair of the mid-1980s, wherein Margaret Thatcher’s government failed to prevent newspapers from reporting allegations published in the memoirs of a former senior MI5 intelligence officer.

Legal experts told The Telegraph the government could open itself up to accusations of abusing the courts if it failed to prove that broadcasting the BBC story posed a credible threat to national security.

https://www.rt.com/news/546844-uk-gag-order-bbc-spy-story/

https://www.rt.com/news/546844-uk-gag-order-bbc-spy-story/

As Big Tech Censored Doctors and Scientists, 2021 Set a Record for Child Sexual Abuse on Their Platforms

Last month, Twitter permanently banned Dr. Robert Malone — who has widely been credited with inventing the mRNA technology used in the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 immunizations. Following the Twitter ban, Dr. Malone appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast, in one of the most viral episodes ever. That podcast and all subsequent clips were then banned from YouTube.

Malone wasn’t inciting hatred toward groups of people or calling for an overthrow of the US government. He was merely presenting facts that were inconvenient to the established narrative, and for this, he was memory holed by the arbiters of information in big tech.

Peaceful discourse over the last two years has become an enemy to the status quo. No longer can the plebes question their rulers on official channels. Instead, they are pushed to the outskirts of the internet and logical well-formed arguments are then mixed in with dark and ridiculous conspiracy theories in what appears to be a deliberate act to stifle free thought.

Dr. Malone was just one of many esteemed minds who have been unceremoniously silenced into oblivion by big tech as these information controllers delete content that runs counter to their narrative. They claim this mass censorship and narrative control is carried out to keep you safe. But as a recent report from The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) illustrates, as big tech clamps down on free speech, they allow child sexual abuse to not only spread — but flourish.

According to the new data from IWF, online sexual exploitation of 7-10 year olds exploded in 2021 with a 300% increase. This increase was part of a record-breaking number of child sexual abuse images being transferred and exchanged on platforms who rampantly censor doctors and scientists for challenging the status quo.

Thanks to government imposed lockdowns and “virtual learning” more children were online last year, which increased their odds of encountering sexual predators.

According to IWF, the foundation received more complaints about child sexual abuse images, also known as child pornography, in 2021, than they have in the last 15 years combined.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are increasingly being used by child predators for grooming and sexual exploitation, according to the data — even children who parents may consider “too young” to be in danger.

As advocacy group, Parents Together Action points out, while parents are a critical part of keeping kids safe online, tech platforms also need to address the massive and growing problem of online child sexual abuse. The IWF data is Europe-centric data about an international problem, which US-based tech companies have a unique opportunity to protect children from.

Unfortunately, however, these tech companies are seemingly more concerned with banning folks for questioning the safety of vaccinations and covid protocols than they are with protecting children — and the data proves it.

https://thefreethoughtproject.com/as-big-tech-censored-doctors-and-scientists-2021-set-a-record-for-child-sexual-abuse-on-their-platforms/

GETTR: Leaked Texts Suggest Miles Guo Is Jason Miller's Boss, Tells Him What to Do

Leaked WhatsApp messages between Jason Miller and Miles Guo suggests Guo has far more influence over GETTR than previously claimed.

Speaking to Tim Pool on Wednesday, Miller, the CEO of the “free speech” social media network GETTR, was quizzed about his relationship with exiled Chinese billionaire Miles Guo. GETTR was based on a nearly identical platform called Getome, then renamed Getter, which was hosted by Guo’s GTV, before it was relaunched as GETTR in July of 2021.

When asked, Miller said that while Guo does not have “a direct financial or leadership role within the company,” he admitted that “one of the firms that’s invested in [GETTR] has a heavy influence from Miles’s family foundation.” Miller stated that while he does “get ideas and hears things from Miles… he is not [his] boss.”

However, leaked WhatsApp messages acquired by leftist news outlet Mother Jones suggest that Guo does actually have a lot more influence than Miller claimed. The messages between Miller and Guo center around Joe Rogan’s remarks earlier this month.

On his podcast, Rogan labelled GETTR as being “fugazi,” for combining Twitter and GETTR follower counts together, something the site has now reversed.

In the exchange, which included audio messages from Guo and texts from Miller, Miller said the situation was not good, but that he had attempted to smooth things over with Rogan’s producer.

“It’s just a misunderstanding. There is no problem Jason,” Guo said in an audio message, “Joe Rogan is a big help to us. We are friend. We don’t want to do any bad things to this guy. We need to respect him. Just…explain to him what happened… We solve the misunderstanding… We must keep it gentleman-style. No fight back. We are friends. We need to respect him,” Guo continued, arguably giving Miller instructions.

“Exactly,” Miller replied. “I was very humble when I spoke with his producer yesterday.”

“That’s why I love you. You’re a 100 percent gentlemen,” Guo said. “You’re the super gentleman. That’s why you have the extremely enemy. Miles Guo is too many enemy, Steve Bannon too many enemy. We are easy create the enemy. That’s our trouble… We need to learn from you… That’s why you good CEO in GETTR. Thank you very much I learn a lot.”

Due to Guo’s broken English, the last sentence in the second message is harder to decipher, but can potentially be transcribed as follows: “Thank you for the GETTR, you sacrifice your patience and you are a big benefit for me and to GETTR,” lending more credence to the idea that Guo has control over the site.

https://nationalfile.com/gettr-leaked-texts-suggest-miles-guo-jason-millers-boss-tells/

Wuhan Collaborators ‘EcoHealth’ Just Received One Their Largest EVER Grants, From Joe Biden’s Government.

Instead of scrutiny, Wuhan collaborators close to Anthony Fauci are getting a pay off. Why, and why now?

EcoHealth Alliance – an American nonprofit that collaborated with the Wuhan Institute of Virology on manipulating bat coronaviruses resembling COVID-19 – has received one of its largest ever grants from Joe Biden’s White House.

Led by the disgraced Peter Daszak – a long-time Anthony Fauci ally – EcoHealth’s new Biden-era grant began on October 26th, 2021. It came less than one week after the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) admitted the group engaged in gain-of-function research alongside the Wuhan lab, failing to report its findings “as was required by the terms of the grant.”

Gain-of-function research entails increasing the lethality, virulence, and transmissibility of a pathogen, which deleted webpages from the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s website reveal the lab was engaged in alongside EcoHealth Alliance.

As Dr. Richard Ebright, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University, explained the October 20th letter:

NIH corrects untruthful assertions by NIH Director Collins and NIAID Director Fauci that NIH had not funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan.

The Biden grant will furnish Daszak with a new $4.7m of U.S. taxpayer cash until 2026.

“USAID CWA is to conserve threatened and endangered species by strengthening protected areas and helping communities be less reliant on protected resources for their livelihoods,” notes the grant’s description.

The cash represents the largest sum EcoHealth Alliance has ever received from USAID, with the next largest totaling less than $2 million. The Biden-backed $4.7 million grant is also the third-largest grant the group has ever received from a federal agency.

In addition to EcoHealth Alliance’s lies about its involvement in gain-of-function research with the Wuhan Institute of Virology, the group’s president Peter Daszak has spearheaded efforts to quash the narrative that COVID-19 had lab origins, in lock-step with the Chinese Communist Party and its propaganda mouthpieces.

Following National Pulse exposés revealing Daszak’s extensive conflicts of interests, he was recused from the Lancet medical journal’s COVID-19 origins commission.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/01/22/ecohealth-alliance-receives-higest-grant-following-gof-controversy/

=-=Biden DOJ Drops Charges Against MIT Scientist Allegedly Working For Chinese Communist Party.==

President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice dropped charges against Gang Chen, a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor indicted under the Trump administration for concealing financial ties to the Chinese Communist Party while receiving federal research grants from the U.S.

Federal prosecutors’ decision to drop the case follows the White House tapping another professor from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Elisabeth Reynolds, for a senior post on the National Economic Council (NEC).

The National Pulse has previously revealed Reynolds’s link to Chen beyond working for the same university: she attended a 2017 conference in China alongside Chen where MIT professors were advising the Chinese Communist Party on economic and technological developments.

A state-run media outlet’s summary of the event also revealed that the conference speakers were extending their expertise to officials from Shanghai:

Organizers hope that local startups will be inspired or find some valuable technologies through the speeches, according to the district government. […] The Americans are giving guidance and suggestions to entrepreneurs and company officials based in Yangpu during the conference.

Shanghai officials ultimately “signed an agreement with MIT to act as a bridge between Yangpu-based companies and the MIT Industrial Liaison Program, which helps enterprises to find appropriate resources from the university’s five colleges and 33 departments.”

“The Yangpu government has ‘top level’ membership on the MIT program, while local companies can opt to pay a membership fee to have a ‘second membership,’ allowing them to seek help and suggestions from MIT professionals anytime,” the summary adds.

Under the Trump administration, the Department of Justice alleged that since 2012, Chen has acted as an “overseas expert” for the Chinese Communist Party at the request of the government’s New York Consulate and has received approximately $29 million in foreign funding.

Despite working in the U.S. and receiving taxpayer dollars to fund his research, Gang Chen simultaneously was “promoting China’s technological and scientific development by providing advice and expertise — sometimes directly to Chinese government officials — and often in exchange for financial compensation,” according to the original charges.

“After a careful assessment of this new information in the context of all the evidence, our office has concluded that we can no longer meet our burden of proof at trial,” U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins, the top federal prosecutor in Massachusetts, said. “As prosecutors, we have an obligation in every matter we pursue to continually examine the facts while being open to receiving and uncovering new information.”

The dismissal also follows professors from Stanford University lobbying the DOJ to halt its “China Initiative”: a Trump-era program targeting Chinese Communist Party-linked academics exploiting American universities for intellectual property theft and espionage.

https://thenationalpulse.com/2022/01/22/biden-doj-drops-charges-against-mit-scientist-allegedly-working-for-chinese-communist-party/

More Than 300 Twitter Accounts Suspended for Promoting Philippines’ Presidential Front Runner

Twitter on Friday suspended over 300 accounts linked to Philippines presidential election candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr’s support network, following an investigative report by local media alleging that Marcos-related accounts and hashtags were dominating the platform.

Veteran politician Marcos, 64, popularly known as “Bongbong,” is the son of the late dictator overthrown in a 1986 “people power” revolution. The former senator has reportedly emerged as the lead candidate ahead of the May vote.

Rappler claimed in its report that Marcos supporters attempted to dominate Twitter by creating accounts and hashtags that were “pushing pro-Marcos propaganda and attacking his critics.” Some of the hashtags became trending within hours, it said.

Twitter said that it reviewed the accounts and hashtags mentioned in Rappler’s report and found that over 300 accounts were in violation of its policies against spam and platform manipulation.

The majority of these accounts had been removed before the report came out as part of its routine actions, Twitter said, adding that its investigations are still ongoing.

“We remain vigilant about identifying and eliminating suspected information campaigns targeting election conversations,” a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement.

Twitter clarified that sharing political content or rallying people to do so via hashtags is not against its policies, unless the accounts involved were inauthentic, automated, or paid for. But it saw “no clear evidence” of that in this case.

“We are committed to working with all relevant governments, including [the Philippine Commission on Elections], and civil society stakeholders as well as domain specialists and subject matter experts tackling the complex challenges to free and open elections,” the spokesperson added.

The politician’s spokesperson, Vic Rodriguez, applauded Twitter for “keeping a close watch against platform manipulation and spam,” but said there was no certainty that all the suspended accounts belonged to Marcos’s support network.

“While it is true that there could have been hundreds of Twitter accounts that were suspended, there is no certainty that all of them belong to the supporters of Bongbong Marcos,” Rodriguez said in a statement released by Pilipino Mirror.

“In fact, the information from a Twitter spokesperson did not even mention any account in Marcos network, nor the exact number of accounts, that were suspended.”

This isn’t the first time Twitter has taken down accounts in the Philippines. In April 2020, Twitter suspended “hundreds of accounts” defending Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte’s response to the coronavirus pandemic for violating its policies against platform manipulation and spamming.

https://www.ntd.com/more-than-300-twitter-accounts-suspended-for-promoting-philippines-presidential-front-runner_730995.html

TSA Backtracks on Allowing Illegal Immigrants to Use Arrest Warrants as ID to Fly

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) on Friday acknowledged it was allowing illegal immigrants to present arrest warrants as identification to get on airplanes but said it was ending the practice.

“For non-citizens and non-U.S. nationals who do not otherwise have acceptable forms of ID for presentation at security checkpoints, TSA may also accept certain DHS-issued forms, including ICE Form I-200 (Warrant for Arrest of an Alien),” a spokesman for the agency told The Epoch Times in an email.

The TSA is part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which also includes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Later in the day, though, the same spokesman indicated the policy had been changed.

“To confirm the identity of an individual and ensure they are not on the no-fly list or pose a known threat to public safety or national security, TSA verifies the identity of every traveler before they are permitted to enter the secure area of an airport. Noncitizens without a standard form of identification may instead present certain DHS-issued forms to a TSA officer. These forms are civil immigration violation documents, do not include criminal arrest warrants, and are not indicative of a threat to public safety or national security,” he said.

The TSA says it confirms the identity of each individual by verifying information found on the forms using data from Customs and Border Protection.

The Biden administration letting illegal immigrants present arrest warrants was first reported by the Daily Caller.

The change in policy came after an outcry over the unusual practice.

“President [Joe] Biden is putting millions of Americans at risk by allowing known criminals and potential terrorists to fly on U.S. airlines. A criminal alien shouldn’t be allowed to board a plane after presenting a warrant for their arrest. They should be detained and brought before a judge,” Rep. Lance Gooden (R-Texas), who said he went to the U.S.-Mexico border and witnessed illegal immigrants boarding planes without proper identification, said on Fox & Friends this week.

Matthew Tragesser, spokesperson at the Federation for American Immigration Reform, told The Epoch Times in an email before the change that the guidance was “an affront to American citizens, and greatly jeopardizes our national security.”

“In no way, shape, or form would an American citizen be allowed to board a U.S. flight simply by flashing an arrest warrant. If anything, that would cause immediate concern for law enforcement officials. This unconscionable move by the Biden administration aids and abets criminal behavior. Rather than facilitate illegal immigration deep into the interior, the administration should look to deter it as more than 2 million individuals attempted to enter the country unlawfully during its first year in office–an all-time record,” he added.

Under Biden, the United States set records for the most illegal immigrant apprehensions at the U.S.-Mexico border for both a fiscal year and a calendar year.

Biden, a Democrat, and top officials in his administration have dramatically altered or ended key Trump-era policies since taking office, including stopping construction of the border wall and curtailing the use of health emergency powers to expel illegal aliens.

https://www.ntd.com/tsa-backtracks-on-allowing-illegal-immigrants-to-use-arrest-warrants-as-id-to-fly_730979.html

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris: State Limits on Abortion ‘Particularly Devastating’ for Communities of Color

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris claimed in a statement Saturday that state restrictions on abortion hurt communities of color.

“These state restrictions constrain the freedom of all women,” the president and vice president wrote in a joint statement. “And they are particularly devastating for those who have fewer options and fewer resources, such as those in underserved communities, including communities of color and many in rural areas.”

Biden and Harris celebrated the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade after tens of thousands of pro-life Americans protested abortion in Washington, DC, during the March for Life on Friday.

“We must ensure that our daughters and granddaughters have the same fundamental rights that their mothers and grandmothers fought for and won on this day, 49 years ago,” they wrote.

They condemned state restrictions on abortion such as those in Texas and Mississippi that ban abortion after six weeks.

“The continued defense of this constitutional right is essential to our health, safety, and progress as a nation,” the president and vice president wrote.

They repeatedly defended the right to abortion, backing legislation to codify Roe v. Wade into law.

“It is a right we believe should be codified into law, and we pledge to defend it with every tool we possess,” they wrote.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2022/01/22/joe-biden-kamala-harris-state-limits-abortion-particularly-devastating-communities-color/

Lithuanian MP Says German Companies Bending to ‘Beijing’s Will’ are Destroying the EU Single Market

German companies that side with Communist China over Lithuania are effectively destroying the European Union’s Single Market in favour of a “Sino-centric trade system,” a leading MP has told Breitbart News.

In response to the ongoing diplomatic row over Lithuania’s decision to open a de-facto Taiwanese embassy in Vilnius, the Chinese Communist Party has not only placed a blockade on Lithuanian products but also products made throughout the European Union made with any Lithuanian components.

Firms in Germany, whose largest trading partner is China, have attempted to ramp up pressure on the Baltic state to back down in its fight with Beijing in order to regain their lost profits from the Chinese market.

German car companies have been particularly impacted by the Lithuanian sanctions, with the German car-parts manufacturer Continental telling Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė last month that the financial hit of China’s blockade has already resulted in hundreds of millions of euros lost.

In a letter last month, the German-Baltic Chamber of Commerce demanded that Lithuania come to a “constructive solution” with the communist nation, saying per Reuters: “The basic business model of the companies is in question and some … will have no other choice than to shut down production in Lithuania”.

Responding to the pressure campaign from German industry, Lithuanian MP Dovilė Šakalienė told Breitbart London that if companies choose to establish their production lines based on “Beijing’s political will” rather than on the principles of the free market, then “we are living in a Sino-centric trade system”.

“Therefore, let’s not be naive – multinationals lobbying for China’s interests within their Governments are effectively undermining abilities of collective defence and possibilities for deterrence of Beijing coercion in the future,” she said.

On social media, Šakalienė noted the sordid Nazi-era history of some of the German companies who have sided with Beijing, including industrial manufacturing giant Siemens, whose CEO has said last month that the EU should not pressure China over forced labour because it may slow down the global green agenda.

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/01/22/german-companies-are-bending-to-beijings-will-says-lithuanian-mp/

Left-wing group secured $158 million taxpayer-funded contract to help illegal immigrants avoid deportation

Vera Institute of Justice rakes in millions in government funding to bankroll immigration lawyers

A progressive group that views immigration enforcement agencies as a "threat" to civil liberties secured a $158 million taxpayer-funded contract to help unaccompanied minors avoid deportation, records show.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) awarded the Vera Institute of Justice, a left-wing nonprofit that backs defunding the police, the contract in 2021 to "provide immigration related legal services to unaccompanied minors," according to USASpending, a federal contract database.

"The Vera Institute of Justice is a behemoth progressive nonprofit based out of New York City with well over a $140 million budget, which they use to fund a slate of progressive causes and initiatives across the country," Jason Hopkins, an investigative associate with the Immigration Reform Law Institute, told Fox News. "Whether that be criminal justice reform, bail reform and also immigration."

Hopkins said the institute gets around half of its funding from the federal government. In fact, between July 1, 2019, and June 30, 2020, nearly $137 million of the group's $174 million in revenue came from government grants, the institute's most recent tax forms show.

"The $158 million is just the latest in the hundreds of millions that they provided to Vera for their services," Hopkins said.

The contract, which hasn't been previously reported, began on March 30, 2021, and has a potential end date of March 30, 2022.

Beginning around the start of the contract, HHS rerouted $2 billion intended for health initiatives – including expanded COVID-19 testing – to help deal with the surging border crisis and unaccompanied minors. The department did not respond to a request for comment.

Every year, "thousands of immigrant children are placed into court proceedings in which government prosecutors seek to deport them unless those children can prove they have a right to stay in the United States," a Vera Institute spokesperson told Fox News Digital.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/left-wing-158m-taxpayer-immigrants-deportation

Space Force Just Launched Satellites Capable Of 'Inspecting' Enemy Satellites

Two new satellites launched as part of Space Force's push for more space domain awareness can get up close and personal with other objects in orbit.

Space Force launched two additional satellites today as part of its push for greater Space Domain Awareness, or SDA, in geosynchronous orbit some 22,000 miles away from Earth. The two satellites are part of the Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP, and will allow Space Force to not only locate and identify objects in this distant orbit, but also maneuver close to them in order to inspect them or assess their capabilities. The launch comes as Space Force leadership continues to sound the alarm about the risks posed to U.S. satellites in orbit.

The Northrop Grumman-built GSSAP-5 and GSSAP-6 were launched today at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida atop a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 511 rocket. The first two GSSAP satellites were launched in 2014, with the second two following in 2016. Space Force has not released any details about how these two new GSSAP satellites might differ from the previous four, which were designed to operate near the belt of other geosynchronous satellites and maneuver close to them to conduct surveillance. A spokesperson for Space Systems Command stated this week that the new GGSAP satellites “will provide improved SDA data to the National Space Defense Center and other national users to enhance our ability to navigate freely and safely within the GEO belt.”

Details about the GSSAP program remain murky. At the Mitchell Institute’s Schriever Spacepower Forum this week, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond was asked if he could discuss any of the capabilities of the new pair of GSSAP satellites. In response, Raymond told attendees “When you look at the geosynchronous domain, it’s a very large volume of space that you have to cover and this provides additional capacity for us.”

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/43980/space-force-just-launched-satellites-capable-of-inspecting-adversarys-satellites

Czech Prime Minister Ends Vaccine Mandates… Ontario to Lift Covid Restrictions

The Czech government is ending COVID vaccine mandates to avoid ‘deepening fissures’ in society. The news was delivered by Prime Minister Petr Fiala at a press conference on Wednesday.

“This does not change our stance on vaccination. It is still undoubtedly the best way to fight COVID-19 … however, we do not want to deepen fissures in society,” Fiala said.

trendingpolitics.com/czech-prime-minister-ends-vaccine-mandates-we-do-not-want-to-deepen-the-rifts-in-society-knab/

Ontario will ease the COVID-19 restrictions put in place earlier this month, allowing restaurants and gyms to open at 50 per cent capacity starting Jan. 31.

www.msn.com/en-ca/money/topstories/ontario-to-lift-covid-19-restrictions-starting-jan-31/ar-AASYIJ0?ocid=entnewsntp&pc=U531

https://www.investmentwatchblog.com/czech-prime-minister-ends-vaccine-mandates-ontario-to-lift-covid-restrictions/