Police Respond To Active Shooting On NorCal Highway; At Least 4 Shot

Officers with the Golden Gate division of the California Highway Patrol are responding to an active shooting on Interstate 580 Wednesday afternoon, with media reports saying at least four people appear to have been shot in the eastboudn lanes near 106th Avenue.

Police haven't immediately elaborated on the condition of the victims or a possible motive.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/police-respond-active-shooting-norcal-highway-least-4-shot

New Zealand Health Minister Resigns Amid Calls to Step Down Over COVID-19 Response

David Clark stepped down as Health Minister after facing a backlash for his breaching of Level 4 quarantine rules. Recently he had been pressured to resign, as over 2,000 New Zealanders signed a petition calling for him to be sacked.

New Zealand's Health Minister David Clark stepped down from his position, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, who was initially reluctant to fire him over attempts for "continuity" in COVID-19 response, accepting his resignation. He was demoted to the bottom of the Cabinet rankings, according to Newshub, and stripped of his Associate Finance portfolio.

Ardern said that she is appointing Chris Hipkins as Health Minister "until the election", NZ Herald reported.

Clark said that it was an "extraordinary privilege", to which he had given "my all". But, according to him, continuing was distracting from the government's COVID-19 response.

"I want to put on record again that it has been an honour to work alongside the director general of health Ashley Bloomfield. Now is the right time to hand over the reins", he said, noting that the public health system "needed to be rebuilt".

Clark has been pressured to leave his post over breaching the strict quarantine rules by moving house and going out for the walks. He was also filmed pointing blamed at Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield for botching up government's quarantine testing.

National Party leader Todd Muller said that Clark "did not deliver that to the standards that we expected, neither through the lockdown or the border management in recent weeks which has been utterly shambolic".

The petition calling for his resignation was signed by over 2,000 New Zealanders, where former Health Minister was slammed for "repeatedly breaching his own guidelines by travelling unnecessarily, mountain biking when that was forbidden, and moving house and his office at the exact time he was requiring people to stay home and work from home".

Currently, New Zealand's Health Ministry has reported 1,178 registered COVID-19 cases and 22 related deaths in the country.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/202007011079771384-new-zealand-health-minister-resigns-amid-calls-to-step-down-over-covid-19-response/

'Unhelpful distraction': Health Minister David Clark resigns

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=12344904

The Real Reason Behind Allowing the Protests During COVID-19

One of the apparent enigmas of our political moment is the behavior of countless governors and mayors who are allowing mass protests to erupt and persist in the midst of an infectious pandemic. Ordinary people everywhere are being compelled to wear masks; families, businesses, institutions and churches are in various stages of enforced lockdown; and social distancing is the order of the day. Yet thousands of protestors, demonstrators, vandals and rioters all across the nation are permitted to gather in close quarters, ostensibly on the grounds that the pursuit of (a fictitious) “social justice” and the fight against (an illusory) “systemic racism” outweigh every other consideration, including “flattening the curve” of viral casualties. On the face of it, such a phenomenon makes no sense at all.

But as many commentators have noted and ordinary citizens are aware, the reason is quite simple: November 3. The greater the disruption of everyday life, the more that businesses are forced to close, and the faster the economy sinks into desuetude, the better the chances that Joe Biden will defeat Donald Trump at the polls. No lie is too vast to engineer that result, including the lie that contagion-prone crowds benefit the nation’s overall wellbeing more than preventive measures against a widespread disease. As Stephen Kruiser points out, “What’s most infuriating here is that we’re being asked to engage in some monumental suspension of disbelief and pretend that people hanging out in bars are responsible for some recent spikes in infection rates but that thousands of people marching, rioting, and looting for weeks had nothing to do with it… This makes me feel as if we’ll be in varying degrees of lockdown for at least the rest of the year now. If that’s the case, then Biden will probably be elected.” As if in confirmation, Barack Obama seems delighted that civil unrest and social distress constitute “a tailor-made moment” for electing Biden.

It’s hard to say if such electoral calculations are viable, but they are no doubt plausible. The Democrats are counting on a growing public perception that Trump is a weak president, unable to act decisively to deter those laboring to create as much social strife and discord as possible and to destroy the economy—a robust economy is Trump’s greatest political advantage. Trump, they hope, may come to seem ineffective and even powerless in the current circumstances.

I suspect there is another, more specific motive for selectively tolerating mass protests even during a COVID panic, and that is the determination to smother Trump’s immensely popular and energetic political rallies. TikTok hoplites had already schemed to undermine Trump’s Tulsa rally by registering for tickets with no intention of showing up in order to reduce both attendance and morale. For Trump has an undoubted talent for galvanizing the public, for packing stadiums filled with cheering supporters, and for creating a potent electoral momentum that will carry him to a second term. A second lockdown would be an effective means of depriving Trump of his most powerful, performative asset.

Nothing could serve the Democratic left’s action plan better. Deliberately cause a new outbreak of cases, generate a surge of new infections spreading throughout the country and a corresponding wave of fear, thus establishing a reason for a second lockdown, and Trump will have lost his megaphone. His rallies will fade into a distant memory. He will have been silenced in the very medium where he is most dynamic, vigorous and commanding.

https://pjmedia.com/columns/david-solway-2/2020/07/01/the-real-reason-behind-allowing-the-protests-during-covid-19-n593881

Virginia Photographer Fights $50K Fine for Practicing His Religion

A Christian wedding photographer and blogger in Virginia filed suit against Attorney General Mark Herring (D), seeking to prevent the enforcement of a new non-discrimination law that its Democrat supporters admitted was intended to be “punitive” against those who decline to celebrate same-sex weddings. The law presents the photographer with an impossible choice: violate his conscience, close down his business, or face a $50,000 fine for the first offense and $100,000 fines for each later offense.

Chris Herring, owner of Chris Herring Photography, filed the pre-enforcement lawsuit on Tuesday before the law came into effect on Wednesday. The lawsuit claims the Virginia Values Act — which Gov. Ralph Northam (D) signed on the Saturday before Easter during a pandemic — violates Chris Herring’s rights to free speech, free association, freedom of the press, religious liberty, and the Constitution’s ban on a government establishment of religion.

“It isn’t the state’s job to tell me what I must capture on film or publish on my website,” Chris Herring said in a statement on the lawsuit. “My religious beliefs influence every aspect of my life, including the stories I tell through my photography. If you’re looking for someone to photograph a red-light district or promote drug tourism, I’m not your guy. Now Virginia is trying to intimidate creative professionals like me to change some of my other religious beliefs.”

Chris Herring insisted that he does not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation — he only refuses to celebrate same-sex weddings because they violate his beliefs on marriage, which God defines as a union between one man and one woman. If a gay man asked him to photograph an opposite-sex wedding, he would do so. If a straight man asked him to photograph a same-sex wedding, he would refuse. The wedding, not the sexual orientation of a client, is the point at issue.

“I happily work with and serve all customers, but I can’t and won’t let the state force me to express messages that contradict my beliefs,” the photographer insisted.

“Artists shouldn’t be censored, fined, or forced out of business simply for disagreeing with the government’s preferred views,” Jonathan Scruggs, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the law firm representing Chris Herring, said in a statement. “Because of Virginia’s new law, Chris faces an impossible choice: violate the law and risk bankruptcy, promote views against his faith, or close down.”

“No matter one’s views on marriage, we all lose when bureaucrats can force citizens to participate in religious ceremonies they oppose, speak messages they disagree with, and stay silent about beliefs they hold dear,” Scruggs added.

Yet AG Mark Herring has repeatedly insisted that if wedding photographers like Chris Herring refuse to help celebrate same-sex weddings, they are discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation. Mark Herring said as much in amicus curiae briefs in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018) and in Telescope Media Group v. Lindsey (2019), two cases on the issue of whether or not bakers and photographers have the free speech and religious freedom right to refuse to serve same-sex weddings.

Yes, Conservative Christians Are ‘Triggered’ By LGBT Pride Flags. Here’s Why

Interestingly, Mark Herring argued that non-discrimination laws like the Virginia Values Act would allow a cakeshop to decline to create custom cakes with “offensive messages about LGBTQ people” based on its non-religious objections but as prohibiting a cakeshop from declining to create a custom wedding cake celebrating a same-sex wedding based on its religious objections.

“This distinction treats religious objections to creating expressive works worse than non-religious objections to creating expressive works,” Chris Herring’s lawsuit alleges.

https://pjmedia.com/culture/tyler-o-neil/2020/07/01/virginia-photographer-fights-50k-fine-for-practicing-his-religion-n596506

At Least 24 Killed, 7 Injured in Attack in Mexican City of Irapuato

he attack took place in the city of Irapuato of Guanajuato on Wednesday afternoon, as Pedro Cortés Zavala, secretary of Citizen Security confirmed the deaths. There was no immediate information on the suspect.

DETAILS TO FOLLOW

https://sputniknews.com/world/202007011079771549-at-least-24-killed-in-attack-in-mexican-city-of-irapuato—reports/

Connecticut Man Arrested for Distributing Child Porn to Online Group

WASHINGTON – Edward Galpin was detained yesterday pending trial on charges of conspiracy to distribute and distribution of child pornography.

Galpin, age 38, of Stratford, Connecticut, was arrested after he was charged in a criminal complaint filed in the District of Columbia last week. The complaint alleges that, in October of 2019, Galpin joined an online messaging group devoted to the exchange of child pornography and shared numerous sexually explicit videos of young children with the group. The complaint alleges that Galpin also had private conversations with an undercover officer working in the District of Columbia, sending the undercover officer a video of a 17-year old female family friend undressing. Galpin told the undercover that he had used a spy camera to make this recording.

The complaint further alleges that, in June, Galpin reached out to a different undercover officer, who was in a Connecticut-based teen chatroom. The undercover officer told Galpin s/he was a 14-year old female. Galpin set up a meeting with this purported 14-year old on June 25, 2020. When asked whether he had done this before, Galpin responded, “twice.” Galpin arrived at the arranged meeting place, went through a drive-through in the area, and then drove to a nearby store.

Galpin was arrested later that same day and made an initial appearance on the complaint in the District of Connecticut.

https://breaking911.com/connecticut-man-arrested-for-distributing-child-porn-to-online-group/

Senate kills bipartisan bill to end war in Afghanistan & repeal 2001 Terror War authorization

The US Senate has voted to table a bill that would have ended the war in Afghanistan and repealed the 2001 law authorizing the War on Terror, shooting down a rare attempt to wind down the longest conflict in American history.

Lawmakers voted 60-33 on Wednesday to kill legislation introduced by Senators Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) and Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) as an amendment for a broader defense spending bill. Dubbed the AFGHAN Act, the measure would have directed the Pentagon to begin an “orderly withdrawal” from Afghanistan and pay a $2,500 bonus to American soldiers.

Ahead of the vote, Senator Paul castigated the nearly 20-year-old conflict as wasteful of American lives and tax dollars, urging lawmakers to send the troops home.

“It is not sustainable to keep fighting in Afghanistan generation after generation,” Paul said on the Senate floor, noting that some of the soldiers taking part in the conflict were not even born when it was launched in 2001. “Many people have said we should end the war. Today you get to vote.”

First introduced last year, the amendment also would have repealed the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) enacted in response to the September 11 attacks, which has been invoked to justify military action around the globe. Since the US invasion of Afghanistan, the AUMF has been cited dozens of times to authorize deployments, bombings or other armed operations in at least 14 countries.

Though a deal struck between Washington and the Taliban earlier this year initiated a phased withdrawal of the roughly 12,000 US soldiers stationed in the country, some 8,600 troops still remain there. The administration has reportedly mulled removing another 4,000 by the fall, but has yet to announce a decision. While US officials, including CENTCOM commander Frank McKenzie, say the Taliban has avoided attacks on coalition forces in recent months, ongoing disputes between the militant group and the Afghan government still threaten to derail the withdrawal deal.

https://www.rt.com/usa/493531-senate-kills-afghanistan-amendment/

Novartis Pays Over $642 Million to Settle Allegations of Improper Payments to Patients and Physicians

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/novartis-pays-over-642-million-settle-allegations-improper-payments-patients-and-physicians

>>9818091

Yawn

Vatican summons US, Israeli envoys over annexation moves

The Vatican appealed to Israelis and Palestinians to do everything possible to reopen the process of direct negotiations.

The Vatican, in a highly unusual move, summoned both the US and Israeli ambassadors to express the Holy See's concern about Israel's moves to extend its sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank.

A Vatican statement on Wednesday said meetings with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, and US Ambassador Callista Gingrich and Israeli Ambassador Oren David, took place on Tuesday.

A senior diplomatic source told Reuters that Parolin met the two envoys separately, a detail which was not clear in the Vatican statement.

It said Parolin, the Vatican's top diplomat, expressed "the concern of the Holy See regarding possible unilateral actions that may further jeopardize the search for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as the delicate situation in the Middle East".

Israeli leaders decided in May that cabinet and parliamentary deliberations on extending Israeli sovereignty to Jewish settlements and the Jordan Valley in the West Bank, in coordination with Washington, could begin as of July 1.

But with no agreement with Washington yet on the modalities of the move under a peace proposal announced by U.S. President Donald Trump in January, and talks with the White House still underway, no cabinet session was scheduled for Wednesday.

The Vatican statement reiterated its position in support of a two state solution, saying "Israel and the State of Palestine have the right to exist and to live in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders."

The Vatican appealed to Israelis and Palestinians to do everything possible to reopen the process of direct negotiations on the basis of UN resolutions.

Palestinians seek the West Bank for a future state. In a show of Palestinian unity, some 3,000 people in the Gaza Strip, including members of the mainstream Fatah party and the rival Hamas group that runs the enclave, protested against annexation.

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/vatican-summons-us-israeli-envoys-over-annexation-moves-633517