New Zealand National Party Leader Todd Muller Steps Down

Todd Muller, a New Zealand's senior politician, was the head of the country's National Party and the Leader of Opposition, having entered the Parliament in 2014.

Leader of New Zealand's National Party and Opposition Todd Muller announced in a statement on Tuesday that he stepped down from his position due to health reasons.

"It has become clear to me that I am not the best person to be Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the New Zealand National Party at this critical time for New Zealand. The role has taken a heavy toll on me personally, and on my family, and this has become untenable from a health perspective. For that reason I will be stepping down as Leader effective immediately.", his statement read.

Muller also outlined that he believed that it is "more important than ever" for the country's National Party to have "a leader who is comfortable in the role".

He stressed that he intends to "take some time out of the spotlight" to spend it with his family before "reconnecting with my community".

"I intend to take some time out of the spotlight to spend with family and restore my energy before reconnecting with my community. I look forward to continuing to serve as a loyal member of the National Party team and Member of Parliament for Bay of Plenty", the statement said.

Muller entered the Parliament of New Zealand in 2014 as National's candidate from the Bay of Plenty. He became the leader of the National Party and Leader of Opposition in 2020, having challenged the former leader Simon Bridges. Muller only served in position for 53 days.

New Zealand's National Party is one of the country's two major parties, a traditional rival to New Zealand's Labour Party.

https://sputniknews.com/asia/202007131079874184-new-zealand-national-party-leader-todd-muller-steps-down/

US Rejects Chinese Claim To South China Sea In Major Reversal Of Obama-Era Appeasement

Update (1500ET): The State Department has confirmed the policy change in a press release attributed to Sec Pompeo. Read the whole statement below:

The United States champions a free and open Indo-Pacific. Today we are strengthening U.S. policy in a vital, contentious part of that region - the South China Sea. We are making clear: Beijing’s claims to offshore resources across most of the South China Sea are completely unlawful, as is its campaign of bullying to control them.

In the South China Sea, we seek to preserve peace and stability, uphold freedom of the seas in a manner consistent with international law, maintain the unimpeded flow of commerce, and oppose any attempt to use coercion or force to settle disputes. We share these deep and abiding interests with our many allies and partners who have long endorsed a rules-based international order.

These shared interests have come under unprecedented threat from the People’s Republic of China (PRC). Beijing uses intimidation to undermine the sovereign rights of Southeast Asian coastal states in the South China Sea, bully them out of offshore resources, assert unilateral dominion, and replace international law with “might makes right."

Beijing’s approach has been clear for years. In 2010, then-PRC Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his ASEAN counterparts that “China is a big country and other countries are small countries and that is just a fact.” The PRC’s predatory world view has no place in the 21st century.

The PRC has no legal grounds to unilaterally impose its will on the region. Beijing has offered no coherent legal basis for its “Nine-Dashed Line” claim in the South China Sea since formally announcing it in 2009. In a unanimous decision on July 12, 2016, an Arbitral Tribunal constituted under the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention – to which the PRC is a state party – rejected the PRC’s maritime claims as having no basis in international law. The Tribunal sided squarely with the Philippines, which brought the arbitration case, on almost all claims.

As the United States has previously stated, and as specifically provided in the Convention, the Arbitral Tribunal’s decision is final and legally binding on both parties. Today we are aligning the U.S. position on the PRC’s maritime claims in the SCS with the Tribunal’s decision. Specifically:

The PRC cannot lawfully assert a maritime claim – including any Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) claims derived from Scarborough Reef and the Spratly Islands – vis-a-vis the Philippines in areas that the Tribunal found to be in the Philippines’ EEZ or on its continental shelf.

Beijing’s harassment of Philippine fisheries and offshore energy development within those areas is unlawful, as are any unilateral PRC actions to exploit those resources. In line with the Tribunal’s legally binding decision, the PRC has no lawful territorial or maritime claim to Mischief Reef or Second Thomas Shoal, both of which fall fully under the Philippines’ sovereign rights and jurisdiction, nor does Beijing have any territorial or maritime claims generated from these features.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-plans-reject-chinese-claims-south-china-sea-major-reversal-obama-era-appeasement

LA teachers union demands police be defunded and charters ended before schools reopen

Politicizing the pandemic

With classes set to begin in August, the main teachers union in Los Angeles argued that schools cannot physically reopen unless certain policy demands are met, including the defunding of police, the end of charter schools, and the granting of financial support to undocumented students and their families.

The list of demands came in the form of a research paper issued recently by the 35,000-member United Teachers Los Angeles union, the Washington Examiner reported.

In the paper, the union wrote: "The COVID-19 pandemic in the United States underscores the deep equity and justice challenges arising from our profoundly racist, intensely unequal society. Unlike other countries that recognize protecting lives is the key to protecting livelihoods, the United States has chosen to prioritize profits over people. The Trump administration's attempt to force people to return to work on a large scale depends on restarting physical schools so parents have childcare.

"In Los Angeles, this means increasing risk especially in Black and Brown working communities, where people are more likely to have 'essential' jobs, insufficient health care, higher levels of preexisting health conditions, and to live in crowded housing," the paper continued, alleging that students who face hurdles such as "structural racism" and "immigration documentation issues" have been disproportionately affected.

Essentially, the union is arguing that reopening schools without a vaccine will further spread the virus and compound trauma on certain groups of students, the California Globe reported. On its face, it looks like the union is using the pandemic to push its political agenda.

In the paper, the union concludes that "normal wasn't working for us before … we can't go back."

Here are the specifics: Under the subsection "Local Support," the union argued for defunding the police and a "moratorium" on charter schools.

"Police violence is a leading cause of death and trauma for Black people, and is a serious public health and moral issue," the paper said. "We must shift the astronomical amount of money devoted to policing, to education and other essential needs such as housing and public health."

As for charter schools, they should be temporarily suspended, the union said. The paper argued that "privately operated, publicly funded charter schools drain resources from district schools." They also accused such schools of "double-dipping" during the pandemic by "taking federal small business bailout loans even though state funding did not decline this school year."

The paper also highlighted the state's more than 2 million undocumented residents who they claim are unfairly ineligible for federal and state benefits and subject to "ICE raids and mass deportations." Those undocumented students and their families "must be supported during this crisis," the union argued.

President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos have called for all schools to fully reopen this fall and threatened to cut federal funding for schools that refuse.

Last week, an overwhelming majority of UTLA members voted against physically reopening Los Angeles schools on Aug. 18.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/la-teachers-union-demands-before-reopen

Another Deadly Cost of COVID-19 Lockdowns: “A Hidden Epidemic” of Drug Overdoses

Bodies are arriving at Anahi Ortiz’s office faster than he can process them.

“We’ve literally run out of wheeled carts to put them on,” Ortiz, a coroner in Columbus, Ohio, recently told the Washington Post.

The cause of death isn’t the coronavirus, however. It’s drug overdoses. Ortiz says sometimes his office will get as many as nine ODs in a day and a half. The story fits a pattern emerging around the US.

Nationwide, the Post reports, public health officials are reporting alarming spikes in drug overdoses—”a hidden epidemic within the coronavirus pandemic.” The numbers are grim.

According to the Overdose Detection Mapping Application Program, suspected overdoses in March were up 18 percent from the previous year nationally. In April, that figure ticked up to 29 percent. In May, the increase was 42 percent.

In many instances, these overdoses are fatal. In Ortiz’s case, the surge resulted in about 50 percent more deaths than the same period over the previous year.

What’s Behind the OD Surge?

It’s no secret what’s driving the overdose epidemic.

The Post says up front that “emerging evidence suggests that the continued isolation in recent months are fueling the surge.”

The conclusion fits what scientists have been saying about human isolation for years: it’s deadly. In 2016, The New York Times did a deep-dive feature on the fatal consequences of social isolation.

A wave of new research suggests social separation is bad for us. Individuals with less social connection have disrupted sleep patterns, altered immune systems, more inflammation and higher levels of stress hormones.

One recent study found that isolation increases the risk of heart disease by 29 percent and stroke by 32 percent. Another analysis that pooled data from 70 studies and 3.4 million people found that socially isolated individuals had a 30 percent higher risk of dying in the next seven years, and that this effect was largest in middle age.

Loneliness can accelerate cognitive decline in older adults, and isolated individuals are twice as likely to die prematurely as those with more robust social interactions. These effects start early: Socially isolated children have significantly poorer health 20 years later, even after controlling for other factors. All told, loneliness is as important a risk factor for early death as obesity and smoking.

The Times article does not discuss drug abuse, but you can add it to the list of deadly results tied to social isolation.

An abundance of research shows that substance abuse and addiction are linked to loneliness and depression. People drink and do drugs more often to cope with feelings of loneliness.

In the bestselling work Chasing the Scream, a book that explores the history of the war on drugs and drug abuse, British writer Johann Hari says human interaction is the key to overcoming addiction.

“The opposite of addiction is not sobriety,” Hari writes, whose own struggles with drug abuse are chronicled in the book. “It is human connection.”

This is why recovering addicts will tell you there is nothing worse than putting former users into isolation.

https://www.naturalblaze.com/2020/07/another-deadly-cost-of-covid-19-lockdowns-a-hidden-epidemic-of-drug-overdoses.html

Proposed China-Iran deal is bad news for Israel

The American “maximum pressure” campaign has clearly had a major impact on Iran, but a massive influx of Chinese investments will go a long way towards undoing it.

With Iran and China working on a multibillion-dollar 25-year economic and security deal, Israel has many reasons to be concerned and even alarmed.

The proposed agreement, leaked to The New York Times, which reported on it on Saturday, would lead to a closer military relationship between Tehran and Beijing, including joint military exercises, research and weapons development and intelligence sharing. It would also increase Chinese investments in Iranian banking, telecommunications and transportation, such as airports and railways. China would reportedly get a discounted supply of Iranian oil in return.

The document describes the countries as “two ancient Asian countries… with a similar outlook” that “will consider one another strategic partners.”

Neither side has publicly confirmed that the document is genuine, that they have signed it or that there is any such agreement. When asked about a deal with Iran last week, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said: “China and Iran enjoy traditional friendship, and the two sides have been in communication on the development of bilateral relations. We stand ready to work with Iran to steadily advance practical cooperation.”

Meanwhile, there is public debate in Iran about whether the agreement could be a debt trap, with former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaking out against it. The agreement has been in the works for a long time – Chinese leader Xi Jinping first proposed it on a visit to Tehran in 2016 – and the timing for the recent progress likely has to do with Iran being especially economically weak these days.

According to Carice Witte, executive director of SIGNAL, a think tank focused on China-Israel relations: “This is indicative of the Chinese approach, [to] identify where there is a vulnerability and then patiently look for ways to capitalize on it.”

China has much to gain from the deal besides a discount on gas when energy prices are plummeting anyway. The agreement fits into China’s Belt and Road Initiative to build infrastructure across the world, while bringing Iran into its orbit of influence. It also would bolster China’s new digital currency e-RMB as a way to bypass American systems and reduce the power of the dollar – another way in which the deal could hurt Israel if it comes to fruition.

Plus, China would gain power and influence in Iran, a diplomatic card it can play with respect to the US and garner greater leverage in the Gulf.

https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/proposed-china-iran-deal-is-bad-news-for-israel-634906

Militarization Of US Police Turned Into Multi-Billion Business

he deployment of military equipment by police forces against protesters first came to attention during the Ferguson, Missouri, protests in 2014. The supply of military equipment to police is a trend that’s been developing for decades and the domestic homeland security market is now estimated to be worth more than $20 billion in goods and services.

“Certainly vendors, people, and companies that manufacture the technology that the police are purchasing are profiting from this,” said Thomas Nolan, a former senior policy advisor for the Department of Homeland Security. “The police obviously are not in the business of profiting from private acquisitions.” LINK

Many of this military equipment is transferred through two federal programs: the 1033 program and the 1122 program. The 1122 program allows the police to purchase new military equipment using their own funding with the same discounts enjoyed by the federal government. The 1033 program allows the Department of Defence to transfer excess military equipment to local law enforcement agencies free of charge, as long as they pay for shipping and maintenance.

More than 11,500 domestic law enforcement agencies have taken part in the 1033 program, receiving more than $7.4 billion in military equipment. After the Ferguson protests, several attempts were made to review and modify the 1033 program but they either met with opposition or the efforts dwindled as time passed without making substantive progress.

“One of the really troubling developments about the involvement of the federal government in the direct subsidy of purchases of militarized equipment is that this is really about creating a new market for defense contractors rather than really putting questions of public safety first,” said Alex Vitale, the Policing and Social Justice Project Coordinator at Brooklyn College.

According to critics, what makes both 1033 and 1122 programs so potentially counter-productive if not dangerous is the lack of clear oversight and accountability. The 1122 program, for instance, is not a grant or transfer program and thus is not required to be monitored by the federal government. Meanwhile, the 1033 program has put lethal weapons in the hands of officers in situations where there was no justifiable need for such equipment.

“We’ve seen instances reported of some small towns, even some college and university police departments that were acquiring military-grade weapons without any demonstrable need for the use of these or the acquisition of these weapons,” according to Nolan.

In some cases, equipment transferred through these programs has simply vanished due to what appears to be a lack of oversight and poor bookkeeping.

“There have been a number of situations where there have been audits of local police departments to try to figure out what they’ve done with this equipment,” said Vitale, “And these departments have been unable to provide adequate records.”

The National Police Foundation countered that its independent study revealed that a vast majority of equipment transferred through the 1033 program consists of nonlethal items such as “clothing, personal protective equipment” and “basic infrastructure needs.”

The National Police Foundation told CNBC that it encourages those considering policy changes to the 1033 program to examine the data and understand the value that states and local communities receive through these programs.

https://southfront.org/militarization-of-us-police-turned-into-multi-billion-business/

Fed Releases POMO Schedule For Next Two Weeks; Will Buy $9BN In Treasuries And MBS Each Day

Now that the Fed's release of POMO is more of a periodic affair than every Friday, moments ago the NY Fed published its latest POMO schedule for both Treasurys and MBS for the next two weeks, covering the period July 14 - July 27.

In line with the recent Fed disclosure that the central bank will purchase about $80 billion in Treasurys monthly, the latest schedule shows an average daily purchase of about $4.5 billion, or $40.2 billion spread over 9 days; for MBS the average daily is nearly identical, at $4.6 billion daily, or $46BN spread over 10 days.

Here is the latest summary of Treasury POMOS. Of note: the biggest POMOs will take place on July 14 and July 24, when the Fed will monetize $12.825BN and $8.825BN worth of US debt.

The visual summary of all TSY/MBS POMO since the start of QE Unlimited on March 13 is shown below. Since then, a total of $2.82 trillion in TSY and MBS have been purchased by the Fed in the open market.

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/fed-releases-pomo-schedule-next-two-weeks-will-buy-9bn-treasuries-and-mbs-each-day

More than 150 Minneapolis Police Officers File PTSD Claims for Disability Benefits – 20% of Cops Plan to Leave Police Force

More than 150 Minneapolis police officers filed claims this month claiming PTSD after the street attacks last month following the death of George Floyd.

The Minneapolis officers feared they would be beaten to death by the violent leftist mobs that looted, vandalized and burned over 1,500 buildings in the city and hundreds of businesses.

“While law enforcement is a high-stress career, the last two months in Minneapolis have pushed many officers to their breaking point,” Meuser said…

Among Meuser’s clients are officers who were inside the city’s 3rd Precinct police station, which was abandoned and subsequently burned during the May protests here. At least 13 officers were inside the building at the time, Meuser said, and some wrote what they thought were final texts to family members and loved ones fearing they would be killed. Ordered to stand down to protesters, some of the officers had fearfully counted their ammunition to make sure they would have a bullet for themselves to avoid being beaten to death, he said…

The 150 officers represent about 20 percent of the Minneapolis Police Department’s force of approximately 800. Meuser warned Friday that the number of officers seeking to file disability claims is likely to grow based on the inquiries his office has received.

This comes after the Minneapolis City Council recently voted to defund the police.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/150-minneapolis-police-officers-file-ptsd-claims-disability-benefits-20-cops-plan-leave-police-force/

Nike, Amazon, Apple, Abercrombie among those using Uyghur Muslims Forced Labor in China

The Chinese government is forcing thousands of its Uyghur Muslim citizens to work as “forced labour” in hundreds of factories across Chinese cities, according to a report published by an Australian think tank in March this year.

The report released by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI) titled “Uyghurs for Sale” stated that big, well-known global companies in the field of clothing, technology and automotive sectors like Abercrombie & Fitch, Amazon, GAP, H&M, Nike, Jack & Jones, Sharp, Siemens, Skechers, ASUS, Apple, Samsung, Huawei, BMW, Volkswagen, Sony, Polo Ralph Lauren, Puma, Victoria’s Secret, Vivo, among others, are using Uyghur Muslims as “forced labour” in their factories in China.

According to the report, these minority labour forces in China are being supplied in a systematic way under the revived and exploitative government-led labour transfer scheme to Chinese factories outside the Xinjiang province in China where this community of Muslims live.

“The ASPI has identified 27 factories in nine Chinese provinces that are using Uyghur labour transferred from Xinjiang since 2017. Those factories claim to be part of the supply chain of 83 well-known global brands. Between 2017 and 2019, we estimate that at least 80,000 Uyghurs were transferred out of Xinjiang and assigned to factories through labour transfer programmes under a Central government policy known as ‘Xinjiang Aid’,” the report said.

The factories in which these Uyghur Muslims are made to work form a major chunk of the supply chain of these big brands. For example, in January 2020, around 600 ethnic minority workers from Xinjiang were employed at Qingdao Taekwang Shoes Co. Ltd, which makes shoes for the American company Nike. The workforce in this factory are mostly Uyghur women from Hotan and Kashgar towns in China, which are remote parts of southern Xinjiang that the Chinese government has described as “backward” and “disturbed by religious extremism”.

The report also mentions that it had investigated into the Haoyuanpeng Clothing Manufacturing Co. Ltd, which has a strategic partnership with global companies like the Italian-South Korean fashion label Fila, German sportswear companies Adidas and Puma and Nike for manufacturing clothes and found that it was part of the “Xinjiang Aid” and had been receiving “forced labour”.

Global phone leader Apple’s selfie camera manufacturer O-Film Technology Co. Ltd in Guangzhou, China, is also a part of the “Xinjiang Aid” and receives multiple workforces in terms of Uyghur Muslims, the report said. The company also claims on its website to manufacture camera modules and touchscreen components for a number of other well-known companies including Huawei, Lenovo and Samsung.

https://www.blacklistednews.com/article/77435/nike-amazon-apple-abercrombie-among-those-using-uyghur-muslims-forced-labor-in.html

Crips Member Terrence Page Who Beat Catholics at St. Louis Prayer Rally is Arrested on Sundry Charges

Two weeks ago The Gateway Pundit organized a prayer rally at the Statue of St. Louis on Art Hill in Forest Park from noon.

In response to our planned prayer rally violent leftists and Black Lives Matter organized a counter rally from 11 AM to 2 PM. The organizers of this c”counter rally” smeared the Catholic Prayer rally as a white nationalist event. They claimed out prayer rally and rosary was linked to Charlottesville far right activists. The St. Louis city treasurer Tishaura Jones called the planned prayer rally a KKK event.

The day of the rally the Catholics who came to pray including at least 5 priests were met by a violent, unruly leftist mob.

We covered the violence at this rally extensively here at The Gateway Pundit. Several priests were at the St. Louis Statue. Several Catholics were at the statue. And dozens of violent leftists and Black Lives Matter activists showed up to disrupt and hurl profanities at the Catholics and Christians assembled at the statue of St. Louis.

Others came to beat heads. And that is exactly what happened.

Here is one video from the rally during our praying.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/crips-member-terrence-page-beat-catholics-st-louis-prayer-rally-arrested-sundry-charges/

Bank of England Considering Creating a Digitial Currency

This is extremely concerning.

The Bank of England is reviewing whether it should create a central bank-backed digital currency, according to governor Andrew Bailey, reports Bloomberg.

“We are looking at the question of, should we create a Bank of England digital currency,” Bailey said Monday in a webinar event with students. “We’ll go on looking at it, as it does have huge implications on the nature of payments and society.”

“I think in a few years time, we will be heading toward some sort of digital currency,” he added.

A central bank running an e-currency is extremely frightening. This would mean all transaction would be tracked by the government and potentially some transactions would be blocked from taking place. Not even George Orwell expected this.

https://www.economicpolicyjournal.com/2020/07/bank-of-england-considering-creating.html

Trump Campaign Official: President Will ‘Support’ DACA Migrants, Import More Foreign Workers

An adviser to Donald Trump’s reelection campaign told Fox News on Sunday that the President wants to “provide support” for DACA migrants and to import “the brightest and the best” foreign workers into U.S. jobs.

Fox News asked Mercedes Schlapp July 12 about Trump’s July 10 comments saying he would support an Executive Order or a draft immigration bill that provided some form of legalization to perhaps 750,000 DACA migrants. She answered:

Well, I don’t want to get ahead of the President, but let me tell you something; the President from Day One has talked about and has had results in making sure that we secure our border and build the wall, which has been a priority for this president.

And so, in essence, what the President has also been talking about is a merit-based immigration system, meaning that you protect American workers while at the same time bringing in the brightest and the best into our country.

Mark Krikorian, director of the Center for Immigration Studies, described Schlapp’s answer as portraying the demand by business lobbyists for massive legal immigration as the only reasonable alternative to Democrats’ open-border plans. This either/or choice allows her to “memory-hole the choice of reducing immigration” that would allow Americans to get well-paying jobs, he said.

In Trump’s 2017 inauguration speech, he promised jobs for Americans, not migrants:

We will get our people off of welfare and back to work, rebuilding our country with American hands and American labor. We will follow two simple rules; buy American and hire American.

Amid the coronavirus crash, “what is the argument for keeping immigration now?” Krikorian asked.

Trump added much confusion on July 10 when told the Spanish-language TV network Telemundo:

I’m going to do a big executive order. I have the power to do it as president. And I’m going to make DACA a part of it. But we put it in and we’re probably then going to be taking it out. We’re working out the legal complexities right now, but I’m going to be signing a very major immigration bill as an executive order. I’m going to make DACA a part of it.

His comments come after making the popular June 22 decision to curb the inflow of migrants into the jobs needed by U.S. graduates and blue-collar workers.

Schlapp commented on the President’s July 10 statement.

“The Democrats and Joe Biden believe in open borders, they believe in free health care for illegal immigrants, and obviously that’s not going to work,” Schlapp said. “So, the President has been transparent in this process, in ensuring that we first and foremost secure our border, [then] work on a merit-based immigration system because we know our current immigration system is broken, and then provide support for the DACA recipients.”

https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2020/07/13/trump-campaign-official-president-will-support-daca-migrants-import-more-foreign-workers/

Donald Trump Criticizes Cities Closing Schools in the Fall Due to Coronavirus Pandemic

President Donald Trump said Monday at the White House that schools should reopen in the Fall, despite some cities announcing they would delay the reopening of their schools as the coronavirus pandemic continued.

“The schools should be opened. Kids want to go to schools. You’ll lose a lot of lives keeping things closed,” Trump replied when asked by reporters about the news that Los Angeles public schools announced that they would have “online-only” classes this Fall.

The Trump administration has argued for schools to reopen in the Fall.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said that the administration was considering withholding funding from schools that refused to reopen in the fall:

America investment in education is a promise to students and their families. If schools aren’t going to reopen and not fulfill that promise, they shouldn’t get the funds. Then give it to the families to decide to go to a school that is going to meet that promise.

Trump defended school and business closures earlier in the cycle of the pandemic, noting that the administration had saved “millions of lives” in doing so.

But the president said the virus did not present a threat to young people, which meant that it was safe to reopen schools.

“For some reason, I guess the immune system is much stronger with young people than it is for others,” Trump said. “So we have to watch the group that does have the difficulty, does have the problem.”

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/07/13/donald-trump-criticizes-cities-closing-schools-in-the-fall-due-to-coronavirus-pandemic/

California Governor Issues Statewide Order to Shutter All Indoor Operations as COVID-19 Cases Soar

California Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday the closing of all indoor operations across all counties in multiple sectors as COVID-19 cases in the state surge.

Under the new order, restaurants, wineries, tasting rooms, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, zoos, museums, cardrooms, gyms, hair salons, barbershops, indoor malls, personal care services, places of worship and offices in non-critical sectors will all be shut down. Bars across the state must cease all operations.

"We've made this point on multiple occasions and that is we're moving back into a modification mode of our original stay-at-home order," Newsom said during a Monday news conference.

On Monday, the Los Angeles and San Diego unified school districts announced that schools will only offer online teaching in August, Reuters reported.

California is one of many US states, including Texas, Florida, South Carolina, that have experienced surging cases in recent weeks.

The most recent statistics by the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) on July 12 reveal that the state's COVID-19 hospitalization rate and positivity rate - which is a measure of community spread - are both "trending upward in the 14-day-average."

The seven-day average number of new daily COVID-19 cases as of July 12 is 8,664, which represents a substantial increase from the seven-day average a week prior of 6,987 cases per day. The counties with the highest number of cases include Los Angeles, Riverside, Orange and San Diego, in that order.

In addition, modeling data by the CDPH reveals that COVID-19 is expected to spread exponentially in the state.

On Sunday, 19 US states saw case numbers reach new daily records, with Texas, Georgia and Florida each reporting more than 15,000 new cases on Sunday.

Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) said that the COVID-19 global death toll could grow more quickly in the future.

"Some of this may be lag, we may see deaths start to climb again because we’ve only really experienced this rapid increase in cases over the last five to six weeks,” Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s emergencies program, told CNBC. “I don’t think it should be a surprise if the deaths start to rise again. It will be very unfortunate, but it may happen.”

https://sputniknews.com/us/202007131079874038-california-governor-issues-statewide-order-to-shutter-all-indoor-operations/

Israel Developing Artificial Intelligence System That Hunts Down Drone Operators

Researchers in Israel are using a neural network to track down drone operators by analyzing the flight paths of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) they’re controlling.

Two scientists from Ben-Gurion University (BGU) of the Negev in southern Israel recently presented a paper on their research into counter-drone operations that applies artificial intelligence to hunting down the operators of UAVs.

Dr. Gera Weiss, a professor of computer science at BGU, presented the research at the Fourth International Symposium on Cyber Security, Cryptography and Machine Learning in Be’er Sheva on July 3. The new method analyzes the way drones fly through an environment in order to figure out where their operators are located.

Finding a drone operator, instead of just jamming or shooting down a drone, can be far more effective, since a single operator is often flying multiple drones at once.

“Currently, drone operators are located using RF [radio frequency] techniques and require sensors around the flight area which can then be triangulated,” Eliyahu Mashhadi, a GBU computer science student and lead researcher on the project, told Israel Defense. “This is challenging due to the amount of other WiFi, Bluetooth and IoT [internet of things] signals in the air that obstruct drone signals.”

Mashhadi told Breaking Defense these older methods tend to be catered to specific brands of drones, making a generalized defensive system cumbersome to operate. However, the researchers’ new method looks for patterns in the drone’s route during its flight.

Their simulations provide “a realistic flight experience for the operator that includes sun gazes, obstructions, and other visual effects that produce the reactions of the operators that allow us to identify their location,” Mashhadi told Breaking Defense.

Israel already operates the Drone Guard counter-UAV system, which until recently could only detect incoming drones with man-portable radars. However, Jane’s reported late last month that interceptor systems were being incorporated into Drone Guard, such as jamming devices that make the UAV unable to receive signals from or send them to its operator, as well as kinetic weapons provided by ELTA Land Systems that have been dubbed “Iron Drone,” after the “Iron Dome” air defense system Israel uses to shoot down missiles.

The Pentagon, too, is focusing heavily on drone interception systems, especially in the aftermath of the September 2019 attacks on two Saudi oil facilities carried out by swarms of suicide drones. In late December, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Ellen Lord told reporters that making between three and five counter-UAV systems in 2020 was a “top priority.”

https://sputniknews.com/military/202007131079874367-israel-developing-artificial-intelligence-system-that-hunts-down-drone-operators/

Cuomo ‘Too Powerful and Too Feared’ to Be Held Accountable: Report

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) is “too powerful and too feared” to be held accountable, according to a report by Fox News’ Janice Dean on what she is told privately by reporters and others.

“I have received texts, emails and DMs from people (some reporters) who say that Cuomo is too powerful and too feared in New York that he will never be held accountable for his terrible (and deadly) orders during this pandemic – no matter how glaring the evidence…You can tell during his interviews and press conferences. His indifference, bully behavior and lack of empathy shows he knows most won’t go after him. But I will keep going against the giant cuomo machine. Because I have to. I owe it to my family and my husband’s parents.”

Dean, Fox’s senior meteorologist, has been harshly critical of Cuomo over the deaths of both of her in-laws this year as a result of Cuomo’s nursing home edict for coronavirus patients.

Cuomo’s daily press conferences during the weeks of the pandemic’s peak in New York became a celebrated contrast for liberals and the media to President Trump’s press briefings on the virus, garnering Cuomo a 72 percent approval rating by New Yorkers for his handling of the virus despite over 32,000 coronavirus deaths in the state. The same NBC News New York/Marist poll released last week has Cuomo with an overall 60% approval rating by registered New York voters.

Dean’s former Fox colleague reporter Megyn Kelly concurred with Dean’s observations on Cuomo.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/07/cuomo-powerful-feared-held-accountable-report/

FREEMASONRY

Full 29 pages in file

THE BUNDY BLOODLINE

Full 13 pages in file

>>9950816

File dropped again hmmm

Take two