UK Government considered tearing ‘Covid positive’ people from their homes
By Michael Curzon | Bournbrook | July 12, 2022
‘Boris’ Johnson loyalist Nadine Dorries appears to have admitted that the Government, which now prides itself on having imposed restrictions more lightly than others, considered tearing “mothers and fathers and families and children” from their homes if they ‘tested positive’ for Covid during lockdowns to be sent to isolation centres.
A health minister at the time, Ms Dorries was approached by former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt and told to adopt this ‘zero Covid’ approach, she told GB News.
The now-Culture Secretary told Dan Wootton, who decided not to dig deeper into the claims:
“[Jeremy] said ‘you’ve got to speak to Matt [Hancock]’. It was at the time Nightingale hospitals were being built. ‘You’ve got to tell him that you don’t put sick people in the hospitals, you follow a “zero Covid” policy… When someone tests positive, you take them from their home and you take them to an isolation centre and you leave them there… That’s the only way you can beat Covid.’”
Ms Dorries said she responded:
“‘The British public will not stand for mothers and fathers and families and children being removed from their family and their home and put in isolation.’ He said: ‘Who said they won’t?’ I said: ‘The behaviour and insights team who I’ve discussed this with. They won’t wear it.’” (My emphasis – video below)
This is quite revealing. Anyone with an ounce of humanity would have rejected this outright, whether they thought the public would accept it or not.
Remember, also, that those officials in SAGE believed the British people wouldn’t accept being ‘locked down’ at all until Italy made it clear that they would.
Professor Neil Ferguson told The Times in December 2020:
“[China] is a communist one party state, we said. We couldn’t get away with it in Europe, we thought… and then Italy did it. And we realised we could.”
So has Ms Dorries revealed that the only reason we weren’t pulled away from our families after seeing two red lines was because other Europeans weren’t first?
Judge says it’s legally okay to deny unvaccinated an organ transplant
By Thomas Lambert | The Counter Signal | July 13, 2022
Justice Paul Belzil just decided that it was legally okay for doctors to remove Canadians from organ transplant waitlists if they’re unvaccinated.
As reported by the Westphalian Times’s Marie Oakes, Belzil filed his decision on Tuesday in a case concerning Annette Lewis, who was essentially given the choice of ‘comply or die’ after doctors changed the rules surrounding organ transplant waitlists to require being fully vaccinated.
According to Lewis, a doctor “told me if I did not take the COVID-19 vaccine, I would not get the transplant, and if I did not get the transplant, I would die.”
She added, “I ought to have the choice about what goes into my body, and a life-saving treatment cannot be denied to me because I chose not to take an experimental treatment for a condition — COVID-19 — which I do not have and which I may never have.”
But judge Belzil disagreed, arguing that “her beliefs and desire to protect her bodily integrity [do not] entitle her to impact the rights of other patients or the integrity of the [transplant program] generally.”
He ultimately ruled that the charter doesn’t apply to clinical treatment decisions and that Lewis’s rights, therefore, had not been violated.
Lewis isn’t alone in her struggle either. As previously reported by The Counter Signal, hospitals and health networks across the country have chosen to deny the unvaccinated organ transplants even when prospective patients are healthy and have found a donor.
In October 2021, Toronto’s University Health Network (UHN) (the largest health research organization in Canada and Canada’s largest transplant centre) adopted a policy requiring all organ transplant patients to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before doctors operate on them.
The decision immediately affected roughly 4,300 Canadians awaiting life-saving care, some of whom have likely passed away by now.
Hong Kong unveils Covid quarantine bracelets
Samizdat | July 13, 2022
Hong Kong is set to introduce electronic tracking bracelets for citizens who decide to quarantine at home after testing positive for Covid-19, the health chief has announced. Violators of the isolation rules face hefty fines and possibly even jail time.
The territory’s secretary for health, Lo Chung-mau, announced the move during a Monday press briefing, saying the bracelets are meant to stop infected people from spreading the illness further and will operate on the ‘Leave Home Safe’ app rolled out last year.
“We have to make sure that home isolation is more precise while being humane,” Lo said, adding that the trackers will be introduced on Friday.
Breaching Hong Kong’s quarantine order could result in fines up to $3,200 and a maximum of six months behind bars. Individuals who are able to isolate at home must do so for two weeks, though will be allowed to leave if they test negative for two days in a row and have their first pair of vaccine doses.
While the territory previously required overseas arrivals to use bracelets with unique QR codes to check in and account for their movements, the gadgets were later replaced with genuine tracking tech. The system is set to be expanded, though the government has not said what type of bracelet it will use for the latest initiative.
The health secretary also noted that Hong Kong will implement a color-coded system similar to the one in place in mainland China, which labels different levels of infection risk as yellow or red. Those with the red designation will face heavy restrictions on their movement, including outright bans on entering public venues, while yellow entails lesser limits.
However, the city’s recently inaugurated chief executive, John Lee, has since stressed that the traffic light system would only apply to “a specific and small number of people,” but nonetheless argued that Hong Kong needs “some identification method” to distinguish citizens with active infections from those quarantining as a precaution.
Local officials continue to warn that Hong Kong’s Covid-19 outbreak remains “very serious,” urging residents to minimize travel and observe social distancing rules, which were just extended for another two weeks on Tuesday.
The Department of Health said it recorded 2,558 new local coronavirus cases on Tuesday, as well as another 211 infections among travelers from abroad. It did not offer a daily update for fatalities, but noted the territory had tallied 9,420 deaths in total throughout the pandemic, most of them occurring this year.
EU clarifies stance on Russian exclave blockade
Samizdat – July 13, 2022
No “sanctioned goods” are allowed to be transported by Russian operators through EU territory by roads, the EU Commission has said in its fresh “additional guidance” on the transit of Russian goods. The document published on Wednesday comes amid tensions around the Russian Kaliningrad exclave. Lithuania had previously blocked the shipment of goods to the region via its territory to comply with EU sanctions against Russia.
Transit via rail is still allowed, according to the document, but only as long as the EU member states “perform effective controls.” The bloc’s nations should “check whether transit volumes remain within the historical averages of the last three years” as well as whether they reflect “the real demand for essential goods at the destination,” the guidelines say.
The transit of sanctioned military and dual use goods and technology is fully prohibited, the document says, adding that any “unusual flows or trade patterns” could potentially be suspected of giving “rise to circumvention” of anti-Russian sanctions.
The document specifically notes that the EU members “are obliged to prevent all possible forms of circumvention of EU restrictive measures.” The EU Commission also pointed to the “importance of monitoring the two-way trade flows between Russia and Kaliningrad” aimed at ensuring that “sanctioned goods cannot enter the EU customs territory.”
The document comes just hours after the Russian newspaper Izvestia reported that the EU is in talks with Lithuania on lifting sanctions on the transit of goods to Russia’s exclave. The media outlet also claimed that the EU had sent a draft document to Moscow in early July outlining that the transit of goods by both rail and road from mainland Russia to Kaliningrad would be removed from sanctions.
The EU, however, has denied this information. “There were no talks between the EU and Russia on the issue you’re talking about, contrary to the reports you are citing,” Eric Mamer, the EU Commission chief spokesman, told the RIA news agency when asked to comment on the reports.
The Russian Foreign Ministry previously threatened Lithuania with “tough measures” if it continued to block Russian transit to the exclave. The response measures have already been prepared, the ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, said on Sunday. “The European Commission, the EU must understand that the clock is ticking,” she warned.
Lithuania blocked the transit of goods by rail to Kaliningrad through its territory on June 18, with the restrictions affecting about 30% of deliveries to the Russian exclave. Moscow called the measures unprecedented and illegal, as they affect Russia’s access to part of its own territory.
Following the release of the document, Russia’s Foreign Ministry replied that it would closely monitor how the EU’s new guidelines were put into practice.
On Tuesday, Lithuania’s Customs Department reported it had stopped 34 trucks trying to cross its border from Kaliningrad and Belarus because they were transporting “sanctioned goods.” The trucks were forced to return to the Russian and Belarusian territories, it added. The vehicles were transporting car parts, furniture, glass, and alcohol, it revealed.
Search of Sputnik Estonia Office Was Illegal, Local Court Rules
Samizdat – 13.07.2022
Sputnik International’s Estonia-based sister portal Sputnik Meedia was forced to shut down in March amid unprecedented pressure from Estonian authorities and banks, and a wave of personal threats against employees. But the outlet’s persecution by local authorities goes all the way back to 2019.
An Estonian court has ruled authorities’ April search of the former editorial office of Sputnik Meedia and former Sputnik Meedia editor-in-chief Elena Cherysheva’s home illegal, Cherysheva has informed Sputnik.
Cherysheva, who was detained on April 6 for alleged “crimes against peace” and purported “violations of international sanctions,” had her house searched. Her husband was taken to the former office of Sputnik Meedia, and it too was searched. After 16 hours of rummaging, authorities sent Cherysheva to a detention center, but was later released on bail. The ex-Sputnik Meedia employee said the searches were authorized by Estonian State Prosecutor’s Office lead prosecutor Taavi Pern.
“On April 8, the Prosecutor’s Office sent a search warrant and additional documents to the preliminary investigation judge in Harju County Court requesting that the search warrant be recognized as admissible and justified. The judge did not do so. As the court clarified, a person whose activities are related to the processing of information for journalistic purposes can be searched only on the basis of a ruling by a preliminary investigation judge or a court decision,” Cherysheva explained.
She added that the Prosecutor’s Office filed a complaint with the Tallinn District Court challenging the Harju County Court’s decision, but the higher court upheld the ruling.
Cherysheva further revealed the Harju County Court had also ruled in her favor to return her part of the personal property which authorities seized in April, after the State Prosecutor’s Office refused to do so.
“In its decision, the Harju County Court emphasized that given the decision of the Tallinn District Court of May 10 on the groundlessness and illegality of the search, it is not clear to the court on what basis the investigator continues to withhold funds found and seized during the search,” she said.
Sputnik’s Estonian sister agency has been hounded by the Baltic country’s authorities for years. Sputnik Meedia itself was created in early 2020 by former employees of Sputnik Estonia, which was forced to shutter its doors amid threats of criminal charges against its journalists by police, and after Estonian banks suspended Sputnik-related accounts in late 2019.
Sputnik Meedia was forced to terminate its operations in early March of this year, with banks freezing salaries and closing the media outlet’s accounts amid alleged suspicions of “money laundering, terrorist financing and the illegal sale of alcohol.” On top of that, the agency’s editor-in-chief and staff received regular threats against their life and safety.
Moscow and Kiev agree to create a “coordination center” on grain exports in Istanbul
Samizdat | July 13, 2022
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to establish a joint coordination center on grain exports in Istanbul that will include representatives from all parties, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told local media following the four-way talks that also involved Turkey and the UN.
On Wednesday, negotiators from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN met in the Turkish city to discuss the situation regarding the held-up Ukrainian exports.
Ahead of the meeting, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba said that Kiev and Moscow had been close to breaking the impasse on the issue.
“An agreement has been reached on technical issues such as joint controls at the destination points and … the safety of navigation on the transfer routes,” Akar told journalists. Russian and Ukrainian delegations “should meet again in Turkey next week,” he said, adding that the parties would “review all the details once again” during that meeting.
Ukraine is one of the world’s leading grain exporters. Yet, it has been unable to export its grain by sea due to the ongoing conflict with Russia. Kiev and Western nations have accused Moscow of preventing Ukrainian grain shipments from leaving the nation’s Black Sea ports. Russia has denied such accusations and, in turn, blamed Kiev for the crisis, arguing that its forces mined the Black Sea waters, thus creating a threat to the cargo ships.
The West has also accused Moscow of attempting to cause a global food crisis by supposedly blocking shipments of Ukrainian grain and “using hunger as a weapon.”
Last month, President Vladimir Putin said that Russia was not impeding exports and criticized the West for its “cynical attitude” towards the food supply of developing nations, which have been the most affected by the soaring prices. Moscow is ready to provide free passage to international waters for ships carrying grain, he added.
Petro Government in Colombia Poised to Return Key ‘Stolen’ Asset to Venezuela
By José Luis Granados Ceja | Venezuelanalysis | July 11, 2022
Troubled agrochemical company Monómeros, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s state-owned Pequiven, could return to Venezuelan control, Colombian President-elect Gustavo Petro told local radio Tuesday.
The Colombia-based agrochemical producer is considered Venezuela’s second most important foreign-held asset. It came under the control of Venezuela’s hardline opposition in May 2019 alongside a number of other foreign assets following the recognition of Juan Guaidó as “interim president” by Washington and its allies as part of efforts to oust the Nicolás Maduro government.
Since being handed over to the opposition, Monómeros has been plagued by scandals and corruption allegations, which has severely impacted its productivity and has generated serious problems for Colombia’s rural producers.
Colombian Senator Luis Fernando Velasco Chaves, a member of Petro’s transition team managing the Presidential Administrative Office file, reiterated concerns about the management of the firm following a meeting Tuesday with officials from the government of outgoing president President Ivan Duque.
“I am very concerned that Monómeros is still in the hands of Guaidó, Monómeros in the hands of Guaidó was a disaster, it disappeared,” said Velasco.
The senator also ridiculed Guaidó’s management of Monómeros, saying the incoming government could not negotiate with “ghosts that do not exist”.
The agrochemical enterprise, which has two main plants, played a major role in Colombia’s food chain, previously supplying nearly half of the fertilizers and 70 percent of the agrochemicals used by coffee, potato and palm oil production, according to local sources.
“Please look at what is happening to us, ask our peasants, ask our farmers, we are not producing and we are paying three times the [previous] cost of supplies,” said Velasco.
Mismanagement and infighting by the Venezuelan opposition eventually led Colombia’s Corporation Superintendency to assume control of Monómeros. Colombian law allows the corporate watchdog to employ such a process when an enterprise is in a critical “judicial, accounting, economic or administrative” situation.
The Maduro government called the superintendency’s takeover a “flagrant theft” of Venezuela’s assets and demanded they be returned to its rightful owner, the state-owned petrochemical company Pequiven. Maduro has said that Venezuela was engaged in “permanent diplomatic, political and legal activity” to recover the country’s foreign assets and the government has made the return of seized foreign assets a condition of a return to talks with the opposition.
The agrochemical producer did not fare much better under control by Colombian officials, with Petro claiming the company was driven into the ground, leading to a sharp increase in costs for Colombia’s agricultural sector.
“The company ended up practically closing its operations and lost the market it had in Colombia,” said the president-elect in a recent interview.
Monómeros faced yet another scandal after officials from the US Embassy to Venezuela revealed to Guaidó insider Enrique Sánchez Falcón that the company’s board had hired a lobbyist with ties to former US Ambassador to Venezuela Otto Reich without the knowledge or authorization of Guaidó’s team.
Sánchez Falcón told the outlet Efecto Cocuyo that the lobbyist was allegedly working to renew Monómeros’ sanctions waiver with the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) but that the effort was “unnecessary” since the license was likely forthcoming anyway. Guaidó subsequently announced an investigation into the irregular hire of the lobbyist. The OFAC license was eventually renewed in late June.
The current leadership of the firm has apparently failed to even update officials from Guaidó’s team about the status of the Monómeros. Guaidó ally Yon Goicoechea said he believes the secrecy is tied to a hostile takeover effort. The US-backed “interim president” has pledged to overhaul the management of the corporation but the efforts have led to corruption accusations and further infighting amidst the opposition camp.
A press spokesperson from Guaidó’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the possible return of Monómeros to Venezuelan state management.
Outgoing Colombian President Iván Duque has steadfastly refused to return control of Monómeros to Venezuela, given that he does not recognize Maduro as president.
Duque recently said that he would also decline to extend an invitation to Maduro for Petro’s inauguration. The president-elect has said invitations are the purview of the outgoing government but said Maduro’s attendance would be “prudent”.
Petro, who has committed to reestablishing diplomatic and economic ties between Colombia and Venezuela, takes office on August 9.
Edited by Ricardo Vaz in Mérida.
Ukraine wants $9 billion in monthly aid
Samizdat | July 13, 2022
Kiev has nearly doubled its request for monthly aid from its Western allies, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing an economic adviser to the Ukrainian president.
“For the next months, we have to receive $9 billion per month instead of $5 billion,” the publication quotes Oleg Ustenko as saying, who added that “it will be next to impossible” for Ukraine to survive without the funds. The figure of $5 billion was announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky last month, an amount still way above what Kiev’s supporters have provided so far.
The US has given Ukraine $3 billion in aid over the past two weeks to help Kiev pay public sector-employees.
The EU has also pledged to support the country financially, although the bloc has struggled to structure the aid. On Tuesday, the European Council approved a €1 billion loan to Ukraine, as part of a €9 billion long-term loan package proposed by the European Commission in May. However, media reports suggest that Germany has been blocking the wider aid package, with some EU members questioning whether the overall amount of €9 billion is too much. Concern has also been voiced that Kiev may default on its debt.
Since February, the EU has provided €2.2 billion in aid to Ukraine.
Hunter Biden involved in ‘sexual offences’ with Ukrainians
By Lucas Leiroz | July 13, 2022
More and more, Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, is publicly involved in illegal schemes and moral scandals. Hunter is currently the subject of a federal investigation that points to several tax crimes, such as corruption, money laundering and lobbying abroad, but a possible sexual scandal now threatens even more the image of the Biden family.
According to allegations made by witnesses during the federal investigation Hunter was involved in at least three cases of prostitution in the US, having allegedly participated in the transporting of prostitutes from Boston to New York, where they worked for him. Transporting people between states for sex services is a crime in the US, according to the Mann Act, Title 18, Section 2421:
“Whoever knowingly transports any individual in interstate or foreign commerce, or in any Territory or Possession of the United States, with intent that such individual engages in prostitution, or in any sexual activity for which any person can be charged with a criminal offense, or attempts to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 10 years, or both”.
Sources cited by the Daily Mail claim that he would have spent more than 30,000 dollars with the services of such prostitutes in about five months – between November 2018 and March 2019. The evidence of such expenses would be in documents and texts that are now being analyzed by the US police.
What is most impressive in the reports currently published on the case is that Hunter Biden would be in contact with alleged sexual exploiters in Ukraine in order to obtain the “supply” of Ukrainian sex workers in the US. A US-based Ukrainian citizen named Ekaterina Moreva would be reportedly receiving thousands of dollars from Hunter to provide prostitutes who would serve him and his friends in New York. Moreva reportedly put Hunter in touch with a Kiev’s sex services agency under the pseudonym “UberGFE”, whose services with Ukrainian women are available in several US states.
For example, Anna Dekhtiar, from Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, known as “the student” in the virtual prostitution networks, allegedly received hundreds of dollars from Hunter Biden between November 2018 and March 2019 due to activities that, according to her bank, were “without any clear and legitimate economic objective” – a bureaucratic justification common among people who try to hide the prostitution activity. The most curious thing, however, is that Dekhtiar subsequently donated much of her money to Moreva, showing that in fact there was a structured network of exploitation.
Although the case has not been ended, it is expected that Hunter will indeed be formally charged in court and convicted of a crime of sexual offence, considering that the evidence collected by the police seems strong and concrete. There are videos and photos on Hunter’s laptop and iPad where he is shown having sex with the hired prostitutes. There are even copies of his text messages with the prostitutes and with Moreva. All this leads to the expectation that in fact the US President’s son may soon have illegal sexual exploitation as one more item in his long list of crimes.
The scandals with Hunter Biden began over his controversial involvement with the Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings. Police and journalistic investigations pointed to his participation in various corruption schemes that were the target of criticism around the world and even threatened the stability of diplomatic ties between Washington and Kiev. Lately, Russian intelligence collected data that pointed to Biden’s participation in funding illegal activities of American military biolaboratories in Ukraine – to this day the US government remains silent about the case.
In his personal life Hunter has always been considered an “extravagant” person, accumulating problems such as drug addiction, exaggerated consumerism, sexual depravity, among others. His ex-wife, Kathleen Biden, accuses him of periodically spending large amounts of money on prostitutes, alcohol and drugs, as well as frequenting strip clubs and giving “gifts” to prostitutes he has hired in the past.
Obviously, all this is terrible for the image of the family of the president of the greatest world power. To make matters worse, the more scrutiny of Hunter’s personal life progresses, the more controversial secrets are uncovered and further tarnish the family name. Now, with the accusations of sexual crimes, the situation is especially serious, even more considering that it is related to the international exploitation of women, as he hired Ukrainian prostitutes in the US.
The result of this in the US domestic political scenario is obvious: more social pressure on Biden, the increase of his unpopularity and the growth of the Republicans for the upcoming elections.
Lucas Leiroz is a researcher in Social Sciences at the Rural Federal University of Rio de Janeiro; geopolitical consultant.
Iran responds to US claims of drone shipments to Russia
Samizdat | July 13, 2022
Tehran will not help either side in the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has said in response to White House claims the Islamic Republic was planning to deliver “hundreds of drones” to Russia.
“We have different kinds of cooperation with Russia, including in the defense sector. But we are not going to help either side in this conflict because we believe that it has to be stopped,” Amir-Abdollahian told Italian newspaper la Repubblica on Wednesday.
“The current problem with the conflict is that some Western countries, including the United States, have arms manufacturers who are trying to sell their products,” he said, adding that Tehran “will avoid any action that could lead to escalation” but we will work to stop the conflict.
On Monday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters that Iran was “preparing to provide Russia with up to several hundred UAVs,” including combat drones.
Many Western countries, including the US, are supplying Kiev with heavy weaponry, such as missile launchers, armored vehicles and combat drones. Moscow insists that “flooding” Ukraine with weapons will only exacerbate the conflict.
Meanwhile Russian President Vladimir Putin will travel to Tehran on July 19 and meet with his counterparts Ebrahim Raisi of Iran and Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, according to the Kremlin.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday that Putin will not discuss possible drone supply during his trip to Tehran.
Russia’s oil earnings continue to soar – IEA
Samizdat | July 13, 2022
Russia’s oil export revenue surged above $20 billion in June thanks to rising energy prices and despite lower shipments abroad, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its monthly oil market report on Wednesday.
The agency’s statistics showed an increase of $700 million in June from the previous month, even as Russia’s daily exports of crude oil and products fell by 250,000 barrels to 7.4 million barrels, the lowest since August.
The country’s drop in exports last month was led by crude oil, which fell to just above 5 million barrels per day, according to the IEA. Daily flows to the EU fell below 3 million barrels, which is the lowest since November.
Meanwhile, global oil prices have been surging on strong demand and tight supply. The Brent benchmark averaged more than $117 a barrel last month, while Russia’s Urals rose 10.7% from May to average $87.25 a barrel.
Oil and gas revenue accounted for nearly half of Russia’s federal budget in 2021, according to IEA estimates.
Moscow said earlier it expects up to 1 trillion rubles (over $17 billion) in additional oil and gas revenues this year.