Month: December 2020

French citizens who decline to take the coronavirus vaccine will be barred from public transportation, among other places, under a controversial “Green Passport” plan set out in a draft law that’s now on its way to parliament.

Gaining the support of Prime Minister Jean Castex’s cabinet earlier this week, the bill proposes to deny “access to transport or to some locations, as well as certain activities” to those unable to prove that they received a “preventative treatment” for Covid-19, including a vaccine, or produce a negative virus screening.

https://www.rt.com/news/510491-france-law-vaccine-ban-public/

A World Health Organization Covid-19 expert has warned that the new strain of the virus, prevalent in Britain, appears to be easily transmitted among young people amid fears schools may be prevented from reopening in January.

Dr. David Nabarro, one of six special envoys from the World Health Organization’s effort to tackle Covid-19, told Sky News that people may need to be even more “cautious” as a new variant of the virus sweeps across the UK.

With all these issues, we have to work in terms of risk, and this new variant appears more easily transmissible in young people and children, 

https://www.rt.com/news/510529-covid19-strain-variant-young-children/

Pope Francis will step down before the end of the year, according to a source close to the Vatican, who said there was "no doubt" the Pontiff "will resign in 2020."https://t.co/Hy4aDmn9Qa

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) December 22, 2020

The excessive use of antibiotics during the Covid-19 pandemic could be fueling a spike in a highly drug-resistant STI – “super gonorrhea” – the World Health Organization has warned amid a recent uptick in the disease.

While no antibiotic has been found to be effective in fighting off the coronavirus, the drugs were heavily administered in the early stages of the pandemic, with one Cambridge study showing that more than 70 percent of Covid-19 patients in the US received them between March and April. Though they are also used to prevent “co-infections” in hospital settings, the researchers found the drugs were still overused, reporting a “significant mismatch” between bacterial co-infections and patients receiving antibiotics.

https://www.rt.com/news/510492-antibiotics-covid-super-gonorrhea/

Chinese naval and air assets joined forces to ‘expel’ the destroyer USS John S. McCain from the disputed islands in the South China Sea, Beijing announced. The US Navy claimed it was on another ‘freedom of navigation’ cruise.

The People’s Liberation Army “expelled US destroyer USS John S. McCain after it trespassed into China’s territorial waters off Nansha Islands in the South China Sea,” Colonel Tian Junli, spokesman for the PLA Southern Theatre Command, said in a statement on Tuesday.

https://www.rt.com/news/510486-china-destroyer-mccain-islands/

The $2.3 trillion catchall spending package Congress passed late Monday includes some funding for President-elect Joseph R. Biden’s transition into office.

The bill includes at least $8 million for “administrative support” for the transition and at least $9.9 million for presidential transition expenses.

For the latter amount, $8.9 million would be permanently rescinded when the president-elect is the incumbent president.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/dec/22/massive-spending-bill-includes-funding-joe-bidens-/?utm_source=onesignal&utm_campaign=pushnotify&utm_medium=push

Silicon Valley behemoths Google and Facebook have reportedly foreseen that a secret deal to manipulate the advertising market could be exposed and vowed to cooperate if one of them faces an antitrust lawsuit.

In a complaint filed last week, Texas and nine other states accused the tech duo of striking a deal to divide the lucrative market, with Google agreeing to give Facebook perks if the latter backs off from direct competition. The secret pact was codenamed after a ‘Star Wars’ character, and while the exact name was omitted from the publicly available redacted version of the lawsuit, the initial version seen by the Wall Street Journal says that it was known as ‘Jedi Blue’.

https://www.rt.com/business/510391-google-facebook-lawsuit-cooperation/