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29-Year Police Vet Debunks Massive Lie About Capitol Cop Suicides, Exposes Truth Behind Horrible Deaths

If the Democrats and the media want to make the suicides of four police officers who were on duty during the Capitol incursion a political issue, a 29-year law enforcement veteran says they might not like what they end up with.

On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported, Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department announced Officer Gunther Hashida and Officer Kyle DeFreytag, who had responded to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, had both died during the month of July.

Hashida was found on July 29 and DeFreytag was found on July 10, according to the department. Howard Liebengood and Jeffrey Smith, two other officers present that day, killed themselves earlier this year.

“We are unable to determine if the officers’ deaths are linked to January 6 events,” department spokeswoman Kristen Metzger said.

But don’t let that stop the media. In reporting on the suicides, multiple outlets appended the testimony of Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn, who appeared before the Democrat-run House subcommittee on the Capitol incursion.

“More than six months later, Jan. 6 still isn’t over for me,” Dunn said, according to CNN. “I know so many other officers continue to hurt, both physically and emotionally.”

Dunn said he’d received counseling “for the persistent emotional trauma of that day” and urged other officers to seek it out, too.

The juxtaposition of Dunn’s testimony with news of the deaths of Hashida, DeFreytag and two other officers who responded on Jan. 6 implies causality, of course. For Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith — a 29-year veteran of a suburban Chicago police force and the spokeswoman for the National Police Association — she wants to know where these media outlets were when police officers were being “vilified” for an entire year.

In an interview with the U.K.’s Daily Mail, Smith argued we’ll “never know” why the officers took their lives, even if the media and the left are willing to politicize these tragedies. And, while two of the officers’ widows have blamed the incursion for their husbands’ deaths — Serena Liebengood and Erin Smith, widows of Howard Liebengood and Jeffrey Smith — none of the officers left behind any explicit explanation blaming their mental health woes on the events of that day.

This is important since, as Smith noted, suicide is tragically common among law enforcement officers, even at the best of times.

“We don’t know why these officers committed suicide. Police officers see horrible things every day from the minute they get out of the police academy. We don’t know why any police officer kills themselves unless they leave a detailed accounting of why they killed themselves and most do not,” she told the Daily Mail.

“To my knowledge, none of [these four] officers left any kind of detailed accounting of why. That’s why it’s important that we don’t assume, and we don’t politicize. We will never know.”

Smith added that police are turned off by the fact that Democrats are suddenly concerned about police suicide.

“That’s what law enforcement around the country is finding so distasteful about this … that one riot in one area, and suddenly police suicide is a big deal,” she said.

“No one is talking about all the other cops who are killing themselves. The politicization of this topic is abhorrent.”

The outlet reported the suicide rate among American police officers stands at 17 out of every 100,000 people — higher than the general population average of 13 per 100,000 people. As Smith pointed out, officers also die more often at their own hands than they do at the hands of criminals.

“Police officers in the U.S. commit suicide about twice as often or sometimes a little more as we are killed by felonious assault,” Smith said. “In other words, we kill ourselves at least twice as often as the bad guys kill us.

“It’s been a problem for the last 20 years, it’s just now getting some additional attention.”

It’s a particular problem now that police officers have become targets of cultural invective.

In Chicago, WBBM-TV found that 367 officers retired early in the first six months of the year, some of them without a pension. In all of 2018 there were 339 retirements; in 2019, 475.

In 2020, there were 560. This year is on pace to break that number, with 367 through June already.

Furthermore, 68 officers left without a pension. That number was 37 in all of 2017.

“People see us as the enemy and we’re not. All we’re trying to do is help the people of the community, the city of Chicago,” one recently retired officer told WBBM.

“We get spit on. We get things thrown at us, you know, you, they’re fighting with us. People are protesting, calling us names and not just the protestors,” the retired officer added. “But you’ve got the people who are supposed to have our back in government.”

They don’t, at least not usually.

“If someone had our back, we could do our jobs. But again, threatened with lawsuits, indictments, officers getting fired, that is actually, again, stifling us.”

This is an ongoing trend throughout the country, too — and likely for the same reasons. For these officers — including the other 18 who have died by suicide so far in 2021 — you’re not going to see much sympathy in the pages of Slate and The Daily Beast, or from elected Democrats.

If you’re a law enforcement officer who’s experienced trauma over the past year that didn’t specifically happen at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, they don’t care. In fact, you’re more likely to see those publications and politicians praising or excusing those who inflicted that trauma.

That’s why police officers are leaving — and you’re not going to see new ones taking their place, not when the only time the Democrats and the media are willing to back away from demonizing police is when their deaths can be used to score cheap points against Donald Trump.

U.S. tech products enable Chinese surveillance in Xinjiang

U.S. technology companies are still supplying China’s surveillance state with equipment and software for monitoring populations and censoring information, including in the Xinjiang region, despite damning revelations that have led to genocide accusations against Beijing, according to researchers.

At least seven U.S. companies whose technology helped build a Chinese digital surveillance program known as the Golden Shield Project (GSP) are continuing to advance it by selling their products to China, say academic researchers Valentin Weber and Vasilis Ververis.

Their report, “China’s Surveillance State: A Global Project,” published Tuesday, comes as U.S. companies are facing heightened scrutiny over their ties to the Chinese government’s extensive and intrusive use of surveillance technology to monitor and control the populations of Xinjiang Tibet, and Hong Kong.

Launched in 1998, the Golden Shield Project (GSP) is China’s nationwide network-security project, featuring powerful surveillance and censorship technologies deployed by authorities to track political dissidents, activists, ethnic minorities and others seen as threats to the regime or to stability.

“This assistance continues until the present day. As our report shows, Cisco, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, and Oracle still supply vital equipment to Chinese police departments across the country,” write Weber and Ververis.

Their report also says that Intel core processors are “likely being used for surveillance purposes” in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) — helping police monitoring at the Urumqi Diwopu International Airport in the regional capital Urumqi (in Chinese, Wulumuqi), one of the few international gateways into and out of Xinjiang.

Chinese policies in the XUAR have come in for particular criticism with the U.S. government and some European legislatures have declared that persecution of the Uyghurs — including a network of internment camps believed to have held up to 1.8 million Uyghurs and other minorities since 2017 — amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity. China angrily denies the allegations.

“As this report demonstrates, entities based in democracies simply ignore that the Chinese companies they collaborate with also provide technology to the Chinese police and military,” says the report, whose findings are based on publicly available government bidding documents for technology products and services.

Troubling Chinese partners

The U.S. companies that sell into the U.S. $260 billion technology market in the world’s second-biggest economy may not be aware of compromising entanglements, the report says. Many of the exports and collaboration done by third parties and subsidiaries complicates due diligence evaluations.

Among the Chinese companies that use U.S. technology to provide surveillance and censorship services are several that have deployed systems in the XUAR, even as Washington has stepped up scrutiny of corporate supply chains to stop American firms from abetting forced labor and other repressive practices.

Beijing Zhongke Fuxing Information Technology Co Ltd., for example, has a “disturbing involvement in Xinjiang,” where it has completed several digital surveillance-related projects and equipped detention centers, the report says.

The company lists U.S. tech concerns Microsoft, IBM, Intel, HP, Oracle, CISCO and Dell EMC’s Greenplum as its commercial partners.

Another Chinese company, Xiamen Dragon Information Technology Co. Ltd., provides public security intelligence platforms, including face capture equipment that uses the Intel XEON dual 6-core processor to identify mobile devices and information from instant-messaging software from smartphones.

The firm, whose international partners include Microsoft, Oracle, Dell, HP, IBM and Cisco, also provides a system that allows police to apply ethnic tags such as Uyghur, Tibetan, and Han Chinese to a subject to help it discover groups of people.

Xiamen Dragon signed an agreement with the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Public Security Department in 2017 to build a big data and cloud computing product to foster a “safe Tibet” and a “stable social atmosphere,” the report says.

China’s Neusoft Corp., whose Golden Shield role included helping the Ministry of Public Security build its National Basic Population Information Resource Database project in the early 2000s, also helps XUAR authorities process data collected from the household registration system, fingerprint collection, and facial recognition. It has subsidiaries in the U.S., Japan, and Europe, and cooperates with Intel on network technology, the researchers say.

‘Due diligence is ineffective’

“Our findings show that U.S. technology companies’ due diligence is ineffective,” Weber said in an email to RFA. “A change in behavior will unlikely come from companies themselves, since they’re profit driven.”

“If the U.S. government is really concerned about what is happening in Xinjiang…then it needs to make clear to U.S. companies that if they continue to be complicit in China’s surveillance state this may come at a financial cost for them at home,” he said. “This may induce a change in behavior abroad.”

RFA contacted the U.S. companies mentioned in the report for comment, and received responses from only Intel and Microsoft.

“While we do not always know nor can we control what products our customers create or the applications end-users may develop, Intel does not support or tolerate our products being used to violate human rights,” said Nancy Sanchez from Intel Corp.’s corporate communications office in an email.

“Where we become aware of a concern that Intel products are being used by a business partner in connection with abuses of human rights, we will restrict or cease business with the third party until and unless we have high confidence that Intel’s products are not being used to violate human rights,” she said.

Microsoft Corp. has put in place “a robust set of policies intended to safeguard against the misuse of our technology, including refusing to deploy technologies like facial recognition in ways that may put people’s safety or human rights at risk,” said a spokesperson said the Redmond, Washington-based company.

“We require our partners to abide by these policies, and we investigate and enforce violations up to ending the relationship,” the spokesperson said in an email. “We regularly review our operations and engage policymakers, academia, industry, and advocacy organizations to continually improve our policies.”

Weber and Ververis recommend that companies that do business with Chinese tech firms increase due diligence, and they urge governments to review Chinese-owned firms that operate or own subsidiaries in their territories to determine whether the companies supply Chinese public security bureaus and the military.

Their report also recommends that U.S. companies check third-party contractors that buy their products in China to ensure that tech exports are not used in systems deployed by public security bureaus.

‘Absolutely reprehensible’

Uyghur rights groups criticized the U.S. companies for abetting surveillance and other abusive policies toward the 12 million Uyghurs in the XUAR.

“It is absolutely reprehensible that U.S. companies are powering the Chinese state and putting billions of innocent people at risk globally, as well as being complicit in the Uyghur genocide,” said Rushan Abbas, executive director of Washington-based Campaign for Uyghurs, in an email to RFA.

“In particular, as this police state and tools of oppression have been perfected in carrying out the Uyghur genocide, our government must recognize that swift action is needed to halt the sale of American equipment to a genocidal regime,” she said.

Companies providing technology to China despite the genocide accusations, increasing U.S. sanctions of senior Chinese officials, and blacklists of Chinese companies for using Uyghur forced labor, “will be held accountable in the future for their shameful role,” said Dolkun Isa, president of the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress.

“The material and technical support continuously provided by some American and Western high-tech companies to China means they’re actively aiding and abetting China’s genocide of Uyghurs,” he wrote in an email to RFA.

“These companies should immediately stop aiding and abetting China’s genocide of Uyghurs by cutting any material and technical support they provide to a totalitarian regime that not only commits genocide against Uyghurs but also poses the biggest national security threat to the U.S.-led Western democracies,” he said.

The Weber and Ververis report was supported by a grant from UK-based Top10VPN.com, a website that reviews virtual private network services and publishes news and investigations on digital privacy and internet security.

Former Biden COVID adviser concedes cloth masks ‘are not very effective’

As Delta variant surges, Michael Osterholm says emphasis should be on vaccines, better masks.

A key SARS-Cov-2 expert acknowledged this week that a mainstay of the global coronavirus response — the use of cloth masks — does little to stop the spread of the virus.

Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and an adviser on President Joe Biden’s transitional COVID-19 advisory board, made the stunning claim on CNN this week amid escalating worldwide fears and concerns over the “Delta variant” of COVID-19.

“We know today that many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out,” Osterholm said during the interview. 

“We need to talk about better masking,” he said. “We need to talk about N-95 respirators, which would do a lot for both people who are not yet vaccinated or not previously infected.”

Osterholm told Just the News he was unavailable for comment regarding his remarks. 

The apparent admission comes after well over a year of public health officials insisting that cloth masks are among the most vital and lifesaving tools in the fight against SARS-Cov-2. 

Osterholm himself acknowledged last year that the effectiveness of cloth masks was likely to be “limited,” though he himself unequivocally affirmed his support for wearing them in public spaces.

Robert Cook, a professor of epidemiology and medicine at the University of South Florida, admitted that he was “not up to date with the latest, most specific data on cloth masks vs. other types of masks,” but he argued that it “makes common sense to me that someone wearing a cloth mask would block larger respiratory particles and these in turn would block at least some of the smaller viral particles.”

“I would be very surprised if they did ‘little’ to stop the amount of virus in the air around someone,” he continued. “Even if they reduce the number of virus particles by 10%, it could have a significant impact at the community level compared to nothing.”

Other health officials, meanwhile, have been emphatic about the alleged benefits of cloth masking. 

National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins wrote last August that “even if a community universally adopted a crude cloth covering that’s far less than 100 percent protective against the virus, this measure alone could significantly help to reduce deaths.”

U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield, meanwhile, argued last July that “cloth face coverings are one of the most powerful weapons we have to slow and stop the spread of the virus.”

A model developed by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, meanwhile, projected last July that wearing cloth masks could save as many as nearly 30,000 lives in less than three months. 

Chinese Communists Subsidized Trips For Western Journalists For Over 25 Years—CNN, NPR, WaPo, NYT, Reuters, ABC, NBC

Several Chinese Communist Party-linked groups – including the regime’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs – have subsidized trips to China for American journalists in an effort to “enhance” their understanding of U.S.-China relations since the 1990’s, The National Pulse can reveal from recovered webpages deleted by program sponsors. 

Among the outlets sending journalists to participate in the trips are The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio (NPR), CNN, Reuters, POLITICO, and more.

The “China-United States Journalism Exchange” is sponsored by the New York-based East-West Center, All-China Journalists Association, and the Better Hong Kong Foundation. Inaugurated in 2010, the program expanded upon a 1996 initaitive “supported” by the Chinese Communist Party’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs that granted free trips to China for journalists from mainstream American media outlets.

The effort is closely tied to the China-United States Exchange Foundation (CUSEF), a foreign influence group operating under the Chinese government’s United Work Front Department.

The United Front, according to the U.S.-China Security and Economic Review Commission, aims “to co-opt and neutralize sources of potential opposition” to the Chinese regime and “influence foreign governments and other actors to take actions or adopt positions supportive of Beijing’s preferred policies.”

In practice, CUSEF has sponsored trips to China for mainstream corporate media outlets in exchange for “favorable coverage.” As revealed through Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) filings with the Department of Justice, the group’s explicit goal of the trips is to “effectively disseminate positive messages to the media, key influencers, and opinion leaders, and the general public.”

BETTER HONG KONG FOUNDATION 2020 ANNUAL REPORT.

Sponsors of the “China-United States Journalism Exchange” are also closely tied to CUSEF, as American journalists participating in the trips have also repeatedly met with CUSEF Founding Chairman Tung Chee-Hwa.

Members of CUSEF’s Board of Governors – including Ronnie Chan and Daniel Fung – are also on the board of the East-West Center, which has hosted CUSEF’s Tung as a keynote speaker. Chan is also the Chairman of the Executive Committee for another program sponsor: the Better Hong Kong Foundation.

Details surrounding program participants, sponsors, and activities were wiped from the East-West Center’s website in late 2017.

The now-deleted program description explains how a cohort of American journalists travel to China and a Chinese Communist Party-run media cohort travels America before meeting to “exchange opinions on how media coverage of each country can be improved”:

The Chinese participants visit Washington D.C. and one to two other cities in the U.S. while the American journalists will visit Beijing, another mainland China city and Hong Kong.  Following these study tours, all Chinese and American journalists meet for a 2-day dialogue to share their travel experiences and observations and to exchange opinions on how media coverage of each country can be improved.

The trips are subsidized by the aforementioned Chinese Communist Party-linked sponsors:

The program covers all air transportation, lodging, and program-related ground transportation and meals for participating journalists.

Deleted webpages from the East-West Center documenting the 2011 delegation reveal American journalists “enhanc[ing] their understanding on US-China relations” from lectures by Chinese Communist Party officials:

In China, the Americans explored how China’s 12th Five-Year Plan is impacting China’s economic and social development; helping meet its ambition to become a “moderately wealthy” nation; and improving the standard of living for the vast majority of its citizens over the next five years. They were surprised and impressed by Ningbo’s wealth, technology, rapid pace of development and massive infrastructure and construction projects, including a new port city. […] In Beijing, they met with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Commerce and with academics to enhance their understanding on US-China relations

Other deleted webpages reveal that high-level editors from state-run Chinese outlets – including the Deputy Director of the People’s Liberation Army Daily paper – comprising the delegations.

The following lists identify the journalists – from outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, National Public Radio (NPR), CNN, and Reuters – participating in the trips.

2011 Delegation:

  • Mr. Rob Ballenger, Swing Editor/Producer, National Public Radio, Washington, DCMs.
  • Ms. Patrice Hill, Chief Economic Correspondent, Washington Times, Washington, DC
  • Mr. Joe Schatz, Senior Writer, Congressional Quarterly, Washington, DC
  • Mr. Kopin Tan, Senior Editor, Barron’s Magazine, New York, New York
  • Mr. David Whiting, Page One Columnist, The Orange County Register, Santa Ana, California
  • Mrs. Roya Wolverson, Senior Writer, Time Magazine, New York, New York
  • Ms. Holly Yeager, Middle East and Asia Editor, The Washington Post, Washington, DC

2012 Delegation:

  • Mr. Nathan Bomey, Reporter, Detroit Free Press, Detroit, Michigan
  • Ms. Autumn Brewington, Op-Ed Page Editor, The Washington Post, Washington, DC
  • Ms. Janet Cho, Business Reporter, The Plain Dealer, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Ms. Juliet Lapidos, Staff Editor, The New York Times, New York City, New York
  • Mr. Tom Weseleski, Editorial Page Editor, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2012 TRIP.

2013 Delegation:

  • Mr. Saeed Ahmed, Supervising News Editor, CNN Digital, Atlanta, GA
  • Mr. Kevin Beesley, Asia Editor, National Public Radio, Washington DC
  • Mr. Joshua Keating, Staff Writer, Slate Magazine, Washington DC
  • Ms. Valerie Volcovici, Correspondent, Reuters, Washington DC
  • Mr. Brian Wingfifeld, Energy/Trade Reporter, Bloomberg News, Washington DC
  • Mr. Alan Wirzbicki, Editorial Page Writer and Editor, Boston Globe, Boston, MA

2014 Delegation:

  • Ms. Diane Bartz, Reporter, Reuters News Agency, Washington, DC
  • Ms. Rebecca Davis, Senior Video Producer, NBC News, New York, New York
  • Mr. Marc Stewart, Reporter/Substitute Anchor, KMGH-TV ABC 7 News, Denver, Colorado
  • Mr. Stephen Stromberg, Editorial Writer, The Washington Post, Washington DC
  • Mr. Alexander Travelli, Asia Online Editor, The Economist, New Delhi, India
2014 TRIP.

2015 Delegation:

  • Mr. Daniel Beekman, Reporter, Seattle Times, Washington
  • Mr. Andy Curliss, State Government Editor, The News & Observer, North Carolina
  • Ms. Carrie Halperin, Producer at Fareed Zakaria GPS, CNN, New York
  • Ms. Lomi Kriel, Reporter, The Houston Chronicle, Texas
  • Mr. Robert Little, Senior Investigative Editor, National Public Radio (NPR), Washington DC
  • Ms. Sandra Ward, Senior Editor, Barron’s, New York

2016 Delegation:

  • Mr. Jesus Ayala, Producer, ABC News, Glendale, California
  • Mr. Jake Heller, Producer and Host, NBC News, New York, New York
  • Ms. Elizabeth Jones, Reporter, KUOW Public Radio, Seattle, Washington
  • Mr. Don Lee, Economics Reporter, Los Angeles Times (Tribune Washington Bureau), Washington, DC
  • Ms. Elizabeth Ralph, Deputy Editor, Politico Magazine, Arlington, Virginia
  • Ms. Jessica Schulberg, Foreign Affairs Reporter, Huffington Post, Washington, DC

Christian Athlete Gives God The Glory As She Wins The Bronze Medal For The 400M Women’s Final

Another female Christian athlete gave God the Glory as she won the Bronze medal for the 400 meter final for the female division of the Olympics in Tokyo, Japan.

Team USA’s Allyson Felix won the Bronze medal for the 400-meter dash at the Tokyo Olympics, marking her 10th Olympic medal in history, USA Today reported. This makes her the second U.S. track and field athlete to win a total of 10 Olympic medals regardless of color: Gold, Silver and Bronze.

This latest medal, according to her, means so much to her for several reasons. She calls it “very different” and “very special” largely because it’s the first Olympic medal she acquired as a mom to Camryn, who was halfway around the world when she won.

“I’m surprised that she was awake. She should’ve been asleep,” Felix said about Camryn, who she immediately called right after the race. “But we’ll deal with that later.”

Felix’ new Bronze medal also comes after having experienced several problems affecting her career: going through pre-eclampsia, a potentially life-threatening condition related to her pregnancy; and a falling out with her most prominent sponsor, Nike, over her said pregnancy as well.

These issues caused some to doubt her ability to get back to fitness and be able to compete in the sport again.

“I hear the chatter,” she said. “I think people thought (it) was a long shot for me to even be on the U.S. team.”

Nevertheless, Felix proved all doubts wrong by qualifying for the Olympics, then performing excellently enough to make her way to the finals, where she eventually won another medal. She also signed up with Athleta and founded a shoe company catering to women, Saysh.

“By God’s Grace”

An outspoken Christian and daughter to an ordained minister, Felix showed her enthusiasm ahead of the 400M finals, thanking God for His “grace” that enabled her to be in the Olympics, Faithwire reported.

that Team USA’s Allyson Felix is giving glory to God when she aimed to win the gold for the 400M track and field finals. Faithwire pointed to Felix’ Instagram post on Sunday, which included a photo of the athlete sitting on the track beside her infant daughter.

In the post, Felix announced that it will be her 5th time to be in the Olympics and recalled her “journey” that was she attributes a result of “God’s grace,” which is something she is grateful for.

“Tomorrow, I step into the Olympic Stadium to compete in my 5th Olympic Games. It might sound cliche, but getting to that starting line is an incredible victory for me. I’ve experienced the hardest years of my life in this journey and by God’s grace I’m here,” Felix said.

“With a heart full of gratitude I’m taking space to remember all it took to get here,” she added.

Felix, now 35-years-old, also hoped her 927,000 followers would appreciate what “fight” she does when she runs in the track especially now that she is overage for it. She conveyed her struggle in almost not being alive to “raise” her daughter, which in her tweets reveal to be her new goal in life.

“So when you see me on the track I hope you understand my fight. As an athlete who was told I was too old, as a woman who was told to know my place, as a mother who wasn’t sure I would live to raise my daughter. I hope you see that for me, it’s about so much more than what the clock says,” Felix disclosed.

Faithwire highlighted that Felix is a devout Christian whose faith is “a critical component in her life.” Felix’s testimonial at Beyond The Ultimate, a “platform” where athletes “share their faith,” conveyed how important her faith is.

“My faith is definitely the most important aspect of my life. My dad is a [seminary professor] and I grew up in a very strong Christian home. Our family was very involved in our church. I am so blessed to have my family and the upbringing that I did. It means so much to me to have two very godly parents who both have so much wisdom. They are amazing role models that I have had the privilege to watch as I grew up,” Felix said in the testimonial written in 2012.

The Washington Post called Felix a “legend” and “already a champion to many” for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Fight for your dreams

After receiving her Bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium, Felix urged other athletes and other women to fight their fears and to fight for their dreams. Felix listed her fears and stressed that an athlete’s worth is not defined by the medals they win. She also took time to thank herself for “dreaming big” and other people who supported her through a Twitter post.

“I’m not sharing this note for me. I’m sharing it for any other athletes who are defining themselves by their medal count. I’m writing this for any woman who defines her worth based on whether or not she’s married or has kids. I’m writing it for anyone who thinks that the people you look up to on TV are any different than you,” Felix raised.

“I get afraid just like you, but you are so much more than enough. So take off the weight of everyone else’s expectations of you. Know that there is freedom on the other side of your fear. Go out there and be brave with your life because you are worthy of your dreams,” she stressed.

DC giving away AirPods to encourage youth vaccinations

Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) announced Saturday that the city would give away AirPods, gift cards and thousands of dollars in scholarship money as incentives to get more adolescents and teens vaccinated.

Bowser said in a tweet that those ages 12-17 who get their first COVID-19 shot at one of three sites would get either a set of AirPods or a $51 gift card, a nod to the push to make D.C. the 51st U.S. state.

Adolescents also have a chance at winning $25,000 in scholarship money or an iPad and headphones, the mayor said.

Bowser is among a host of state and local leaders who have used various incentives in recent months in an attempt to boost vaccination numbers.

In early June, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice (R) announced that his state would give out cash prizes, firearms and trucks to those who got vaccinated.

Cash prizes have also been introduced in states like Maryland, Michigan and Ohio. 

A sizable amount of D.C.’s population has received the shot. According to data from Johns Hopkins University, about 70 percent of the District’s residents have been fully vaccinated.

Despite this, the District is seeing an upward trend in the number of new COVID-19 cases. 

According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), D.C. saw 128 new cases on Friday. It’s a stark contrast to the single-digit and low double-digit numbers of new cases that the city was seeing in late June and early July.

Due to elevated levels of COVID-19 transmission, Bowser announced last week that D.C. would reimplement its indoor mask mandate. 

Drone Footage: Huge Tents at Obama’s Birthday Party After Promises to ‘Scale Back’ Event

Reports about celebrities arriving at the event in numbers also raised questions about an earlier promise by Obama’s spokesperson that it will be attended only by relatives and close friends due to the raging Delta strain of COVID-19.

The recently-released footage allegedly shot from the drone flying over ex-US President Barack Obama’s residence cast a shadow over a previous statement by his spokesperson that the former POTUS’ 60th birthday party will be “scaled back”. The video showed massive tents installed on the territory of the Martha’s Vineyard estate belonging to the former president, alongside a dance floor and several long tables.

The statement was made earlier this week amid massive public backlash over Obama’s plans to throw a big party as the delta variant of COVID-19 rages in the country and the ex-president’s allies in the Democratic Party are defending the reinstatement of the mask mandate.

“Due to the new spread of the delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends. President Obama is appreciative of others sending their birthday wishes from afar and looks forward to seeing people soon,” Obama’s spokesperson said.

The Daily Mail, which originally posted the footage, said several celebrities and politicians were spotted arriving at the birthday party, including rapper Jay-Z, singers Eddie Vedder, John Legend, TV celebrity Chrissy Teigen, former basketball player Dwyane Wade, comedian Stephen Colbert, and Obama’s former Secretary of State John Kerry. This also cast a shadow on the claim that only family and close friends will be attending the event and sparked criticism and accusations of hypocrisy against the former POTUS.

“This is the tent for Obama’s ‘scaled back’ birthday party where only close friends & family were said to attend. Instead, multiple celebrities & politicians were seen. Why is it that the same people telling you to stay home & social distance don’t think those rules apply to them?” conservative commentator Charlie Kirk said via Twitter.

Former US President Barack Obama gesture as he attends the values-based leadership during a plenary session of the Gathering of Rising Leaders in the Asia Pacific, organized by the Obama Foundation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Dec. 13, 2019.

There is no way to tell at the moment how many guests exactly made it to the party and when the tents were installed. Considering the fact that the promise to “scale back the event” came only this week, it is possible that the tents remained from the time, when they were expected to accommodate 500 guests initially invited to the party. The office of the former president and the first lady did not comment on the report and did not respond to the requests regarding the size of the event.

COVID Vax Causes ‘Autoimmune’ Disorder: Ex-Pfizer VP, Toxicologist, Research Scientist

“You’re being lied to.”

QUICK FACTS:
  • Dr. Michael Yeadon is a British, professional research scientist with degrees in biochemistry and toxicology as well as a research-based Ph.D. in respiratory pharmacology.
  • Yeadon worked for more than three decades in the pharmaceutical industry, consulting for 30 start-up technology companies.
  • He’s the former Vice President and Chief Scientist for Allergy and Respiratory research for coronavirus vaccine maker Pfizer Inc.
  • Dr. Yeadon founded and led his own biotech company before selling it for hundreds of millions of dollars.
  • He claims the “authorities are not giving us full information about the risks of these products” and are not treating the public “like adults.”
  • Dr. Yeadon also says he has “serious concerns about the safety of these gene-based vaccines against covid” especially related to “reproductive health, fertility, and pregnancy.”
NO REPRODUCTIVE TOXICOLOGY STUDIES:
  • “Our government is urging pregnant women and women of childbearing age to get vaccinated. And they’re telling them they’re safe,” says Dr. Yeadon.
  • “That’s a lie because those studies have simply not been done,” he goes on to say, adding, “Reproductive toxicology has not been undertaken with any of these products.”
  • “Here we are,” Yeadon laments, “dosing potentially hundreds of millions of women of childbearing potential with products which are untested in terms of impact on fertilization and development of the baby.”
  • “That’s bad enough…but it’s much worse than that,” warns Dr. Yeadon.
VACCINE CONCENTRATES IN OVARIES IN RATS:
  • A Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request brought to light a report showing the coronavirus vaccine distributes around the bodies of rats, instead of “mostly remain[ing] near the site of injection.”
  • “To my horror,” says Dr. Yeadon, “what we find is the vaccine doesn’t just distribute around the body and then wash out again” but it “concentrates in ovaries of rats. And it concentrates at least twenty-fold over the concentration in other background tissues like muscles.”
  • “My assumption at the moment is that’s what’s happening to every female who’s been given these vaccines. These vaccines are concentrating in her ovaries,” Yeadon goes on to say.
  • “We don’t know what that will do, but it cannot be benign…because the vaccines will then express the coronavirus spike protein and we know that there are unwanted biologies from that spike protein.”
‘VACCINE-INDUCED AUTOIMMUNE ATTACK’ IN HUMAN FEMALE PLACENTA:
  • Yeadon then cites a recent study showing 15 women who were given the Pfizer vaccine “measured antibodies against the placenta”—in addition to antibodies against the spike protein—with a “300% increase” in the “first four days.”
  • “That is a vaccine-induced autoimmune attack on their own placenta,” says Dr. Yeadon.
  • “You can only expect that is happening in every woman of childbearing potential.”
  • “You can’t get pregnant and have a successful pregnancy if this protein is damaged in any way” because the protein is “essential” for “both fertilization and formation and maintenance of the placenta.”
  • “What this vaccine has done is induced an autoimmune response,” claims Dr. Yeadon.
A WARNING:
  • “I’m here to warn you that if you are of childbearing potential or younger…I would strongly recommend you do not accept these vaccines.”
WATCH DR. YEADON’S PRESENTATION:

Jon Fleetwood is Managing Editor for American Faith and author of “An American Revival: Why American Christianity Is Failing & How to Fix It.”

Tech Platform Criticizes Apple’s New iPhone ‘Surveillance’ of User ‘Private Content’

WhatsApp head says Apple’s new child safety tool “introduces something very concerning into the world.”

QUICK FACTS:
  • Apple’s new technology will proactively search for illegal photos of child sexual abuse.
  • The system will “scan photos on US users’ iPhones before they are uploaded to iCloud, which will launch as part of the next version of iOS,” according to Financial Times.
  • U.S., U.K., and E.U. officials are praising Apple’s decision.
  • WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal are being urged to emulate Apple’s move, as well as Google with its Android operating system.
  • However, concerns are being raised “by the security and privacy community that Apple has set a dangerous precedent that could be exploited by repressive regimes or overzealous law enforcement,” notes Financial Times.
  • RT reports NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has already called Apple’s plan an assault on privacy.
WHAT APPLE SAID:
  • Apple released an internal memo saying, “We know some people have misunderstandings, and more than a few are worried about the implications, but we will continue to explain and detail the features so people understand what we’ve built.”
CRITICISM FROM WHATSAPP CEO:
  • Will Cathcart—Chief Executive Officer at Whatsapp Inc.—says Apple’s new tech “introduces something very concerning into the world.”
  • “This is an Apple-built and operated surveillance system that could very easily be used to scan private content for anything they or a government decides it wants to control.”
  • “It’s troubling to see them act without engaging experts,” Cathcart goes on to say. “We will not adopt it at WhatsApp.”
CRITICISM FROM DIGITAL RIGHTS GROUPS:
  • India McKinney and Erica Portnoy of digital rights group the ‘Electronic Frontier Foundation’ said in a blog post, “To say that we are disappointed by Apple’s plans is an understatement.”
  • “Apple’s compromise on end-to-end encryption may appease government agencies in the US and abroad, but it is a shocking about-face for users who have relied on the company’s leadership in privacy and security.”
CRITICISM FROM THE AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION:
  • Surveillance and cybersecurity counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union’s Project on Speech, Privacy and Technology, Jennifer Granick said, “However altruistic its motives, Apple has built an infrastructure that could be subverted for widespread surveillance of the conversations and information we keep on our phones.”
CRITICISM FROM ‘OPEN PRIVACY’:
  • Cryptography researcher and executive director of Canadian NGO Open Privacy Sarah Jamie said, “I hate going all slippery-slope but I look at the slope, and governments around the world are covering it in oil, and Apple just pushed its customers over the edge.”
Yelp Now Shows COVID Vax Requirements for Businesses

Vax Manufacturers Make Combined $18.6 Billion So Far in 2021

Coronavirus vaccine sales projected to earn drug companies $60 billion by year’s end.

QUICK FACTS:
  • The four main Covid-19 vaccine manufacturers—Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca—”have sold a combined $18.6 billion worth of the shots in the first half of 2021,” according to a report from Axios.
  • And “sales are expected to reach a combined $60 billion by the end of the year.”
  • Axios notes that the U.S. market accounts for 41% of vaccine sales even though the U.S. only represents less than 5% of the world population.
  • “Vaccine makers have sent more vaccines and charged higher prices to wealthy countries, including the U.S.,” notes Axios.
From Axios.com
PFIZER & MODERNA ON TOP:
  • Pfizer and Moderna together have accumulated more than 90% of global coronavirus vaccine revenues.
  • Pfizer itself accounts for 60% of global sales.
  • More than half of Moderna’s two-dose vaccine—funded in full by the federal government—sales are in the U.S.
  • The National Institutes of Health (NIH) co-owns the Moderna mRNA COVID vaccine patent, endorses the same vaccine.
  • NIH Director Francis Collins had earlier denied that the vaccine would be a “money-maker.”
NIH Co-Owns Moderna mRNA Vaccine Patent, Promotes Moderna Vaccines
JOHNSON & JOHNSON AT THE BOTTOM:
  • Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine “hasn’t sold nearly as much due to safety concerns,” reports Axios, “but the company still expects $2.5 billion of global sales this year based on its advanced purchasing agreements.”
  • The Wall Street Journal reported Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and Oxford University were teaming up with outside scientists to consider “re-engineering” their vaccines due to serious blood clotting associated with their shots.
  • The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) was planning to add a warning to the J&J vaccine because it increases the risk of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, also according to WSJ.
Blood Clots Caused by Vax Make J&J, AstraZeneca Consider Re-Engineering Their Jabs
FDA to Warn J&J Covid Vax Raises Risk of Rare Neurological Condition: Wall Street Journal, New York Times
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