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ansible's JournalRussia begins vaccinating against Covid-19 en-masse
Russia is starting its Covid-19 vaccination programme, with clinics in the capital Moscow inoculating those most at risk from the virus.
Its own vaccine Sputnik V, which was registered in August, is being used.
Developers say it is 95% effective and causes no major side effects, but it is still undergoing mass testing.
Thousands of people have already registered to get the first of two jabs over the weekend, but it is unclear how much Russia can manufacture.
Producers are only expected to make two million doses of the vaccine by the end of the year.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin, who announced the programme earlier in the week, said it was being offered to people in the city of 13 million who work in schools and the health service, and social workers.
He said the list would grow as more of the vaccine became available.
An online registration service allows city residents in the above professions aged 18-60 to book free appointments at 70 sites around the city.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-55198166
No stimulus checks in latest Coronavirus relief bill
Direct cash payments to most American households were one of the most popular and efficient measures Congress enacted as part of its response to the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, but lawmakers seem to have lost interest in another round of checks.
Legislators this week resuscitated talks over a new coronavirus relief package, which includes new unemployment assistance, money for vaccine distribution and more aid for businesses and state governments. But none of the potential compromise proposals includes another round of stimulus checks.
“We’re sending money out as a relief for people in distress, as opposed to a stimulus. This is not a stimulus bill,” Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) told HuffPost about bipartisan $900 billion legislation he is crafting with other moderate senators.
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), one of the Democratic authors of the compromise, said it was more urgent to get a deal preventing federal unemployment benefits and other emergency programs from expiring, but that he did support another round of direct payments.
“Hopefully that will happen when Joe Biden becomes president,” Manchin said.
https://www.aol.com/finance/stimulus-checks-excluded-latest-covid-174539941.html
Iran's Mohsen Fakhrizadeh killed by 62-person hit squad, reports say
The assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was carried out by a highly trained hit squad of 62 people — pouncing in six vehicles after the local power supply was cut, according to local reports. The killers — who Iranian officials have insisted were sent by Israel — included a team of 50 giving “logistical support” to the dirty dozen who carried out the actual ambush Friday, sources told leading Iranian journalist Mohamad Ahwaze. All involved had “entered special training courses, as well as security and intelligence services abroad,” Ahwaze tweeted, as translated by ELINT News.
“The team knew exactly the date and course of the movement of the Fakhrizadeh protection convoy in the smallest details,” Ahwaze’s sources told him, allowing them to cut the scientist off as he went to his private villa in Absard. Shortly before Fakhrizadeh drove through their ambush site, the team “cut off the electricity completely from this area” to slow reports of their assassination and any calls for help, the reporter said. Fakhrizadeh was traveling in the middle of three bulletproof cars, with the killers striking after the first car entered a roundabout, the report said. A booby-trapped Nissan was then detonated to block the car behind Fakhrizadeh — as 12 gunmen pounced on him, arriving in a Hyundai Santa Fe and four motorbikes, Ahwaze tweeted.
“After the car bomb was detonated, 12 operatives opened fire towards Fakhrizadeh’s car and the first protection vehicle,” his thread said. “According to Iranian leaks, the leader of the assassination team took Fakhrizadeh out of his car and shot him and made sure he was killed.” None of the hit squad were wounded or arrested during the gunbattle with the Iranian’s bodyguards, Ahwaze said.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/29/irans-mohsen-fakhrizadeh-killed-hit-squad-report-says/
Trudeau UN speech sparks 'Great Reset' conspiracy
Social media posts are sharing a video of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau addressing the United Nations in September and using it to justify a baseless conspiracy theory about a plan by global elites to control the population and bypass democracy using the Covid-19 pandemic as an excuse. While the video is authentic, Trudeau is referring to well known, non-binding international initiatives to address global challenges accentuated by the pandemic.
“This shit is not Conspiracy theory anymore... This is happening!!! Our country has been sold to the globalists agenda, Trudeau has just announced it to everyone,” a Facebook post claims.
Similar posts have been shared thousands of times across Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, where a user wrote: “That is happening right now, as democracy will be bypassed due to Covid-19. This pandemic has been orchestrated for decades only to implement the new world order.”
The claim, which gained traction on November 15, 2020, was quickly amplified across Twitter by conservative political commentators including Maxime Bernier, leader of the libertarian People’s Party of Canada, Ezra Levant’s Rebel News, Spencer Fernando and US radio and TV host Glenn Beck.
“We want our lives to get back to normal… Instead they offer only more fear, more control, more centralization, and a reshaping of our lives and our economy without even asking us,” Fernando wrote in a blog post.
This conspiracy theory resurfaced with rising Covid-19 cases and harsher restrictions in some provinces of Canada, which recorded more than 311,000 cases and more than 11,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The full video of Trudeau’s September 29, 2020 address to the United Nations, on which many of these posts are based, can be found here.
In one segment Trudeau says, “This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic efforts, to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty, inequality, and climate change.”
The “Great Reset” is a formal initiative from Prince Charles and the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Swiss-based foundation that organizes an annual forum for political and economic leaders in Davos.
https://factcheck.afp.com/trudeau-un-speech-sparks-great-reset-conspiracy
China suggests Italy may be the birthplace of COVID-19 pandemic
China is using a new study about the early, hidden spread of coronavirus in Italy to cast doubt on the firmly held assumption that the Asian nation was the birthplace of the pandemic, according to reports.
Officials in Beijing are pushing a new study that suggests the contagion may have been spreading in the European nation as early as September — three months before it was confirmed to be spreading in the long-assumed epicenter in the Chinese city of Wuhan, the Times of London noted.
The Asian nation has also previously questioned Spain about the origins of the pandemic, as well as the US military, claiming it brought the virus to Wuhan in October last year during the Military World Games, the report said.
Chinese state media have now been strongly pushing the idea that the new study by the National Cancer Institute proves that the contagion likely started in Italy, not China, according to the UK paper.
“This once again shows that tracing the virus’s source is a complex scientific question that should be left to scientists,” China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said, according to the UK Times. “[It] is a developing process that can involve multiple countries.”
The World Health Organization has admitted it is possible that the virus “silently circulated elsewhere” before it was detected in Wuhan.
https://nypost.com/2020/11/20/china-suggests-italy-may-be-the-birthplace-of-covid-19-pandemic/
California imposes nighttime curfew 10pm to 5am
OAKLAND, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom has ordered California into a state curfew, escalating his response to rapidly rising coronavirus numbers.
More than 94 percent of Californians must remain in their homes between 10 p.m and 5 a.m. unless performing essential activities. The requirement applies to the 41 counties that have landed in the state's most restrictive tier due to wide coronavirus spread.
“The virus is spreading at a pace we haven’t seen since the start of this pandemic and the next several days and weeks will be critical to stop the surge. We are sounding the alarm,” Newsom said in a statement. “It is crucial that we act to decrease transmission and slow hospitalizations before the death count surges. We’ve done it before and we must do it again.”
The curfew will start Saturday night at 10 p.m. and last until 5 a.m. on Dec. 21, more than a full month. To explain the curfew, Newsom's statement essentially said higher spread occurs during activities fueled by inebriation and late-night antics, warning of "social activities and gatherings that have a higher likelihood of leading to reduced inhibition."
https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/11/19/newsom-orders-california-curfew-as-coronavirus-cases-surge-1337271
Elon Musk now 3rd richest man in the world, biggest gainer of wealth in 2020
Tesla and SpaceX head Elon Musk, 49, is now the world’s third-richest person. With a wealth of nearly $110 billion, he overtook Facebook mogul Mark Zuckerberg for the spot after skyrocketing Tesla stocks added $7.6 billion to Musk’s coffers over November 16 and 17, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.
The 15 percent stock boost for Tesla came as it was named for inclusion into the S&P 500 Index on November 16.
Based on its market value, the electric car maker would be one of the top 10 companies in the benchmark index upon entry. S&P Dow Jones Indices said Tesla would be one of the largest companies added to the S&P 500 in the past decade. The company said it was considering adding Tesla in two stages on December 14 and 21.
Tesla's inclusion in the widely-followed stock market index means investment funds indexed to the S&P 500 will have to sell about $51 billion worth of shares of companies already in the S&P 500 and use that money to buy shares of Tesla, so that their portfolios correctly reflect the index, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices. Tesla will account for about 1 percent of the index.
SpaceX on the other hand successfully launched four astronauts into space for NASA on November 15 – these astronauts reached the International Space Station (ISS) on November 17.
Musk has added a total of $82.2 billion to his wealth in 2020 alone. He is the biggest gainer among the world’s 500 richest people, the report said.
https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/elon-musk-now-worlds-third-richest-person-overtakes-mark-zuckerberg-6131051.html
Lindsey Graham caught on video with Kamala Harris fist bump, was just 'saying hello'
Sen. Lindsey Graham says he was simply “saying hello” to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris when he fist-bumped her on the Senate floor.
The friendly exchange was caught on video during a Tuesday vote on a Federal Reserve nominee — despite Graham’s claims of voter fraud in the election.
“Just saying hello. I haven’t seen in her in a while,” the key ally of President Trump told CNN’s Manu Raju. “If it works out and they make it, I told her I wish her well and try to work where we can. We will know here in a month or so or less.”
Graham (R-SC), the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, has been accused of pressuring Georgia’s secretary of state to toss legally cast ballots — a claim Graham ripped as “ridiculous.”
https://nypost.com/2020/11/18/lindsey-graham-explains-kamala-harris-fist-bump-on-senate-floor/
California breaks single-day record for new COVID-19 cases amid sweeping new restrictions
Source: latimes
California officials on Monday pulled what they characterized as an emergency brake, announcing a dramatic rollback of reopening in much of the state as it broke its single-day record for new coronavirus cases. Once the changes go into effect Tuesday, 94% of Californians — roughly 37 million people — will live in counties that are in the strictest tier of the state’s reopening roadmap. Many businesses in those counties will have to suspend or severely limit their indoor operations.
The move came as California recorded 13,412 new cases Monday, according to The Times’ coronavirus tracker. That is the highest daily total since the pandemic began and a sign of how quickly the coronavirus is spreading.
“We are seeing community spread broadly now throughout the state of California,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said.
Among counties in the purple tier, California officials require that the following types of indoor settings be closed to the public: restaurant dining rooms, gyms, dance and yoga studios, movie theaters, museums, zoos and aquariums. Houses of worship can no longer hold in-person services indoors, and most retail stores, indoor malls and libraries can only open to 25% capacity; grocery stores are allowed to open to 50% capacity.
Read more: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-11-16/california-coronavirus-cases-nearly-double-in-two-weeks
Gun sales expected to set new records after Joe Biden's White House win
New York (CNN Business)Joe Biden's projected White House win could boost gun sales in what has already been a landmark year for gun makers.
"The election of a Democratic president who has promised to tighten gun control legislation could very well prompt increased demand for firearms," says Rommel Dionisio, managing director of Aegis Capital.
Biden has long been vocal on the issue of gun control. The former vice president has said gun manufacturers are "the enemy" of the Democratic party's gun control efforts. His campaign website calls for a ban on manufacturing and future sales of assault weapons like the AR-15, a position he has maintained since a string of high-profile mass shootings in 2019.
Dionisio says gun owners' fears of Democrats passing gun control legislation fuels a predictable surge in sales before and after elections. Gun sales in 2020 reached a record high ahead of Election Day after maintaining an unprecedented pace for most of the year. Oliva says October firearm sales rose 60% compared to the same month a year ago and more than 17 million guns were sold through the first 10 months of 2020.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/business/gun-sales-joe-biden/index.html
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