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Anti-Vaxxer Disinformation Spreads in Asia, Endangering Millions

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Health worker directs a motorcycle taxi drivers at Covid drive-thru vaccination site set up at Philippine
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Though Gerry Casida is on the priority list for a free Covid-19 vaccine in the Philippines because of his asthma, he's isn't planning to get the shot any time soon. A video he found on social media of a woman claiming vaccines are being used for genocide helps explain why.
"I've read a lot of posts on Facebook about how many died in other countries because of vaccines, and how that's being concealed," the construction worker, 43, from Manila said. "My mom also consulted a folk healer, who said the vaccines could affect my heart."
Millions of people like Casida in some of the worst Covid hotspots in Southeast Asia are in no rush for inoculation or just saying no, swayed by disinformation on social media from both local sources as well anti-vaccination movements in the U.S. Those false claims are fueling vaccine hesitancy in some pockets of the region, undermining efforts to vaccinate some of the most vulnerable people in Asia and end a pandemic that has stalled the global economy.
Despite some of the highest rates of new cases in the world, recent surveys have shown vaccine resistance is prevalent in the region. In the Philippines, 68% of the people are either uncertain or unwilling to take the shots, according to polling company Social Weather Stations. A third of Thais have doubts or refuse to be vaccinated, according to the Suan Dusit Poll, while a separate survey in Indonesia showed nearly a fifth of the population hesitating.
Anti-vaccination propaganda is a big reason for that hesitancy, which has further slowed takeup in countries already struggling with limited supplies. Less than 10% of the population in Thailand and the Philippines have received even one shot.
"It is a polluted media landscape," Melissa Fleming, the United Nations' under-secretary-general for global communications, said at a virtual forum in May. "This infodemic has shifted now, and the focus is misinformation on vaccines. It's about instilling fear in people."
A heavily Catholic country, the Philippines has been vulnerable to falsehoods peddled online by U.S. evangelical Christian groups, which then filter across through church and family networks. Among many Facebook discussion groups focused on anti-vaccination theories and trawled by Bloomberg News, one video in the local Filipino language said Covid shots will brand people with the "mark of the beast," alluding to the Antichrist in Christian eschatology. It got more than a thousand views.
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An English language video with hundreds of views said the vaccine makes recipients magnetic. In Malaysia, misinformation ranging from exaggerated risks to life and body organs to genetic alteration are spreading on the Facebook Inc.-owned messaging service WhatsApp. Many of them twist and amplify arguments made by U.S. politicians and also Michael Yeadon, a former Pfizer Inc. scientist and a Covid-vaccine skeptic who's become an icon for anti-vaxxers.
Other popular conspiracy theories being peddled on social platforms across the region include one that says microchips in Covid-19 vaccines are used to collect biometric data.
The resistance is turning out to be a challenge for governments keen to get as much as 80% of their populations protected against the deadly pathogen. Almost all countries in Southeast Asia are struggling with a perfect storm: outbreaks driven by more transmissible variants; lagging inoculation because of shortages after rich nations snapped up stock; and, global isolation. In Bloomberg's Covid Resilience Ranking, which tracks how well the world's biggest 53 economies are handling the crisis, these countries are now in the bottom ten.
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"Without some semblance of herd resiliency to the coronavirus, large countries and small will have difficulty in accommodating the free flow of international travelers, which is important not only for the travel and hospitality industries, but for business and international investment," said Steve Cochrane, chief APAC economist at Moody's Analytics.
In February, Malaysia's Science Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had to reassure the public about the safety of vaccines, saying they don't have microchips. He also rubbished claims that they are part of an Illuminati agenda to establish a new world order, according to a report by the Straits Times.
Open Letter
Even in Singapore, which has largely contained the spread of the virus, the young and educated succumb to fake news, said Leong Hoe Nam, an infectious disease physician at Singapore's Mount Elizabeth Novena Hospital.
"Some of the stories get amplified more, but the reasons are pretty much the same," he said.
In late May, an open letter by a dozen Singapore doctors questioning the safety of mRNA vaccines, including a claim that the shots would change one's DNA, was circulated on WhatsApp. That elicited a swift rebuke from the city-state's health ministry, which issued a press release saying all but one of the medical professionals "have since retracted their statement."
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Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysia's minister of science, technology and innovation, visits a Covid-19 vaccine program for sailors and port workers at the LPK Social and Recreation Club Multi-Purpose Hall Vaccinations Centre in Port Klang, Selangor, Malaysia.
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Despite efforts by governments and companies to curb unsubstantiated information, the false claims in English often continue to spread in non-English speaking communities. Encrypted platforms, where there's less moderation, also play a key role, said Ishaana Aiyanna, a researcher at Logically, a technology company that tracks misinformation and targeted disinformation campaigns.
"Western narratives that have previously been debunked are often circulated alongside hyper-localised narratives," she said. "This is compounded by a lack of media literacy on the part of a vast majority who rely solely on these groups and online communities for information."
There's another major reason for hesitancy. With wealthier Western nations getting the lion's share of the super-effective mRNA shots, poorer countries are having to contend with limited supplies and fewer available brands, exacerbating the problem. When a country offers a choice of only one vaccine, many people want to wait until they can get a higher-efficacy shot.
In Thailand, some are refusing vaccines from China's Sinovac Biotech Ltd. and the U.K.'s AstraZeneca Plc. In the Philippines, nearly 50% in a survey earlier this year said they trust U.S.-made shots the most, but the nation's vaccine program has relied primarily on Sinovac. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to jail those who refuse vaccines.
Others are taking a quirkier approach to encourage vaccinations. A district in northern Thailand started raffling off cows in mid-June as an incentive. In rural Indonesia, vaccinated residents got free chickens, while a city in the Philippines is giving away a house.
Educating vaccine recipients and even medical practitioners is the best tool to fight hesitancy, said Leong.
"The biggest weapon the Covid-19 virus has against humans is one, vaccine hesitancy, and two, the lack of a coordinated worldwide response," he said. "And in these two, human beings have failed miserably and the virus is winning incredibly."
--With assistance from Arys Aditya, Randy Thanthong-Knight, Suttinee Yuvejwattana, Clarissa Batino, Daniel Zuidijk and Stephanie Phang.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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Health worker directs a motorcycle taxi drivers at Covid drive-thru vaccination site set up at Philippine Though Gerry Casida is on the ...

Wild Stories Of Property Bidding Wars, From US To UK To China

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Reining in property speculation is a key objective of the Chinese government.
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Around the world, property markets are going bananas. 
From the U.S. to the U.K. to China, housing is riding an extended boom. Global valuations are soaring at the fastest pace since 2006, according to Knight Frank, with annual price increases in double digits. Frothy markets are flashing the kind of bubble warnings that haven't been seen since the run up to the financial crisis, a Bloomberg Economics analysis shows.
On the ground, outrageous stories are rife, with desperate buyers promising to name their first-born after sellers and derelict buildings selling for mansion prices.
The drivers for the frenzy are remarkably consistent: cheap mortgages, a post-pandemic desire for more space, newly remote workers taking city cash to regional locations - and, crucially, a pervasive fear that if you don't buy now you may never be able to.
As prices mount, so do the risks for both individuals and society. Even without an outright crash, big mortgages mean borrowers are vulnerable if interest rates rise, have less disposable income to spend in the wider economy and are more likely to retire in debt. For younger people, buying property becomes increasingly difficult, further widening intergenerational inequality.
While regulators are starting to get nervous, there are few signs of meaningful action in most countries. They expect the market will start to cool on its own, arguing that a decade-long focus on higher lending standards combined with the prospect of low interest rates for an extended period means there is no obvious trigger for a crash. Much of the activity is also being driven by owner-occupiers rather than investors, who typically don't all head for the door at once if prices start to drop.
So for now, expect the wild stories to keep coming. Here are a few of the most startling ones we've come across. 
Canada
As a real estate agent, Kristin Cripps knew the market was hot in Barrie. Prices in the fast-growing city about an hour and a half's drive north of Toronto have been pushed skyward as buyers hunt for larger homes or vacation properties on scenic Lake Simcoe.
Yet nothing prepared her for selling her one-bedroom vacation home. It's not a remarkable property-Cripps says it looks like "a small box" from the outside-but within 24 hours of listing, 192 showings had been booked. And that was only the start.
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Homes for sale in Barrie, where prices have been pushed skyward.
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Throughout the following three days, bidders and agents kept showing up without an appointment, tramping through the snow to bang on the door while Cripps conducted virtual viewings inside.
The property's narrow driveway became so congested, no fewer than six cars ended up in a ditch and needed to be towed out. At the height of the bidding war, Cripps estimates she was getting about 75 emails every 20 minutes, and didn't sleep more than two or three hours a night as she tried to keep up with all the inquiries. In the end she received 71 offers. The property, listed for C$399,000 ($328,665), sold for almost twice that sum - C$777,777.
"You know when you see videos of Black Friday and everyone rushes in and they're grabbing stuff and they're having fights in the store and pulling people's hair and there's security and they're grabbing people? That's what it felt like," Cripps said.
"Everyone was just so hot and bothered to get a property."
Australia
It didn't have a kitchen or a toilet or power, let alone flooring or paint. Yet the semi-derelict home about seven kilometers (4.4 miles) south of Sydney's city center sold anyway-for A$4.7 million ($3.5 million), after a heated bidding war. 
It's just one more jaw-dropping sale in the harborside city, where more than half the houses sold this year fetched at least A$1 million and quarterly gains to May were the highest in more than 30 years. House prices rose by A$1,263 a day in May.
"I've been involved in this industry 25 years and seen nothing like it," selling agent Joe Recep of NG Farah Real Estate said. "We had 30,000 enquiries on the property in four weeks-from UAE [United Arab Emirates], Dubai, America, New Zealand and all the Asian countries."
It's the top end of the market that's really motoring. Cashed-up buyers returning from overseas and wealthy locals kept in the country by Australia's closed borders are prepared to pay eye-watering amounts for a desirable lifestyle.
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D'Leanne Lewis, a principal at real estate agency Laing+Simmons in the tony eastern suburb of Double Bay, sold homes worth a record A$60 million in a single day in May-more than she had ever previously sold in a month.
Among the five houses Lewis sold on her banner day was an eight-bedroom, nine-bathroom property in Bellevue Hill, an expensive area in the city's east. It was snapped up pre-auction for $25 million-almost 40% above its advertised price-and more than triple the $7 million it sold for just five years ago. While palatial, it doesn't have the waterfront views or access you'd normally expect in Sydney at that price. 
"It's crazy but does make sense when you think about it," says Lewis. "Being locked down in a place like Sydney does not feel so dismal when you compare it to the rest of the world. People are looking for a safe haven."
U.S. 
In the wealthy enclave of Greenwich, Connecticut, you can't even bank on being able to see a property before you put in an offer. 
Shut out of appointments to view a just-listed $1.55 million house, one set of homebuyers decided to make a cash offer above asking price anyway. Their only condition was to be allowed into the house once before signing the contract. 
"It was accepted as the highest and best bid, and they'd never been in the house," said Mark Pruner, a broker with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices in Greenwich. "There were all these other people lined up for appointments in 15-minute intervals for two days."
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U.S. home prices jumped the most in 30 years in April, with even more dramatic increases in many suburban and rural areas. At the peak of the pandemic, Greenwich attracted exiles from New York City - and they've kept coming ever since. Signed contracts for single-family homes more than tripled in May from a year earlier to 165, according to appraiser Miller Samuel Inc. and brokerage Douglas Elliman Real Estate. And that's after a first quarter when the median price of home sales surged 31% to $2.24 million. 
In Manhattan, sales have picked up in recent months too, but that's largely thanks to the prospect of discounted prices. By contrast, buyers pushing deep into the outer boroughs in search of more spacious homes are facing bidding wars.
Things are even hotter in more remote areas of the U.S. Take Boise, Idaho, a picturesque city of roughly 225,000 set against the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. An influx of buyers from California and other more expensive states has sent the market wild: Prices at the start of June were up 42% from a year earlier, according to brokerage Redfin. In April, eight in 10 offers made by its customers faced bidding wars.
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An influx of buyers has sent the Boise market wild.
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Desperate buyers are doing whatever they can to secure a deal - including promising not to actually move in. Shauna Pendleton, a local Redfin broker, said one vendor negotiated the right to stay in the property for five months on a peppercorn rent until their new home was built. 
"Sellers know they've got power in this market, they know they hold the cards and that they pretty much make the rules," Pendleton said. 
U.K. 
Buying a U.K. property right now is nerve-jangling. Almost a quarter of homes sell within a week, according to estate agents Hamptons International, many before they even hit the property portals.
The intense competition is leaving would-be-buyers like Alyson Nash, 63, and her husband out in the cold. They sold their family farmhouse last year and moved into rented accommodation so they could hunt commitment-free for a property near Guildford, a commuter hub in England's southeast.
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Property listings in Guildford, U.K. Almost a quarter of homes sell within a week, according to estate agents.
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Eight months later, after making offers for three homes at their asking prices of at least 2.5 million pounds ($3.5 million), they're no closer.
"I had never in my life anticipated it being this difficult,'' Nash said. "There's very little on the market and what there is, is being chased down by too many people."
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The booming market has led to the resurgence of a practice known as gazumping. Property deals in the U.K. aren't legally binding until contracts are formally exchanged, which can take months after an offer has been accepted-particularly when mortgage lenders and lawyers are struggling with high volumes.
At any point in this period sellers can accept a different offer. That's what happened to Charlotte Howard, 46, in February. Four months later, as glacial proceedings on another property left her terrified of being gazumped again, she found herself contacting the seller on Facebook to reassure them of her interest.
"I'm feeling just a bit broken and a bit bruised," Howard said. "Things can go wrong still."
Fortunately for Howard, she and the seller exchanged on June 11th. 
China
Reining in property speculation is a key objective of the Chinese government. But even they are struggling. While in much of the world the pandemic spurred a dash to the suburbs and beyond, buyers in China piled into top-tier cities where the best jobs and schools can still be found.
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New apartments under construction in Shenzhen, where prices are rising faster than anywhere else in China.
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Existing home prices in those cities rose 10.8% in the year to May, despite crackdowns on loopholes such as fake divorces, designed to bypass rules on how many properties a family can own.
In the tech hub of Shenzhen, an apartment costs 43.5 times a resident's average salary, according to the research institute of real estate firm E-House (China) Enterprise Holdings Ltd. That's not far behind Hong Kong, the world's least affordable city. With Shenzhen prices rising faster than anywhere else in China, the list of obstacles facing would-be buyers just keeps getting longer-and more arbitrary. 
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At one new development in the city's west, interested parties had to temporarily transfer 1 million yuan ($157,000) and upload personal credit reports before they could even make a bid.
Many of those who managed to do so-not easy, with queues of bidders snaking around the block at bank closing time-still didn't even get their offers considered.
Under pressure from the local housing regulator to prioritize residents, local developer Coaster Group decided to vet applicants on how long they'd paid taxes in the city. The 2,114 successful applications all had more than 23 years of tax records.
That meant renewed disappointment for many, including Jerry Huang, 29,  who has 14 years of Shenzhen tax history. It's the third time that non-monetary requirements have prevented him from even making a bid. 
"It looks like I have to shelve the purchase plan for a long time," Huang said. "There are so many people competing I'm not sure I have a winning chance." 
--With assistance from Emily Cadman, Ari Altstedter, Olivia Konotey-Ahulu, Charlie Wells, Emma Dong, Nabila Ahmed, Prashant Gopal and Oshrat Carmiel.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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Reining in property speculation is a key objective of the Chinese government. Around the world, property markets are going bananas. Fr...

EU Covid Certificate Makes Travel Easy But Delta Poses Threat

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A picture shows a passport behind a mobile phone whose screen bears a EU Digital Covid certificate.
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Brussels, Belgium:
An EU-wide Covid certificate for easier travel comes into force on Thursday, just in time for Europe's busy summer vacation period, but the more-infectious Delta variant is already threatening to curtail its use.
The EU document -- essentially a QR code made available in digital form on smartphones or hard copy -- shows whether the bearer is vaccinated with one of the EU's approved jabs (from BioNTech/Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson), has recovered from an infection, or has a recent negative Covid test.
Under EU law, the certificate is meant to do away with the need for quarantines or further testing when travelling between the EU's 27 countries or four associated European nations (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein).
EU Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders said he expected all EU member states to be connected from Thursday. Only Ireland, which was hit by a cyber-attack targeting its health service in May, will lag behind.
As of Wednesday, 21 EU countries were already accepting the certificate, including major tourist destinations France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Croatia.
"We recommend to all the member states to use such a tool not only for the free movement law... but also for all the possible national uses, for other purposes: to go to concerts, festivals, theatres, restaurants," Reynders said.
But a surge in the Delta variant, first detected in India and now rampant in former EU member Britain, could trigger an "emergency brake" provision suspending its acceptance.
Already Germany has announced a ban on incoming travellers from Portugal, where the Delta variant has become dominant. Only its own citizens or residents are exempted if they quarantine for two weeks. 
Berlin's decision has raised Brussels' ire, with Reynders saying "we should avoid travel bans" within the EU and stressing that Germany should have consulted with its partners first.
Britain's Delta problem
Britain's startling rise in Delta infections -- it now has a rolling two-week infection rate more than seven times that of the EU -- is generating deep concern on the continent.
At an EU summit last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised southern EU countries -- desperate for tourist cash -- for allowing in Britons with few, if any, Covid checks.
This week, Portugal, Spain and Malta all abruptly increased restrictions for travellers from Britain, emphasising full vaccination for entry.
Beyond the EU certificate, Brussels is urging all member states to allow in only fully vaccinated travellers from outside the bloc, or those with urgent reasons to visit.
But, unlike for the certificate, that is only "guidance" that can be ignored.
Even the EU certificate may not be the fillip many hope for.
"There is no doubt that the tourist industry could do with a boost in time for the summer season," economic research consultancy Capital Economics said in a note.
But it forecast the EU certificate "will have very little impact on European tourism this year," observing that "most adults are not fully vaccinated and the Delta variant is making people and governments more cautious".
Airlines worry
Airlines grouped together in an umbrella lobby group, A4E, have expressed worries that an "inconsistent approach" among EU countries in vetting the EU Covid certificate could create lengthy lines in airports with the potential to "create new health hazards".
They called for the certificates to be checked online before travellers even arrived at the airport.
Reynders responded by saying the European Commission stood by to help with technical implementation, but stressed that the fact there was one EU certificate rather than 27 national ones already greatly streamlined travel in the bloc.
Overall, EU governments are weighing the public desire for a summer break after a tough year of restrictions against a race between vaccination and the Delta variant.
AFP statistics collating official health data from across the EU show that 50.4 percent of the bloc's population has now received at least one vaccine dose (compared with 65.7 percent in Britain). 
So far, 32.7 percent in the EU are considered completely vaccinated. 
Covid experts had initially believed "herd immunity" could be reached with 70 percent of a population fully vaccinated, but now judge it would need 80 percent or more immunised, given Delta's infectiousness and the fact vaccines are less effective against it.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
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A picture shows a passport behind a mobile phone whose screen bears a EU Digital Covid certificate. Brussels, Belgium: An EU-wide Covid...

China's Xi Pledges "Reunification" With Taiwan On Party's Birthday

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Xi Jinping at an event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China
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Beijing:
Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged on Thursday to complete "reunification" with self-ruled Taiwan and vowed to "smash" any attempts at formal independence for the island, taking a tough line on the 100th birthday of the ruling Communist Party.
China considers democratically-ruled Taiwan its own territory, and under Xi has stepped up efforts to assert its sovereignty claims, including regularly sending fighter jets and bombers close to the island."
Solving the Taiwan question and realising the complete reunification of the motherland are the unswerving historical tasks of the Chinese Communist Party and the common aspiration of all Chinese people," Xi said in an address from Beijing's Tiananmen Square.
"All sons and daughters of China, including compatriots on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, must work together and move forward in solidarity, resolutely smashing any 'Taiwan independence' plots."While China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, Xi called for a process of "peaceful reunification".
Still, he said that nobody should "underestimate the Chinese people's strong determination, firm will, and formidable ability to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity".
Taiwan's Mainland Affairs Council told Reuters it was working on a response to Xi's comments. 
The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after loosing a civil war to Mao Zedong's Communist Party.
Most Taiwanese have shown no interest in being ruled by China
Taiwan's government says only the island's people can decide their future, and has decried Chinese pressure.
China believes Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen is a separatist bent on declaring independence.
She says Taiwan is already an independent country called the Republic of China, its formal name.
 
 
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Xi Jinping at an event marking the 100th founding anniversary of the Communist Party of China Beijing: Chinese President Xi Jinping ple...

Canada, US Heat Wave "On Steroids" Due To Climate Change: Experts

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People cool off in a public fountain in Washington Square Park in New York City.
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Washington, United States:
The western United States and Canada would likely have experienced a heat wave in the past week even without climate change. But the scale and severity of the record-breaking temperatures were undoubtedly multiplied by the changes to our atmosphere, experts say.
The US states of Washington and Oregon, as well as British Columbia in Canada, boiled this week in all-time high temperatures that have caused dozens of deaths.
"This is one of the most extreme heat waves that we have seen on Earth, in many years, anywhere, in terms of the deviation from the typical conditions in this particular part of the world," said Daniel Swain, a climate expert at UCLA, noting that temperature records are rarely broken by "more than a degree." 
"In this case, those records were obliterated," he said. "It's really the magnitude and the persistence of this one that is just genuinely shocking."
Canada set an all-time record on Tuesday. In Oregon, temperatures were higher than the maximum recorded in Las Vegas, in the middle of the Nevada desert. 
And all this in a region with a normally temperate climate at this time of the year. 
The phenomenon causing the scorching heat is called a "heat dome." Hot air is trapped by high-pressure fronts, and as it is pushed back to the ground, it heats up even more. 
"It's sort of like a bicycle pump," said Philip Mote, professor of atmospheric science at Oregon State University. "If you compress air into a bike tire, it warms the air."
The condition also prevents clouds from forming, allowing for more radiation from the sun to hit the ground. 
Such conditions are not unheard of: "The pattern was similar to how we always get our heat waves," Karin Bumbaco, a climatologist at the University of Washington, told AFP. "We've seen that pattern before, but it was just much stronger than usual."
Climate like 'steroids'
So what is causing the precedent-shattering highs?
"A world without climate change would have still had a heat wave in the Pacific Northwest. It just would have been not quite as record-setting," said Zeke Hausfather, a climate expert at the Breakthrough Institute. 
"Climate is like steroids for the weather," he said "If a baseball player or Olympic athlete is taking steroids, they're still going to perform better some days and worse some days, but on average, their performance is going to go up. And so climate is doing something similar to the weather. That makes it more likely to experience these sort of extremes." 
So-called "attribution studies" will be conducted to determine the exact causes of the event. 
But "I think it's safe to say that there's at least some components of global climate change that contributed to this event," said Bumbaco. 
Temperatures are generally higher in this region, which has warmed by around three degrees Fahrenheit in the past 100 years, so it makes sense for records to be broken little by little. 
However, "it is very possible that climate change increased this heat wave to an even greater degree" than that, said Swain, the UCLA expert.
For example, the drought that has plagued the region for weeks may have bolstered the heat dome because the energy of the sun's rays is no longer being used to evaporate water, so instead it warms the atmosphere more. 
And climate change is already "increasing the severity of drought" in parts of western North American, said Swain. "The answer to the question of whether it would have happened to this extent without climate change is clearly no."
Adaptation
It is hard to predict just how often such heat waves will occur again. 
"This particular event was so extreme that it will remain unusual, even in a warming climate," said Swain. "But it has gone from the realm of being essentially impossible to being something that we may well see again."
"The bad news is that even if we could wave a magic wand and get all our emissions to zero tomorrow, the world isn't going to cool back down," said Hausfather.
"We're stuck with the warming... And so we need to be prepared for these sorts of events to be more frequent."
Experts insist on the need to adapt in the medium term: by equipping populations with air conditioners (even if they release harmful emissions in the long term), by rethinking the structure of buildings so that they reflect rather than retain heat, and by planting vegetation. 
But all are unanimous: "In the longer term, obviously, the best way to prevent these things from happening in the first place, or to reduce how much worse they could get, is to reduce global emissions of greenhouse gases," said Mote.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/canada-us-heat-wave-on-steroids-due-to-climate-change-say-experts-2476517">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/canada-us-heat-wave-on-steroids-due-to-climate-change-say-experts-2476517</a>

news world Canada, US Heat Wave "On Steroids" Due To Climate Change: Experts

People cool off in a public fountain in Washington Square Park in New York City. Washington, United States: The western United States a...

Protest & Counter-Protest on Saturday Over Transgender Exposing Genitals to Kids at Los Angeles Spa

A protest outside Wi Spa in Los Angeles over an incident where a transgender exposed their genitalia to girls in a female area is set to take place on Saturday, but the demonstration will also face a counter-protest by LGBT activists.
As we <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/28/video-spa-staff-dismiss-womans-complaint-about-man-exposing-his-penis-to-little-girls-in-female-area/">highlighted</a> on Monday, a video that went viral on Twitter shows an African-American woman confronting spa staff about a man flashing his penis to women and little girls.
However, staffers dismiss the woman’s complaint, asserting that the man was merely expressing his “sexual orientation.”
While the woman received support from other customers, one man confronted her to basically accuse her of being transphobic.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="11.343137254902">
A man flashed his penis in front of little girls at a spa and was allowed to do it because he claimed to be a woman. If you watch this video and find yourself siding with the man, please realize that you are not only insane but evil.
<a href="https://t.co/xB0jIq5rAf">pic.twitter.com/xB0jIq5rAf</a>
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1409265099081015298?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 27, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
The spa subsequently released a statement which cited California Civil Code 51 (b) and argued that it would have been discriminatory to take action against the transgender.
“Like many other metropolitan areas, Los Angeles contains a transgender population, some of whom enjoy visiting a spa,” the statement said. “Wi Spa strives to meet the needs of all its customers.”
In another development, Los Angeles Magazine <a href="https://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/wi-spa-video/">reports</a> on a similar case at another spa where a “trans woman” deliberately provoked other customers by spreading out her legs and taking “front-facing showers.”
“As it happens, Wi Spa isn’t the only similar space that’s had to balance accommodating both cis customers and trans customers in various stages of their transitions. A rep for Century Day and Night Spa on Olympic Boulevard recalls a similar situation just before the pandemic shut them down in spring 2020 in which a trans woman (“with everything reflected female on her driver’s license”) caused an uproar among cis gender female clients by exposing male genitals in the female pools and lockers. “[She] wouldn’t really use the spas, [she] just sat at the corner of the pool with [her] feet in the water and [her] legs spread or took front-facing showers,” the rep recalls. “People began to feel uncomfortable. It became very disruptive.” When the spa finally confronted her, she was adamant that the spa should attempt to normalize young girls and women viewing male genitalia.”
Unlike Wi Spa, Century Day and Night Spa appears to have at least taken some action against the pervert, with a rep commenting, “Typically, transgender people are very mindful of not only their own comfort levels but the comfort levels of people around them. This person was not respectful.”
Now protesters are set to gather outside Wi Spa at 11am on Saturday to demonstrate against the health club’s policy. However, counter-protesters have indicated they will gather an hour before that at 10am to face down the horrible bigots who think men flashing their dicks in kids’ faces is a bad thing.
Quite how and why anyone would want to counter-protest those who are opposed to allowing men to show their genitalia to children is anyone’s guess, but this is 2021.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration continues to promote the moral cause of sex changes for children.
We truly live in hell.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/06/30/protest-counter-protest-on-saturday-over-transgender-exposing-genitals-to-kids-at-los-angeles-spa/">https://summit.news/2021/06/30/protest-counter-protest-on-saturday-over-transgender-exposing-genitals-to-kids-at-los-angeles-spa/</a>

revolution summit Protest & Counter-Protest on Saturday Over Transgender Exposing Genitals to Kids at Los Angeles Spa

A protest outside Wi Spa in Los Angeles over an incident where a transgender exposed their genitalia to girls in a female area is set to tak...