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Can't Be Tolerated: US On Belarus's Attempt To Force Olympian To Return Home

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Can't Be Tolerated: US On Belarus's Attempt To Force Olympian To Return Home" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/60dpgpog_antony-blinkenicelandafp_625x300_19_May_21.jpg" title="Can't Be Tolerated: US On Belarus's Attempt To Force Olympian To Return Home" /></div>
Antony Blinken: Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, and are an affront to basic rights
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken blasted Belarus' attempt to send home a sprinter from the Tokyo Olympics against her wishes as intolerable "transnational repression".
President Alexander Lukashenko's "regime sought to commit another act of transnational repression: attempting to force Olympian Krystsyna Tsimanouskaya to leave simply for exercising free speech", Blinken wrote on Twitter late on Monday.
"Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, are an affront to basic rights, and cannot be tolerated."
Tsimanouskaya, who sought refuge in the Polish embassy on Monday after refusing her team's orders to fly home, will travel to Poland on Wednesday, a group of her supporters said. Warsaw has offered her a humanitarian visa.
(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/belarus-tries-to-force-olympian-back-home-us-says-cant-be-tolerated-2501273">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/belarus-tries-to-force-olympian-back-home-us-says-cant-be-tolerated-2501273</a>

news world Can't Be Tolerated: US On Belarus's Attempt To Force Olympian To Return Home

Antony Blinken: Such actions violate the Olympic spirit, and are an affront to basic rights US Secretary of State Antony Blinken blasted...

Republican Lawmaker's Report Claims Virus Leaked From Wuhan Lab In China

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Republican Lawmaker's Report Claims Virus Leaked From Wuhan Lab In China" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-04/ru5bsc2g_wuhan-lab-afp-650_625x300_20_April_20.jpg" title="Republican Lawmaker's Report Claims Virus Leaked From Wuhan Lab In China" /></div>
Republican report doubles down on the idea that the virus likely emerged from the Wuhan laboratory.
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Washington:
A Republican lawmaker's report investigating the origins of COVID-19 released on Monday has concluded that the pandemic outbreak stemmed from a genetically modified virus that leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, first detected in December 2019.
House Republican lawmaker, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), the ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released the third installment in his investigation into the origins of the virus and the missteps by China in alerting the world to the risks of the pandemic, reported The Hill.
Michael McCaul, in statements alongside the release of the report, has called for Congress to pass legislation sanctioning scientists at the Wuhan lab and Chinese Communist Party officials who were determined to have obstructed efforts to respond to the pandemic quickly and effectively.
The GOP investigation parallels efforts by the Biden administration and the international community to determine the origins of the pandemic outbreak, which has killed more than 4.2 million people across the world, infected nearly 200 million, and upended global stability.
The Republican report is based on open-source material and draws conclusions from circumstantial reporting, also raises concern that the lab was conducting "gain of function" research, controversial medical research where scientists genetically modify a bacteria or virus to make it more infectious in an effort to study better preventative measures, in an unsafe environment, reported The Hill.
"We know gain-of-function research was happening at the WIV and we know it was being done in unsafe conditions," Michael McCaul said.
National security experts also raised the concern that the US must discipline China for failing to quickly and cooperatively alert the international community to the virus outbreak and its ongoing obstruction into the investigation into the origins of COVID-19, reported The Hill.
"The Biden administration has already -- working through the World Health Organisation (WHO) and with the G-7 and with other countries -- used diplomacy and tried to urge the Chinese to cooperate. They've given us their answer, their answer is no," said Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
Michael McCaul also called on the House Foreign Affairs Committee to subpoena Peter Daszak, an American scientist who has come under scrutiny for his connection with the Wuhan lab and involvement in publishing an open letter in February 2020 that rejected the lab theory as a xenophobic distraction from the pandemic response.
The letter, which was published in the Lancet medical journal, has since come under criticism as an attempt to divert attention from China's responsibility for the virus outbreak."Now is the time to use all of the tools the US government has to continue to root out the full truth of how this virus came to be," Michael McCaul said.
"That includes subpoenaing Peter Daszak to appear before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to answer the many questions his inconsistent -- and in some instances outright and knowingly inaccurate -- statements have raised. It also includes Congress passing legislation to sanction scientists at the WIV [Wuhan Institute of Virology] and CCP [Chinese Communist Party] officials who participated in this coverup. This was the greatest coverup of all time and has caused the deaths of more than four million people around the world, and people must be held responsible."
The Republican report doubles down on the idea that the virus likely emerged from the Wuhan laboratory, a theory that has gained increasing legitimacy, reported The Hill.
The lab leak theory is the idea that the virus emerged from the Wuhan scientific lab either due to a series of missteps and lax safety procedures or Chinese government and military tampering.
The Chinese government and Wuhan lab scientists have dismissed these allegations and maintain that the first cases likely emerged from animal-to-human transmission at a wet market in the city of Wuhan.
Leaked State Department cables from 2018 documented that American diplomats raised concern about safety and management procedures at the Wuhan lab that did not raise the level of need for the lab's status as a BSL-4, the highest level of international bioresearch safety. The cables were first reported by The Washington Post in April 2020, reported The Hill.
The Republican report adds to this by raising concern over maintenance and renovation taking place at the Wuhan Institute of Virology and the adjacent lab, the Wuhan National Biosafety Laboratory, related to its hazardous waste treatment system and air conditioning systems while carrying out research on coronaviruses. Such instances were taking place in the months preceding the first known cases of COVID-19, the report stated.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/republican-lawmakers-report-claims-virus-leaked-from-wuhan-lab-in-china-2501253">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/republican-lawmakers-report-claims-virus-leaked-from-wuhan-lab-in-china-2501253</a>

news world Republican Lawmaker's Report Claims Virus Leaked From Wuhan Lab In China

Republican report doubles down on the idea that the virus likely emerged from the Wuhan laboratory. Washington: A Republican lawmaker...

Sydney COVID-19 Lockdown Could Be Eased If Vaccination Rate Hits 50%

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Sydney COVID-19 Lockdown Could Be Eased If Vaccination Rate Hits 50%" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-07/q2n6npes_australia-sydney-coronavirus_625x300_29_July_21.jpg" title="Sydney COVID-19 Lockdown Could Be Eased If Vaccination Rate Hits 50%" /></div>
Lockdown in Sydney is currently due to be lifted on August 29 (File)
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Canberra:
Australia's New South Wales, home to Sydney, said on Tuesday it could ease a COVID-19 lockdown that demands five million people stay at home until the end of August if 50% of the population is vaccinated, even as new infections linger near a 16-month high.
A lifting of restrictions in New South Wales, the country's most populous state, would be a boost for Prime Minister Scott Morrison, under intense pressure for his government's handling of the vaccine rollout, with the threat of a second economic recession in as many years looming.
New South Wales, which accounts for a third of all activity in Australia's A$2 trillion ($1.47 trillion) economy, has struggled to contain a surge of cases of the highly infectious Delta variant in Sydney, the country's biggest city, despite the lockdown, currently due to be lifted on Aug. 29.
While New South Wales on Tuesday reported another 199 locally acquired COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours - near a 16-month high of 239 infections recorded in one day last week - state Premier Gladys Berejiklian said curbs could be eased if six million people are vaccinated by the time the lockdown is due to end.
"Six million jabs is roughly half the population with at least one or two doses," Berejiklian told reporters in Sydney. "That gives us additional options as to what life looks like on 29 August."
Berejiklian didn't say exactly how many in New South Wales were fully vaccinated as of Tuesday, but said the state is on course to meet its vaccination target. She cautioned the number of people in the community while infectious would also need to come down.
Although Australia has largely kept its COVID-19 numbers relatively low, with just over 34,500 cases and 925 deaths, its national vaccination rollout has hit several roadblocks due to changing medical advice on AstraZeneca doses over blood clot concerns and supply constraints for Pfizer inoculation.
The target in New South Wales comes just days after national premier Morrison promised lockdowns would be "less likely" once the country inoculates 70% of its population above 16 years of age - up from 19% now. Morrison expects to hit the 70% mark by the end of the year.
Meanwhile, Queensland state said on Tuesday it has reported 16 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the highest daily number of new cases in a year.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sydney-covid-19-lockdown-could-be-eased-if-vaccination-rate-hits-50-2501246">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/sydney-covid-19-lockdown-could-be-eased-if-vaccination-rate-hits-50-2501246</a>

news world Sydney COVID-19 Lockdown Could Be Eased If Vaccination Rate Hits 50%

Lockdown in Sydney is currently due to be lifted on August 29 (File) Canberra: Australia's New South Wales, home to Sydney, said on...

China's Wuhan To Test 'All Residents' As Covid Returns

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="China's Wuhan To Test 'All Residents' As Covid Returns" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/4a5dgfio_china-covid19-afp_625x300_31_May_21.jpg" title="China's Wuhan To Test 'All Residents' As Covid Returns" /></div>
Authorities in Wuhan said they would test its entire population for Covid-19 (File)
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Beijing, China:
Authorities in Wuhan on Tuesday said they would test its entire population for Covid-19 after the central Chinese city where the coronavirus emerged reported its first local infections in more than a year.
The city of 11 million is "swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing of all residents", senior Wuhan official Li Tao said at a press conference Tuesday, a day after seven cases were found.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chinas-wuhan-to-test-all-residents-as-covid-returns-2501202">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chinas-wuhan-to-test-all-residents-as-covid-returns-2501202</a>

news world China's Wuhan To Test 'All Residents' As Covid Returns

Authorities in Wuhan said they would test its entire population for Covid-19 (File) Beijing, China: Authorities in Wuhan on Tuesday sai...

China's Wuhan To Test "All Residents" As Covid Cases Emerge After A Year

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="China's Wuhan To Test 'All Residents' As Covid Cases Emerge After A Year" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-08/8c3uejr4_china-coronavirus_625x300_02_August_21.jpg" title="China's Wuhan To Test 'All Residents' As Covid Cases Emerge After A Year" /></div>
Wuhan officials announced that seven locally transmitted infections had been found among migrant workers.
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Beijing, China:
Authorities in Wuhan on Tuesday said they would test its entire population for Covid-19 after the central Chinese city where the coronavirus emerged reported its first local infections in more than a year.
The city of 11 million is "swiftly launching comprehensive nucleic acid testing of all residents", senior Wuhan official Li Tao said at a press conference on Tuesday.
Authorities announced on Monday that seven locally transmitted infections had been found among migrant workers in the city, breaking a year-long streak without domestic cases after it squashed an initial outbreak with an unprecedented lockdown in early 2020.
China has confined the residents of entire cities to their homes, cut domestic transport links and rolled out mass testing in recent days as it battles its largest coronavirus outbreak in months.
China reported 61 domestic cases on Tuesday as an outbreak of the fast-spreading Delta variant reached dozens of cities after infections among airport cleaners in Nanjing sparked a chain of cases that have been reported across the country.
Major cities including Beijing have now tested millions of residents while cordoning off residential compounds and placing close contacts under quarantine.
The eastern city of Yangzhou, near Nanjing, was the latest local government to order residents to stay home after large-scale testing detected 40 new infections over the past day.
The more than 1.3 million residents of Yangzhou's urban core are now confined to their homes, with each household allowed to send only one person outside per day to shop for necessities, the city government said Tuesday.
The announcement comes after the tourist destination of Zhangjiajie in central China's Hunan province as well as nearby Zhuzhou city issued similar orders in recent days to more than two million people combined.
The outbreak spread to Hunan from Nanjing last month after people infected at the Nanjing airport cluster attended theatre performances in Zhangjiajie.
Officials have since been desperately tracking down thousands of fellow theatregoers and urging tourists not to travel to areas where cases have been found.
Meanwhile, Beijing has blocked tourists from entering the capital during the peak summer holiday travel season and asked residents not to leave unless necessary, with top officials vowing over the weekend to "spare no expense" in defending the city.
China had previously boasted of its success in bringing domestic cases down to virtually zero after the coronavirus first emerged in Wuhan, allowing the economy to rebound.
But the latest outbreak is threatening that success with more than 400 domestic cases reported since mid-July.
(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/chinas-wuhan-to-test-all-residents-after-first-covid-19-cases-in-over-a-year-news-agency-afp-quoting-official-2501187">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/chinas-wuhan-to-test-all-residents-after-first-covid-19-cases-in-over-a-year-news-agency-afp-quoting-official-2501187</a>

news world China's Wuhan To Test "All Residents" As Covid Cases Emerge After A Year

Wuhan officials announced that seven locally transmitted infections had been found among migrant workers. Beijing, China: Authorities i...

PayPal Co-Founder Warns Financial Giant is Creating De Facto ‘No Buy List’ by Banning Dissidents

PayPal co-founder David Sacks warns that the financial giant is creating a de facto ‘no buy list’ by banning people for their opinions, a move that will actually increase extremism in the long term.
In an article posted on Bari Weiss’ <a href="https://bariweiss.substack.com/p/get-ready-for-the-no-buy-list">Substack newsletter</a>, the investor explains how PayPal’s role has been completely reversed from its initial objective of helping ordinary people not be dependent on large financial institutions to start a business.
“But now PayPal is turning its back on its original mission. It is now leading the charge to restrict participation by those it deems unworthy,” writes Sacks.
The entrepreneur argues that by partnering with the likes of the ADL and the SPLC, PayPal has allowed itself to be used as a tool by far-left activist outfits to censor ideological opposition.
“I have no desire to defend genuinely hateful or extremist groups,” writes Sacks. “Indeed, when I was COO at PayPal, we regularly worked with law enforcement to restrict illegal activity on our platform. But we are talking about something very different here: shutting down people and organizations that express views that are entirely lawful, even if they are unpopular in Silicon Valley.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="9.6826347305389">
The <a href="https://twitter.com/ADL?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ADL</a> is highly politicized group: completely liberal and aligned with the DNC, just a tad more pro-Israel in their focus but otherwise no differences. This is yet another union between establishment liberalism and Big Tech to control and censor the internet. <a href="https://t.co/UI5OrBYB1e">https://t.co/UI5OrBYB1e</a>
— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) <a href="https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1419669198528262145?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 26, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
He points to White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki’s pernicious announcement that the Biden administration is working with Facebook to directly censor information related to COVID-19 and her insistence that other platforms should mirror Facebook’s censorship policies at the behest of the government.
“The suppression of speech by the government is blatantly unconstitutional under the First Amendment,” writes Sacks, noting that PayPal is now a fully signed up member of Silicon Valley’s purge of undesirables.
“Now PayPal has gone much further, creating the economic equivalent of the No-Fly List with the ADL’s assistance. If history is any guide, other fintech companies will soon follow suit. As we saw in the case of speech restrictions, the political monoculture that prevails among employees of these companies will create pressure for all of them to act as a bloc.”
“When someone mistakenly lands on the No-Fly List, they can at least sue or petition the government for redress. But when your name lands on a No-Buy List created by a consortium of private fintech companies, to whom can you appeal?”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true" readability="7.6785714285714">
All hail the supreme leader and commander of the ministry of Facebook, Jen Psaki. 
<a href="https://t.co/HtjZznXJWS">pic.twitter.com/HtjZznXJWS</a>
— Rising serpent 🇺🇸 (@rising_serpent) <a href="https://twitter.com/rising_serpent/status/1415876980726288385?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 16, 2021</a>
</blockquote>
Sacks highlights how the monopolies created by fintech giants and the way they act in unison when banning individuals or groups is literally creating a society where dissidents will find it difficult to even function in society.
“Kicking people off social media deprives them of the right to speak in our increasingly online world,” he writes.
“Locking them out of the financial economy is worse: It deprives them of the right to make a living. We have seen how cancel culture can obliterate one’s ability to earn an income, but now the cancelled may find themselves without a way to pay for goods and services.”
Sacks concludes by noting that the same resentment against elites that handed Trump victory in 2016 is merely being re-created by Silicon Valley, while their stated policy goal of reducing “extremism” is actually having the opposite effect.
“If we continue down this path, a far more dangerous demagogue could emerge. I implore my successors at PayPal and other Big Tech companies to stop throwing kindling on the fires of populism by locking people out of the online public square and the modern web-based economy. Silenced voices and empty stomachs are fuel for the very extremism you claim to oppose,” writes Sacks.
He warns that deplatforming is creating “hordes of desperate people, denied a voice and livelihood,” who will simply vote for an autocratic dictator the first chance they get.
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source <a href="https://summit.news/2021/08/02/paypal-co-founder-warns-financial-giant-is-creating-de-facto-no-buy-list-by-banning-dissidents/">https://summit.news/2021/08/02/paypal-co-founder-warns-financial-giant-is-creating-de-facto-no-buy-list-by-banning-dissidents/</a>

revolution summit PayPal Co-Founder Warns Financial Giant is Creating De Facto ‘No Buy List’ by Banning Dissidents

PayPal co-founder David Sacks warns that the financial giant is creating a de facto ‘no buy list’ by banning people for their opinions, a mo...