ANONYMOUS - OUR VOICE

Between 1939 And 1941, For Every Jew Killed By The Nazis In Poland, Ten Ethnic Poles Were Murdered

armageddon Between 1939 And 1941, For Every Jew Killed By The Nazis In Poland, Ten Ethnic Poles Were Murdered

Some of my thoughts on the genocide of the Poles by the Nazis: [embedded content] source https://shoebat.com/2021/10/03/between-1939-an...

New Zealand Drops "Covid Zero" Goal After "Game Changer" Delta Variant

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="New Zealand Drops 'Covid Zero' Goal After 'Game Changer' Delta Variant" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-06/jq03m5fg_prime-minister-jacinda-ardern-reuters_625x300_18_June_21.jpg" title="New Zealand Drops 'Covid Zero' Goal After 'Game Changer' Delta Variant" /></div>
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Delta variant had proved a "game-changer".
</div>
Wellington:
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern admitted Monday that New Zealand's widely praised "Covid zero" strategy had failed to halt a stubborn outbreak in Auckland and said a new approach was needed.
The hardline elimination policy had largely protected the country from the pandemic, with residents enjoying a near-normal domestic life alongside tight restrictions on international borders.
But an August outbreak prompted a seven-week lockdown in its main population centre that has failed to curb infection rates.
Ardern said the highly transmissible Delta variant had proved a "game-changer" that could not be eliminated.
"Even with the long-term restrictions we've had, we patently haven't reached zero," she added.
Ardern said she would not immediately dump the elimination strategy but lockdown restrictions in Auckland would be eased slightly, even though new case numbers have not fallen.
She added that the change -- a major shift to her previous goal of completely stamping out the virus -- was possible because vaccination rates had increased dramatically.
"Elimination was important because we didn't have vaccines, now we do, so we can begin to change the way we do things," she told reporters.
Auckland will remain in lockdown for now but the government will conduct weekly reviews to time the reintroduction of freedoms.
City residents can meet outdoors in groups of up to 10 from Wednesday and steps such as reopening shops and schools will be considered in the coming weeks.
The rest of the country was allowed out of lockdown in early September.
Before the Auckland outbreak, New Zealand's elimination strategy was widely lauded by bodies such at the World Health Organization, with just 27 deaths in a population of five million.
Opposition leader Judith Collins said Ardern had offered only a "vague wishlist" that failed to outline a coherent plan to replace the "Covid zero" approach.
(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/coronavirus-new-zealand-drops-covid-zero-goal-after-game-changer-delta-variant-2562950">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-new-zealand-drops-covid-zero-goal-after-game-changer-delta-variant-2562950</a>

news world New Zealand Drops "Covid Zero" Goal After "Game Changer" Delta Variant

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Delta variant had proved a "game-changer". Wellington: Prime Minister Jacinda ...

Pandora Papers Leak: The Biggest Reveals So Far

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Pandora Papers Leak: The Biggest Reveals So Far" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-10/111sdgnc_pandora-leak-bloomberg_625x300_04_October_21.jpg" title="Pandora Papers Leak: The Biggest Reveals So Far" /></div>
Jordan's monarch, King Abdullah II, used an English accountant in Switzerland, report said.
</div>
An unprecedented leak of financial records known as the Pandora Papers has revealed the offshore financial assets of dozens of current and former world leaders and hundreds of politicians from Asia and the Middle East to Latin America.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists obtained 11.9 million confidential documents from 14 separate legal and financial services firms, which the group said offered "a sweeping look at an industry that helps the world's ultrawealthy, powerful government officials and other elites conceal trillions of dollars from tax authorities, prosecutors and others."
Moving money through offshore accounts, in mostly low-tax jurisdictions, is legal in most countries, and many of the people named in the data release aren't accused of criminal wrongdoing. But the journalist group said the 2.94 terabytes of financial and legal data -- which makes this leak larger than the 2016 Panama papers release -- shows the "offshore money machine operates in every corner of the planet, including the world's largest democracies," and involves some of the world's most well-known banks and legal firms.
Here are some of the biggest revelations in the release:
Jordan king's real estate empire
Jordan's monarch, King Abdullah II, used an English accountant in Switzerland and lawyers in the British Virgin Islands to secretly purchase 14 luxury homes worth $106 million, including a $23 million property in California overlooking a beach, the ICIJ reported, noting the country relies on foreign aid to support its people and house millions of refugees. U.K. attorneys for the king told the ICIJ that he was not required to pay taxes under Jordanian law, has never misused public funds and has "security and privacy reasons to hold property through offshore companies."
French Riviera estate
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who is currently running for re-election, "moved $22 million through offshore companies to buy a lavish estate on the French Riviera in 2009 while keeping his ownership secret," ICIJ said. The five-bedroom Chateau Bigaud, which is owned by a subsidiary of one of Babis's Czech companies, sits on 9.4 acres (3.8 hectares) in a hilltop village where Pablo Picasso spent the last years of his life, the group said.
The Queen and Azerbaijan
The data release revealed that Azerbaijan's ruling Aliyev family traded around $540 million worth of U.K. property in recent years, reportedthe Guardian, one of the ICIJ's media partners. Queen Elizabeth II's crown estate bought one property worth almost $91 million from the family, and is currently in the middle of an internal review into the purchase, the Guardian said. "Given the potential concerns raised, we are looking into the matter," a spokesperson for the crown estate told the paper, which added the Aliyevs declined to comment.
South Dakota, Nevada havens
One of the most "troubling revelations" for the U.S. was the role of South Dakota, Nevada and other states that have adopted financial secrecy laws that "rival those of offshore jurisdictions" and demonstrate America's "expanding complicity in the offshore economy," said the Washington Post, one of the ICIJ's media partners. A former vice president of the Dominican Republic finalized several trusts in South Dakota to store his personal wealth and shares of one of the country's largest sugar producers, the paper said.
Pakistan's political elite
Several members of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan's inner circle, including current and former cabinet ministers, "secretly owned an array of companies and trusts holding millions of dollars of hidden wealth," the group reported. That could create a political headache for the former cricket star, who campaigned for the South Asian country's highest office as the head of a reformist party that promised a strong anti-corruption agenda. Before the release of the Pandora papers, a Khan spokesperson told a news conference Khan had no offshore company, but ministers and advisers "will have to be held accountable" for their individual acts.
Tony Blair property purchase
The documents show former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair and his wife saved around $422,000 by using an offshore company to purchase an almost $9 million office in London's Marylebone area that was partially owned by the family of a Bahraini minister, the Guardian reported. The paper said there was nothing illegal about the deal, but it "highlights a loophole that has enabled wealthy property owners not to pay a tax that is commonplace for ordinary Britons."
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pandora-papers-leak-jordan-king-pandora-paper-leak-imran-khan-tony-blair-the-biggest-revelations-from-the-pandora-papers-leak-2562925">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/pandora-papers-leak-jordan-king-pandora-paper-leak-imran-khan-tony-blair-the-biggest-revelations-from-the-pandora-papers-leak-2562925</a>

news world Pandora Papers Leak: The Biggest Reveals So Far

Jordan's monarch, King Abdullah II, used an English accountant in Switzerland, report said. An unprecedented leak of financial recor...

Fumio Kishida Approved As Japan's Next Prime Minister

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Fumio Kishida Approved As Japan's Next Prime Minister" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-09/pvfndd64_fumio-kishida-afp_625x300_29_September_21.jpg" title="Fumio Kishida Approved As Japan's Next Prime Minister" /></div>
Japan's parliament voted to approve Fumio Kishida as prime minister.
</div>
Tokyo:
Japan's parliament voted Monday to approve Fumio Kishida as prime minister, with the new leader expected to announce a cabinet including both holdovers and fresh faces.
The soft-spoken scion of a Hiroshima political family, Kishida beat popular vaccine chief Taro Kono to win leadership of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party last week.
(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/japan-prime-minister-fumio-kishida-approved-as-japans-next-prime-minister-2562922">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/japan-prime-minister-fumio-kishida-approved-as-japans-next-prime-minister-2562922</a>

news world Fumio Kishida Approved As Japan's Next Prime Minister

Japan's parliament voted to approve Fumio Kishida as prime minister. Tokyo: Japan's parliament voted Monday to approve Fumio Ki...

Merck's New Covid Pill Raises Hopes For Nations Struggling To Vaccinate

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Why Merck's Covid Pill Is Seen As Such A Breakthrough" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-10/nn44ajos_mercks-covid-bloomberg_625x300_04_October_21.jpg" title="Why Merck's Covid Pill Is Seen As Such A Breakthrough" /></div>
Merck's Covid vaccine reduced risk of hospitalization or death by 50% in an interim analysis/
</div>
As Merck & Co. races ahead with an experimental pill that could play a pivotal role in the fight against Covid-19, efforts are intensifying to bring the drug to developing countries that have struggled to vaccinate their populations.
The global health agency Unitaid and its partners hope to reach an agreement as soon as next week to secure the first supplies of the antiviral treatment for lower- and middle-income nations, Philippe Duneton, its executive director, said in an interview. Unitaid has been in discussions with the company and generic manufacturers, he said.
"This is really what we've waited for all these months," he said. "There is a window of hope with this treatment, and now we need to collectively make it work for people" in less well-to-do countries.
If the new medication hits the market, it could be a turning point in the pandemic, but the global supply picture is uncertain. On the vaccine front, lower-income nations have been left behind. About nine months after the arrival of Covid shots, more than 55 countries have yet to vaccinate 10% of their populations. More than two dozen nations are below 2%.
The drug, known as molnupiravir, reduced the risk of hospitalization or death by 50% in an interim analysis of a late-stage clinical trial, Merck and partner Ridgeback Biotherapeutics LP said Friday.
Seeking Clearance
The results were so positive that Merck and Ridgeback -- in consultation with independent trial monitors and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration -- elected to stop enrolling patients and begin the process of gaining regulatory clearance. Merck plans to submit the data to other regulators worldwide.
The company earlier this year announced that it had signed non-exclusive voluntary licensing agreements for the drug with five generic manufacturers in India in a bid to accelerate availability in more than 100 low- and middle-income countries following approvals or emergency authorization by local regulatory agencies.
Merck said it expects to produce 10 million courses of treatment by year-end, with more expected in 2022. In June, the company agreed to a $1.2 billion supply deal with the U.S. government, under which it would provide 1.7 million courses of the treatment.
Initial production wouldn't go far given the number of worldwide Covid cases. But the drug potentially could be very cheap to manufacture, so it should be available at a low cost in developing nations, Andrew Hill, a senior research fellow at the University of Liverpool, wrote in an email.
"This could be a major advance in the treatment of Covid-19," he said.
Tiered Pricing
Merck said it plans to implement a tiered pricing approach based on World Bank income criteria to reflect countries' ability to finance their health response to the pandemic.
The drug could provide an important tool for the world on top of vaccines, but manufacturing will need to be expanded and more funding is required, according to Unitaid's Duneton said.
"What we need to do is to create an affordable but quality market of generics, exactly what we did for combating AIDS," he said. "It's feasible, it can be done."
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-mercks-new-covid-pill-raises-hopes-for-nations-struggling-to-vaccinate-2562874">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/coronavirus-mercks-new-covid-pill-raises-hopes-for-nations-struggling-to-vaccinate-2562874</a>

news world Merck's New Covid Pill Raises Hopes For Nations Struggling To Vaccinate

Merck's Covid vaccine reduced risk of hospitalization or death by 50% in an interim analysis/ As Merck & Co. races ahead with an...

Facebook Whistleblower Reveals Identity, Says Firm Chooses "Profit Over Safety"

<div class="ins_instory_dv">
<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Facebook Whistleblower Reveals Identity, Says Firm Chooses 'Profit Over Safety'" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-08/0psfrbvg_facebook-generic-reuters_625x300_21_August_20.jpg" title="Facebook Whistleblower Reveals Identity, Says Firm Chooses 'Profit Over Safety'" /></div>
Facebook knew its products were fueling hate, the whistleblower said. (File)
</div>
Washington:
The whistleblower who shared a trove of Facebook documents alleging the social media giant knew its products were fueling hate and harming children's mental health revealed her identity Sunday in a televised interview, and accused the company of choosing "profit over safety."
Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old data scientist from Iowa, has worked for companies including Google and Pinterest -- but said in an interview with CBS news show "60 Minutes" that Facebook was "substantially worse" than anything she had seen before.
She called for the company to be regulated. "Facebook over and over again has shown it chooses profit over safety. It is subsidizing, it is paying for its profits with our safety," Haugen said.
"The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world," she said.
The world's largest social media platform has been embroiled in a firestorm brought about by Haugen, who as an unnamed whistleblower shared the documents with US lawmakers and The Wall Street Journal that detail how Facebook knew its products, including Instagram, were harming young girls.
In the 60 Minutes interview she explained how the algorithm, which picks what to show in a user's News Feed, is optimized for content that gets a reaction.
The company's own research shows that it is "easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions," Haugen said.
"Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, they'll make less money."
During the 2020 US presidential election, she said, the company realized the danger that such content presented and turned on safety systems to reduce it.
But "as soon as the election was over they turn them back off, or they change the settings back to what they were before, to prioritize growth over safety, and that really feels like a betrayal of democracy to me," she said.
"No one at Facebook is malevolent," she said, adding that the incentives are "misaligned."
"Facebook makes more money when you consume more content ... And the more anger that they get exposed to, the more they interact, the more they consume."
Haugen did not draw a straight line between that decision to roll back safety systems and US Capitol riot on January 6, though 60 Minutes noted that the social network was used by some of the organizers of that violence.
'Ludicrous'
Earlier Sunday, Facebook dismissed as "ludicrous" suggestions it contributed to the January 6 riot.
Facebook's vice president of policy and global affairs Nick Clegg also vehemently pushed back at the assertion its platforms are "toxic" for teens, days after a tense congressional hearing in which US lawmakers grilled the company over its impact on the mental health of young users.
The New York Times reported Saturday that Clegg sought to pre-empt Haugen's interview by penning a 1,500-word memo to staff alerting them of the "misleading" accusations.
Clegg pressed the case in an appearance on CNN.
"I think the assertion (that) January 6th can be explained because of social media, I just think that's ludicrous," Clegg told the broadcaster, saying it was "false comfort" to believe technology was driving America's deepening political polarization.
The responsibility for the insurrection "lies squarely with the people who inflicted the violence and those who encouraged them -- including then-president Trump" and others who asserted the election was stolen, he added.
Polarization
While everyone "has a rogue uncle" or old classmate whose extreme views may be visible on Facebook, Clegg reportedly wrote in his memo, "changes to algorithmic ranking systems on one social media platform cannot explain wider societal polarization."
Facebook has encountered criticism that it fuels societal problems, attacks Clegg said should not rest at Facebook's feet. But he acknowledged that people with pre-existing issues may not benefit from social media use.
"I don't think it's intuitively surprising if you're not feeling great about yourself already, that then going on to social media can actually make you feel a bit worse," he told CNN.
He also disputed reporting in an explosive Wall Street Journal series that Facebook's own research warned of the harm that photo-sharing app Instagram can do to teen girls' well-being.
"It's simply not borne out by our research or anybody else's that Instagram is bad or toxic for all teens," Clegg said, but added Facebook's research will continue.
(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/facebook-whistleblower-reveals-identity-says-firm-chooses-profit-over-safety-2562823">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/facebook-whistleblower-reveals-identity-says-firm-chooses-profit-over-safety-2562823</a>

news world Facebook Whistleblower Reveals Identity, Says Firm Chooses "Profit Over Safety"

Facebook knew its products were fueling hate, the whistleblower said. (File) Washington: The whistleblower who shared a trove of Facebo...