News Round-Up

• “Covid’s resurgence sparks NHS hospitals to bring back face masks” – Mandatory face coverings for patients and visitors were dropped for all hospitals in England on June 10th, with trusts drafting their own policies. Four major hospital trusts have now urged people to mask-up, the Mail reports.
• “Fauci: U.S. ‘Absolutely’ Still in a COVID-19 Pandemic” – Watch Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Adviser to the U.S. President, tell Emma Barnett that “while the ratio of COVID-19 cases to hospitalisations and deaths is much lower compared to several months ago, the pandemic isn’t over and people must continue to seek vaccinations and boosters while wearing masks in indoor settings”.
• “More than one in three civil servants still working from home” – Government departments are still unable to get all staff back at their desks, two months after the ultimatum from Jacob Rees-Mogg, reports the Telegraph.
• “Yes, the number of Covid cases in the U.K. is rising – but that is no cause for alarm” – Matt Hancock writes in the Guardian that with vaccines preventing most serious illness and death, any talk of bringing back restrictions is pure scaremongering.
• “European Commission defiant over Von der Leyen’s Pfizer texts” – The Guardian reports that the European Commission has said it cannot and does not need to find text messages that its President, Ursula von der Leyen, exchanged with the boss of Pfizer at the height of the pandemic, fuelling its dispute with the EU’s internal watchdog.
• “Snake Oil: the most vaxxed country in Europe now has its worst Covid outcomes” – Virtually every single adult in Portugal has taken at least two doses of Covid vaccine, with the vast majority “boosted” as well; yet this month, the most vaxxed country in Europe has consistently reported its worst outcomes, writes Jordan Schachtel on his Substack page.
• “Britain is fed up, bitter, and practically broke – and it’s all going to get worse” – Like much of the West, the U.K. is facing a baby bust on top of all its other woes that is set to unleash a tsunami of economic pain, writes Allister Heath in the Telegraph.
• “Captain Tom Moore fund faces charity probe: Foundation in crisis as watchdog prepares to open inquiry over decisions that ‘may have generated significant profit’ for company run by his family” – The Captain Tom Foundation has been plunged into crisis after the charities watchdog launched a probe into the organisation amid concerns about the charity’s management, the Mail reports.
• “Piers Corbyn must pay more than £1,000 after breaking Covid rules” – The 75-year-old, who is the brother of former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, was found guilty of taking part in four different rule-breaking gatherings in 2020, reports the Mail.
• “Drug Cartel: Biden Admin agrees to pay Pfizer 56% more for their COVID shots” – The pharma giant is already shattering profit records, and is expected to generate well over $100 billion in 2022 revenue, says Jordan Schachtel.
• “Virus Deniers” – Dr. Roger Watson in Country Squire Magazine is bewildered by those who think viruses don’t cause illness and who attack those who disagree.
• “Sergeant gassed son, 3, to death then took own life during lockdown” – The Mail reports on an inquest that was told the bodies of David Louden, 39, and three-year-old Harrison were found at their £210,000 semi-detached home in Kidderminster on August 13th last year.
• “Scottish Parliament votes to make Covid ’emergency powers’ permanent” – Kit Knightly writes for OffGuardian that Members of the Scottish Parliament have voted to make some the emergency measures – initially instated to ‘combat the pandemic’ – permanent features of Scottish law.
• “Dr. Clare Craig on Hubris and Health” – Listen to the Diagnostic Pathologist and HART member chat to Jeff Peel of the New Era about what went wrong with the Government’s COVID-19 response – how policy decisions were excessively dependent on modelling, algorithms and arts-grad politicians.
• “BMJ Investigation – Are Drug Regulators for Hire? Leaked emails, and a Doctor explains his vaccine position in a letter to the Disciplinary Body” – The Naked Emperor reviews an investigation by the British Medical Journal that looks at conflicts of interest between big pharma and drug regulators.
• “Digital Covid survey will see U.K. head into winter ‘blind’ about virus” – As the ONS Infection Survey prepares to move online and by-post, experts are concerned that scaling back the system will result in fewer people submitting swabs, making conclusions more uncertain, reports the Telegraph.
• “SF Covid data shows no effect of mask mandate” – The San Francisco Bay Area Covid data from June show masks don’t work, says George Dance.
• “Ukraine War: 120 Days” – The Swiss Doctor with an updated analysis of the conflict.
• “The West’s self-defeating sanctions” – America and its allies are committing geopolitical suicide for no discernible gain, says Philip Pilkington in the Critic.
• “Biden: Drivers Must Pay More for Gas ‘As Long as It Takes’ to End Russia War” – President Joe Biden on Thursday said that American motorists should expect to pay elevated prices for gasoline until the Russia–Ukraine war is over, according to the Epoch Times.
• “Energy rationing is inevitable without a fundamental rethink of Net Zero” – A dangerous world view is gaining ground, one that dictates we must atone for the ‘sin’ of prosperity, says David Frost in the Telegraph.
• “Jordan Peterson is suspended from Twitter after Elliot Page comment” – The Mail reports that Jordan Peterson was suspended from Twitter after he sent out a tweet about transgender actress Elliot (was Ellen) Page.
• “The shameful truth about Pride” – The festival now feels like a party to which many gay people are not invited, says Gareth Roberts in the Spectator.
• “War of words: Scrabble players are being censored” – Scrabble has banned hundreds of “offensive” words, including Jew and Jesuit, as it prioritises feelings over facts, writes Jonathan Maitland in the Spectator.
• “From ‘chestfeeding’ to ‘human milk’: How NHS language is going woke” – The Mail reports that woke terms are increasingly being used in the NHS, with health experts worried the de-sexing of language is leading to a dangerous over-complication of health communication.
• “Everything’s political, until it isn’t” – As party politics, education, policing, public debate, mass media and social-media regulation all conform to what liberalist citizens unthinkingly accept, that stratum of society sees no politics in public life, writes Alexander Adams in Bournbrook.
• “Warner Bros defends J.K. Rowling after questions about author were ‘banned’ at Harry Potter event” – The studio said it is “proud” to be associated with the author, who has received criticism for her comments over trans rights, in a rare break from Hollywood woke orthodoxy, according to the Telegraph.
• “Why we’re all cancelling Netflix” – The creative elites are completely out of touch with ordinary people, writes Gareth Roberts in Spiked.
• “Harvard must fall” – Ayaan Hirsi Ali writes for UnHerd that she came away from a U.S. summer school feeling relieved some young people at least don’t want indoctrination.
• “Woke capitalism is busily destroying itself” – By abdicating power to Left-wing social media teams, firms are angering their actual customers, writes Matthew Lynn in the Telegraph.
• “Amazon blocks LGBTQ searches in UAE after political pressure” – The Telegraph reports that the online giant says it adheres to laws in the countries where it operates. So, only woke in the West.
• “‘Farts’ – How women who question transgender ideology are described in Scottish Government training” – Staff attending a workplace ‘trans 101’ course were told the term is an acronym for “feminism appropriating ridiculous transphobe”, according to the Telegraph.

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