QResear.ch

#21648303 at 2024-09-24 10:46:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #37: EVERYTHING IS AT STAKE Edition

>>21446927
>>21446941
>>21642659
'World-first' bill sparks new debate on abortion in South Australia

JOE KELLY - 24 September 2024

A national debate on abortion law reform has been ignited in South Australia where there is a fresh legislative push requiring mothers seeking terminations after 28 weeks to deliver their babies alive - allowing the child to be put up for adoption.

Touted by its supporters as a "world-first", a private member's bill will be introduced in the state parliament on Wednesday by Liberal frontbencher Ben Hood aimed at ensuring pregnancy terminations after 27 weeks and six days are achieved through the early induction of labour.

The push has divided the South Australian Liberals, with new Opposition Leader Vincent Tarzia making clear the bill did not reflect Liberal policy and the party agreeing on Monday night to grant a conscience vote to MPs.

Supporters of the legislative shake-up to late-term abortion also said about 1500 people were expected to attend a rally on the steps of state parliament on Wednesday afternoon to coincide with the introduction of the bill.

The husband of a midwife, Mr Hood said his legislation would amend an existing 2021 state law that had allowed for terminations in limited circumstances after 22 weeks and 6 days, subject to the approval of two doctors.

Mr Hood told The Australian his bill would address an "unintended consequence" of the 2021 law given that - between July 2022 and December 2023 - the reason given for 45 out of 57 terminations beyond the 22 week and 6 day threshold was for the "physical or mental health of the pregnant person".

This represents nearly 80 per cent of late-term abortions conducted over the 18-month period. No terminations were performed beyond the 22 week and six day threshold in order to save the life of the mother, while 12 late-term abortions were performed because of foetal ANOMalies.

"This bill aims to carefully balance the rights of both pregnant women and the child, particularly after 28 weeks of gestation," Mr Hood told The Australian. "This bill provides a responsible and considered compromise - protecting the child's right to life while respecting the mother's choice to end her pregnancy."

South Australian Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas said earlier this week that it was only "six weeks into Vincent Tarzia's leadership and the only policy we're seeing is a policy to revisit their internal problems over an abortion debate."

Law professor at the University of Adelaide Joanna Howe helped draft Mr Hood's live births bill and told The Australian it would strike an "effective balance between the competing interests of a mother and her viable child through ensuring that foeticide is banned and the child is delivered alive."

Foeticide is a procedure performed by ultrasound specialists who administer an intracardiac injection, which causes the heart of the unborn child to stop beating. The child is then delivered stillborn.

Professor Howe said after 28 weeks, babies could be delivered alive instead of stillborn.

"For SA babies in the third trimester who are at a gestation where they can feel pain and would have a 96 per cent chance of survival if born alive, the injection of potassium chloride is brutal, barbaric and wholly unnecessary," she said.

Professor Howe said the bill was drafted by a team of eight women who were "legal and medical experts, including with specialities in neonatology and obstetrics".

Abortion advocate and retired obstetrician Brian Peat said babies born alive at 28 weeks would need to be given care and would represent a "great impost on the system".

"A baby born at 28 weeks doesn't go home until it's about the due date or sometimes even longer," he said.

Dr Peat attacked the bill, saying its true purpose was to encourage mothers to carry a child to term. "Of course, that's what would happen in practice," he said. "They'd be forced to go to full term because no one would want to be involved in a process which would put a baby in intensive care ... It's saying one thing, but its trying to get people to do a different thing."

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/sa-liberal-mp-ben-hood-in-push-for-worldfirst-abortion-reform/news-story/8946f973f0c587a861e8dc7aa1be2e59

#21642659 at 2024-09-23 09:54:18 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #37: EVERYTHING IS AT STAKE Edition

>>21446927
>>21446941
Women to be induced from 28 weeks instead of getting abortions under proposed SA law changes

Josephine Lim and Evelyn Leckie - 23 September 2024

People who want to terminate their pregnancy after 28 weeks could be required to instead deliver their baby alive under proposed changes to laws in South Australia that decriminalised abortion three years ago.

Liberal MP Ben Hood will introduce a bill in the SA upper house on Wednesday so that people pregnant for more than 27 weeks and six days would be induced instead of getting an abortion.

Under SA legislation passed in 2021, a pregnant person can get a late-term abortion after 22 weeks and six days if medically appropriate and with the approval of two doctors.

"What my amendments hope to do, is balance the choice of the mother with the rights of the child," Mr Hood said.

"This importantly balances and does not impinge upon the rights of a mother to choose a termination.

"When that child is born alive it will receive neonatal care - and then, if it is the choice of the mother - that baby will be put up for adoption."

Mr Hood said the "unintended consequences" of the current legislation were 45 babies being aborted after 22 weeks and six days over an 18-month period.

The South Australian Abortion Reporting Committee reported eight late-term terminations in 2022 and 37 in 2023 because of a risk to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person.

The reports do not make clear how many of those were beyond 28 weeks.

SA Abortion Action Coalition's Brigid Coombe said she was disappointed with Mr Hood's proposed amendments.

"Those changes remove the basis of informed consent and they don't recognise at all the complexity of the circumstances that people are in when they need an abortion at those gestations," she said.

"It is not an uncommon feature - people who are opposed to abortion or want to paint women in a light that is practically misogynistic, that these bills would be brought forward."

Ms Coombe said the coalition has always placed importance on the person who is pregnant.

"You can't say that you're going to force somebody to do something against their will [and] at the same time say, 'That you're going to find that balance between choice,'" she said.

"It disregards all the very serious decision-making that goes into these circumstances, and really makes light of it."

What about women's rights?

In 2021, the historic bill that moved abortion from the Criminal Law Consolidation Act into healthcare legislation passed parliament after members of parliament were granted a conscience vote.

The changes brought South Australia into line with most jurisdictions in the country, with then attorney-general Vickie Chapman stating the move was about "giving women choice".

Currently, late-term abortions will only be approved if there is a threat to the life of the pregnant person or another fetus, or if there is a significant risk of serious fetal ANOMalies associated with the pregnancy.

Terminations will also be approved if the continuation of the pregnancy would involve a significant risk of injury to the physical or mental health of the pregnant person.

University of Adelaide Professor of Law Joanna Howe said the proposed changes do not infringe on women's rights.

"[The bill] allows termination of pregnancy throughout all nine months, all it does is after 28 weeks, the baby is delivered alive rather than stillborn," she said.

"At that point, they are treated like any other South Australian baby who's born prematurely ... if the baby is not going to survive because they've got a condition like anencephaly, the palliative care would be given to that child and they would be made comfortable until they passed.

"But if that baby is healthy ... they'd be rushed to the NICU, they'd be given life-sustaining treatment and they would survive.

"Unless the pro-choice mantra is 'my baby, my choice', I don't think you can mount a pro-choice argument against this bill."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-23/liberal-mp-pushes-changes-to-sa-abortion-laws/104384176

#21131221 at 2024-07-03 11:02:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

>>21131214

3/3

Milone is convinced that Becciu was, from the very beginning, Pell's nemesis in the clean-up of Holy See accounting systems. He had "revolving door access to the Pope", he said, but very quickly came to realise that the auditing team were "starting to see things he didn't want seen".

"In 2016, we were surprised when told that it would be difficult to get documentation on Vatican real estate investments in London - we didn't realise it then that we had raised the quails from the high grass,'' Milone said.

"It suffices to say that in the two years we were allowed to ?operate, we came across mis?appropriations of funds by cardinals, archbishops, and other prelates, some of which diverted to personal bank accounts, mismanagement of real estate and refurbishing costs, and a generalised disrespect of legal provisions.

"I have always asserted that we were eliminated for what we uncovered as a result of having done our job professionally, ethically, and correctly within the terms of the Office of the Auditor General statutes. My job was to direct and co-ordinate activities with the ?Secretariat for the Economy, headed by Cardinal George Pell and systematically report to the Holy Father."

Milone said he found it unbelievable that the very court and the same judges who sentenced Becciu for presiding over the swindling of millions from the Vatican, now "strangely fail to recognise" that those who first detected the crimes could see their careers terminated without compensation.

"It is also absurd that the court could absolve the Secretariat of State of our removal when it was Cardinal Becciu who issued a ?public statement confirming his role in our removal - and that we would have faced prosecution if we had not signed resignation letters," he said.

Milone remains adamant that, before their sacking and Pell's return to Australia, Becciu was also behind several significant decisions aimed at derailing their work. These included cancellation of a planned audit by an external PriceWaterhouseCoopers team and months of stonewalling of all requests for documentation on Vatican investments including the ill-fated ?350m acquisition of the London commercial property that sparked the corruption trial.

The auditors also reported the bugging of their Vatican offices, and the hacking of the team's computers.

Milone said both he and Pell believed Becciu used the audit ?office's decision to use an external consultant to investigate the break-in and twisted it into an ?accusation of spying: "Of course Domenico Giani, the ex-Italian police officer who headed Vatican security and the gendarmes, would have supported this as we now know he had to cover up the improperly funded refurbishing costs on his apartment."

Milone said he reported the ANOMalies both to the Secretary of State and the Pope himself but all requests for explanatory documentation were denied.

"I can only imagine that Commander Giani, who was quite vociferous in my dismissal and arrogant and violent during my interrogation on June 19, 2017, had a massive grudge against me and quite an axe to grind," Milone said.

He said that, to this day, the document the gendarmes called "number 61", and which supposedly contained all the evidence against him and Panicco, had yet to surface.

"How is it possible for us to build an effective defence without knowing what we are accused of?" he said.

"For reasons unknown, the document was classified and covered by pontifical secret. The process is absurd, it is a mockery of justice.

"We continue to invite them to be honest and factual, striving to better understand the real substance of the case, as succinctly stated above. We merely did our work in accordance with the rules we had to follow. The documents we presented in January 2023 demonstrate that all we did was carry out audits. Why don't they want to acknowledge these evident facts?"

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/george-pells-death-shrouded-in-mystery-former-vatican-auditor-libero-milone-vows-to-get-to-the-truth/news-story/598945feeac5b097736217bd2398cf87

#20921983 at 2024-05-27 10:22:16 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #36: BADGE OF HONOR Edition

Operation Ironside: Aussies at heart of global criminal plot smashed by cops

Two Australians have entered guilty pleas amid new revelations police are still rounding up those connected to a trojan horse app "designed by criminals for criminals".

Tom Minear - May 27, 2024

Two Australians at the heart of a global plot to help crime gangs communicate on encrypted devices have pleaded guilty, three years after the scheme was smashed in the police sting of the century.

Sydney pair Edwin Kumar and Osemah Elhassen - who distributed the AN0M devices without realising they were being secretly monitored by law enforcement - are the first of 17 foreign nationals charged by the FBI to admit to their role in the conspiracy.

It marks a major breakthrough in the world-first investigation, spearheaded by the Australian Federal Police, in which 27 million intercepted messages helped police allegedly foil murder plots and block a multibillion-dollar drug trade involving the Mafia, bikies and South American cartels.

Kumar's plea agreement revealed how he told his co-conspirators: "I'm AN0M Australia and look after Australia ... I have an entire country to look after."

"Welcome to Team Australia, this team is solid and we will conquer Australia ... Nothing will stop us," he said in another message less than a month before the plot came crashing down.

It can also be revealed US authorities have arrested two other alleged device distributors - Dragan Nikitovic and Miwand Zakhimi - in the past six months as they continue to round up those allegedly behind the app that its creators bragged was "designed by criminals for criminals".

Kumar was arrested in Australia in 2021 and extradited to the US in April last year, shortly before Elhassen was extradited from Colombia. Their guilty pleas to racketeering conspiracy charges were accepted last week by the US District Court for California's Southern District.

Both Kumar and Elhassen distributed AN0M devices "to criminal end-users" between October 2019 and June 2021, according to their plea agreements, while knowing they would be used to facilitate the trafficking of drugs including cocaine and methamphetamine.

At the outset of the plot, Kumar sent a message to Hakan Ayik - one of Australia's most wanted men until his arrest last year and an alleged AN0M administrator - saying he was "touching base" about obtaining an encrypted device for Elhassen.

Elhassen later focused on distributing and setting up devices in Colombia, the world's cocaine capital, writing in one message: "I am ANOM colombia."

Kumar dealt with hundreds of devices in Australia and spoke to Zakhimi, a citizen of the Netherlands, about creating "the ultimate (AN0M) user guide".

Elhassen and Kumar sent multiple messages that were intercepted by authorities about drug trafficking, with Kumar selling and setting up devices for a gang that shipped 156 kilograms of pseudoephedrine - a methamphetamine precursor - from India to Australia in 2020.

Both men also admitted they had remotely deleted content from AN0M devices that were seized by police, obstructing law enforcement operations, and that they had laundered drug trafficking profits including through cryptocurrency.

They are expected to be sentenced in July, and while both face a maximum of 20 years in prison, prosecutors indicated in court filings that they would seek for them to be sentenced at the "low end of the advisory guideline range recommended by the government".

More than 12,000 AN0M devices were used by at least 300 criminal syndicates operating in some 100 countries before a stunning two-day operation three years ago in which more than 500 people were arrested worldwide, including at least 100 in Australia.

Device distributors like Elhassen and Kumar charged fees of about $1700 every six months and provided technical support to organised crime gangs seeking to hide their dealings from law enforcement agencies that had secretly commandeered the AN0M app.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/aussies-at-heart-of-global-criminal-plot-smashed-by-cops/news-story/6c1118c7862722f234253875400bd710

#20261661 at 2024-01-18 08:57:47 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

>>20141992
Wieambilla shooting: Donald Day allegedly had buckets of ammunition and threatened FBI agents, US court told

Arizona conspiracy theorist faces fresh weapons charges and is accused of threatening five special agents during his arrest in late 2023

Christopher Knaus - 18 Jan 2024

A US conspiracy theorist linked to the Wieambilla shooters allegedly held a significant stockpile of weaponry, including five-gallon buckets of ammunition, and made threats to kill five FBI agents, telling them he would "come for every fucking one of you", court documents reveal.

The FBI arrested Arizona conspiracy theorist Donald Day Jr in December in connection with the religiously motivated terrorist attack at a remote Queensland property in Wieambilla which left two Queensland police officers and a neighbour dead.

Day had regularly interacted with Queenslanders Gareth and Stacey Train, who, along with Gareth's brother, Nathaniel, perpetrated the police shooting in 2022.

During the standoff, Gareth and Stacey posted a 41-second YouTube video titled "Don't Be Afraid", in which they spoke of the killings and expressed their love for "Don", saying they would "see you at home".

Day allegedly commented on the video saying "those bastards will regret that they ever fucked with us".

"Truly from my core, I so wish that I could be with you to do what I do best," he wrote.

In a subsequent video posted under his username, "Geronimo's Bones", Day allegedly said: "The devils come for us, they fucking die. It's just that simple. We are free people, we are owned by no one."

The FBI alleges Day's comments constituted "a threat to injure the person of another, that is any law enforcement individual who comes to Day's residence". They also allege he uttered threats against Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization.

A fresh indictment filed this week in the Arizona district court has added additional charges against Day, court documents show.

He is alleged to have possessed weaponry despite being a convicted felon - comprising four handguns, four rifles including an "AK style rifle", a shotgun and significant amounts of ammunition. The latter allegedly included three five-gallon plastic buckets of ammunition.

He is also accused of threatening five FBI special agents during his arrest.

Day allegedly said: "I'll tell you this, if anything happens to my wife, and I ever get out of these cuffs, I'll come for every fucking one of you."

"How's that? You better kill me, if you fuck my wife up, you hurt her in any way, you better kill me here and now and just dump my body somewhere ... I'm not playing with you guys, I'm not making idle threats here."

Last month, Day's lawyers filed a motion to have the case thrown out, seeking to protect his comments under the first amendment.

His lawyers said the indictment failed to allege a "true threat" to commit violence and Day was "therefore protected by the first amendment to the United States constitution", which covers the right to free speech.

"Even accepting as true the indictment's assertion that 'devils' is code for 'police officers' specifically, as opposed to 'unlawful government actors' in general, Mr Day's assertion that if 'devils come [to kill] us,' he would respond in kind cannot fairly be read as 'a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence'."

His lawyers argued the statements Day allegedly made were not threats against a "person" as required under the statute. Their motion argued the group of persons allegedly threatened by the statement was too vague and ill-defined to constitute a "person".

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/18/wieambilla-shooting-donald-day-allegedly-ammunition-buckets-ammo-fbi-us-court-gareth-stacey-train

#20141992 at 2023-12-28 10:22:33 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #34: UNITED AGAINST THE INVISIBLE ENEMY OF ALL HUMANITY Edition

>>20033239 (pb)
>>20038459 (pb)
Wieambilla shooting: lawyers for Donald Day mount freedom-of-speech defence over alleged threats to police

Christopher Knaus - 28 Dec 2023

A US conspiracy theorist linked to the Wieambilla shooters has argued he was not seriously expressing an intent for violence when he said "the devils come for us, they fucking die", and as such should be protected by the US constitution's first amendment.

Donald Day Jr, a conspiracy theorist in Arizona, was recently arrested by FBI agents in connection with last year's religiously motivated terrorist attack on a remote Queensland property in Wieambilla.

Day was in contact with Gareth and Stacey Train in the lead-up to the shootings, which killed two police officers and a neighbour, before the pair were shot dead, alongside Gareth's brother Nathaniel, by police.

Court documents show Day is alleged to have posted a video on YouTube four days after the killings, saying:

"The devils come for us, they fucking die. It's just that simple. We are free people, we are owned by no one."

The comments were allegedly in response to a video posted by Gareth and Stacey during the standoff with police, in which they addressed Day directly, saying: "They came to kill us, and we killed them. If you don't defend yourself against these devils and demons, you're a coward."

Two indictments were issued against Day by a grand jury in Tucson, Arizona recently for interstate threats. Investigators allege Day's video constituted "a threat to injure the person of another, that is any law enforcement individual who comes to Day's residence".

He is also separately accused of making threats toward Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus, the director-general of the World Health Organization.

In a motion filed on Boxing Day, seen by Guardian Australia, Day's lawyers sought to have the charges against him dismissed.

They argued that the statements Day allegedly made were not threats against a "person" as required under the statute. Their motion argues the group of persons allegedly threatened by the statement is too vague and ill-defined to constitute a "person".

"It presumably includes not merely some unspecified number of federal, state, local, and even international law enforcement officials but would also include people who aren't even police officers now but who may at some point in the future decide to become police officers such that they might someday have reason to go to Mr. Day's house," Day's lawyers argued.

They also argued the indictment fails to allege a "true threat" to commit violence and Day is "therefore protected by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution", which covers the right to free speech.

"Even accepting as true the indictment's assertion that 'devils' is code for 'police officers' specifically, as opposed to 'unlawful government actors' in general, Mr. Day's assertion that if 'devils come [to kill] us,' he would respond in kind cannot fairly be read as 'a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence'."

The motion is yet to be considered by the Arizona district court, where the case is being heard.

Queensland police told the media earlier this month that Gareth Train began following Day on YouTube around May 2020.

The Queensland police assistant commissioner, Cheryl Scanlon, said they began commenting on each other's videos in 2021.

"We know that the offenders [Gareth and Stacey Train] executed a religiously motivated terrorist attack in Queensland," she said. "They were motivated by Christian extremist ideology and subscribe to the Christian fundamentalist belief system known as premillennialism.

"The motivation of the United States national is still under investigation by the FBI."

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/28/wieambilla-shooting-terrorist-attack-donald-day-lawyers-freedom-of-speech-defence

#19440314 at 2023-08-27 10:17:45 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition

>>19440283
Three US Marines killed in aircraft crash in Australia during training exercise

Heather Chen, Brad Lendon, Angus Watson, Jake Kwon and Irene Nasser - August 27, 2023

(CNN) - Three US Marines have been killed and several others seriously wounded after an Osprey aircraft crashed during military exercises in Australia.

Of the 23 Marines on board the MV-22B Osprey aircraft, three died while five others have been transferred to Royal Darwin Hospital in a serious condition, the Marine Rotational Force - Darwin said in a statement on Sunday.

The incident on Melville Island in Australia took place at 9:30 a.m. local time.

"The Marines aboard the aircraft were flying in support of Exercise Predators Run. Recovery efforts are ongoing," the statement read, adding "the cause of the incident is under investigation."

Earlier, Northern Territory Chief Minister Natasha Fyles said some of the other Marines were being treated at the scene.

"We are working incredibly hard and as fast as we can to make sure we can get people to treatment," Fyles said.

Two US Marine Osprey aircraft left Darwin and flew towards Tiwi Islands, about 80 kilometers away, on Sunday morning, Australia's Northern Territory Police Commissioner Michael Murphy said. One of the aircraft crashed on Melville Island, he added.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Richard Marles expressed their condolences in a joint statement.

"Australian and US personnel have stood shoulder to shoulder for more than a century. Our Alliance is built upon these enduring links and our shared values," Albanese and Marles said.

It is the latest deadly crash to involve an Osprey aircraft, with numerous accidents involving Osprey military aircraft reported over the years.

In 2022 five US Marines died after their MV-22B Osprey plane crashed during a training mission near Glamis, California. The same year four US service members were killed when their Osprey crashed during NATO training exercises in Norway.

The incident comes just a month after four Australian army aircrew members died after a MRH-90 Taipan helicopter crashed into the sea near Hamilton Island off the east coast of Australia during an exercise that was part of joint drills with the United States.

A history of crashes

Previous crashes of Osprey aircraft, according to CNN reporting and US Defense Department press releases:

July 20, 1992: Seven people are killed during testing when an Osprey crashes in Virginia.

April 8, 2000: A crash during training in Arizona kills 19 Marines. The crash is blamed on pilot error, with investigators concluding the pilot tried to land too fast and at too steep an angle, causing a loss of lift.

December 11, 2000: Four Marines are killed when an Osprey crashes in North Carolina. The accident is later blamed on problems with a hydraulic part and a software ANOMaly in the aircraft's computer system.

April 8, 2010: US Air Force Osprey crashes in southern Afghanistan, killing three US service members and one civilian employee.

April 11, 2012: Two US personnel are killed in an Osprey crash in Morocco.

June 13, 2012: An Air Force CV-22 Osprey crashes during a routine training mission north of Navarre, Florida, injuring five.

May 17, 2015: A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey crashes at Bellows training ground on Oahu, Hawaii, leaving two Marines dead

December 13, 2016: An MV-22B Osprey lands in shallow waters off Okinawa, Japan, injuring two.

August 5, 2017: An MV-22B Osprey crashes off the coast of Australia, leaving three Marines dead

September 28, 2017: A Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey crashes in Syria, injuring two service members.

March 18, 2022: Four US service members are killed when the MV-22 Osprey they are traveling in crashes during NATO training exercises in Norway.

June 8, 2022: Five US Marines die after an MV-22 Osprey crashes during a training mission Wednesday near Glamis, California

https://edition.cnn.com/2023/08/27/asia/aircraft-incident-us-defense-personnel-australia-intl-hnk/index.html

https://twitter.com/MRFDarwin/status/1695703721081204844

#19404463 at 2023-08-22 09:54:47 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition

>>19404456

2/2

"If the authorities were to access ANOM's server of 193.27.15.41 in ROMANIA which is a third world country that may state they take privacy seriously ... they could easily infiltrate their Offshore Romanian Server and install special hardware devices on those servers without ANOM's knowledge,'' the prescient blog warned.

"Authorities could completely infiltrate every users devices as well as their operations and worse of all authorities would have the ability to decrypt and intercept their messages.''

Weeks later, after the AN0M take-down was finalised, it was revealed the app had been sold to the FBI by a tech-savvy criminal seeking a lighter sentence over other criminal matters involving an earlier encrypted app known as Phantom Secure.

A member of the Australian Federal Police developed the key that allowed the messages to be decrypted in real time, and the FBI's confidential source helped get AN0M devices - stripped back mobile phones - out into the criminal underworld.

The documents revealed the messages were routed through iBot servers, and blind carbon copies were secretly being taken of every message that was sent.

In documents filed in the District Court in the Southern District of California, lawyers acting for Mr Kumar, Mr Dmitrienko and Mr Hosseini noted that European country had sent the messages, unread, in batches to the FBI every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Their lawyers argued the prosecution needed to provide details of the third-party country's involvement in the sting, as they intended to explore the legality of the operation, send investigators to that country to interview witnesses, and potentially seek to have the messages suppressed.

"That third-party country agreed, and the FBI helped arrange for a computer server to be placed in that country to intercept the message data,'' the documents noted.

"Thereafter, without ever reviewing the contents of the messages, the third-party country provided the data to United States law enforcement multiple times per week.

"By the government's own admission, most of the allegedly inculpatory evidence in this case came from and is contained within those intercepted messages.''

People in Australia, New Zealand, Turkey, The Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Britain have been charged as a result of evidence obtained through AN0M messages but no Americans have been charged.

The court documents go some way to explain why, suggesting the government believed such interceptions there could be in breach of American laws.

"Given domestic constitutional and statutory constraints on electronic interceptions, the "FBI geo-fenced the U.S., meaning that any outgoing messages from a device with[in] [the] US ... would not have any communications on the FBI iBot server" and would not be reviewed by U.S. law enforcement,'' the documents state, citing responses from investigators.

The document states the third country sent data to the FBI right up until its local court order expired on June 7, 2021.

"This data comprises the encrypted messages of all of the users of AN0M with a few exceptions (eg the messages of approximately 15 AN0M users in the U.S. sent to any other AN0M device are not reviewed by FBI),'' it notes.

"[The FBI] have translated the messages (where necessary and where translations are available) and have catalogued more than 20 million messages from a total of 11,800 devices ... located in over 90 countries.''

Mr Kumar and his co-accused have advised the court they intend to retain investigators in the European country to search for documents and witnesses to provide "first-hand information'' about AN0M's administration.

"The defence would be beyond remiss to rely on the government's "official" story, without conducting an independent investigation,'' the lawyers said in their affidavit.

"After all, "the ten most terrifying words in the English language may be, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help you,' they said, quoting a precedent court case, Garcia-Aguilar v. United States District Court, 2008.

The challenge to AN0M's operations in the US comes at the same time a group of 66 Australians accused of mainly drug offences as a result of the AN0M sting have teamed up to challenge the validity of the technology used. The case, known informally as AN0M 66, is listed for a committal hearing before a magistrate in Sydney in September.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/an0m-accused-edwin-kumar-asks-fbi-to-give-him-names-and-messages-from-encrypted-app/news-story/ef5272c1953ab03cd0bb49737d253f0b

https://qresear.ch/?q=AN0M

https://qresear.ch/?q=ANOM

#19404456 at 2023-08-22 09:52:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition

>>19320818
AN0M accused Edwin Kumar asks FBI to give him names and messages from encrypted app

ELLEN WHINNETT and LIAM MENDES - AUGUST 21, 2023

1/2

An Australian man accused of providing encrypted AN0M devices to people who used them to organise drug trafficking is asking prosecutors to give him details of every message sent on every phone he is accused of providing.

The case against Edwin Harmendra Kumar, being heard in the US, has revealed fascinating details of the inner workings of Operation Ironside, the police sting of the century, built around the encrypted app AN0M.

Mr Kumar, who was extradited from Sydney to the US earlier this year to face racketeering (RICO) charges, is seeking details of all users and all messages sent via the devices prosecutors say he provided or serviced.

He is also seeking any reports of drug transactions allegedly involving him directly, or any end-user who allegedly used a device he had distributed or serviced.

"In the government's view, Mr Kumar's role in the RICO conspiracy was to distribute the AN0M devices to end-users, manage and receive subscription fees, and provide technical support,'' an application by his lawyers state.

"The government further alleges that, in doing so, Mr Kumar knew or had reason to know [the end-users he worked with] participated in illegal activities, including international drug trafficking and money laundering."

The application notes US authorities had claimed that Mr Kumar had, in August and September 2020, set up several devices for end-users of AN0M who later co-ordinated "a shipment of 156 kilograms of methamphetamine precursors from India to Sydney, Australia".

"On February 25, 2021, a conversation between end-users to whom Kumar had supplied devices included co-ordination of a shipment of 6kg,'' the lawyer said the prosecution had claimed.

"On March 1, 2021, Kumar engaged in a conversation with a co-defendant to co-ordinate the purchase of 'rack of[f] the DW,' or cocaine off the dark web, and its later sale in Sydney, Australia," the FBI further alleges.

In a related case, Mr Kumar and two co-accused are demanding the US Department of Justice name the European country which secretly helped the FBI and the Australian Federal Police intercept more than 28 million messages sent on the AN0M app.

The app was marketed to the underworld as a secure way of communicating but was in fact a Trojan horse being run by the FBI and Australian Federal Police, who secretly obtained copies of every message that was sent.

Mr Kumar and his two co-accused, part of the group of 17 men indicted in the US on racketeering charges related to the distribution of the app, have advised they intend to fight the charges on the basis that US law does not allow them to be convicted of conspiring with a government agent or informer.

They are also seeking the name of the anonymous third country which helped the US and Australia pull off one of the world's greatest stings and resulted in around 1000 people globally being charged with serious crimes including drug trafficking, money-laundering and conspiracy to murder.

"The (US) government admits it created the AN0M service at the heart of this case with a single goal: convincing criminals to use its encrypted phones, which the FBI could secretly monitor through a backdoor written into the software,'' the application by Mr Kumar, Seyyed Hossein Hosseini and Alexander Dmitrienko, states.

"But because of the stringent constitutional and statutory requirements that such a program would trigger domestically within the United States, the government needed an international workaround. Using a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), the government asked an unidentified, third-party country in Europe to intercept the messages and then provide the data directly to the FBI.''

The name of the third country which hosted an iBot server that harvested the messages, forwarding them to US, has never been revealed, although prosecutors have confirmed it was a member of the European Union.

Weeks before the AN0M sting was revealed in June 2021, when police across Europe and Australia conducted multiple raids and charged hundreds of people, an anonymous cyber security expert wrote a blog post where he claimed AN0M was interacting with a server in the Romanian capital of Bucharest.

Romania is a member of the EU. The blogger also wrote that AN0M was interacting with servers which were located in countries which were part of the Five-Eyes intelligence agreement - the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

"With ANOM I was able to locate all of their PROXY servers including their MAIN servers with minimal ease, all operating within the 5 eyes alliance,'' the cyber expert claimed.

(continued)

#19320821 at 2023-08-08 11:10:30 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #31: MAGIC SWORD - IN THE FACE OF EVIL Edition

>>19320818

2/2

The State Department said Rivkin was charged in the US with "international racketeering conspiracy involving drug trafficking and money laundering''.

"This joint reward offer re?inforces US efforts to disrupt and deter transnational criminal activity globally and to build a global coalition to address synthetic drug threats,'' it said.

"Transnational organised crime and illicit drug trafficking threaten economic prosperity and challenge the stability of governments and societies around the world. The US stands with our allies against transnational organised crime and its associated violence across the globe.''

Announcing the reward in June, on the second-year anniversary of the AN0M sting being make public, the State Department said Rivkin, who used the aliases Maximillan Rivkin, Milos Jankovic and the nicknames Maximilan, Malmo, Teamsters, Microsoft and Max, was one of several people whose "criminal conversations'' had been uncovered since AN0M was infiltrated in 2018.

"From December 2020 through the spring of 2021, the FBI shared copies of Rivkin's criminal conversations with the Swedish Police Authority, which implicated Rivkin in participating in a murder conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracy, money laundering conspiracy, and kidnapping conspiracy,'' it said.

As international law enforcement continues to close in on those exposed by the AN0M sting, one of Rivkin's associates, Seyyed Hossein Hosseini, is believed to have been extradited to the US.

A resident and citizen of The Netherlands, he is accused of being a distributor of the AN0M app and devices.

Under Operation Ironside, the AFP read and copied more than 28 million messages from the AN0M platform between 2018 and 2021, after the FBI bought the app from a tech-savvy drug dealer.

The world-first operation, dubbed the sting of the century, is being challenged in the courts, with a new motion filed in the US on behalf of three of the AN0M 17, including Australian man Edwin Harmendra Kumar, who was extradited early this year.

A team of lawyers has asked a judge in the Southern District of California to reveal the unnamed European country the AN0M messages were routed through.

In Sydney, a group of 66 people accused of mainly drug offences as a result of the AN0M sting have teemed up to challenge the validity of the technology used.

The case, known informally as AN0M 66, is listed for a committal hearing before a magistrate in Sydney in September.

A similar challenge in South Australia's Supreme Court ended in April with a judge ruling the technology underpinning Operation Ironside was used legally.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/the-us-and-sweden-have-put-a-bounty-on-the-head-of-alleged-an0m-gangster-maximilian-rivkin/news-story/1a92d24061aa3cf4d1e55bf458bd1de9

https://www.state.gov/maximilian-rivkin/

https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Reward-Poster-for-Maxmilian-Rivki-June-2023-Accessible-060623.pdf

https://qresear.ch/?q=AN0M

https://qresear.ch/?q=ANOM

#18386885 at 2023-02-21 08:39:29 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition

Drug Enforcement Administration agents sent back to America after complaint

Two agents from the American Drug Enforcement Administration have been told to return home after the AFP complained to US ambassador Caroline Kennedy about their methods of investigating a huge drug importation.

Mark Morri - February 21, 2023

EXCLUSIVE: Two Sydney-based agents from the American Drug Enforcement Administration are being sent home after the Australian Federal Police complained to US ambassador Caroline Kennedy about methods of investigating a massive drug importation.

The DEA agents have not been accused of wrongdoing but the AFP fears their investigation techniques may have impacted on operations, particularly involving a major cocaine shipment destined for Western Australia and NSW.

The complaint comes amid a wider dispute over policing methods in which some state police forces believe the AFP are more interested in seizing and destroying drugs than investigating the syndicates behind them.

Some NSW police have gone as far as to say this could have led to criminal groups wrongly thinking a missing consignment of drugs had been stolen which sparked the Alameddine-Hamzy war leading to multiple gangland hits and kidnappings.

"There are some who believe the feds seized the drugs and one group thought someone had stolen it and that set things off," one NSW officer said.

Federal Police Commissioner Reece Kershaw made a complaint to the US Embassy saying his officers were having difficulties in working with the two DEA officers.

"The AFP does not comment on current operational matters. It is imperative international agencies that operate in Australia adhere to Australian laws and respect Australia's sovereignty,'' the AFP said in a statement.

A number of police officers in NSW and interstate believe the controversy was sparked by the DEA's general approach of dealing directly with the state crime bodies and bypassing the federal police.

"The DEA has done nothing wrong and all this does is make catching international drug dealers harder," one interstate officer said.

"More often than not state police have more patience and are in a better position to conduct long investigations which get more of the players after the drugs have arrived.

"Truth be known, the DEA and the state cops have a similar view of thinking the long game where they substitute the drugs and try to follow it.

"Federal police are very quick to just seize the drugs. Problem with that is the syndicate just get another consignment in the works ... losing a shipment means nothing to them because they are making that much money," he said.

There are suggestions the AFP has been angered by several instances where the DEA passed on information to the state police and not federal police.

Investigators from the DEA's internal affairs unit have been in Australia recently looking into the complaint by the AFP. The US Embassy said it would not comment but it is believed the officers have been instructed to go home.

NSW Police said it was not involved and would not comment.

The complaint against the highly respected DEA has shocked many police around the country.

The AFP were instrumental in working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in Operation Ironside which has been referred to as the "crime sting of the century".

Criminals around the world were duped into using an encrypted device called ANOM which they believed allowed them to carry out their illegal activities without being detected by law enforcement when in fact the FBI, the AFP and other agencies around the world were collecting the messages in real time.

Some of the world's leading drug cartels, including Australian syndicates, have been dismantled with intelligence gathered by AFP from Operation Ironside.

Information gleaned from the ANOM devices prevented a number of murders and kidnappings throughout Australia, according to police.

https://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-nsw/drug-enforcement-agency-agents-sent-back-to-america-after-complaint/news-story/cc230a845da76095210d1d087e5d372c

https://www.skynews.com.au/world-news/united-states/dea-agents-sent-packing-after-afp-complaint-about-drug-bust-methods/video/6d06547d78dbc5f8a8caeea23614ad3e

#18064709 at 2023-01-03 08:52:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition

>>18052595
China hits back at traveller restrictions imposed in more than a dozen countries amid COVID-19 surge

Zena Chamas - 3 January 2023

1/2

China has hit back at entry restrictions enforced by Australia and other countries on Chinese travellers, saying any COVID-19 control measures need to be "proportionate" and "science-based".

It comes after the federal government announced travellers from China to Australia will be required to take a pre-departure COVID-19 test and show evidence of a negative result.

It followed similar decisions by a number of countries, including the US and UK, and more countries have followed suit.

During a press conference, China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin was asked about China's stance on the restrictions.

"China always believes that for all countries, COVID response measures need to be science-based and proportionate without affecting normal travel and people-to-people exchange and cooperation," Mr Wang said.

World Health Organization (WHO) chief Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus recently said restrictions some countries had introduced in response to China's COVID outbreak were understandable given the lack of information from Beijing.

Mr Wang responded that "authoritative medical experts" from different countries had said entry restrictions on travellers arriving from China were "unnecessary".

"China will, in light of the Chinese people's inclination for outbound travel, resume outbound tourism to countries where conditions allow," he added.

Countries imposing curbs on Chinese travellers

Authorities around the world are imposing or considering curbs on travellers from China as COVID-19 cases surge following its relaxation of "zero-COVID" rules. China has rejected criticism of its COVID data.

More than a dozen countries have already slapped travellers from China with fresh travel regulations.

Here is a rundown of the countries that have imposed mandatory COVID tests and other rules on arrivals from China:

The United States will impose mandatory COVID-19 tests on travellers from China beginning on January 5.

All air passengers aged two and older will require a negative result from a test no more than two days before departure from China, Hong Kong or Macau.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said US citizens should reconsider travel to China, Hong Kong and Macau.

(continued)

#18046127 at 2022-12-31 08:59:40 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition

#26 - Part 32
Child Sexual Abuse, Pedophilia, Human Trafficking and Satanism Investigations - Part 6
>>17946343 Microsoft and Apple among the global companies accused of 'turning a blind eye' to child sexual exploitation - Some of the world's biggest technology companies aren't doing enough to prevent the spread of child sexual exploitation on their platforms, according Australia's eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant
>>17946371 How social media giants created a 'paedophile paradise' - A world-first insight into how social media giants are responding to online child sexual abuse has exposed what Australia's eSafety boss condemned as a culture of wilful blindness in which companies ignore or make token attempts to monitor serious criminal activity on their sites
>>17946374 PDF: Basic Online Safety Expectations - Summary of industry responses to the first mandatory transparency notices - eSafety Commissioner, December 2022
>>17946383 Paedophile preacher Frank Houston claimed he'd been banned from preaching because his son, Hillsong founder Brian Houston, wanted to "steal his church"
>>17946396 Defrocked Frank Houston gave sermons, court told - Stripped of his credentials to minister after his son learned he sexually abused children, pedophile pastor Frank Houston continued leading church sermons until weeks before his death
>>17953481 'One strike, you're out': Brian Houston confronted his father over child abuse, court told - "We have a 'one strike and you're out, no tolerance policy' towards paedophiles, and it can't be any different for you than it is for anyone else"
>>17953494 John Rolleston: Paedophile GP avoids more jail time for more historical abuse of young boys - Given 84-year-old Rolleston suffered from melANOMa, lung disease, heart disease, gastrointestinal bleeding and recurrent kidney stones, Judge Flannery said it would "be cruel and unusual punishment to return him to jail for such a short period in his state of health"
>>17961000 Danny Radojcin, former caretaker from Caulfield Hebrew Congregation synagogue being investigated by police after sexual assault allegations were made against him

>>17961025 Students expelled from small Jewish ultra-Orthodox private school Cheder Levi Yitzchok in St Kilda, because their parents refused to sign a memorandum of understanding that limited who they could talk to about the alleged sexual abuse of their children
>>17980354 Hillsong founder Brian Houston tells Sydney court he believes his father was a "serial paedophile", and responses to abuse allegations when they first came to light were not "all they should have been"
>>17985875 Hillsong founder Brian Houston tells Sydney court it is "absurd" to suggest he would claim a man had "tempted" his paedophile father into abusing him as a child
>>17991094 Video: SA court jails Instagram child-sex predator Cameron Robert Bowen for more than 15 years for stalking, grooming and abuse - A pedophile who preyed upon vulnerable LGBT children through the internet will serve one of the longest sex abuse sentences in state history
>>17991102 Video: Brian Houston denies downplaying father's abuse in Hillsong sermon - Hillsong founder Brian Houston has told a court he was not trying to "fool" the congregation by referring to his father's sexual abuse of a child as only a "very serious moral accusation"
>>17996641 Hillsong founder Brian Houston believes he did the "right thing" not going to police after his father told him he had molested an underage boy three decades earlier
>>18002294 Cody Michael Reynolds, former NSW Moriah College teacher pleads guilty to possessing and transmitting child exploitation material

#18046062 at 2022-12-31 08:42:44 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #27: THEY ARE IN FULL BLOWN PANIC MODE Edition

#26 - Part 3
Australian Politics and Society - Part 3
>>17481876 Australia training preps F-35 pilots for long-range battles that could end in dogfight - During Pitch Black drills in Australia's Northern Territory, U.S. and Australian pilots are honing the skills they need to carry out long-range missile strikes
>>17481941 Video: Darwin nightclub bouncer Hayden Summers found guilty of causing serious harm to US marine
>>17487810 MRF-D 22 Ground Combat Element Integrates into 1st Brigade to Enhance Combined Littoral Lethality
>>17487954 Chris Bowen Tweet: The Biden Administration and Albanese Government are working closely together on climate policy. Always great to compare notes with the President's Special Envoy on Climate, @JohnKerry @ClimateEnvoy
>>17487954 Q Post #4196 - THE SHADOW PRESIDENCY. THE SHADOW GOVERNMENT. Why did [Hussein] shadow POTUS re: [F] trips? Why did [Kerry] shadow POTUS re: Iran? Why did [Kerry] shadow POTUS re: [CLAS 1-99]?.....INSURGENCY. IRREGULAR WARFARE. THE GREATEST POLITICAL SCANDAL IN HISTORY. What are they trying to prevent? Who are they trying to protect? Q
>>17499234 Ukraine's pitch to Australia: Use our army as your guinea pig - Ukraine has launched a bold bid for its army to be used as a "guinea pig" for cutting-edge Australian military technology as it seeks to gain a crucial battlefield advantage over Vladimir Putin's Russian forces.
>>17499314 Speaker rules against referring Scott Morrison to privileges committee over claims he misled parliament on his secret self-appointment to jointly administer several portfolios
>>17499342 Real-life Squid Game horror spills over into Australia - The wealthy family of the sadistic overlord behind South Korea's real-life Squid Game - now living in Australia - is expected to face legal action from survivors after an official inquiry revealed that 657 inmates were killed in the "Brothers Home" house of horrors
>>17504306 East Timorese leader flies to Australia for critical talks - East Timor's President Jose Ramos-Horta is scheduled to arrive in Australia for a state visit as negotiations over lucrative gas resources reach a critical stage for his impoverished nation
>>17504317 Tributes flow for Queensland medic Jed Danahay killed in Ukraine, hailed a hero by ambassador to Australia

>>17504368 US Coast Guard: Cairns visit a success with Australia's important allies - Officers have given a rare behind-the-scenes look onboard the first US Coast Guard vessel of its kind to dock at Cairns. Why it's here and the intriguing thing crew love most about the city
>>17508757 Operation Ironside: Alleged drug kingpin Mostafa Baluch joins legal challenge which could result in evidence gathered during ANOM police operation being ruled inadmissible
>>17508776 Mostafa Baluch joins AN0M challenge as lawyers consider fighting search warrants - More than 50 alleged AN0M criminals are pushing toward a landmark legal challenge they hope could derail the police case against them
>>17513286 Mark Latham accuses NSW Labor MP Anna Watson of getting drunk at parliament bar and trying to drive home
>>17515448 Q Post #100 - Who is the Queen of England? How long in power? With power comes corruption. What happened to Diana? What did she find out? Why was she running? Who did she entrust to help her flee? What was the cover? Why is this relevant? Why now?
>>17517472 Video: Public holiday announced for September 22 to honour Queen - Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has announced there will be a one-off public holiday to honour the Queen's death on Thursday September 22 - Sky News Australia
>>17519348 Video: Americans mark 21st anniversary of September 11, 2001 terror attacks - For the 21st time, Americans have marked the anniversary of their country's deadliest terror attacks - September 11, 2001 - 7NEWS Australia
>>17526513 MRF-D Trains in Every Clime and Place - Marine Rotational Force-Darwin (MRF-D) 22 participated in Australian led courses that will enhance their ability to conduct operations in every clime and place
>>17526520 King Charles proclaimed monarch of Australia, New Zealand - King Charles was officially proclaimed head of state of both Australia and New Zealand at ceremonies on Sunday, September 11 2022 in the nations' capitals
>>17526532 U.S. Embassy Australia Tweet: Our Embassy fence is lined with hundreds of flags to mark the 21st anniversary of the attacks on 9/11. Placing these flags each year is one way our community comes together to commemorate this solemn day and remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost, including those of 10 Australians.

#16729137 at 2022-07-14 08:12:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research Australia #25: My Koala Hates Spam Too Edition

WHO calls on countries to bring back mask rules as Covid 'runs free'

Australia has seen a significant jump in cases and hospitalisations as new Omicron variants emerge.

news.com.au - July 13, 2022

Fresh surges of Covid infections show the pandemic is nowhere near over, the World Health Organisation's (WHO) chief has said, warning that the virus is running free.

Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus said he was worried that case numbers were shooting up, putting more strain on health systems and workers.

The number of Covid cases reported to the WHO increased 30 per cent in the past two weeks, driven by sub-variants of the Omicron strain and the lifting of control measures.

"New waves of the virus demonstrate again that Covid-19 is nowhere near over. As the virus pushes at us, we must push back," he insisted.

He told a news conference that as transmission increases, governments must also deploy tried-and-tested measures like mask-wearing and improving ventilation.

Australia has seen a significant jump in cases and hospitalisations as new Omicron variants that can evade the protection offered by vaccines emerge.

Some health experts are calling on state governments to reintroduce mask rules to combat the spread.

"Sub-variants of Omicron, like BA. 4 and BA. 5, continue to drive waves of cases, hospitalisation and death around the world," Mr Tedros said.

"Surveillance has reduced significantly - including testing and sequencing - making it increasingly difficult to assess the impact of variants on transmission, disease characteristics, and the effectiveness of countermeasures."

Furthermore, tests, treatments and vaccines are not being deployed effectively.

"The virus is running freely and countries are not effectively managing the disease burden based on their capacity," he said, both in terms of hospitalisation of acute cases and the expanding number of people with long Covid.

"Uncertain and unpredictable"

The WHO's Covid-19 emergency committee met Friday via videoconference and determined the pandemic remains a Public Health Emergency of International Concern - the highest alarm the WHO can sound.

WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told the meeting recent changes in testing policies were hindering the detection of cases and the monitoring of virus evolution.

The committee stressed the need to reduce transmission as the implications of a pandemic caused by a new respiratory virus would not be fully understood, the WHO said in a statement Monday.

The group voiced concern over steep reductions in testing, resulting in reduced surveillance and genomic sequencing.

"This impedes assessments of currently circulating and emerging variants of the virus," the WHO said, feeding the inability to interpret trends in transmission.

The committee said the trajectory of virus evolution and the characteristics of emerging variants remained "uncertain and unpredictable".

It said the absence of measures to reduce transmission increased the likelihood of "new, fitter variants emerging, with different degrees of virulence, transmissibility, and immune escape potential".

Booster boost

Meanwhile the WHO's European office recommended a second booster shot of a Covid vaccine for older people and vulnerable groups.

Covid cases have been rising sharply since the end of May around most of Europe. The call followed the EU's health and medicine agencies recommendation on Monday of a second booster shot for people over 60 years old.

Coronavirus cases have risen 57 per cent in Moscow over the past week, the Russian capital's health authorities said.

"We recommend that you wear a mask in public places because the new Omicron sub-variants BA. 4 and BA. 5 spread more rapidly from person to person," Moscow social services wrote on Telegram.

And hundreds of thousands of people were under lockdown in a small Chinese city after just one case of Covid-19 was detected, as Beijing's strict no-tolerance virus strategy showed no sign of abating.

The steelmaking hub of Wugang in Henan province announced three days of "closed control".

None of the city's 320,000 people are allowed outside their homes until midday Thursday. Local authorities were to deliver basic necessities.

China is the last major economy glued to a zero-Covid policy, crushing new outbreaks with snap lockdowns, forced quarantines and onerous travel curbs despite mounting public fatigue and damage to the economy.

https://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/who-calls-on-countries-to-bring-back-mask-rules-as-covid-runs-free/news-story/9e75b815aeffd56f9803341d0ba43846

#16662992 at 2022-07-07 17:34:16 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #24: TRUMP CARD COMING Edition

China appeasing WHO Chief and Lancet Commission Chairman support the lab leak theory | Trailer



Premiered 30 minutes ago

The Epoch Times
528K subscribers



🔵 Watch more:
https://www.epochtv.com

Jeffrey Sachs, the leader of the Lancet Commission on COVID-19 now admits that the Covid pandemic started in a lab. Even more startlingly, he now also admits that the virus was made with US biotechnology.

Sachs made his comments last week at a conference in Spain where he had been invited by former Spanish prime minister Jos? Lu?s Zapatero.

Sachs's astonishing revelations were upstaged by World Health Organization Director Tedros AdANOM Ghabrieysus when he reportedly confessed to a senior European politician that the virus most likely came out of a Wuhan lab.

The admissions from two of the most prominent Covid authorities in the world, who also happen to be establishment stalwarts with a record of appeasing the Chinese Communist Party, is a huge game changer.

https://youtu.be/yCZZZd0O49k

#16493272 at 2022-06-23 10:25:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #23: HOUSE OF CARDS Edition

>>16493269

2/2

Conflicting data

The commission also heard there was conflicting data on the number of permanent ADF members who had died by suicide since 2000.

The Defence Suicide Register indicated there had been 159, while the Consolidated Register of Suspected and Confirmed Suicide indicated there had been 178.

The Defence Force Chief said the ANOMaly was due to inconsistencies in the way data on death by suicide was recorded.

"This is an area which needs to be improved by Defence," General Campbell said.

The inquiry heard General Campbell intended to raise the issue with the new federal government.

Suicidal thoughts 'very serious issue'

The inquiry was shown data of the number of ADF members who had attempted suicide since January 2015 and had approached Defence for care.

"You can see that the rate is about four or more times the number of deaths per suicide each year," Mr Connor said.

Twenty-two ADF members had reportedly attempted suicide and sought care from Defence during 2022.

A 2015 survey of serving ADF members and transitioned ADF members showed 8.8 per cent of serving ADF members had suicidal thoughts within the past 12 months.

Mr Connor said to General Campbell: "It needs to be addressed, doesn't it?"

"I suggest to you that Defence has been a little slow in responding to this. Do you reject that?" Mr Connor asked.

General Campbell described it as being an "extremely complex challenge".

"There is a great deal of effort going on but more is needed," he said.

"Where issues of culture are at play, these things can take a number of years.

"I realise that we don't have a number of years. It is a very, very serious issue."

From the same data, the commission heard that of those people who had transitioned out of the ADF from 2010-15, 28.9 per cent had felt life was not worth living within the past 12 months, with 21.2 per cent feeling so low they thought about attempting suicide within 12 months.

"This is a very good indicator of the transition effect that we don't want," General Campbell said.

General Campbell will finish his tenure in the role next month.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-23/royal-commission-into-defence-and-veteran-suicide-townsville/101169340

Lifeline 13 11 14

https://www.lifeline.org.au/

Open Arms 1800 011 046

https://www.openarms.gov.au/

#16430076 at 2022-06-11 13:50:16 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #23: HOUSE OF CARDS Edition

China slams theory coronavirus originated from Chinese lab leak

China has slammed the controversial 'lab leak' theory as the World Health Organisation calls for a deeper probe into the pandemic's origin.

AFP - June 11, 2022

China has furiously rejected claims the coronavirus pandemic originated as a leak from a Chinese laboratory after the World Health Organisation called for a deeper probe into the theory.

In a scathing daily briefing, Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian shut down claims that China refused to fully cooperate with investigators and accused the WHO of pushing a politcally-motivated lie.

"The lab leak theory is totally a lie concocted by anti-China forces for political purposes, which has nothing to do with science," Zhao said.

"We always supported and participated in science-based global virus tracing, but we firmly opposed any forms of political manipulation," he said.

China has repeatedly refuted claims the pandemic started in a lab and rejected further investigations into the origins of the deadly virus.

When Australia called for an independent inquiry into the origins of the pandemic, China responded by imposing sanctions on Australia.

China's fury comes after the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), set up by WHO, said further studies were needed into whether the disease escaped from a lab.

In a preliminary report released this week, the team of 27 scientists tasked to investigate the origins of Covid-19, stressed that they had no conclusive findings behind the worst global pandemic in a century.

"There are key pieces of data that are not yet available for a complete understanding of how the Covid-19 pandemic began," they acknowledged in their report, stressing that a range of further studies were needed "to follow up on several gaps in our knowledge."

'Zoonotic transmission'

The experts evaluated a wide range of existing research, including the findings of a joint WHO-China scientific mission last year.

They seemed to back a key finding by the joint mission that the virus most likely jumped from bats to humans via an intermediate animal, so-called zoonotic transmission.

"The strongest evidence is still around zoonotic transmission," SAGO chair Marietjie Venter said.

However, the original host, intermediate hosts or how the virus had jumped to humans have not been identified.

But while the joint mission had deemed a competing theory that the virus may have escaped due to a laboratory incident was "extremely unlikely" and proposed no further investigation into that hypothesis, the SAGO team insisted that this issue too required further study.

Among a long line of studies requested, the team stressed that "it remains important to consider all reasonable scientific data that is available either through published or other official sources to evaluate the possibility of the introduction of SARS-CoV-2 into the human population through a laboratory incident."

The issue is highly controversial, and SAGO acknowledged that three members of the team, from China, Russia and Brazil, had objected to including the recommendation.

'Need to be open-minded'

Venter told reporters it was important to be open to various hypotheses.

"Having it in the report doesn't say that that's definitely what we think it is," she said.

"We are open to scientific data ... so if anything comes up that's new, we will not ignore it".

Co-chair Jean-Claude Manuguerra agreed, stressing that so far there had been no real investigation into the lab leak theory.

"We need to be open-minded and cover all the hypotheses, including that one," Mr Manuguerra said.

Among other things, the experts said access was needed to staff and data from labs both in China and elsewhere that work with coronaviruses, including SARS-CoV-2, to assess biosafety and biosecurity practices.

This could be tricky, especially in the case of China, which has so far pushed back against suggestions of fresh international missions to the country.

WHO chief Tedros AhANOM Ghebreyesus insisted that it was vital that the scientific work to determine Covid's origins "be kept separate from politics".

In a briefing to member states, he said the UN health agency would strive to follow SAGO's advice, emphasising that "all hypotheses must remain on the table until we have evidence that enables us to rule certain hypotheses out".

"The longer it takes, the harder it becomes. We need to speed up and act with a sense of urgency."

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/global/china-slams-theory-coronavirus-originated-from-chinese-lab-leak/news-story/d527856880f9f212281edf28d3c02354

#16408509 at 2022-06-07 11:43:02 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #23: HOUSE OF CARDS Edition

>>16366975
>>16408493
Australian Federal Police issue crack down on Mafia-style crime families

Police are conducting a nationwide sting to crack down on Italian organised crime families they believe are pulling the strings of bikie gangs.

Adelaide Lang - June 7, 2022

After obtaining crucial intelligence, the Australian Federal Police are focusing on Italian organised crime syndicates that 'wash' billions of dollars through the Australian economy every year.

According to police, information gleaned from the ANOM platform used by criminal networks had painted a clearer picture of the scale of illegal drug importation facilitated by the Mafia-style crime organisations, the amount of money they made, and the level of association with bikie gangs.

Australia is home to about 51 Italian organised crime families, including 14 confirmed 'Ndrangheta clans with thousands of members.

The 'Ndrangheta are a Mafia-esque organised crime society based in Calabria and characterised by family ties, a code of silence and loyalty, keeping a low-profile, international reach and intimidation.

According to the AFP, the crime network is responsible for trafficking 70 per cent of the world's cocaine. In Australia, that also extends to methamphetamine and cannabis.

Police alleged the Australian-based 'Ndrangheta have been involved in money-laundering since the 1970s through legitimate businesses by using bitcoin dealers, and corrupt lawyers and accountants.

AFP Assistant Commissioner Crime Command Nigel Ryan said the Mafia-style clans have insidiously integrated themselves into the Australian underworld.

"The 'Ndrangheta are flooding Australia with illicit drugs and are pulling the strings of Australian outlaw motorcycle gangs, who are behind some of the most significant violence in our communities," he said.

"They have become so powerful in Australia that they almost own some Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, who will move drugs around for their 'Ndrangheta financiers, or carry out acts of violence on behalf of the 'Ndrangheta."

The Assistant Commissioner said police have been mapping the familial relationships of the group in Australia for years, with the assistance of Italian authorities.

Mr Ryan said understanding the operations of the 'Ndrangheta would help authorities crack down on members of the Italian crime clans, who have been able to avoid detection by living in modest homes and mixing their illegal funds with profits from their legitimate businesses.

Over the past year, police have arrested and charged a number of 'Ndrangheta members under Operation Ironside, the biggest organised crime sting ever conducted by the AFP.

Mr Ryan said the AFP is targeting the finances, communications, and operations of the Italian organised crime networks.

Police estimate millions of dollars a day are laundered through the Australian economy to wash drug profits. By dismantling the billion-dollar money laundering operations, police aim to disrupt the drug-trafficking industry in Australia.

A recent report from the New South Wales's National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre revealed there were around five drug-related deaths a day in 2020 - the highest level since 1997.

"On a macro level the trafficking of illicit drugs impacts on our national security, social security and our economy," Mr Ryan said.

"On a micro level, it makes our roads less safe, law-abiding citizens are at risk of becoming collateral damage in the wars of organised criminals who shoot at each other in public."

In the year since its inception, Operation Ironside has charged 383 alleged offenders with 2340 offences. The nationwide sting has seized more than 6.3 tonnes of prohibited drugs, 147 weapons and $55 million.

https://www.news.com.au/national/crime/australian-federal-police-issue-crack-down-on-mafiastyle-crime-families/news-story/c0b249d00c37d91bf8c0c06490fe4d25

#16408493 at 2022-06-07 11:35:21 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #23: HOUSE OF CARDS Edition

>>16366975
AFP targeting Italian mafia figures in next phase of AN0M probe

Mark Reddie - 7 June 2022

Intelligence gained from a secret app planted on the mobile phones of organised criminals has revealed the Italian mafia is "pulling the strings" of bikie gangs responsible for recent violence in Australia.

The Australian Federal Police is investigating 51 Italian organised crime clans - including 14 from the 'Ndrangheta - as well as 5,000 members living across NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia.

Investigators have accused them of working closely with Middle Eastern crime gangs, Asian triads and South American cartels to smuggle tonnes of illegal drugs into the country.

"They are pulling the strings of outlaw motorcycle gangs who are behind some of the most significant violence in our communities," AFP Assistant Commissioner Nigel Ryan said.

"They are responsible for 70 to 80 per cent of the world's cocaine and they are flooding Australia with illicit drugs."

Assistant Commissioner Ryan said millions of dollars in dirty money was being washed through the economy each day.

"They funnel their illegitimate wealth into their legitimate construction, agricultural and catering businesses," he said.

"This is really a warning to Italian organised crime that they are on our radar."

The AFP has managed to compile a family tree of the mafia from data obtained from Operation Ironside.

It was a three-year undercover sting in which authorities infiltrated the phones of organised crime figures through an encrypted app, called ANOM.

Criminals were convinced to use the messaging service through word of mouth in the underworld, believing it was secure and off the police radar.

Little did they know that the 25 million messages sent on the platform were being closely monitored by the AFP and FBI.

Since authorities revealed the truth about AN0M a year ago, 383 alleged Australian criminals have been charged with more than 2,340 offences.

Italian mafia bosses are now the next major target - with the AFP operation also involving US, Spanish, Brazilian and Italian authorities.

"Unfortunately they invested in the wrong technology when they invested in the ANOM app," Assistant Commissioner Ryan said.

"Unleashing this next phase will be long and challenging but the AFP is up to the challenge.

"If we don't cut off the head and tail of organised crime then we face living in a very different Australia."

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-07/afp-target-italian-mafia-ndrangheta-activities-in-australia/101131092

#16073677 at 2022-04-14 11:00:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #22: THIS IS NOT ANOTHER 3-YEAR ELECTION Edition

>>16040836
Australia's first XE infection detected in NSW as virologists keep eye on sub-variants

Mary Ward - April 14, 2022

NSW health authorities have reported Australia's first case of the XE coronavirus infection, however new sub-variants being detected in Africa and Europe may be a cause for greater concern when mandatory tests for international arrivals are scrapped next week.

The case of XE, which is a merging of Omicron's BA.1 and BA.2 sub-variants known as a "recombinant", was detected in a recently returned overseas traveller last week.

While the World Health Organisation has said XE may be 10 per cent more transmissible than the BA.2 variant, there is no evidence abroad that it has led to more severe disease. However, virologists were concerned by the development of Omicron's BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants, which have been reported in growing numbers in France and South Africa.

The bulk of XE infections have been reported in the UK, particularly in the south-east of England. Other cases have been detected around the globe, usually in international travellers.

A recombinant infection occurs when two separate virus strains merge, forming a new, single strain.

Associate Professor Stuart Turville, a virologist at the Kirby Institute, said recombinant strains were to be expected when the timelines of different strains of a virus overlap, as has occurred with the Omicron BA.1 and BA.2 variants in NSW.

He said it seemed the Omicron recombinants were similar enough to BA.1 and BA.2 that they should induce comparable illness. Omicron antibodies should also help prevent reinfection against its recombinants.

"The spike proteins are intact, so it is not going to be a seismic shift, like when Omicron displaced Delta," he said.

Professor William Rawlinson, a virologist with the University of NSW, said people who have been infected with recombinants overseas have so far not shown worse outcomes.

"We need to keep a close eye on the relationship between these cases and severity of disease," he said. "The reality is that the natural evolution of the virus means is that it will likely become transmissible over time."

With the first XE infections in the UK detected in January, Rawlinson said it was unlikely to significantly shift infection patterns in Australia.

"If it was going to spread at a rapid pace, I think we would have seen it," he said.

Turville said there was growing concern among virologists about the development of Omicron's BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants, which are yet to be detected in Australian surveillance programs.

"They have a key change in [spike protein mutation] L452R which will make it harder for antibodies to bind to. It will make the virus fitter," he said.

World Health Organisation authorities told reporters they were following the two sub-variants closely on Wednesday, although its director Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus said low sequencing and testing rates worldwide were making it difficult.

"Our ability to monitor trends is compromised as testing has significantly reduced," he said.

While the vast majority of coronavirus infections in NSW are never genomically sequenced, those that are provide an insight into which COVID-19 strains are emerging or becoming dominant as community transmission continues.

Omicron's newer BA.2 sub-variant has been the dominant infection in NSW for several weeks.

From Monday, international arrivals will no longer need to test negative to COVID-19 before leaving for Australia, meaning it is likely more variants will be detected locally.

NSW Health prioritises genomic sequencing for people hospitalised with COVID-19, as well as conducting surveillance on infections in international arrivals, pregnant women and other groups of interest, meaning the rates of different variants reported by the surveillance are not necessarily reflective of those in the general community.

NSW has previously reported two recombinant infections: one "Deltacron" infection, a combination of the Delta and Omicron variants, and another BA.1/BA.2 infection (which was not XE).

https://www.theage.com.au/national/nsw/australia-s-first-xe-infection-detected-in-nsw-as-virologists-keep-eye-on-sub-variants-20220414-p5adjo.html

#14949358 at 2021-11-08 07:09:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #19 - THE ONLY WAY IS THE MILITARY Edition

Mathew Campbell faces court charged with child sex abuse offences as pedophile Jadd Brooker admits to 141 more crimes

The identity of another man allegedly part of a shocking SA pedophile ring can be revealed - as its vile mastermind is confirmed as Australia's worst child predator.

Sean Fewster - November 8, 2021

The last man charged with being part of HIV-positive pedophile Jadd William Brooker's online child exploitation ring can finally be identified.

Mathew Campbell faced the Adelaide Magistrates Court on Monday charged with nine child abuse offences.

Half an hour later, Brooker himself faced the same court and formally pleaded guilty to 141 crimes against children and teenagers, both in Australia and overseas.

Following the consolidation of all the allegations against him, Brooker has admitted 182 crimes in total - cementing his status as Australia's worst-ever child predator.

After Brooker's confessions, another alleged member of the ring - Leon Ronald Scarffe - faced the same court.

His appearance ended quickly, however, with his lawyers saying they could no longer represent the alleged child blackmailer due to "a conflict of interest".

Mr Campbell, 38, of Salisbury Park, was arrested in May and charged with two aggravated counts and seven basic counts of producing child exploitation material.

His arrest followed those of former political adviser Benjamin John Waters and senior Correctional Services worker Stewart Iain Berry.

Scarffe, 51, of Mitchell Park, was charged with offences including persistent sexual exploitation of a child and blackmail.

All four were arrested due to investigations into Brooker, 39, of Glenelg East, and an alleged pedophile ring that police claim involved more than 10 people.

On Monday, police prosecutor John Mattner asked Mr Campbell's case be delayed so it could be merged with the allegations against Mr Berry.

He told Magistrate Simon Smart that Mr Berry's case had been moved to the Port Augusta Magistrates Court "through an ANOMaly of the system" and should be heard in Adelaide.

"Mr Berry should also be charged with some of the same offending that is alleged against Mr Campbell," he said.

"Mr Campbell was the last person arrested out of all of the accused ... Your Honour will be aware Waters is already in the District Court ... that late arrest has caused this delay."

Mr Smart, however, said that was no reason to delay Mr Campbell's case for an extended period and ordered he answer the charges in three weeks' time.

He remanded Brooker in custody to face the District Court in January, when a date for sentencing submissions will be set.

Prosecutors are expected to ask the District Court to declare Brooker an uncontrollable sex predator and jail him indefinitely, using legislation championed by The Advertiser.

Mr Smart also remanded Scarffe in custody until December, in order for him to obtain new legal representation.

https://www.adelaidenow.com.au/truecrimeaustralia/police-courts-sa/matthew-campbell-faces-court-charged-with-child-sex-abuse-offences-as-pedophile-jadd-brooker-admits-to-141-more-crimes/news-story/1d95c2bf5c3edfcb11b756d7e2acb8b9

#14616878 at 2021-09-19 18:43:31 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #18 - Talisman Sabre: MAGIC SWORD Edition

Donald Trump blames Anthony Fauci for staying silent over Wuhan laboratory funding

SHARRI MARKSON - SEPTEMBER 19, 2021

1/2

Donald Trump has accused his former top medical adviser Anthony Fauci of staying silent in Oval Office meetings at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic about the risky research under way at the Wuhan Institute of Virology his agency had funded.

In a Sky News documentary to air on Monday night, the former US president said he would grade Fauci "D" as a doctor and said it was "ridiculous" he funded coronavirus research in Wuhan at the lab where he believes Covid-19 leaked to spark the pandemic.

"They were even making payments for certain kinds of research. Certain payments and I ended that, I stopped that when we found out about that," Mr Trump says in his first Australian interview since becoming president in 2016.

"He (Fauci) was doing that during the Obama years and when I found out about it, I said: 'Can you imagine that the United States is making payments to a Chinese lab?' Just that on its face didn't make sense, but I stopped that.

"It sounded so ridiculous to me that we were giving money to China and especially when I heard it was going to the lab, and we ended it quickly."

The former president makes the allegations against Fauci, his former top medical adviser on the coronavirus, in the documentary, based on the new book, What Really Happened in Wuhan. Mr Trump makes bombshell claims about some of the intelligence he saw that convinced him the virus escaped from a Wuhan laboratory.

He also speaks about China's cover-up of Covid-19 and the World Health Organisation's culpability for the global spread of the virus, as director general Tedros AdhANOM repeated Beijing's denials Covid-19 was capable of human-to-human transmission.

As Mr Trump's top medical adviser on the coronavirus, Dr Fauci was in his inner sanctum and present for every meeting on the virus as it started to spread globally.

Mr Trump said Dr Fauci never once told him the Wuhan Institute of Virology was genetically manipulating coronaviruses.

"Well, no he didn't," Mr Trump said. "Anthony's been in government for many, many years, is a bureaucratic kind of a guy, a very great promoter. I give him an A-plus as a promoter and probably a C or a D as a doctor or a scientist."

As he shielded the president from the fact America had been funding coronavirus research in Wuhan, Dr Fauci publicly insisted Covid-19 came from an animal.

Only in the past few months has Dr Fauci acknowledged the possibility Covid-19 may have originated at the Wuhan institute, although he now claims he always had an open mind.

(continued)

#14490378 at 2021-08-30 06:43:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #18 - Talisman Sabre: MAGIC SWORD Edition

>>14486968
'What Really Happened in Wuhan': Donald Trump among the insiders interviewed in new COVID-19 investigation

Sharri Markson uncovers explosive claims and new details about how the deadly COVID-19 pandemic began in an exclusive documentary coming to Sky News Australia in September.

Tyrone Clarke - August 29, 2021

1/2

In an exclusive special report including interviews with then-President Donald Trump, top-ranking US and British officials and Chinese whistleblowers, Sky News Australia explores the truth behind what really happened in Wuhan when the deadly COVID-19 virus began its trail of devastation.

Award-winning journalist Sharri Markson uncovers explosive claims and new details about how the deadly COVID-19 pandemic began after spending more than a year investigating the potential leak of the virus from a top-secret laboratory in Wuhan.

COVID-19 has taken over four million lives worldwide and has inflicted worldwide economic destruction, but after more than 18 months the virus' origins are still unknown.

Former US President Donald Trump first raised the possibility that the prevailing theory around the origins of COVID-19 may be false - that it naturally occurred and spread between animals before reaching humans - in April last year.

Mr Trump was swiftly shut down by media organisations across the globe including the ABC and the Guardian who were among those accusing him of peddling "unsubstantiated theories".

The former President came under fire from all corners of mainstream and social media outlets around the world.

In the early stages of the pandemic, tech giant Facebook instituted a broad-scale unprecedented ban on any posts with "false claims or conspiracy theories" including any mention of the virus leaking from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

While unprecedented, the move had the implicit backing of the World Health Organisation who called on the world not to spread "fear and panic" by enforcing travel bans on China at the outset of the pandemic.

The WHO consistently praised China for its efforts in the aftermath of the initial outbreak of the coronavirus thanking the Asian superpower for a supposed speedy response.

WHO Director-General Tedros AdhANOM said Beijing's transparency around the virus was "very impressive and beyond words".

Early this year, the WHO publicly declared COVID-19 was derived from animal sources following a highly anticipated and subsequently criticised joint investigation with Chinese researchers.

But both Facebook and the WHO changed their tune when reports emerged that lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology presented with COVID-like symptoms back in November 2019.

(continued)

#14412776 at 2021-08-21 03:51:39 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #18 - Talisman Sabre: MAGIC SWORD Edition

>>14412772

4/5

Detective Sergeant David MacGregor, then head of the Australian Federal Police's Victorian human trafficking team, was one of the first to walk into the Kannans' house and recalls how ordinary it appeared. "It was a middle-class ?suburban house that was a bit ?cluttered but there was a married ?couple with ?children living there," he says. He says he was struck by the couple's apparent lack of remorse. "My sense was that they didn't feel they had anything to answer to. I didn't get any sense of contrition." By contrast, there was a steely determination on the part of the victim to testify in the case. "She was stoic and determined to give ?evidence to make sure that her voice was heard," he says. "I think she was determined to see that ?justice was done."

Yet despite what appeared to be solid evidence against the Kannans, the prosecution had a fight on its hands to gain convictions for the rarely used charges of intentionally possessing a slave and intentionally exercising the right of ownership over a slave. Each charge carries a maximum ?penalty of 25 years' jail and the Kannans were both charged with one count of each. "There have been only 31 convictions in Australia [for slavery] since 2004 and the majority have been for sexual exploitation," says Jennifer Burn of Anti-Slavery Australia.

Modern slavery covers a range of offences including sexual servitude, forced labour, human trafficking and forced marriage. In 2020-21 the AFP received 224 reports of modern slavery including 79 reports of forced marriage, 42 of sexual servitude, 35 of forced labour, 12 of trafficking in children and 15 of domestic servitude.

"It is really challenging to be able to meet all the individual thresholds [in the law] to put a really good quality brief of evidence for a prosecution [for slavery offences]," says detective superintendent Jayne Crossling, head of the AFP's Victorian Human Exploitation team. She says one of the problems is that victims are vulnerable, often wary of law enforcement and unwilling to give evidence. Even though the victim agreed to give evidence in this case, the Kannans chose to plead not guilty. The defence argued that while the Kannans clearly mistreated the woman and broke the law, their conduct fell short of the crime of slavery.

The defence pointed to apparent ANOMalies, including the fact that the family referred to the woman as Ammachi, an affectionate term in Tamil for a grandmother, and that they would take her to Phillip Island each summer holiday where they would share a house with another family. They ?tendered family photos and videos of the woman accompanying the family on trips to Mornington Peninsula and to Sydney.

The prosecution also struggled with the fact that the uneducated and illiterate woman was a poor witness. Speaking through a translator, she frequently gave contradictory evidence about her ?circumstances and her treatment. She made and then retracted claims that at various times the front doors of the house were sealed to prevent her ?leaving the house. She gave confused testimony over her allegations of abuse, including inconsistent claims about how Mrs Kannan cut her hand with a knife and pushed her down the stairs. The woman also made the bizarre claim that she was forced to stay awake for 23 hours a day every day. "The tea, the boiling water, pushing down the stairs, stabbing or cutting, hitting her over the head with a frozen chicken, all of the ?allegations of mistreatment by Mrs Kannan that were the subject of evidence given by [the woman] are matters that in our submission, Your Honour, cannot find beyond reasonable doubt to have occurred," defence counsel said.

At one stage Justice Champion pondered openly whether the language and cultural factors in this case undercut the woman's ability to give clear ?evidence. "How should I evaluate her evidence in the prism of coming from a different ?culture?" he asked in court, wondering whether her claim to be awake for 23 hours a day was really just her way of saying she worked hard.

(continued)

#14385831 at 2021-08-18 07:30:22 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #18 - Talisman Sabre: MAGIC SWORD Edition

#17 - Part 20
Coronavirus / COVID-19 Pandemic, Australia and Worldwide - Part 1
>>14020199 Lockdown measures extended in Australia amid COVID-19 outbreak - June 2021
>>14020312 Video: Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young rejects Prime Minister's comments on AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine for under-40s
>>14020328 'A personal choice': NSW clinics will not give AstraZeneca to under-40s
>>14021844 Video: "Lone woman on train harassed by police who then absconded with her property."
>>14035752 Australia to slash traveller intake, PM announces four-phase pathway out of COVID-19
>>14041172 Covid-19 vaccine targets to unlock the path to freedom - National cabinet agrees to four-step blueprint for phased easing of restrictions once Australians have met new vaccine thresholds
>>14041436 Lockdowns 'can stop in two months' when Covid-19 vaccines hit 30pc: Deakin University chair in epidemiology Catherine Bennett
>>14050812 'Eat a bat and die': Vile threats against Wuhan lab conspiracy-buster, Australian virologist Danielle Anderson
>>14050829 Ben Roberts-Smith's long wait to face accusers - landmark trial adjourned for at least a month after Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak
>>14057811 OPINION: Greg Hunt has failed to vaccinate the nation and must go - Kevin Rudd - brisbanetimes.com.au

>>14085663 Covid-19: Australia 'talks softly and carries a big ?vaccine' in Pacific
>>14098337 Australia reports first 2021 COVID-19 death, highest case number
>>14105467 Senior business figures turned to former PM Kevin Rudd to intervene in bringing forward Australia's Pfizer vaccine supply
>>14105480 Malcolm Turnbull Tweet: Thank you @MrKRudd for speaking to the Chairman of Pfizer to secure an earlier delivery of vaccines. Staggered the vaccination of Australians was apparently not important enough to warrant a call from @ScottMorrisonMP or @GregHuntMP to the Pfizer boss.
>>14105482 Pfizer denies Kevin Rudd helped Australia gain earlier access to COVID-19 vaccines
>>14105484 Defence Minister Peter Dutton tears into Rudd's talks with Pfizer
>>14105492 Peter Dutton Tweet: @MrKRudd - Pfizer statement: Recent media reports suggesting that any third party or individual has had any role in contractual agreements reached between Pfizer and the Australian government are inaccurate. The only two parties involved in these agreements are Pfizer and the Australian government.
>>14110865 Australian Vax push isn't supported by the data
>>14127170 Melbourne joins Sydney in lockdown as COVID-19 spreads in Australia
>>14141277 Sydney tightens lockdown as Australia's COVID-19 cases rise

>>14141315 Scott Morrison demands answers over COVID origins after WHO Wuhan lab leak concession
>>14141320 Video: Premature to rule out lab leak: World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros AdhANOM - Sky News Australia
>>14141323 Video: PM says world 'deserves answers' over COVID origins - Sky News Australia
>>14159491 Australia's COVID-19 lockdowns cover more than half the 25 million population
>>14172626 Video: Prime Minister says 'sorry' for problems with COVID-19 vaccine rollout program
>>14174776 SA-Best Party MP Frank Pangallo Says Unvaccinated People "Need To Be Controlled And Restricted"
>>14180599 Sydney's COVID-19 outbreak throws harsh spotlight on Australia vaccine rollout
>>14180610 Australia's TGA finds Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is safe for children aged 12 to 15
>>14194970 Australians may face longer lockdown after "reckless" mass protests
>>14200877 Lockdown protesters plotted on social media - Anthony Khallouf and "Australians vs The Agenda" - Rhiannon Down - theaustralian.com.au

#14019841 at 2021-06-30 06:17:36 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition

#16 - Part 3
Australian Politics and Society - Part 3
>>13855012 Video: Organised crime dealt 'heavy blow', says PM, after global police sting cracks open 'encrypted' app, AN0M
>>13855034 Video: Operation Ironside: AFP, FBI take down mafia, bikie members in 'sting of the century'
>>13855171 Operation Ironside Part 1: How Australian Federal Police and the FBI busted organised criminals on AN0M app
>>13855187 Operation Ironside Part 2: 96 seconds that saw the Australian criminal underworld implode under Operation Ironside
>>13855206 Operation Ironside Part 3: Criminal 'influencers' who took the AFP and FBI bait by using the AN0M app
>>13855451 Japanese troops join US, Aust forces in Darwin for military exercises
>>13855659 Video: Operation Ironside: Inside the operation that busted the ANOM criminal network wide open - Terry Goldsworthy
>>13862138 FBI, Europol, AFP react to global take down of mafia, bikie members in 'sting of the century'
>>13869260 Scott Morrison set to go to Washington later this year for Quad talks with US, India & Japan
>>13869348 Push for Hezbollah terrorism listing gains boost from ASIO
>>13877053 Scott Morrison eyes September trip to US to mark ANZUS anniversary
>>13877062 Queen to make rare appearance at G7 summit before meeting with Scott Morrison

>>13877073 Video: Australia welcomes more US troops at naval bases - 9 News Australia
>>13877087 Video: Push to boost number of US marines in the Top End - Sky News Australia
>>13877358 Home Affairs boss Mike Pezzullo wants to tackle cybercrime like the British Navy fought pirates
>>13877365 'This is what bad looks like': Major company ignored Australia's cyber spy agency after hack - Australian Signals Directorate director-general Rachel Noble
>>13889054 Video: Scott Morrison holds historic meeting with US President Joe Biden, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson at G7 summit
>>13890952 High Commissioner to the UK George Brandis Tweet: Today, the Prime Minister visited St Illogan Cemetery to lay a wreath for the 8 Australians remembered there. You can learn their stories here - http://bit. ly/3gffqPm
>>13901857 Video: arrested - Latest chapter in the Friendly Jordies (Jordan Shanks) vs. John 'Bruz' Barilaro legal battle - friendlyjordies
>>13907688 Scott Morrison raises the alarm about escalating cyber attacks with British intelligence chiefs
>>13907733 'A new dawn': Australia and Britain agree on historic trade deal
>>13907765 New federal laws introduced to protect people from extreme online abuse, trolls
>>13907815 Japanese Ambassador YAMAGAMI Shingo Tweet: Great to exchange candid views with Defence Minister @PeterDutton_MP on how to further strengthen (Japan and Australia) defence cooperation.
>>13915005 Scott Morrison, Boris Johnson agree in-principle to free trade deal

#14004003 at 2021-06-28 10:13:14 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition

>>14003987

3/4

And yet, China's actions raised questions. The government refused to allow international scientists into Wuhan in early 2020 when the outbreak was mushrooming, including experts from the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, who were already in the region.

Beijing stonewalled on allowing World Health Organisation experts into Wuhan for more than a year, and then provided only limited access. The WHO team's final report, written with and vetted by Chinese researchers, played down the possibility of a lab leak. Instead, it says the virus probably spread via a bat through another animal, and gave some credence to a favoured Chinese theory that it could have been transferred via frozen food.

Never sick

China's obfuscation led outside researchers to reconsider their stance. Last month, 18 scientists writing in the journal Science called for an investigation into COVID-19's origins that would give balanced consideration to the possibility of a lab accident. Even the Director-General of the WHO, Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus, says the lab theory hadn't been studied extensively enough.

But it's US President Joe Biden's consideration of the idea - previously dismissed by many as a Trumpist conspiracy theory - that has given it newfound legitimacy. Biden called on America's intelligence agencies last month to redouble their efforts in rooting out the genesis of COVID-19 after an earlier report, disclosed by the Wall Street Journal, claimed three researchers from the lab were hospitalised with flu-like symptoms in November 2019.

What the world wants China to disclose

Anderson says no one she knew at the Wuhan institute was ill towards the end of 2019. Moreover, there is a procedure for reporting symptoms that correspond with the pathogens handled in high-risk containment labs.

"If people were sick, I assume that I would have been sick - and I wasn't," she says. "I was tested for coronavirus in Singapore before I was vaccinated, and had never had it."

Not only that, many of Anderson's collaborators in Wuhan came to Singapore at the end of December for a gathering on Nipah virus. There was no word of any illness sweeping the laboratory, she says.

"There was no chatter," Anderson says. "Scientists are gossipy and excited. There was nothing strange from my point of view going on at that point that would make you think something is going on here."

The names of the scientists reported to have been hospitalised haven't been disclosed. The Chinese government and Shi Zhengli, the lab's now-famous researcher, have repeatedly denied that anyone from the facility contracted COVID-19. Anderson's work at the facility, and her funding, ended after the pandemic emerged and she focused on the novel coronavirus.

'I'm not naive'

It's not that it's impossible the virus spilled from there. Anderson, better than most people, understands how a pathogen can escape from a laboratory. SARS, an earlier coronavirus that emerged in Asia in 2002 and killed more than 700 people, subsequently made its way out of secure facilities a handful of times, she says.

If presented with evidence that such an accident spawned COVID-19, Anderson "could foresee how things could maybe happen," she says. "I'm not naive enough to say I absolutely write this off."

And yet, she still believes it most likely came from a natural source. Since it took researchers almost a decade to pin down where in nature the SARS pathogen emerged, Anderson says she's not surprised they haven't found the "smoking gun" bat responsible for the latest outbreak yet.

The Wuhan Institute of Virology is large enough that Anderson says she didn't know what everyone was working on at the end of 2019. She is aware of published research from the lab that involved testing viral components for their propensity to infect human cells. Anderson is convinced no virus was made intentionally to infect people and deliberately released - one of the more disturbing theories to have emerged about the pandemic's origins.

(continued)

#13898754 at 2021-06-14 05:08:37 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition

>>13889054
Allies rally to Scott Morrison's call on China

GEOFF CHAMBERS - JUNE 14, 2021

1/3

Scott Morrison has won the support of the world's biggest democracies and Australia's wartime allies - the US and Britain - in pushing back against growing Chinese power and influence in the Indo-Pacific region.

The Prime Minister raised China's list of 14 grievances against Australia in his private address to leaders on the final day of the G7 summit, setting-out "very clearly that there are differences in world view".

Mr Morrison said while the Chinese embassy's list of grievances was not a surprise to G7 leaders given recent tensions with Australia, "there was obviously a lot of interest about the reasons for that".

"And they may never be able to be resolved. But living with China, which is the goal, also requires us to be very clear about what our values are, what our principles are, how our countries are run. And how we will continue to run," Mr Morrison told The Australian.

Speaking before flying into London on Sunday night, Mr Morrison said Australia was not alone in sharing similar experiences with China, "particularly those who are more familiar with the region, who have had greater engagement with the region".

"There are European countries that have been through similar periods as Australia.

But the way through that is just to be patient," he said.

"Keep seeking what the ultimate goal is, to be consistent and clear and resolute in the positions that you hold but with the objective of getting to a point where we once again can engage in the dialogue and the partnership that we have in the past.

"But not at the cost or the price of any of the issues that were set out on those 14 points being conceded."

The summit has already ­delivered two pointed messages to Beijing, with G7 leaders ­announcing a global infrastructure plan to rival China's controversial Belt and Road Initiative and the World Health Organisation demanding more transparency over the origin of the coronavirus.

"There were difficulties in data sharing, especially raw data ... (we) hope the next phase there will be better co-operation and transparency," the WHO's director-general, Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus, said.

The G7 communique released at the end of the three-day summit in the Cornish seaside resort village of Carbis Bay called out China over poor behaviour including human rights abuses.

In brief comments before a bilateral meeting with Mr Morrison on Sunday, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi said "the only difference in views (at the G7) was the intensity of the message to China", reflecting hesitation by some European nations in escalating tensions with Beijing.

Mr Morrison said some European nations had a "different perspective because of their geography".

"They have a different perspective because of their economies. We have a different perspective because we live in the Indo-Pacific and so our economies are integrated into the Indo Pacific differently to what they are in Europe."

"But that's changing rapidly. What I detected was an increasing and significant awareness of the impact of tensions in the Indo-Pacific for the broader global system and that in particular relates to Europe.

"There was a very high level of awareness and a very strong level of support for what has been a very consistent and clear stand that Australia has taken. Consistent with our democratic values which are shared by all of those who joined in the discussions these past few days."

(continued)

#13890958 at 2021-06-13 06:00:28 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition

G7 leaders discuss Wuhan lab leak theory and back new investigation

Bevan Shields - June 13, 2021

Carbis Bay: A previously discredited theory that the coronavirus pandemic was triggered by a Wuhan lab leak has been discussed by the world's most powerful leaders, as Prime Minister Scott Morrison says more work is needed to find out what caused the global "carnage".

The G7 is on Sunday expected to back a fresh independent investigation into the origins of the deadly disease, as well as reforms to the World Health Organisation and a new scheme to force countries into declaring dangerous outbreaks much sooner.

US President Joe Biden led the charge at the gathering in Cornwall after recently ordering his own officials to "redouble" their efforts to determine whether the virus came from a laboratory accident or human contact with an infected animal.

The majority of the US intelligence community believes those two scenarios are most likely but Mr Biden said there is not yet enough information to assess one as more likely than the other.

Asked about whether there should be a new investigation, Mr Morrison framed the inquiry as a chance to prevent future pandemics rather than a tool to target China.

"The purpose of these inquiries is to understand," he said.

"It's got nothing to do with politics or frankly blame or anything else. It is about understanding it so we all on a future occasion, should it occur, can move quickly and can respond and avoid the absolute carnage that we've seen from this pandemic to both lives and livelihoods all around the world.

"The transparency around these things is incredibly important just for health and safety, if nothing else."

Mr Morrison last year said Australian officials had no information to suggest the virus came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

He would not say in Cornwall whether the Australian government now has a view on whether a lab leak or animal transmission is the most likely source of the virus.

Australia's 2020 calls for an independent inquiry sparked a furious backlash from Beijing and led to a series of retaliatory trade sanctions.

That World Health Organisation-led inquiry found a lab leak was lab leak "extremely unlikely" but the probe was criticised as insufficient and questions have been raised about how much access the WHO team had to Chinese information.

Mr Morrison said that the original team was still working to find out more and backed that extra work.

The Wuhan lab leak theory was promoted by former US president Donald Trump over 2020 but widely dismissed by health experts and some foreign intelligence officials.

However it has gained new momentum over recent weeks following the latest US intelligence assessment and Biden's open mind on the subject.

WHO director-general Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus revealed the G7 leaders discussed the possibility of a lab leak during a session on Saturday afternoon about health.

"So far close to 3.75 million people have died," he said.

"This is very tragic and the respect these people deserve is knowing what the origin of this virus is so that we can prevent it happening again.

Dr Tedros said he wanted "better co-operation and transparency" from China during the next stage of the investigation.

The G7 communique to be released on Sunday will also support the creation of a new early-warning system to detect infectious disease threats sooner.

"Having that opportunity to be able to identify these pandemics at their very early onset and to be able to take very quick action relying on very good and reliable information - this is a key lesson I think out of this pandemic," Mr Morrison said.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/g7-leaders-discuss-wuhan-lab-leak-theory-and-back-new-investigation-20210612-p580km.html

#13884837 at 2021-06-12 09:09:20 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition

Scott Morrison makes G7 pledge that Australia will provide coronavirus jabs to SE Asia and Pacific region

Michael Mehr - June 12, 2021

Australia will provide 20 million COVID-19 vaccine doses to countries in South-East Asia and the Pacific as leaders at the G7-plus summit in Britain make a bid to distribute jabs more equally across the globe.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who arrived in the UK on Friday, thanked G7 host - British Prime Minister Boris Johnson - "for bringing us together to put even more effort into this area because the virus doesn't know boundaries, the virus goes where it will".

He said Australia's contribution would feed into an effort led by Mr Johnson to vaccinate the world.

"These 20 million doses will go to support doses in our region, to ensure that we continue to exercise our responsibility as part of a broader global responsibility to combat this virus," Mr Morrison said.

World Health Organisation head Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus said that 44 per cent of all doses had been administered in rich countries but only 0.4 per cent in the poorest.

"Sharing vaccines now is essential for ending the acute phase of the pandemic," Mr Ghebreyesus said, urging G7 countries to do more to battle inequality in accessing coronavirus vaccines.

The G7 group of wealthy democracies - Britain, the US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan - invited the leaders of Australia, South Korea, South Africa and India to take part in the three-day summit in Cornwall in England.

India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi will only attend the G7 virtually because of the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak in his country.

They were greeted by the Queen and other members of the royal family including Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, and Prince William and Kate.

Mr Morrison said Australia was in a strong position to support countries with vaccines because it had "supply contracts many times over what is needed for the Australian population" and that the jabs would make a difference.

"These aren't going in large warehouses which essentially (is) without going anywhere - we want to ensure that we are taking responsibility for our region, our family in our region," he said.

Mr Morrison's plane arrived at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on Friday after heavy fog cancelled plans for it to land at Cornwall's Newquay airport, requiring a drive of several hours for the Prime Minister to reach the summit venue in Carbis Bay.

"This is the third occasion that we've had the privilege to be invited to be part of these discussions and there is a lot on this agenda for Australia," he said.

Mr Morrison was previously invited to the G7-plus 2019 summit in Biarritz, France, while the 2020 event was to be in the US but was cancelled because of the pandemic.

"We've met on so many occasions over the past 18 months over screens," Mr Morrison said.

"There is no substitute for leaders getting together and doing what we are doing now - and there has never been a more important time to be doing that."

https://www.perthnow.com.au/politics/australia-pledges-jabs-for-region-at-g7-c-3087458

#13855659 at 2021-06-08 10:48:40 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition

>>13855012
Operation Ironside: Inside the operation that busted the ANOM criminal network wide open.

Terry Goldsworthy

Jun 8, 2021

AFP officers talk about Operation Ironside which targeted global criminal organisations using the ANOM device to conduct criminal enterprises.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kq5VeHRvV0

#13779177 at 2021-05-29 00:34:58 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #16 - INFILTRATION NOT INVASION Edition

Anthony Fauci backed virus experiments 'despite pandemic risk'

SHARRI MARKSON - MAY 28, 2021

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America's top medical adviser for the coronavirus, Anthony Fauci, argued that the benefits of experimenting on contagious viruses - manipulating and heightening their infectious potency - was worth the risk of a laboratory accident sparking a pandemic.

In previously unreported remarks, Dr Fauci supported the contentious gain-of-­function experiments that some now fear might have led to an escape from a Wuhan laboratory causing the Covid-19 pandemic, calling them "important work".

An investigation by The Weekend Australian has also confirmed Dr Fauci, the director of the Nat­ional Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, did not alert senior White House officials before lifting the ban on gain-of-function research in 2017.

Writing in the American Society for Microbiology in October 2012, Dr Fauci acknowledged the controversial scientific research could spark a pandemic.

"In an unlikely but conceivable turn of events, what if that scientist becomes infected with the virus, which leads to an outbreak and ultimately triggers a pandemic?" he wrote. "Many ask reasonable questions: given the possibility of such a scenario - however remote - should the initial experiments have been performed and/or published in the first place, and what were the processes involved in this decision?

"Scientists working in this field might say - as indeed I have said - that the benefits of such experiments and the resulting knowledge outweigh the risks.

"It is more likely that a pandemic would occur in nature, and the need to stay ahead of such a threat is a primary reason for performing an experiment that might appear to be risky."

In the paper, Dr Fauci also writes: "Within the research community, many have expressed concern that important research progress could come to a halt just because of the fear that someone, somewhere, might attempt to replicate these experiments sloppily. This is a valid concern."

Dr Fauci has led the US response to the outbreak but is now facing serious questions about his role in funding the radical experiments being conducted inside the Wuhan Institute of Virology.

A forthcoming book, What ­Really Happened in Wuhan, documents increasing concerns that a leak from the Wuhan lab - and not natural spread via an animal in a wet market - could have sparked the Covid-19 crisis that has up-ended every nation in the world and killed 3.4 million people.

Dr Fauci on May 11 reversed his position on whether Covid-19 had leaked from the WIV, and said he was now "not convinced" the virus had developed naturally and authorities needed to find out "exactly what happened".

Gain-of-function experiments - often with bat-derived coronaviruses - centre on manipulating, splicing and recombining viruses potentially into strands of highly infectious and little understood diseases.

This type of research carries such a risk of causing a pandemic that the Obama administration paused funding for gain-of-­function experiments in 22 fields in 2014, including those involving SARS, influenza and MERS.

US President Joe Biden this week ordered a fresh US intelligence inquiry into whether the virus had originated at the laboratory, while WHO director-general Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus said his team's inquiry into the origins did not sufficiently examine an accidental laboratory leak.

(continued)

#13608319 at 2021-05-07 23:06:09 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #15 - NEVER RETREAT FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Edition

>>13608311

3/3

Among the most bizarre claims by the military scientists is their theory that SARS-CoV-1, the virus that caused the SARS epidemic of 2003, was a man-made bioweapon, deliberately unleashed on China by "terrorists".

Scientific consensus holds that SARS-CoV-1 was of natural origin, having crossed the xenographic barrier from Asian palm civets to humans, likely through the sale of wild animals in wet markets in Guangdong province, southern China. The 263-page paper was published in 2015 by the Chinese Military Medical Science Press, a Chinese government-owned publishing house managed by the General Logistics Department of the PLA.

The Weekend Australian has confirmed the paper was then obtained by senior officials at the US State Department in May 2020, who were investigating the origins of the pandemic.

Former secretary of state Mike Pompeo and his chief China ­adviser, Miles Yu, made a passing reference to it in their Wall Street Journal op-ed in February on China's laboratories, writing: "A 2015 PLA study treated the 2003 SARS coronavirus outbreak as a 'contemporary genetic weapon' launched by foreign forces."

After this, the paper circulated among Chinese dissident communities online.

Luke de Pulford, the co-ordinator of the Inter-Parliamentary ­Alliance on China, also received the document and said that while many Chinese papers came across his desk, this one "stuck out". "If this piece of work is representative of the scientific thinking of those who have advised the top leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, then there are very serious questions which need urgent ­answers," he said.

Mr Tugendhat said: "China's evident interest in bioweapons is extremely concerning.

"Even under the tightest controls these weapons are dangerous. This document raises major concerns about the ambitions of some of those who advise the top party leadership."

Senator Paterson said "these revelations demonstrate exactly why nothing less than complete transparency from the Chinese Communist Party is required about the origins of COVID-19".

"The Chinese government's failure to fully co-operate with the WHO investigation does nothing to instil confidence in what we have been told so far," he said.

"Only they can dispel speculation about alternative theories of the cause of this pandemic."

World Health Organisation ­director-general Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus has previously said there needs to be further investigation into the possibility of a lab accident in Wuhan, criticising his own team's inquiry - that claimed a lab leak was unlikely - for not being thorough or ­extensive.

"Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy," Dr Tedros said on March 31.

"The team also visited several laboratories in Wuhan and considered the possibility that the virus entered the human population as a result of a laboratory ­incident.

"However, I do not believe that this assessment was extensive enough. Further data and studies will be needed to reach more ­robust conclusions."

In 2020, the US State Department produced its annual report on arms control agreements which noted: "China continues to develop its biotechnology infrastructure and pursue scientific co-operation with countries of concern.

"The United States has compliance concerns with respect to Chinese military medical institutions' toxin research and development because of the potential dual-use applications and their potential as a biological threat."

Citing a past US government treaty compliance report, the Arms Control Association, an NGO promoting public understanding of, and support for, effective arms control policies, reported that China, along with North Korea, Iran and Syria, had "flagrantly violated" the convention: "The convention has been flagrantly violated in the past ... the US government listed, in ­addition to Russia, (Biological Weapons Convention) states-­parties China, Iran, and North Korea, as well as BWC signatory Syria, as possessing offensive biological weapons in violation of the treaty."

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/nation/politics/chinese-military-scientists-discussed-weaponising-sars-coronaviruses/news-story/850ae2d2e2681549cb9d21162c52d4c0

#13452467 at 2021-04-18 07:26:03 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #15 - NEVER RETREAT FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Edition

Canberra prepares for Taiwan conflict as tensions escalate

Jacob Greber, Michael Smith and Andrew Tillett - Apr 16, 2021

1/2

The Australian government has sharply escalated its internal preparations for potential military action in the Taiwan Strait.

This is part of a broader show of force by the US and its allies at forcing China to back down on its incursions into the island state's air space and isolate its economic partners.

Sources have told AFR Weekend that the Australian Defence Force was planning for a potential worst-case scenario if the United States and China clashed over Taiwan, prompting debate over the scope and scale of Canberra's contribution to what would be an unprecedented conflict in the region.

Options include contributing to an allied effort with submarines, as well as maritime surveillance aircraft, air-to-air refuellers and potentially Super Hornet fighters operating from US bases in Guam or the Philippines, and even Japan.

The intensification has been welcomed as long overdue by seasoned Taiwan watchers, who warn that China's growing aggression towards the island and the renewed US resolve to help Taipei defend itself could spiral out of control and into a catastrophic open conflict.

Concern is mounting throughout the region, and Taiwan accuses China of sending 25 military aircraft into its air defence identification zone this week - a record incursion.

The chief of Australia's Defence Force, Angus Campbell, cautioned that conflict in the Taiwan Strait would be "disastrous" and urged Beijing to resolve its differences with Taiwan's leaders through dialogue.

'Disastrous experience'

"Conflict over the island of Taiwan would be a disastrous experience for the peoples of the region," General Campbell told an Indian foreign affairs conference known as the Raisina Dialogue. "It is something we should all work to avoid."

At the same forum, the heads of the Indian and Japanese militaries were asked if they were collectively planning, as part of a "Quad" effort, to counter China in Taiwan. None responded to the question.

US President Joe Biden was preparing to meet Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga in Washington on Friday, where the two leaders are expected to "present a united front on Taiwan" according to a top US official.

Long downplayed as one of the more peculiar ANOMalies of international relations, Taiwan's disputed status is becoming a big flashpoint between Beijing and Washington. China regards the island as its territory and President Xi Jinping, who successfully quashed anti-China protests in Hong Kong last year with limited push-back from the West, has made "reunification" of the island with the mainland a top long-term priority.

At the same time, anti-China sentiment in the US is pushing the Biden administration to take a tougher line against any undermining of Taiwan's self-rule.

Sources and academics said that while a military conflict remained unlikely, Australia wanted to send Beijing a signal that further incursions by Mr Xi's forces into Taiwan's territory would not be tolerated.

"There is a lot of development and scenario planning going on," said a diplomatic source of Canberra's effort. "It is intended to signal you are not going to blink. It is intended to demonstrate you don't lack commitment."

(continued)

#13351022 at 2021-04-03 04:48:13 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #15 - NEVER RETREAT FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Edition

>>13351013
New Zealand's failure to call out China throws spotlight on nation's relationship with Beijing

There are concerns from New Zealand Five Eyes' allies that it may be the weak link in dealing with China as the Ardern Government, again, failed to call out Beijing.

Benedict Brook - APRIL 3, 2021

1/2

Last week, 13 nations across the globe raised their concerns about China's apparent meddling in the World Health Organisation's investigation into the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The members of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which include Australia, Canada, the UK and US, all signed the joint declaration.

Well almost all. One Five Eyes nation, New Zealand, declined to put its name to the communique.

It's led to a lingering concern that the government of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is weaker when it comes to standing up to Beijing. It's even been dubbed the "soft underbelly" of the Five Eyes.

Wellington may have seen the diplomatic and trade tussles between China and Australia and has decided it doesn't want to end up in the same position. But as New Zealand has found out, even mild criticism can enrage China.

NZ fails to join Five Eyes' China statements

"New Zealand has been criticised for its perceived reluctance to join with other states and speak up on matters of concern with China," University of Canterbury China specialist Professor Anne-Marie Brady wrote in magazine The Diplomat last year.

"It is practising deliberate ambiguity in its China policy, and so far, it seems to be getting away with it."

But New Zealand's attempts to find a win-win way to deal with Beijing has led its political will to be questioned by its allies.

In January last year, British newspaper the Financial Times stated that New Zealand was "on the edge of viability as a member" of the Five Eyes and had a "supine" attitude to China.

A piece of evidence backing up that view occurred this week when even WHO Director-General Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus called out China for its reticence to provide the WHO COVID-19 investigation with the raw data scientists had demanded.

That New Zealand did not back up the WHO, the Five Eyes, or the likes of Japan, South Korea and Israel in calling out China was striking.

The Ardern Government said its reluctance to join the chorus of disapproval was because it hadn't fully read the report. That's despite everyone else, including tiny Estonia, having had sufficient time to swot up on its contents.

"Our technical experts are currently analysing the report," a spokeswoman for New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told The Australian.

"As this is a scientific report, we want to make sure we understand the science before making any comment."

The prevarication has happened before. In January, New Zealand failed to sign another official statement from the other Five Eyes condemning the arrests of pro-democratic politicians in Hong Kong.

Also in January, Kiwi trade minister Damien Cook said Australia should follow New Zealand and "show respect" to China and be "cautious with wording".

That advice led former diplomat and current Liberal MP Dave Sharma to say he "expected a little more from trans-Tasman solidarity".

"It betrays a lack of acquaintance with basic facts that I would not expect from a close friend and partner like New Zealand," he told the SMH.

Many eyebrows have been raised about New Zealand's handling of its relationship with China.

Unlike Australia, it has signed up to an aspect of Beijing's flagship Belt and Road Initiative. According to the Financial Times, Chinese Communist Party-linked businesspeople are big donors to New Zealand's main political parties.

A recent New Zealand MP admitted to teaching Chinese spies English to monitor other country's communications prior to emigrating. But he has denied passing information about his adopted country back to Beijing, reported the website Stuff.

(continued)

#13342001 at 2021-04-01 08:48:41 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #15 - NEVER RETREAT FROM THE BATTLEFIELD Edition

WHO Covid-19 report: New Zealand shuts its eyes to appease China

WILL GLASGOW and BEN PACKHAM - APRIL 1, 2021

New Zealand has refused to stand with Australia and its other Five Eyes partners to speak out against a much-criticised World Health Organisation investigation into the origins of COVID in China, as it tries to escape Beijing's wrath.

The shortcomings of the investigation, which has been highly sensitive in China, were imm­ediately pointed out in joint statements released by the four other Five Eyes nations - the US, Britain, Canada and Australia - as well as Japan, South Korea and eight other countries, and in a separate statement by the EU.

Even WHO director-general Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus himself, who has been criticised for being too conciliatory to Beijing during the pandemic, acknowledged data had been with­held from the investigation team.

"In my discussions with the team they expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data," Mr Tedros said at a press conference, which was seemingly censored on the Chinese internet on Wednesday.

"I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing," the WHO chief said.

But in Wellington, the Ardern government said it needed more time before it would comment on the report, even though it has been circulating among WHO members for days.

"Our technical experts are currently analysing the report," a spokeswoman for New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta told The Australian.

"As this is a scientific report, we want to make sure we understand the science before making any comment," she said.

While Australia's relationship with China has imploded during the pandemic, New Zealand has become Beijing's favourite member of the Five Eyes group.

Wellington was rewarded in January with an upgrade in its free trade agreement with China. That was signed as Beijing continued a trade retaliation campaign on more than $20bn worth of Australian exports aimed at punishing the Morrison government for calling for an independent inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus without forewarning Xi Jinping's administration.

Tony Browne, a former New Zealand ambassador to China, said the Ardern government's ­absence from the joint statement was not unexpected.

Noting that he did not want to sound critical of Australia's approach, the retired diplomat said the Morrison government's call for an inquiry was "framed in terms that were seen as provocative and even hostile in Beijing".

"The way that the demand was outlined was seen by China as going beyond health into the political," he told The Australian.

"Calling China into account for the nature of its political management of the issue might sound like a good thing to do, but you know for certain it's not going to go anywhere in terms of any sort of co-operative involvement from China," he said.

The WHO team in their report said they were unable to conclude where or how the virus began spreading, although they believe it most likely jumped from a bat or other animal host to a human.

'Wuhan lab theory needs further study'

A statement signed by the US, Australia and 12 other countries said it was critical the WHO team be given "full access" so they could accurately study the origins of the coronavirus.

The EU statement said the report was a "helpful first step", while regretting the late start of the study and the limited availability of early samples and related data.

A theory pushed by the Trump administration that the coronavirus emerged from a laboratory in Wuhan was described as the least likely hypothesis, but Tedros acknowledged the WHO team said that theory required further study.

"Further data and studies will be needed to reach more robust conclusions," he said.

China's foreign ministry said Beijing had provided "full co-operation" to the WHO team and then repeated a conspiracy theory about the coronavirus leaking from a military lab in America.

"There is still a big question mark over the lab at Fort Detrick," the foreign ministry spokeswoman said.

Meanwhile, China's state-controlled Global Times reported that the virus may have arrived in Wuhan on frozen food brought by foreign participants at the October 2019 Military World Games, a theory with no supporting evidence in the report.

https://www.theaustralian.com.au/world/who-covid19-report-new-zealand-shuts-its-eyes-to-appease-china/news-story/d13e82a36ae8d88fea024beca3bb35b8

#11301541 at 2020-10-27 05:59:30 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #10 - INFORMATION WARFARE Edition

OPINION - Trump goes with his gut, even if the world beyond the US goes belly-up

Peter Hartcher - October 27, 2020

1/2

When Donald Trump hired John Bolton in 2018, he said that some people thought his new national security adviser was a "bad cop". He was invoking the idea that they could deploy the good cop-bad cop routine in managing other countries.

Then Trump delivered the punchline: "The trouble is, we've got two bad cops."

Bolton didn't reject the description. His hardline policy views are even more notorious than his exuberant moustache. But by the time he left the White House a year and a half later, he had a firm view of the essential difference between the "two bad cops".

"I had a world view," Bolton tells me. "And he didn't. He doesn't think in philosophical terms, or in terms of grand strategy, or in terms of policy as we conventionally understand it. That makes him different from all other presidents," says Bolton, who has worked for five now, all Republicans.

"He operates on an ad hoc, gut level, not based on much information, and he changes his position day to day. Domestic political considerations far outweigh the pros and cons of the issues. The best way to understand Donald Trump is that he's an aberration, an ANOMaly. It almost doesn't matter who replaces him. It'll basically return the US to a variation of the foreign policy people have seen since 1945."

But in the event that he's not replaced at next week's election, what should we expect from a second term of Trump? "He could be even more erratic than he was in his first term," says Bolton, because he would not be constrained by the need to consider re-election. US presidents are limited to two terms under the constitution.

America's allies should be uneasy at the thought. "He genuinely finds it hard to understand why we have allies," Bolton says. "And China was the only thing that mattered."

The former US national security adviser and under-secretary of state for arms control and international security says Australia should "count your blessings" that the country wasn't molested by Trump. Many US allies, including Germany, France, Canada and Mexico, were.

"He was within an ace of withdrawing from NATO in 2018," ending the 71-year-old alliance that protects Europe from Russian attack. "I honest to God didn't know what he was going to do.

"The reason Australia didn't get so much more attention is that all Trump cared about across the Pacific was China, China, China. He thought China was benign, except for the trade deficit."

(continued)

#10940940 at 2020-10-06 02:42:34 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #10 - INFORMATION WARFARE Edition

>>10940929

2/2

Interestingly, they appear to be attracting supporters linked to the liberation conspiracy movements such as sovereign citizen groups (SovCits) whose refusal to be fined or wear masks is linked to their belief in unlawful government restrictions, often citing that they are sovereign citizens who do not recognise the government as 'natural people'. Social media platforms have proved to be advantageous for connecting groups to QAnon content and supporters, with new Facebook groups linked to QAnon arising during the pandemic- from Millions Rise for Australia recently taken down by Facebook to the Conscious Truth Network moderated by former Australian soldier James Bartolo who live streamed his arrest.

The Anti-Vax movement in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane attracted big crowds, as did physical and digital protests and new groups being created out of concern about 5G, thought to be part of a wider conspiracy to control the population, again linking with key QAnon sentiments and sometimes even sharing content highly specific to a US audience as a way of bolstering support.

Recent Concerns and Focus by the Australian Government

In early March 2020, Australia's Secret Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) declared that it had noticed an increase in far-right extremism with Mike Burgess, director general of ASIO noting "In suburbs around Australia, small cells regularly meet to salute Nazi flags, inspect weapons, train in combat and share their hateful ideology." However, despite the strong presence of right-wing groups in Australia, and the increased presence on social media during the pandemic, Australia has not listed any right-wing extremists on its terror watch list - an ANOMaly when compared to other countries such as the US and the UK, and certainly the odd one out in the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network.

In September Senator Keneally spoke of the need to ensure that the Federal Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee reviewed the terrorist watch list with a view to ensuring inclusion of right-wing groups that should be seen as a domestic terrorist threat. On 22 September, at a parliamentary inquiry, ASIO noted that far-right extremism actually accounts for nearly 40% of its caseload, a sizeable increase from the 15% it floated in 2016. Whilst there appears thus far to have been a reluctance to proscribe right-wing groups to the domestic terror register, the fact that Twitter permanently suspended a QAnon account belonging to an associate of Prime Minister Scott Morrison may force the government's hand.

https://gnet-research.org/2020/09/24/increased-visibility-of-far-right-movements-in-australia-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/

#10762301 at 2020-09-23 23:49:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #10 - INFORMATION WARFARE Edition

>>10762290

Bill Gates' Family have been working for decades on eugenics to kill you, your kids and grandkids
And they think you're all too dumb to notice
Q #184 They don't hide it. They don't fear you. You are SHEEP to them. You are feeders.
Q #1010 MONEY. POWER. CONTROL. People are simply in the way. SLAVES. SHEEP. PAWNS. MASS EXTINCTION EVENTS DESIGNED TO DECREASE THREAT LEVEL OF POPULATION. YOUR VOICE DOES NOT MATTER. PHARAMA. WATER. AIR. CHEMICALS PUSHED FOR HOME USE [CANCER][BABY ON FLOOR-HANDS IN MOUTH - THE START]

Part 6
https://nationalfile.com/fauci-photographed-with-soros-and-bill-gates-father-who-was-head-of-planned-parenthood/


In addition Gates Foundation monies via CEPI are financing development of a radical new vaccine method known as messengerRNA or mRNA.

They are co-funding the Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech company, Moderna Inc., to develop a vaccine against the Wuhan novel coronavirus, now called SARS-CoV-2. Moderna's other partner is the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Head of NIAID is Dr Anthony Fauci, the person at the center of the Trump Administration virus emergency response. Notable about the Fauci-Gates Moderna coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273, is that it has been rolled out in a matter of weeks, not years, and on February 24 went directly to Fauci's NIH for tests on human guinea pigs, not on mice as normal. Moderna's chief medical adviser, Tal Zaks, argued, "I don't think proving this in an animal model is on the critical path to getting this to a clinical trial...

Add to this the fact that the Gates Foundation and related entities such as CEPI constitute the largest funders of the public-private entity known as WHO, and that its current director, Tedros AdhANOM, the first WHO director in history not a medical doctor, worked for years on HIV with the Gates Foundation when Tedros was a government minister in Ethiopia, and we see that there is practically no area of the current coronavirus pandemic where the footprints of the omnipresent Gates are not to be found. If that is to the good of mankind or grounds to be worried, time will tell."

New Eastern Outlook journal passage ends

The Hill reported:

"Going into a Phase One trial within three months of getting the sequence is unquestionably the world indoor record. Nothing has ever gone that fast," according to Fauci.

While it is uncertain that Moderna's answer is the solution, Fauci notes that the only surefire way to stop an outbreak is to develop a vaccine. Moderna manufactures drugs around messenger RNA molecules that carry instructions to reprogram cells in the body to operate differently and beneficially. Currently, its genetic technology has not created a vaccine for humans.

The first study of the vaccine will take place at NIAID. If it is successful, a second trial would feature closer to hundreds of people. Pending the results of future studies and regulations, the vaccine may not be readily available until next year, Fauci said.

Hill passage ends

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News reported in 2016 on Gates' relationship with Moderna:

"Moderna Therapeutics said today it received an initial $20 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a new affordable combination of messenger RNA-based antibody therapeutics geared toward preventing HIV infection.

The grant is intended for use in the antibody combination's preclinical study and a Phase I clinical trial. Gates Foundation's $20 million funding could potentially grow into a total $100 million commitment-including the HIV antibody project-toward development of additional mRNA-based treatments for various infectious diseases, Moderna said.

"The foundation's mission to help all people lead healthy and productive lives is well aligned with Moderna's mission to deliver on the promise of transformative mRNA science to bring new medicines to patients," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.

Moderna said the development effort would be led by its infectious disease-focused venture company, Valera..."

#10616424 at 2020-09-12 12:09:33 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #9 - Welcome to the Digital Battlefield Edition

>>10616422


Part 4

In addition Gates Foundation monies via CEPI are financing development of a radical new vaccine method known as messengerRNA or mRNA.

They are co-funding the Cambridge, Massachusetts biotech company, Moderna Inc., to develop a vaccine against the Wuhan novel coronavirus, now called SARS-CoV-2. Moderna's other partner is the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Head of NIAID is Dr Anthony Fauci, the person at the center of the Trump Administration virus emergency response. Notable about the Fauci-Gates Moderna coronavirus vaccine, mRNA-1273, is that it has been rolled out in a matter of weeks, not years, and on February 24 went directly to Fauci's NIH for tests on human guinea pigs, not on mice as normal. Moderna's chief medical adviser, Tal Zaks, argued, "I don't think proving this in an animal model is on the critical path to getting this to a clinical trial...

Add to this the fact that the Gates Foundation and related entities such as CEPI constitute the largest funders of the public-private entity known as WHO, and that its current director, Tedros AdhANOM, the first WHO director in history not a medical doctor, worked for years on HIV with the Gates Foundation when Tedros was a government minister in Ethiopia, and we see that there is practically no area of the current coronavirus pandemic where the footprints of the omnipresent Gates are not to be found. If that is to the good of mankind or grounds to be worried, time will tell."

New Eastern Outlook journal passage ends

The Hill reported:

"Going into a Phase One trial within three months of getting the sequence is unquestionably the world indoor record. Nothing has ever gone that fast," according to Fauci.

While it is uncertain that Moderna's answer is the solution, Fauci notes that the only surefire way to stop an outbreak is to develop a vaccine. Moderna manufactures drugs around messenger RNA molecules that carry instructions to reprogram cells in the body to operate differently and beneficially. Currently, its genetic technology has not created a vaccine for humans.

The first study of the vaccine will take place at NIAID. If it is successful, a second trial would feature closer to hundreds of people. Pending the results of future studies and regulations, the vaccine may not be readily available until next year, Fauci said.

Hill passage ends

Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News reported in 2016 on Gates' relationship with Moderna:

"Moderna Therapeutics said today it received an initial $20 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop a new affordable combination of messenger RNA-based antibody therapeutics geared toward preventing HIV infection.

The grant is intended for use in the antibody combination's preclinical study and a Phase I clinical trial. Gates Foundation's $20 million funding could potentially grow into a total $100 million commitment-including the HIV antibody project-toward development of additional mRNA-based treatments for various infectious diseases, Moderna said.

"The foundation's mission to help all people lead healthy and productive lives is well aligned with Moderna's mission to deliver on the promise of transformative mRNA science to bring new medicines to patients," Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel said in a statement.

Moderna said the development effort would be led by its infectious disease-focused venture company, Valera..."

#10052552 at 2020-07-23 06:19:17 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #8 - WE ARE THE CURE Edition

Australia hits out at Chinese hackers, as Pompeo urges global coalition against China

Australia has expressed alarm over Chinese hackers compromising networks across the world for commercial and personal gain, after a US Justice Department indictment alleged a decade-long spree targeting an Australian defence contractor, the personal data of Hong Kong protesters and COVID-19 vaccine researchers.

The joint-statement from the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Home Affairs and the Australian Signals Directorate on Wednesday follows rising animosity between China and Australia's Five Eyes partners, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and New Zealand over the coronavirus crisis, Hong Kong and a military build-up in the South China Sea.

"Of particular concern, these individuals also reportedly targeted COVID-19 research as well as political dissidents, religious minorities and human rights advocates," the Australian government said. "Australia reiterates our call to all countries to refrain from behaviour which violates their international commitments."

On Wednesday night tensions further escalated suddenly after China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the US government had demanded that its Houston consulate cease all operations and events in an "unprecedented escalation of its recent actions".

"It is a political provocation unilaterally launched by the US side, which seriously violates international law, basic norms governing international relations and the bilateral consular agreement between China and the US," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

Hours earlier the US launched an indictment alleging hackers, Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, were contractors for the Chinese government, but not full-time spies, and targeted 25 government and private sector organisations up until April this year. The victims of the hack have yet to be identified publicly.

It's unknown whether the indictment is linked the consulate closure.

In a sign of the increasing gravity of the deteriorating geopolitical situation, Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Defence Minister Linda Reynolds will fly to Washington next week for face-to-face meetings with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defence Mark Esper at the urging of Washington.

The pair, along with their support staff, will undergo two weeks of quarantine when they return. The US set a new daily global record of more than 77,000 coronavirus cases last week.

Pompeo told British MPs on Tuesday that global institutions dealing with an aggressive China were no longer fit for purpose, in part because Australia does not have a leading role in many of them.

"We're going to need the one billion-plus people in India, we're going to need the Australians - it's going to take all of these democracies together," Mr Pompeo said.

Pompeo also hit out at World Health Organisation boss Dr Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus, accusing him of aiding China's initial cover-up of the pandemic, saying that was the reason for "dead Britons" because he has been "bought by the Chinese government".

Pompeo made the remarks in London to an assortment of British MPs at the Millbank headquarters of the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank that is hawkish on China. The society has been instrumental in leading the putsch against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's original approval for Chinese firm Huawei to build Britain's 5G networks.

MPs from all parties, including the Conservative and Labour parties as well as the Liberal Democrats attended the meeting, which was held before the former CIA director met Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

In a separate speech overnight on Tuesday, Mr Esper, the US Defence Secretary, accused the Chinese Communist Party of "systematic rule breaking, corrosion and other malign activities" in the Indo-Pacific.

"The devastating worldwide impact of the coronavirus outbreak reinforces the necessity of a rules-based international order rooted in transparency, openness, honesty and other shared values," he said.

Richard McGregor, a senior fellow at the Lowy Institute, said the battle over the coronavirus in China was never just about public health.

"For the Chinese Communist Party, like everything, it was and remains primarily a contest of politics, in which the party-state benchmarks itself against other governing systems, especially the world's most powerful democracy, and its superpower rival, the US," he said.

(continued)

https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/australia-hits-out-at-chinese-hackers-as-pompeo-urges-global-coalition-against-china-20200722-p55e8t.html

#10041810 at 2020-07-22 06:54:57 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #8 - WE ARE THE CURE Edition

'We're going to need the Australians': Pompeo lays out contest with China

London: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said global institutions trying to deal with an aggressive China are no longer fit for purpose, in part because Australia does not have a leading role in many of them.

And in extraordinary comments, Pompeo has hit out World Health Organisation boss Dr Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus, accusing him of aiding China's initial cover-up of the pandemic, saying that was the reason for "dead Britons" because he has been "bought by the Chinese government".

Pompeo made the remarks in London to an assortment of British MPs at the Millbank headquarters of the Henry Jackson Society, a think tank that is hawkish on China. The society has been instrumental in leading the putsch against British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's original approval for Chinese firm Huawei to build Britain's 5G networks.

MPs from all parties, including the Conservative and Labour parties as well as the Liberal Democrats attended the meeting, which was held before the former CIA director met Johnson and Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab.

A source in the room said MPs asked Pompeo questions, mostly about how Britain could best deal with China, which has struck an aggressive posture since the pandemic.

Britain's own response has hardened as a result with the government suspending its extradition treaty with Hong Kong, extending its arms embargo to the territory, offering 3 million Hong Kongers potential citizenship and blocking Huawei from supplying its 5G networks.

In the meeting, Britain's former deputy prime minister and Conservative backbencher Damian Green asked Pompeo about the likelihood of assembling a global coalition to respond jointly to China to prevent it from steamrolling smaller countries.

Pompeo said any new coalition would need to perform better than the current multilateral institutions such as the United Nations Security Council where China has an automatic veto.

Pompeo said the US had boosted funding to NATO and sent it some of its best China analysts to help Europe better understand the Chinese military and its tactics. He listed the G7 and G20 among the many tools "out there" to try to uphold the international rules-based order.

Australia is a member of the G20 but not the G7; it last sat on the UN Security Council in 2014 and is bidding again for a position in 2029, which is the earliest opportunity because only one country from the Asia-Pacific region is eligible to contest each term.

But Australia's pushback against Chinese interference, including its world-leading ban on Huawei from critical telecoms networks, has earned it a reputation abroad as a pioneer in striking a security posture alongside its economic relationship with the world's second-largest economy. China is Australia's largest two-way trading partner.

"We just have to decide if any of those [multilateral institutions] are fit for purpose … I also think that they're not shaped right for this current confrontation," Pompeo is said to have told MPs.

Pompeo said the US was actively thinking about how to resolve the issue but had not reached an answer. Greater representation was needed from south-east Asia, he said.

"We're going to need the 1 billion-plus people in India, we're going to need the Australians - it's going to take all of these democracies together."

But the most extraordinary response came when Labour MP Chris Bryant pressed Pompeo on the United States undermining the rules-based order with its own actions by quitting the Paris climate accord, World Health Organisation and Human Rights Council.

Pompeo prompted laughter when he coined them the "three sins" but strongly defended quitting the WHO, which he said was a "political" and not a "science-based organisation".

Both the British and US governments are facing fierce criticism for their COVID-19 death tolls. The US has the highest toll in the world, followed by Brazil, India and Russia. Britain is in the top 10 countries to lose the greatest number of people to the disease.

Pompeo did not provide MPs with any evidence to back his claim that Tedros had been "bought" by China.

"When push came to shove, when it really mattered to us, when there was a pandemic in China, Dr Tedros - who was hook line and sinker bought by the Chinese government - and I can't say more but I can tell you I'm saying this on informed intelligence.

(continued)

https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/europe/we-re-going-to-need-the-australians-pompeo-lays-out-contest-with-china-20200722-p55e7u.html

#9261612 at 2020-05-21 08:05:46 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #8 - WE ARE THE CURE Edition

>>9261575
'We stand by Australia,' says Pompeo

Washington | US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unleashed a blistering verbal assault against the Chinese Communist Party, slamming its decision to target Australia with barley tariffs for the "simple act" of asking for an independent probe into the origins of the coronavirus.

"We stand with Australia and the more than 120 nations now who have taken up the American call for an inquiry into the origins of the virus, so we can understand what went wrong and save lives now, and into the future," Mr Pompeo told reporters in Washington on Wednesday (Thursday AEST).

Mr Pompeo, who has become the Trump administration's most-vocal, anti-China critic, let rip with a tirade against Beijing that he said was needed because the media's focus on the current pandemic risks "missing the bigger picture" of China's threat.

"First, basic facts. China's been ruled by a brutal, authoritarian regime, a communist regime since 1949," he said.

"For several decades we thought the regime would become more like us through trade, scientific exchanges, diplomatic outreach, letting them in the WTO as a developing nation."

"That didn't happen."

"We greatly underestimated the degree to which Beijing is ideologically and politically hostile to free nations. The whole world is waking up to that fact."

Mr Pompeo went on to attack Beijing's handling of the coronavirus outbreak, which he says has accelerated the world's "more realistic understanding of communist China".

"The party chose to destroy live virus samples instead of sharing them or asking us to help secure them."

"The Chinese Communist Party chose to threaten Australia with economic retribution for the simple act of asking for an independent inquiry into the origins of the virus. It's not right."

Mr Pompeo's broadside comes a day after the Coalition government won unanimous support at the World Health Organisation's (WHO) annual forum for a probe into the pandemic's origins.

Canberra's push for an inquiry has coincided with a dramatic escalation in China's threats against Australia and its exporters, including last weekend's decision to slap an 80 per cent tariff on imports of barley.

Mr Pompeo also took another shot at the WHO's director-general Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus for excluding Taiwan from this week's World Health Assembly in Geneva.

"I understand that Dr Tedros' unusually close ties to Beijing started long before this current pandemic, and that's deeply troubling," Mr Pompeo said.

Dr Tedros, in his opening remarks at a news conference on Wednesday, made no reference to the WHO resolution's demanding an inquiry into the pandemic's origins.

Instead he focused on its calls for the classification of any vaccines as "a global public good for health".

The omission is likely to further anger his critics inside the White House.

The Trump administration has been critical of Dr Tedros' handling of the crisis and earlier this month President Donald Trump said he has cut funding for the global health watchdog. The US contributes about $US450 million ($684 million) to the WHO's annual $US2.3 billion budget.

Since then the administration has sent mixed signals recently over whether it will restore the money or make its withdrawal permanent, depriving the organisation of resources from its biggest donor just as the pandemic takes off in vulnerable developing economies.

Mr Pompeo also noted a recent US Defence Department (DoD) proposal that would seek to speed up an end to US reliance on China for rare earth minerals that are critical for milliary weapons and systems.

The DoD has reportedly proposed budget legislation that would raise how much it is allowed to spend on rare earth elements in munitions and missiles to as much as $US1.75 billion and US$350 million for microelectronics.

Australian-listed Lynas is one of two companies that have been chosen by the US government to prepare designs for a heavy rare earth metals processing facility on US soil. That decision came several months after Australia and the US government last year agreed to help develop each other's critical minerals.

"You saw … the Department of Defence make announcements about work on rare earth minerals so that, again, we wouldn't be dependent on a nation that has demonstrated its unreliability, its willingness to steal our intellectual property, all the things that, frankly, for decades - and this isn't remotely partisan," Mr Pompeo said.

"Democrat presidents, Republican presidents all just turned the other way because of 1.5 billion people and the opportunity for enormous markets, and this hope, this hope that engagement would lead to a change in the behaviour of the Chinese Communist Party.

"It didn't happen."

(continued)

https://www.afr.com/world/north-america/we-stand-by-australia-says-pompeo-slamming-chinese-retribution-20200521-p54uyq

#8894024 at 2020-04-23 08:22:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #7 - FIRE & FURY Edition

Aussie and US cyber spooks issue joint anti-web shell malware guidance

Atlassian products commonly exploited.

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) and the United States National Security Agency (NSA) intelligence agencies have jointly published guidance to help organisations counter the threat from so-called web shells, or malware that is planted on servers for computer network exploitation.

ASD and NSA said web shell malware is a long-standing pervasive threat that is difficult to detect as it continues to evade many security tools.

Web shell malware such as "China Chopper" that was used in the theft of Australian defence contractor plans in 2017 can be deployed on systems by exploiting web application vulnerabilities, or by uploading malicious code to compromised systems.

The intelligence agencies warned that it is a common misperception that only internet facing systems are targeted for web shells.

"Attackers frequently deploy web shells on non-internet facing web servers, such as internal content management systems or network device management interfaces. Internal web applications are often more susceptible to compromise due to lagging patch management or permissive security requirements," ASD and NSA cautioned.

With web shells in place, threat actors can use the malware as persistent backdoors into systems, or as relay nodes to route commands for attacks of other systems, ASD and NSA said.

Discovering web shells can be difficult but a defence-in-depth approach that uses multiple detection capablities is most likely to find the malware, the security agencies said.

The guidance is available to the public [pdf] and provides sample scripts and log queries for detecting ANOMalies in systems, as well as network traffic signatures to spot common web shells.

ASD and NSA listed eleven applications that if unpatched, contain commonly targeted and exploited vulnerabilties.

Microsoft SharePoint and Exchange Server, multiple Citrix products, Adobe ColdFusion, the WordPress Social Warfare plugin as well as Zoho ManageEngine Service Desk Plus and Desktop Central, and the Progress Telerik UI contain vulnerabilties that should be patched on internal and internet-facing systems to avoid being infested with web shells, ASD and NSA advised.

Atlassian's Confluence Server, Confluence Data Centre, Crowd and Crowd Data Centre are also in attackers' cross-hairs with three exploitable vulnerabilties available that should be patched.

Five-Eyes intelligence sharing alliance members USA, United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand have long warned about Advanced Persistent Threat actors and criminal groups using web shells as exploitation vectors, but they continue to be a menace for government and private organisations.

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/aussie-and-us-cyber-spooks-issue-joint-anti-web-shell-malware-guidance-547098

—

Hacked Aussie Defence firm lost fighter jet, bomb, ship plans

Oct 12 2017

Reconstructing 30GB breach of highly sensitive documents.

A hacked Australian Defence subcontractor lost 30GB of "commercially sensitive" documents on projects including the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program and the P-8 Poseidon "submarine killer" plane, as well as detailed designs of Australian Navy ships.

The government only disclosed the hack on Tuesday and has so far offered scant details.

But the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) yesterday revealed a far more detailed post-mortem of its investigation into the hack in a presentation to the AISA national conference in Sydney.

ASD incident response manager Mitchell Clarke revealed that the attacker managed to gain "full, unfettered access to the environment" of the victim.

It is believed the attacker was "an APT [advanced persistent threat] group or nation state group".

The ASD dubbed the attacker "APT Alf" after the Alf Stewart character in Australian soap opera Home & Away. "He's just an angry dude," Clarke said.

The victim was described as an Australian aerospace engineering firm "four levels of subcontracting down" from primary contractors to local and US Defence agencies, including Boeing and Lockheed Martin.

It was unclear exactly who the subcontractor had been working for.

The company had been vetted to work on US military projects through a scheme known as International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), though Clarke noted the vetting process is not particularly thorough.

Most of the 30GB of data that APT Alf managed to exfiltrate related to high-profile allied Defence projects.

The data included sensitive details of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) project being pursued by the US and its allies, including Australia.

(continued)

https://www.itnews.com.au/news/hacked-aussie-defence-firm-lost-fighter-jet-bomb-ship-plans-475211

#8893943 at 2020-04-23 08:05:25 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #7 - FIRE & FURY Edition

>>8881647
Britain backs Morrison's call for probe into coronavirus' China origins

London: Britain Defence Secretary Ben Wallace has thrown his support behind an international investigation into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic.

An inquiry would focus on China's early cover-up of the pandemic and the World Health Organisation's own role in alerting the world to the health emergency.

Australia and the United States are pushing for an inquiry - Australia wants the WHO's powers beefed up so it can enter affected countries to make objective and first-hand assessments of emerging threats.

Australia's Prime Minister spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel this week.

Macron has been critical of China's early response, telling the Financial Times last week that "there are clearly things that have happened that we don't know about". But most leaders of the European Union have demonstrated little appetite for criticising China, which has showered virus-beleaguered states with medical aid as part of its mask-diplomacy push.

However, in Britain, increasing numbers of Conservative MPs are pushing the government to take a tougher line on China.

Wallace appeared at a hearing of the Commons defence select committee, chaired by Conservative MP Tobias Ellwood, who asked if the minister would support an international inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus.

"We should seek to have an inquiry, we should seek to get to the bottom of this," Wallace told MPs.

"The world will require transparency, the world will require cooperation. This is more than a once-in-a-generation event, it is important for whatever governments we're in to learn lessons. I'd support that, and we'll judge how people respond to the request."

The UK's Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said last week that there was no doubt it would not be "business as usual" with China after the pandemic subsides.

This tough new stance is a recent change: in January, the UK allowed the Chinese firm Huawei to supply its 5G networks, despite fierce opposition from its Five Eyes intelligence partners Australia and the US.

Australia's support for an international inquiry has angered China.

Late on Tuesday, the Chinese embassy to Australia accused MPs of falling into line behind US President Donald Trump.

"They are keen to parrot what those Americans have asserted and simply follow them in staging political attacks on China," the embassy said.

The White House has been fiercely critical of China and the World Health Organisation and has withdrawn funding from the UN agency.

In Washington overnight, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo accused Beijing of covering-up the pandemic.

"We strongly believe that the Chinese Communist Party did not report the outbreak of the new coronavirus in a timely fashion to the World Health Organisation," he said. "It did not share all of the information it had. Instead, it covered up how dangerous the disease is."

WHO declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30 and a pandemic on March 11. On Thursday, Director-General Tedros AdhANOM Ghebreyesus said his timing was correct.

"Looking back I think we declared the emergency at the right time and when the world had enough time to respond," he said.

https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/britain-backs-morrison-s-call-for-probe-into-coronavirus-china-origins-20200423-p54mds.html

—

Prime Minister Scott Morrison Tweets

I also had calls yesterday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President @EmmanuelMacron. We talked about the @WHO and the need for greater international cooperation in response to pandemics, including a vaccine, and as we recover from this global crisis.

https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1252863003445178370

—

We also discussed the hits to our economies and the need to push a trade-led recovery of the world economy, including working through the G20. We're all committed to working together to fight this virus and on the recovery on the other side.

https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1252863005672390658

#8881647 at 2020-04-22 05:30:43 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #7 - FIRE & FURY Edition

Scott Morrison calls Donald Trump to discuss holding the WHO to account for pandering to China over the coronavirus pandemic - and says US and Australia are 'best mates'

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has spoken to President Donald Trump about how the World Health Organisation can 'improve' after both leaders criticised how it dealt the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr Morrison called Mr Trump at around midday on Wednesday (AEST) and later tweeted about the conversation.

He said they discussed strategies to relax coronavirus restrictions and also the WHO's response to the deadly virus which has infected 2.5million people globally.

The WHO has come under fire for being slow to declare a pandemic, telling nations not to shut their borders and praising China's response despite the country's attempt to cover-up the spread of the disease by silencing whistleblowers.

President Trump accused the organisation of being 'China-centric' and vowed to cut funding.

Mr Morrison has also criticised the WHO - particularly over its refusal to ban wet markets - but has said Australia will not walk away from funding the organisation.

In his tweets after the call, Mr Morrison wrote: 'We had a very constructive discussion on our health responses to #COVID19 and the need to get our market-led and business-centred economies up and running again.

'We also talked about the WHO and working together to improve the transparency and effectiveness of international responses to pandemics.

Mr Morrison signed off by praising Australia's relationship with the United States.

'Australia and the US are the best of mates and we'll continue to align our efforts as we work towards the recovery on the other side of this virus,' he wrote.

It comes after the Chinese Embassy in Canberra accused Australian politicians of sucking up to the US.

A spokesman accused Home Affairs Minster Peter Dutton of blindly following US orders to join a 'propaganda war' against China after he said the country should be 'transparent' about the origins of the virus.

Last week US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo demanded China 'come clean' after unsubstantiated reports that coronavirus may have originated in a lab in Wuhan.

Mr Dutton on Friday said China should 'answer those questions' before foreign affairs minister Marise Payne called for an inquiry.

A Chinese Embassy spokesman said Australian politicians were 'pitiful' and lacked independence.

In dealing with the coronavirus, the Australian government has been one step ahead of the WHO since even before it reached Australian shores on 25 January.

That week, while the WHO director-general was busy saying China should be 'congratulated' for protecting 'the people of the world', the Australian government was hatching a national plan to stop the virus.

On February 1, when there were 14,000 recorded cases in the world, Australia banned flights from China.

Two days later, on February 3, the WHO was still telling countries not to initiate travel bans.

Director-General Tedros AdhANOM stood up in front of the world's media and said there was no need for measures that 'unnecessarily interfere with international travel and trade'.

In the same press conference he called the spread of the virus 'minimal and slow' and heaped praise on China for locking down Wuhan.

'If it weren't for China, the number of cases outside China would have been very much higher,' he said.

(continued)

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8243705/Scott-Morrison-Donald-Trump-discuss-improve.html

—

Prime Minister Scott Morrison Tweets

Just got off the phone with US President @realDonaldTrump. We had a very constructive discussion on our health responses to #COVID19 and the need to get our market-led and business centres economies up and running again.

https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1252785723830226944

—

We also talked about the @WHO & working together to improve the transparency & effectiveness of international responses to pandemics.

Australia & the US are the best of mates & we'll continue to align our efforts as we work towards the recovery on the other side of this virus.

https://twitter.com/ScottMorrisonMP/status/1252785725549842432

#8632656 at 2020-03-31 07:05:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #7 - FIRE & FURY Edition

Australia rolls out COVID-19 vaccine trial for healthcare workers

Australia will roll out a randomized clinical trial of a vaccine aimed at protecting healthcare workers from the COVID-19 coronavirus, Melbourne researchers announced on Wednesday.

Professor Kathryn North AC, Director of the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne, announced its infectious disease researchers are preparing to roll-out a multi-centre randomised controlled clinical trial of the BCG vaccine against COVID-19.

Director-General of the WHO, Tedros AdhANOM, who has called for global support and assistance in the fight against COVID-19, has endorsed the trial.

"Australian medical researchers have a reputation for conducting rigorous, innovative trials," Professor North said. "This trial will allow the vaccine's effectiveness against COVID-19 symptoms to be properly tested, and may help save the lives of our heroic frontline healthcare workers."

The BRACE trial Led by Professor Nigel Curtis, a clinician-scientist who leads MCRI's Infectious Diseases Research Group, builds on previous studies which showed that BCG reduces the level of virus when people are infected with similar viruses to SARS-CoV-2.

"We hope to see a reduction in the prevalence and severity of COVID-19 symptoms in healthcare workers receiving the BCG vaccination," Professor Curtis said "We aim to enroll 4000 healthcare workers from hospitals around Australia, including the Melbourne Campus' Royal Children's Hospital to allow us to accurately say whether it can lessen the severity of COVID-19 symptoms. And we need to enrol them in the coming weeks, so the clock is definitely ticking."

Originally developed against tuberculosis, and still given to over 130 million babies annually for that purpose, BCG boosts humans' 'frontline' immunity, training it to respond to germs with greater intensity.

The researchers hope this improved 'innate' immunity will provide crucial time to develop and importantly, validate, a specific anti-SARS-CoV-2 vaccine.

There are currently no vaccines or other proven preventative therapeutic interventions available to protect health care workers at the frontline exposed to the COVID19 virus.

The proposed trial is based on an existing MCRI trial, which has allowed rapid but thorough human ethics approvals, and involves sites across Australia. The first sites to be announced are The Royal Children's Hospital and Monash Medical Centre. More sites are expected to be announced in coming days.

"The Federal and State Health Departments, together with Australian and international philanthropists, have shown a willingness and capacity to step up to fund a number of COVID-19 related trials," Professor North said. "Using rapidly sourced and immediately deployable funds, we will be relentless in our pursuit of preventions and treatments for this unprecedented pandemic. These trials will allow the rapid advancement of the most promising candidates to clinical practice, giving us the most number of shots on goal against COVID-19 as possible."

Australia has reported 4,245 COVID-19 cases as of March 30, 2020, 19:00 GMT, with 18 fatalities.

There are 770,165 confirmed cases of the Wuhan coronavirus globally, with an official death toll of 36,938.

https://thinkpol.ca/2020/03/30/australia-rolls-covid-19-vaccine-trial-healthcare-workers/

—

BCG vaccination to Reduce the impact of COVID-19 in Australian healthcare workers following Coronavirus Exposure (BRACE) Trial

What is BRACE?

Healthcare workers are at increased risk of contracting COVID-19, caused by SARS-CoV-2. Currently, there are no vaccines or proven preventative interventions available to protect healthcare workers.

The Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine is designed to protect against tuberculosis (TB). However it also boosts immunity to protect against other infections. The purpose of the BRACE trial is to find out whether BCG vaccination protects against COVID-19 or reduces severity or COVID-19 in Australian healthcare workers.

…..

Project Details

Healthcare workers are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19 pandemic. There is currently no vaccine for COVID-19, so protection of health care workers relies on the use of personal protective equipment. When healthcare workers are sick and unable to come to work, this puts extra pressure on the healthcare system.

The results of this trial will help us find out whether, in future novel viral outbreaks, BCG vaccination could be used as an early intervention to protect healthcare workers and other high-risk groups.

This project is a collaboration between our Campus Partners MCRI, Melbourne University and the Royal Children's Hospital.

(continued)

https://www.mcri.edu.au/BRACE

#8183810 at 2020-02-19 15:51:01 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #7 - FIRE & FURY Edition

Government considering bringing foreign cyber spy powers onshore to hunt Australian paedophiles

Australia's premier foreign cyber intelligence agency would be enlisted to help track down online paedophiles, terrorists and other serious criminals under a proposal being developed by the Federal Government.

The ABC understands the change could allow the Australian Federal Police (AFP) to call for assistance from the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) or extend the cyber capability of the AFP.

The ASD, whose motto is to "reveal their secrets, protect our own", is restricted under legislation to hacking, disrupting and destroying foreign criminal cyber activity.

The agency is banned from spying or hacking into online systems based in Australia.

This means that if cyber spooks working for ASD come across cybercriminal activity within Australia, its work must immediately stop, no matter how serious the offence.

For example, the ASD can hunt down sexual predators using overseas networks, but it cannot spy on them if the server is based in Australia.

"At the moment, if there is a server in Sydney that has images of a five- or six-month-old child being sexually exploited and tortured, then that may not be discoverable, particularly if it's encrypted and protected to a point where the AFP or the ACIC can't gain access to that server," Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton told the ABC.

"It can be a different picture if that server is offshore, so there is an ANOMaly that exists at the moment."

It is understood that the Government wants agencies to be able to develop cyber expertise or to enlist the skills of ASD by relaxing the restrictions governing the agency's remit.

While he wouldn't back the proposal outright, Mr Dutton made it clear he wants change.

"What I think is that there should be a public debate about whether we think it's acceptable for our society to tolerate the presence of these criminal networks right next door to us and yet we have no ability to do anything about it," he said.

…..

The AFP received 17,000 referrals for online child exploitation material last year, compared to just 300 a decade ago.

A referral doesn't mean a single image of a child, but potentially thousands of videos and pictures of children being sexually abused.

Security agencies argue that the online world, especially the largely ungoverned "dark web", protects those attempting to do harm and interception laws have not kept up.

Publicly, the agencies and Mr Dutton have complained that warrants allowing agencies to use ASD are too restrictive and criminal networks onshore are operating with impunity.

Mr Dutton wants to bring online warrants into the 21st century to keep up with evolving technology that has made it easier for criminals to hide.

He is pushing for the online warrants to mirror the process police are able to use when searching a house.

"I want to make sure that if they [the police] can get a warrant from a court and go to a paedophile's house and search that house for material ... I want to make sure we have the same power to do that in the online life of that paedophile. Nothing more, nothing less," Mr Dutton said.

AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw said "perverted offenders" were using the dark web to evade law enforcement and commit "heinous crimes".

"We are seeing more videos, younger children ... we are seeing the rape and torture of our children, all for sexual gratification," he told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

The search powers of AUSTRAC, the nation's financial intelligence unit that tracks money laundering and financial terrorism, allow it to conduct wide-ranging searches within strict rules to gather intelligence on an individual or group.

Mr Dutton has referred to those powers as an example of what security agencies hunting paedophiles online could have.

"[AUSTRAC chief executive Nicole Rose] has the ability to look at millions of transactions, to look for payments made from an Australian paedophile to a syndicate in the Philippines that is sexually abusing children," he said.

"She can look at the transactions and put together an intelligence picture. Nobody is asking for any more than that ... it's a debate worth having."

(continued)

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-02-19/powers-for-asd-spy-dark-web-australians/11980728

#7474253 at 2019-12-10 19:52:32 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #6 - YEAR OF THE BOOMERANG Edition

>Facepalm
Sorry i hit "new reply" too soon…
The point is that saturn has a hexagon at its north pole and bizarre ANOMalies throughout it's entire planetary system. Beware the evils of hubris and ego in these rabbit holes, anons. Don't end up like Bryan Crusius. Be best.

#6672499 at 2019-06-04 23:08:10 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #5 - Shill count HIGH Edition

Exposing The Lawlessness Of Assange's 'Slow Assassination'

With the news that Julian Assange is "wasting away" in Belmarsh prison hospital, and with UN rapporteur Professor Nils Melzer's report detailing how this happens, I'm once again drawn towards the lawlessness that all "authorities" involved in his case have been displaying, and with impunity. They all apparently think they are literally above the law. Their own laws.

But they can't be, nowhere, not above their respective national laws nor the international ones their countries have signed up to. They can't, because that would instantly make any and all laws meaningless. So you tell me where we find ourselves today.

There's this paragraph in an article by Jonathan Cook entitled Abuses Show Assange Case Was Never About Law, which lists "17 glaring ANOMalies in Assange's legal troubles", that sums it all up pretty perfectly:

Australia not only refused Assange, a citizen, any help during his long ordeal, but prime minister Julia Gillard even threatened to strip Assange of his citizenship, until it was pointed out that it would be illegal for Australia to do so.

See, Cook is already skipping a step there. Gillard didn't take Assange's citizenship away, because that is against Australian law, but it's just as much against Australian law for a government to let one of its citizens rot in some kind of hell. Still, they did let him rot, but as an Australian citizen. At that point, what difference does anything make anymore?

This is a pattern that runs through the entire Assange "file", and it does so to pretty astonishing levels. Where you're forced to think that the countries involved effectively have no laws, and no courts, because if they did, the actions by their governments would surely be whistled back by parliaments or judges or someone, anyone. They're all essentially lawless.

There are 5 principal countries involved in the case (that doesn't absolve any other country from its own responsibility for speaking out when international laws are broken). In alphabetical order, they are Australia, Ecuador, Sweden, the UK and the US. We can go through them in that order.

Moar>>
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-01/exposing-lawlessness-assanges-slow-assassination

#5975545 at 2019-03-30 08:10:34 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #4 - Q Goes Down Under Edition

Microsoft researchers find NSA-style backdoor in Huawei laptops - 2019 Article

The Microsoft Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) service featured in Windows 10 version 1809 alerted researchers to an NSA-inspired backdoor vulnerability in Huawei laptops.

The PC Manager software included in some Huawei's Matebook systems allows unprivileged users to create processes with superuser privileges, according to a March 25 Microsoft security post.

Upon investigation, researchers found a driver containing components that run with ring-0 privileges in the kernel.

"We traced the ANOMalous behavior to a device management driver developed by Huawei," researchers said in the post. "Digging deeper, we found a lapse in the design that led to a vulnerability that could allow local privilege escalation."

This type of vulnerability is similar to a technique used in the NSA's DOUBLEPULSAR that was leaked by the Shadow Brokers back. In 2017 hackers attacked scores of computers with malware inspired by the exploit following the NSA data leak.

Researchers who reported the vulnerability to Huawei said the company responded and cooperated quickly and professionally. A patch was released earlier this year on Jan. 19.

Earlier this week, the European Union ignored recent calls from the U.S. to ban Huawei products out of fear of Chinese cyberespionage, as the EU rolled out its 5G security guidelines.

https://www.scmagazine.com/?p=95139

So not only is China buying all the AUs companies, facilities and land it can lay its hands on, ignoring IP laws and producing cheap quality knock-offs of Aus patented products, but also shown once again that even so called private Chinese companies are actively spying on the populus and cannot be trusted

#5918157 at 2019-03-27 07:00:24 (UTC+1)
Q Research AUSTRALIA #3 - March MADNESS Edition

>>5879979

It's so very easy to claim it was a psy-op with CGI and crisis actors, that is until you actually consider the vast complexity of pulling that off, when it's much more likely the man was part of a coordinated mass killing in order to push several agendas. You don't get the entire NZ muslim population showing up a funerals and talking between one another and keep a hoax scandal from going public. All the video ANOMalies can be explained, shills are the ones who are claiming fakery, when it was a Mossad operation. >>5843323

I'm certain if we did deep enough we will find ties to him and Mossad. The whole operation stinks of their involvement. NZ Muslim leaders are not buying it either.