Today's news in a nutshell
Updated: Jul 21, 2021
July 21st Edition
The Epoch Times Articles - click to jump to section
ELECTIONS
BREAKING: Evidence To Soon Be Presented To Citizens Grand Jury Of Interstate Conspiracy To Manufacture/Harvest Counterfeit Ballots For Use In 2020 Election
PA
PENNSYLVANIA COUNTY REFUSES TO HAND OVER VOTING MACHINES IN FRAUD INVESTIGATION
FAUCI
Rand Paul Asks DoJ To Investigate Fauci For Lying To Congress
He’s Culpable. He’s Lying About It. And He Needs to Be Held Accountable” – Sen. Ron Johnson Says It’s Time to Go After Fauci for Funding Gain-of-Function Research, Lying About It Under Oath (VIDEO)
COVID
House Democrats Block Bill to Declassify Intel on Origins of COVID-19 Virus in Wuhan Lab
Follow the money: American Academy of Pediatrics guidance on masks makes little sense…until you look at their donors
JAN 6TH
BREAKING: Pelosi rejects Reps Jim Jordan and Jim Banks for Jan 6 committee—McCarthy pulls all GOP picks
Republicans abandon Capitol riot probe after Pelosi rejects Jordan, Banks
Pelosi had earlier rejected Representatives Jim Jordan and Jim Banks, staunch defenders of former President Donald Trump, from serving on the panel investigating the Trump supporters who assaulted Congress in an attempt to stop it from certifying President Joe Biden's election.
"With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee," Pelosi said in a statement. “The unprecedented nature of January 6th demands this unprecedented decision."
ARRESTS
Jeffrey Epstein Associate David Mitchell Is Subpoenaed in Ongoing Case in US Virgin Islands
US Charges 4 Chinese Nationals Working With Spy Agency In Global Hacking Campaign
Antifa rioter convicted of felony arson for throwing IED at officer, setting Portland police building on fire
HACKING
House GOP calls for Biden to sanction China over hacks
[Forwarded from Durov's Channel] Telegram CEO
The phones of 50,000 individuals, including human rights activists and journalists, have been targeted by surveillance tools (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/18/revealed-leak-uncovers-global-abuse-of-cyber-surveillance-weapon-nso-group-pegasus) that were used by numerous governments. These tools can hack any iOS and Android phone, and there is no way to protect your device from it. It doesn't matter which apps you use, because the system is breached on a deeper level.
According to the Snowden revelations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_surveillance_disclosures_(2013%E2%80%93present)) from 2013, both Apple and Google are part of the global surveillance program that implies that these companies have to, among other things, implement backdoors into their mobile operating systems. These backdoors, usually disguised as security bugs, allow US agencies to access information on any smartphone in the world.
The problem with such backdoors is that they are never exclusive to just one party. Anybody can exploit them. So if a US security agency can hack an iOS or Android phone, any other organization that uncovers these backdoors can do the same. Unsurprisingly, this is exactly what has been taking place: an Israeli company called NSO Group (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/18/revealed-leak-uncovers-global-abuse-of-cyber-surveillance-weapon-nso-group-pegasus) has been selling access to the spying tools that allowed third parties to hack tens of thousands of phones.
Since at least 2018, I have been aware that one of my phone numbers was included in a list of potential targets of such surveillance tools (although a source from the NSO Group denies (https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/21/telegram-founder-pavel-durov-listed-spyware-targets-nso-leak-pegasus) it). Personally, I wasn't worried: since 2011, when I was still living in Russia, I’ve got used to assuming that all my phones were compromised. Anyone who gains access to my private data will be utterly disappointed – they will have to go through thousands of concept designs for Telegram features and millions of messages related to our product development process. They won't find any important information there.
However, these surveillance tools are also used against people far more prominent than me. For example, they were employed to spy on 14 heads of state (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/20/emmanuel-macron-identified-in-leaked-pegasus-project-data). The existence of backdoors in crucial infrastructure and software creates a huge challenge for humanity. That's why I have been calling upon the governments of the world to start acting against the Apple-Google duopoly in the smartphone market and to force them to open their closed ecosystems and allow for more competition.
So far, even though the current market monopolization increases costs and violates privacy and freedom of speech of billions, government officials have been very slow to act. I hope the news that they themselves have been targeted by these surveillance tools will prompt politicians to change their minds.
NATURE DISASTERS
3 Colorado highways, including I-70 through Glenwood Canyon, closed by flooding, mudslides
Southern Oregon's Bootleg Fire Grows To Nearly 400,000 Acres
Why West Coast Fires Are Producing Smoke & Bad Air On The East Coast
Western wildfire smoke causes cross-country air pollution
Germany counts cost of floods as hopes of finding survivors fade
At least 25 dead as rains deluge central China's Henan province
DACA
TRUMP
MISC
THE EPOCH TIMES ARTICLE
Spike in Death Reports Following COVID-19 Vaccination Caused by a Mistake: CDC
A sudden jump in the post-COVID-19 vaccination death reports is not correct and was the result of an “error,” according to a U.S. health agency.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday said a passive reporting system it runs with the Food and Drug Administration had received 12,313 reports of death among those who received a COVID-19 vaccine.
That was a sharp increase from the previous number of reports, 6,079.
The jump would have effectively doubled the percentage of post-vaccination death reports, from 0.0018 percent to 0.0036 percent.
But a CDC spokeswoman told The Epoch Times the number the agency has displayed on its website is not correct.
“It is double what it was yesterday and so it definitely is incorrect,” the spokeswoman said. “We checked our stats internally and it’s only 6,000. So someone doing an update misrepresented that or made a mistake, in other words.”
“We caught it this morning ourselves and noticed that it had doubled suddenly,” she added.
The spokeswoman was unable to say when the error would be fixed. “It’s being worked out,” she said.
Investigative journalist Alex Berenson first reported on the number in question, which stems from reports submitted to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
“The new figure means CDC has now received more reports of deaths following Covid vaccination than ALL OTHER VACCINES COMBINED IN THE 30-YEAR HISTORY OF VAERS,” he wrote on Twitter.
“We don’t know at this point why the number of death reports in the system doubled in a week. Probably the answer is not a new surge in deaths, but older deaths being added to the system. But given VAERS’s importance as a monitoring mechanism, CDC must explain quickly,” he added.
According to the CDC, VAERS received 6,079 reports of death as of July 12. A review by The Epoch Times of the system on Wednesday afternoon showed 5,913 deaths.
The system accepts reports from anybody but is relied upon by health officials for rapid adverse event detection.
Health officials describe the system as “a national early warning system to detect possible safety problems in U.S.-licensed vaccines,” and reports to it have helped officials learn about severe side effects like heart inflammation and blood clots among those who have gotten COVID-19 vaccines.
As of Tuesday, over 186 million Americans had received at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose, according to the CDC.
COVID-19 is the disease caused by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus.
Republicans Threaten Boycott of Jan. 6 Panel After Pelosi Rejects 2 GOP Choices
Republicans indicated on July 21 that they may boycott a select House committee formed to investigate the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach, after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said she wouldn’t accept two GOP lawmakers tapped for the panel by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.).
Pelosi rejected Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), both of whom had objected to 2020 electoral results during the joint session of Congress held on Jan. 6.
“With respect for the integrity of the investigation, with an insistence on the truth and with concern about statements made and actions taken by these Members, I must reject the recommendations of Representatives Banks and Jordan to the Select Committee,” Pelosi said in a statement.
McCarthy told reporters on Capitol Hill that Pelosi’s move was unprecedented.
“Speaker Pelosi has taken the unprecedented step of denying the minority party’s pick for the select committee,” he said. “It’s an egregious abuse of power. Pelosi has broken this institution.
“This panel has lost all legitimacy,” McCarthy said.
While Pelosi said she would accept McCarthy’s other three recommendations, Republicans are likely to boycott the panel in light of her decision.
“Unless Speaker Pelosi reverses course and seats all five Republican nominees, Republicans will not be party to their sham process,” McCarthy said in a statement.
GOP members said they would have fought to get answers about how ill-prepared the U.S. Capitol Police and other agencies were on Jan. 6.
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) walks into the U.S. Capitol in Washington on July 20, 2021. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“She knows that we were prepared to fight to get to the truth, to find the facts about what happened on that day, to make sure that Jan. 6 would never happen again,” Banks said.
Pelosi announced the formation of the panel after Republicans in the Senate blocked a bill that would have created a 9/11-style commission to investigate the breach. Every Democrat and two Republicans voted last month to create the select committee.
Pelosi later named seven members, all Democrats except for Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.). Several objected to electoral votes in 2017, Republicans noted.
Pelosi gave McCarthy the opportunity to name five representatives to the committee. In addition to Banks and Jordan, McCarthy recommended Reps. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), Kelly Armstrong (R-N.D.), and Troy Nehls (R-Texas).
Pelosi said the panel was set up to “investigate and report upon the facts and causes of the terrorist mob attack on the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
“It will also be charged with reporting its findings, conclusions, and recommendations for preventing future attacks,” she said.
No one has been charged with terrorism in the breach. More than 500 people have been charged with crimes including obstruction of Congress, assault, and disorderly conduct. One man was sentenced to eight months in jail this week for entering the Capitol and waving a flag.
Cheney told reporters outside the Capitol later on July 21 that “there must be an investigation that is nonpartisan, that is sober, that is serious, that gets to the facts, wherever they may lead.”
“And at every opportunity, the minority leader has attempted to prevent the American people from understanding what happened to block this investigation,” she said, adding that she backed Pelosi’s move.
North Carolina State Board of Election Denies Audit Request
Citing overriding federal authority under the Cyber and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the North Carolina Board of Elections (BOE) has denied a North Carolina House Freedom Caucus (HFC) request to examine voting machines.
Chairman of the caucus, Rep. Keith Kidwell (R-Beaufort), told The Epoch Times that although there is a statute that requires state employees to comply with requests for data from the North Carolina General Assembly, Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the elections board, declined the request to inspect voting equipment used in the November 2020 election in a July 7 letter.
During a July 15 press conference, Kidwell said the HFC had been responding to public concern regarding transparency in the election process.
Before the denial, the HFC met with the BOE twice, and Kidwell added that Elections Systems & Software (ES&S), the largest election vendor for North Carolina, agreed to provide access to three voting systems it manufactures.
At the time, ES&S indicated that they would be willing to take any inspected system at a randomly selected precinct by the HFC and recertify the equipment so that there would be no cost to the BOE or county, Kidwell said.
ES&S, he said, “seemed eager” to have the inspection to relieve the public concerns about the equipment.
“We would not invade, compromise, or damage the machines,” Kidwell said in the press conference. “The only thing that would happen is the ES&S service technician would open, show us and allow us to see that there are no modems in the machines.”
According to Bell, in her statement to the HFC, neither ES&S nor the machines manufactured by Hart InterCivic (Hart) have modems, which are prohibited by state law.
After speaking with ES&S officials, Bell said in the statement that “they [ES&S] were unaware of any commitment by the company to take any accessed machines back to their headquarters for recertification.”
ES&S didn’t respond immediately to The Epoch Times in request for a statement.
Critical Infrastructure
CISA, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, classifies voting equipment as “critical infrastructure,” Bell said.
She included a letter from Geoff Hale, director of the Election Security Initiative (ESI) at CISA, in which he said “allowing unknown, unauthorized, or inexpert actors” to access the machines could risk damage and manipulation, which would compromise the security of the equipment.
Bell said that the BOE would not “partake in, nor perpetuate, myths and falsehoods about voting systems or elections.”
Kidwell said he wouldn’t classify members of the General Assembly as “unknown, unauthorized, or inexpert actors.”
The goal of the HFC is to show the public that voting equipment is not a problem, Kidwell said.
“I want to point out that first, we seek transparency in the election process,” Kidwell said. “The North Carolina House Freedom Caucus believes that every legal vote should be counted, but not a single illegal vote should be counted.”
The HFC has made no false or “misleading statements about the machines, processes, or staff,” Kidwell said.
“In fact, we have sent out press releases and made social media post that clearly stated we thought—from what we had seen to date—our system did not have modems, and appeared to be secure,” Kidwell said.
Up until the statement from Bell, Kidwell said the HFC had been “impressed by the cooperation” from the BOE.
“Now we’ve hit a wall,” Kidwell said in the press conference. “That wall—they’re seemingly hiding behind. Miss Bell, tear down that wall, unless you have something to hide.”
The BOE told The Epoch Times that it’s not aware of a statute that allows a member of the General Assembly access to voting machines.
Because county boards of elections are legally responsible for the voting equipment, access must be restricted to prevent tampering, said the BOE.
North Carolina General Statute 120-19 states that “all officers, agents, agencies and departments of the State are required to give any committee of either house of the General Assembly, or any committee or commission whose funds are appropriated or transferred to the General Assembly or to the Legislative Services Commission for disbursement, upon request, all information and all data within their possession, or ascertainable from their records.”
“Here is the key,” Kidwell said. “This requirement is mandatory.”
Kidwell added that, at this point, he’s not asking for a “full-blown audit,” which is what took place in Arizona when Florida-based tech firm Cyber Ninjas performed a months-long forensic audit.
Last week, Arizona’s GOP-led state Senate held a hearing in which Cyber Ninja CEO Doug Logan spoke, telling senators that, among other discrepancies, auditors could find no record of the county sending more than 74,000 mail-in ballots.
After the hearing, some Republicans called for Arizona’s 11 electors—who went for Biden—to be recalled, to which Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, said that the state Senate can’t recall electors.
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