90 Miles From Tyranny

Sunday, February 21, 2021

Wuhan Lab Kept NIH Funding Despite Trump Crackdown

Chinese lab collected hundreds of thousands from U.S. taxpayers

Federal records show the U.S. government is partnering with the Wuhan Institute of Virology even though the Trump administration pledged to ban funding for the Chinese laboratory located at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak.

President Donald Trump promised that he would "end" public funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology during an April 17 press conference. Despite his promise, the National Institutes of Health has left untouched a 2019 neuroscience research grant that disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Chinese laboratory, according to a federal expenditure database. The NIH earmarked most of the $4.3 million grant to U.C. Irvine, which the California public university used to funnel $216,108 in taxpayer money to a Wuhan Institute of Virology researcher as a "sub-grant."

The Trump administration previously cracked down on a different U.S.-based group that occupied a similar intermediary role between the NIH and the Chinese lab. The Trump-era NIH temporarily stopped funding a bat coronavirus research project managed by New York-based environmental nonprofit EcoHealth because nearly $600,000 of the $3.7 million grant went toward the Chinese institute. The NIH later reinstated some of the funding after intense blowback from academics but imposed hefty conditions on its usage that EcoHealth said would "effectively block" it from finishing the bat coronavirus research project.

U.C. Irvine also funneled some of its NIH grant money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, but the California university appears to have been spared the funding restrictions imposed on EcoHealth: The database shows that the U.C. Irvine project remains fully funded to this day. The taxpayer-funded grant supported the publication of two academic articles, including one that was published months after Trump pledged to suspend government funding for the Chinese lab.

Justin Goodman, vice president of the White Coat Waste Project, a government watchdog group, said the U.S. government should suspend all ties to the Chinese laboratory.

"Shipping U.S. tax dollars to a notorious CCP-run animal laboratory lab … is a recipe for...

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Former President Donald Trump will speak in his first major public appearance since leaving the White House at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) taking place in Orlando, Florida, next week.

Trump, who has not appeared at any major event since giving his final speech on January 20 prior to President Joe Biden’s inauguration, will speak on the last day of the event, on Sunday, February 28, Fox News first reported.

Trump in his speech will discuss the future of the Republican Party, a source told the outlet, and will also criticize Biden’s “disastrous amnesty and border policies.”

The former president has been mostly quiet since leaving office and relocating with his family to Florida and has, moreover, been unable to use social media as a means to communicate with his supporters after Twitter permanently banned him from its app and Facebook, likewise, indefinitely suspended him following the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Trump also laid low as the House impeached him a second time over claims he incited an “insurrection,” in reference to the riot, and while the Senate held a trial to convict him for the claimed offense. The upper chamber acquitted him, 57–43, last Saturday.

The former president released a statement the day of his acquittal saying he plans to “emerge with a vision for a bright, radiant, and limitless American future,” a comment that coincides with his plans to talk about the direction of the conservative movement at the conference next week.

“Our historic, patriotic and beautiful movement to Make America Great Again has only just begun,” he said in the statement. “In the months ahead I have much to share with you, and I look forward to continuing our incredible journey together to achieve American greatness for all of our people. There has never been anything like it!”

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Gimme three steps, Mister

Gimme three steps towards the door
Gimme three steps
Gimme three steps, Mister
And you'll never see me no more, for sure

Sudanese migrant kills manager of asylum reception center in Pau, France

Known to the police for acts of violence, the attacker had just been denied his refugee status. He had already been in prison in France.

It was a terrible tragedy that took place at the Reception Centre for Asylum Seekers (CADA) in Pau, the capital of the department of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in the region of Nouvelle-Aquitaine. At the end of the morning, on Friday, February 19, a migrant from the Isard COS reception centre in the city attacked an official of the centre with a knife, reported BFMTV. The 46-year-old father died soon after.

The motivation of the assailant, a 38-year-old Sudanese man, remains unknown for the time being. He was arrested in the wake of the murder and taken into police custody.

Pau, France

According to the television channel, he had just been refused his refugee status by Ofpra. He was known to the police for acts of violence and has already been in prison. In 2017, he was convicted twice for acts of violence with a weapon. “He even had problems during his detention. There was no criminal follow-up and we have come to this tragedy,” the departmental secretary of the Alliance national police union of the Pyrenees-Atlantiques Daniel Domengé told the broadcaster.

“The director wanted to receive him and unfortunately this individual attacked him and stabbed him several times, resulting in the death of this poor man who was only doing his job,” Domengé added. Arriving on the spot, the police discovered the victim “lying on the ground in his office and presenting wounds which can be likened to blows given with a knife […] mainly on the thorax,” the public prosecutor of Pau said, detailing the gruesome scene.

On Twitter, the Minister of the Interior sent his “most sincere condolences to the family of the victim and his relatives,” and announced that he would go to Pau “at the end of the afternoon to meet the staff of the association as well as elected officials”. According to information from BFMTV, an investigation was opened by the Pau prosecutor’s office and entrusted to departmental security.

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Race and gender in hiring are two keys to financial success for top McDonald’s executives, according to the company as it sets its course for the future.

A press release on the McDonald’s website says that part of the bonuses awarded to top company executives will be based upon their efforts to hire women and what the company terms “historically underrepresented groups” for top corporate positions.

“Beginning in 2021, the Company is incorporating quantitative human capital management-related metrics to annual incentive compensation for its Executive Vice Presidents,” the company said.

“In addition to the Company’s financial performance, executives will be measured on their ability to champion our core values, improve representation within leadership roles for both women and historically underrepresented groups, and create a strong culture of inclusion within the Company,” the company said.

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