Good morning,
Breaking
Shamima Begun may not be a name you recognize, but at age 15 she left the UK as a teenager and went to Syria to marry a member of ISIS and fight for the caliphate. The British Gov’t stripped her of her citizenship and she had launched a series of court appeals from the Syrian refugee camp where she is still fighting to return to The UK. Today, a British high court just ruled on national security grounds she cannot appeal and return to Britain, which has implications for many other ISIS fighters who were recruited in Europe. Message - go and join an illegal terrorist organization, and then fight against your own Countries interests … don’t expect to ever come home again. Shamima is now 24 years old. Britain has revoked the citizenship of at least 150 others on similar grounds.
U.S. Airstrike
President Biden drew a line in the sand with Iran, by ordering airstrikes along the Syria-Iraq border Thursday. It’s not anything you will remember, but Iran will, and that’s important as the U.S. tries to discuss renewing the Iran nuclear agreement terms, while at the same time showing Iran it won’t stand for any aggression against U.S. troops or interests in the region, and it show’s Biden is prepared to be a strong leader and will deploy U.S. military assets when he needs to.
On Feb. 15 Iranian militias attacked an Erbil, Northern Iraq with rockets killing a Filipino contractor with the American-led military coalition and wounding six others, including an American National Guard soldier and four American contractors.
The U.S. has now dropped seven 500 pound bombs into Syria targeting Iranian militia’s, and announced “a handful of them” had been killed in the strikes. The strikes were coordinated with Iraqi forces. Whats remarkable is the U.S. now only has 2500 troops in Iraq, at so-called “well protected bases” but will use air strikes to enforce U.S. interests and allies.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/us/politics/biden-syria-airstrike-iran.html
Tony Blair
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has criticized the response to the pandemic by Britain, but also other Countries saying months could have been cut months from the Covid crisis, if Nations had worked together to develop and deploy vaccines better.
Blair urged the UK to take the lead in developing a new “health security infrastructure” that would ensure countries coordinate better in identifying emerging new threats and he also spoke of better testing and manufacturing of vaccines and treatments.
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/feb/26/blair-says-collaboration-on-covid-could-have-cut-three-months-off-crisis
Former U.S. Ass. Secretary of Defense Andy Weber also warns that the U.S. needs to develop better early warning systems to detect biological threats, and be in a better position to counter them, as this pandemic should be a wake up call to Nations whose vulnerabilities have been laid bare by covid19. We discuss that and the source of the outbreak in China on Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/6565870
Germany/ Asta Zeneca Vaccine
German officials have expressed reservations about the efficacy of the Astra Zeneca vaccines, and as a results people are refusing to take it. So much so that of the 1.4 million doses of the vaccine, only 240,000 have been given. Germany initially spread concerns about the vaccine for over 65’s because of a lack of testing data.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/germans-covid-astrazeneca-oxford-vaccine-b921196.html
Queen and Covid
Now the 94 yr old Queen has come out to encourage British citizens to “think about other people” before refusing vaccines. (Obviously encouraged by The Gov’t to do so)
https://news.sky.com/story/covid-19-think-about-other-people-queen-speaks-out-on-vaccine-hesitancy-12229060
"Once you've had the vaccine you have a feeling of, you know, you're protected, which is I think very important.
"As far as I could make out it was quite harmless. It was very quick, and I've had lots of letters from people who have been very surprised by how easy it was to get the vaccine. And the jab - it didn't hurt at all."
18 million people in the UK have now had the vaccines, including those most at risk aged over 70. Vaccines are being given to people in their 60’s in the coming week.
Gaga Dog-Napping
Lady Gaga’s dogs have their own instagram pages, and are famous as far as French bulldogs go they are famous. Now even more so after her dog walker was held up, shot in the chest, and the two of Gaga’s three dogs, Gustav and Koji grabbed off the street by two people who then fled in a van. Miss Asia, the third dog managed to escape as the dog walker lay on the side walk crying out in pain and asking for help.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/lady-gaga-dog-walker-shooting-video-shows-how-two-men-jumped-out-of-car-and-shouted-e2-80-98give-it-up-e2-80-99/ar-BB1e1I8x
Lady Gaga who is away filming in Europe, has offered a 500 thousand dollar reward for her dogs, no questioned asked if returned. By the way, dog thefts are hitting record numbers during the pandemic, as more dogs are wanted as lockdown friends, and criminals see them as a target. In Britain alone, crimes of dog thefts have soared 90 per cent.
Russia and Amnesty
Amnesty International has been tricked into holding a video conference with someone they thought was a representative of jailed opposition figure Alexei Navalny. The pranksters known as Vovan and Lexus, posed as top Navalny aide Leonid Volkov.
The tricksters called Amnesty and got them to admit their decision to strip Navalny of his prisoner of conscience title, may have been ill advised or at least they admit it caused damage. Amnesty did so because of past published comments of Navalny’s interpreted to be nationalist and anti-immigrant . Amnesty said however it will continue to push for Navalny’s release after he was poisoned with a nerve agent last summer, and returned to Russia to face what many say are bogus fraud charges designed to silence him as Putin’s fiercest critic.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2021/02/25/russian-pranksters-trick-amnesty-heads-in-navalny-prisoner-of-conscience-call-a73076
Trump
Brace for impact, as former President Trump will speak to the annual conference known as CPAC revered by Republican politicians. Trump is again expected to repeat his lies about the election fraud, and we may hear more on his plans to run in 2024 as well as criticism of President Biden’s immigration policies and the halt work order on Trumps wall.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-to-speak-at-cpac-in-first-post-white-house-appearance/2021/02/20/cd3c8f26-73e4-11eb-8651-6d3091eac63f_story.html
Despite that, have a great weekend everyone.
Dana
P.S. - this letter is to help people navigate through news and tap main stream news sources, instead of getting drawn into conspiracy news sites and disinformation. That’s why I give you at least one source with every story.
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