Good morning it’s Friday and what a week it’s been
Russia
I was a correspondent in Moscow for more than 12 years. I have met with Putin in the Kremlin, and I have traveled the country across it’s 11 time zones. I have a sense of Russia and what matters. So this is grabbing my attention and it should grab your’s too if you watch Int. News.
Alexei Navalny who in Aug. was poisoned with a nerve agent by Russia agents, acting on orders from high ranking Russian officials and quite likely Putin himself, was jailed when he came home from Germany last weekend. This weekend he has called for protests against Putin. He is not to be under estimated because when Putin came to power internet penetration in Russia was about 18 percent. It is now about 80 per cent so people get news, that is outside the sphere of the Kremlin programmed national news channels. They see whats happened to Navalny, and posts on tik tok etc have had millions of views.
Is the Kremlin nervous? You bet, and that’s why they have jailed Navalny on a silly fraud case, and NOW are seeking a 13 yr sentence. And NOW they are rounding up members of Navalny’s anti corruption foundation trying to silence opposition. Ths past week the foundations released photos of a palace Putin has built on The Black Sea. A gigantic facility costing more than a billion dollars they say. It smacks of corruption money and sheds Putin in an extremely negative light at a time most Russians are struggling to get through the pandemic in a challenging economy. The protest are Saturday. Watching…
https://meduza.io/en/feature/2021/01/21/police-arrest-navalny-s-associates-in-moscow-ahead-of-planned-opposition-rallies
Covid
This week I have heard a friend died of Covid here in London. Another family hurt by deep loss. So sorry for people going through this. Scientific advisors to the Gov now admit that quite likely when a lockdown was ordered days before Christmas we were already in the middle of a peak of virus spread. We have 3.5 million cases and 94,500 deaths. The highest per million in the world. The UK should have, could have closed airports in the summer and largely eliminated the virus. P.M. Boris Johnson instead encouraged people to go to pubs and socialize in limited numbers. Here we are with schools closed across the nation and no idea when they will reopen. Hospitals are jammed with patients, and the scenes horrendous from doctors and nurses over worked and under staffed.
https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/it-s-scarier-bigger-uk-hospitals-overwhelmed-by-second-covid-19-wave-1.4462488
Just now in The U.S. where deaths are 413,000, comparable to WW2 losses, Dr. Fauci appeared on CNN this morning, and said he think’s American’s could reach some kind of herd immunity by late summer-fall. And now that America has a new President Fauci is free to speak out.
https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/22/world/covid-19-coronavirus?type=styln-live-updates&label=coronavirus%20updates&index=0
Johnson and Johnson will soon report on their vaccine in development. Moderna and Pfizer boast 90-95% effectiveness. The J&J shot will be one dose but needs to be close to that level to be accepted widely.
Fauci talked about to race against the. new variants. On Back Story we also discussed this in depth.
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7078915
No Time To Die
That’s the name of the latest Bond film again to be delayed from release because movie theatres are largely closed and online release is not preferred.
Did you know that up to 80 per cent of movie theatres could fail. Back Story with Dana Lewis did a super interesting segment on this, and we recommend you check out the podcast here:
https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/6286834
Bee’s
Bee’s give life of so many plants and flowers and we need them out working to pollinate. But, the use of certain pesticides are according to a new study disrupting their rest. And that means they work less and it will effect our plants we use to feed livestock and ourselves. Bee’s are down in population 30% from a century ago.
And these insecticides are still being used in some countries.
https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/neonicotinoid-pesticide-ban-kill-bees-sleep-b1790577.html
Have a good weekend everyone.