Beijing, Shenzhen scrap COVID-19 tests for public transport

 Chinese authorities on Saturday announced a further easing of COVID-19 curbs with major cities such as Shenzhen and Beijing no longer requiring negative tests to take public transport.

The slight relaxation of testing requirements comes even as daily virus infections reach near-record highs, and follows weekend protests across the country by residents frustrated by the rigid enforcement of anti-virus restrictions that are now entering their fourth year, even as the rest of the world has opened up.

The southern technological manufacturing center of Shenzhen said Saturday that commuters no longer need to show a negative COVID-19 test result to use public transport or when entering pharmacies, parks and tourist attractions.

Meanwhile, the capital Beijing said Friday that negative test results are also no longer required for public transport from Monday. However, a negative result obtained within the past 48 hours is still required to enter venues like shopping malls, which have gradually reopened with many restaurants and eateries providing takeout services.

The requirement has led to complaints from some Beijing residents that even though the city has shut many testing stations, most public venues still require COVID-19 tests.

Despite easing measures, authorities said that the “zero-COVID” strategy — which aims to isolate every infected person — is still in place.

On Saturday, Beijing authorities said that because the current round of COVID-19 was spreading fast, it is necessary to “unswervingly continue to implement normalized social prevention and control measures.”

The government reported 33,018 domestic infections in the past 24 hours, including 29,085 with no symptoms.

As the rest of the world has learned to live with the virus, China remains the only major nation still sticking to a “zero-COVID” strategy. The policy, which has been in place since the pandemic started, led to snap lockdowns and mass testing across the country.

China still imposes mandatory quarantine for incoming travelers even as its infection numbers are low compared to its 1.4 billion population.

The recent demonstrations, the largest and most widely spread in decades, erupted Nov. 25 after a fire in an apartment building in the northwestern city of Urumqi killed at least 10 people.

That set off angry questions online about whether firefighters or victims trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other anti-virus controls. Authorities denied that, but the deaths became a focus of public frustration.

The country saw several days of protests across cities including Shanghai and Beijing, with protesters demanding an easing of COVID-19 curbs. Some demanded Chinese President Xi Jinping step down, an extraordinary show of public dissent in a society over which the ruling Communist Party exercises near total control.

Xi’s government has promised to reduce the cost and disruption of controls but says it will stick with “zero COVID.” Health experts and economists expect it to stay in place at least until mid-2023 and possibly into 2024 while millions of older people are vaccinated in preparation for lifting controls that keep most visitors out of China.

While the government has conceded some mistakes, blamed mainly on overzealous officials, criticism of government policies can result in punishment. Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, who plays for a Chinese team, was recently fined 10,000 yuan ($1,400) for criticizing conditions in team quarantine facilities, according to local media reports.

On Friday, World Health Organization emergencies director Dr. Michael Ryan said that the U.N. agency was “pleased” to see China loosening some of its coronavirus restrictions, saying “it’s really important that governments listen to their people when the people are in pain.”

https://apnews.com/article/health-travel-business-beijing-fa1c43206ebd6d75a4de4b8cc8d75a59

"Highly Experimental And Unproven": Scientist Tells Judge Transgender Treatments For Minors High Risk

 by Janice Hisle via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

When a researcher begins with a conclusion, then looks for data to support that, “it’s a danger to all of science,” Dr. Paul Hruz, a St. Louis physician-scientist told a federal judge.

Yet Hruz said he has seen this disturbing pattern recur in recent years, as he examined studies purporting to prove the benefits of hormones and surgeries as treatments for gender-conflicted youths.

“It is erroneous to say that we identified an effective solution that maximizes benefits and minimizes risk,” Hruz testified Dec. 1 in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.

Assailing the poor quality of research about gender-transition medical treatments for minors, and raising concerns about the risk of harm, Hruz said: “There are major, major questions that remain.”

Hruz, a pediatric endocrinologist and researcher, also called the procedures “highly experimental” and “unproven.”

He was the final witness to testify during a trial that is testing the nation’s first law banning hormones and surgeries for “gender-transition” of minors.

Judge Faces Big Decision

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit seeking to throw out the 2021 Arkansas law, alleging it is unconstitutional.

The ACLU of Arkansas has denounced the law as part of a “hateful attack” on LGBT youths seeking “medically necessary care.”

But the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office is defending the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, asserting that the state has a compelling interest to protect vulnerable children from medical interventions that can cause permanent harm, including ongoing health problems and sterility.

No dates have been set for attorneys to file final written briefs—the final pieces of the puzzle for Judge James Moody Jr. to consider before he issues a ruling. His decision could influence the way other states and courts respond to controversies surrounding similar legislation.

Moody will be considering two weeks’ worth of testimony that began with witnesses the ACLU called in mid-October. After a month-long recess, the trial resumed on Nov. 28 with witnesses testifying on behalf of the SAFE Act.

Treatments ‘Disrupt’ Healthy Process

During the last day of testimony on Dec. 1, Dylan Jacobs, deputy solicitor general for the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office, systematically questioned Hruz to share his extensive knowledge about treatment of “gender dysphoria,” or gender-related distress, among adolescents.

Based on his 25 years as a pediatric endocrinologist, along with 10 years of intensely researching gender dysphoria, Hruz said he would never prescribe puberty-blockers or cross-sex hormones without solid scientific studies showing that they do more good than harm.

Endocrinologists are dedicated to “restoring the body to its natural state of health” by correcting hormonal imbalances or deficiencies, he said.

Thus, Hruz objects to using hormones for gender dysphoria, and disrupting a normally functioning, healthy endocrine system.

6,000 Sex-Based Differences

Jacobs pointed out that ACLU witnesses described puberty blockers as a harmless “pause button.” Not so, Hruz said.

Puberty blockers prevent sex-specific changes, including easily observed ones such as breast development in girls and testicle development in boys. But inside the body, many other changes are also occurring during adolescence; the impact of interfering with those changes remains largely unknown, which is troubling, Hruz said.

“It is impossible to turn back time. So, once you’ve blocked puberty… you cannot buy back the time when that physical process has been disrupted,” Hruz said.

He also said credible studies show that, if left alone, many transgender-identifying youths will likely revert to their biological sex. But if put on puberty blockers, 98 percent of the youths will go on to take cross-sex hormones.

Flooding a person’s body with hormones of the opposite sex can cause myriad unknown effects, he said, noting that there are more than 6,000 sex-specific genetic differences between males and females.

In addition, it’s unclear how the combined effects of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones could affect young people in the long run, Hruz said.

Rapid-Fire Answers

In instance after instance, Hruz enumerated specific problems with studies that claim hormones or surgeries benefited youths with gender dysphoria.

“Despite the claims that are made about the efficacy of the affirmative approach, the evidence is insufficient to make that conclusion,” Hruz said.

With near-encyclopedic detail, Hruz fired off answers so quickly that the court stenographer struggled to keep pace. Moody repeatedly asked him to speak more slowly.

At one point, the judge became so frustrated, he threatened to stop the witness from further testimony unless Jacobs found a way to get Hruz to slow down his statements.

Hruz moderated his pace but continued speaking authoritatively as he testified for more than three hours under Jacobs’ questioning.

Generally, when considering medical treatment options, “The higher the risk, the lower the quality of evidence, the more caution that is used,” Hruz said.

Yet, with gender-affirming care, that principle seems not to apply, he said.

He couldn’t remember seeing any other medical treatments so strongly recommended despite such poor-quality evidence.

Another “unique” feature of this debate: The existence of gender dysphoria hinges on the patient’s self-reported identity and desires, Hruz said. There is no way to “test the accuracy of that condition,” he said.

https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/highly-experimental-and-unproven-scientist-tells-judge-transgender-treatments-minors

Former FTX US President Is Seeking Funds for Crypto Startup

 Brett Harrison, who was president of FTX's U.S. division until September, is attempting to raise capital to fund a new cryptocurrency startup, The Information reported.

He is trying to raise $6 million while valuing the company, which aims to build crypto trading software for large investors, at $60 million, according to the report.

Harrison didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/12/02/former-ftx-us-president-is-seeking-funds-for-new-crypto-startup-report/

Nigeria's President Says West-Supplied Weapons In Ukraine Are 'Filtering' Into Africa

 The Nigerian government says that foreign-supplied weapons transferred from the West to the Ukrainian government have begun to proliferate in the west African region. The illegal arms have begun to "filter" to the region, Nigeria's president said.

An urgent warning was recently issued by President Muhammadu Buhari himself. An official statement posted to the website of the Nigerian presidency's office said that Buhari "urged more vigilance and tightening of security around borders, drawing attention to the increased number of arms, ammunition, and other weapons from the Russia and Ukraine war in the Lake Chad Basin."

It marks the clearest confirmation yet that weapons intended for Ukrainian forces are exiting the country in large numbers, precisely as many observers feared given the billions of dollars worth of arms that have been pumped in over the course of the nine-month war.

President Buhari said, "Regrettably, the situation in the Sahel and the raging war in Ukraine serve as major sources of weapons and fighters that bolster the ranks of the terrorists in the Lake Chad Region. A substantial proportion of the arms and ammunition procured to execute the war in Libya continues to find its way to the Lake Chad Region and other parts of the Sahel."

He continued, "Weapons being used for the war in Ukraine and Russia are equally beginning to filter to the region."

"This illegal movement of arms into the region has heightened the proliferation of small arms and light weapons which continues to threaten our collective peace and security in the region. There is, therefore, the urgent need for expedited collaborative actions by our border control agencies and other security services to stop the circulation of all illegal weapons in the region," Buhari noted.

Critics of the massive US weapons pipeline to Ukraine have long pointed out there's no accountability or appropriate tracking once those arms enter the country, presenting ripe opportunities for criminals, terrorists, or lucrative black market arms sellers to take advantage. 

In October, Finland began warning it too is seeing West-supplied weapons to Ukraine make their way to different countries, and falling into the hands of criminal gangs.

NBI, which is Finland's federal National Bureau of Investigation, had sounded the alarm at the time, saying in a statement, "We've seen signs of these weapons already finding their way to Finland." 

"Weapons shipped [by various countries] to Ukraine have also been found in Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands," NBI Detective Superintendent Christer Ahlgren was quoted in the Finnish media as saying

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nigerias-president-says-west-supplied-weapons-ukraine-are-filtering-africa

J&J unit says does not intend to bid for Horizon Therapeutics

 Johnson & Johnson unit Janssen Global Services said on Saturday that it does not intend to make an offer for biotech company Horizon Therapeutics Plc.

Last month, Horizon Therapeutics - which has a market capitalization of about $18 billion - said it was in talks with Amgen Inc, Sanofi and Janssen Global Services.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/j-j-unit-says-does-223106419.html

Detransitioner: ‘I’m suing the doctors who removed my healthy breasts’

 “Sometimes in the shower, I realize they’re gone. I just have these scars.”

Camille Kiefel, 32, had her healthy breasts removed in 2020 to align with her nonbinary gender identity. She says her doctors approved the surgery after two Zoom meetings, breezing past a whole host of mental health issues.

Now that Camille is in a better place mentally, she realizes her surgery was a mistake. So, two and a half years later, she’s suing her social worker, therapist, and the gender clinics they work for — Brave Space Oregon and Quest Center for Integrative Health — seeking up to $850,000 in damages.

As a child, Camille never gave her gender identity a thought. But when her best friend was raped by a relative in sixth grade, she said she became acutely aware of her femininity. Around that time her father also imparted well-meaning advice that backfired.

Kiefel during a period in her 20s when she identified as non-binary following coursework in gender studies at Portland State University.

Courtesy of Camille Kiefel

“My dad told me about how men talked about girls, because he wanted to protect me and to get me to dress more conservatively,” she told The Post. “But it made my anxiety worse. All that really screwed me up. I remember I was even afraid to be alone.”

From that point on, she began dressing more androgynously. “I didn’t want to highlight my curves. I had a lot of discomfort around my breasts and hips.”

Images of Kiefel from her childhood, a period in which she paid little attention to gender until a friend was sexually assaulted in the sixth grade.

Dina Avila for NY Post

But the idea that she might not actually be a woman didn’t occur to Camille until she enrolled at Portland State University, where she minored in gender studies and was introduced to alternative views about sex and gender.

By the time she reached her mid-20s, she embraced a nonbinary label and used she/they pronouns. All the while, she was struggling with a slew of mental-health issues, including anxiety disorder, social anxiety, PTSD, major depressive disorder and ADHD.

Kiefel in a candid shot just before her breast removal surgery in August 2020.

In the depths of the pandemic in 2020, Camille, then 30, was still struggling and thought gender-neutral top surgery could ease her mental-health issues. “I was so dysfunctional, and I just wanted something that was going to help me,” she recalled. “I thought I would be happier.”

She got a referral to a major gender clinic in Oregon, where she talked to doctors via Zoom twice — once in May and once in July, each time for about an hour. And that was all it took. She said she never saw anyone in person before she had her breasts removed on Aug. 28. (Brave Space Oregon and Quest Center for Integrative Health did not respond to requests for comment.)

Kiefel’s double mastectomy took place under the supervision of a pair of Oregon gender clinics, Brave Space Oregon and Quest Center for Integrative Health (above).

Google Maps

Complications were almost immediate. She said she experienced trouble swallowing and scopolamine poisoning from a patch on the back of her ear meant to treat nausea, which caused her pupils to dilate for months post-surgery.

All of a sudden, she said the doctors who approved of her surgery and validated her feelings left her in the lurch. “Doctors took me seriously up until surgery, but after I developed all these complications, I noticed they stopped taking me seriously,” Camille said. “I was on my own at that point.”

Another image of Kiefel during her non-binary period, when she also suffered from anxiety disorder, social anxiety, PTSD, major depressive disorder and ADHD.

Courtesy of Camille Kiefel

And, while she hoped the procedure would help her mental health, she wasn’t quite so sure when she saw the final result: “I remember when the doctor took the bandages off, I felt kind of mixed.”

In the ensuing months, Camille got her mental and physical health in order, and once again identifies as a female. She said she now sees the situation from a more stable viewpoint.

The feminist organization the Women’s Liberation Front is helping Kiefel mount her lawsuit against the groups and individuals who green-lit her surgery.

“There’s nothing to transition to as nonbinary,” Camille said. “There’s no third sex out there. It’s just based on a feeling that this would be a good fit for you. It’s a designer surgery but I didn’t think of it at the time . . . It’s a weird Frankenstein surgery that they’re doing.”

In retrospect, she noticed just how much her doctors had overlooked when they approved her procedure. She told them about the trauma she experienced when her friend was raped and her emotional struggles. Yet she was still given a green light to remove her breasts.

Kiefel is following in the footsteps of British detransitioner Keira Bell, who has sued Tavistock, the center that performed her medical transition.

FACUNDO ARRIZABALAGA/EPA-EFE/Shu

Bell transitioned from female to male during her late teens. Five years after undergoing a double mastectomy at age 20, she decided to detransition back to female.

“The doctors are under this gender ideology as well, so there’s this sort of idea that you can have mental illness and be trans,” she explained. “It’s almost like a confirmation bias and they didn’t really look into it.”

Her dating life has also been impacted. Recently, a partner broke up with her when they found out she doesn’t have breasts. And, although Camille would like to have children one day, she will never be able to breastfeed.

Although she now identifies as a woman, Kiefel no longer has breasts and will be unable to breastfeed if she has children.

Dina Avila for NY Post

“I still get sad about that,” she said. “It’s depressing what happened. I had this radical surgery, and now I’ll always deal with the consequences.”

Camille is being represented by Jackson Bone LLP in her legal battle in Oregon State Court and is being supported by the feminist organization Women’s Liberation Front.

She hopes that taking the case to court will prevent history from repeating itself.

Many people “who should not be getting these surgeries are getting these surgeries,” she said. “There are underlying health issues that are being overlooked. People like myself are slipping through the cracks.”

https://nypost.com/2022/12/03/detransitioner-im-suing-the-doctors-who-removed-my-healthy-breasts/

Former top intel chiefs silent after Musk Twitter disclosures

 America’s top former intelligence officials were mostly mum Saturday after the release of internal Twitter documents detailing how The Post’s bombshell revelations were censored by the social media company.

Leon Panetta, a former CIA director and defense secretary, John Brennan a former CIA director, Mike Hayden, a former CIA director, and Jim Clapper, a former director of national intelligence — who all once said The Post’s reporting had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” — declined or did not respond to request for comment about whether the latest disclosures had changed their opinion.

A public statement was made in regard to the Hunter Biden emails.

The quartet made their allegations as part of an open letter denigrating The Post’s reporting as Russian misinformation which was signed by dozens of other longtime intelligence hands.

“Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case,” the letter read. “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”

Of the four, only Clapper has ever publicly addressed the letter, offering a vigorous defense to The Post in March.

James Clapper and other former intelligence officials were silent after the release of internal Twitter documents detailing how The Post’s bombshell revelations were censored.

AFP via Getty Images

“Yes, I stand by the statement made AT THE TIME, and would call attention to its 5th paragraph,” he said referring to an area of the letter where the signatories admit they do not have any material evidence of Russian involvement. “I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate.”

Another letter signer, John Sipher, former CIA senior operations officer, responded on Twitter by retweeting a post from NBC reporter Ben Collins, dismissing the significance of the files.

“What Elon Musk’s Twitter files have revealed so far is that content moderation at Twitter WAS being decided by a team of people with differing viewpoints. Now it’s being decided by the richest man on Earth with an axe to grind against one political party — a true scandal,” Collins mocked. 

Leon Panetta, a former CIA director, and defense secretary declined to respond about whether the latest disclosures changed his mind.

Getty Images

John Brennan, a former CIA director, once said The Post's reporting had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."

NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via

Mike Hayden, a former CIA director, has not commented on the latest disclosures.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Other letter signatories The Post reached out to including Douglas Wise, a former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director, Nicholas Rasmussen, a former National Counterterrorism Center director and Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA senior operations officer did not respond to request for comment.

Steven L. Hall, a former CIA senior intelligence officer and Don Hepburn, a former national security executive also did not respond to a request for comment.

https://nypost.com/2022/12/03/former-top-intel-chiefs-silent-after-musk-twitter-disclosures/