News Round-Up: Biden Extends Pfizer and Moderna Covid Immunity Shield, German Police Raids Teenager’s Home for a TikTok Post and Global Use of Coal for Energy Hits New Record

Every week, the editorial team of Freedom Research compiles a round-up of news that caught our eye, or what felt like under-reported aspects of news deserving more attention.

Over the past week, the following topics attracted our attention:

• Biden extends Pfizer, Moderna Covid vaccine immunity shield.

• German police raids teenager’s home for a TikTok post.

• Global use of coal for energy hits new record in 2024.

• Majority of people in the UK receive more benefits than they pay taxes.

• PR firms used to spread pro-China propaganda.

Biden extends Pfizer, Moderna Covid vaccine immunity shield

The outgoing Biden administration has quietly extended a measure that protects Covid vaccine makers from being sued for injuries or deaths until 2029, Daily Mail reports. The protection will apply in the event of injury or death caused by the vaccine. This kind of liability protection also applies to hospitals and health care professionals who have injected the vaccines.

Officials at the Health and Human Services (HHS) say this is necessary because there is still 'a credible risk' the pandemic spirals out of control in the next four years. The Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act was initially enacted in 2020, in part to encourage vaccine manufacturers to speed up their research of Covid vaccines without fear of being held legally responsible for issues like side effects. In May 2023, the protection against legal action was extended to hospitals and healthcare professionals.

The outgoing Biden administration extended the protection of Covid vaccine makers by saying that the pandemic might return. How is this even relevant? Photo: Adam Schultz/Wikimedia Commons.

The move could anger the incoming Trump administration, which has nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr to head the HHS. RFK Jr has been holding a critical stance towards vaccines for a long time and brought it into public attention that there are links between vaccines and autism. Now he heads up a movement attempting to make vaccine manufacturers more accountable for vaccine injury claims.

The Biden administration's decision offends a growing number of Americans who have been harmed by the Covid vaccine, but have largely been ignored. Figures from the national programmes that were set up to compensate the vaccine-injured show that 13,000 claims have been filed for injuries caused by Covid vaccines or Covid drugs. Of these, 10,000 remain pending, meaning that only around 3,000 claims have been processed since 2020.

Similar to the US, other countries, including the EU, introduced the same kind of liability protection schemes for vaccine manufacturers. Access to public funds aimed at compensating the ones harmed by these vaccines has been similarly difficult everywhere. At the same time, vaccine manufacturers themselves made hundreds of billions of dollars or euros during the crisis. We have written more about the matter here.

German police raids teenager’s home for a TikTok post

German police raided the home of a 14-year-old boy in Bavaria after he allegedly posted the hashtag #AllesFürDeutschland, which translates in English to “Everything for Germany” to TikTok, Remix News writes. The police stated that the term is a symbol used by an unconstitutional organisation, which violates Section 86a of the German criminal code. The story, which was first reported by Junge Freiheit, details how the teen posts from the TikTok channel “deutscher.patriot1161.” The alleged crime was committed in November, when the teen posted the hashtag #AllesFürDeutschland twice, which was used by the SA during the Nazi era.

The search warrant describes the police raid as “proportionate and “appropriate for the seriousness of the crime”. It also indicates the youth was mature enough “at the time of the crime” to understand the wrongfulness of his posts and acted “in accordance with this understanding.”

In Germany, police might raid your home if you post something online deemed offensive or hateful. Photo: l&d/Wikimedia Commons.

The teen in question, however, has said that he did not know the term “Everything for Germany” was banned under the German criminal code.

During the search, police searched the rooms of two teenagers, the other being the older brother of the accused, and photographed various items, including personal documents, email addresses, telephone numbers, and books. A phone was also seized as a “tool used in the crime.” The brother was also questioned by police during the house search. The two brothers have no criminal record with the police.

We have written more on how German police treats online ‘hate incidents’ and how homes of citizens are raided because of them, here.

Global use of coal for energy hits new record in 2024

The global use of coal for energy will increase by 1% this year to 8.77 billion tonnes, which is a new record. More than half of this amount is used by China.

A fresh report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) highlights that while growth in coal use has slowed compared to previous years, there are understandable reasons for this. For example, growth in 2021 was 7.7%, but that was on the back of a deep decline a year earlier – the Covid crisis that started in 2020 led to a sharp fall in economic activity, which meant that less energy was consumed. In 2022, global coal use rose by 4.7% and by 2.4% in 2023.

Together with this year's increase, the world will produce a total of 10,700 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity from coal, also a new record. The IEA forecasts that coal use will continue to grow in the coming years and predicts that it will reach a plateau in 2027, when the world will consume 8.87 billion tonnes of coal. In other words, this will also mean an increase in CO2 emissions, the report notes, as the carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) technologies are developing slowly.

China, the biggest user of coal, will consume 4.9 billion tonnes of coal for its energy needs this year, also a new record for the country – up by 1% year-on-year. As much as a third of the world's coal is burned in its thermal power plants. New thermal power plants to burn coal are also coming on stream in India, where coal consumption will increase by 5% this year to 1.3 billion tonnes.

Coal consumption in India is up 5% year-on-year. The photo shows a thermal power plant in the Indian state of Punjab. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

In Europe and the United States, coal demand is falling, but at a slower pace than in the recent years. In 2023, coal use fell by 23% in the EU and 17% in the US, compared to 12% and 5% respectively this year. While developed economies are reducing their use of coal, growth will continue to come from countries such as India, Indonesia and Vietnam, which are doing all they can to meet their growing energy needs. China, too, will continue to consume coal at least at current levels for the foreseeable future.

Majority of people in the UK receive more benefits than they pay taxes

More than half of people in the UK receive more in benefits than they contribute in taxes, official figures show, according to The Telegraph. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed that a total of 52.6% of the people lived in households that received more from the state than they paid to the Treasury last year. The analysis, which reveals a decrease from 53.6% the previous year and covers the 12 months to March 2023, factors in both cash benefits and the use of public services such as the NHS, schools and free childcare. Working-age people are typically net contributors to the state – meaning they pay more in direct and indirect taxes than they receive in benefits and public services. However, even among this group, 45.3% received more from the state than they paid in taxes, although this partially reflects benefits relating to education and childcare. Meanwhile, pensioners are overwhelmingly classed as net recipients, with 85.3% receiving more from the government than they contribute.

PR firms used to spread pro-China propaganda

The Google Threat Intelligence Group has announced in a new report that it has identified four public relations firms that have been involved in the pro-China Glassbridge influence scheme: Shanghai Haixun Technology, Times Newswire/Shenzhen Haimai Yunxiang Media, Durinbridge and Shenzhen Bowen Media have registered domains and created websites that appeared to be independent, local news agencies. Glassbridge, a Chinese influence programme, has been operating since 2022 and aims to disseminate messages approved by the Chinese Communist Party, Taiwan News reports.

Google threat analyst Vanessa Molter said, "These inauthentic news sites are operated by a small number of stand-alone digital PR firms that offer newswire, syndication, and marketing services.”

She added they pose as independent new outlets that recirculate articles from Chinese state media and government press releases likely commissioned by other PR agency clients.

The report did not confirm who hired these PR services. It believes the firms may be taking instructions from a shared customer who has outsourced the distribution of pro-China content.

The report said these inauthentic news sites are usually low quality and contain repetitive content. Publishing content in multiple languages, they are given innocent-sounding names such as Japan's “Ginza Daily,” Italy's “Milano Moda Weekly,” and South Korea's “Incheon Focus."

Article content has focused on Taiwan, South China Sea territorial disputes, ASEAN, Xinjiang, and the COVID-19 pandemic. The sites recirculate articles from the Global Times and other state-controlled media, mixing filler articles on local news, entertainment, and technology.

Newswire services are a tactic shared across all influence campaigns, the report said. Two of the four PR firms directly control and operate the newswire services, with Haixun being the most widespread.