News Round-Up: Covid Vaccines Causing Excess Mortality, UN Secretary-General Fuelling Climate Anxiety and Germany's Leftist Liberals Calling For More Immigration

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:

• Researchers: Covid vaccines may have fuelled excess deaths.

• UN Secretary-General compares fossil fuels to tobacco and calls for an advertising ban.

• Germany's leftist liberals calling for more immigration a day after police officer dies because of an Islamist immigrant's knife attack.

• CNN advises to take your 4-year-old children seriously when they say they are 'transgender'.

• Australian state appoints a parliamentary secretary for changing men’s behavior.

Researchers: Covid vaccines may have fuelled excess deaths

Covid vaccines may have contributed to an increase in excess deaths, writes The Telegraph. The article is based on a recent study published in the prestigious medical journal BMJ Public Health by researchers at the Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands, which looked at the mortality data from 47 Western countries in 2020. The authors of the study note that despite the introduction of vaccines and other containment measures that were used to limit the spread of the Covid virus, excess mortality was still high, and actually increased in 2021, the year of vaccine introduction.

The study found that across Europe, the US and Australia there were more than one million excess deaths in 2020, 1,2 million in 2021 and 800,000 in 2022. Researchers said the figure included deaths from Covid-19, but also the “indirect effects of the health strategies to address the virus spread and infection”. They warned that side effects linked to Covid vaccines had included ischaemic stroke, acute coronary syndrome and brain haemorrhage, cardiovascular diseases, coagulation, haemorrhages, gastrointestinal events and blood clotting.

It is well documented that Covid vaccines can cause serious harm. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Studies showing a correlation between vaccination campaigns against Covid and excess mortality have actually been carried out before as well. For example, a study by Norwegian researchers published early last year showed, on the basis of European countries, that the higher a country's vaccination coverage in 2021, the higher its mortality rate the following year. An updated version of the same paper, published in August last year, concluded that mortality decreased after the first vaccine dose, but increased after the booster dose. Of course, it should be borne in mind here that correlation does not always imply to a causal link. However, this kind of data should prompt countries to look closely at the issue, yet there is not much visible interest.

And this is also the main reason why this study by Dutch researchers is important. Although it does not prove anything, it has been published in a prestigious medical journal, and from there the subject has made its way not only into The Telegraph, but also into other mainstream media outlets, so it is clearly in the public eye now. “FINALLY mainstream media acknowledgement in U.K. We did it,” Dr. Aseem Malhotra, a cardiologist from the UK, commented on social media. Malhotra has long been pointing to serious adverse reactions caused by the Covid vaccines.

UN Secretary-General compares fossil fuels to tobacco and calls for an advertising ban

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, speaking at the American Museum of Natural History on Wednesday, World Environment Day, said humanity is on the 'highway to climate hell'. One step to avoid going to this kind of hell would be to ban fossil fuel advertising, he said.

Guterres explained that now is the moment of truth, because the goal of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels will not be met unless we rapidly reduce CO2 emissions. This must be done at the rate of 9% per year, according to him. “We are playing Russian roulette with our planet. We need an exit ramp off the highway to climate hell. And the truth is we have control of the wheel. The 1.5-degree limit is still just about possible. Let’s remember — it’s a limit for the long-term — measured over decades, not months or years. So, stepping over the threshold 1.5 for a short time does not mean the long-term goal is shot. It means we need to fight harder. Now,” Guterres said. Guterres has made such alarmist statements before - for example, at the end of July last year, he declared global warming to be over because, in his words, a new era of 'global boiling' had arrived.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres urges countries to ban fossil fuel ads to counter climate change. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public domain.

Understandably, such frightening messages can cause anxiety. Therefore, for those who have not yet done so, we recommend as a counter-measure to watch the documentary film Climate: The Movie by the British documentary filmmaker Martin Durkin, which takes a critical look at such CO2-related climate alarmism claims and gives them a damning assessment with the help of world-renowned and respected scientists.

“I also call on countries to act,” said Guterres. “Many Governments restrict or prohibit advertising for products that harm human health — like tobacco. Some are now doing the same with fossil fuels. I urge every country to ban advertising from fossil fuel companies. And I urge news media and tech companies to stop taking fossil fuel advertising,” he said.

In 2022, France banned direct advertising of fossil fuels, while excluding natural gas. At the same time oil companies can continue to sponsor public events. Similar advertising restrictions are being considered in Canada and Ireland. The Dutch capital Amsterdam has also partially banned fossil fuel advertising. The Scottish capital Edinburgh is considering restrictions on advertising by airlines, airports, SUVs, diesel cars and cruise ships, in addition to banning advertising by fossil fuel companies.

Germany's leftist liberals calling for more immigration a day after police officer dies because of an Islamist immigrant's knife attack

Last Friday, a video of a brutal knife attack in the German town of Mannheim in the state of Baden-Württemberg went viral on social media. The target of the attack was an anti-Islam and anti-immigration activist Michael Stürzenberger, who was preparing for a rally. His attacker was Sulaiman Ataee from Afghanistan, who had been living illegally in Germany for at least the last eight years. He was screaming"Allahu Akbar" (Allah is almighty) during the attack. Several people were injured in the brutal attack, including Stürzenberger and a policeman who later died.

The video of the incident shows that the policeman made a clear mistake or miscalculation in intervening. In fact, the assailant, Ataee, had already been suppressed by several citizens and the attack had almost been stopped, or could have been stopped at that point if the police officer made the right decision. However, the officer who intervened pulled off one of the men who was holding the Ataee down, pushed him down and started to hold him down instead, apparently thinking that this was the attacker. However, Ataee then broke free, stood up and attacked the policeman from behind, stabbing him several times in the neck area with a large hunting knife. The attack was stopped by other policemen who shot Ataee, who then lay motionless on the ground. The wounded policeman died on Sunday.

On Monday, however, a conference on migration was held at Bundestag, the German parliament, where left-liberal parties now in power discussed immigration. The brutal attack was not mentioned, but for example, Germany's development aid minister Svenja Schulze, from the Social Democratic Party of Germany (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD), called for more migrants from Syria, Afghanistan and similar countries.

Joachim Stamp of Germany's liberal Free Democratic Party (Freie Demokratische Partei, FDP), also part of the ruling coalition in the country, called for a suspension of deportations to countries such as Afghanistan. He said it was impossible to send people back 'if butchers like Assad rule there'.

Of course, such brutal attacks in Germany are not isolated incidents, and violent crime involving migrants, including rape and other sexual assaults, is a major problem for society as a whole. For example, we recently drew attention to the fact that there has been a sharp increase in crime, including sexual crime, at the German rail network. However, law enforcement and the public prosecutor's office are not up to the task of protecting public order and preventing sexual assaults. For example, a Syrian immigrant sexually assaulted a 78-year-old woman in Berlin and was arrested, but the prosecutor released him. A few hours later, the man raped a 23-year-old woman.

At the same time, 200,000 recent immigrants became German citizens last year, the highest number in 25 years, according to Germany's statistics office.

CNN advises to take your 4-year-old children seriously when they say they are 'transgender'

Last Sunday, CNN published an article titled: “If your kid just told you they’re trans, here’s what you should know”. The article tells the story of how children of very young age have told their parents they might be transgender and how parents then encourage that.

Maryhope Howland, a mother who confesses that she thought she had given birth to a boy, is featured in the article. According to Howland, at the age of 6, the boy began to ask how his mother knew he was a boy anyway. The mother then explained to the child that the doctors had made such an assumption when he was born. By the age of 8, the child thought he was non-binary, and by the age of 10, the boy thought he was transgender. His mother is now a co-lead for the Families United for Trans Rights, an organization of transgender kids and their loved ones.

The article appeared in CNN’s Health section. Photo: screenshot.

The second example in the article is even more disturbing. This concerns a 4-year-old girl. CNN reports that the baby's sex at birth was 'assigned female'. The child's mother, Rachel Cornwell, a Methodist pastor, says in the article that she asked the 4-year-old child if she minded being born a girl. “Yes, Mommy. I told God when I was a star in the sky that I was a boy, but God made me a girl, and now I just have to live with it,” the girl replied. Cornwell concluded that her child knew something deep and true about herself. At the age of 6, the girl decided that she wanted to use male pronouns and wanted a new boy's name, at first just at home.

Children's feelings like these should be taken seriously, say the people interviewed for the article. “One of the hardest things for us to do as parents is pause when that vision gets interrupted and really listen to what our kiddos are saying to us,” says Nova Bright-Williams, a man claiming to be a woman, or a trans woman, and head of a trans activist group the Trevor Project.

The article doesn't say what to do in a situation where a 4-year-old child is role-playing being a cat or a dog, a cartoon hero or something else.

Australian state appoints a parliamentary secretary for changing men’s behavior

The state of Victoria in Australia created a new parliamentary secretary position for “Men’s Behavior Change”, The Washington Post reports. Lawmaker Tim Richardson who was appointed to the position, said the job will not be easy.

The post is aimed at making Victoria a safer place for women and children, and working to end the deaths of women at the hands of men, Richardson explained. “The time to act on men’s violence against women is now and it starts with us men and boys,” he added.

This is the first such post in the world. Jacinta Allan, Premier of Victoria and a member of the leftist Australian Labor Party, said the new official would focus mainly on the impact of the internet and social media on boys' and men's attitudes towards women and will also focus on building respectful relationships.

Jacinta Allan, Premier of Victoria aid the new official would focus mainly on the impact of the internet and social media on boys' and men's attitudes towards women and will also focus on building respectful relationships. Photo: Wikimedia Commons/Public domain.

Domestic violence is of course a serious problem, but the creation of such posts, with such a job description, is most unlikely to be the solution.