The novel coronavirus has contaminated more than 26.35 million people, with just four countries accounting for over 15 million cases.
They’re America, Brazil, India and Russia, the same four that have been at the top for months.
The US stunned the world when it climbed to the top spot in multiple COVID 19 statistics, both for the total number of documented cases and the number of deaths – since then, no other country has overtaken America.
Africa reported its millionth official COVID 19 case last month and it appears to have survived the pandemic moderately well so far, with fewer than one confirmed case for every thousand people and just 23,000 deaths so far.
After testing more than 3000 blood donors, it was estimated in a preprint that one in 20 Kenyans aged 15 to 64, or 1.6 million people has antibodies to SARS-CoV-2, an indication of past infection.
That would put Kenya on a par with Spain in mid-May when that country was descending from its coronavirus peak and had 27,000 official COVID 19 deaths. Kenya’s official toll stood at 100 when the study concluded, and Kenya’s hospitals were not reporting massive numbers of people with COVID 19 symptoms.
Further antibody studies in Africa have yielded similarly startling findings.
From a survey of 500 asymptomatic health care workers in Blantyre, Malawi, immunologist Kondwani Jambo of the Malawi-Liverpool Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme and coworkers concluded that up to 12.3 per cent of them had been exposed to the coronavirus.
Based on those findings and mortality ratios for COVID 19 elsewhere, they calculated that the reported number of casualties in Blantyre at the time 17, was eight times lower than anticipated.
Scientists who studied about 10,000 people in the northeastern cities of Nampula and Pemba in Mozambique discovered antibodies to SARS-CoV-2 in 3 per cent to 10 per cent of participants, depending on their profession. Market traders had the highest rates, followed by health workers.
Yet in Nampula, a municipality of about 750,000, a sheer 300 infections had been confirmed at the time.
Mozambique only had 16 confirmed COVID 19 deaths.
Yap Boum, a microbiologist and epidemiologist with Epicentre Africa, the research and training arm of Doctors Without Borders, said he discovered a high preponderance of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in people from Cameroon as well, a result that remained unpublished.
So what explains the enormous gap between antibody data on the one hand and the official case and death counts on the other?
Part of the reason may be that Africa misses many more cases than other regions of the world because it has far less testing capacity.
Kenya tests approximately one in every 10,000 inhabitants every day for active SARS-CoV-2 infections, one-tenth of the rate in Spain or Canada.
Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country, tests one out of every 50,000 people per day and many people who die from COVID 19 may not get a proper diagnosis. But in that case, you would expect an overall rise in mortality, which Kenya has not seen.
Maybe it’s because they have a robust immune system as a result of exposure to different illnesses, such as malaria, their diet, the environment and numerous other factors that seem to work for Africa in terms of COVID 19?
Or perhaps it’s more to do with inadequate infrastructure, the movement of people is small and the number of people flying is small and getting from one major metropolis to another is only embarked by the few?
Ian Simms was imprisoned in 1989 for the killing of 22-year-old Helen McCourt on Merseyside and has never disclosed where her body was hidden.
The court ruled that the money raised through Marie McCourt’s crowdfunding page would be used to cover expenses.
Marie McCourt has campaigned for a law which would deny parole to killers who refuse to reveal the location of their victim’s body, said that it seems unfair that she has to pay Ian Simms costs but that’s what happened.
She said that she was thankful to all the people who donated to the fundraising page and Marie McCourt added that criminals get legal aid and people like herself who are ordinary people don’t have that sort of money to take it to High Court.
They only thing they can do is go to a GoFundMe and thank God they did give her that. However, David Lammy, Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice tweeted that it was completely wrong for the family of Helen McCourt to be forced to pay a penny of the legal costs of the man who killed her daughter.
And he continued that the Government should acknowledge the extremely tragic circumstances here and use some common sense.
High Court judges refused to order a reexamination of Ian Simms’ release and said a Parole Board decision involved no arguable public law error, but Marie McCourt said the law doesn’t acknowledge how heartbreaking it is for families of loved ones whose bodies have not been found.
She said that she’s been going out searching for her daughter’s body for 33 years and the Government and the laws don’t seem to comprehend how heartbreaking this all is.
Families should have the right to know that when these killers are caught, if they refuse to say where their victim’s remains are hidden or what they did with them, at least let the families know.
And Marie McCourt said that they should have to show remorse before they can ever be considered for release.
A bill denying parole to killers who refuse to reveal a body’s location, known as Helen’s Law, cleared the Commons in March but it came too late to stop Ian Simms being released.
Parole should never be an option for a killer who won’t tell the police where their victim’s body is, and if they want to conceal that information for their own sick desires then they should have to deal with the consequences.
I can’t understand how a Parole Board came to the decision that Ian Simms met the criteria for his release.
He failed on two basic counts. Firstly he’d never admitted his guilt and he claims to be innocent and secondly, as a result of that, he’s not demonstrated any remorse for his crime.
This was an outrageous decision seeming to have been hurried through by the Parole Board intentionally to beat the passing of Helen’s Law, which would have almost definitely kept him in jail.
What price do we have to pay for justice? Where is the justice? Marie McCourt not only faces never knowing where her daughter’s body is but faces having to pay money into an immoral system to an immoral man and murderers should never be allowed to walk free when they decline to reveal the whereabouts of their victims and this is a perverse ruling.
Downing Street said it had no plans to pull the brake on the next minimum wage rise in April 2021 but added a pretty big caveat.
Fears have been raised that millions of workers could lose out on a planned increase in the National Minimum Wage because of damage done to the economy by COVID 19.
Reports began circulating on Sunday that Chancellor Rishi Sunak might not introduce the rise from £8.72 to £9.21 per hour in April, as a result of damage done by the pandemic.
A target had been set by the Chancellor that would see the National Living Wage – the minimum salary for over 25s increased to the equivalent of two-thirds of the country’s median earnings by 2024.
The promise to increase the rate also highlighted massively in the Tory manifesto at the last election, but confronted about the report, Downing Street refused to confirm the next rise will definitely happen as intended.
No 10 said the government still intended to introduce the move, but added a very important caveat, saying it was originally planned if economic conditions permitted.
The official spokesperson for Boris Johnson inquired about reports that the Treasury was contemplating pulling an emergency brake on the policy and said that he was not aware of any change to that situation.
However, he added at the Spring Budget, the Government reinforced its commitment to an ambitious target for the National Living Wage to reach two-thirds of median earnings by 2024, provided that economic conditions permit.
He continued that in terms of the latest set of recommendations from the Low Pay Commission for 2021, which they haven’t seen yet, that he didn’t believe they were expected to receive them until the autumn.
Britain’s economic conditions have changed dramatically in the last few months, as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic.
The UK’s headline unemployment rate has lingered at 3.9 per cent since the lockdown was introduced thanks to the furlough scheme, but the Bank of England expects the rate to increase to 7.5 per cent by the end of the year as government-funded support schemes come to an end.
Shadow Exchequer Secretary Wes Streeting said those who had worked to keep the country going through the pandemic needed to be compensated.
He stated that when COVID 19 hit, some of the country’s lowest-paid workers had just gone through the longest wage squeeze in two centuries and that they should be compensated for operating round the clock to keep people safe and not made to pay the price for the recovery.
And it seems that these Tories certainly know how to use the coronavirus as it suits them – minimum wage, what’s next? But I’m sure that these MPs will get their annual salary hike, now at £80,000, plus their other business interests and the minimum wage days are numbered under the Tories and COVID 19 and Brexit will be condemned for putting unnecessary pressure on businesses.
Repulsive footage revealed the moment a father of five, Anthony Baldwin, was pepper-sprayed and arrested by police after refusing to wear a face-covering on public transport. He explains why he’s exempt.
The father of five has insisted he’s exempt from wearing a face mask in public amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and he said he’s innocent after police pepper-sprayed him and arrested him.
Anthony Baldwin, 34, was approached by a British Transport Police officer while on a train at Lime Street Station in Liverpool on Wednesday.
Footage of the arrest has gone viral, with many appalled to see the man pepper-sprayed and arrested when the conflict between the roofer and the officer became fraught and the video showed Anthony Baldwin insist he was ‘exempt’ from needing to wear a mask on public transport and he was seen arguing with the officer when he ordered him to wear a face covering.
Anthony Baldwin alleges he didn’t need to wear a face-covering because he suffers from anxiety and panic attacks.
In the video, the policeman dragged his top over his head and you could actually hear him yelling.
Anthony Baldwin said that he began suffering from severe anxiety following the death of his father five years ago. He further said he suffered a panic attack when he was in the back of the police van and says he manages his anxiety with medication.
He went on to claim he spent three hours in hospital following Wednesday’s incident and said he sustained an injury to the head during the tense arrest. He also alleged he refused to get off the train on Wednesday as he was on his way to an appointment at the time British Transport Police approached him.
Official government guidance does spotlight anxiety as one of the conditions that would make someone exempt from wearing a face-covering on public transport and the government website says that the public are asked to be mindful of people who are exempt from wearing a face covering.
The list of exemptions, which has been in place since face coverings became mandatory on public transport, includes hidden conditions such as anxiety or panic disorders, autism, breathing conditions, dementia, reduced eyesight or if you’re with someone who relies on lip-reading to communicate.
Face coverings became compulsory on public transport in the United Kingdom in June, with penalties of £100 for those who refused to obey the rules, unless exempt.
It’s believed that Anthony Baldwin was arrested for threatening conduct and assault of an officer following Wednesday’s incident. However, all the police officer had to do is issue Mr Baldwin with a fine, which he could have appealed against – there was no need for the police officer to apprehend this man, all he had to do was inform him that if he didn’t wear a face-covering he would be issued with a fine.
The incident occurred at about 3.20 pm on Wednesday 2 September, when officers had responded to a report of a man coughing at two passengers.
A news outlet reported that Anthony Baldwin, of Little Sutton, will appear at Liverpool and Knowsley Magistrates Court on January 6, accused of threatening conduct and assault, no mention of the face-covering though or a fine.
This is the beginnings of a totalitarian state, so are they now going to ignore the Equality Act, spray mace in the face and attack everyone who’s exempt?
First, they go after the sick and disabled, then the minorities and then anyone who speaks out against it, and if you tolerate this, then your children will be next, and people need to understand that it starts with small obedience so that eventually they can take control of other elements of your life.
And if you look very closely at the video footage you will also see that there was another young man sitting there with no mask on either, so why did they pick on just this one guy, when another young guy was sitting without a face covering, yet they didn’t say anything to him?
This is ultimately the beginning of a totalitarian state and this is fascism and whether they’re a private company or not, the fact that people can be refused service due to whether they have complied in an act of which is back by such little scientific proof for a so-called pandemic is utterly ludicrous.
Now it all starts to unveil and we must stand up for our rights, which was what this man was attempting to do and it explicitly states that if wearing a face-covering causes you severe anxiety, you will be exempt and who are we to define which person does or does not suffer from severe distress from a face covering?
We have no idea what traumatic history a person has suffered and we have no right to challenge them under the Equality Act 2010.
Anthony Baldwin refused to leave the train, yet he explicitly stated to the police officer that he was exempt because he had an underlying health condition and that he was exempt by law – ‘the law’, the very thing the police are supposed to uphold, but this police officer blatantly disregarded that ‘law’ and abused his power to a very large extent.
And why is this man in the wrong? Because he’s exempt because he didn’t explain the reason why he was exempt, or for not getting off the train, or was it for protesting against being attacked by the police officer? Where do we draw the line here? And would it also be okay to do this to someone who was Autistic?
What the Police Officer should have done was to sit down next to him and talk to him like a normal human being to find out why he was exempt, that way the officer would have found out why he was exempt and could have dealt with the situation accordingly, instead, he just bounded in there all guns blazing so that he could assert his authority.
This Police Officer overstepped his powers and ended up creating a public disorder. The Police Officer didn’t arrest him or detain him until other Police Officers arrived, but he did attack him and that’s Common Assault.
And according to the government website, there’s no requirement to carry any evidence that you have a disability of any kind. So, basically, anyone can say they’re exempt, so what’s the point of anyone wearing a face covering?
Where will the madness end? What are the Government going to say next? That we have to wear a mask at all times, even in one’s home or even during sex, where is the madness going to stop?
There are around 700,000 autistic people in the United Kingdom, that’s more than 1 in 100 and if someone with Autism had been approached by a Police Officer they would probably react in the same way Anthony Baldwin did, and this bothers me considerably.
This is what’s happening in our society now – poor disabled souls being abused by mask-wearing monsters and it’s a disgrace how these poor souls are being treated like freaks and this is causing a lot of friction within the general public and before you know it the police will be dealing with more assaults on disabled people that have in fact done nothing wrong.
This policeman outside of the police has absolutely no authority over anyone or anything – the uniform is his life but when he’s wearing civvie clothes, he’s a nobody and you should be innocent until proven guilty.
Most people are courteous and thoughtful but the minority such as the police are offensive and intimidating and the British Transport policeman’s response was horrifying. The policeman was out of order and he aggravated the situation with more germs and his actions were not fitting for the position that he holds.
The policeman clearly could have done better and you could clearly see civilians on the train complaining about his actions and the policeman reacted with ego more than attempting to implement the law and it was all really badly handled.
Some people can manage with masks, some suffer from COPD and can’t. Other people suffer from claustrophobia and feel stifled when their face is masked, but I suppose everyone is entitled to comment – the next thing it will be is that if you can’t wear a face mask, then stay indoors.
There are numerous people out there that can’t wear masks and don’t have a letter from their doctor (have you seen how much they charge for a letter?) And had it been another person with breathing difficulties such as asthma or lung disease they’d probably be in the hospital right now from being hauled about and this Police Officer should have called for assistance earlier than he did.
So, what are we going to have Concentration Camps for people refusing to wear a mask – Orwellian State here we come.
Unfortunately, we can only comment on what we can see in the video – there was nothing mentioned about spitting, in this case, all the Police Officer was going on about was not wearing a face mask.
And now the public are in fear which tends to lead to exaggeration and people are not thinking straight. You only have to cough and other people start treating you like a pariah and run for the hills in sheer panic – this fear is being thrust upon us and it’s changing the environment that we live in and it’s wrong on every level.
The Police Officer had plenty of options, but instead, he chose to overreact, but somehow now we’re not allowed to cough on a train, but it’s not against the law to do so, and nobody is allowed to ask you why you’re exempt.
Evidently, Anthony Baldwin spat on someone, however, that was not filmed and at no point did the Police Officer communicate this to the man, only about not being masked up and yet he took it upon himself to escalate the incident to brutality and did not wait for his colleagues to arrive – this fiasco didn’t need to happen.
The police don’t turn up that fast for domestic violence, but see how fast they’ll turn up if you’re not wearing a face mask just so that they can get a potential kick out of it and to deny one service because they’re not wearing a mask is discrimination which is a culpable crime.
The law state that if you have any ailment that causes you distress when wearing a mask, whether it be because you have lung problems or some other disability, then you don’t have to wear one.
Whether this is true or not, this man was saying that he was exempt from wearing one and the law says that there’s no requirement of evidence for this.
Anthony Baldwin stating he was exempt was enough in the eyes of the law – again, whether right or wrong.
In the video footage, this man didn’t look like he had done anything wrong (in the eyes of the law), yet he was literally mauled by various officers and this is 100 per cent wrong on every level.
Having a disability isn’t always seen and sometimes it’s hidden – does this mean that someone who has hidden disabilities is not disabled?
Ordinarily, I’m all for the police as they mainly do a superb job with what resources they’re given and ordinarily take a lot of slack. However, in this instance, they were in the wrong and I really think this guy was pretty well behaved given the way the first officer manhandled him and it was a complete misuse of resources.
The UK has been urged to move swiftly to strip taxes from goods manufactured to any scale outside of the country in the event of a no-deal Brexit, in a move that could trigger an instant bonus to consumers.
Trade talks between the United Kingdom and the EU began in March, with the goal of agreeing a comprehensive Free Trade Agreement (FTA) before the completion of the transition period on December 31, a deadline Boris Johnson refused to extend.
But after seven rounds of official discussions, led by Britain’s David Frost and Brussels counterpart Michel Barnier, progress has hampered, raising concerns that a no-trade agreement will be in place from January 1, 2021.
Ahead of the start of the eighth round of official talks in London, Michel Barnier initiated a stringent deadline of October 31 for a deal to be agreed so it has time to be approved in the European Parliament before the transition period deadline at the end of the year.
However, he proceeded to warn that obstinacy from the United Kingdom on a set of red lines, including fisheries, state aid and the EU’s level playing field, is raising the possibility of a no-deal Brexit.
Patrick Sullivan, chief executive of the Westminster based think tank Parliament Street, thinks the EU will make the first important move in upcoming trade talks as it frantically strives to prop up the struggling Eurozone economy.
The Eurozone’s rebound from its deepest economic downturn on record ground to a sudden halt in August, in the April to June quarter. The bloc’s market plunged 12.1 per cent as coronavirus lockdowns led to businesses being closed and people staying home.
IHS Market’s final Composite Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI), recognised as a reliable measure of economic health, dropped to a score of 51.9 per cent last month from July’s 54.9 per cent.
Mr Sullivan said the EU will blink first because if Europe has any expectation of getting its economy back on track, investment is paramount which is where the City of London comes in.
He said, only through access to London’s financial expertise can Eurozone economies become more resilient. He continued that a Brexit deal was more important to the EU and eliminating those barriers while still selling to the EU across even small tariffs, as is done by the rest of the world, could usher a new era of lower prices and heightened competition in the United Kingdom.
Yes! Slash many important taxes on things that we don’t actually produce ourselves, for example, fruit and vegetables from equatorial countries, but it has to be done in such a way that we keep onside our negotiating partners who we’re hoping to inherit current EU deals from places such as Canada and Mexico, and just bear in mind that just before last year’s election, Canada and Singapore suspended our negotiations because of this.
Fisheries, the EU wants the exact EU biased access to UK waters which still leave us with less than a third of the fishing rights and they demand the exact same access whilst telling the United Kingdom that we can’t expect the same access to trade.
EU State Aid Rules, the EU wants the United Kingdom to solicit approval from the EU if we want to bail out a UK company in need, but the EU can refuse to let the UK do so and the level playing field is, the EU doesn’t want the United Kingdom to thrive and is this part of the punishment regime they have in place?
Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party are still leading in the polls against the Labour Party despite leader Sir Keir Starmer’s popularity and despite the intense debate over the awarding of GCSE and A level grades, the Tories were the choice of 34.57 per cent of respondents of an exclusive OnePoll survey for the Sunday Express.
The party came out in front of Sir Keir Starmer’s Labour (30.22 per cent) and way ahead of Sir Ed Davey’s Liberal Democrats 95.29 per cent).
The poll uncovered enduring support for the Brexit Party, despite the United Kingdom leaving the European Union earlier this year after 47 years as a member state and almost one in 20 of those polled would vote for the party which Nigel Farage turned into a political comedy.
The Government can expect strong support if it makes a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine mandatory for all UK nationals and visitants, the latest research shows.
Polling reveals a strong desire to get as much of the population as possible vaccinated and more than two thirds (64.09 per cent) of respondents to research by OnePoll favoured strongly or somewhat that the vaccine should be mandatory when it’s developed unless people have a medical reason not to be vaccinated.
Less than one in five people (18.18 per cent) opposed somewhat or strongly with mandatory vaccination.
The United Kingdom has now secured access to six possible vaccines as scientists around the world race to exterminate the menace to life posed by COVID 19.
Vaccine campaigns have proven wildly controversial and have been the target of conspiracy theories but Paul Bristow, a Conservative member of Westminster’s health committee, expected strong support for public vaccination.
He said that if we get a vaccine it will be a tremendous breakthrough if we can beat this virus for good. He maintained that this was a sensible nation and that he wasn’t shocked that a preponderance of people wanted to see everyone vaccinated.
He further said that he knew there was a lot of anti-vax garbage on social media so the Government must do what it can to counter this but that he was convinced that most would want to get vaccinated without any compulsion.
Health Minister Jo Churchill has revealed that while there’s a desire to get as many people as possible vaccinated, people may have to be prioritised according to the availability of supplies, safety and its effectiveness in various groups. However, there are no plans to target regions with the highest levels of COVID 19.
And there’s absolutely no point in having runners and riders for an election. Boris Johnson still has 4 years to go in his tenure and I don’t see him quitting any time soon.
Rishi Sunak is popular because he’s handing out cash like smarties but his real test will be how he deals with the fallout caused by the massive debt. He could be our biggest knave or a hero, only time will tell.
There are fears of a further rift between Prince Harry and Prince William following news the Duke and Duchess of Sussex could make a documentary about Princess Diana as part of their new deal with Netflix.
On Wednesday Netflix stated it had agreed on a deal with Harry and Meghan to produce a number of programs for the streaming platform. These will reportedly include documentaries, films and programming for children.
Speaking to a news outlet, one royal insider said these could include an in-depth documentary about Princess Diana, Harry and William’s late mother. However, they warned that this could create new tensions between the two siblings.
Princess Diana was killed in a Paris car crash one year after completing her divorce from Prince Charles.
The insider said that the Sussexes were considering making a feature documentary on Princess Diana’s family history and heritage and that it was in the initial stages but it seemed like it could happen and that it could work as a tribute to Diana and build on all the incredible charity work she’d done.
Netflix would love to make a documentary about Diana and it’s something they’ve been pushing for.
Last month a new book about Harry and Meghan’s departure as senior royals, ‘Finding Freedom’ was published and it alleged relations between the two siblings declined early during Harry’s involvement with Meghan after William urged his brother to take as much time as he needed to get to know this girl.
According to the insider, there are concerns a documentary about Princess Diana could cause further tensions and they stated that William and Harry now have a complicated relationship and that they haven’t spoken for three months and that these plans could further antagonise their fallout, and if it does happen William will be the first to know.
Meghan and Harry announced they were planning to stand down as senior members of the Royal Family back in January and the Duke and Duchess vowed to become financially independent and said they would divide their time between North America and the United Kingdom.
Recently the pair bought a new £11.2 million home in the north of Los Angeles. The extravagant home comes complete with a swimming pool, tennis court and a children’s cottage.
On Wednesday Ted Sarandos, the Netflix chief content officer spoke about how happy the company is to be working with the Duke and Duchess and he said that Harry and Meghan have inspired millions of people all around the globe with their authenticity, confidence and leadership.
However, it’s about time they quit playing the Diana card, and it’s time for them to move on, it seems everyone else has and now more than 30 per cent of this country wasn’t even born when Diana died, so have no concept who she was and some of them probably don’t even care.
And for Prince Harry to involve himself with the company responsible for a tacky, tawdry show about his late mother is shocking, unbelievable and completely inexcusable and that’s one sure-fire way to stain his mother’s memory.
You just can’t do a documentary about Diana without muddying the waters and I think we all know Harry and Meghan will trade-off death and use it to get rich quick but thankfully William and his family have not gone down that tacky road.
So, the latest is Harry could be pimping off his mother’s memory and the ultimate hypocrisy is to spend one’s entire adult life criticising the media’s exploitation of his mother, while at the same time, exploiting his mother’s life publicly for financial gain.
He wanted to be prepared for when his former neighbour and Kammerer Middle School classmate took to the boards to claim her Oscar.
“Oh My God! That’s my girl! She did it! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah,” said the 23-year-old, who has Down syndrome, while bouncing up and down, cheering and pumping his hands in the air.
“She got it! I love you, Jennifer!”
Seeing his childhood buddy get an Oscar was a moment he’d been waiting on for weeks. That’s because he says he and the star are “like best friends” and he’s her “No. 1 fan.”
Earlier that evening, just before 7 pm, Andy Strunk slipped on a black tuxedo, an outfit he’d been preparing for weeks. He wanted to be dressed to the nines, just as if he was attending the Oscars himself, while he watched Jennifer Lawrence walk the red carpet during the celebrity arrivals.
“She looks perfect,” he said about her blush Dior gown.
Then, at 8.30 pm as the awards show was kicking off, Strunk settled himself on a leather sofa and kept his eyes fixated on the television. He didn’t want to miss seeing the “Silver Linings Playbook” actress in the audience.
When the camera swept the crowd and showed the star sitting in her seat, he clapped and roared “Woo! That’s her!”
Strunk’s black-tie outfit wasn’t the only special thing he had planned for that night while cheering on the hometown star. He and his mother, Pollyanna Strunk baked a white cake covered with buttercream frosting, which Strunk dubbed the celebration cake in honour of “Silver Linings Playbook”, they decorated with silver sprinkles.
Jennifer Lawrence’s aunt, Cindy Miller of Louiseville, stopped by the home of Strunk in the afternoon and dropped off a “Silver Linings Playbook” poster autographed by the star.
Strunk said that he’ll be hanging it in his bedroom with the other Jennifer Lawrence memorabilia he’s collected over the years, including movie posters and hundreds of newspaper cuttings and magazine articles.
Jennifer Lawrence has autographed numerous pictures for her childhood friend with personal messages like “Don’t forget about me” and “With all my love”.
“Jennifer Lawrence is my favourite… She’s a nice person. She’s a strong person,” Strunk said and he capped off the evening by eating a slice of the cake he helped bake, sending a text message to Jennifer’s mother, Karen Lawrence.
Once Jennifer got off stage, she called her friend and said: “This was for you buddy!”
But honestly, was this newsworthy? Jennifer Lawrence has a friend, we all have friends, but then numerous people wouldn’t bother to have a friend with a disability and we do treat people differently, and why would you want to be treated like a trophy because of a disability?
And for those wondering, he does exist and they actually are friends and we should have more human beings like that in the world because then the world would be a better place.
And it’s delightful that she’s still best friends with someone she grew up with, which must be rare for a Hollywood A-lister, although instead of just calling him, why didn’t she just acknowledge him on stage?
However, this isn’t something that can be argued as a difference of opinion – this is a human being, plus, I’d rather have this caring man as a best friend and a best friend doesn’t necessarily have the same role for every single person.
A best friend isn’t one exact type of person – a best friend can be whatever you want a best friend to be to you and it’s not the fact that the man is disabled it’s because she grew up with him and she hasn’t forgotten where she came from.
It’s also okay to disagree with someone else’s opinion, but it’s not okay to demean someone because they don’t think the same as you do, so we should all show some respect.
This is such a true and valid statement, although Donald Trump doesn’t seem to think that way.
Not everyone needs to have an opinion on current issues and often than not, certain opinions are misinformed and some opinions tend to gain support from ignorant masses that may not have the expertise to judge its credibility.
At the end of the day, people believe what they want to believe and some folks aren’t even open to the idea of the opposing party being correct, and some don’t even want to listen to other people’s opinions and even if they do, there’s never any acceptance or an agreeable stance.
And it’s pretty rare that you even have a conversation in a nonviolent manner because someone out there always gets personally offended or resentful about what you’re talking about.
You can’t even express an opinion like I don’t like the taste of processed, sliced bread – that you prefer bakery loaves without someone leaping down your throat about how not liking sliced bread makes you a bigot, homophobic or sexist. Telling you all about how they love sliced bread, so in conclusion, you’re mentally handicapped and you’re wrong and they’re right.
And if you choose not to decide on a particular thing, you still made a choice, it’s called free will and if you choose to wait until all of the relevant information is out there, then everything is already over and you’re too late to interact with it all.
On the flip side, it’s okay to have an opinion even if you aren’t an authority in the field, and it’s fine if you believe a house should be constructed using an iron frame rather than timber.
The difficulty comes when you refuse to change your opinion or listen to honest experts and people will reprimand you for having an opinion about something even if you’re open to debate.
In real life, you have to make a lot of decisions without having sufficient information. For instance, you’re forced to choose a car without being a mechanic.
You can do all the research but at the end of the day you will have to decide on a model of automobile and weigh up information without being an authority in the field.
Clearly, this depends on circumstances because some decisions carry more weight and impact on others and you could use Eeny, meeny, miny, moe to purchase your car, but not doing proper research when it’s about your child’s medical condition will get people upset.
And it’s okay not to care but it’s not okay to say it doesn’t matter because that tends to lead to people taking advantage of you.
It’s better to say you don’t have an opinion if you’re ill-informed than to just pick a side but I also find it ironic that people have an opinion on not having an opinion.
At the end of the day, it’s a two-party system, the movers and shakers and the makers and takers and it’s the same old story, but in a hip new language.
Nadia Sawalha has come to the defence of her Loose Women co-star Denise Welch following her This Morning appearance, and subsequent Twitter dispute with Good Morning Britain host Piers Morgan.
Piers Morgan, 55, lashed out on Twitter and branded Loose Women presenter Denise Welch a COVID denier.
It came after the former Coronation Street actress voiced her concerns over the Government prioritising coronavirus on This Morning.
Nadia Sawalha has since shown her support for her colleague and friend Denise Welch after Piers Morgan slammed the latter as deluded and dangerous.
In view of her 170,000 Twitter supporters, the ex Eastenders star praised Denise Welch as a fine woman as she extended her support.
Nadia Sawalha wrote that she genuinely hoped that neither Piers Morgan nor anyone he loves has to endure the pain of struggling with their mental health and that she was sending the biggest of hugs to Denise Welch who was a fine woman.
Piers Morgan retweeted the post and claimed if a loved one suffered from mental illness he would not allow them to go on television to spew ill-informed rubbish about COVID.
Nadia Sawalha took the opportunity to reply and said it was frustrating that people’s opinions are dismissed when they suffer from mental health and she added: “Can you not be better than this?”
Piers Morgan didn’t hold back and alleged that he frequently gets abusive c**p aimed at him from Denise Welch and that if she didn’t want it back then she shouldn’t dish it out, and that if she does dish it out, she shouldn’t hide behind mental health when people do respond.
Piers Morgan and Denise Welch’s online dispute began after the Loose Women presenter appeared on This Morning via video link with Ruth Langsford and Eamonn Holmes.
She was talking about the Government’s current position on coronavirus, where Denise Welch maintained it was a form of fear-mongering.
She said that as a mental health person, if people want to say that she’s on about that again, she didn’t mind because of the people it does help and that she would do anything to better balance the fear-mongering.
And she quickly hit back in view of her own 467,000 supporters, writing Piers Morgan should show her one tweet, one interview where she’s denied COVID and that he didn’t want to be telling complete and utter lies with such a huge following.
Piers Morgan has no idea of the impact these last six months have had on people suffering from mental health and his remarks are misguided, but honestly, it’s like a room full of children and Piers Morgan loves to irritate people and some people just fall straight into that trap and the best thing is to just ignore him because he’s a windup merchant.
Anyhow, there’s nothing wrong with being called a COVID denier, everyone has their own view of this virus and it’s untold damage by the way of the hysterical reaction to it but sometimes it’s refreshing to hear other people’s view, instead of the mantra we hear from the Government.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 