NTD NYHETER: VECKA 24

Hi and welcome to NTD News. My name is Dan Ahlfjorden. Here are our headlines. The Trump administration presents plans to modernize the US airline. Harvard has a long history of training KKP employees. RFK Jr. criticizes the WHO and points to China's growing influence. The CIA recruits Chinese officials with tempting promises. China discovers a return of COVID-19. After several serious air accidents, the US Minister of Transport, Sean Duffy, gave a comprehensive plan to modernize the country's aging air traffic control system. President Donald Trump participated briefly via telephone. On May 8, the Trump administration promised to modernize a outdated system. A promise aimed at families after the latest air accidents. President Trump took the lead via telephone. Which is the top. That's the tippy top of what you do. And it's the first time that there's been anything like this since the 1960s. We have a lot of equipment that's from the 1960s, if you can believe it. And it doesn't even mesh with the plane. So we'll be purchasing 25,000 new radios and replacing hundreds of old radars. The radar systems are old and broken. And we'll install 4,000 new high-speed network connections using fiber optic cables, satellites and wireless technologies. And we'll also install 174 new weather stations in Alaska. Alaska's prime time. So these actions will bring American air traffic control into the highest level of anybody, any country anywhere in the world. The highest in the 21st century. Transport Minister Sean Duffy said that the plan includes six new air traffic control centers as well as upgrades of technology and communication systems. New hardware and software will be standardized in all air traffic systems. He showed participants examples of the equipment used today. Remember those movies? You might think that I went to the Smithsonian and pulled them out of the Smithsonian to show you what they used to use for air traffic control. I didn't do any of that. This is actually the systems that our air traffic controllers use to keep our sky safe. It is old. It looks like it's out of the 70s and 80s. The House of Representatives for Transport and Infrastructure appreciated last week that it could cost $12.5 billion to renew the entire system. Duffy said that he can't do this alone and urged Congress to take responsibility and contribute. So I'm going to ask the Congress for upfront appropriations to give us all the money. I'll come before the Congress every quarter and give them an update of how far we've built, how much money we've spent. They can pressure test what's been done to do the oversight to make sure we're doing this correctly. But on top of that, we also need permitting reform. Some form of clearing the deck so we don't have to deal with all of the regulation around permitting so we can actually build this quickly. If we go through the permitting process and don't get the money, this is going to be the same old thing. Criticism of the air traffic system's shortcomings has long led to Congress hearings and government reports. Among the other speakers were political leaders, faculty representatives, Family members of the victims of the air crash in Washington D.C. also participated. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a strong advocate for the airline industry, said that the families' tragedies shouldn't be forgiven. infrastructure, to improve the technology you see in front of us, much of which seems like it was assembled at a radio shack 50 years ago. But all of us know that money alone isn't a cure for all that ails the FAA. We need to ensure that there is a committed long-term focus to fixing and to upgrading technology, to streamlining and simplifying procurement, to bolstering the workforce, and to making it easier and safer to bring new tech, whether delivery drones or air taxis, into the U.S. airspace system. Arlene Richards, NTD News. For several years, Harvard has welcomed high-ranking officials from the Chinese Communist Party to its programs. But now, U.S. authorities are raising warning flags. They are warning of risks to national security and growing foreign influence in the U.S. Let's take a closer look. For decades, Harvard University has educated Chinese officials, and sometimes their family members. According to a new report from Wall Street Journal, students include a former party chairman and a former vice prime minister. Recently, China's leader Xi Jinping's daughter has also fallen into the spotlight. Some U.S. lawmakers believe that the Chinese Communist Party exploits U.S. schools to gather knowledge and competence in order to use it against the U.S. and U.S. interests. Among Harvard's alumni are Li Yuanchao, former vice chairman of the CCP, Liu He, former vice prime minister and negotiator, Li Hongzhong, a current member of the Politburo and a senior lawmaker. In the early 2000s, Harvard launched a short-term program called China's Leaders in Development, where the education was shared between Harvard and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Harvard stated that the purpose of the program was to help highly-employed local and central Chinese government officials to more effectively deal with China's ongoing reform challenges. On May 28, the U.S. Department of State announced that it would sharpen the visa restrictions for Chinese applicants and aggressively introduce visas for Chinese students, especially those with connections to the Communist Party or studying in sensitive areas. The department has not yet revealed any details about which criteria the Trump administration will use in the decision-making. On May 22, the Trump administration said that it intends to withdraw Harvard's permission to accept foreign students in reference to alleged cooperation with China's Communist Party. Harvard took 30 days to make the decision and has now submitted a petition. President Trump promises to take care of the causes behind children's chronic diseases, while Minister of Health Kennery urges for common sense in public health. NTD's White House correspondent Iris Tao tells us more. President Trump vows not to be swayed or influenced by special interests as his administration releases a new report looking into why more American kids are getting sick. Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interests. We have to spell it out. In some cases, it won't be nice or it won't be pretty, but we have to do it. Trump's Make America Healthy Again commission, led by Minister of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., noted in a report that more than 40% of American children today have at least one chronic health condition, such as asthma. There has also been a significant increase in autism. The report continues to analyze factors that lead to what is called the crisis of chronic diseases in children, including poor diet with a high presence of ultra-processed foods, increased exposure to chemicals such as antidepressants, lack of physical activity combined with chronic stress, and overuse of medicines. Meanwhile, some critics, including some medical experts, call some of these conclusions overstated. But Health Secretary Kennedy says that policymakers should focus less on what he calls conflicted research and more on common sense. Some would call mother's intuition. It's common sense that ultra-processed, nutrient-poor food contributes to chronic disease. It's common sense that over-medicating kids is dangerous. The president established this commission in February and gave it the task of examining children's chronic diseases. And in the next few months, the Maha Commission will present to the president a policy strategy on how to address in kids Senators in the United States heard on May 21 a testimony from a doctor about injuries related to the COVID-19 vaccine. The inquiry focuses especially on the fall of myocarditis. NDRI's correspondent Jason Blair reports. COVID-19 vaccines have saved millions and millions of lives. The Senate Subcommittee on Investigations debated about adverse effects surrounding COVID-19 vaccines. It still has been difficult to get the documents. I think we finally got enough documents to certainly demonstrate in this case with myocarditis that the federal government was well aware of it, downplayed the severity, and hid what they had actually found. Let's be clear. The allegation is that they purposefully concealed evidence. I am unable to support that conclusion with this evidence. Witnesses consisting mostly of doctors were brought in to testify. Now the topic today is myocarditis or heart damage from the COVID-19 vaccines. I'm a cardiologist. I know the topic well. I've examined thousands of patients with this problem. Thousands. Before the pandemic, I had two patients ever with this problem. I also heard that deaths sharply declined in 2021. Well, when you look at all-cause mortality in the United States, deaths in 2021 went up compared to 2020. Presumably, most of the most frail, the weak among us died in 2020 from COVID. We should have had a reduction in all-cause mortality in the United States. We did not. But I've seen firsthand children dying from the spread of preventable diseases because of vaccine skepticism, because people lose faith. One witness says he suffered from injuries after taking a COVID vaccine and had to quit his medical career. I proudly elected to get vaccinated, and within a week, I developed leg weakness, numbness, substantial balance loss, leading to falls, including one while treating a patient. I was stunned that my providers dismissed any vaccine link, despite news of similar cases halting the AstraZeneca trial in the UK. Another witness alleges that pregnant women were coerced into getting the COVID shots. These entities falsely assured pregnant women that the vaccines were proven safe and essential for maternal and fetal newborn health, despite the fact that early evidence indicated quite the opposite. Witness Dr. Jordan Vaughn disputed the use of ventilators on COVID patients during the pandemic. This was primarily a vascular disease, not a pulmonary disease. And it's one of the reasons that ventilators are probably one of the most ineffective things you could have done to people, because if you have a vascular disease of the lungs, increasing the intrathoracic pressure just closes down more vessels and ultimately kills them. Chairman Johnson indicated that there will be more hearings on COVID-related topics in the future. Reporting in Washington, D.C., Jason Blair, NTD News. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the US health minister, delivered sharp criticism of the World Health Organization, the WHO, and called it a dying organization. He highlighted China's growing influence over the EU as one of the main reasons for the US decision to leave the organization. The statements were made by global health experts in Geneva on May 20. Current reports indicate that the number of deaths as a result of COVID-19 rose to more than 7 million worldwide. The Trump administration criticized the WHO for its handling of the global health crisis and the lack of independence from China, when President Trump quickly signed an executive order in January to leave the WHO and terminate US funding for the organization. Trump tried to leave the WHO in 2020, during his first term in office, but due to a one-year term in office, the former President Biden was able to withdraw the decision when he took office. It should be noted that China's population is over 333 times larger than the United States, but China contributes with less money to the organization. Looking back at 2020, the WHO also ignored warnings from Taiwan about COVID-19 when it first emerged. The island shared its worrying reports with the organization weeks before China admitted that the outbreak was on its way. Despite Taiwan's willingness to cooperate, the island has repeatedly been prevented from becoming a member of the WHO. This is largely due to pressure from China, which continues to affect the organization's decisions. During the latest meeting in Geneva, the focus was on how the WHO plans to handle the upcoming funding gaps that the US exit will bring. The United States will officially withdraw from the WHO in 2026, after the mandatory one-year term in office has expired. COVID-19 creates headlines again. The WHO has classified a new variant as a variant under surveillance. This is happening at the same time as reports indicate a return of the virus in China. WHO says that the NB-181 variant poses a low risk to public health globally. The current COVID-19 vaccines are expected to remain effective against this variant, both when it comes to symptomatic and serious illness. Although some countries have reported an increase in the number of cases and hospitalizations, WHO states that there is no evidence that NB-181 causes more serious illness than other variants that are present in circulation. WHO defines a variant under surveillance as a COVID-19 strain that may require special attention and surveillance. It has less significance than both a variant of interest and a variant of special concern. The update comes at the same time as a reported increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in China. Patients there have described a severe burning pain in the throat, which the local population calls a straight-blade throat, where the feeling can be compared to swallowing crushed glass. The head of the infectious disease department at a hospital in Beijing says that the return of COVID-19 is expected to reach its peak at the end of this month. China's Infection Protection Agency China CDC says that NB-181 is now the dominant variant in the country. Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, the Chinese Communist Party has been criticized for darkening data, especially when it comes to the number of deaths as a result of the virus. COVID-19 was first discovered in Wuhan, China at the end of 2019. In April, the Trump administration updated its official COVID-19 website to reflect a theory that was previously well-received, that the virus can originate in a virological high-security laboratory in Wuhan. At the same time, CDC's screening program on airports has discovered several cases of NB-181 in the United States. Tests show that international travelers who arrived in California, Washington, Virginia and New York tested positive. Also other states, including Hawaii, Ohio and Rhode Island, have reported cases that are not linked to screening at airports. The report comes from Daniel Monahan, NTD News. Mass protests broke out in several regions in China during the month of May. Behind the demonstrations are a number of different dissatisfactions, and in several places there have been reports of confrontations between protesters and police. In Hebei province in northern China, near Beijing, thousands of villagers protested in front of local authorities on Sunday. Everyone had to move after local authorities had torn down their homes and taken over the land to build a state-owned airport. Now the frustration is over. The villagers have taken to the streets to express their dissatisfaction, but the small apartments they have received as compensation. The protests have been going on for over a week. In Guangdong province in southern China, construction workers were gathered at the office in a residential area to complain about late wages. The protests went on all day until night, and several workers slept on the office floor. As a result of the high tolls between the United States and China, exporters also protested against deteriorating business conditions. Hundreds of traders in the Xinjiang region in western China were gathered during the weekend. They demanded a repayment of the wages they had paid to participate in a trade fair that turned out to be unprofitable. Some of them reported that of the 300 traders, only three were able to secure a few orders during the entire fair. The police were sent out to surround the demonstrators. More protests broke out last week. In one case, hundreds of unemployed people gathered in front of a state-owned building in northern China on Thursday, where they demanded the social benefits they were entitled to, but that was delayed. Another protest was held by victims of investment fraud. In central China, hundreds of people were seen getting involved with the police on Wednesday. They claimed that their badly-earned savings had been stolen, after a company manager had deceived them and cheated with their invested money. The social concern is growing on a broad front in China. It is driven by poor economic conditions and suffering under the Chinese regime. We will keep you updated as the situation develops. The United States' top intelligence agency has published a help-seeking ad aimed directly at Chinese officials. Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA, published two short films on its platforms. The films describe recruitment as a way out for Chinese officials who are fighting to survive in the midst of the regime's internal power struggles and conflicts. One of the films shows highly-involved Chinese officials who live in constant fear of being victims of the Communist Party's extermination. The other focuses on inter-bosses who live in the shadow of their superiors. The CIA clarifies in the video descriptions what they are primarily looking for. It is exclusive access to insider information from the regime's highest circles or detailed information on China's national security, trade, diplomacy and high-tech sectors. Why are these videos being published right now? Tang Jingyuan has been an analyst for China for many years. The CCP has been treated as the United States' top strategic competitor. Naturally, when the U.S. sees the CCP as its primary rival or even its main adversary, it urgently needs to understand the true intentions of that adversary. I believe these two major factors have led the CIA to increase its efforts to gather and understand authentic intelligence from inside the CCP. There are major changes in the Chinese military leadership. Recently, several highly-involved military officials with close ties to Xi Jinping have been expelled on charges. One of the CIA's videos explains this situation and offers Chinese officers a safe future in exchange for internal information. French President Emmanuel Macron issued a warning to China. Stop North Korea from supporting Russia. Otherwise, NATO will increase its presence in Asia. The statement was made during a major security summit in Singapore on May 30. Macron made it clear that he did not want to see NATO involved in Asia, at least not yet. He meant that the alliance should be avoided by increasing tensions between the U.S. and China in the region. But Macron also warned that it could change if countries like North Korea continue to support Russia's war in Ukraine. According to reports, North Korean troops are helping Russia within the framework of a military cooperation agreement, something the West sees as a growing cooperation between authoritarian regimes. He made these statements during the Shangri-La Dialogue, one of the world's most important security conferences, where global defense leaders gather to discuss the security situation in the Indo-Pacific region. Among the participants were the U.S. Defense Minister Pete Hexeth and the head of the United States, Kaya Callas. Macron's statement comes as China increases its military presence near Taiwan and the South China Sea. He emphasizes that France is committed to the principle of national sovereignty and that the country is entitled to defend it in the entire Indo-Pacific region. President Trump urges Great Britain to pursue oil in the North Sea instead of building wind turbines. This is a sharp contrast to the current British policy, which strives to phase out fossil fuels as a source of renewable energy. President Trump has urged Great Britain to get rid of wind turbines and instead pursue oil in the North Sea. He said that the recently signed agreement between the two countries works well. With a statement on True Social, he also wrote that he strongly recommends that they stop the costly and ugly wind turbines and instead encourage modernized drilling in the North Sea. He said that there is oil left for a whole century of drilling and suggested that the Scottish city of Aberdeen could function as the center of activity and this could quickly reduce Great Britain's energy costs significantly. This is a sharp contrast to Great Britain's policy of net zero emissions of carbon dioxide, which aims to phase out fossil fuels and instead rely on wind and solar power. The British government has promised not to issue new licenses to explore new oil fields. According to analysis from campaign group Net Zero Watch, three quarters of the increase in British energy prices in the last decade is due to zero emissions, primarily due to subsidies, carbon tax and costs related to shutting down wind turbines. Great Britain's former prime minister, Tony Blair, warned last month that the country's zero vision is doomed to fail. He said that people are forced into economic sacrifices and lifestyle changes, even though their impact on global emissions is minimal. At the same time, Richard Dearlove, former chief of the British intelligence service MI6, warned that net zero policy poses a security threat, primarily due to its dependence on Chinese technology. In an interview with the magazine The Eye, Dearlove said that Chinese companies dominate the production of microchips and that this could give the Chinese Communist Party the opportunity to remotely shut down units such as wind turbines, solar panels and electric cars. These so-called kill switches have already been found in American solar panels. Dearlove suggested instead that the solution is to build up production in reliable countries in order to eventually replace Chinese technology. As an answer, a spokesperson for the British government said Malcolm Hudson reported for NTD News. Thank you for watching, and goodbye.