France lockdown over heatwave..

Officials in France banned people from attending concerts, outdoor gatherings, and events due to safety concerns over a heatwave.

“Everyone now faces a health risk,” official Fabienne Buccio told France Bleu radio, after announcing the regional restrictions around Bordeaux.

Outdoor events – including, ironically, annual ‘Resistance’ celebrations – are banned until the officials declare the heatwave is over. They’re even restricting some indoor events that don’t have air conditioning.

However, private weddings are still allowed.

Temperatures reportedly hit 40 degrees Celsius on Thursday, and the heatwave is expected to peak on Saturday.

Nonetheless, rather than let people take responsibility for themselves – to hydrate or stay home – French officials are comfortable deciding for them.

Indeed, democratic governments seem comfortable stripping citizens’ freedoms for safety as of late. From COVID lockdowns to climate.

Recently, The Counter Signal reported that climate change lockdowns were likely on the horizon.

For example, unelected IGOs recently advised the British government to outright ban driving on Sundays to curb rising gas prices and address an energy crisis.

The advisement came from the International Energy Agency (IEA) as part of a 10-point plan, central to which is achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.

And this isn’t as conspiratorial as it might sound.

For example, while speaking on behalf of the World Health Organization (WHO), International Council of Nurses CEO Howard Catton claimed that climate change is the “grandmother of all health threats,” suggesting that the WHO may get involved with climate change-related health risks, like heatwaves, in the future.

Moreover, Nicole Schwab, the daughter of World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab) recently said she wants governments to take advantage of COVID infrastructure and policies to fight climate change.

Canada hasn’t even dropped its COVID travel restrictions, and already the government has elevated monkeypox to Level 2 status

, which means travellers may be subject to “isolation,” i.e., mandatory quarantine.

As per a Health Canada announcement, “In the current outbreak, those at risk of infection are those who have had close or intimate contact with a person who has monkeypox.”

“During your travel, you may be subject to procedures at your destination put in place to limit the spread of monkeypox, such as isolation, should you become infected. You may have limited access to timely and appropriate health care should you become ill, and may experience delays in returning home.”

This announcement also suggests that, much like COVID, the Canadian government plans on utilizing COVID infrastructure to track individuals suspected of having contacted those with confirmed monkeypox infections.

Health Canada continues, saying the federal government is now working with provincial and international governments to monitor the spread of monkeypox, even though cases remain low and monkeypox isn’t transmitted easily.

They are also recommending the use of personal protective equipment while travelling, which may mean additional mask mandates down the road.

Besides being one of the first countries to jump the gun on quarantining those who come down with a case of monkeypox, Canada is also one of the first countries (if not the first) to begin vaccinating people for monkeypox using the smallpox vaccine following the recent outbreak.

Quebec was the first to begin vaccinating for monkeypox, despite having only 25 cases in the province at the time.

As of yesterday (half a month later), there are now supposedly 85 cases, and over 500 Quebecers have received the smallpox vaccine.

Health officials also appear to be focused almost exclusively on monitoring gay men due to the spread believed to be occurring during sexual intercourse between individuals who attended a Spanish Pride festival — though monkeypox isn’t classified as a sexually-transmitted disease.

“We’re seeing the chain of transmission mainly in social networks in men who have sex with men,” said Montreal’s medical officer, Genevieve Bergeron.

It isn’t clear whether the government plans on tracking heterosexuals, too, or if it’s just gay men being targeted during Pride month.

Yet another food processing plant has spontaneously caught fire

— this time it’s a frozen pizza factory in Portage County, Wisconsin.

An American Red Cross report says they rushed to provide food and water for the more than 70 firefighters from nearly two dozen departments that were required to put out the fire early Monday morning.

According to Stevens Point Journal, the fire was first reported at roughly 9 am, with billowing smoke spreading out several kilometres east and northwest. Some departments cleared the scene at 4:30 pm, but the fire wasn’t completely extinguished until 8:45 pm, nearly 12 hours later.

The Fire District says the fire began in the compressor room for the refrigeration and stemmed from a problem that arose during maintenance. No employees were injured.

This isn’t the first — and likely won’t be the last fire at a food processing plant. Indeed, there have been several in just the last few months.

But it’s not just food processing plants catching fire that’s troubling, especially during a time of food inflation. Poultry at meat producers is being destroyed at an alarming rate, usually due to barn and factory fires or avian flu.

In early April, 46,000 turkeys had to be killed in Barron, Wisconsin, due to an avian flu outbreak.

Another flock of 53,000 in Beadle County, South Dakota, had to be killed that same month.

On May 3, 13,800 chickens had to be destroyed at an Oklahoma farm for the same reason.

72,300 chickens had to be killed in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, just a week later.

And there are several more instances.

A report commissioned by the United Kingdom (UK) government says the entire country will need to ban most air travel within ten years

and all air travel by 2050 to abide by impossibly lofty climate change laws.

“In her last significant act as Prime Minister, Theresa May changed the UK’s Climate Change Act to commit us to eliminating all greenhouse gas emissions in the UK by 2050. This decision is based on good climate science, was a response to a great wave of social protest and has been replicated in 60 other countries already,” the Absolute Zero report commissioned by the UK government explains.

According to the authors of the report, the only way that the UK government can meet their Absolute Zero obligations is to phase out all air travel, implementing an outright ban in 2050 until such a time as the government can conceive of a means of producing planes that produce zero greenhouse gases at any point during an aircraft’s production or use.

It shouldn’t need to be stated, but this is impossible.

Nonetheless, the authors say that “All airports except Heathrow, Glasgow and Belfast [will] close” between 2020-2029 and “All remaining airports [will] close” by 2050.

The authors continue, saying that under the current legislation, the following changes to daily life will need to be taken as all will be illegal in 2050: stop using aeroplanes; end all shipping; take the train, not the car; rideshare; use an electric vehicle; reduce energy consumption, including and especially heating; reduce fertilizer use; reduce cement and steel use and imports, etc.

The authors say that progressively limiting red meat consumption will also be necessary, as lamb and beef will be outlawed in the UK by 2050.

“In addition, obeying the law of our Climate Change Act requires that we stop doing anything that causes emissions regardless of its energy source. This requires that we stop eating beef and lamb – ruminants who release methane as they digest grass – and already many people have started to switch to more vegetarian diets,” the report reads.

This is quite an astounding proposal, as the authors say that under the climate change legislation, all fertilizer use will need to be “greatly reduced,” as will all processed foods, and the total energy required to cook or transport food must be reduced by 60 per cent of today’s levels.

So, the UK will not produce meat, will not use fertilizer to produce vegetables, will reduce other food imports to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, and will not produce or import processed food as a substitute.

It isn’t clear what, if anything, the authors and the government expect the people of the United Kingdom will eat in 2050. By all accounts, this appears to be a policy of misery and death.

French President Emmanuel Macron and his allies were scrambling for a way out of political deadlock Monday

after losing their parliamentary majority in a stunning blow to the president and his reform plans.

Macron’s Ensemble (Together) coalition emerged as the largest party in Sunday’s National Assembly vote but was dozens of seats short of keeping the parliamentary majority it had enjoyed for the last five years.

Surges on the left and the far right destroyed the dominant position of Macron’s deputies who, for the past five years, had backed the president’s policies without fail.

Turnout was low, with the abstention rate recorded at 53.77 per cent.

– ‘A slap’ –

The left-leaning Liberation daily called the result a “slap in the face” for Macron, while the conservative Le Figaro said he was now “faced with an ungovernable France“.

Macron’s allies may now seek a majority by forming deals with other parties on the right, stirring up turmoil not seen in French politics for decades.

The election saw the new left-wing alliance NUPES make gains to become the main opposition force with 127 seats, according to the Interior Ministry.

But it is unclear if the coalition of Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed will remain a united bloc in the National Assembly.

Meanwhile the far-right under Marine Le Pen posted the best legislative performance in its history, becoming the strongest single opposition party with 89 seats, up from eight in the outgoing chamber.

A confident Le Pen said her party would demand to chair the National Assembly’s powerful finance commission, as is tradition for the biggest opposition party.

“The country is not ungovernable, but it’s not going to be governed the way Emmanuel Macron wanted,” Le Pen told reporters Monday.

Hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon, who leads the NUPES alliance, said he would bring a motion of no confidence against Macron’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne as soon as parliament convenes in July.

Borne, who was elected to parliament in her first-ever political race, was nonetheless seen as vulnerable as Macron faces a new cabinet shake-up after several of his top allies lost their seats.

His health and environment ministers lost their seats and by tradition will have to resign, as did the parliament speaker and the head of Macron’s parliament group.

“We will see in the coming hours, but for now the prime minister remains the prime minister,” government spokeswoman Olivia Gregoire told France Inter radio Monday.

“I fear that the country is paralysed,” she added.

– ‘Turning point’ –

The outcome severely tarnished Macron’s April presidential election victory when he defeated Le Pen, becoming the first French president to win a second term in over two decades.

“It’s a turning point for his image of invincibility,” said Bruno Castres, a researcher at the Centre for Political Research of Sciences Po.

The options available to Macron, who has yet to publicly comment on the result, range from seeking to form a new coalition alliance, passing legislation based on ad hoc agreements to even calling new elections.

His Together alliance won 244 seats, far short of the 289 needed for an overall majority.

“The root of the presidential party is total,” Melenchon told supporters.

A prominent MP from Melenchon’s party, Alexis Corbiere, said Macron’s plan to raise the French retirement age to 65 had now been “sunk”.

Macron had hoped to stamp his second term with an ambitious programme of tax cuts, welfare reform and raising the retirement age. All that is now in question.

“It will be much more difficult to govern,” said Dominique Rousseau, professor of law at Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne University.

– ‘Imagination needed’ –

There could now potentially be weeks of political deadlock as the president seeks to reach out to new parties.

The most likely option would be an alliance with the Republicans, the traditional party of the French right, which has 61 MPs.

LR president Christian Jacob however made clear there would be no easy partnership, saying his party intended to “stay in opposition”.

Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire admitted “a lot of imagination will be needed” from the Macron’s party in what Le Figaro said was “a jump into the unknown”.

In a rare spot of good news for the president, Europe Minister Clement Beaune and Public Service Minister Stanislas Guerini — both young pillars of his party — won tight battles for their seats.

On the left, Rachel Keke, a former cleaning lady who campaigned for better working conditions at her hotel, was also elected, defeating Macron’s former sports minister Roxana Maracineanu.

JUST IN 🚨 Bitcoin price falls below $20,000 for the first time since 2020. Ethereum down under $1,000

Again and again, this minister insisted the police asked for the Emergencies Act.

We now know that is false.

He must resign. Now.

Male blood donor 66 was turned away for not answering if he was pregnant or not.

66-year-old man who’s been donating blood since he was 18 was told by staff they cannot accept his blood because he refused to answer if he was pregnant. The question was added to promote inclusivity.

What is this world coming to when people start believing that men can physically get pregnant. What sort of mental health problems do these people have? There must be something broken inside.