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Russians are receiving text messages about the U.S. State Department’s $10 million reward for information on election interference

Residents of cities across Russia are receiving SMS messages about the U.S. State Department’s newly announced $10 million “Rewards for Justice” (RFJ) offer for information that helps identify or locate hackers attempting to interfere in the 2020 presidential elections, reports the Russian outlet TJournal. 

Russian social media users began sharing screenshots of these messages online on August 6, the day after the U.S. State Department announced the reward offer. Reports about the messages also started to appear in local news outlets, such as the Yekaterinburg-based outlet It’s My Cityand the Vladivostok-based outlet Vl.ru, among others. According to the website Pikabu.ru, residents of the Russian cities of Saratov, Krasnodar, Ulyanovsk, Chelyabinsk, Perm, and Tyumen also reported receiving similar messages. 

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Students at Georgia school snapped photos of maskless peers. Now, they face expulsion

Students at a Georgia high school are being threatened with suspension and other punishments after “negative” photos of their first day back to class circulated on social media.

One North Paulding High School student has already been suspended after snapping a photo of crowded hallways — with few students wearing masks — upon their return to school Monday, local station WSB-TV reported.

The image was one of many “back-to-school” photos that went viral this week, sparking criticism amid rising coronavirus cases across Paulding County and the state. As of Thursday, Georgia had over 204,000 cases and nearly 4,000 deaths, data from the state Department of Public Health show.

Paulding County schools officials reportedly warned students they could be punished for posting such photos, but only after the image of the packed hallways drew backlash and thrust the county onto the national stage, CBS46 reported.

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Lebanese President Michel Aoun: ‘Possibility of external interference’ in Beirut explosion

Lebanese officials have not ruled out that an external attack could have been the cause of the massive explosion Tuesday that claimed the lives of 154 people and injured thousands, President Michel Aoun said Friday.

His comments contradict that of international officials who have said that an accidental fire seems to have set off a warehouse loaded with highly flammable ammonium nitrate.

U.S. officials, however, have sent conflicting messages about the cause of the blast.

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Veteran Virologist Slams Mainstream Media’s “Misinformation” About An Effective COVID Treatment

To a media unrelentingly hostile to Donald Trump, this meant that the president could be portrayed as recklessly promoting the use of a “dangerous” drug. Ignoring the refutation of the VA study in its May 15 article, the Washington Post cited a Brazil study published on April 24 in which a COVID trial using chloroquine (a related but different drug than hydroxychloroquine) was stopped because 11 patients treated with it died. The reporters never mentioned another problem with that study: The Brazilian doctors were giving their patients lethal cumulative doses of the drug.

On and on it has gone since then, in a circle of self-reinforcing commentary. Following the news that Trump was taking the drug himself, opinion hosts on cable news channels launched continual attacks on both hydroxychloroquine and the president. “This will kill you!” Fox News Channel’s Neil Cavuto exclaimed. “The president of the United States just acknowledge that he is taking hydroxychloroquine, a drug that [was] meant really to treat malaria and lupus.”

Washington Post reporters Ariana Cha and Laurie McGinley were back again on May 22, with a new article shouting out the new supposed news:

“Antimalarial drug touted by President Trump is linked to increased risk of death in coronavirus patients, study says.”

The media uproar this time was based on a large study just published in the Lancet. There was just one problem. The Lancet paper was fraudulent and it was quickly retracted.

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35-Year-Old Florida Roofer Struck by Lightning Listed as Coronavirus Fatality

A 35-year-old Florida roofer struck by lightning in late May was listed as a Coronavirus fatality.

An investigative report by Alachua Chronicle revealed several Covid-19 death certificates with multiple co-morbidities.

A 35-year-old male who was struck by lightning on May 28 and died from serious spinal cord and brain injuries on June 9 was listed as a Dade County death from Coronavirus…

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