Member Info for Blownitalready

Zaza seems to have the bit between his teeth now.... Gooooaaaarrrrrrn my son !!!

This article is showing a letter with Frontera heading.....can anyone dig it out ?
(i'm useless at finding that kind of stuff)

Frontera calls on the Georgian government to end its disinformation campaign. In the critical letter, the American company calls on the Prime Minister and the Government of Georgia to stop deliberate lies, damaging and insincere practices and to have an honest partnership.

We read in the letter of " Frontera " that after several years of dispute, the government suddenly announced that it was extending the contract of the company .

The statement said that since April, Frontera has requested a number of meetings with the government, but to no avail.

Following the announcement of the harshest criticism and sanctions in Washington, the Georgian government has extended the license of the American " Frontera " until 2027. The contract expired on July 27.

https://formulanews.ge/News/34013

Following the announcement of the harshest criticism and sanctions from Washington, the Georgian government is extending the activities of the American "Frontera". The contract expired on July 27. The government is relinquishing its position, but does not link the decision to international pressure. The American company itself is convinced that the government has stepped back because of the unprecedented criticism of its partners.

The director of "Frontera" speaks about the wrong policy of the Georgian government towards business. He said the government's decision was linked to changes made to the National Defense Authorization Act by the Assignment Committee and Congress. According to the amendment, the Government of Georgia is obliged to protect foreign investments in Georgia.

American fuel company "Frontera" will continue operating in Georgia until 2027.

https://formulanews.ge/News/33998

Very sceptical about any article from 'sputnik'
Ask yourself one question.....why fight tooth and nail to keep the company going only to give it away again ?

https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-diagnostics-breaki/breakingviews-how-u-s-made-covid-19-tests-a-profitable-disaster-idUKKCN24O2XI

"Our investment image is so strong that it needs serious warning. "For us, it is not just an image, for us it is a serious value that we will protect," the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development told Frontera.

According to Turnava, since 1997, when Frontera entered Georgia, the company has almost never fulfilled its obligations.

"In 2017, when the deadline came again and we did not see that he could not fulfill these obligations, we were forced to apply to international arbitration. After the dispute, the arbitration upheld the claims of the Georgian side, after which "Frontera was ordered to pay the court fee, which is about 6 million dollars.

A 99% search was ordered to return the search area to the state and Frontera informed us in writing that it was returning that area. And we laid the groundwork for the complete termination of our contract with Frontera. We have made a decision regarding the remaining 1% and we are suspending the request to terminate the contract, leaving this 1% area. ", - said Turnava.

According to the current decision of the government, the Ministry of Economy of "Frontera" will no longer cancel the contract.

The government will no longer cancel the contract of the American fuel company "Frontera Resources Georgia Corporation", according to the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development.

The Ministry of Economy's contract with Frontera was due to be canceled on July 27. After winning a dispute in the arbitral tribunal, the government notified the American company of the decision to terminate the contract on April 27.

"The Georgian government has decided not to terminate its contract with Frontera and to allow the company to resume operations in the part of the original contract area where oil production has been under way since the Soviet era," the ministry said in a statement.

According to the Ministry, the decision was made to maintain the international reputation of the country in terms of investment environment.

„ It is unequivocally unfortunate for us that someone in America's highly diverse political spectrum has an excuse to use this absolutely routine commercial dispute to the detriment of the strategic relationship between our countries," the ministry said in a statement.

The decision to terminate the contract with Frontera was followed by critical letters from a number of congressmen and senators to the government.

On May 16, six senators and congressmen, including Senator Ted Cruz, wrote a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Stephen Mnunich discussing the harassment of American businesses by the Georgian government.

" Frontera was recently subject to extremely restrictive regulations, and now the company is threatened with expropriation by the Georgian authorities. In 2019, another American company, Conti Group, was expelled from the Anaklia Port construction consortium in exactly the same way, as a result of which the project was suspended.

These complications and disputes are significantly offset by geopolitical implications. "Frontera's energy-generating activities were aimed at making Georgia more stable and energy-independent," the senators and congressmen wrote.

Earlier, on February 12, another congressman, Randy Weber, wrote a critical letter to the Georgian government.

Weber wrote that calls for sanctions had increased in Congress because of problems with Georgia's democratic institutions and government interference with foreign companies.

"The decline in foreign direct investment is not surprising, as such an environment is extremely unfavorable and restrictive for European and American business interests.

They cancel contracts and carry out expropriation attacks on them. "A good example of this from my native Texas is the experience of the oil and gas company, 'Frontera Resource,'" Weber wrote.

The members of the ruling team have been particularly aggressive in their rhetoric towards Frontera over the past year, with some linking statements by congressmen and senators to lobbyists hired by Frontera.

https://www.interpressnews.ge/en/article/108489-adam-kinzinger-russia-is-strong-when-i-say-weak-i-dont-mean-weak-in-a-sense-of-every-other-country-but-weaker-than-we-think-they-are

https://www.interpressnews.ge/en/article/108491-adam-kinzinger-i-strongly-support-georgias-immediate-nato-membership

NYC public health official says national coronavirus testing plan is critical for contact tracing
Jennifer Rakeman, the assistant commissioner and laboratory director for the New York City Public Health Laboratory, said Tuesday that the lack of a national coronavirus testing strategy amid supply shortages and increasing demand for testing has contributed to the delay in test results across the nation.

Rakeman addressed the fact that people are waiting up to two weeks for test results, at which point a person could have finished their quarantine and contact tracing would be moot.

“That test that takes two weeks to get a result back was a test that shouldn't have been done,” said Rakeman during an Alliance for Health Policy Summit Tuesday. “Really anything much longer than outwards of 48 hours is not a useful test.”

Jurisdictions have been left to their own devices, she said, resulting in a distribution of testing access that does not meet the needs of many communities.

“We are working in a system that has been weakened by decreased funding and support, and we have had to rebuild, as we respond,” Rakeman said. “The rapid increase in cases and unprecedented hunger for testing has left labs in a place where we cannot keep up.”

She said a national strategy would help contact tracing become more efficient.

“We need a national testing strategy, so that the limited testing resources we have can be used effectively, so that testing turnaround times can be decreased, so that contact tracing can happen in real time, and so that Covid-19 patients and their contacts can isolate and transmission of the virus can be stopped," she said.

Earth - in fact ... don't bother answering , I can see from your posting history that you've made your way over from Ncyt !

Earth - you're very ILL informed.....I suggest you do some research before answering !

Having a Covid-19 test before travel could create a "false sense of security," health official says
From CNN's Health Gisela Crespo

As some countries in the Caribbean have reopened for nonessential travel, an official from the Pan American Health Organization said that getting a test ahead of getting on a plane could create a "false sense of security."

Dr. Sylvain Aldighieri, PAHO incident manager, said during a news briefing on Tuesday that the decision for countries to resume nonessential travel "should be gradual, and will be dynamic in terms of adjusting restrictions."

Aldighieri explained that a person from a location with widespread community transmission and who gets tested for Covid-19 before traveling could be infected between the time the sample was taken and the time the person boards a plane. A "negative test upon arrival could also occur in the early stages of infection," he added.

Aldighieri called on countries to plan for the risk of having travelers possibly import the virus by having contact tracing procedures in place, expanding the network of laboratories to improve testing capabilities, and by improving local health care systems

Possible coronavirus vaccine unlikely to be made widely available before 2021, UK vaccine head says
From Becky Anderson, Anna Gorzkowska and Mohammed Al-Saiegh

A possible coronavirus vaccine may not become widely available before 2021, the head of the UK Vaccine Taskforce told CNN Tuesday, cautioning that it remains uncertain as to whether a vaccine could be developed before Christmas.

“I would not assume there are any vaccines before next year. There will be some vaccines, if everything goes right, potentially at the end of this year, but that is not something I’d be going to the bank on in terms of everyone can get vaccinated by Christmas,” said Kate Bingham, chair of the UK Vaccine Taskforce.

“I don’t think [access] to all of us is something that is going to happen for a long time because we need to make sure the priority populations are vaccinated first, and that will take some time,” she added.
Bingham’s remarks come just a day after the University of Oxford announced that the early results of its phase one and two trials suggest a newly developed coronavirus vaccine is safe and induces an immune response.

Meanwhile, working in conjunction with the University of Oxford, pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca told a US congressional hearing on Tuesday that it is on track to have a possible vaccine ready as early as September.

Speaking to CNN, Bingham said such projections remain “no more than possibility” at present.

While the surge in coronavirus cases in the United States has amplified the need for timely testing, diagnostic companies continue to grapple with turnaround times of multiple days or more for coronavirus test results.

Some labs have attributed the longer waits to extreme demand and strain on testing supply chains. There are now more than 3.8 million confirmed coronavirus cases in the US, with tens of thousands of new infections every day.

Quest Diagnostics said in a statement Monday that average turnaround time has increased to seven days or more for the general population, and that a “small subset of patients” may experience wait times of up to two weeks.

Prioritized patients, such as symptomatic healthcare workers and those who are hospitalized, get results in two days on average, the company said. Quest says that’s longer than the one-day average wait time priority patients had a week ago.

On Saturday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized Quest to use its Covid-19 test with pooled specimens, where samples from multiple patients are tested together, which the company said should help increase capacity.

But Quest also said the biggest factors they face now are the limits of the complex machines that perform the tests, as well as limited supply of reagents, the chemicals used to perform the tests.

US Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir said on CNN’s “New Day” Monday the average turnaround time for tests in most states is longer than three days, though in 18 states the average is two to three days.

“That is not optimum. We want to reduce that. It will be reduced,” said Giroir, who added that supply of reagents is “tight.”

I have seen Mosman rise over 600% in a day.....seen it go down 300% to,,,,

According to Edison Research, the answers to the question of the population about their attitude towards this or that party are divided as follows:

For New Georgia (Giorgi Vashadze - Strategy Builder) - 36% positive; 64% negative;

European Georgia - Free Democrats - 35% positive; 65% negative;

Labor Party - 33% positive; 67% negative;

Georgian Dream - 33% positive; 67% negative;

Citizens (Aleko Elisashvili) - 32% positive; 68% negative;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UNM - United Opposition - 29% positive; 71% negative;

Patriots Alliance - 29% positive; 71% negative;

Try - 27% positive; 73% negative;

Winner Georgia (Irakli Okruashvili) - 23% positive; 77% negative;

Free Georgia (Kakha Kukava) - 21% positive; 79% negative;
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Democratic Movement United Georgia (Nino Burjanadze) - 21% positive; 79% negative;

Republican Party - 19% positive; 81% negative;

For Justice (Eka Beselia) - 17% positive; 83% negative;

Girch - 15% positive; 85% negative;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The poll was conducted by Edison Research, a reputable research company commissioned by Formula TV.

The survey was conducted from June 23 to July 13, using a face-to-face survey method. The study surveyed 2,000 people aged 18 and over living in Georgia across the country (excluding the occupied territories) by random sampling. The error of the results is + - 2.1%.

https://formulanews.ge/News/33560

Surely this is the big news the UK government are announcing ??

Russian spies are targeting organisations trying to develop a coronavirus vaccine in the UK, US and Canada, security services have warned.

The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said the hackers "almost certainly" operated as "part of Russian intelligence services".

It did not specify which organisations had been targeted, or whether any information had been stolen.

But it said vaccine research had not been hindered by the hackers.

Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: "It is completely unacceptable that the Russian intelligence services are targeting those working to combat the coronavirus pandemic.

"While others pursue their selfish interests with reckless behaviour, the UK and its allies are getting on with the hard work of finding a vaccine and protecting global health."

Russia has denied responsibility.

"We do not have information about who may have hacked into pharmaceutical companies and research centres in Great Britain. We can say one thing - Russia has nothing at all to do with these attempts," said Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for President Putin, according to the Tass news agency.

The warning was published by a international group of security services:

the UK's NCSC
the Canadian Communication Security Establishment (CSE)
the United States Department for Homeland Security (DHS) Cyber-security Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
the US National Security Agency (NSA)
One expert said it was "plausible" that, despite the Kremlin's denials, Russian spies were involved.

"The received wisdom is that in cyber-space, attribution is difficult but not impossible," commented Emily Taylor from the Chatham House think tank.

"Usually the security services are much more hedgy in their language if they think there is any doubt.

"Cozy Bear [the named group] has been implicated in past cyber-attacks and has left quite a trail, and there are fairly good links to the Russian state itself."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-53429506