Justin Trudeau duped by Russian pranksters posing as Greta Thunberg who tell him to 'leave Nato'
Barney Davis
November 25, 2020, 4:04 a.m. ·3 min read
The Canadian Prime Minister was duped by a faka Greta Thunberg
Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was pranked in a long phone call during which he believed he was talking to climate change activist Greta Thunberg.
Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus released a recording of the phone call this week, where the fake Greta begs Canada to leave NATO, calls Donald Trump 'a b******' and requests a chance to meet South Park characters Terrance and Phillip – at which point the penny drops.
During the 10-minute call, a woman – playing the teenage climate activist – tells Mr Trudeau she is worried about a "growing international crisis and anticipation of the world war".
"It already leads to disaster, it's very scary," says fake Greta. Mr Trudeau replies: "Yes, indeed."
The call took place days after the Iranian government shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing 176 people on board, in January.
"You are adults but you act like children," she says. "We can create a world where there is a place for everyone. For white and black. Christians and Muslims. Trump and Putin. For you and me. For Boris Johnson. For Corbyn. For Terrance and Phillip, who are also known in your country."
"No, that is exactly, exactly, the right perspective," Mr Trudeau responds, seeming to ignore the reference to two South Park characters.
He goes on to say that Greta's visit to Montreal "helped define" the outcome of Canada's election in terms of climate change.
But the prankster interrupts to say: "But leave Nato. Drop your weapons. Pick flowers. Smile at nature."
A calm Mr Trudeau then replies: "I also dream of a world in which soldiers are not necessary, but we don't live in that world yet, unfortunately. We need to push back on those that harm innocents."
Fake Greta responds: "The main b****** is Trump because Mr Trump is doing everything to kill us." Mr Trudeau points out that he must work with "the world leaders that other people choose," but added: "I can certainly understand that people can feel very, very strongly about him."
The prankster also urged Mr Trudeau to take care of her friend Prince Harry when he moved to Canada.
The prime minister responded that Harry is "absolutely one of the good guys" and said he looked forward to spending time with him.
Mr Trudeau then says that Harry's wife Meghan "has always been lovely when I've met her."
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle stayed in Canada over Christmas last year
Mr Trudeau finally realises he is being duped when fake Greta asks whether he can introduce her to Terrance and Phillip.
"I would be happy – I'll ask my team to try and figure out how we can connect you," he says. "Because I don't have their direct coordinates with me now."
"Wait, Terrance and Phillip, where they not in South Park?" he asks. "I don't personally know them. I believe they are South Park parodies of Canadians," he says, before politely thanking fake Greta and hanging up.
The Canadian PM's office confirmed that the phone conversation had taken place back in January, adding it was "not the first prank call of a world leader," and insisting that Mr Trudeau "determined the call was fake and promptly ended it."
Previous targets of Vovan and Lexus include Elton John, who they claim to have fooled by pretending to be Russian president Vladimir Putin keen to talk about gay rights.
Kerala PSC preliminary exam dates announced at keralapsc.gov.in, to commence from 20 February
Kerala PSC was scheduled to conduct the common preliminary test back in December but it was postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to extend travel bans on Brazil and much of Europe, shortly after President Donald Trump announced on Monday he would be lifting them. Trump signed an order Monday lifting the restrictions, which he imposed early last year in response to the pandemic. Those restrictions barred nearly all non-U.S. citizens who have been in Brazil, the UK, Ireland and 26 other European countries in the last 14 days. Soon after Trump's order was made public on Monday, Biden spokeswoman Jen Psaki tweeted that the President-elect does not intend to lift restrictions, saying quote: "With the pandemic worsening, and more contagious variants emerging around the world, this is not the time to be lifting restrictions on international travel." Trump's decision to lift travel bans would have come into effect January 26 -- the same day that new COVID-19 test requirements will take effect for all international visitors. Last week, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signed an order requiring nearly all international travelers flying to the U.S. to present a negative coronavirus test or proof of recovery from COVID-19. Trump is leaving office on Wednesday. The Biden transition team did not immediately respond to request for comment on whether it now plans to extend Trump's travel bans to other countries. Trump confirmed earlier on Monday that he would not lift entry bans on China and Iran.
Eric Paschall with a dunk vs the Los Angeles Lakers
Eric Paschall (Golden State Warriors) with a dunk vs the Los Angeles Lakers, 01/18/2021
Kelly Oubre Jr. with a 2-pointer vs the Los Angeles Lakers
Kelly Oubre Jr. (Golden State Warriors) with a 2-pointer vs the Los Angeles Lakers, 01/18/2021
Stephen Curry with an assist vs the Los Angeles Lakers
Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) with an assist vs the Los Angeles Lakers, 01/18/2021
The race against the virus that causes COVID-19 has taken a new turn: Mutations are rapidly popping up, and the longer it takes to vaccinate people, the more likely it is that a variant that can elude current tests, treatments and vaccines could emerge. The coronavirus is becoming more genetically diverse, and health officials say the high rate of new cases is the main reason. Each new infection gives the virus a chance to mutate as it makes copies of itself, threatening to undo the progress made so far to control the pandemic. On Friday, the World Health Organization urged more effort to detect new variants. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a new version first identified in the United Kingdom may become dominant in the U.S. by March. Although it doesn't cause more severe illness, it will lead to more hospitalizations and deaths just because it spreads much more easily, said the CDC, warning of "a new phase of exponential growth." "We're taking it really very seriously," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious disease expert, said Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We need to do everything we can now ... to get transmission as low as we possibly can," said Harvard University's Dr. Michael Mina. "The best way to prevent mutant strains from emerging is to slow transmission." So far, vaccines seem to remain effective, but there are signs that some of the new mutations may undermine tests for the virus and reduce the effectiveness of antibody drugs as treatments. "We're in a race against time" because the virus "may stumble upon a mutation" that makes it more dangerous, said Dr. Pardis Sabeti, an evolutionary biologist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard. Younger people may be less willing to wear masks, shun crowds and take other steps to avoid infection because the current strain doesn't seem to make them very sick, but "in one mutational change, it might," she warned. Sabeti documented a change in the Ebola virus during the 2014 outbreak that made it much worse. MUTATIONS ON THE RISE It's normal for viruses to acquire small changes or mutations in their genetic alphabet as they reproduce. Ones that help the virus flourish give it a competitive advantage and thus crowd out other versions. In March, just a couple months after the coronavirus was discovered in China, a mutation called D614G emerged that made it more likely to spread. It soon became the dominant version in the world. Now, after months of relative calm, "we've started to see some striking evolution" of the virus, biologist Trevor Bedford of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle wrote on Twitter last week. "The fact that we've observed three variants of concern emerge since September suggests that there are likely more to come." One was first identified in the United Kingdom and quickly became dominant in parts of England. It has now been reported in at least 30 countries, including the United States. Soon afterward, South Africa and Brazil reported new variants, and the main mutation in the version identified in Britain turned up on a different version "that's been circulating in Ohio ... at least as far back as September," said Dr. Dan Jones, a molecular pathologist at Ohio State University who announced that finding last week. "The important finding here is that this is unlikely to be travel-related" and instead may reflect the virus acquiring similar mutations independently as more infections occur, Jones said. That also suggests that travel restrictions might be ineffective, Mina said. Because the United States has so many cases, "we can breed our own variants that are just as bad or worse" as those in other countries, he said. ___ TREATMENT, VACCINE, REINFECTION RISKS Some lab tests suggest the variants identified in South Africa and Brazil may be less susceptible to antibody drugs or convalescent plasma, antibody-rich blood from COVID-19 survivors — both of which help people fight off the virus. Government scientists are "actively looking" into that possibility, Dr. Janet Woodcock of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration told reporters Thursday. The government is encouraging development of multi-antibody treatments rather than single-antibody drugs to have more ways to target the virus in case one proves ineffective, she said. Current vaccines induce broad enough immune responses that they should remain effective, many scientists say. Enough genetic change eventually may require tweaking the vaccine formula, but "it's probably going to be on the order of years if we use the vaccine well rather than months," Dr. Andrew Pavia of the University of Utah said Thursday on a webcast hosted by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Health officials also worry that if the virus changes enough, people might get COVID-19 a second time. Reinfection currently is rare, but Brazil already confirmed a case in someone with a new variant who had been sickened with a previous version several months earlier. ___ WHAT TO DO "We're seeing a lot of variants, viral diversity, because there's a lot of virus out there," and reducing new infections is the best way to curb it, said Dr. Adam Lauring, an infectious diseases expert at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. Loyce Pace, who heads the non-profit Global Health Council and is a member of President-elect Joe Biden's COVID-19 advisory board, said the same precautions scientists have been advising all along "still work and they still matter." "We still want people to be masking up," she said Thursday on a webcast hosted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "We still need people to limit congregating with people outside their household. We still need people to be washing their hands and really being vigilant about those public health practices, especially as these variants emerge." ___ AP Medical Writer Carla K. Johnson in Seattle contributed reporting. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content. Marilynn Marchione, The Associated Press