Georgian protesters on Monday forced the cancellation of an LGBT pride march after storming the office of an LGBT lobby group, tearing down their pride flags and replacing them with Georgia’s national flag.

This is what anti-imperialism looks like:

#Georgia 🇬🇪: a man on a scooter reportedly tried to drive into a group of journalists as they were reporting on the anti-pride violence in #Tbilisi.

Source: https://t.co/SpUIIzAzRa pic.twitter.com/HSffPvAoVL

— Thomas van Linge (@ThomasVLinge) July 5, 2021

From Reuters, “LGBT+ campaigners in Georgia call off pride match after office attack”:

LGBT+ campaigners in Georgia called off plans to stage a pride march on Monday after violent groups opposed to the event stormed and ransacked their office in the capital Tbilisi and targeted activists and journalists.

Activists launched five days of LGBT+ Pride celebrations last Thursday and had planned a “March for Dignity” on Monday in central Tbilisi, shrugging off criticism from the church and conservatives who said the event had no place in Georgia.

[…] Video footage posted by LGBT+ activists showed their opponents scaling their building to reach their balcony where they tore down rainbow flags and were seen entering the office of Tbilisi Pride.

[…] Campaigners said some of their equipment had been broken in the attack and that they had been forced to cancel.

Will Biden target them with drone strikes in order to spread “our values?”

Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine has dropped to 64% effectiveness in preventing infection amid the spread of the Delta variant in Israel, the Health Ministry said, as officials consider the need for booster shots and new restrictions.

The vaccine fell to 64% effectiveness in preventing symptomatic infection over the last month, the Health Ministry reported on Monday, noting that the decrease coincided with the rapid spread of the more contagious Delta variant across Israel. However, health officials said the Pfizer shot still offers strong protection against severe illness and hospitalization, reporting 93% efficacy.

While the ministry did not give the previous figures in its statement, a report published in May said the Pfizer vaccine was 97% effective against severe illness after two doses. In March, private Israeli researchers also found the immunization to be 91.2% effective against any level of symptomatic infection.

The new data comes amid a small surge across Israel, where the number of active cases hit 2,766 on Monday after 369 new infections, with the Delta variant believed to make up more than 90% of the overall total. As of July 4, around 70 patients were hospitalized, half of them in serious condition, compared to 21 with severe illness on June 19.

The fast spread of the Delta variant, which was first observed in India, has prompted Health Minister Nitzan Horowtiz to order two medical studies looking at the need for a third vaccine dose, saying they would provide “vital information” to policymakers. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office added that the studies will “evaluate the efficacy of the vaccine and the rate at which it wears off over time.”

While nearly 60% of Israel’s population of 9.3 million have received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine – helping to bring daily infections down from their peak of around 10,000 in January – cases are still cropping up among the immunized. Last Friday, more than half of the new infections reported were in patients that had been vaccinated, according to Ynet, underscoring the need for further study. 

In addition to booster shots, health officials are also mulling whether to revive some pandemic restrictions, most of which were lifted in March, as well as bringing back some version of its coronavirus ‘passport’ system, the Jerusalem Post reported. An indoor mask mandate had previously been dropped, but was brought back in late June as daily cases began to accelerate. 

Foreign travelers could also face additional testing and quarantine protocols in the coming weeks, though the Health Ministry has yet to make a decision.

A Pentagon employee who is under investigation for writing op-eds for Chinese state media wrote an open letter to President Biden warning against leading the US into a “major war” with China over Taiwan.

Franz Gayl, a former Marine who now advises the Marines Corps as a civilian, wrote two op-eds for China’s Global Times that warned US policy towards Taiwan could lead to a catastrophic war with China. Gayl refused compensation for the pieces, but for doing so, he is now under investigation and lost his security clearance.

The idea of writing for Global Times was to get the attention of Pentagon leaders. “I knew it would get everybody’s attention. And man, it did,” Gayl told The Washington Post. Although he may lose his job over it, Gayl says he has no regrets. “If we don’t talk about this now, we are going to sleepwalk into this conflict,” he said.

Gayl had previously landed in hot water for blowing the whistle on the Marines Corps for delaying the delivery of blast-resistant vehicles to Iraq despite a large number of US casualties due to IEDs. In 2007, Wired published a story on the delay based on a document leaked by Gayl.

In his letter to President Biden, Gayl warned the president that the US “at risk of entangling America in a major war with China over the status of the island of Taiwan.” Gayl said, “If by accident or design the Chinese civil war reignites and threatens to escalate” that the US should “refrain from militarily intervening.”

Gayl told Newsweek that he believes US policy towards Taiwan since 1979 has put Washington “on a path to eventual war with China.” Since 1979, the US has not recognized Taiwan as a country but has continued to supply Taipei with weapons. In recent years, the US has taken steps to strengthen diplomatic relations with Taiwan, angering Beijing and increasing the chance of a conflict.