Question Time chaos as dozens of pharmacists dressed in white storm out of Parliament and heckle the government as ‘liars’

By Brittany Chain, Political Correspondent For Daily Mail Australia

Updated: 03:22 EDT, 4 September 2023

A British family struck down by a sickness outbreak at a five-star resort in Greece has been joined by dozens of tourists in demanding a probe after they saw rat droppings on sun loungers and guests vomiting in the pool.

Danielle Faulkner, 44, spent £3,000 on a family holiday to the luxury Apollonian Asterias Resort and Spa on the island of Kefalonia with her two daughters Amelie, 15, and Isobel, 17.

But their first trip together in five years soon turned into a holiday from hell as Ms Faulkner and Amelie experienced sickness and diarrhoea on just the second day of their week-long summer break after arriving on July 16.

Ms Faulkner, who has a suppressed immune system from having the incurable condition lupus, even needed help from one of her daughters after losing consciousness before she was treated by a resort doctor with antibiotics. 

The business change manager from Newport, South Wales, said: ‘The last thing you expect when you book a five-star luxury holiday is for it to be wiped out by illness. I wish we’d never have booked the holiday.

‘We know nothing can turn the clock back and make up for what’s happened, but the least we feel we deserve is answers as to why the holiday turned into a nightmare.’

The action taken by 35 holidaymakers has ignited somewhat of a feud with the resort which defended itself to MailOnline by blaming sunshine-seeking tourists for bringing the virus over to Greece and refusing to isolate in their rooms. 

Three days after Ms Faulkner and Amelie were struck down, Isobel also suffered the same symptoms. The family said that they saw rodent droppings on loungers and guests being sick at dining tables, in the swimming pool and in reception.

‘The holiday quickly went from what we hoped would be a dream trip to a disaster. What’s even more concerning is that we weren’t alone’, Ms Faulkner, who booked her holiday through TUI, added.

‘We saw other holidaymakers being sick in front of the other guests and others were complaining about hygiene standards.’

She added: ‘It was awful. We couldn’t even keep down water down and in 40-degree heat that was incredibly worrying. Amelie said that she’d never been so ill in her life.’ 

Ms Faulkner said that after they fell ill, notices were put up outside the restaurant and pool area telling guests there had been sickness in the luxury resort which features a tennis court, spa, outdoor cinema and health and fitness centre.

She also claimed waiting staff were wearing masks and gloves, which she assumed was a Covid measure; tables weren’t cleaned between guests dining, plates of food were left outside rooms of guests and bags of rubbish were left overnight in corridors.

Ms Faulkner said: ‘After the last few years and what everyone has been through with Covid and because we’ve not been away together as a family for so long, we felt we deserved a break.

‘My daughters have worked incredibly hard at school and have achieved amazing exam results.

‘We’d researched where to go for weeks and looked at various options. We chose the resort as it looked like everything we wanted.

‘We made sacrifices and saved hard for months to enjoy what we thought would be a special holiday on which we’d create memories together.

‘However, the enthusiasm and excitement we had about our holiday quickly vanished.’

Jatinder Paul, the specialist international injury lawyer at Irwin Mitchell who has been instructed by the Faulkners as well as other families to investigate, said: ‘We continue to be contacted by a growing number of people from across the UK who fell ill during holidays to this resort this summer.

‘What’s of particular concern is that multiple families are reporting suffering the same serious symptoms and in a short timeframe. The ages of those affected range from one-year-old to 57.

‘Naturally Danielle, Amelie, Isobel and others we represent, want answers as to how they became so unwell on a five-star holiday.

‘We’re now investigating those concerns to provide them with the answers they deserve.

‘Gastric illness can lead to serious and long-term health complications and its impact should never be downplayed.

‘It’s vital that those with concerns about the resort are now supported.

‘If during our investigations any issues are identified, action needs to be taken to reduce the risk of other holidaymakers falling ill in the future.’

A spokesman for the Apollonian Asterias Resort and Spa denied that the hotel was responsible and blamed tourists for bringing the ‘unprecedented diarrhoea and vomiting outbreak’ to the hotel.

They said that the first cases appeared on July 14 – the day after ‘we had new arrivals mostly from the UK’.

The spokesman told MailOnline: ‘D&V is something that appears during holidays and it is a routine of all hotels to have an odd case so when we had the first cases of course we never thought that this can turn out to be an outbreak.

‘Then, we did not know much. For example we did not know that the UK government had announced an increase of D&V cases and norovirus at the British Schools back in March.

‘Little did we know then that there has been and increase of norovirus and this was travelling around the world. Unfortunately we found out the hard way.

‘People need to blame always somebody. This was proven not to be caused by the hotel or because we did not do something correctly.

‘This virus was brought to us by travellers. Being a big resort with many restaurants cross-contamination was quick.’

They continued: ‘We asked that guests being ill to stay in their rooms, nevertheless many would not listen and actually decided to go to the pools.’

In June, MailOnline revealed that a widower whose wife died after she fell ill during their dream holiday to a five-star resort in Cape Verde was one of 350 guests taking legal action against TUI.

Jane Pressley, from Gainsborough, travelled to the Riu Palace Hotel in Santa Maria with her husband Michael for a two-week holiday to celebrate her birthday in November last year.

Two days into her stay, the mother-of-two, who was also due to become a grandmother for the first time, fell ill with gastric and flu-like symptoms including vomiting and diarrhoea. 

After she returned home, Jane’s illness worsened and she was admitted to hospital, where she died in January. ‘While nothing will ever bring her back,’ her husband said, ‘we need some answers. It’s the least we deserve.’ 

A TUI spokesman said in a statement at the time: ‘Our thoughts and sympathies remain with the Pressley family. As this is now a legal matter, it would not be appropriate for us to comment further.’ 

In relation to Ms Faulkner’s holiday, a TUI spokesman said: ‘We are sorry to hear about these experiences as the health and safety of our customers is our biggest priority.

‘Unfortunately, as this is now a legal matter, we are unable to comment any further.’

BREAKING NEWS: Mass shooting in Baltimore leaves dozens wounded and multiple dead

By Victoria Bischoff

Published: 04:09 EDT, 2 July 2023 | Updated: 04:09 EDT, 2 July 2023

Texas Senator Ted Cruz and dozens of other Republicans have backed tech workers who want the Supreme Court to scrap a visa scheme that lets some 200,000 foreigners compete against them for US jobs.

Cruz is one of five senators and 31 congressmen who have filed papers backing the case, which lawyers for the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers (Washtech) say is a powerful endorsement.

In their briefs, they say the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) lets tens of thousands of foreign students stay in the US for years after their course has ended, competing with US citizens and driving down wages.

‘President Biden’s DHS is circumventing the law Congress has established regarding non-immigration visas, and it’s hurting American workers,’ Cruz said.

‘This is a broken visa program that needs to be fixed.’

Senators Mike Lee of Utah, Tom Cotton of Arkansas, Mike Braun of Indiana, and Katie Britt of Alabama also signed the papers, which were filed by America First Legal, a campaign group headed by former Trump Administration advisor Stephen Miller.

In those files, the senators point to research showing how Disney, AT&T, Walmart, and other big US firms have used the scheme to ‘use low wage foreigners to displace American workers.’

Washtech wants the court to tear up an Obama-era expansion of the Optional Practical Training (OPT) scheme that lets foreign student visa holders work in the US for a year after graduating.

Defenders of the DHS program say it lets migrants get real-world work experience in their field of study, while letting US tech firms bag fresh talent. Without it, they would simply study in a more welcoming country, they say.

The case highlights two key concerns of conservatives — that Americans are losing jobs to foreigners, and that federal government agencies exceed their powers by making rules that should be passed by Congress.

Washtech’s lawyer, John Miano, from the conservative Immigration Reform Law Institute, said the ‘case has attracted an unusual amount of interest’ from some of America’s best-known politicians.

This visa program ‘strips from Congress the power to set terms for non-immigrant visas’ and therefore ‘naturally attracted the attention of members of Congress,’ Miano told DailyMail.com.

Miano says DHS officials agreed to expand the scheme at a private dinner with representatives of the tech sector because other foreign worker programs, such as the H-1B, were capped. 

Washtech, a union of some 300 West Coast tech workers, last month filed its appeal to the Supreme Court after a lower court in February kicked out its previous request.

The top US judicial body is expected to decide whether to hear the case within weeks.

The court only hears about 5 percent of the thousands of cases it is asked to review each year.

The case is being assessed by one of the court’s most conservative configurations in generations, and comes amid a wave of layoffs by Meta, Microsoft, and many other major US technology firms.

The OPT has existed in some form since 1947.

Washtech challenged it after it was tweaked by the Obama administration in 2016, by letting students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields get work permits for up to two years beyond the typical one-year period.

The original lawsuit says federal immigration law only lets international students remain in the US while they are enrolled in school.

David North, a fellow of the Center for Immigration Studies, a conservative think tank, says it incentivizes hiring migrants because an OPT tax break makes them about 8 percent cheaper than American workers.

The union is pitted against DHS, which oversees the OPT program. The department did not answer our request for comment.

Major business groups including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers have intervened in the case to defend the OPT scheme.

They say it helps companies address a lack of qualified US workers.

Wolfsdorf Rosenthal, an immigration law firm, says the OPT scheme buys some time for foreigners who study in the US to find an employer, when otherwise they would have to leave.

‘If we don’t retain international students in the US after they complete their courses of study, they’ll take their skills elsewhere and go to work for our competitors,’ the firm said in a statement.

The US would then lose out to Australia, Canada, China, and India, which have post-graduate work programs, they added.

The number of OPT participants has risen from about 30,000 in the early 2000s to more than 200,000 in recent years, though numbers dipped in the pandemic, according to the Institute of International Education’s Open Doors report. 

It sounds like the stuff of science fiction – but a company in Utah has already implanted brain chips in dozens of patients.

Blackrock Neurotech, based in Salt Lake City, has the grand ambition of treating physical paralysis, blindness, deafness and depression.

The chip — known as NeuroPort Array — allow people to control robotic arms and wheelchairs, play video games and even feel sensations.

It works by using nearly 100 microneedles that attach to the brain and read electrical signals produced by someone’s thoughts. More than three dozen people have so far received it.

The device was first implanted in a human in 2004. Company leaders hope to bring it to market soon, announcing in 2021 they aimed for the next year.

Tech mogul Elon Musk has also launched similar plans with Neurolink, an implantable device he hopes can help similar groups. 

Mr Musk’s initial plans were deterred by regulators earlier this year, who rejected a bid to trial his implant in humans.

‘We are the only company with direct-brain BCI implants in humans,’ Marcus Gerhardt, Blackrock’s co-founder, told DailyMail.com.

‘Our implantable arrays have enabled people to connect directly to computers, control robotic arms and wheelchairs, play video games, even regain sensation – with just their brain signals.

Blackrock’s technology uses an implantable microchip that has 96 arrays — small needle-shaped brain chips that can read and stimulate electrical signals. 

It can be placed anywhere on the brain’s surface. Multiple devices can be placed on the same person’s brain.

After implantation, the chip detects electrical signals generated by the wearer’s thoughts.

Machine learning software decodes these signals into digital commands such as cursor movements, which can be used to control prosthetics and computer equipment.

This can help a person draw using a robotic arm, use computer programs or control a wheelchair or prosthetic limb. 

But the company is now seeking FDA approval for devices built for use outside the lab, to be used at home by people with paralysis.

Gerhardt said: ‘We are pursuing regulatory approval of the world’s first-ever BCI designed specifically for at-home use: MoveAgain.

‘This medical device aims to increase independence and mobility, and ultimately, quality of life, for people with paralysis.’

He hopes that BCIs will become as ubiquitous for paralyzed patients as pacemakers  for people with heart issues.

He continued: ‘Once home-use BCIs are available, they’ll help people build new lives that may have seemed impossible following their disability; we think we’ll see people return to work, establish greater independence, and engage with the world in powerful new ways.

‘Our long-term vision is that our implants will become as readily available to people with paralysis as pacemakers are for people with heart issues.’

The company is already developing brain-computer interfaces to restore hearing and vision.

Mr Gerhardt said: ‘As the technology continues to advance, we’ll see BCIs with indications for memory and mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.’

It has been used on more than three dozen people who Blackrock, which has no relation to the asset management firm, refers to as ‘BCI pioneers’.

The device has been implanted in patients for a combined 80 years without any reports of serious adverse effects.

However, the device does have some pitfalls. The arrays on the implant slowly break down over time, causing its signal quality to degrade after around two years.

The device has typically needed to be removed after around five years, though this has varied from patient to patient, requiring another surgery to take it out and then replace it.

Nathan Copeland has had a BCI for eight years and uses his BCI to create art with a robotic arm as well as play video games.

He is even able to feed himself, recently showing off his ability to eat a Taco Bell Cheesy Gordito Crunch using a robot arm controlled by his brain. 

Mr Copeland’s art is now on display at The BCI Exhibit at AAAS in Washington DC.

Mr Gerhardt said: ‘When it comes to art, Nathan’s medium of choice is MS Paint or GIMP, but James Johnson is the most proficient BCI Photoshop user we’ve seen.

‘Before James became paralyzed, he had a small business doing photo manipulations for clients. 

‘Using his BCI, he has been able to get back to using Photoshop in the lab, and some of his artwork is on display at The BCI Exhibit, as well.’

Mr Gerhardt says that Blackrock first implanted a BCI in 2004, but initially focused on research rather than seeking publicity. 

‘As a company, we’ve also taken a much more active role in stepping out from behind the curtain and helping enthusiastic patients tell their stories,’ he said.

‘Once patients have access to these devices outside the lab, I think we’ll really see an increase in public interest.

‘The sky’s the limit for what BCIs will be able to do in the future.’

Mr Gerhardt believes that the technology could be used in the future to deal with everything from restoring lost memories to PTSD to depression.

‘For instance, with depression, BCI could show promise for modulating neural activity in the regions of the brain that are involved in mood regulation,’ he said.

‘When it comes to disorders like depression or PTSD, spatially and temporally focused electrical or magnetic stimulation of neural tissue could help disrupt or reprogram firing patterns that lead to the disorder.’

The data could also lead to new understanding of conditions such as depression – and how they are diagnosed and treated.

In the long term, BCI technology could be used to restore lost memories.

Gerhardt says, ‘Memory is a complex phenomenon, but advanced implantable BCI technologies can potentially use targeted electrical recording and stimulation of individual neurons and circuits to help restore some of the functionality associated with memory formation and retrieval. 

‘It’s possible that BCI technology could also record the patterns associated with specific memories and recreate them as needed.’