Reader’s Links for March 17, 2020

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Each day at just after midnight Eastern, a post like this one is created for contributors and readers of this site to upload news links and video links on the issues that concern this site. Most notably, Islam and its effects on Classical Civilization, and various forms of leftism from Soviet era communism, to postmodernism and all the flavours of galloping statism and totalitarianism such as Nazism and Fascism which are increasingly snuffing out the classical liberalism which created our near, miraculous civilization the West has been building since the time of Socrates.

This document was written around the time this site was created, for those who wish to understand what this site is about. And while our understanding of the world and events has grown since then, the basic ideas remain sound and true to the purpose.

So please post all links, thoughts and ideas that you feel will benefit the readers of this site to the comments under this post each day. And thank you all for your contributions.

This is the new Samizdat. We must use it while we can.

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

101 Replies to “Reader’s Links for March 17, 2020”

  1. Hungarian scientist in Boston, on the Corona virus:
    (My concern is that the hospitals will be overwhelmed, as if they weren’t busy enough already. I know people working in a hospital who are really worried about what might happen. About the flights from China (Ezra), It’s quite possible that the passengers are Canadian citizens or legal residents. I also think we should separate medical care from politics. I’m sure the Italian hospitals and sick are happy to have the Chinese Doctors there, with the supplies they’ve brought. The Chinese Government did say that the Italians had helped them after the earthquake there.)

    https://dailynewshungary.com/renowned-hungarian-network-scientist-on-why-worldwide-measures-are-necessary/?fbclid=IwAR0lwDQHuUpkzk9boQQLf_6DlFQRttZt5pFTf8OF6hdor2DODa9q3vaf_pk

    • (Richard: This is what the Dems are doing with Biden.)

      Confirmed: With Biden, ‘permanent state’ seeks to be Vladimir Putin
      By J.E. Dyer March 11, 2020

      A short while ago, Vladimir Putin endorsed a proposed amendment to the Russian constitution that would enable him to beat presidential term limits and remain in office through 2036.

      Although 2036 isn’t that far away anymore, it’s still quite a hitch. The 67-year-old Putin would be 83 by then. (And probably still pretending to do wheelies on motorcycles with biker gangs, and swim in icy waters with sharks.)

      Americans have mostly shrugged, because KGB-trained Russian political oligarchs are gonna oligarch, right? (One insightful wag pointed out that Putin is making a personal-security move. You don’t want to get old and vulnerable out of power in Russia, after a career like his.)

      And that’s true enough. But it’s also important not to miss this opportunity for clear sight about an American problem, which is that the “permanent state,” or “Deep State,” or “shadow government,” or whatever you want to call it – the one in America – aspires to be Vladimir Putin, in this cold-dead-fingers sense. It wants to never have to relinquish the reins of government power.

      https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/03/11/confirmed-with-biden-permanent-state-seeks-to-be-vladimir-putin/

      Richard: With a mentally incompetant Biden as President the Bureaucrats of the Deep.Permanent State will have to step in and fill the gap in leadership. They will have achieved a portion of their goal to seize total power in the US, the President will be a figure head, the next move will be to ensure that all of Congress are nothing but figure heads that the bureaucrats can manipulate at will. If they can achieve their goal of total power they will be the central committee of the US Marxist Government, unelected, above the law and in total control of all aspects of our lives.

  8. “Coronavirus outbreak causes extreme lines at Costco in Cypress California”
    Orange County Register – March 13, 2020

  10. Rioting and IS flags: Riots in the asylum center due to quarantine in Suhl, Germany

    They try to burn down the refugee center, rattle the gate, throw bottles at police officers and display the IS flag! One could almost think that these scenes originate from Greece or from prisons in Italy. But we are in the middle of Germany – more precisely in Suhl, Thuringia.

    It all began with a confirmed diagnosis of corona in an first intake asylum facility in southern Thuringia: the illegal immigrant is said to have recently arrived in Germany via Sweden and Hamburg. Because of this, a quarantine was ordered for the 533 residents and the home was temporarily sealed off. But the measure, which in times of Corona seems not at all unusual, apparently drove the asylum seekers to a fury: some of them started rioting and prevented inmates from entering the dining hall in order to force a hunger strike. They are said to have tried to leave the facility through the sewers to get to the nearby town.

    But not only that: A group of asylum seekers even threatened to set the asylum centre on fire, displaying a flag of the terrorist organisation Islamic State! “Today, at around 11:40 a.m., about 30 people, mainly young men, of the nationalities mainly citizens of Georgia and the Maghreb states, gathered in front of the main gate, as I said, who tried to pass the gate while displaying an IS flag and were in a very aggressive mood,” said police spokesman Wolfgang Nicolai. He said that “especially children were placed in the front of the gates”.
    Read more:
    https://medforth.blog/2020/03/17/rioting-and-is-flags-riots-in-the-asylum-center-due-to-quarantine-in-suhl-germany/

  13. France under lockdown, forcing locals to stay home and foreign residents to leave country

  16. News Today With Rajdeep Sardesai | Amid Battle Against Coronavirus, Should India Step Up Testing?

  17. Why does U.K. Resist Lockdown? U.S. Headed for Recession? Does China’s Blame Tactic Work?

  18. Experts warn 2nd coronavirus outbreak could come; Law firm sues Chinese regime | China in Focus—NTD

  19. Plague Alert: Swarms of Voracious Locusts Predicted Heading for Middle East (sputniknews, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/world/202003171078596140-plague-alert-swarms-of-voracious-locusts-predicted-heading-for-middle-east/

    “Swarms of desert locusts have been wreaking havoc in large parts of East Africa, Iran and Pakistan, as desperate farmers struggle to fend off the marauding insects.

    The most devastating plague of locusts in over 30 years is about to hit Africa and the Middle East, according to Rome-based Senior Locust Forecasting Officer Keith Cressman.

    The officer, who is employed by Locust Watch, a division of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization, on Monday cited the organization’s most recent report forecasting that new “extremely alarming” swarms of the insects were forming in the Horn of Africa.

    The current widespread breeding in Kenya, Ethiopia, and Somalia represents “an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods at the beginning of the upcoming cropping season,” writes the Locust Watch website.

    The Rome-based officer was cited by The Times of Israel as admitting the last time the region faced such a threat was during the locust plague of 1987-1989.

    “Starting in early 2020, the global Desert Locust situation deteriorated, as favorable climatic conditions allowed widespread breeding of the pest in East Africa, Southwest Asia, and the area around the Red Sea,” writes the website, pinpointing Kenya, Ethiopia, Somalia, Iran, Pakistan, and Sudan as the hardest hit countries.

    Not all regions of the Middle East will be affected, however, confirmed Cressman, with the swarms set to bypass Israel.

    Locust Watch works in collaboration with affected countries to assess field data, information and reports in real time, said Cressman, adding this is subsequently “combined with analysis of remote sensing (satellite) imagery, weather data and forecasts, and historical data in our geographic information system and database that go back to the 1930s.”

    Adding to the impending concerns of the organization, which is tasked with giving emergency assistance to countries struggling with the impact of desert locust invasions, is the current coronavirus pandemic.

    The officer lamented the spreading COVID-19 and resulting bans on travel introduced by countries on lockdown as hampering efforts of international experts to deal with the crisis situation in affected areas.

    “It is always very difficult to find and treat all infestations, and this is the nature and challenge of managing Desert Locust,” he said.

    Voracious Eater

    The Desert Locust (Schistocerca gregaria) “is the most destructive migratory pest in the world,” according to the Locust Watch website.

    When the highly mobile swarms of Desert Locusts form, “they are ravenous eaters who consume their own weight per day, targeting food crops and forage,” with swarms swelling to millions of individuals “with the capacity to consume the same amount of food in one day as 35,000 people.”

    Cressman said that the desert locusts have “overwhelmed their natural predators” – which include birds and desert foxes.

    Currently, hundreds of billions of locusts are swarming through parts of East Africa and South Asia, threatening crops and livelihoods as states are resorting to aerial and ground spraying as the most effective strategies.

    ?Shortage of pesticides in Kenya, however, has hampered efforts to contain the insects, while Ethiopia lacks planes to spray crops.”

  26. Border chief won’t hand over criminal illegal immigrants to sanctuary cities

    The new chief of the U.S. Border Patrol has drawn a line at handing over illegal immigrant criminals to sanctuary cities that won’t promise to return them after their local court cases are completed.

    Rodney Scott, who was named chief in January, said that even those wanted for murder won’t be handed over if they won’t be returned to federal officials to be deported.

    Referring to California, an illegal immigrant sanctuary state, he said that Border Patrol will deport an illegal immigrant if there is an outstanding warrant for arrest should the state refuse to return them.

    “My job is to protect the United States and to secure the borders, not to get prosecutions, so we are deporting people that have active warrants because the state will not give back that person to us, and we have to pick: federal law or state law,” he said in a recent briefing.

    And it doesn’t matter what the alleged crime is. “It doesn’t really matter the charge,” he said. “If they will not give confirmation that they are going to return the individual,” said Scott, “then we are not going to turn them over. We’ll prosecute them federally, then deport them.”

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/border-chief-wont-hand-over-criminal-illegals-to-sanctuary-cities

  27. First coronavirus vaccine trial set to begin in the US

    Coronavirus vaccine trials will begin Monday, with at least one subject receiving a first-ever experimental dose of the potential inoculation, a government official said.

    Throughout the trial — funded by the National Institutes of Health — 45 young, healthy volunteers will receive different doses of shots co-developed by the NIH and the Massachusetts-based biotech firm Moderna Inc.

    Plans to test the first participant have not been publicly announced, but the official disclosed the information to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.

    Participants are not at risk of being infected with the bug, because the shots do not contain the virus itself.

    The testing is set to occur at the Kaiser Permanente Washington Research Institute in Seattle.

    https://nypost.com/2020/03/16/first-coronavirus-vaccine-trial-set-to-begin-in-the-us/

  28. Americans: China should pay for spreading virus, 3-in-10 say it’s ‘war’

    Many people want China to help pay for its “silence and secrecy” that allowed the coronavirus to spread globally, according to a new survey focused on the crisis gripping the United States.

    In the latest Rasmussen Reports survey shared with Secrets, 42% of likely U.S. voters said that the communist country should help pay some of the financial costs that have resulted from the so-called Wuhan coronavirus, named for the city it began in.

    Some 36% disagreed, and 22% are undecided, said Rasmussen.

    Support is higher among Republicans. Of them, 54% want China to “pay at least some of the world’s coronavirus bills,” said Rasmussen. Just 37% of both Democrats and voters not affiliated with either major political party agreed.

    https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/americans-china-should-pay-for-spreading-virus-3-in-10-say-its-war

  29. ‘Ethical Dimension’: Sweden Considers Who Will Live, Who Will Die in Rationing Coronavirus Healthcare (breitbart, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/17/sweden-preparing-measures-that-could-leave-some-die-coronavirus/

    “The Director-General of the Swedish National Board of Health has confirmed the country is looking into triage measures that could prioritise care for those most likely to survive serious coronavirus infection.

    Director-General Olivia Wigzell spoke at a press conference saying that the authority was looking at triage measures that are often used in a crisis situation when resources are unable to cope with the volume of cases.

    Wigzell did not comment on specific measures but acknowledged there as an “ethical dimension” to the new considerations, Nyheter Idag reports.

    “It includes priorities that have an ethical dimension, absolutely. It should be a support for the professionals in the priorities that will… can be very difficult,” she said.

    Triage, or the rationing and prioritising of care, has been used extensively in Italy, which has become the epicentre for the coronavirus outbreak in Europe, with doctors revealing that those infected with coronavirus above the age of 80 are often left to die without treatment.

    “If someone between 80 and 95 has serious breathing difficulties, you probably don’t proceed [with treatment],” said Bergamo hospital anaesthetist Christian Saloroli.

    Marco Vergano, the head anaesthetist at San Giovanni Bosco Hospital in Turin added: “We can’t invent new intensive care unit beds.” Vergano went on to say: “It’s important to understand that patients who arrive with a grave interstitial pneumonia from Covid-19 will not be in intensive care for a few days but for weeks.”

    Initially, Swedish authorities claimed the risk to public health from the Wuhan coronavirus was low but that prognosis rapidly changed as new cases emerged.

    Last week, state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell said the government was no longer interested in keeping exact numbers of coronavirus infections, claiming that it was more important to identify regions most affected by the virus.

    “We will no longer discuss whether we have 458 or 562 cases. But instead how large parts of Sweden are affected and how hard they are,” he said and added: “These are the kind of questions that will be central to answering. Now it is no longer important to know exactly how many people are infected in Sweden.”

    Prior to the outbreak in late February, former infection prevention physician Staffan Sylvan stated that the country was extremely unprepared for a major outbreak.”

  31. 10 Coronavirus Cases Confirmed by U.N. Among Refugee Arrivals in Germany (breitbart, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/17/10-coronavirus-cases-confirmed-by-u-n-among-refugee-arrivals-in-germany/

    “Ten cases of the Chinese coronavirus were confirmed Tuesday by the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR) among recently arrived “refugees and asylum seekers” in Germany.

    Acccording to a report by the Reuters newsagency, UNHCR spokesman Andrej Mahecic told a press briefing about the newly diagnosed cases who had entered the country through Europe’s remaining open borders.

    “As of this morning, we understand there are 10 confirmed cases in Germany,” Mahecic said. “These are people who are either refugees or asylum seekers,” he added. The cases are in Munich, Berlin and Heidelberg.

    All national authorities have been urged by the agency to treat refugees and asylum seekers who fall sick with the virus the same way as other nationals.

    The news of the fresh cases in Germany comes barely 24-hours after Germany closed its borders with five neighbouring countries in an attempt to limit the spread of the coronavirus, as Breitbart News reported.

    At 8 am on Monday, Germany shuttered borders with Switzerland, Austria, Luxembourg, France and Denmark, allowing only commuters and delivery trucks to enter the country.

    The move reverses the policy of the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who had said as recently as last week the borders would remain open.

    Last week, Merkel also warned by the end of the outbreak in Germany, between sixty and seventy per cent of the country could become infected with the coronavirus, however, at the time refused to close down the borders.”

  33. Bombing of government office in southern Thailand injures 20 (abcnews, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/bombing-government-office-southern-thailand-injures-20-69635838

    “Bombers attacked a major government office in Thailand’s insurgency-plagued far south as hundreds of local officials and Muslim clerics met Tuesday to discuss fighting COVID-19. At least 20 people were hurt, none seriously.

    The Southern Border Provinces Administration Center in the capital of Yala province coordinates government policy in the region where a Muslim separatist insurgency since 2004 has led to the deaths of about 7,000 civilians, soldiers, government workers and rebels.

    Thailand’s three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Narathiwat and Yala are the only ones with Muslim majorities in predominantly Buddhist Thailand.

    Yala Hospital reported 20 people were hurt in the attack. None was badly injured, said Col. Pramote Prom-in, a spokesman for the center.

    Surveillance video showed the bomber parking a pickup truck in front of the center and then placing another explosive device in the middle of the road before fleeing on a waiting motorcycle, said police Col. Naravee Binwae-arong of the Yala police station.

    The explosion of the device on the road drew the attention of those in the meeting room, causing participants to come out to see what had happened. Then the bomb in the pickup truck exploded.

    Pramote said guards at the center spotted the pickup truck and told everyone who had run outside after the first blast not to come close to the vehicle. Luring security personnel and first responders with an initial blast and then detonating a second device is a common insurgent tactic.

    No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

    In November, coordinated attacks in Yala killed 15 security personnel, mostly lightly armed village defense volunteers, in the highest single-day death toll on the government side since the insurgency began.

    The Thai government has been holding on-again, off-again talks with insurgents brokered by neighboring Malaysia. They appeared to have made headway in January, when officials from Thailand held their first formal meeting in recent years with Muslim separatists from southern Thailand belonging to the Barisan Revolusi Nasional Melayu Patani, or BRN, the major rebel group operating in the area.

    Despite two meetings so far, however, the government and the BRN seem not to have progressed much beyond agreement on a framework and terms of reference to guide their talks.

    Don Pathan, a security analyst who closely follows the conflict in the south, speculated that Tuesday’s attack was carried out by BRN insurgents.

    “In spite of the fact that the BRN leadership has permitted members of its political wing to engage in dialogue with the Thai government, it would be a mistake to assume that all forms of violence on the ground would come to an end,” he said.”

  34. Niger says army kills 50 Boko Haram extremists after attack (abcnews, Mar 20, 2020)
    https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/niger-army-kills-50-boko-haram-extremists-attack-69638184

    “Niger says its army has killed at least 50 Boko Haram extremists after an attack on a military post.

    The West African nation says the heavily armed Boko Haram fighters attacked the eastern Toumour post overnight into Sunday.

    The government says the army used air and ground forces to fight back, killing at least 50 fighters and destroying a large number of vehicles. One soldier was injured.

    Boko Haram is based in neighboring Nigeria. Its decade-long insurgency has focused on attacks inside that country, but the extremists also have staged attacks in Niger and Cameroon.”

  35. Hashem Abedi, Brother of Manchester Arena Bomber, Found Guilty of 22 Murders (sputniknews, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://sputniknews.com/uk/202003171078600209-hashem-abedi-brother-of-manchester-arena-bomber-found-guilty-of-murder/

    “On 22 May 2017 suicide bomber Salman Abedi detonated a device in the foyer of Manchester Arena moments after an Arianna Grand concert, killing 22 people. His brother Hashem was extradited from Libya to face trial at the Old Bailey in London.

    Hashem Abedi has been convicted of the murder of 22 people who were blown up by his suicide bomber brother, Salman, at the Manchester Arena in May 2017.

    Abedi, 22, who was extradited from Libya last year, had denied 22 counts of murder, attempted murder and conspiring to cause explosions.

    ?Thousands of fans of the US pop star Arianna Grande attended the concert in Manchester in May 2017 when Salman Abedi set off the bomb in his backpack in the foyer of the arena moments after it finished.

    The blast killed 17 women and girls and five men, wounded 264 and left at least 670 other people with devastating psychological scars.

    Abedi, who is believed to be a supporter of Daesh*, sacked his defence barrister, Stephen Kamlish QC, last week after deciding not to give evidence.

    ?The trial heard Abedi had helped his brother source materials for a prototype bomb and buy a car in which the materials for the arena device were stored in the weeks up to the attack. Both brothers then flew to Libya, with only Salman returning to carry out the explosion.

    Prosecutor Duncan Penny QC said the brothers had engaged in “months of planning” which involved assembling metal containers, nails and screws to be used as shrapnel and chemicals to make explosives.

    He told the jury: “The prosecution’s case is that this defendant is just as guilty of the murder of the 22 people killed as was his brother.”

    Abedi is due to be sentenced later in the week but faces a mandatory life sentence and will almost certainly be given a whole life tariff, meaning he will never be released…”

  36. Undercover Sting Exposes Antifa Collaborators in Irish Student Government (breitbart, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2020/03/17/undercover-sting-exposes-antifa-collaborators-in-irish-student-government/

    “Irish conservative student journalists carried out a months-long undercover operation that exposed multiple collaborators with Antifa in Ireland’s student government.

    Journalists at the Burkean, an online publication for campus conservatives in Ireland, spent months posing as Antifa on Twitter, aiming to uncover hidden sympathizers of the violent movement at Irish universities.

    Using the Twitter account “Irish Students Against Fascism,” they conducted and recorded several conversations with senior members of student union officials across Ireland, who made compromising comments exposing their pro-Antifa sympathies.

    So far, the biggest casualty of the sting is Michelle Byrne, until recently deputy president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), a national organization representing roughly 374,000 students across the country. Byrne also serves on the board of the National Youth Council of Ireland, a mental health charity, a problem gambling charity, and also took part in an Irish parliamentary committee on housing.

    In conversations conducted by the Burkean’s undercover journalists, Byrne can allegedly be heard promising to hand over the names of conservative students to the fake Antifa account, which promised to pass them on to people who could “slap them around.”

    The Burkean’s fake Antifa account also said “Any ideas that you can’t enact for saving face – we can do the sort of illegal stuff, so to speak,” to which Bryne replied, “yeah, absolutely.”

    “is there anything that I can do, in my capacity in work, to help you – without obviously saying that I’m helping you?” Byrne continued.

    A global movement, Antifa is notorious for engaging in violent and illegal behavior. Last year, Antifa supporters in Portland violently assaulted conservative journalist Andy Ngo, putting him in the hospital with a brain hemorrhage. In 2017, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security warned local law enforcement to be prepared for “domestic terrorist violence” from Antifa.

    USI launched an investigation after the publication of Byrne’s comments. She resigned from her position as deputy president shortly thereafter.

    Multiple other student leaders have also been implicated by the sting. Byrne’s superior, USI president Lorna Fitzpatrick, was caught on tape promising to lobby USI National Council members on a motion to support the activities of the purported Antifa group, and also agreed “in a personal capacity” with the tactic of collecting names and firing alleged “fascists” in Ireland. She also agreed to pass on the names of anyone she came across to the group. However, Fitzpatrick avoided conveying any support for Antifa in an official USI capacity.

    Robert Murtagh, president of the Union of Students in Northern Ireland, was also recorded expressing his support for “direct action” by the purported Antifa group, and said he was “very happy” to get involved in direct action when his term as president was over.

    Other Irish student leaders were also caught in the sting. Roisin Nic Lochlainn, VP of the students union at NUI Galway, expressed support for Antifa and admitted to throwing a milkshake at a conservative activist.

    Laura Beston, president of the students union at Trinity College Dublin, who represents over 17,000 students, was recorded expressing support for Antifa, stating that she was prepared to pass the names of conservative students to the purported Antifa group, and stating that she would encourage others to do so as well.

    She also promised to help Antifa gain influence with the board of Trinity College Dublin, which is widely regarded as the most prestigious university in Ireland.

    Jacob Woolf, a self-described socialist and acting head of Trinity College’s Jewish Society was also recorded in the sting. Woolf provided the purported Antifa group with a dossier containing names, pictures, and employment information of Burkean writers.

    Woolf provided the purported Antifa group with the dossier despite their stated intention to cause conservative students physical and professional harm. Woolf also declared his intention to target “classical liberals,” claiming that the label — usually associated with the moderate right — is something “fascists” call themselves to “look normal.””

  37. Germany: Thieves Steal 50,000 Face Masks from Hospitals in Cologne (breitbart, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/17/germany-thieves-steal-50000-face-masks-hospitals-cologne/

    “Thieves in Germany raided hospitals in Cologne, stealing medical face masks from clinics throughout the city to re-sell on the black market, as the country grapples with the COVID-19 pandemic.

    Police in Germany said that a group of thieves targeted a logistics centre that stocks medical clinics throughout Cologne with medical supplies. The thieves stole an estimated 50,000 medical face masks, which have soared in value since the outbreak of the coronavirus.

    “This is a new quality of theft. We’re talking about items that normally have a value measured in cents, but apparently there’s a market for them now,” a hospital spokeswoman said per Deutsche Welle.

    Luckily, the spokeswoman said the city is not facing a shortage of masks as a result of the heinous crime. However, the city has ordered all stocks of medical supplies to be checked and secured in response to the robbery.

    Similar crimes have been reported throughout the country since the start of the outbreak, with thieves stealing 1,200 face masks in Lower Saxony in March. Hospitals in North Rhine Westphalia said that hundreds of bottles of hand sanitiser, which is in short supply, had been stolen this month as well.

    In Berlin, a children’s cancer ward was also targeted by thieves, stealing respirators, disinfectant, gloves, and personal protective equipment. The hospital was already running short on masks after another group of thieves attacked a delivery shipment headed for the children’s intensive care unit.

    In March, Germany banned the export of face masks and other medical supplies to other countries in order to safeguard the country’s medical system from supply shortages. The country now faces one of the worst outbreaks of coronavirus in Europe, with nearly 7,000 confirmed cases and 14 deaths, according to the BBC.

    In France, President Emmanuel Macron ordered the seizure of all medical facemasks in the country as well as all future production of the masks to protect against looting and shortages. The decision came after a spate of robberies of French hospitals. A hospital in Marseille reported the theft of 2,000 masks and a Paris health authority said that over 8,000 masks and 1,200 bottles of hand sanitiser had been stolen.

    On Monday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said that Italy is facing massive shortages in medical supplies and protective equipment for frontline healthcare workers. Some 1,700 healthcare workers in the country have become infected with the coronavirus, representing eight per cent of the total number of cases in Italy.

    “Even in high-level European hospitals we see health workers are overwhelmed, coping with up to 80 ambulances per day, with dramatic shortages of protective equipment that puts them at great risk,” said Dr Claudia Lodesani the president of MSF in Italy.

    “Some doctors are forced to wear the same face mask for 12 hours,” she added.

    “Without an influx of urgently needed protective equipment, more healthcare workers will fall ill, reducing the availability of care for patients, generating new clusters of cases, and dangerously weakening the fight against the disease,” Dr Lodesani warned.”

  38. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell (D) signed a coronavirus emergency order last week allowing her to ban the sale and transportation of firearms.

    She signed a follow-up proclamation on March 16, 2020, further emphasizing her emergency powers to “suspend or limit the sale, dispensing, or transportation, of alcoholic beverages.”

    The declaration declaring the mayor’s power to restrict gun sales and transportation says she is “empowered, if necessary, to suspend or limit the sale of alcoholic beverages, firearms, explosives, and combustibles.”

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/16/new-orleans-mayor-issues-coronavirus-order-allowing-ban-on-sale-transportation-of-firearms/

  39. Coronavirus Will Give President Trump His Biggest Win

    MAGA can use the coronavirus to crush globalism.

    The peace and prosperity of President Trump’s first term in office was his biggest reelection asset, but also the greatest roadblock to his agenda. A strong economy and a lack of major domestic threats lulled much of the country into a false sense of security. These golden years, in sharp contrast to the economic malaise and regular terror attacks of the Obama era, made it hard for many to feel a sense of urgency.

    The border crisis was remote for most people. As were the continuing deaths in Afghanistan.

    The media’s torrent of smears and hit jobs, the sabotage of the administration by the bureaucracy, and a Democrat House bent on impeachment, made D.C. politics into the single greatest national crisis.

    And that was exactly how they wanted it.

    https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/coronavirus-will-give-president-trump-his-biggest-daniel-greenfield

  41. Foreign minister strengthens Hungary’s ties with Estonia

    Following talks with his Estonian counterpart Urmas Reinsalu, the foreign minister said that “both countries reject illegal migration and plans to change the European population”.

    During an official visit to Tallinn, the foreign minister has strengthened Hungary’s ties with Estonia.

    Péter Szijjártó, Minster of Foreign Affairs and Trade, told MTI that ties between Hungary and Estonia are based on mutual interests and shared values. He said the two governments see eye-to-eye concerning global and European challenges.

    Following talks with his Estonian counterpart Urmas Reinsalu, Minister Szijjártó said that “both countries reject illegal migration and plans to change the European population”.

    The two governments have set up an early warning mechanism to prevent the United Nations from integrating its global migration compact into international law. “Regrettably, there are clandestine endeavors to do so,” he said.

    “We also agree that Europe must be protected; we stand ready to fight for the preservation of our own way of life, national identity, as well as religious, cultural and historical heritage,” he said.

    Both Hungary and Estonia see the situation at the Turkey-Greece border as a serious security challenge, Minister Szijjártó said, adding that Greece must fulfil its obligations to protect the EU’s external borders.

    During the talks, the two ministers also signed a cooperation agreement to jointly support persecuted Christian communities in the Middle East, mainly in Jordan.

    http://abouthungary.hu/news-in-brief/foreign-minister-strengthens-hungarys-ties-with-estonia/

  42. Iran warns virus could kill ‘millions’ in Islamic Republic

    TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran issued its most dire warning yet Tuesday about the new coronavirus ravaging the country, suggesting “millions” could die in the Islamic Republic if people keep traveling and ignore health guidance.

    A state TV journalist who also is a medical doctor gave the warning only hours after hard-line Shiite faithful on Monday night pushed their way into the courtyards of two major shrines that were finally closed due to the virus. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei issued a religious ruling prohibiting “unnecessary” travel.

    Roughly 9 out of 10 of the over 18,000 confirmed cases of the virus in the Middle East come from Iran, where authorities denied for days the risk the outbreak posed. Officials have implemented new checks for people trying to leave major cities ahead of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on Friday, but have hesitated to quarantine the areas.

    The death toll in Iran saw another 13% increase Tuesday. Health Ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour said the virus had killed 135 more people to raise the total to 988 amid over 16,000 cases.

    Jordan announced a state of emergency, banning gatherings of more than 10 people, and Israel issued its own strict guidelines.

    Most infected people experience only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough, and recover within weeks. But the virus is highly contagious and can be spread by people with no visible symptoms. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.

    In announcing the new warning, the Iranian state TV journalist, Dr. Afruz Eslami, cited a study by Tehran’s prestigious Sharif University of Technology, which offered three scenarios: If people cooperate fully now, Iran will see 120,000 infections and 12,000 deaths before the outbreak is over; if they offer medium cooperation, there will be 300,000 cases and 110,000 deaths.

    But if people fail to follow any guidance, it could collapse Iran’s already-strained medical system, Eslami said. If the “medical facilities are not sufficient, there will be 4 million cases, and 3.5 million people will die,” she said.

    Eslami did not elaborate on what metrics the study used, but even reporting it on Iran’s tightly controlled state media represented a major change for a country whose officials had for days denied the severity of the crisis.

    Underlining that urgency was the fatwa issued by Khamenei, which prohibited “unnecessary” travel. It comes as the public ignored repeated warnings and pleas from security forces. Such a decree is rare by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters.

    Some Iranian media later said Khamenei hadn’t issued a fatwa, though semiofficial news agencies believed to be close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard said the order had been made.

    Late Monday night, angry crowds stormed the courtyards of the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad and the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom. Many people visit the shrine in Qom 24 hours a day, seven days a week, touching and kissing the shrine.That has worried health officials, who for weeks wanted Iran’s Shiite clergy to close them.

    State TV had announced the closures earlier in the day, sparking the demonstrations.

    “We are here to say that Tehran is damn wrong to do that!” one Shiite cleric shouted at the shrine in Mashhad, according to online video. Others joined him in chanting: “The health minister is damn wrong to do that, the president is damn wrong to do that!”

    Police later dispersed the crowds and made arrests. Religious authorities and a prominent Qom seminary called the demonstration an “insult” to the shrine.

    Iran’s shrines draw Shiite pilgrims from all over, likely contributing to the virus’ regional spread. Saudi Arabia has closed off Islam’s holiest sites and on Tuesday said it would halt communal Friday prayers in the kingdom.

    President Hassan Rouhani said that despite the closures, “our soul is closer to the saints more than at any time.”

    State TV reported teams were deployed to screen travelers leaving major cities in 13 provinces, including the capital, Tehran. But Iran has 31 provinces and authorities haven’t tried to lock down the country the way its allies Iraq and Lebanon have done.

    The teams check travelers and send those with fevers to quarantine centers. Iran has been urging people to stay home, but many ignore the call.

    In apparent efforts to try to curb the spread, Iran has released 85,000 prisoners on temporary leave, judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili said. That number included half of all “security-related” prisoners, he said without elaborating. Western nations have urged Iran to release dual nationals and others, alleging they are used as bargaining chips in negotiations.

    Among those released is Mohammad Hossein Karroubi, the son of opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, who was in jail for nearly two months.

    Also temporarily freed was Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, an Iranian-British dual national long held on internationally criticized charges. Zaghari-Ratcliffe, who works for the charitable Thomson Reuters Foundation, was arrested in 2016 on charges of trying to topple the government while traveling with her toddler daughter.

    In Jordan, King Abdullah II by royal decree declared a national emergency over the virus outbreak, which allows the suspension of laws and grants greater powers to the state to restrict public gatherings and make arrests.

    Troops were deployed outside of Jordan’s major cities to block travel, newspapers were ordered to stop publishing, gatherings of more than 10 people were banned and a quarantine zone was established at Dead Sea hotels. It also halted all private sector work and public transportation as well.

    Egypt, which has 196 confirmed cases of the virus and six deaths, announced the immediate shutdown of all movie theaters across the Arab world’s most populous country.

    It also locked down the Red Sea province that includes the resort town of Hurghada. Authorities barred workers in all tourist sites, hotels, bazaars and restaurants from leaving the province and imposed a 14-day quarantine, according to a document from the governor’s office obtained by The Associated Press.

    In Oman, the sultanate announced anyone coming from abroad would be subject to quarantine.

    Israel’s Defense Ministry plans to use near-empty hotels, as recovery centers for patients with COVID-19, the illness caused by the virus. Israel also urged citizens to stay home, closing parks, museums, libraries, beaches and other public areas.

    In Syria, all sports clubs, movie theaters, concerts, theaters, as well as halls used for weddings or funerals were ordered closed in Damascus, and all restaurants and other shops around the country were ordered shut. Syria says it has no cases of the virus.

    Pakistan’s number of coronavirus cases rose to 237, although no deaths have been reported. Government critics blame improper border screenings for thousands of pilgrims returning from Iran this month.

    Prime Minister Imran Khan warned that the disease will spread but said the public “should not fret as most of the people easily recover.”

    https://apnews.com/6e92d93551ee6c6ae51d0acaaad9eb32

    • Hard-line Shiites storm Iran shrines closed over coronavirus

      Police disperse angry crowds that push into the courtyards of Mashhad’s Imam Reza and Qom’s Fatima Masumeh shrines; officials start checking people trying to leave major cities

      — Hard-line Shiite faithful in Iran pushed their way into the courtyards of two major shrines just closed over fears of the new coronavirus, Iranian state media reported Tuesday, as the Islamic Republic pressed on with its struggle to control the Mideast’s worst outbreak.

      Roughly nine out of 10 of the over 17,000 cases of the new virus confirmed across the Middle East come from Iran, where authorities denied for days the risk the outbreak posed. Officials have now implemented new checks for people trying to leave major cities ahead of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, on Friday, but have hesitated to quarantine the areas.

      Late on Monday night, angry crowds stormed into the courtyards of Mashhad’s Imam Reza shrine and Qom’s Fatima Masumeh shrine. Crowds typically pray there 24 hours a day, seven days a week, touching and kissing the shrine. That’s worried health officials, who for weeks ordered Iran’s Shiite clergy to close them.

      Earlier on Monday, the state TV had announced the shrines’ closure, sparking the demonstrations.

      “We are here to say that Tehran is damn wrong to do that!” one Shiite cleric shouted at the shrine in Mashhad, according to online video. Others joined him in chanting: “The health minister is damn wrong to do that, the president is damn wrong to do that!”

      Police later dispersed the crowds, state media reported. Religious authorities and a prominent Qom seminary called the demonstration an “insult” to the shrine in a statement, urging the faithful to rely on “wisdom and patience” amid the closure.

      Iran’s shrines draw Shiites from all over the Mideast for pilgrimages, likely contributing to the spread of the virus across the region. Saudi Arabia earlier closed off Islam’s holiest sites over fear of the virus spreading.

      President Hassan Rouhani on Tuesday said despite the closures, “our soul is closer to the saints more than at any time.”

      […]

      https://www.timesofisrael.com/hard-line-shiites-storm-iran-shrines-closed-over-coronavirus/

      ===================================================

      the guardian Iranian police disperse crowds from shrines after Covid-19 closures

      Religious authorities around the world limit contact and close places of worship

      Iranian police have dispersed crowds who forced their way into two popular shrines soon after they were closed because of the threat from the coronavirus outbreak.

      Shia Muslims entered the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad and the Fatima Masumeh shrine in Qom on Monday night, protesting at the closures announced earlier in the day on Iranian state television.

      The shrines are normally open for prayers around the clock. Health officials had told pilgrims that kissing and touching the shrines could spread the virus, and had urged clergy to close them for weeks.

      Worshippers who entered the shrines chanted objections to the closures. In a statement, religious leaders and a prominent Qom seminary urged pilgrims to rely on wisdom and patience during the crisis.

      The incident comes as religious authorities all over the world take steps to limit contact or close places of worship in response to the pandemic.

      The virus has erupted as the world’s most popular religions prepare for important festivals during which large numbers of people usually gather to pray and celebrate. Easter and Passover take place next month, and the Islamic holy month of Ramadan – during which most of the world’s 1.8 billion Muslims will fast – begins around 23 April.

      https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/mar/17/iranian-police-shrines-coronavirus

  43. Over 50,000 Migrants Denied Entry to Greece Since Turkey Opened Border (breitbart, Mar 17, 2020)
    https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/17/over-50000-migrants-denied-entry-greece-turkey-opened-border/

    “Since Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the gates to Greece in late February, Greek authorities say 52,541 migrants have attempted to cross the border.

    Hundreds of migrants have attempted to cross illegally into Greece on a daily basis since the Turkish leader confirmed an earlier report that he would be opening the border to Greece for all migrants on Saturday, February 29th.

    Between Sunday and Monday alone this week, a total of 713 migrants attempted to cross into the European Union member state, according to a report from Greek newspaper Proto Thema.

    The paper added that between Saturday the 29th of February and Monday the 16th of March, 52,541 migrants attempted to cross the border and 410 people have been arrested by Greek authorities as a result.

    The large presence of migrants at the border region near the Evros river has led to repeated violent clashes between migrants and Greek border guards, as well.

    The Turkish government has not only been accused of bussing in migrants to the area by the Greek centre-right government but also of arming them with tear gas canisters along with sending freed prisoners to the border, as well.

    Last week, Greek media released several videos highlighting the violence on the border including footage of migrants throwing Molotov cocktails at border guards.

    The footage also claimed to show tear gas being fired at Greek officers, attacks that have been countered by Greece with the deployment of large fans to blow the gas back in the direction of the Turkish border.

    Some European Union member state leaders such as Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, have supported Greek policy in securing the border and have sent their own personnel to the area.

    Ylva Johansson, the European Commissioner for Home Affairs, however, has slammed Greece for suspending asylum claims after Erdogan opened the border, saying: “Individuals in the European Union have the right to apply for asylum. This is in the treaty, this is in international law. This we can’t suspend.”

    The comment comes after the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) also criticised the Greek government earlier in the month and said the suspension of asylum was not legal.”

  44. Larry C. Johnson: Why Is Crowdstrike Confused on Eleven Key Details About the DNC Hack

    Here is the bottom-line—despite being hired in late April (or early May) of 2016 to stop an unauthorized intrusion into the DNC, CrowdStrike, the cyber firm hired by the DNC’s law firm to solve the problem, failed abysmally. More than 30,000 emails were taken from the DNC server between 22 and 25 May 2016 and given to Wikileaks. Crowdstrike blamed Russia for the intrusion but claimed that only two files were taken. And CrowdStrike inexplicably waited until 10 June 2016 to reboot the DNC network.

    CrowdStrike, a cyber-security company hired by a Perkins Coie lawyer retained by the DNC, provided the narrative to the American public of the alledged hack of the DNC, But the Crowdstrike explanation is inconsistent, contradictory and implausible. Despite glaring oddities in the CrowdStrike account of that event, CrowdStrike subsequently traded on its fame in the investigation of the so-called Russian hack of the DNC and became a publicly traded company. Was CrowdStrike’s fame for “discovering” the alleged Russian hack of the DNC a critical factor in its subsequent launch as a publicly traded company?

    The Crowdstrike account of the hack is very flawed. There are 11 contradictions, inconsistencies or oddities in the public narrative about CrowdStrike’s role in uncovering and allegedly mitigating a Russian intrusion (note–the underlying facts for these conclusions are found in Ellen Nakashima’s Washington Post story, Vicki Ward’s Esquire story, the Mueller Report and the blog of Crowdstrike founder Dmitri Alperovitch):

    https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/larry-c-johnson-why-is-crowdstrike-confused-on-eleven-key-details-about-the-dnc-hack/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily

  46. Iran’s Coronavirus Economic Meltdown

    Iran’s Coronavirus Economic Meltdown
    By Prof. Hillel Frisch
    March 17, 2020
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    Parked aircraft at Mehrabad Airport, Iran, photo by Shahram Sharifi via Wikimedia Commons

    BESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,489, March 17, 2020

    EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: As the coronavirus pandemic intensifies, Iran is in economic meltdown. Its international isolation is ever more severe, as can be seen in the sharp decline in flights landing in Iran’s two busiest airports.

    All Iran experts know how hard it is to get reliable data on that country. The regime obscures everything from basic macroeconomic figures to government expenditures and allocations of how much oil and gas Iran sells.

    Figuring out the full extent of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) epidemic in Iran is as difficult as determining accurate figures on anything else there.

    Some figures cannot be doctored, however. These include the lists of flight arrivals into the two major Iranian airports: Khomeini International, which is the major Iranian access point to the outside world, and the older Mehrabad Airport, which is Iran’s busiest domestic hub.

    Flight activity at both airports shows in no uncertain terms the extent of economic meltdown in Iran caused by the coronavirus. This crisis comes in the wake of punishing sanctions imposed by the Trump administration in 2018.

    https://besacenter.org/perspectives-papers/coronavirus-iran-economy/

  47. China’s Real Disease: Not Coronavirus

    by Gordon G. Chang
    March 17, 2020 at 5:00 am

    Last July, five American analysts who have been consistently wrong told us “China is not an enemy.”

    Actually, this time they were technically right. China’s communism is not an enemy. It is the enemy.

    After the coronavirus pandemic subsides, Americans should not forget Beijing’s malicious campaign against their country.

    For more than a month, the central government’s foreign ministry and the Communist Party’s Global Times have been trying to tar the Trump administration. The campaign culminated in a series of tweets from rising Beijing star Zhao Lijian, foreign ministry spokesman and deputy director general of the ministry’s Information Department.

    On March 12, in a tweet, he accused U.S. officials of being “immoral.” Hours before, he had tweeted that “patient zero” was in the U.S. and suggested that the U.S. Army had “brought the epidemic to Wuhan” — intimating that America was conducting germ warfare.

    Also that day, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying, Zhao’s boss, twisted testimony of Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to try to show that the coronavirus outbreak had started in America.

    President Donald J. Trump, in his Rose Garden press conference the next day, March 13, downplayed the overtly hostile messages. He first noted his conversations with Chinese ruler Xi Jinping and then said, referring to Chinese leaders, “they know where it came from.”

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15745/coronavirus-china-communism

  49. This is not the end of the world, according to Christians who study the end of the world

    Chuck Pierce’s son was concerned, like a lot of other people looking out on a world of ransacked grocery stores and canceled sports seasons and eerie lines of people standing six feet apart from one another. So he asked his dad: “Is this the end of the world?”

    That’s a question you can ask when you have a dad who calls himself an apostolic prophet and leads a prophetic ministry. “No,” said Pierce, who is based in Corinth, Tex. “The Lord’s shown me through 2026, so I know this isn’t the end of time.”

    The worldwide upheaval caused by the fast-spreading novel coronavirus pandemic has many people reaching for their Bibles, and some starting to wonder: Could this be a sign of the apocalypse?

    It sure might feel apocalyptic. But not if you ask Christian writers and pastors who have spent years focusing their message on the Book of Revelation — the New Testament’s final book. It lays out a lurid, poetic vision of the End Times, in which many evangelical leaders interpret it to mean that Jesus will return to Earth, believers will be raptured to heaven and those left behind will suffer seven dreadful years of calamities. Most of these Revelation-focused prophesiers don’t see coronavirus as heralding the Second Coming and the end of life on Earth as we know it.

    “If a person were just completely ignorant about what the Bible says about the End Times, they may think this right now: This is it,” said Jeff Kinley, a writer of books on biblical prophecy who lives in Harrison, Ark.

    Kinley said he understands why Americans might see this time of fast-encroaching disease, isolation from loved ones and crashing stock markets as apocalyptic. Americans are primed to believe the end of the world might arrive any day now. In 2010, 41 percent told Pew Research Center that they expected Jesus to return by 2050.

    Kinley pointed to Revelation 6:8, which forecasts deaths all over the globe “by sword, famine and plague,” and Jesus’ words about the events before the end times in Luke 21:11: “There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.”

    “I think he’s referring to a future time,” Kinley said. “I don’t think this is an actual fulfillment of that.”

    The Bible is very specific about what will happen before the End Times, Kinley says, and those events haven’t all unfolded yet. For one major thing, the ancient temple in Jerusalem is supposed to be rebuilt first.

    Gary Ray, a writer for the prophecy website Unsealed, agreed: He and his fellow evangelical End-Times writers are focused on what is happening with holy sites in Israel, not disease. “The key focus that we have in our minds is Israel. That’s God’s prophetic clock. As things progress in that country, we get closer to when the rapture of the church will occur, and then the tribulation,” he said.

    Ray, who lives near Dallas, pointed out that there have been many pandemics in world history, and none of them have been a token of an approaching apocalypse. But this one might be different, he acknowledged — because of an astrological event in 2017 that Ray read as fulfilling a prophecy in Revelation. “Jesus said there would be pestilences and great signs in the heavens. And sure enough, both of those things are happening together.”

    In Ray’s opinion, these portents should send non-Christians rushing toward the Bible, so they can convert while there is still time before the Christians are raptured and everyone else has to endure the wretched seven years. “God is a very gracious god,” he said. “He wants the most possible people to be saved. He’s giving sign after sign after sign, and they’re very clear.”

    Michael Brown, host of the Christian radio show “The Line of Fire,” based in Charlotte, also said coronavirus is not a sign of the End Times, but a good opportunity for reflection on what he believes will come. “I see this as a trial run to see how we respond to calamity and hardship,” he said. “If we’re shaken now, how are we going to react when it really gets wild?”

    One reason for all these relatively rosy assessments from people who might otherwise be doomsday prophesiers? It might be President Trump’s attitude toward the virus; the president, who is very popular among evangelical Christians, for weeks played down the seriousness of the disease threat. His tone, however, grew markedly more concerned this week.

    James Beverley, a professor at Tyndale Seminary in Toronto, said he found in researching his forthcoming book on Trump and Christian prophecy that charismatic and Pentecostal prophets, who normally think the End Times are near, have been less likely to forecast doom during the Trump administration.

    “Some are saying that Satan is the source of evils like the virus, but the doom and gloom message is missing. There is such a positive view on Trump and such strong wishes for his reelection that there is deep hope that the virus will die out, a strong economy will return and Trump will defeat the Democratic nominee,” Beverley wrote in an email. “It is stunning how optimistic charismatic prophets are since Trump won in 2016.”

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/this-is-not-the-end-of-the-world-according-to-christians-who-study-the-end-of-the-world/ar-BB11jYQm

  50. Coronavirus: Europe’s ‘Open Borders’ System Faces Collapse

    As a growing number of countries close their borders to fight the coronavirus pandemic, the European system of open internal borders — a cornerstone of European integration — is on the brink of collapse.

    The so-called Schengen Area, which comprises 26 European countries, entered into effect in 1995 and abolishes the need for passports and other types of control at mutual borders. It is a key practical and symbolic achievement of European integration and is now falling apart.

    In a move packed with political significance, Germany, the largest and most powerful country in the European Union, on March 16 introduced controls on its borders with Austria, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and Switzerland after it registered 1,000 new cases of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in just one day.

    Anyone without a valid reason to travel, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said, would be turned away at the borders. Travelers with symptoms of COVID-19 would be refused entry as well. German citizens and anyone with a residence permit, however, will be allowed to reenter Germany.

    “Protecting our population also requires measures to reduce the risk of infection from global travel,” Seehofer said. “We are dealing with a very aggressive and fast-spreading virus. We will have to deal with it for months. As long as there is no European solution, you have to act in the interest of your own people.”

    https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15751/coronavirus-europe-open-borders