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.
‘Wet markets’ reopening across China: Report
Graham calls for closure of Chinese wet markets
Chinese researchers isolated deadly bat coronaviruses near Wuhan animal market
Chinese government researchers isolated more than 2,000 animal viruses, including deadly bat coronaviruses, and carried out scientific work on them just three miles from a wild animal market identified as the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Several Chinese state media outlets in recent months touted the virus research and lionized in particular a key researcher in Wuhan, Tian Junhua, as a leader in bat virus work.
The coronavirus strain now infecting hundreds of thousands of people globally mutated from bats believed to have infected animals and people at a wild animal market in Wuhan. The exact origin of the virus, however, remains a mystery.
Reports of the extensive Chinese research on bat viruses likely will fuel more calls for Beijing to make public what it knows about such work.
“This is one of the worst cover-ups in human history, and now the world is facing a global pandemic,” Rep. Michael T. McCaul, Texas Republican and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said last week. Mr. McCaul has said China should be held accountable for the pandemic.
A video posted online in December and funded by the Chinese government shows Mr. Tian inside caves in Hubei province taking samples from captured bats and storing them in vials.
“I am not a doctor, but I work to cure and save people,” Mr. Tian says in the video. “I am not a
Chinese officials have said the virus likely spread from wild animals to people at Wuhan’s Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market, not far from the Wuhan Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the national center for China’s bat virus research.
Wuhan is finally stirring back to life after a harsh crackdown on travel and street activity was imposed in late January. The city’s bus, subway and train systems started to run again over the weekend. Shops downtown were operating with some restrictions Monday, although customers were scarce.
But British news accounts also reported over the weekend that some of the stalls at China’s so-called “wet” wild animal markets, as they reopen, have begun once again selling bats and scorpions and resumed questionable practices such as slaughtering small animals right at the site.
Chinese officials refused to provide samples of its coronavirus strains to U.S. researchers shortly after the outbreak became public and did not allow international disease specialists to visit Wuhan for weeks.
Handling bats
The Chinese video “Youth in the Wild — Invisible Defender” records researchers engaged in casual handling of bats containing deadly viruses.
The seven-minute film boasts that China has “taken the lead” in global virus research and uncovered over 2,000 viruses in the past 12 years, the time since the outbreak of the bat-origin virus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS).
The deadly virus behind the current pandemic is called SARS Coronavirus-2 and also has been traced to bats.
Prior to China’s discoveries, an estimated 2,284 types of viruses had been found in the previous 200 years, the video says.
Chinese state media outlets revealed that Mr. Tian once failed to wear protective gear in a cave and as a result came into contact with bat urine. To avoid contracting a disease, he self-quarantined for 14 days — the same recommended period for people exposed to the new COVID-19 strain.
Mr. Tian works for the office of decontamination and biological disease vector prevention and control within the Wuhan CDC. According to a May 2017 report by the Wuhan Evening News, Mr. Tian has gathered thousands of bats for research work on bat viruses since 2012.
“Bats have a large number of unknown viruses on their bodies,” he said. “The more thorough our research on bats is, the better it will be for human health.”
The researcher also has gathered viruses from ticks, mice and wasps.
After the incident exposing him to bat urine, Mr. Tian said, he kept a safe distance from his wife. “As long as I am not getting sick during the incubation period of 14 days, I can be lucky to get away with it,” he said.
The Wuhan report said the collection of research samples was difficult, dangerous and hard to fund.
Shenzhen News, a publication of the Guangdong Communist Youth League, described in December how Mr. Tian shuttled through caves and jungles looking for viruses in bats and ticks, called “vector organisms,” in the quest to develop vaccines.>/b> The report said the nearly 2,000 viruses discovered in China over the past 12 years nearly doubled the total number of known viruses.
A search of the Wuhan CDC website since the novel coronavirus outbreak contains no reference to Mr. Tian or his work. He has co-authored at least two scientific studies on the Wuhan virus and its impact.
Efforts to reach Mr. Tian were not successful.
A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington did not return an email seeking comment.
U.S. concerns
A State Department official said the reports about Mr. Tian and his role in working with bat viruses are concerning.
“He lives and works at Wuhan’s CDC, a few hundred yards away from the Huanan wet market,” the official said. “He is among the small team in Wuhan that has contributed to China’s obsession in recent years with virus hunting and research.”
Some U.S. and international scientists have dismissed reports linking the new virus to one of China’s research labs. They insist the virus jumped naturally to humans and then began spreading from person to person.
But others say a growing body of evidence indicates the virus may have been under study in a Chinese laboratory and escaped, either through an infection of a worker or through an infected lab animal.
Biosecurity researcher Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University professor at the Waksman Institute of Microbiology, said the coronavirus behind the pandemic is 96.2% similar to a bat virus discovered by the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2013 and studied at the Wuhan CDC. The virus could have jumped naturally from animal to human but also could have escaped from the lab, he said.
“Bat coronaviruses are collected and studied by laboratories in multiple parts of China — including Wuhan Municipal CDC and Wuhan Institute of Virology,” he told The Washington Times. “Therefore, the first human infection also could have occurred as a laboratory accident.”
Until the recent outbreak, all but two coronaviruses in China were studied at biosafety level-2 (BSL-2) facilities — not the high-security BSL-4 laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology — “which provides only minimal protections against infection of lab workers,” he said.
“Virus collection, culture, isolation or animal infection at BSL-2 with a virus having the transmission characteristics of the outbreak virus would pose high risk of accidental infection of a lab worker, and from the lab worker, the public,” he said.
Mr. Ebright said the Chinese video shows Wuhan CDC workers under Mr. Tian’s direction with inadequate personal protective equipment and unsafe practices, including exposed faces and wrists and a lack of goggles or face shields.
Such practices “would pose substantial risk of infection with a virus having transmission properties similar to those of the outbreak virus,” he said.
Mr. Ebright said the 2017 news report and 2019 video suggest several possibilities of accidental infection. They include accidental exposure in caves or field laboratories by those without proper protection, accidental infection during transit from caves or field laboratories, accidental infection inside the Wuhan CDC lab because of poor security, and accidental infection during shared work between the Wuhan CDC and the Wuhan Institute of Virology because of inadequate security at the CDC.
Kenneth Plante, associate director at the World Reference Center for Emerging Viruses and Arboviruses at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said he doubted the new virus came from a laboratory.
“There’s a lot of conspiracy theories that this came out of a biocontainment facility and things of that sort,” he said last week. “But these viruses are closely related to bats. The actual mechanism of the reemergence of this virus was actually hypothesized back during the original SARS coronavirus,” he said.
But Steven W. Mosher, a China specialist with the Population Research Institute, said China for years has been doing research, detailed in scientific journals, on horseshoe bat coronaviruses that could be harmful to humans.
“They write about collecting SARS-like coronaviruses from horseshoe bats and proving that, like the SARS virus itself, some of these other naturally occurring coronaviruses could infect human beings directly,” Mr. Mosher said. “They write about genetically engineering new and deadly viruses capable of infecting human lung tissue — just like the Wuhan flu does.”
Mr. Mosher called the Chinese government to disclose the research to help health officials cope with the coronavirus pandemic.
“China claims that the deadly virus did not escape from its biolab,” Mr. Mosher said. “Fine. Prove it by releasing the research records of the Wuhan lab.”
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/mar/30/china-researchers-isolated-bat-coronaviruses-near-/
Swedish Municipality Warns of Youths Wilfully Coughing at Seniors in ‘Coronavirus Challenge’ (sputniknews, Mar 31, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202003311078770593-swedish-municipality-warns-of-youths-wilfully-coughing-at-seniors-in-coronavirus-challenge/
“Pranks amid the coronavirus epidemic have been condemned as “unsavoury”, “backward”, and “unfunny”.
Youths in the Municipality of Eslöv in Sweden’s southernmost Skåne County have adopted the habit of knowingly coughing, sneezing, and spitting on elderly people, while laughing at their victims, Swedish Radio reported.
The municipality has warned its inhabitants and urged parents to “talk” with their children.
“It has come to our knowledge that older people feel insecure. That young people cough and shout ‘corona’ only to walk away and laugh”, Ingrid Westerlund, the head of operations at Eslöv Municipality, told Swedish Radio.
On Facebook, the municipality published a warning.
“Some of our elders have been exposed to youths knowingly coughing, sneezing, and spitting in their vicinity in the streets and in stores. Talk to your youth and, above all, respond if you see someone out to provoke and behave disrespectfully. Our responsibility is to prevent the spread of infection and make sure everyone feels as safe as possible. Show consideration, take others’ concerns seriously and take care of yourself and others”, Eslöv Municipality warned.
Many residents voiced their extreme displeasure.
“Apparently a form of challenge that is spreading virally right now, and Eslöv’s youth don’t seem to look inferior, unfortunately…”, one user wrote on Facebook.
“Sick behaviour and showing only zero respect for human life, they are proof that their parents are unsuccessful in their upbringing. What a rotten act!” another one said.
Earlier, the news outlet Samhällsnytt reported about a migrant duo from Eskilstuna publishing a prank video on YouTube where they approached random people while coughing and saying they had the coronavirus. The video was later removed, but continues to spread on Twitter.
This video also sparked reactions and was called “unsavoury”, “backward”, and “unfunny”.
“Hej Xaliqasem och Xusseinmatar! You walk around my city, scaring people, being general idiots and ‘pranking’ about the coronavirus. You think you’re smart/cool. I have noted that you record in Eskilstuna. Can you be kind and do this ‘prank’ on me? I promise I’ll be nice. I will only contact your parents and ask them what they think about what they have raised.
And I would like to hear if they are proud to have raised two full-scale idiots. So feel free to grab me next time you’re out to prank”, local Social Democrat politician Maria Hind Alias tweeted.
?So far, over 4,000 people in Sweden have been confirmed to have COVID-19. A total of 146 patients have died.”
India to Blacklist 800 Indonesian Preachers After Religious Gathering Leads to COVID-19 Fallout (sputniknews, Mar 31, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/world/202003311078770865-india-to-blacklist-800-indonesian-preachers-after-religious-gathering-leads-to-covid-19-fallout-/
“A Muslim organisation in India organised a religious gathering in the national capital on 16 March, with participants from Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Kyrgyzstan. But around 1,400 people continued to stay at the venue even after New Delhi ordered a 21-day lockdown, risking their health in the process.
India’s federal Home Ministry is considering to blacklist around 800 Islamic preachers from Indonesia, known as Tablighi, who came on tourist visas to attend a three-day religious conference in Delhi amid the coronavirus outbreak.
They would be blacklisted for violating visa norms as the group entered the country on a tourist visa but participated in a religious congregation.
The 3-day religious gathering hosted on 16 March at an Islamic shrine in the densely populated Nizamuddin area of south Delhi was attended by around 8,000 people from India and countries like Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, and Kyrgyzstan.
Delhi Police cordoned off the densely populated Muslim locality on Monday (30 March) to ensure execution of COVID-19 lockdown norms, and people there were subjected to medical examination. Some 200 people were taken to hospitals for testing and 24 people tested positive for COVID-19.
“We are not certain of the number but it is estimated that 1,500-1,700 people had assembled at the Markaz building. 1,033 people have been evacuated so far – 334 of them have been sent to hospital & 700 sent to a quarantine centre”, news agency ANI quoted Satyendar Jain, Delhi Health Minister as saying.
Delhi chief Arvind Kejriwal convened a high-level meeting over the issue on Tuesday with Deputy Chief Manish Sisodia, Health Minister Satyendar Jain, and other officials.
Six persons from Telangana, who attended the gathering have died since testing positive for the coronavirus, while a cleric died in Srinagar last week.
On Friday (27 March), six persons from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, who had attended the meeting also tested positive for the coronavirus.
The gathering was reportedly organised without the permission of the police or local authorities.
Thirty-two deaths have been reported since the first coronavirus case was dectected on 30 January. There are currently 1,251 active cases in the country, according to the federal Ministry Health and Family Welfare.”
Trump unveils new five-minute coronavirus test device, N95 mask sterilizer
A new coronavirus testing device that can produce a result in five minutes will soon be available throughout the US, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn announced Monday.
The test will be available in doctors’ clinics, emergency rooms and drive-through sites within the next month as officials try to rapidly overcome a lack of readily-available tests during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Just like tests for flu or strep where you go to the doctor’s office so you can get a test done, you can get an answer within minutes of having this test done,” Hahn said during President Trump’s coronavirus task force briefing in the Rose Garden.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/trump-unveils-new-five-minute-coronavirus-test-device-n95-mask-sterilizer/?utm_source=reddit.com
New blood test can detect 50 types of cancer
System uses machine learning to offer new way to screen for hard-to-detect cancers
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/31/new-blood-test-can-detect-50-types-of-cancer
European States Send Medical Goods to Iran in First INSTEX Transaction (sputniknews, Mar 31, 2020)
https://sputniknews.com/europe/202003311078771655-medical-goods-sent-from-european-states-to-iran-in-first-instex-transaction/
“The INSTEX trading mechanism was previously created by European countries to bypass unilateral restrictions, imposed against the Islamic Republic by Washington, as the US threatened to hit those trading with Tehran via secondary sanctions. Iran, however, has repeatedly criticised INSTEX for not functioning properly.
France, Germany, and the United Kingdom have officially confirmed concluding their first INSTEX transaction with Iran, exporting medical goods to the Middle Eastern country. According to the German Foreign Ministry, Berlin hopes to enhance the mechanism and carry out more transaction with Tehran.
The news comes several months after Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, and the Netherlands joined the mechanism, allowing the countries to circumvent US sanctions against Iran.
The medical goods are being sent to the country amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has severely affected Iran, making it the worst-hit Asian country outside China.
According to official data, there are over 41,000 infected in the Islamic Republic, and the death toll currently stands at 2,757. At the same time, European countries are experiencing a similar situation; Germany has 67,000 infected and 650 fatalities, while France has confirmed over 44,500 cases and more than 3,000 deaths from the virus.”
Part of the Queens stadium complex that’s home to the U.S. Open will be transformed into a temporary hospital to aid in the fight against the coronavirus.
An indoor training area at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center is expected to be turned into a 350-bed medical facility beginning on Tuesday, USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier confirmed.
The site will likely be used to treat non-COVID-19 patients, but that could change based on need, according to a spokesman for New York City’s emergency management office, which is working on the project with the Army Corps of Engineers and state officials.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/parts-of-us-open-stadium-complex-in-queens-to-be-turned-into-hospital-amid-coronavirus/?utm_source=reddit.com
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that manages legal immigration into the United States, released a study on its U visa program.
The U visa program provides legal status and a pathway to citizenship for aliens who are victim to a crime and are willing to work with law enforcement, but it’s been long accused of attracting fraud and abuse.
The USCIS study found that 93% of all applicants were living in the U.S. illegally, many approved petitioners had been previously deported, and others were previously booked for human smuggling.
https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/30/u-visa-applicants-crime-victims-illegal-migrants/
(CNN)Ford plans to make as many as 50,000 simple ventilators for coronavirus patients within 100 days and plans to continue producing 30,000 per month after that, the company announced Monday.
The automaker said it will make the ventilators at its Rawsonville Components Plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The factory will be staffed by 500 United Auto Workers union members who have volunteered to work on the project, Ford said.
The ventilator is currently being made by Florida-based Airon Corp. and has been licensed by GE Healthcare. Ford (F) has been working with GE Healthcare to help it increase its ventilator output
https://www.cnn.com/2020/03/30/business/ford-ge-healthcare-ventilators/index.html
OTTAWA — Canada’s spy agency is moving quietly ahead with plans to collect and use databases containing personal information about Canadians, newly released documents show.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the initiative — made possible by sweeping security legislation passed last year — will enable the agency to crunch large volumes of information and detect previously unseen patterns.
However, the new power to gather, sift and keep Canadian datasets worries civil liberties advocates.
The government should give Canadians a better sense of the kind of information CSIS is now allowed to exploit, given the existing dangers of falsely identifying people as security threats, said Tim McSorley, national co-ordinator of the Ottawa-based International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.
“It would help to ensure that Canadians’ rights are being protected,” McSorley said in an interview.
In a broader sense, McSorley questioned whether “we want to be moving in this direction of intelligence agencies collecting and retaining vast amounts of information?”
https://beta.ctvnews.ca/national/politics/2020/3/30/1_4874548.html
EU launches new naval mission to police Libya arms embargo (abcnews, Mar 31, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/eu-launches-naval-mission-police-libya-arms-embargo-69890424
“The European Union announced Tuesday the launch of a new naval mission in the Mediterranean Sea aimed at enforcing the U.N. arms embargo on Libya, after Italy blocked a previous operation claiming that the warships attracted migrants to Europe’s shores.
The new operation, dubbed Irini, the Greek word for “peace,” will start work for a year from Wednesday. The European Council said it will have as “its core task the implementation of the U.N. arms embargo through the use of aerial, satellite and maritime assets.”
“In particular the mission will be able to carry out inspections of vessels on the high seas off the coast of Libya suspected to be carrying arms or related material to and from Libya,” a statement said. It will also gather information about illegal fuel and oil smuggling from Libya and help build up the Libyan coast guard, including by training its personnel.
The EU’s previous naval mission, Operation Sophia, was set up after tens of thousands of migrants began attempting potentially perilous crossings of the Mediterranean in 2015 in search of better lives in Europe.
Italy’s previous populist government blocked Sophia from using ships because its vessels were occasionally used to rescue migrants. Planes and drones were still used. The current government was also vary wary about resuming any operation, and Austria also initially opposed it.
Aid groups were shocked by the seemingly absurd prospect of a naval operation without any boats and accused the EU of abandoning people seeking refuge. While it has no migrant-related mission, ships involved in Operation Irini will be obliged to save people they come across in danger at sea, under international law.
“Diplomacy cannot succeed unless it is backed by action. The U.N. arms embargo on Libya needs to be effectively enforced,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters as he unveiled the operation. He said the EU sees Irini has “an important part of the solution to contribute to a permanent cease-fire.”
Borrell said that while the operation will focus mostly on maritime surveillance, its planes, drones and satellites will be able to monitor airspace and some activities on land in, around and over the conflict-torn country.
Fighting in Libya has raged for almost a year between military commander Khalifa Hifter’s forces, which are allied with a rival government based in eastern Libya, and an array of militias in the west loosely linked to the authorities in Tripoli, the capital.
Egypt, Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are all involved, supplying variously troops, fighters and military equipment to the warring factions. France and Italy support opposing sides.
Clashes between rival Libyan forces have escalated in recent days despite appeals for a cease-fire, particularly given fears that the coronavirus could devastate a country with ravaged infrastructure and dire medical shortages.
Borrell expressed regret that those appeals appear to have fallen on deaf ears, saying “nobody can afford two wars at the same time.””
This is an MB initiative.
Assailant with ax, machete wounds man in southern Germany (abcnews, Mar 31, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/assailant-ax-machete-wounds-man-southern-germany-69891185
“An assailant armed with an ax and a machete threatened a woman and wounded a man who came to her help in southern Germany on Tuesday, police said.
The suspect, a 27-year-old Tunisian citizen who lives in Augsburg, first broke the windshield of a bus taking bus drivers to their early shift in the Bavarian city, police said.
A few minutes later, at about 4 a.m., he smashed the windshield and side window of a 50-year-old woman’s car and threatened her. Another man tried to overwhelm the assailant, who hit him in the head with a machete, according to a police statement.
The injured 28-year-old was still able to prevent the suspect from attacking anyone else. Police arrested the assailant at the scene and the victim was taken to a hospital.
There was no immediate word on a possible motive. Police said a search of the suspect’s apartment produced no evidence of any danger to residents.”
https://www.foxnews.com/media/coronavirus-patients-new-jersey-hydrocholoroquine-drug
Am I imagining things or is this guy doing cartwheels to say anything definitive, let alone anything positive, about hydroxychloroquine? Could it be that he is aware that Donald Trump was talking up quinine weeks ago and could it be that the evil ones can’t stand seeing the Orange Bastard be right again? I know that’s wild, but why was this doctor being so elusive with his answers? Maybe he’s just a chronic smarty-pants but I sensed he was loath to cast a positive light on the “hydroxychloroquine cocktail”. Like, surely he must know that there is interest there and surely he knows that the interviewer knows that and I think he was hiding some bias… Did he buy a million shares of one of the other drugs? Am I going crazy? Do you remember Trump taking flak and being called a fool then saying, “I feel good about it”? Trump is an uncannily smart guy who tends to be right about stuff that I misread. The way he fought the media in ’16 was pure genius. I’d listen to the guy if he said something to me…
Like, what about, “What percentage of at-risk patients that have been treated with full-doses of the hydroxychloroquine have died, are ventilated, are in hospital, have gone home?”. And how about, “How many patients are dead but would be alive today if the doctors had paid more heed to the Orange Monster’s “feelings and tried the quinine cure”? Then top it off with, “What, exactly are you hiding, Doctor? What is it that you are afraid we’ll find out?”
I wonder if gin and tonic keeps you from getting the coronavirus. Is there enough quinine in there to make a difference? Buy a bunch of shares in “Schweppes Tonic Water” and become a millionaire…!!!
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199,184 views
•Mar 30, 2020
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2A Attacked Under Coronavirus Panic
“How Trump Is Taming The Bureaucracy And Saving Lives”
by Cliff Kincaid – March 30, 2020
http://noisyroom.net/blog/2020/03/30/how-trump-is-taming-the-bureaucracy-and-saving-lives/
S. Korean COVID-19 test kits soon to be exported to U.S.
“[CCP Virus] Virologist Steven Hatfill: Virus Origin, Local Government Failure & Guarding Your Health”
American Thought Leaders – The Epoch Times – March 30, 2020
A Conscientious Declaration from China Disband the CCP
The Coronavirus Tyranny Is Upon Us
“WATCH: CNN Jim Acosta gets NUKED by Trump for asking a snarky question, and other highlights…”
The Right Scoop – March 30, 2020
https://therightscoop.com/watch-cnn-jim-acosta-gets-nuked-by-trump-for-asking-a-snarky-question-and-other-highlights/
“Video: HERE IT IS — Fake News Jim @Acosta
gets NUKED by the President for “asking a snarky question” that does nothing to help save lives and move the country forward through this #coronaviruspandemic”
Chris Houck – March 30, 2020 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/CurtisHouck/status/1244748105335144453
“Those plucky soldiers on the front lines”
Dianny – March 30, 2020
http://patriotretort.com/those-plucky-soldiers-on-the-front-lines/
Fighting Coronavirus With Tyranny & Globalism
“NYU Dean’s Weird Response to Student’s Request for Refund for Virus-Cancelled Classes”
by Nick Arama – March 30, 2020
https://www.redstate.com/nick-arama/2020/03/30/nyu-deans-weird-response-to-students-request-for-refund-for-virus-cancelled-classes/
“Perhaps the strangest streamed performance of this strange time is the NYU dean who refused to consider a student petition for tuition rebates after the shutdown—but did an interpretive dance for them instead.”
Ted Gioia – March 29, 2020 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/tedgioia/status/1244298305816928261
President Trump approves disaster declarations for Pa., R.I. as states struggle to stop spread of COVID-19
President Trump has approved major disaster declarations for Pennsylvania and Rhode Island as the states struggle to stop the spread of coronavirus. He approved the declarations Monday, which makes federal funding available at the state, county and local levels to help residents during the outbreak.
Officials have said the funding will go to local governments and non-profit organizations for emergency protective measures. This includes disaster unemployment assistance, crisis counseling, community disaster loans and much more.
https://www.oann.com/president-trump-approves-disaster-declarations-for-pa-r-i-as-states-struggle-to-stop-spread-of-covid-19/
World’s busiest border falls quiet with millions of Mexicans barred from U.S
TIJUANA/CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico (Reuters) – The world’s busiest land border has fallen quiet as restrictions to contain the coronavirus prevent millions of Mexicans from making daily trips north, including many who work in U.S. businesses.
At least 4 million Mexicans residing in cities along the 1,954-mile (3,144-km) border have been hit hard by the restrictions on non-essential travel. The measures effectively invalidate visas allowing short crossings into U.S. cities to visit family, get medical care or shop.
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While such B1/B2 “border crossing cards” are officially recreational, Reuters spoke to nearly two dozen residents of Tijuana, Nogales and Ciudad Juarez who use their cards to reach jobs or to care for relatives on the U.S. side of the frontier.
All said they could no longer make the crossing, dealing another blow to businesses alread
https://www.oann.com/worlds-busiest-border-falls-quiet-with-millions-of-mexicans-barred-from-u-s/
“An Italian farmer was killed by a Pakistani migrant while attempting to stop him from leaving a heavily-quarantined Italian ‘red zone.'” Natalie Winters – March 27, 2020
https://thenationalpulse.com/news/migrant-kills-italian/
“Cancer Center Fires Executive Who Demanded Trump Supporters Be Left To Die Of Coronavirus”
by Emily Zanotti – March 29, 2020
https://www.dailywire.com/news/cancer-center-fires-executive-who-demanded-trump-supporters-be-left-to-die-of-coronavirus
TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s capital recorded more than 70 new coronavirus infections on Tuesday for its highest tally in a single day, as pressure mounted on the prime minister to order a lockdown.
Japanese cases topped 2,000, and public broadcaster NHK said 78 cases in Tokyo took its tally of infections past 500. Media reports said 7 people in the city had died, five at one hospital.
“This is the greatest increase up to now and is certainly of high concern, and I’m worried about what tomorrow’s figures might show,” Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said.
https://www.oann.com/japan-pm-deputy-pm-to-avoid-same-meetings-as-precaution-vs-virus-infection/
President Donald Trump’s border reforms are helping the Department of Homeland Security to eject most southern migrants in just 96 minutes, according to a report in the Washington Post.
“Migrants who cross into the United States illegally are being expelled to Mexico in an average of 96 minutes under emergency coronavirus measures now in force across the U.S. southern border, according to three U.S. officials with knowledge of the latest government statistics,” the newspaper reported Monday. The report said:
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/03/30/wapo-coronavirus-rules-dhs-eject-border-crossers-96-minutes/
Fears the Chinese coronavirus might spread from corpses to nearby populations has prevented the burial of many people in Iraq who have died from the respiratory illness, reports revealed Monday.
Iraqi religious authorities, tribes, and townspeople have been sending the bodies of virus victims back to hospital morgues across the country.
Saad Malik recently lost his father to the illness. According to Malik, multiple cemeteries had refused the man’s burial.
“We couldn’t hold a funeral for him and haven’t been able to bury his body, even though it’s been more than a week since he died,” Malik told Agence France-Presse (AFP) in an interview on Monday. Islamic religious tradition calls for a person to be buried as soon as possible after death, usually within 24 hours.
Reports indicated that the burial refusals had continued. Northeast of Baghdad – Iraq’s capital – tribal figures prevented a team of health ministry officials from burying four bodies in a cemetery specifically designated for Chinese coronavirus victims. When the health officials attempted to take the bodies to another burial ground southeast of Baghdad, dozens of locals stopped them.
The bodies were returned to the morgue.
https://www.breitbart.com/health/2020/03/31/mourning-iraqi-villagers-refuse-to-bury-coronavirus-dead/
Switzerland: WHO officials recommend masks only be worn by sick or carers
“We don’t generally recommend the wearing of masks in public by otherwise well individuals,” said World Health Organisation (WHO) Health Emergencies Programme Executive Director Michael Ryan.
Ryan continued, saying “There also is the issue that we have a massive global shortage,” adding that “the people most at risk from this virus are frontline health workers who are exposed to the virus every second of every day. The thought of them not having masks is horrific, so we have to be very careful with supply.”
“It’s important that our frontline workers who we recommend standard and droplet precautions, have adequate use of PPE and so that we make sure that we prioritise the use of masks for those who need it most,” echoed World Health Organization (WHO) Technical Maria Van Kerkhove.
On Monday Austria became the first country to require supermarket customers to wear face masks while shopping, with the items, which will not be medical grade, set to be handed out to shoppers in front of stores.
Ryan also emphasised that there is no proven treatment or drug for the virus.
“So that we’re clear, there is no proven effective therapeutic or drug against COVID-19,” explained Ryan. However, he did go on to say that “there are a number of drugs that have shown promise, either in previous treatment of coronaviruses, like MERS or SARS, in the fight against HIV, or in other situations.”
“And there is some preliminary data from non-randomised studies, observational studies that indicate that some drugs and some drug cocktails may have an impact,” added Ryan.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus also spoke the conference to highlight how other medical issues continue to be concerns during the outbreak.
“Even though we’re in the midst of a crisis, essential health services must continue. Babies are still being born, vaccines must still be delivered, and people still need life-saving treatment for a range of other diseases,” said the WHO chief.
France pr4vd4 – Hungary’s Orban handed open-ended powers to fight coronavirus, alarming rights groups
europravda – Hungary’s Viktor Orban handed sweeping new powers with COVID-19 law
The law will allow Hungary’s government to pass legislation without parliamentary scrutiny and impose five-year jail terms on those accused of spreading fake news about the virus.
Associated Press EU chief: Fighting virus should not erode democratic rights
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union’s top official urged member countries Tuesday to respect the bloc’s core values amid fears that restrictions imposed by some national governments to combat the novel coronavirus pandemic could erode democracy and restrict human rights across the continent.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen acknowledged the need for emergency measures as reported virus-related deaths approached 30,000 in Europe, but she reminded EU members they need to respect values such as the rule of law, human rights and media freedom during the public health crisis.
Von der Leyen’s comments came a day after Hungary’s parliament approved a bill giving Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government extraordinary powers with no end date in response to the pandemic.
Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilmes’ cabinet also has been granted authority to govern by decree without parliamentary involvement for six months. French lawmakers passed a law increasing the prime minister’s powers, a move harshly criticized by a magistrates’ union and the human rights league.
In many other European countries, the suspension of previously guaranteed personal freedoms, including the right to demonstrate, to gather and to circulate freely, have raised fears that temporary policies might be extended to last beyond exceptional lockdowns.
“It is of utmost importance that emergency measures are not at the expense of our fundamental principles and values,” von der Leyen said. “Any emergency measures must be limited to what is necessary and strictly proportionate. They must not last indefinitely. Moreover, governments must make sure that such measures are subject to regular scrutiny.”
Orban has insisted that the country’s parliament will decide when the government’s extraordinary authority should end.
“I don’t have the power to extend anything,” Orban said. “When parliament decides that the state of emergency is over, then everything will be over and life will return to the normal lawmaking order.”
Worldwide, more than 801,000 confirmed virus cases were reported worldwide and more than 172,000 people declared recovered from COVID-19 as of Tuesday, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, the virus can cause severe symptoms like pneumonia and even death.
Von der Leyen said the European Commission would monitor “in a spirit of cooperation” the application of emergency laws adopted in EU nations.
“We all need to work together to master this crisis. On this path, we will uphold our European values and human rights. This is who we are, and this is what we stand for,”she said.
https://apnews.com/daa14feda1ab6f8db61ea55c5891a9ac
L’Europa ha trovato un nemico: ma è Orban, non il virus
Finalmente l’Europa ha trovato un nemico comune contro cui combattere. No, purtroppo per la popolazione europea non è il coronavirus, dal momento che l’Ue si è ben guardata dal trovare risposte comuni. Si chiama Viktor Orban, premier ungherese e leader di Fidesz, che da ieri ha assunto pieni poteri e si prepara a guidare Budapest nella difficilissima sfida al Covid-19. Una scelta che ha scatenato le critiche feroci del mondo progressista europeo, che si è rivolto verso il governo ungherese tacciando di dittatura travestita da democrazia la procedura con cui il premier magiaro ha virato verso l’accentramento dei poteri.
[…]
https://it.insideover.com/politica/europa-orban-virus.html
europravda – ‘Absolutely unacceptable’: MEP says Hungary’s COVID-19 law means democracy has been suspended
‘It means the suspension of parliamentary democracy in Hungary,’ said one MEP, reacting to Hungary’s emergency coronavirus legislation…
BERLIN (AP) — An assailant armed with an ax and a machete threatened a woman and wounded a man who came to her help in southern Germany on Tuesday, police said.
The suspect, a 27-year-old Tunisian citizen who lives in Augsburg, first broke the windshield of a bus taking bus drivers to their early shift in the Bavarian city, police said.
A few minutes later, at about 4 a.m., he smashed the windshield and side window of a 50-year-old woman’s car and threatened her. Another man tried to overwhelm the assailant, who hit him in the head with a machete, according to a police statement.
https://apnews.com/1a66a5196878ad86ff8843656187c3ef
France pr4vd4 – Coronavirus: millions of precious Chinese-made masks arrive in France
France has ordered one billion masks from China to help protect frontline medical staff.
The country is currently contending with a serious shortage of FFP2 health masks, the most effective in protecting against the coronavirus.
The Justice Department’s inspector general revealed Tuesday that in each of more than two dozen cases his office reviewed, the FBI routinely failed to document evidence for claims made in secret surveillance court requests.
The significant findings indicate problems extend beyond those identified last year by the office of IG Michael Horowitz, which concluded that FBI agents had made significant errors and omissions in applications to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign adviser during the early months of the Russia investigation.
The disclosure is also likely to embolden civil libertarians in both political parties who are pushing for major reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/31/justice-department-ig-fbi-routinely-failed-to-document-fisa-warrant-claims/?utm_source=reddit.com
Wars Visible and Invisible
The virus and the coup.
[Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a 3-Part Series. Read Part II: HERE.]
In mid-March, as America became the nation with the most cases of the coronavirus (if you trust the Chinese statistics), Trump declared himself “a wartime president,” fighting “an invisible enemy,” which he described as the most dangerous enemy of all.[1] But anyone paying attention to the political battlefield recently knows that there are actually two wars engulfing the country, posing dire threats to its future.
The second – visible – war was launched four years earlier by Democrats and their deep state allies to prevent Trump from being elected, then to sabotage his presidency through a vaunted “resistance,” and finally to remove him from office through several failed partisan impeachment attempts.
The first principal of psychological warfare is to attack the moral character and credibility of the adversary’s commander-in-chief. If their leader is convincingly portrayed as being driven by ulterior motives, which have nothing to do with the common good or winning the war, or worse as being a compulsive liar, he is effectively crippled in the task of mobilizing a united front in the war. Most people understand this, which is why there are so many calls for “unity” and working together in America’s current war with the invisible enemy.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/wars-visible-and-invisible-david-horowitz/
Wars Visible and Invisible, Part II
Sabotaging the war.
Trump’s task in leading the country’s defense against the coronavirus pandemic has been made immeasurably more difficult by the Democrats’ disloyal attempts to undermine its commander-in-chief at every turn. These attacks are summed up in the absurd caricature Democrats have created of the president as a “pathological liar,” a “narcissist uninterested in anything but himself,” and “out of control,” “incompetent,” “bigoted,” “anti-scientific,” and of course an anti-immigrant racist. And, therefore, a threat to national security rather than its guardian. These attacks have been carried to such extremes that perfectly sensible measures adopted by governments all over the world, such as closing borders, are characterized as “racist” when enacted by him – and carried out in a particularly advantageous fashion, such as his ban on travel from China within days of the virus being designated a global health emergency by the World Health Organization.
Since Trump is a leader who relies on his instincts, a bold risk taker who is willing to buck opposition from all sides if he feels his instincts are right, but is also ready to correct course if his instincts prove wrong, he is an exceptionally easy target for hostile critics. He is particularly vulnerable in the midst of a crisis which calls for alarm and calm simultaneously – for a realistic assessment of the threat but also for a leader who can convincingly provide a basis for optimism to those dependent on him lest they succumb to panic and despair.
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/wars-visible-and-invisible-part-ii-david-horowitz
Civil Liberties Matter More Than Ever in a Pandemic
This is not the time to stop asking questions.
1 in 5 Americans have been ordered to stay home. Major states and cities have been shut down.
Our response to the coronavirus represents the biggest challenge to the relationship between individuals and the government in this country since the Civil War, WW1 or WW2. These decisions will likely be debated by scholars and historians the way that the Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, the Espionage Act, Japanese internment camps, and other emergency decisions continue to be litigated.
A generation ago, the ACLU might have had something to say about the civil liberties implications of shelter-in-place orders. That was a different ACLU that at least pretended to care about civil liberties as an objective value, defending the civil rights of people it disagreed with. The new ACLU is an identity politics zombie whose only civil liberties concerns for the coronavirus response is that illegal aliens won’t be able to enter the country and that prison inmates should be released as quickly as possible.
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/civil-liberties-matter-more-ever-pandemic-daniel-greenfield
Chairman Mao’s American Red Guard Remembered
Anna Louise Strong is forgotten but not gone.
“Anna Louise Strong, the American who spent most of her life writing books and articles extolling the virtues of Communism, died today of a heart attack in Peking, where she had lived for the last 12 years,” the New York Times reported on March 30, 1970. Fifty years later, with Communist China much in the news, Strong’s career deserves a second look.
She was born in Friend, Nebraska, in 1885 and after graduation from Oberlin College in 1905, Strong earned a PhD from the University of Chicago, with a thesis titled “A Study of Prayer from the Standpoint of Social Psychology.” Strong’s father was a Congregationalist minister but Anna became an eager evangelist in the First Church of Christ Socialist, whose basic belief is that Christianity finds ultimate fulfillment in the communist faith.
Strong made her way to the Soviet Union, where she worked on the English language Moscow News, pitched to American readers. In her 1935 autohagiography I Change Worlds, Strong profiled Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. “One must not make a god of Stalin,” Strong wrote, “he was too valuable for that.” Stalin was then busy collectivizing agriculture in the USSR, and the independent farmers known as kulaks stood in the way.
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/chairman-maos-american-red-guard-remembered-lloyd-billingsley
Turkey: Migrants Will Return to Border After Coronavirus Outbreak Ends (breitbart, Mar 31, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/03/31/turkey-migrants-will-return-to-border-after-coronavirus-outbreak-ends/
“Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu has announced that after the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak ends, his government will not stop migrants from travelling to the Greek border.
Interior Minister Soyilu said that the government had evacuated an estimated 5,800 migrants from the border area and transported them to nine different Turkish provinces where they will be held in deportation centres until the outbreak ends.
“It was a precautionary move. We had to do it. But no one has yet to feel comfortable with it,” Soyilu said.
According to a report from the Greek newspaper Proto Thema, Soyilu added: “When the coronavirus pandemic is over, we are not going to deter any immigrants who want to return to the Greek-Turkish border in Pazar.”
George Koumoutsakos, the deputy Foreign Minister of Greece, criticised the Turkish minister, saying: “Yesterday’s statements by Soyilu respond to those who still had the slightest doubt that the events in Evros were an aggressive plan to brutally blac
The government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened the borders to migrants in late February, with the Greek government accusing the Turks of using busses and trains to ship migrants to the land border area along the Evros river.
The Greeks have also accused Erdogan’s government of arming migrants with canisters of tear gas to use on Greek border forces and supporting migrants attempting to storm the border.
In an interview with a Swedish newspaper, one Turkish soldier admitted that he had received orders to help migrants get across the border into the European Union saying: “We have checked that everything has gone well and that the smugglers do not charge too much. We also have intelligence about where and when it is safe to get over.”
Last week, the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) claimed to have evidence that Turkish soldiers were placed among the migrants and fueled riots along the border, as well.”
UH-OH! Democrat Rep. Velazquez Tests Positive for Coronavirus — Was with 80-Year-Old Pelosi Three Days Earlier
Democrat Rep. Nydia Velazquez joined Speaker Pelosi on Friday for the roll out of the $2 trillion coronavirus bailout bill.
The New York Democrat announced on Monday she “presumed coronavirus infection.”
Nancy Pelosi turned 80 earlier this month.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/uh-oh-democrat-rep-tests-positive-for-coronvirus-was-with-80-year-old-pelosi-three-days-earlier/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily
EXCLUSIVE: Dr. Birx’s Connections with the Clinton Foundation and Obama Unfortunately Indicate Conflicted Loyalties
Is Dr. Deborah Birx, the doctor with the scarf, a voice of reason or another Deep State doctor pushing economic disaster and suffering?
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Her past unfortunately provides the answer.
Dr. Deborah Birx comes across as the calming voice of reason while encouraging Americans to default on their life savings. She encourages Americans to stay at home and away from the coronavirus that is killing 80 year olds with pre-existing medical conditions. The fact that fatalities from the virus are almost non-existent in the working class has no bearing on Dr. Birx’s recommendations.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/03/exclusive-dr-birxs-connections-with-the-clinton-foundation-and-obama-unfortunately-indicate-conflicted-loyalties/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=daily
Explosion in Turkey damages natural gas pipeline from Iran (abcnews, Mar 31, 2020)
https://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/explosion-turkey-damages-natural-gas-pipeline-iran-69893278
“An explosion in eastern Turkey Tuesday damaged a natural gas pipeline and halted gas flows from Iran, Turkey’s state-run news agency reported.
The explosion occurred in the town of Dogubayazit, near the Gurbulak border gate with Iran, Anadolu Agency reported. Flames caused by the explosion could be seen from nearby villages before the fire was extinguished.
The agency said the cause of the explosion was under investigation.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted National Iranian Gas Co. gas dispatching director Mahdi Jamshidi Dana as saying authorities suspected the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, likely attacked the pipeline.
Kurdish militants belonging to the outlawed PKK have targeted oil and gas pipelines from Iraq and Iran as part of their more than three-decade old campaign for self-rule in southeast Turkey.
IRNA said previous attacks required up to four days of repair before gas shipments could resume.”
reuters – Iran says natgas exports to Turkey halted after attack by “terrorists”
Iran said on Tuesday its natural gas exports to Turkey have stopped after an attack on a pipeline inside the neighbouring country, an Iranian official told state TV.
“This morning, terrorists attacked a natural gas pipeline inside Turkey near Iran’s Bazargan border with Turkey …Flow of gas has been halted,” said Mehdi Jamshidi-Dana, director of National Iranian Gas Co.
“The pipeline has exploded several times in the past. It is also likely that the PKK group has carried out the blast,” he told Iran’s state news agency IRNA, referring to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party.
Turkey’s state broadcaster TRT Haber said the cause of the explosion was unknown.
“The gas flow on the natural gas pipeline was cut and the fire that had started was extinguished by fire squads. Security forces are investigating the cause for the incident that caused damage on the pipeline,” TYRT Haber reported.
The pipeline, which carries around 10 billion cubic meters of Iranian gas to Turkey annually, frequently came under attack by Kurdish militants during the 1990s and up until 2013, when a ceasefire was established.
Jamshidi said that because of the new coronavirus outbreak, “the Turkish border guards have left, but we have informed them of the explosion and are waiting for their response”, IRNA reported.
“It takes usually three to four days to repair and resume gas exports.”
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iran-turkey-pipeline-attacks/iran-says-attack-by-terrorists-inside-turkey-halts-natural-gas-exports-idUSKBN21I113
Video: “Empire State Building Debuts Dystopian Red ‘Siren’ Light””Anxiety inducing”
Paul Joseph Watson – March 31, 2020
https://summit.news/2020/03/31/empire-state-building-debuts-dystopian-red-siren-light/
FBI warned of concerns over ‘biosecurity risk’ from Chinese scientists’ research in the US after intercepting Sars virus and flu samples illicitly carried in their luggage a year before coronavirus outbreak (dailymail, Mar 31, 2020)
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8172321/FBI-warned-concerns-biosecurity-risk-Chinese-scientists-research-US.html
“The FBI warned of concerns over a ‘biosecurity risk’ from Chinese scientists’ research in the US after they intercepted virus samples carried in luggage a year before the coronavirus outbreak.
In November 2018 – just over a year before the first coronavirus case was recorded in Wuhan – US customs at Detroit Metro Airport stopped a Chinese biologist with three samples labeled ‘Antibodies’ in his luggage.
He told border control that someone he worked with in China had asked him to deliver the vials to a researcher at a US institute.
After examining the writing on the vials, customs agents concluded that they believed the materials inside may have been MERS or SARS materials.
An unclassified FBI report obtained by Yahoo News said: ‘Inspection of the writing on the vials and the stated recipient led inspection personnel to believe the materials contained within the vials may be viable Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) materials.’
The report – written by the Chemical and Biological Intelligence Unit of the FBI’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate – does not give the name of the Chinese scientist carrying the suspected samples, or the intended recipient in the US.
The WMPP assesses foreign scientific researchers who transport ‘undeclared and undocumented’ biological materials into the US that ‘almost certainly present a biosecurity risk’.
The FBI concluded that the incident, along with two other cases mentioned in the report, were part of an alarming pattern.
It appears to be part of a larger FBI concern about China’s involvement with scientific research in the US.
One professor of global biosecurity has said that the FBI appears to be concerned with research that would be used for bioterrorism.
They added that the transferring of samples was likely to be going both ways, saying that unless there is a comprehensive surveillance point, nobody knows what people are bringing in and out.
Another expert said that there is a threat posed by Chinese nationals carrying biological samples but that the carrier would likely be someone ‘unwitting’.
Concerns about China’s flouting of biosafety rules is nothing new, but the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated tensions between Beijing and Washington.
In recent weeks disagreements have escalated, with President Trump calling COVID-19 ‘the Chinese Virus,’ while Beijing in turn has promoted conspiracy theories claiming the virus originated in a US weapons lab.
In addition, Mike Pompeo added fuel to the fire last week after referring to the disease as the ‘Wuhan virus’.”
Coronavirus horror: Shocking mob violence plunges Italy into chaos – looting turns rampant (express, Mar 31, 2020)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1262824/Coronavirus-horror-violence-Italy-COVID-19-unrest-chaos-shortages-news
“THERE is increasing fear that Italy is about to erupt in chaos after a violent mob furiously protested outside the home of an infected Italian woman who fled lockdown.
Italy is at risk of total social collapse according to experts, following a surge in supermarket raids and robberies in the country’s southern region. Police have been deployed to patrol supermarkets in Sicily after plots organising raids and thefts were discovered online. There is mounting concern that violence could soon break out due to food shortages after the Italian government extended its strict lockdown until Easter.
In Sicily, a ferry company has stopped shipping vital supplies of food and medicines after going bankrupt – sparking fears of riots.
There were angry standoffs between supermarket staff and desperate customers in Palermo, the island’s capital.
In Naples, protesters gathered outside the home of a woman accused of fleeing northern Italy’s lockdown and later testing positive for coronavirus.
Raffaele Lettieri, the mayor of her home town Acerra, issued a video message on social media, condemning the woman for breaking quarantine and putting lives at risk.
He said: “This person came down here from Lombardy on 9 March – today it’s the 29th and only now have we discovered they have tested positive.
“If for 20 days this person hasn’t rigorously respected quarantine, for 20 days they have met people who met other people etc then enough.
“One person who doesn’t respect the quarantine is enough for the virus to spread.”
Following this, a furious mob of people gathered outside her home, prompting mask-wearing police to arrive on the scene and turn away the protesters.
In response, the young woman hit back at the criticism as she broke down in tears.
She said: “I never let myself leave my room, leave my house, like has been said. The mayor will have to give me an explanation because from the beginning I explained what happened.
“I explained immediately. Therefore, to be defamed like this I find truly shameful.””