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.
Studies and data seem to indicate ChiCom Flu prefers non-smokers to smokers.
Discussion and data here: https://twitter.com/kerpen/status/1249713002330415106
Spain loosens COVID-19 lockdown as number of cases fall
Spain has loosened its coronavirus lockdown and a tentative return to work has started for some in non-essential industries.
CBC – Canada building its own PPE network in China
Diplomats, consultants create a made-for-Canada solution to get critical supplies from China
When Cargojet flight 1392 touched down in Hamilton on Saturday it brought with it millions of badly needed N95 respirator masks to help in the fight against COVID-19.
The Boeing 767 was the third delivery of critical supplies arriving under a made-for-Canada plan set up with the help of diplomats and consultants in China, a warehouse in Shanghai, and two of Canada’s airlines.
The plan was born out of urgency. With the global market for medical supplies overwhelmed by chaos and acts of piracy, Canada needed to take some of the risk out of securing everything from badly needed medical masks to gowns to gloves.
Federal bureaucrats and political staff handling procurement of medical supplies were frustrated by deliveries showing up late. Unreliable and profiteering brokers were driving prices through the roof. Rival countries were buying shipments out from under each other.
There are even stories circulating of unnamed countries sending government planes to China — ferrying suitcases stuffed with cash — to buy supplies right on the tarmac or at the factory door.
“It is really a Wild West when it comes to buying medical supplies right now,” Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters on April 6.
That intense global competition comes as health professionals in Canada warn of extreme shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) that they say is putting the lives of front-line workers at risk.
Some staff have even walked off the job because of a lack of protective gear.
Ambassador with China know-how
What Canada hopes will be a partial solution got its start in the embassy in Beijing.
Dominic Barton, Canada’s ambassador to China, may be new to the world of diplomacy, but the former managing director of the management consulting firm McKinsey brings a deep understanding of the Chinese economy to his role.
Prior to his ambassadorship, Barton also sat on the advisory board of the state-run China Development Bank. His experience is being put to use in the global bidding wars for medical supplies.
“We’re lucky we have Barton,” said a federal official working directly on the procurement efforts. “He’s a business person first. He has good links into China, gets China, gets Chinese business.”
Barton redeployed much of the staff at Canada’s embassy, consulates and trade offices all over China. The diplomatic staff flipped their role from selling Canada to the Chinese, to buying Chinese medical supplies for Canada.
“We have engaged our embassy on the ground in efforts to ensure that our orders are delivered on schedule and those parties are also identifying new opportunities for us,” Public Services and Procurement Minister Anita Anand said on April 7.
But Canada’s diplomats lacked an intimate knowledge of China’s medical manufacturing sector and supply chains. So Canada hired a multi-national management consulting firm to help officials navigate what had suddenly become the world’s most competitive industry.
Federal officials won’t confirm the name of the consulting firm because of the sensitive nature of these operations. But a source with direct knowledge of the arrangement says it is not Barton’s old firm McKinsey.
The consulting firm is helping Canada identify which factories are more reliable in terms of delivering quality goods that will meet Canadian standards. This is acutely important with stories surfacing globally of subpar masks and other supplies arriving from China only to be sent back or thrown out.
Members of the Chinese diaspora in Canada are also using their business connections to help federal and provincial governments secure reliable supplies.
Next challenge is ensuring orders arrive
Canada’s plan helps. But it isn’t foolproof. The Toronto Star reported that Canada recently received a shipment of badly needed testing swabs only to find they were contaminated with what is believed to be mould.
“Cutting deals and securing quality supplies quickly is probably the biggest challenge in this entire thing,” said the official working on procurement.
There is also the challenge of ensuring that what Canada orders actually arrives. Barton may know business and the consultants may know the supply chains, but none of that guarantees medical supplies actually make it to Canada.
“Ordering of course does not guarantee a delivery,” Anand said recently. “In order to make sure that goods find their way back to Canada, we are taking very serious steps on the ground.”
Those steps include hiring France-based Bolloré Logistics — a global transportation and logistics firm that has operated in Shanghai since 1994 — to help with on-the-ground support, including the transportation and receiving of goods, to ensure the Canadian orders are delivered in as timely a fashion as possible and are not diverted to a higher bidder.
Bolloré Logistics helps get the supplies from the factory to a secure warehouse in Shanghai near the airport where they can be stored while the company works on customs clearance.
This is where the near shut-down of international travel that is crippling global airlines actually helps Canada. There is a sudden glut of planes and pilots available to fly and maintain a critical air bridge for medical supplies.
Ottawa has arranged for future supply flights
The first two flights organized as part of this effort arrived in Toronto on April 1 and April 6, delivering a resupply of personal protective equipment. The April 6 flight arrived with about eight million surgical masks ordered by the federal government, and other orders made directly by the governments of Nova Scotia and Quebec.
The federal government has secured an arrangement with Air Canada and Cargojet to run more supply flights from China once Bolloré Logistics has enough supplies in the warehouse ready to go.
The Cargojet flight that landed in Hamilton was the most recent delivery. Air Canada is due to send planes to Shanghai this week to deliver additional shipments.
The plan is for the number of flights to grow as the supply chain in China is able to deliver more supplies. Airlines are working to be ready to meet the demand.
On April 7, Air Canada’s Vice President of Flight Operations Murray Strom issued an internal call for pilots to volunteer for special flight assignments to support this effort.
“The government of Canada has requested Air Canada provide emergency airlift capabilities to operate cargo-only flights” from Shanghai to Canada, Strom wrote to his pilots in a memo obtained by CBC News.
Strom specifically asked pilots trained to fly Boeing 777s and 787s to step up — suggesting there could be as many as four daily flights travelling to Shanghai via Japan.
“This operation will require a lot of pilots over the next seven to 10 days to assist both Canada and our airline to make this happen,” Strom wrote.
“These are truly unique times we are going through, but we all need to be willing to do our part to assist our fellow Canadians who are going through some very tough times.”
Air Canada boosts cargo capacity
On Saturday Air Canada publicly announced that it was boosting its cargo capacity by stripping the seats out of three of its enormous Boeing 777 aircraft to double their cargo capacity.
“Bringing critical medical and other vital supplies rapidly to Canada and helping distribute them across the country is imperative to combating the COVID-19 crisis,” Tim Strauss, vice-president of cargo at Air Canada, said in a statement.
It is a significant ramping up of air cargo capacity. But it’s backstopping a still-fragile supply chain in a time of great stress. To further reduce risk, Canada is buying from as many Chinese factories as possible so it doesn’t become reliant on a single operator.
The idea is to reduce the exposure from having a manufacturing line bought out by a rival country or being left vulnerable due to a sudden drop in quality from a specific supplier.
“These supply chains are complex,” Anand said on April 7. “But we are taking every effort to make sure that we get those goods back to Canada and in the hands of front-line health-care workers.”
The global procurements are part of what Public Services and Procurement Canada calls an “aggressive approach” to getting PPE for front-line workers, including bulk-buying for the provinces and scaling up domestic manufacturing capacity. Provinces and territories are also taking steps to build their own inventory of supplies.
“We are exploring all options for securing the necessary equipment and supplies to fight COVID-19, through both domestic and international supply chains, to ensure that front-line health-care workers across the country are equipped and protected in the fight against COVID-19,” spokesperson Michèle LaRose said in an email.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-building-own-ppe-supply-chain-in-china-1.5530259
The Coronavirus Confirms Who Our Friends – And Enemies – Are
Take heed, America, and remember this when the crisis passes.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times – although right now it just seems like the worst of times, with the world stricken either by the Chinese coronavirus itself (that’s right, I called it Chinese) or by the media-fanned panic about it. But a silver lining of any crisis, perceived or real, is that it swiftly reveals who one’s friends really are – whom you can trust when the chips are down – and that is a vital lesson for Americans to take to heart.
Conversely, of course, a crisis also exposes who one’s enemies are, and that may be an even more valuable lesson to digest. Whom has the coronavirus pandemic shown to be the enemies of the American people? Let us run down the list.
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/coronavirus-confirms-who-our-friends-%E2%80%93-and-enemies-mark-tapson
How Racist is COVID-19?
The Left’s twisted fantasy world vs. reality.
April 13, 2020
Lloyd Billingsley
“America Set up Black Communities to be Harder hit by COVID-19,” ran the headline of an April 8 article in The Verge by “science reporter” Justine Calma. “The COVID-19 pandemic is piling on top of a litany of health inequalities in America to kill a disproportionate number of African Americans,” Calma contends, citing Chicago, where African Americans are about 30 percent of the population but “more than half” the coronavirus cases and “about 70 percent of those who have died of the disease.”
“Black People Are Dying From COVID-19 at Higher Rates Because Racism Is a Preexisting Condition,” headlined an April 9 Mother Jones piece by Edwin Rios. He cites Dr. Camara Jones, an epidemiologist who worked at the Centers for Disease Control, that “this disproportionate effect is a social issue in the guise of an epidemiological one.” More basically, “what the COVID-19 pandemic is unveiling is the structural racism.” Black people dying more frequently in the pandemic is “an impact of racism,” and the coronavirus itself could be racist.
“The coronavirus entered Milwaukee from a white, affluent suburb. Then it took root in the city’s black community and erupted,” proclaim Akila Johnson and Talia Buford in their April 3 ProPublica piece. African Americans made up almost half of Milwaukee County’s 945 cases, the authors say, and 81 percent of its 27 deaths in a county whose population is 26 percent black, all part of the “disproportionate destruction” on black communities nationwide.
https://cms.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/04/how-racist-covid-19-lloyd-billingsley
NYU scientists: Largest US study of COVID-19 finds obesity the single biggest ‘chronic’ factor in New York City’s hospitalizations
Doctors at NYU Langone Health center conducted the largest study so far of US hospital admissions for COVID-19, focused on New York City. They found obesity, along with age, was the biggest deciding factor in hospital admissions, which may suggest the role of hyper-inflammatory reactions that can happen in those with the disease.
[Correction: The headline of the article has been changed to reflect that obesity is the single most important “chronic” factor, as opposed to age, and the article has been updated to reflect the fact that age is still the single biggest factor determining admissions.]
For months, scientists have been poring over data about cases and deaths to understand why it is that COVID-19 manifests itself in different ways around the globe, with certain factors such as the age of the population repeatedly popping up as among the most significant determinants.
Now, one of the largest studies conducted of COVID-19 infection in the US has found that obesity of patients was the single biggest factor, after age, in whether those with COVID-19 had to be admitted to a hospital.
“The chronic condition with the strongest association with critical illness was obesity, with a substantially higher odds ratio than any cardiovascular or pulmonary disease,” write lead author Christopher M. Petrilli of the NYU Grossman School and colleagues in a paper, “Factors associated with hospitalization and critical illness among 4,103 patients with COVID-19 disease in New York City,” which was posted April 11 on the medRxiv pre-print server. (The paper has not been peer-reviewed, which should be kept in mind in considering its conclusions.)
Among other things, the presence of obesity in the study points to a potentially important role of heightened inflammation in patients — a phenomenon that has been a topic of much speculation in numerous studies of the disease.
Petrilli and colleagues at the Grossman School, along with doctors at the NYU Langone Health center, studied the electronic patient records of 4,103 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 in the New York City healthcare system between March 1 and April 2.
It is “the largest case series from the United States to date,” write Petrilli and colleagues.
The motivation of the work, they write, was that “understanding which patients are most at risk for hospitalization is crucial for many reasons,” such as how to triage patients and how to anticipate medical needs.
Half of those patients were admitted to a hospital. What the researchers found is that “in the decision tree for admission, the most important features were age >65 and obesity.”
Obesity, in this case, was measured as weight relative to a person’s height. The authors use a metric scale, so a body mass index of 30 and higher is considered obese.
The “decision tree,” which is shown in the illustration above, refers to the statistical method they used to analyze the patient data. A decision tree is a way to group members of a sample based on their shared characteristics. “For a given population, the decision tree classification method splits the population into two groups using one feature at a time, starting with the feature that maximizes the split between groups relative to the outcome in question.” They keep splitting groups into smaller and smaller groups until they arrive at groups that “[have] similar characteristics and outcomes.”
Note that in the decision tree, age is the initial determining factor, at the top of the tree, followed by obesity. Hence, obesity is the most significant “chronic” factor, leaving aside age. The authors had to make decisions about the splits in data at different branching points in the tree. For example, there are two buckets for age just below obesity, one being “Age 20 – 44” and another being “Age>35.”
As co-author Leora Horwitz told ZDNet in an email, “the algorithm found age 35 and age group 20-44 as the most important features that increase the information gain the most, respectively.”
Bear in mind that age still functions as the biggest overall single determinant. “Age is far and away the strongest risk factor for hospitalization, dwarfing the importance of obesity,” Horwitz told ZDNet in email.“Obesity is the most important of the chronic conditions when considering all such conditions simultaneously.”
Others have made reference to obesity in conjunction with COVID-19, to a greater or lesser extent, but without the data of the NYU group.
Writing in The Lancet on March 31st, RNA virus researcher Gregory Poland summed-up the conditions aggravating the COVID-19 situation globally: “We have an increasingly older age demographic across virtually all countries, as well as unprecedented rates of obesity, smoking, diabetes, and heart and lung disease, and an ever-growing population of people who are immunocompromised—all comorbidities that lead to significantly higher risks of severe disease and death from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).”
And Drs. David S. Ludwig and Richard Malley of Boston Children’s Hospital wrote in The New York Times on March 30 that Americans’ risk from the virus is compounded by the fact that they are generally “too diseased.”
“The huge burden of obesity and other chronic conditions among Americans puts most of us at direct risk,” they wrote. “In fact, with obesity rates in the US much higher than affected countries like South Korea and China, our outcomes — economic- and health-wise — could be much worse.”
But what does it mean for obesity to show up as the big deciding factor for hospitalization?
Obesity is generally known to be associated with inflammation. As the NYU authors observe, “Obesity is well-recognized to be a pro-inflammatory condition.” They focus on the inflammation aspect because it has been cited in several studies as being a possible factor in COVID-19, in particular, inflammations that seem to be in a hyper-activated state. But it’s not entirely clear what role it plays.
“Hyperinflammatory states are well described in severe sepsis,” the authors note, “however, the degree to which COVID-19 related inflammation is similar to or different than that typically found in sepsis is unknown.”
Without drawing conclusions, they note that previous studies have shown that patients with COVID-19 have displayed blood clotting, or “hypercoagulability,” in the form of thrombosis and embolisms.
The authors suggest that inflammation could be explored further in another study. “We did not have inflammatory markers available for non-hospitalized patients; it is possible that these would have been strong predictors for hospitalization risk as well if available.”
All this is from just one geography, and so its utility may be limited, the authors acknowledge, stating, “factors associated with poor outcomes may differ elsewhere.”
Given the scale of the outbreak in New York City — the city has had 98,715 confirmed cases as of April 12 and 6,367 deaths, according to data from Johns Hopkins — New York City is becoming its own field of study.
For example, the same day as the NYU group, scientists at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai reported the results of an extensive study of the genome of the virus among New York City cases. What they found was both a melting pot, as it were, of strains of the virus, and peculiar local differences.
“We find that New York City, as an international hub, provides not only a snapshot of the diversity of disease-causing SARS-CoV-2 at the global level but also informs on the dynamics of the pandemic at the local level,” write the authors.
That suggests the kinds of clinical data found by the NYU researchers may at some point be combined with genetic data and other factors as scientists look at more and more factors and dig deeper into the nature of the disease.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/nyu-scientists-largest-u-s-study-of-covid-19-finds-obesity-the-single-biggest-factor-in-new-york-critical-cases/
What Coronavirus Could Mean for China
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: States all over the world stand to lose a great deal economically from the coronavirus pandemic. But in the case of China, there is an additional significant dimension to the crisis: the West will grow increasingly distrustful of Beijing, which will further widen an already gaping geopolitical divide. Calls in the West for an economic decoupling from China as well as increasing demands that Beijing comply with Western economic, health, and political standards could complicate China’s global aspirations.
Economic troubles
The coronavirus pandemic will undoubtedly have an impact on China’s economy. Consider, for example, the US-China trade deal, the first phase of which took effect in February. That phase stipulates that Beijing will have to buy an additional $200 billion in US goods over the next two years. Though the Chinese government has said the country will comply with this requirement, it remains to be seen whether Beijing will be able to follow through on this and other commitments contained in the deal.
There is also concern in the US that the second phase of trade negotiations with China will be delayed. This would have a negative effect on Washington-Beijing relations, which could in turn have global repercussions.
twitter @ladyGaga
Hi @JustinTrudeau
— thanks for funding @CEPIvaccines , the @UN appeal, and for all CA is doing to stop #COVID19 and #PlankTheCurve.
Will Canada give new funds to @Gavi to deliver vaccines and save lives in the poorest countries?
We’re all in this together as #GlobalCitizens.
https://twitter.com/ladygaga/status/1249742464094633984
EXCLUSIVE: Canadian Armed Forces requires all personnel to stop using gendered pronouns
In a new policy change, the Canadian Armed Forces will no longer be using gendered pronouns in official reports.
Documents obtained by conservative commentator Aaron Gunn and presented to The Post Millennial reveal that military personnel are no longer allowed to write he or she, but must replace it with they/them pronouns, regardless of an individual’s preferred pronouns.
Issued via Canadian Forces General Message, these changes that deprive a person of their sex based identity in writing are meant to encourage gender diversity. In reports on personnel, no superior will be allowed to use pronouns that designate or refer to a person’s biological sex. The notice reads:
“Based on a recent CAF cultural and normative shift to promote gender diversity and associated inclusiveness, CFPAS [Canadian Forces Personnel Appraisal System] writing policy and guide will also reflect this new reality where sex, gender identity, and gender expression are prohibited grounds of discrimination under the Canadian Human Rights Act. Forthwith the use of gender pronouns such as quote he/his and she/her unquote are not to be used when drafting pers. Members will be referred to by rank and name or by using gender-neutral pronouns such as they/their.”
In practice, superiors, who are required to write personnel reports for those who serve under them, will not be allowed to use the pronouns of that person’s choosing if they identify as male or female and use sex-based pronouns. Instead, everyone will be referred to with the accepted gender neutral, plural pronouns of “they, their, them.”
It is not yet known how Canadian Armed Forces personnel will react to the deprivation of their sex-based identity in their personnel documents. It is currently not clear what the consequences may be for officials who do not follow the new protocol.
In 2016, Bill C-16 was passed amending the Canadian Human Rights Act. It added gender expression to the list of groups that are protected from discrimination, as well as adjusting hate speech and hate crime laws to include protections for gender expression.
While use of preferred pronouns have been considered a necessary element of the promotion and inclusion of gender diversity, this change by the CAF is the first time that preferred pronouns are being officially discounted in favour of a catch-all, gender neutral pronoun system.
https://www.thepostmillennial.com/canadian-armed-forces-requires-all-personnel-to-stop-using-gendered-pronouns
Coronavirus: A French Disaster
by Guy Millière
On April 9, in France, one of the three European countries most affected by COVID-19 — the others being Spain and Italy, 1,341 people died from the Chinese Communist Party virus. For Italy, the main European country affected so far, the figure on April 9 was 610 deaths; for Spain 446, and for Germany 266. While the pandemic has been stabilizing in Italy and Spain — and in Germany seems contained — in France it seems still expanding.
Extremely bad decisions taken by the authorities created a situation of contagion more destructive than it should have been.
The first bad decision was that, in contrast to European Union fantasies, borders apparently do matter. France never closed them; instead it allowed large numbers of potential virus-carriers to enter the country. Even when it became clear that in Italy the pandemic was taking on catastrophic proportions, France’s border with Italy remained open. The Italian government, by contrast, on March 10, prohibited French people coming to its territory or Italians going to France, but to date, France has put no controls on its side of the border.
The situation is the same on France’s border with Spain, despite the terrifying situation there. Since March 17, it has been virtually impossible to go from France to Spain, but coming to France from Spain is easy: you just show a police officer your ID. The same goes for France’s border with Germany. On March 16, Germany closed its border with France, but France declined to do the same for its border with Germany. When, on February 26, a soccer match between a French team and an Italian team took place in Lyon, the third-largest city in France, 3,000 Italian supporters attended, even though patients were already flocking to Italy’s hospitals.
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15880/coronavirus-france-disaster
Should the US “Cooperate with China” to Fight Coronavirus?
Northernmost china prepares for 2nd wave | NTD
New Study: Three Types of Virus Spreading | NTD
Turkey Thwarts Infiltration of 5 ‘Terrorists’ from Syria
https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/2231776/turkey-thwarts-infiltration-5-terrorists-syria
“Turkish security services thwarted the infiltration of five “terrorists” from Syria to the Mardin border state in southeastern Turkey.
“The armed forces and Gendarmerie Command squads in Mardin province launched technical and physical surveillance upon receiving intelligence from the National Intelligence Organization (MIT),” read a statement by the Mardin governor’s office.
According to the statement, the MIT warned that five terrorists would cross from Syria to carry out a bombing in Turkey. Security forces intercepted them as they were trying to illegally enter the Senyurt neighborhood in Kiziltepe district near the Syrian border.
They managed to escape, leaving behind all the material they were going to use in their attacks.
Fifteen kilograms of explosives, 9,200 Syrian pounds ($18), four SIM cards, nine batteries, three improvised and six electronic detonators were found among other materials, the statement added.
Turkish security forces had raised the alert level along the border areas following a terrorist operation targeting Turkish forces at Dogubayazit town, near the Gurbulak border gate with Iran, on March 31.
The attack damaged a natural gas pipeline and halted gas flows from Iran to Turkey, and left 30 Turkish soldiers dead and destroyed 30 armored vehicles.
The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) claimed responsibility for the attack, which was carried out by a suicide bomber.”
Chinese dams held back Mekong waters during drought, study finds
China’s Mekong River dams held back large amounts of water during a damaging drought in downstream countries last year despite China having higher-than-average water levels upstream, a U.S. research company said in a study.
China’s government disputed the findings, saying there was low rainfall during last year’s monsoon season on its portion of the 4,350-km (2,700-mile) river. The findings by Eyes on Earth Inc., a research and consulting company specializing in water, published in a U.S.-government funded study, could complicate tricky discussions between China and other Mekong countries on how to manage the river that supports 60 million people as it flows past Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and through Cambodia and Vietnam.
Last year’s drought, which saw the Lower Mekong at its lowest levels in more than 50 years, devastated farmers and fishermen and saw the massive river recede to expose sandbanks along some stretches and at others turned from its usual murky brown to bright blue because waters were so shallow. “If the Chinese are stating that they were not contributing to the drought, the data does not support that position,” said Alan Basist, a meteorologist and president of Eyes on Earth, which conducted the study with funding from the U.S. State Department’s Lower Mekong Initiative.
https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/headlines/1005486-chinese-dams-held-back-mekong-waters-during-drought-study-finds
Peshmerga: Daesh formed new courts and imposed royalties in Iraq
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200413-peshmerga-daesh-formed-new-courts-and-imposed-royalties-in-iraq/
“Minister of Kurdistan Regional Guard Brigades in northern Iraq, Shoresh Ismail, said on Sunday that the terrorist group Daesh had formed new courts and re-imposed royalties on civilians in areas which lack the presence of security forces.
On Tuesday, Daesh militants launched an attack on the Peshmerga forces in the Koljo district of the Sulaymaniyah Governorate, killing two Peshmerga members.
“The terrorist group Daesh has rearranged its ranks in areas where there is a security vacuum, especially the disputed-over areas between Erbil and Baghdad,” added Ismail in a statement to reporters on the sidelines of his visit to the same district on the outskirts of Sulaymaniyah Governorate.
Ismail expressed his regret for not being able to coordinate with the Iraqi forces, which “has created a perfect opportunity for the group to re-emerge in those areas.”
He stressed that Daesh “has imposed royalties and reconstituted courts and to penalise people. It has also received support from some parties and managed to provide financial compensations to its fighters.”
The minister also pointed out that there is cooperation between the Peshmerga forces and local citizens and it will be expanded so that the security forces and citizens can reach a stage where they can confront the risks facing this region.
In recent months, Daesh militants have increased their attacks in the region extending between the Governorates of Kirkuk, Saladin (north) and Diyala (east); an area known as the “Triangle of Death.”
In 2017, Iraq declared victory over Daesh after taking back its entire territory, which was estimated to be about one-third of the country’s total area invaded by Daesh in the summer of 2014. The group still maintains sleeping cells in large areas of Iraq and continues to launch frequent attacks in several areas.”
Turkish forces storm Syria protest camp on strategic Idlib highway
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/4/13/turkish-forces-storm-protest-camp-on-strategic-syrian-highway
“Turkish forces in Syria’s Idlib province raided a protest camp on the M4 highway, Monday morning, after activists attempted to disrupt patrols along the strategically significant thoroughfare.
The protesters have been trying to prevent Russian vehicles – allied to Bashar Al-Assad – from passing along the road, which connects the regime-held cities of Aleppo and Latakia and cuts through rebel-held Idlib province.
Under a ceasefire deal reached by Ankara and Moscow in early March, Russian vehicles are permitted to patrol along the M4 road.
Videos published by Syrian activists on Twitter on Monday showed soldiers and police in Turkish uniforms confronting the protesters, who responded by throwing stones…”
Russia sends former Syria rebels to fight for Haftar against one-time comrades
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/4/13/russia-sends-syrian-mercenaries-to-libyan-warlord-haftar
“Hundreds of former Syrian rebels have travelled to Libya to fight for rogue General Khalifa Haftar against the internationally-recognised Tripoli government, a leading Syria analyst has said on Twitter.
Sources told The New Arab’s Arabic-language service that the Russian private security firm Wagner Group has been training former Syrian rebel fighters at the Assad regime’s “18th unit” camp, eastern Homs province, in preparation for their departure to Libya.
Hundreds of Russian and East European mercenaries from the Wagner Group have fought for Haftar against the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA).
The sources said that most of the ex-rebel fighters were from Quneitra in southwestern Syria, and that all of them had previously been wanted by the regime for taking part in the anti-government uprising.
Some had received an amnesty after opposition areas in southern Syria were overrun by regime and Russian forces in 2018, but were expected to fight for Assad.
The sources said that Syrian regime intelligence had helped recruit the ex-rebels for the Wagner Group.
The Syrian opposition media group Horan Free Media quoted a source close to one of the ex-rebels as saying that “officers in the Syrian regime’s military intelligence as well as the mayors of villages and towns in [Quneitra] province began to recruit young men about a month ago for the Wagner Group”.
They will be given a salary of $1,000 a month, clemency from the regime for their role in the anti-Assad uprising, and an exemption from compulsary military service in the regime army.
The source added that the ex-rebel fighters would work protecting oil installations belonging to Russia on Haftar-controlled territory in Libya for a period of three months.
Russia and Turkey have backed opposing sides in the Libyan conflict, with the latter supporting the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord.
Last January, Turkey deployed 2,000 fighters from the “Syrian National Army” militia to Libya, to fight on the side of the GNA against Haftar.
Elizabeth Tsurkov, a Syria researcher, said that approximately 350 rebels from Syria’s Quneitra province had been transported by Russia to Libya to fight for the Haftar.
His forces are taking part in an offensive in the Libyan capital Tripoli since last year.
In March, the unrecognised eastern Libya-based “authority” allied to Haftar established diplomatic relations with the Assad regime and signed a memorandum of understanding pledging to work together against “Turkish interference”.
There have been fears that foreign mercenaries fighting in Libya could help accelerate the spread of coronavirus in the war-torn North African country.”
Indonesia village uses ghosts to spook locals into coronaovirus lockdown
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/4/13/indonesia-uses-ghosts-to-spook-citizens-into-coronaovirus-lockdown
“Activists in one Indonesia village have found a novel way to enforce a semi-official coronavirus lockdown.
Taking advantage of widespread fears about ghosts, volunteers have deployed spirits to haunt the streets of a superstitious village on Java island, Reuters has reported.
The small army of ghosts have been largely successful in keeping villagers indoors, as local authorities encourage citizens to practice social distancing to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The white shrouded figures are known to pounce on unsuspected villagers who break the nightime curfew in Kepuh.
Despite fears about the recent sightings of ghostly apparitions, the figures are anything but supernatural.
“We wanted to be different and create a deterrent effect because ‘pocong’ are spooky and scary,” Anjar Pancaningtyas told the news agency…”
Over 100,000 Syrians in Idlib border camps return to their homes
https://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/over-100-000-syrians-in-idlib-border-camps-return-to-their-homes-153805
“Hundreds and thousands of displaced Syrians have started to return to their homes in war-ravaged Idlib province, after the cease-fire was ensured in the province, according to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency.
Mohamed al-Hallaj, director of the Response Coordinators Team, told Anadolu Agency that over 100,000 Syrians, who were staying at camps, returned to their homes.
“Over 1 million civilians were displaced since last October. After around 40 days following the cease-fire, some 109,714 civilians, from about 19,500 families, returned to their settlements in Idlib, and its rural parts, and rural Aleppo,” Hallaj said.
About one million Syrians fled Idlib and its surrounding countryside in northwest Syria this past year after Russian-backed regime forces stepped up a campaign to retake the last rebel stronghold after nine years of war.
Fighting has calmed since March when Ankara, which backs some groups opposed to Bashar al-Assad, agreed to a ceasefire with Moscow, which has supported Damascus with heavy airpower.
Hallaj said that the Assad regime, and regime forces supported by Iran-backed militias, captures civilian settlement by their ground offensives, leaving no choice for other civilians, who are living in camps, to stay where they currently are.
The civilians who do not want to go back to areas, controlled by the regime, will continue to reside in camps near the Turkish border, according to Hallaj.
The civilians who are leaving the camps, are going towards areas cleared by Turkey’s Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations, Hallaj said.
“More civilians will return to their homes as aircrafts do not take off and attack,” he said.”
“WATCH: Full Video of Trump Exposing Media With Their Own Words”
The National Pulse – Staff Writer – April 13, 2020
https://thenationalpulse.com/news/trump-exposing-media-own-video-words/
“Trump Trolls Media With Their Own Words at Press Briefing”
Raheem Kassam – April 13, 2020
twitter @DailyCaller
This is the supercut video President Trump just played during the coronavirus briefing.
It includes clips of MSNBC and CNN pundits downplaying coronavirus,
@maggieNYT defending his China travel ban, and Govs. Cuomo and Newsom praising his administration’s response.
https://twitter.com/DailyCaller/status/1249824813989978113
Trump unloads on press in response to Fauci tweet, media coverage
DAILY MAIL – WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange fathered two children inside the Ecuadorian embassy with lawyer, 37, who fell in love with him while helping his fight against extradition to the US
Stella Morris fell in love with Assange five years ago while visiting him
She is South-African born lawyer and changed name from Sara Gonzalez Devant
The couple have been engaged since 2017 and relationship began in 2015
She first visited him while working on legal bid to halt extraditions to the US
First child, Gabriel, was conceived in 2016 before the couple’s engagement
Couple believe US intelligence agencies tried stealing son’s DNA from his nappy
Miss Morris had second son, Max, in February 2019, with birth filmed on a GoPro
Assange was visited in prison by both sons, when Max was three months old
Julian Assange secretly fathered two sons while holed up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, The Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Gabriel, aged two, and his one-year-old brother Max were conceived while their father was hiding out to avoid extradition to America, where he faces espionage charges over the leaking of thousands of classified US intelligence documents.
At the time, Assange, 48, was also wanted in Sweden where he was accused of rape. He has always denied the sex allegations, which have now been dropped.
The boys’ mother is 37-year-old South African-born lawyer Stella Morris, who fell in love with the controversial WikiLeaks founder five years ago while visiting him to work on a legal bid to halt the extraditions.
At the time that Gabriel was conceived in 2016, Assange had been inside the embassy, close to Harrods, for four years and was believed to be under constant surveillance by American security services.
However, a round-the-clock policing operation by Scotland Yard had been withdrawn following a public backlash over the spiralling £13.2 million cost.
It is understood the couple also managed to keep their relationship and the birth of their children secret from Ecuadorian diplomats and officials who had given Assange refuge.
Australian-born Assange is currently being held at the high-security Belmarsh Prison.
He has been there since last April when police dragged him from the embassy following a seven-year stand-off.
The revelation about his secret family emerged last week in court papers, seen by The Mail on Sunday, about the US extradition case and an attempt by Assange to secure bail as Covid-19 sweeps through the prison population.
Now, in a world exclusive interview, Miss Morris reveals how:
Assange watched both children being born in London hospitals via live video link and met Gabriel when he was smuggled into the embassy;
They believe American intelligence agencies tried to steal Gabriel’s DNA from a nappy after becoming suspicious that Assange was his father;
The couple will marry behind bars unless Assange is released;
Both boys, who are British citizens, have visited their father in prison;
The Duchess of Beaufort, the former actress Tracy Ward, and British rapper M.I.A are the children’s godmothers.
The news will come as a bombshell to Assange’s friends and enemies since he was widely understood to have led a near-monastic life since entering the embassy in 2012.
Instead, as The Mail on Sunday’s exclusive pictures show, he was a hands-on father, playing with his baby son under the noses of his increasingly hostile Ecuadorian hosts and the 24-hour a day scrutiny of US intelligence agencies.
Miss Morris is revealing their long-term relationship and the existence of their sons because she fears Assange’s life is at serious risk if he remains in Belmarsh, where one inmate has already died of Covid-19.
She is pleading for her fiance to be released under Government plans to free thousands of prisoners to quell the spread of the deadly virus between bars.
Miss Morris says Assange is doubly vulnerable because he suffers from a chronic lung condition exacerbated by his years inside the embassy and has mental health issues which become more severe as a result of isolation.
She said last night: ‘I love Julian deeply and I am looking forward to marrying him.
‘Over the past five years I have discovered that love makes the most intolerable circumstances seem bearable but this is different – I am now terrified I will not see him alive again.
‘Julian has been fiercely protective of me and has done his best to shield me from the nightmares of his life.
‘I have lived quietly and privately, raising Gabriel and Max on my own and longing for the day we could be together as a family.
‘Now I have to speak out because I can see that his life is on the brink.
‘Julian’s poor physical health puts him at serious risk, like many other vulnerable people, and I don’t believe he will survive infection with coronavirus.
‘Mentally, I do not think he will survive further enforced isolation either.
‘He is effectively in solitary confinement, in a cell for up for 23 and a half hours a day with no access to us, his family, or the psychiatric help he needs.’
Yesterday marked exactly a year since Assange was evicted from the embassy where he had been given political asylum, putting him beyond the reach of America.
The US wants him in court to face 17 charges under the Espionage Act and one of conspiracy to commit computer intrusion.
All relate to the leak of 700,000 classified documents handed to WikiLeaks by former US intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning (then Bradley Manning) in 2010.
Washington says the leak endangered the lives of American agents and their sources working in the field. If found guilty, he could face 175 years in prison.
It is understood that Assange’s right to a family life with Miss Morris, a Swedish national who has lived and worked here for almost 20 years, and his two British-born children, will play a part in WikiLeaks’ legal bid to keep him in the UK.
For the past decade, Assange’s legal, political and diplomatic imbroglio has dominated the headlines, as has speculation about his links to celebrity supporters such as Baywatch actress Pamela Anderson.
Now it seems the flirtatious gossip disguised the fact he was in a committed relationship with a member of his own legal team.
Miss Morris first met Assange in 2011 for a cup of tea at London’s Frontline Club, a popular media and legal haunt, when her friend Jennifer Robinson, WikiLeaks’ lawyer, put out a request for help fighting the Swedish claims.
Miss Morris had an international upbringing with her theatre director mother and urban planner father.
The family spent time in Sweden meaning she was a fluent Swedish speaker, able to help defend Assange against the allegations, which were rescinded last year.
She is also a fluent Spanish speaker, a skill which would become equally critical when Assange sought asylum in a South American embassy the following year.
She has a degree in law and politics from London’s prestigious School of Oriental and African Studies and took her MSc at Oxford where she was a noted scholar.
She became a member of Assange’s inner circle in the embassy, officially changing her name from Sara Gonzalez Devant to Stella Morris so she could maintain a lower profile while researching and drafting legal documents for WikiLeaks.
She said: ‘At the beginning it was a working relationship. I was in the embassy every day and Julian became a friend.
‘Over the years he went from being a person I enjoyed seeing to the man I wanted to see most in the world.
‘His public image is not what I fell in love with, it’s the real person behind it.
‘He is a generous and tender and loving partner. Our relationship began early in 2015.
‘Despite all the public attention we managed to carve a space for a private life and, because it was serious for both of us, we began to look ahead to our years together after the embassy.
‘He asked me to marry him in 2017 and I chose a diamond ring, which I showed him online, that we both loved. We even hoped we’d find a way of marrying in the embassy.
‘We wanted a family and we lamented the impossibility of having a baby, given our situation. It felt like a tragedy for us.
‘We talked about it many times and then Julian said, “People take difficult decisions in difficult situations and we will manage”.
‘The best way I can describe it is by saying it was like being in a war zone and that in wars people can and do fall in love despite everything.
‘Being in love, getting engaged, having children while he was in the embassy, it was an act of rebellion.
‘Also, at the time that we started trying for a baby, it seemed that life was set to change for the better for Julian.
‘The United Nations were supporting him, we thought he would not be prosecuted by the Americans, and it would only be a matter of time before he was free.
‘We could see a future in which we’d be an ordinary family.’
Both Assange and Miss Morris were overjoyed to discover that she was pregnant but she went through her antenatal care alone.
‘It was lonely, challenging,’ she admits, adding that she smuggled scans of their unborn son into the embassy to share with Assange.
‘She gave birth, having been induced, in a London hospital and took Gabriel to meet his father when he was just a week old.
‘Seeing Julian holding his child made all the madness of his existence fade,’ she says.
‘Julian brought up his oldest son, mostly on his own, from when he was a toddler to adulthood so his default mode as a father is hands-on.
‘He’s warm, easygoing and, above all, proud. Our boys are happy children, they love seeing their daddy’s face and hearing his voice.’
Miss Morris feared the American security agencies watching Assange would be suspicious of her pregnancy and newborn baby.
She tried to disguise her bump in billowing clothes and then, when Gabriel was born, he was carried in and out of the embassy in the arms of a friend who passed the child off as his own.
Miss Morris would always take care to arrive either before or after her son.
In January 2018, a guard working for the Spanish security firm manning the embassy warned her of a plot to steal one of Gabriel’s nappies to secure his DNA and test his paternity.
‘Out of disgust, he decided to tell me what he had been asked to do,’ Miss Morris says.
‘He had been given instructions to follow me outside the embassy and steal our baby’s nappy from inside it so they could analyse the DNA.
He warned me not to bring the baby into the embassy again.
‘I was nauseous. I knew there was spying but this felt ruthless, as if there were no boundaries.
‘It wasn’t just an invasion of Gabriel’s privacy, it made me think he wasn’t safe.
‘It’s hard to talk about it without sounding like it was some insane plot but that is the reality of Julian’s world. It can be a sinister place.’
Despite their concerns, the couple decided to have a second child.
Miss Morris became pregnant with Max but as her pregnancy progressed, a new Ecuadorian government became hostile to Assange, banning visitors and curtailing his telephone and online access.
She was unable to see him from November 2018 until after Max arrived in February last year.
Assange did not meet his newest son until May when Miss Morris was allowed into Belmarsh with both boys.
By then intimate footage of Max’s birth, shot on a GoPro camera by a friend, had been seized by the US along with Assange’s legal documents from his quarters inside the embassy.
‘The first time Julian saw Max he’d been held in isolation and his mental health was already suffering,’ she says.
‘But as Max dozed in his father’s arms there was this tiny glimpse of normality for us all.
‘Even so, seeing Julian in prison is very jarring and my heart sinks that I have to take my little ones to visit their father in there.
‘It’s not something I envisioned when we started our family. There’s nothing I regret – but I want my boys to have their father back.’
Miss Morris is currently living with extended family in London.
She is being supported by Assange’s mother Christine Assange and his father John Shipton, who are both delighted by their new grandchildren.
Mrs Assange has described them as ‘bringing joy and light to our darkest hours’.
The boys’ godmothers are also helping.
Oscar and Grammy-nominated singer M.I.A is Gabriel’s godmother, while former actress Tracy Ward, now the activist aristocrat Tracy Somerset, Duchess of Beaufort, is Max’s.
At present Miss Morris, like all family members of prisoners, is banned from visiting because of Covid-19.
She is anxious that Assange is also unable to see his legal team or prepare for his extradition hearing next month.
‘For a long time I have feared I will lose Julian to suicide if there is no way in which he can stop his extradition to the US,’ she says.
‘I now fear I may lose him for different reasons, and sooner, to the virus. He doesn’t have a voice at present but I do. That’s why I am using it.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8210957/WikiLeaks-boss-Julian-Assange-fathered-two-children-inside-Ecuadorian-embassy-lawyer.html
test 01
“The people of Ohio protesting the Lockdown. Wow! WATCH THIS h/t @EricaClements”
Patrick Howley – April 13, 2020 – Twitter
https://twitter.com/HowleyReporter/status/1249810542728019968
“BREAKING: Ohio residents protesting #Coronavirus lockdown at state capitol.”
The HighWire with Del Bigtree – Streamed live 6 hours ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhrzisFfuEE
“Boris is back and Feeling Better!!”
Wintrell – April 13, 2020