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.
Trey Gowdy’s compelling argument on stay-at-home orders
Some state and local governments are being accused of trampling on Americans’ constitutional rights as they attempt to mitigate the spread of COVID-19; reaction from Fox News contributor Trey Gowdy, former chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
SOMETHING IS FISHY IN CHINA
video – 5 mins 18 secs
As of last week, some are reporting that virus has recently hit Beijing but it’s kept quiet.
Something fishy about that one. It should have hit much earlier such as when Lunar Festival ended.
IMO, the virus did hit Beijing via Wuhan to Beijing travel but travelers were quietly isolated or whatever as of 3rd week of January.
Normalcy bias, or abnormalcy recognition?
Not acting on a real threat, either by adapting to it or by fleeing from it, is most likely to be attributed to the paralysis brought on by normalcy bias:
Normalcy bias is a psychological state of denial people enter in the event of a disaster, as a result of which they underestimate the possibility of the disaster actually happening, and its effects on their life and property. Their denial is based on the assumption that if the disaster has not occurred until now, it will never occur.
Abnormalcy recognition is to be red-pilled, recognizing that which is not right, ie. the normalization of Islam or communist thinking and threats. Those who are biased to their status quos think the red-pilled are extreme crazies, when in fact such people simply have not been seduced by feel-good narratives and outright lies.
Acting on one’s abnormalcy recognition is another matter. This takes guts. People may question your sanity. I supposed the sanity of some red-pilled red heads who ran west, before the Nazis killed, was questioned, in a famous example.
In a money sense, it seems as if we are at a similar time in history. Disregard at your peril. Beware the loss in confidence in your fiat currency, whatever country you are reading this from. Buy physical silver or gold if you can from a reputable source.
https://www.goldmoney.com/research/goldmoney-insights/anatomy-of-a-fiat-currency-collapse
Coronavirus Began in Chinese Lab? US Investigates
Chance of Resurgence in China is Very High – Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding
“LA Mayor Accepts $5 Mil from Islamic Terror State”
by Daniel Greenfield – April 24, 2020
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2020/04/la-mayor-accepts-5-mil-islamic-terror-state-daniel-greenfield/
“Dr. Graves Slams Dr. Fauci & Attack on Liberty Amid COVID19” The New American Video – April 22, 2020
Exclusive: China’s early CCP virus prep;CCP pushes propaganda in response to calls of accountability
#CCPvirus #Wuhan #Coronavirus
Fixed residence to enter Harbin | CCP Virus | COVID-19 | Coronavirus
1,840 views
•Apr 25, 2020
Muslims in Indonesia mark Ramadan amid unprecedented COVID-19 lockdown
COVID-19 cases in India surpass 23,000 mark
(Richard: North Korean military maneuvering, are they pulling our strings our getting ready for the succession fighting?)
Unusual increase’ in North’s military activity: South Korean defence chief
(South Korean News)
N. Korea contingency plan would transfer power to Kim Jong-un’s sister: Report
He’s always looked like a heart attack on-the-hoof.
Family history, smoker (many pix of him with cig in hand), drinker (reputedly), morbidly obese (while his people starve).
Power Play & Corona: Is Pandemic Being Used By Governments To Grab Power?
CBC – Technology a ‘blessing’ during Ramadan, says imam
+ comments on the YT page
Man Arrested For Selling and Delivering Molotov Cocktails During French Riots (breitbart, Apr 25, 2020)
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/04/25/man-arrested-for-selling-and-delivering-molotov-cocktails-during-french-riots/
“A 26-year-old man has been arrested by police in France for selling and delivering pre-made Molotov cocktails to rioters in the Haut-de-Seine department.
The suspect was arrested alongside two other alleged accomplices and is said to have driven around the area, which has been plagued by riots every evening since Sunday, selling beer bottles filled with petrol and cloth wicks to rioters in the commune of Gennevilliers.
Police say that they found evidence that the 26-year-old had manufactured the Molotov cocktails from pictures saved to his mobile phone. He is said to work as a deliveryman and is already known to local police for minor crimes, Le Parisien reports.
Investigators added that the suspect was selling the Molotov cocktails on social media, using the Snapchat mobile app to advertise and charging five euros for three Moltovs and ten euros for ten.
The suspect’s phone is also being examined to determine the identities of those who bought the incendiary devices from him and his accomplices. Identical Molotov cocktails were found in several areas of Gennevilliers by police.
The commune is located next to the commune of Villeneuve-la-Garenne, scene of the motorcycle crash involving local police which sparked the disorder.
Since riots began in Villeneuve-la-Garenne, violence spread across the Hauts-de-Seine department, the infamous no-go Paris suburbs of Seine-Saint-Denis, and various other cities and towns across the country.
Aside from multiple attacks on police with fireworks, rocks and other projectiles, there have been two arson attempts in recent days.
The first took place in Strasbourg and saw local youths attempt to light a police station building on fire with Molotov cocktails.
The second arson attack saw the Paul-Langevin elementary school in Gennevilliers set on fire with damage reported in the office of the principal, two classrooms and a staff room.”
American Thinker – The Wuhan Virus Pandemic has Exposed the American Ruling Class
By Steve McCann
At the culmination of a national health or societal crisis in the United States, it has become de rigueur for the media and innumerable pundits ensconced within the professional class to perform a post-mortem on how the citizenry handled the crisis and what lessons the rubes in fly-over country should have learned. But in the current pandemic, the top levels of professional class that populates the ruling class and runs the media and the major institutional bureaucracies has irretrievably unmasked itself. And the in the postmortems that will come, they will be found deficient.
Credulous Cowards
An immutable tenet of today’s ruling class is that if someone or an institution within their power base is labeled as “experts,” then these authorities are not to be questioned and their assumptions, predictions or projections must be treated as gospel. The century that followed the rise of the Wilsonian progressives, who idolized a powerful government run by educated experts, saw enormous scientific, medical, and industrial achievements the hands of experts, the products of higher education. The professional class, usually products of higher education, grants deference to certified experts, and the media makes celebrities out of those experts that support important goals of the ruling class. Experts have had a very good century.
In the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, the World Health Organization, a darling of the American elites, claimed China was successfully mitigating the spread and the virus was not spread by human to human contact. Other experts, such as Dr. Anthony Fauci, claimed the virus was not a serious threat. These proclamations were believed without question by the ruling class as is borne out at the time by their public statements, published articles and mocking of President Trump for taking the threat far more seriously than any of the nation’s elites.
However, on March 16, an even higher echelon of experts, the Imperial College in London, came out with a study projecting 2.2 million Americans would die if no mitigation took place or 1.1 million if an unprecedented societal shutdown were imposed. This immediately became the new mantra and the media arm of the ruling class was dispatched to spread this apocalyptic message far and wide and to now vilify President Trump for not doing enough soon enough.
Within 10 days, however, the Imperial College walked back their doomsday scenario reducing the fatality estimates by over 90%. Nonetheless, thanks to our media class, mass hysteria was consuming the nation, so more experts were needed to keep up the drumbeat of fear and trepidation.
Enter the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation on March 25, predicting a meltdown of the nation’s health care system due to an enormous shortage of hospital and ICU beds throughout the nation, as well as up to 162,000 deaths. The immediate necessity of a societal lockdown, regardless of the economic or human cost, was thus cast in stone. Since that original study, the IHME has revised their study three times reducing their projected death toll by 60% and downgrading the need for hospital and ICU beds by more than 80%.
During this entire period of time, the nation’s elites never questioned or highlighted the errors of either the experts who claimed that the virus was under control and not a major concern or those and their projections which were used to shut down the nation and cast untold millions into unemployment and unbelievable distress. By mid-March, their media arm had created such a groundswell for a national lockdown that any countervailing studies by numerous non-preferred but eminent doctors and scientists in the United States and around the world were ignored and their research not permitted to see the light of day.
One must conclude, therefore, that the ruling class is too credulous to question any of their annointed experts and too cowardly to ever admit their own errors in judgment.
The Ruling Class Exhibits Totalitarian Tendencies
Conservatives have cast a jaundiced eye toward the principal political arm of the ruling class, the Democrat Party, for many years, believing the leadership and elected cohort to be closet totalitarians. As the coronavirus lockdowns spread from state to state, the party, its elected officials and its propaganda arm, the mainstream media, unabashedly emerged from that closet, along with a few Republicans.
Wannabe autocrats surfaced in New Jersey, Michigan, Maryland, Pennsylvania, California and 25 other states, issuing contradictory and often illegal orders and proclamations under the threat of jail or severe fines. Virtually all these unilateral proclamations, without benefit of any legislative or judicial action, drastically curtailed essential civil rights.
The Governor of New Jersey, Phil Murphy, was asked by Tucker Carlson by what authority did he have to nullify the Bill of Rights in issuing an order that resulted in 15 people being arrested for congregating in a synagogue. His response: “I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this…we looked at all the data and science and it says people have to stay away from each other.” Murphy is a member in good standing of the ruling class and their deference to preferred “experts” and not the Constitution.
It was not just governors and mayors on the state and local level. Others such as Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the entire hierarchy of the Democrat Party, the mainstream media and the coastal elites supported and applauded these actions. Further, this same cabal publicly proclaimed this crisis was the ideal opportunity to force their long wished for socialist agenda on the nation.
The façade of moderation the ruling elites built over the years is no more. They have exposed themselves for who they really are: totalitarians. If they were ever to control all the levers of power, they would never willingly surrender them.
Americans Now Know the Ruling Class Sold the Nation Out to China
While the American public has long been suspicious of Chinese influence in America, the coronavirus pandemic has exposed for all to see the extent of this nation’s reliance on a global adversary for necessities such as medical and pharmaceutical products. And that the single-minded pursuit of wealth and power prompted the American ruling class to proclaim over the years that it was a great benefit for the United States to empower China.
China owes its faster than expected rise as a world power to the transfer of American jobs, technology, capital, and business acumen to China so that US shareholders could receive capital gains, US executives could receive incentive pay for producing consumer products at a much lower labor cost, and the nation’s elites could, using riches from Chinese investments in the US, consolidate their retention of power.
Apparently, the American ruling class could not comprehend that if US corporations produce the goods they market to Americans offshore, it is the offshore countries that benefit the most from the economic activity. If that location is an authoritarian regime bent on world domination, then they will use their newfound wealth to build up their military, exploit and suppress their citizenry, promote manufacturing dependence, and corrupt the governing classes of their potential adversaries.
And a substantial segment of the American ruling class has been corrupted by the Chinese Communists. (Investigative reporter Lee Smith has an excellent analysis of how this corruption evolved at TabletMag.com.) These sympathizers are presently defending China by unabashedly regurgitating Chinese propaganda about who was responsible for the Wuhan Virus, how it was spread and by refusing to acknowledge that the globalist philosophy of dependence on potential foreign adversaries for manufactured goods was a mistake.
The coronavirus crisis has revealed to an increasingly larger percentage of the populace the extent to which they were sold out by a now compromised ruling class.
The Ruling Class Cares Only About Itself Not the American People
From mid-January to the present, the reaction of the nation’s elites to the Wuhan Virus pandemic has been almost solely based their intense hatred of President Trump. In January and February, among a number of other steps, Donald Trump imposed a travel ban on Chinese nationals and quarantined those Americans returning to the United States from the Wuhan area. At the time, he was pilloried as a xenophobe who was overreacting. Now the President is savagely maligned for not doing enough in January and February.
During the month of March, hyping extraordinarily flawed studies, the media by constant fearmongering stampeded the general public into demanding action from the administration. A partial shutdown was proposed which gave license to the wannabe dictators in various states to impose near martial law. In just four weeks nearly 30 million have lost their jobs, the economy is in tatters and the national debt, due to relief and stimulus spending, will balloon by over $6 trillion (the total national debt in 2002: $6.2 trillion).
The original purpose of the shutdown was to “flatten the curve” and slow the spread. Which has been accomplished. The time has come to reopen the economy. Except many of the denizens of the ruling class insist on moving the goalposts and setting targets that can never be met before the country reopens. They are insisting on universal testing (an impossibility) and a vaccine (which will take up to 18 months) before the nation can get back to work. In other words, a guaranteed safe world — there can be no more outbreaks and deaths from the virus. They intend to hold President Trump politically responsible for a reopening that in any way fails to meet these unattainable metrics.
The fate of untold millions of Americans mired in an economic and societal depression is immaterial as long as the economy and the nation are in shambles come November 3, 2020. The people be damned as long as Donald Trump and his populist movement, the most serious threat the ruling class has ever faced, are permanently defeated.
This nation has survived wars, depression and seven global pandemics yet the Wuhan Virus has revealed that the current American Ruling Class is most serious long-term threat to this nation in its 244-year history.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2020/04/the_wuhan_virus_pandemic_has_exposed_the_american_ruling_class.html
India Crosses 24,500 Positive Cases Count Mark, Maharashtra Continues To Remain The Worst Hit
China In Legal Mess For Hiding About COVID-19; Countries Ask China To Pay For The Damages
Espionage Unmasked – Reality Hackers Revealed!
She is presenting a lot of good information between slices of utter BS.
Reality: I thought a long time before I posted the Millennial Milly video in today’s readers post, as I said below it there is some good info in the video but it is divided by slices of BS. I normally don’t like conspiracy especially those requiring a cast of thousands or a large number of egotistical multi Millionaires or Billionaires cooperating long term to place someone besides themselves as the top dog. The thing that most people ignore is that often it doesn’t take a conspiracy all it takes is a group of like minded individuals acting independently. However she is right in part of what she says about how various groups are trying to manipulate our perception of reality. The Wuhan Fluy panic has shown how our perception of reality can be manipulated but it also shows the weakness of the of this mass manipulation, reality has a way of forcing itself into our view and slapping us in the face. Especially those with a healthy distrust of government.
We were left in the dark, stalked by an invisible monster and vulnerable to mis- and dis- information.
Fear of contagion is normal. We became easy prey for evil people. Next time we’ll know better.
See: An Epistemic Crisis
https://www.aier.org/article/an-epistemic-crisis/
Michael Moore’s new movie – A killer for the Green Movement.
“Planet of the Humans,” released this week free of charge on YouTube to coincide with Earth Day, argues that replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy is not only a pipe dream, but that solar arrays, wind farms and biomass are doing enormous damage of their own to the environment.
More and access to movie:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/apr/24/michael-moore-turns-climate-left-film-skewering-gr/
Rep. Schiff stonewalling release of witness testimonies
https://www.oann.com/rep-schiff-stonewalling-release-of-witness-testimonies/
Biden’s mental decline is an open secret’
By Ben Bowles April 24, 2020
As LU noted earlier, NBC News reported on Thursday that Joe Biden’s doctor had declared the former vice president to be “in good health and nowhere near slowing down.” The article sites a three-page medical summary that concludes with the observation that Biden is “fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief.”
The ultimate punchline to the LU story is that the physical exam the summary is based on took place in December 2019. NBC News conveniently buried that minor detail in a second dateline, which reveals the article was first published “129d ago.”
NBC’s chicanery is all part of a vast left-wing conspiracy in which mum’s the word when it comes to the former vice president’s cognitive soundness. The strategy among the Democrats and their water carriers in the media seems to be to prop up the ailing Biden long enough to get him across the finish line on Election Day, then let nature take its course.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/04/24/bidens-mental-decline-is-an-open-secret/
Bleach in the bath water’: Things Trump didn’t say about treating COVID-19, but someone else did, and why we need to talk about it
By J.E. Dyer April 24, 2020
President Trump has taken a lot of misdirected criticism in the last 24 hours over questions he raised during the Thursday White House briefing about ways to kill the COVID-19 coronavirus. Although Trump didn’t urge anyone to apply disinfectant or bleach to the body as a way of killing the virus, whether by ingestion, injection, or topically, the media have indulged in a frenzy of drive-by claims that he did.
Those media include CNN, the network at which Chris Cuomo has long been a fixture. Cuomo has recently recovered from a bout with COVID-19, and staged a supposed exit from quarantine-at-home for the cameras this week. (The New York Post points out that by his own report, Cuomo departed quarantine for at least one expedition days before.)
Some of Cuomo’s family members, including his wife Cristina, contracted the coronavirus as well. At the New York Post’s Page Six, Emily Smith has updated the public on Cristina Cuomo’s self-care advice for combating COVID-19. Smith refers to it as “a list of preposterous privileged preparations,” but you can decide for yourselves.
https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/04/24/bleach-in-the-bath-water-things-trump-didnt-say-about-treating-covid-19-but-someone-else-did-and-why-we-need-to-talk-about-it/
Bleach in the bath water’: Things Trump didn’t say about treating COVID-19, but someone else did, and why we need to talk about it
By J.E. Dyer April 24, 2020
President Trump has taken a lot of misdirected criticism in the last 24 hours over questions he raised during the Thursday White House briefing about ways to kill the COVID-19 coronavirus. Although Trump didn’t urge anyone to apply disinfectant or bleach to the body as a way of killing the virus, whether by ingestion, injection, or topically, the media have indulged in a frenzy of drive-by claims that he did.
Those media include CNN, the network at which Chris Cuomo has long been a fixture. Cuomo has recently recovered from a bout with COVID-19, and staged a supposed exit from quarantine-at-home for the cameras this week. (The New York Post points out that by his own report, Cuomo departed quarantine for at least one expedition days before.)
Some of Cuomo’s family members, including his wife Cristina, contracted the coronavirus as well. At the New York Post’s Page Six, Emily Smith has updated the public on Cristina Cuomo’s self-care advice for combating COVID-19. Smith refers to it as “a list of preposterous privileged preparations,” but you can decide for yourselves.
One of the remedies, which Ms. Cuomo resorted to when her sinus congestion flared up during the virus, was bleach in her bath water. Smith quotes from Cristina’s blog post:
https://libertyunyielding.com/2020/04/24/bleach-in-the-bath-water-things-trump-didnt-say-about-treating-covid-19-but-someone-else-did-and-why-we-need-to-talk-about-it/
Germany: Several arrested as around 1,000 stage demo against COVID measures in Berlin
Police detained dozens as around 1,000 protesters gathered outside the Volksbuehne Theatre in Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, in Berlin, on Saturday, as they staged an unauthorised demonstration against the coronavirus measures put in place by the government.
The participants demanded the end to the restrictive measures imposed by the authorities amid the pandemic, as nationwide movement restrictions were extended until May 3, following a four-week shutdown.
Protesters displayed banners and sang ‘We are the people.’ A protester read a speech: “What unites us here is not a conspiracy theory, and not a right-wing ideology. What unites us here is the justified concern regarding our democracy.”
Protesters gathered under the banner reading “Not without us,” for the fifth consecutive week, resisting police measures.?
As of Saturday, Germany stands at 155,418 coronavirus cases and 5,805 fatalities, data compiled by Johns Hopkins University shows.
Kim Jong-un dead – multiple sources claim North Korean dictator died Saturday night (express, Apr 25, 2020)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1273869/kim-jong-un-dead-north-korea-kim-jong-un-health-latest-kim-jong-un-dead-reports
“KIM JONG-UN, North Korea’s Supreme Leader is dead – according to multiple sources coming out of North Korea and the Far East.
It was being reported as fact by media outlets in China and Japan that the 36-year-old dictator was dead. Other sources said he was on his death bed in a vegetative state with no hope for recuperation after botched heart surgery. Because of the nature of the ultra secret regime in North Korea claims of Kim Jong-un’s death are very difficult to verify before an official state announcement.
But a Hong Kong-backed news channel’s vice director, who claims to be the niece of a Chinese foreign minister, made the announcement.
Vice director of HKSTV Hong Kong Satellite Television Shijian Xingzou says that a ‘very solid source’ has told her Kim Jong-un was dead.
Further sources were reporting a Chinese medical team had been sent to North Korean capital Pyongyang.
Hours ago a Japanese weekly called Shukan Gendai claimed the North Korea’s dictator was in a vegetative state after complications from heart surgery.
A Chinese doctor – who is believed to have been part of the team sent to treat Kim Jong-Un – was reported as saying a delay in a simple heart procedure had left the leader severely ill.
Further specific details were unknown.
It comes after insiders claimed China has sent a team of doctors to North Korea to determine the status of Kim Jong-Un’s healt.
The Chinese delegation left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday includes doctors and CCP officials, according to three people familiar with the situation told Reuters.
The nature of China’s delegation was not announced and Beijing has so far refused to comment.
On Monday, speculation spread the North Korean leader was in ill health after undergoing heart surgery on April 12 after unconfirmed reports emerged – which were swiftly denied.
MORE TO FOLLOW
This is a developing story.. please refresh for updates”
AUSTRIA – VIENNA
Poland: Crowds gather at German-Polish border to protest coronavirus lockdown
Crowds of protesters defied social distancing rules and gathered at the German-Polish border crossing in Zgorzelec town on Friday, demanding its reopening for thousands of Polish commuters working in Germany. The border has been closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The protesters were seen shaking the fence at the bridge dividing Polish Zgorzelec and German Goerlitz.
A large group of Goerlitz residents gathered at the opposite side of the fence to express solidarity with their Polish neighbours.
Around 125,000 Polish citizens are travelling daily to Germany for work, being Europe’s largest group of cross-border workers, according to the 2018 Eurostat report.
China threatens EU: Gag criticism of Beijing’s coronavirus LIES or face consequences (express, Apr 25, 2020)
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1273844/China-coronavirus-eu-news-coronavirus-china-news-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories
“CHINA has been accused of openly threatening the EU – warning Brussels to block a report alleging Beijing was deliberately spreading disinformation about the coronavirus outbreak, or face the consequences.
A senior Beijing official contacted European officials and warned them it would be “very bad for cooperation” if the report, which accused China of running “a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame” for the coronavirus outbreak was released, according to sources. Four diplomatic sources told Reuters the report was set to be released on April 21 but was delayed after Chinese officials picked up on a Politico news report that previewed its findings.
An EU diplomat claimed a senior Chinese official contacted European officials in Beijing the same day to tell them that, “if the report is as described and it is released today it will be very bad for cooperation”.
The report was eventually released but with some criticism of the Chinese government reportedly rearranged or removed, a sign of the balancing act Brussels is trying to pull off as the coronavirus outbreak scrambles international relations.
According to EU diplomatic correspondence, senior Chinese foreign ministry official Yang Xiaoguang had warned that publishing the report would make Beijing “very angry” and accused European officials of trying to please “someone else” – something Brussels diplomats understood to be a reference to Washington.
On the first page of the internal report shared with Brussels governments on April 20, the EU’s foreign policy arm said: “China has continued to run a global disinformation campaign to deflect blame for the outbreak of the pandemic and improve its international image.
“Both overt and covert tactics have been observed.”
The public summary attributed the disinformation to “state-backed sources from various governments, including Russia and – to a lesser extent – China.”
The public summary noted “significant evidence of covert Chinese operations on social media,” but the reference was left to the final six paragraphs of the document.
The Chinese Mission to the EU was not immediately available for comment and China’s Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to questions about the exchange
An EU spokeswoman said: “We never comment on content or alleged content of internal diplomatic contacts and communication with our partners from another countries.”
Another EU official said the disinformation report had been published as usual and denied any of it had been watered down.
It comes after Andreas Fulda, a senior fellow at the University of Nottingham Asia Research Institute, said nations around the world have “opened their eyes” to the “cover up” of the coronavirus outbreak by the Chinese government.
The author of ‘The Struggle for Democracy in Mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong: Sharp Power and Its Discontents’ said the state led by President Xi Jinping was reluctant to report the pandemic because it would reflect badly on the Communist Party.
He told Express: “I certainly think that the cover up of this COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan in China has opened the eyes of the global public to the highly problematic political realities in mainland China.
“General Secretary Xi Jinping is a Stalinist who presides over a Leninist party state using Maoist tactics, and that obviously is not a good combination.
“We can see this combination of Stalinism, Leninism and Maoism in provinces of China where now more than 1.5 million people are actually held in internment and/or in labour camps against their will.
“Sometimes people ask me why we should care about the way China is governed.”
Experts say the coronavirus crisis has sparked a “perfect storm” of global online disinformation with most of the lies spread by China and Russia.#
Analysts have witnessed a sharp rise in deliberate misinformation campaigns on social media. They have documented an almost identical rise in attempts to hack international organisations attempting to fight COVID-19 – especially those trying to negotiate an international response.
Senior executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter are set to appear before UK MPs next Thursday to answer questions about the spread of coronavirus disinformation.
In the report published by the EUs European external action service the authors wrote: “Despite their potentially grave impact on public health, official and state-backed sources from various governments, including Russia and – to a lesser extent – China, have continued to widely target conspiracy narratives and disinformation both at public audiences in the EU and the wider neighbourhood.”
In recent days public health bodies including the World Health Organization and the US National Institutes of Health have reported attacks from computer hackers.
The WHO has reported a fivefold increase in cyber-attacks on both itself and on the public.
The EU report found that even so-called self-appointed “fact checkers” who believe they police he internet were being easily fooled by false or highly misleading content.”
Pakistan: Worshippers attend Ramadan prayers despite coronavirus concerns
Worshippers gathered at a mosque in Rawalpindi on Friday
GOV.UK: UK ANNOUNCES 9 MORE CHARTER FLIGHTS FROM PAKISTAN TO RETURN THOUSANDS OF STRANDED BRITS
(No mention of self-isolation or quarantine as thousands of Brits are repatriated from overseas! Especially from Pakistan where some mosques are still full. Question, question, question!)
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-announces-9-more-charter-flights-from-pakistan-to-return-thousands-of-stranded-brits
Muezzin with Down syndrome continues calls to prayer at Ramadan during COVID lockdown
“Since he was a child and even until this moment, he loved the mosques. Amjad is 40 years old and he loves mosques and especially the Al-Ibrahimi Mosque,” said Amjad’s father Talib. “Amjad was greatly affected by not being able to pray in the mosque after the decision of the prevention of prayers in mosques,” added Talib.
EXPLOSIVE NEW EVIDENCE: Joe Biden’s Sexual Assault Accuser Tara Reade’s Mother Called Larry King About the Incident in 1993! (VIDEO)
Shocking new evidence has emerged that backs up Tara Reade’s claim about being sexually assaulted by then-Senator Joe Biden in 1993 — and ironically, it originally aired on CNN
Reade told reporters that at the time of the harassment and assault by Biden she told various people including her mother, a close friend, and her brother.
Reade has alleged that when she was a staffer for Biden in her 20s, he forced her up against a wall, forcibly kissed her, put a hand up her blouse and skirt, and penetrated her with his fingers. Biden has denied the allegations.
Speaking to The Intercept, Reade explained that her mother even called in to “Larry King Live” on CNN and discussed her daughter’s experience on Capitol Hill.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/explosive-new-evidence-joe-bidens-sexual-assault-accuser-tara-reades-mother-called-larry-king-incident-1993-video/?utm_source=Email&utm_medium=the-gateway-pundit&utm_campaign=dailyam&utm_content=weekend
https://twitter.com/i/status/1253812727262388224
EU looking to Canada to help WHO after Trump temporarily withdraws funding
The European Union is planning a major pledging conference early next month to help fill the World Health Organization’s funding gaps, and it expects Canada to play a key role.
Brice de Schietere, the EU’s acting ambassador to Canada, says the event was being planned before U.S. President Donald Trump announced last week he would pause WHO funding because of concerns that it mismanaged the early outbreak of the novel coronavirus.
De Schietere told The Canadian Press that no one wants to politicize the May 4 event but the effort to find a vaccine and fund the research needed to end the global pandemic means raising money to help the UN agency is more important than ever.
De Schietere, the charge d’affaires at the EU delegation’s Ottawa office, said the Canada-EU trade deal will play a key role in helping the post-pandemic economic recovery, as well as keeping essential medical supply chains open.
And he said Canada and the EU are co-operating closely to control the spread of misinformation about the pandemic, which he said has resulted in more than 120 fake news stories that are aimed at undermining the European response to the crisis.
De Schietere steered clear of mentioning Trump directly, but he emphasized that Canada is the EU’s closest partner in the world right now, and that their transatlantic alliance is focused on bolstering the multilateral trade, health and political organizations to battle the pandemic.
Trump has regularly derided or otherwise targeted a host of international organizations, from the G7, NATO, the World Trade Organization to, most recently, the WHO, which he has accused of going soft on China and allowing it to cover up the early impact of the pandemic.
The pledging conference will also include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, the Wellcome Trust, the World Bank, Unitaid — a Swiss-based non-profit health organization — and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.
“It is precisely in times like these that we need to have more solidarity. Global co-operation is more critical than ever — and the responses we have had, notably from Canada, have always been very positive in this direction,” said de Schietere.
“At the present time, we are not in that state of mind of making any kind of finger-pointing or politicization of the issue. We have regretted, and this has been expressed on several occasions by EU leaders, the decision coming from the United States to suspend the funding to the WHO,” he added.
“For us, what’s important is to have global co-operation and solidarity and we need the multilateral institutions to do it. It is the only effective and viable option we can take to win this battle.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a video announcement on Friday that she hoped world leaders would come together to take part in the effort to raise the equivalent of C$11.4 billion.
The Liberal government did not confirm Friday whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be taking part in the conference, but International Development Minister Karina Gould said in a statement that Canada would continue to work with international partners, including the WHO.
“Global health is the largest area of investment for Canada’s aid program. We are one of the recognized leaders in this space,” she said.
“Canada is part of the global response to tackle COVID 19.”
On Thursday, European leaders revised their long-term budget to pay for the continent’s massive post-pandemic recovery, which could cost upwards of $C1.5 trillion, making it the most ambitious financial assistance package since the 1948 Marshall Plan to rebuild the continent after the Second World War.
As the world battles the economic devastation caused by the pandemic, de Schietere said the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA, has left Canada and Europe well-positioned to weather the current downtown and navigate a recovery.
“We are very much relying on such agreements and open trade to guarantee the future of supply chains. It is particularly important that as we want to strengthen the global response, we keep all those chains open, and have them open to the best extent possible.”
He said there is lots of co-ordination between Canada and Europe on keeping ship traffic and allowing supplies to reach harbour so “we don’t have administrative measures that would impede the correct flow of goods.”
Canada and the EU are also active in their joint NATO partnership in the Helsinki-based European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats and co-operate closely in the G7’s rapid-response mechanism to counter online threats, he said.
“This level of exchange is very intense, and so it’s very positive. It’s only together we can be effective in fighting such threats.”
https://www.680news.com/2020/04/25/eu-rallies-canada-allies-to-help-who-after-trump-temporarily-withdraws-funding-2/
Coronavirus outbreak: World leaders launch WHO COVID-19 plan, US not involved
A nicotinic hypothesis for Covid-19 with preventive and therapeutic implications
[…]Based on the current scientific literature and on new epidemiological data which reveal that current smoking status appears to be a protective factor against the infection by SARS-CoV-2 [1], we hypothesize that the nicotinic acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) plays a key role in the pathophysiology of Covid-19 infection and might represent a target for the prevention and control of Covid-19 infection.
[…]Nicotine may be suggested as a potential preventive agent against Covid-19 infection. Both the epidemiological/clinical evidence and the in silico findings may suggest that Covid-19 infection is a nAChR disease that could be prevented and may be controlled by nicotine.
Nicotine would then sterically or allosterically compete with the SARS-CoV-2 binding to the nAChR.
This legitimates the use of nicotine as a protective agent against SARS-CoV-2 infection and the subsequent deficits it causes in the CNS.
Thus, in order to prevent the infection and the retro-propagation of the virus through the CNS, we plan a therapeutic assay against Covid-19 with nicotine (and other nicotinic agents) patches or other delivery methods (like sniffing/chewing) in hospitalized patients and in the general population
[…]
https://www.qeios.com/read/article/571
Chinese Medical Experts Sent To North Korea To Advise On Kim Jong Un, Report Says
China has reportedly sent a team of medical experts to North Korea to advise on North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, as the dictator has not been seen in public for two weeks.
“The trip by the Chinese doctors and officials comes amid conflicting reports about the health of the North Korean leader,” Reuters reported, adding that it “was unable to immediately determine what the trip by the Chinese team signaled in terms of Kim’s health.”
Reuters continued, “A delegation led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department left Beijing for North Korea on Thursday, two of the people said.”
https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-chinese-medical-experts-sent-to-north-korea-to-advise-on-kim-jong-un-report-says?utm_content=non_insiders&utm_campaign=dw_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=housefile&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8YgNhoe8OR5XzkYOWBS8zEVLlwSHqz5yssJtNkXnvbDob-Vgi7LzgqYrm3GCEZPvi1V8gOKq3Zb2TEe6eR3ZLuF6zISg&_hsmi=86955568
Richard: South Korean says they have reason to believe that Kim is alive and well nad will be seen in public in the near future.
Far-left SPLC allegedly tied to domestic terror attack on Christians
The Home Office Response to the Grooming Gang Petition is Atrocious
A spike in New Yorkers ingesting household cleaners following Trump’s controversial coronavirus comments
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An unusually high number of New Yorkers contacted city health authorities over fears that they had ingested bleach or other household cleaners in the 18 hours that followed President Trump’s bogus claim that injecting such products could cure coronavirus, the Daily News has learned.
The Poison Control Center, a subagency of the city’s Health Department, managed a total of 30 cases of possible exposure to disinfectants between 9 p.m. Thursday and 3 p.m. Friday, a spokesman said.
None of the people who reached out died or required hospitalization, the spokesman said.
But compared to last year, the number of cases was worthy of a double-take.
According to data obtained by The News, the Poison Control Center only handled 13 similar cases in the same 18-hour period last year.
Moreover, out of the cases reported between Thursday and Friday, nine were specifically about possible exposure to Lysol. Ten were in regards to bleach and 11 about household cleaners in general, the spokesman said.
In last year’s 18-hour period, there were no cases reported about Lysol exposure and only two were specifically in regards to bleach, the data shows.
During Thursday night’s coronavirus briefing at the White House, Trump suggested doctors may be able to cure coronavirus by injecting disinfectants like bleach directly into the lungs of their patients.
“Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs so it’d be interesting to check that … It sounds interesting to me,” Trump said, turning to his health advisers and asking them to look into the matter.
The Onion predicted Trump’s suggestion that disinfectants might kill coronavirus »
On Friday afternoon, following widespread pushback from medical experts, Trump claimed his dangerous suggestion was a joke.
“I said it sarcastically,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Despite Trump’s sarcasm defense, health and emergency agencies took his comments seriously and warned people against listening to the president.
“To be clear, disinfectants are not intended for ingestion either by mouth, by ears, by breathing them in any way, shape or form,” New York City Health Commissioner Oxiris Barbot tweeted. “Doing so can put people at great risk.”
A White House spokesman demurred Friday night when asked for comment on the Big Apple’s spike in possible cases of household product poisoning in the aftermath of Trump’s comments.
“The media has lost control with their mischaracterizations and outlandish headlines about what the president said, and completely ignore that he has consistently emphasized that Americans should consult with their doctors regarding coronavirus treatment,” said the spokesman, Judd Deere.
https://www.nydailynews.com/coronavirus/ny-coronavirus-new-yorkers-household-cleaners-trump-20200425-rnaqio5dyfeaxmthxx2vktqa5m-story.html
the daily wire – Media Claims Calls To Poison Control Have Increased Due To Trump’s ‘Disinfectant’ Comments. That’s Not True.
After President Donald Trump’s Thursday comments regarding UV light and disinfectant went viral (with left-wing pundits and media outlets claiming he told people to inject themselves with disinfectant and drink bleach), multiple news agencies reported local spikes in calls to poison control. As with the inflated claims about what Trump said, the idea that people started injecting themselves with household cleaner were overblown and falsified.
For example, the New York Daily News reported there was an unusually high number of New Yorkers contacted city health authorities over fears that they had ingested bleach or other household cleaners in the 18 hours that followed President Trump’s bogus claim that injecting such products could cure coronavirus.”
As Reason’s Elizabeth Nolan Brown reported, however, that was not the case.
“[T]he article makes no mention of anyone deliberately consuming household cleaners. It simply states that 30 people called the city’s poison control hotline ‘over fears that they had ingested bleach or other household cleaners,’” Nolan Brown reported. “Fearing that you ingested something doesn’t jibe with having intentionally consumed that substance.”
Further, the Daily News reporters compare the number of calls this year to those during the same period last year – when people weren’t using household cleaners as stringently as they are now and thus not risking as much exposure.
“[O]ne needn’t do a detailed analysis to surmise why exposure to things like Lysol and bleach—and fears about this exposure—might be up this month over April 2019. And one needn’t reach for the ridiculous explanation that it’s because people deliberately consumed it en masse after listening to Trump. We are in the midst of a pandemic right now and we were not in April 2019. Of course more people are being exposed to household disinfectants at the moment than were during this time last year,” Nolan Brown wrote.
The Daily News also noted that no one died or needed to be hospitalized after calling into Poison Control, which Nolan Brown said suggested “their exposure was minimal and not of the Lysol-mouthwash variety.”
Other media outlets used the number of calls to Poison Control in March to knock Trump, Nolan Brown reported. An article from WDRB about a “spike” in calls to Poison Control was published the day after Trump’s comments, and while it doesn’t specifically mention those comments, it does include a video that tacks what Trump said onto the end of the same report. Further, the numbers included in WDRB’s report are from March, long before Trump’s April 23 briefing.
WCIA in Illinois also blamed Trump for two calls to the state’s Poison Control hotline for misusing cleaning products. The outlet mentioned Illinois Poison Control spokesperson Danny Chun flat out saying the calls were nothing new and that calls to the hotline had increased by 36% during the pandemic.
Fox 5 in Baltimore also decided to publish an article the day after Trump’s comments about an increase in calls to Poison Control, which included information from “the past six weeks.”
The CDC also released a report this week about increased exposure to harmful toxins through the increased use of household cleaners, and people have used the report to hit Trump, even though the CDC’s data stops at March 31, Nolan Brown reported.
https://www.dailywire.com/news/media-claims-calls-to-poison-control-have-increased-due-to-trumps-disinfectant-comments-thats-not-true
US to Be Held Accountable for Adventurism in Region: Iranian Spokesman
https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2020/04/25/2251089/us-to-be-held-accountable-for-adventurism-in-region-iranian-spokesman
“The spokesman for Iran’s administration warned the US that it will be held accountable for the consequences of adventurism in the region…”
Six Bangladeshi expats held for dealing in fraudulent SIM cards
https://saudigazette.com.sa/article/592337/SAUDI-ARABIA/Six-Bangladeshi-expats-held-for-dealing-in-fraudulent-SIM-cards
“The security unit for following up and combating electronic crimes has led the Riyadh Region Police to arrest six Bangladeshi expatriates, with ages ranging between twenties and thirties, in downtown Riyadh for dealing in fraudulent SIMs.
They were held for practicing trade in mobile SIM cards that were obtained using the identity cards of citizens and expatriates, without their knowledge, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) quoted the spokesman of Riyadh Region Police Lt. Col. Shaker Al-Twaijri as stating Saturday.
Lt. Col. Al-Twaijri added: “The authorities seized 577 various SIM cards of several telecom companies, a large number of printed fingerprints for unidentified persons, photographs of identity cards, a laptop, printers and barcode readers in the possession of the arrested residents.
“They have been taken into custody and the regulatory measures have been taken against them prior to referring them to the Public Prosecution.””
Haftar’s mercenaries attack government forces with nerve gas
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200425-haftars-mercenaries-attack-government-forces-with-nerve-gas/
“Libyan Minister of Interior Fathi Bashagha accused the mercenaries of the Russian company Wagner, which is fighting against the militias of retired Major General Khalifa Haftar, of using the internationally-banned nerve gas against government forces south of the capital of Tripoli.
This came in a press conference held by Bashagha, the details of which were published by the media center of the Libyan government’s Operation Volcano of Anger.
“In the Salah Al-Din axis, our fighters were attacked by nerve gas from Haftar’s forces, so they were paralysed and then sniped. This can only be carried out by the Wagner Group,” revealed Bashagha.
He added: “It is time for the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Russia to stop supporting Haftar and hinder him from terrorising and targeting civilians. It is also time for these countries to stop facilitating the spread of the coronavirus pandemic inside and outside Libya.”
“The continuous reports about your violations, and the records of your military aircraft flights that did not stop violating our sovereignty over the airspace of our country, are a stigma that history records against your regimes and evidence with which we will pursue you in international events and courts,” indicated Bashagha.
He continued: “Everyone has seen the circulated photos and videos of Sudanese and Chadian mercenaries fighting with Haftar and tampering with the livelihoods and property of the abandoned Libyans. Shame and disgrace on those who brought in these mercenaries. This would only make us fiercer in this war. We will send the corpses of these mercenaries to their countries, and we will prosecute those who participated in bringing them in international courts.”
Bashagha pointed out that: “Haftar has intensified his brutal attacks against civilians, by indiscriminate shelling of densely populated residential areas in Tripoli and by bombing hospitals, health facilities and ambulances.”
He further noted that the aforementioned comes at a time when the internationally-recognised Government of National Accord (GNA): “Is making strenuous efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic,” warning that Haftar’s continued targeting of civilian sites and medical facilities would severely undermine those efforts.
Bashagha stressed that the expulsion of Haftar’s militia from Tarhuna, southeast of the capital, could end the country’s civil war.
He continued: “Now, we are focusing mainly on how to protect Tripoli and its population from artillery bombardment.”
Yesterday, the GNA forces launched an offensive on sites belonging to the militias of Haftar, south of Tripoli.
Mustafa Al-Mujei, spokesman for the GNA-led Operation Volcano of Anger, confirmed that their forces initiated an attack on the axis of Al-Khalatat and managed to destroy three armoured vehicles belonging to Haftar’s forces.
In this context, the High Representative of the European Union Josep Borrell renewed his call for a ceasefire in Libya…”
MBS revives Saudi media image with new TV channel
https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20200425-mbs-revives-saudi-media-image-with-new-tv-channel/
“Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman is seeking to revive Saudi Arabia’s media image by launching a new TV news channel in the near future called Asharq, in cooperation with the US Bloomberg network, as well as launching a new look for Al Arabiya TV channel on Friday evenings.
Asharq TV channel is managed by the Saudi Research and Marketing Group, which also publishes Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper and Sayidaty magazine, and is supported by Mohammad Bin Salman’s brother, Ahmad. The channel was initially decided to be named Bloomberg, then Bloomberg Al-Arab, and later Bloomberg Asharq, before it was finally decided to relinquish the international name and to name the channel Asharq…”
Human Rights Watch urges Bangladesh to reverse ‘inhumane’ Rohingya boat push-backs
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/4/25/hrw-urges-bangladesh-to-reverse-inhumane-rohingya-boat-push-backs
“Human Rights Watch has requested the Bangladeshi government grant refuge to hundreds of Rohingya Muslims stranded in two fishing boats off its coast for up to several weeks, saying they need urgent access to food, water and health care and that rejecting the boats would be “inhumane”.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Abdul Momen said on Thursday the country would not allow entry to any more Rohingya refugees, who have been fleeing mass atrocities in neighbouring Myanmar.
“I am opposed to allowing these Rohingya into the country because Bangladesh is always asked to take care of the responsibility of other countries,” said Momen, adding that the coronavirus pandemic has caused an influx of Bangladeshi nationals returning to the country.
“We have no room to shelter any foreign people or refugees,” he said.
Bangladesh has taken in nearly a million Rohingya fleeing persecution and state violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
HRW called Bangladesh’s government to continue its acts of goodwill to those in need…”
Anger over the removal of pro-Kurdish mayors in Turkey
https://english.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2020/4/25/anger-over-the-removal-of-pro-kurdish-mayors-in-turkey
STC announces plan for self-rule in south Yemen; government calls move ‘catastrophic’
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-yemen-security-south/stc-announces-plan-for-self-rule-in-south-yemen-government-calls-move-catastrophic-idUSKCN228003
“Yemen’s separatist Southern Transitional Council (STC) on Sunday announced it would establish a self-ruled administration in the regions under their control, which the internationally recognized Saudi-backed government said would have “catastrophic consequences” for a November peace deal.
Under a deal to end the power struggle in south Yemen agreed in Riyadh, the STC and other southerners were supposed to join a new national cabinet and place all forces under control of the internationally recognized government. The STC is supported by the United Arab Emirates.
“The announcement by the so-called transitional council of its intention to establish a southern administration is a resumption of its armed insurgency… and an announcement of its rejection and complete withdrawal from the Riyadh agreement,” Yemen’s foreign ministry said in a statement on Twitter.
“The so-called transitional council will bear alone the dangerous and catastrophic consequences for such an announcement,” it said.”
Coronavirus: Pakistanis flock to markets and mosques as Ramadan starts
https://gulfnews.com/world/asia/pakistan/coronavirus-pakistanis-flock-to-markets-and-mosques-as-ramadan-starts-1.1587841737290
“Pakistanis on Saturday celebrated the country’s first day of the holy month of Ramadan by flocking to mosques and markets, ignoring advice to stay home as coronavirus cases rise…”
Indonesians hooking to Turkish movies, dramas to kill boredom
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/culture/indonesians-hooking-to-turkish-movies-dramas-to-kill-boredom/1818011
“As the COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to remain indoors, Turkish movies and dramas are entertaining families in Indonesia…”
Turkey neutralizes 20 YPG/PKK terrorists in N. Syria
https://www.aa.com.tr/en/middle-east/turkey-neutralizes-20-ypg-pkk-terrorists-in-n-syria/1818059
“Turkish security forces neutralized at least 20 YPG/PKK terrorists in northern Syria, near Turkey’s southern border, the National Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
“The terror group’s attempt to infiltrate the Operation Peace Spring zone with aims to disrupt the peace and secure environment was prevented by our heroic commandos. 20 YPG/PKK terrorists were neutralized in a successful operation before reaching their aims,” the ministry said on Twitter.
Turkish authorities often use the word “neutralize” to imply the terrorists in question surrendered or were killed or captured.
Since 2016, Turkey has launched four successful anti-terrorist operations across its border in northern Syria to prevent the formation of a terror corridor and enable peaceful settlement by locals: Euphrates Shield (2016), Olive Branch (2018), Peace Spring (2019), and Spring Shield (2020).
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU — has been responsible for the deaths of 40,000 people, including women, children, and infants. The YPG is the PKK’s Syrian offshoot.”
Lebanon bank attacked with explosive amid economic crisis
https://www.france24.com/en/20200425-lebanon-bank-attacked-with-explosive-amid-economic-crisis
“Assailants lobbed an explosive device at a bank in Lebanon Saturday, in the latest attack on financial institutions in a country facing its worst economic crisis in decades.
The official National News Agency said the night-time assault targeted a branch of Fransabank in the southern port city of Sidon, damaging its glass facade.
There were no immediate reports of any casualties.
The attack came a day after Prime Minister Hassan Diab said Lebanese bank deposits had plunged $5.7 billion in the first two months of the year, despite curbs on withdrawals and a ban on transfers abroad.
Lebanon is grappling with a severe lack of liquidity and an acute economic crisis that has been compounded since mid-March by a lockdown to combat the novel coronavirus.
In recent months, the Lebanese pound, which has been pegged to the US dollar since 1997, has plummeted in value from around 1,500 pounds against the greenback to almost 3,800 on the parallel market.
Banks had gradually restricted dollar withdrawals until halting them altogether last month.
The country’s dire economic situation has sparked street protests that first erupted in October last year, as well as several attacks on banks nationwide.”
GoV – SPAIN – The Yodeling of the Muezzin is Heard in Lleida
The cathedral of Lérida (Lleida in Catalan) in Catalonia was recently violated by five Muslims equipped with a powerful audio system from which they then broadcast the azan — the Muslim call to prayer.
Many thanks to FouseSquawk for translating this article from the Spanish news agency Europa Press. The translator notes: “The text in the article says that the loudspeakers were set up next to the cathedral, though the video shows they are at or on the cathedral.”
PP criticizes Lleida for permitting call to prayer during Ramadan
The press spokesman of the PP [Partido Popular/People’s Party] in Lleida [Lérida], Xavier Palau, has criticized the Town Hall for allowing the Muslim community of the city to install loudspeakers next to the Cathedral of Seu Vella for the call to prayer during Ramadan, the party announced in a statement this Saturday.
He declared that the Catholics of Lleida didn’t receive any type of concession during Holy Week, since religious rites and processions have been suspended due to the coronavirus, and he opined that this “demonstrates the sectarianism that the Town Hall defends.”
“It seems to us a violation of the fundamental rights of the city as a whole, because the loudspeaker installed in the highest building forces all the citizens to listen to the call,” and he said that it seems to impose a belief, in his words.
See also this tweet (in Spanish), which includes a video of the caterwauling of the muezzin.
https://mobile.twitter.com/guajesalvaje/status/1253971626875670528
https://gatesofvienna.net/2020/04/the-yodeling-of-the-muezzin-is-heard-in-lleida/