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Biohazard

WHO Emergency Committee meet on Wednesday as China confirms sixth coronavirus death

coronavirus china
© GettyMedical staff transfer patients to Jin Yintan hospital in Wuhan. China has confirmed that the deadly Wuhan coronavirus virus can be transmitted between humans, with medical workers currently among the infected
The World Health Organisation is convening an emergency committee of experts on Wednesday to assess whether the coronavirus outbreak in China constitutes an international emergency, the WHO said on Monday.

The meeting follows the virus spreading from Wuhan, where it has infected nearly 200 people, to more Chinese cities, including the capital Beijing and Shanghai, and a fourth case has been reported beyond China's borders.

Comment: Al Jazeera reports on the sixth death:
Asia steps up defences as China confirms sixth coronavirus death

Nations increase fever checks at airports amid fears of a bigger outbreak of the virus that causes pneumonia.

Asian countries have ramped up measures to block the spread of a new virus as the death toll in China rose to six and the number of cases jumped to almost 300, raising concerns in the middle of a major holiday travel rush.

From Australia to Thailand and as far as Nepal, nations stepped up fever checks of passengers at airports to detect the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS)-like coronavirus, which first emerged in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.


Footage from Twitter reportedly shows checks occurring on aircraft in Wuhan: "[A scary sentence] I just returned from Wuhan!"



Zhou Xianwang, mayor of Wuhan, told state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday that the death toll had risen from four to six.

Fears of a bigger outbreak increased after a prominent expert from China's National Health Commission confirmed late on Monday that the virus can be passed between people.

Zhong Nanshan, head of the National Health Commission, said there was no danger of a repeat of 2002's SARS epidemic that killed nearly 800 people across the world, as long as precautions were taken.

"It took only two weeks to identify the novel coronavirus," state news agency Xinhua quoted Zhong as saying late on Monday.

Earlier, Zhong acknowledged patients may have contracted the new virus without having visited the central city of Wuhan where the infection is thought to have originated in a seafood market.

"Currently, it can be said it is affirmative that there is the phenomenon of human-to-human transmission," he said in an interview with state broadcaster CCTV.

China said it would attend a special World Health Organization (WHO) meeting on Wednesday which will determine whether to declare a rare global public health emergency over the disease, which was detected in Thailand, Japan and South Korea among four people who had visited Wuhan.

Outbreak spreads

Almost 80 new cases have been confirmed, bringing the total number of people hit by the virus in China to 291, with the vast majority in Hubei, the province where Wuhan lies, and others in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangdong, according to the National Health Commission.

State media said one case was found in Zhejiang province.

Australia on Tuesday said it would screen passengers on flights from Wuhan amid rising concerns that the virus will spread globally as Chinese travellers take flights abroad for the Lunar New Year holiday that starts this week.

A man showing symptoms of the new disease who had travelled to Wuhan was in isolation as health officials awaited test results, public broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday

"The outbreak could perhaps not have come at a worse time," said Al Jazeera's Katrina Wu, who is in Beijing.

"This is the peak travel season in China. The government has always boasted that during the Lunar New Year you see two to three billion trips being made across the country and Wuhan is not a small city; it's about 11 million people who will be travelling not only in China, but overseas. It's a major transport hub."

Authorities around the globe, including in the United States and many Asian countries, have stepped up the screening of travellers from Wuhan.

Zhong, the head of the National Health Commission, said two people in Guangdong province in southern China caught the disease from family members who had visited Wuhan.

He added that 14 medical staff helping with coronavirus patients had also been infected.

The Wuhan virus causes a type of pneumonia and belongs to the same family of coronaviruses as SARS. Symptoms include fever and difficulty in breathing, which are similar to many other respiratory diseases and pose complications for screening efforts.

SARS originated in southern China in 2002 and spread to 26 countries across the world over the following months, infecting more than 8,000 people before it was brought under control, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The WHO, which is due to hold an emergency meeting on the outbreak on Wednesday, has said an animal source appeared most likely to be the primary origin of the Wuhan outbreak

Enhanced screening

South Korea on Monday reported its first case of the new coronavirus - a 35-year-old woman who had flown in from Wuhan.

Thailand and Japan previously confirmed a total of three cases - all of whom had visited the Chinese city.

China festival
© Aly Song/ReutersThe outbreak is spreading as China gears up for the Lunar New Year festival when hundreds of thousands of people visit family or take holidays
WHO has said the jump in new cases was the result of "increased searching and testing for [the virus] among people sick with respiratory illness".

Wuhan authorities said they have installed infrared thermometers at airports, and railway and coach stations across the city. Passengers with fever were being registered, given masks and taken to medical institutions.

Chinese state media moved to calm the mood as discussion swelled on social media about the coronavirus spreading to other Chinese cities.


Weighing in on the matter for the first time, China's President Xi Jinping said on Monday that safeguarding people's lives should be given "top priority" and that the spread of the epidemic "should be resolutely contained", according to CCTV.

Xi said it was necessary to "release information on the epidemic in a timely manner and deepen international cooperation", and ensure people have a "stable and peaceful Spring Festival", the broadcaster said.

See also:


Stock Up

Australia's wild weather tipped to wreak havoc on grocery bills

Coles online shopping website, 20 January 2020.
© Coles online shopping website, 20 January 2020.
Australians at supermarket checkouts could be the next to feel the effects of the wild weather that has decimated entire crops and limited the supply of goods. Here are some of the products you may need to budget a higher price tag for in the next few months.

The ongoing bushfires that have been ravaging the country since September 2019 - combined with a prolonged and severe drought in many areas - have weighed heavily on farmers and the delivery of fresh food and will result in short-term price increases on fruit and vegetables, according to vegetable industry association AUSVEG.

In fact, people who shop for their groceries online with Coles may have already noticed some items are unavailable due to "bushfires and subsequent road closures".

Industry experts and the government have said that in addition to fruit and vegetables, a number of other products such as honey, milk, wine and meat could go up in price as well.

And it doesn't come at a great time, given people are feeling less motivated to spend while their fellow Australians are suffering, according to AMP Capital Chief Economist Shane Oliver.

"The constant terrible news since October about the bushfires along with the smoke in cities is likely weighing further on the national psyche adding to weakness in consumer spending," Dr Oliver said earlier this month in an analysis of the bushfires' impact on the Australian economy.

Wild weather events have continued since he made that point, with widespread rainfall giving the fireys some reprieve, but also bringing massive hail, floods and dust storms.

AUSVEG and other groups have urged Australians who can afford to do so to keep buying produce to support farmers and regional communities in their recovery from these events. The Australian Government has so far made grants of up to $75,000 available for farmers and other primary producers who have been impacted by the fires.

Comment: See also:


Attention

'Absolute red alert': Journalist Glenn Greenwald charged with cybercrimes in Brazil

Greenwald
© BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP
Award-winning journalist Glenn Greenwald has been accused of hacking the cellphones of Brazilian prosecutors and public officials in a criminal case launched on Tuesday.

Federal prosecutors charged Greenwald with cybercrimes for his role in publishing leaked cellphone messages that have embarrassed the Bolsonaro administration and its anti-corruption task force, as well as charging him with membership of a "criminal organization."


Comment: He may well have published (not 'leaked' - insiders leak; journalists publish) those messages, but it is absurd on the face of it to accuse Greenwald of conducting 'hacking'. This is the next paralogical step (down, into tyranny) in the war against real journalism. From accusing Assange - who they framed as 'not a real journalist' - of 'hacking' because he allegedly assisted Manning with sending Pentagon files to Wikileaks, they are now targeting a bona fide, unmistakable journalist with the same shoddy premise...


Greenwald had already butted heads with Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, with the journalist referring to him as a "wannabe dictator," and the president vowing not to expel the journalist from the country but instead to imprison him.

Greenwald's news organization The Intercept Brasil, which he co-founded in 2016, has published numerous bombshell reports featuring a multitude of leaked messages, incriminating sitting Minister for Justice Sergio Moro for undermining Brazil's leftist Workers' Party and preventing former president Lula da Silva from returning to power, thus paving the way for Bolsonaro to take power in 2018.

Lemon

Lawyer: Michael Avenatti too isolated in jail to help case

Michael Avenatti
Michael Avenatti, the jet-setting lawyer who once represented porn star Stormy Daniels in her battles with President Donald Trump, is now being imprisoned in the same chilly cell that once held drug kingpin El Chapo, his lawyer said.

"The temperature in his cell feels like it is in the mid-40s. He is forced to sleep with three blankets. Not surprisingly, he has been having great difficulty functioning," Avenatti's lawyer, Scott Srebnick, wrote in a letter to a federal judge late Sunday.

He asked that Avenatti be transferred from the high-security cell at the Metropolitan Correction Center in Manhattan to the general population in order to help him prepare for his upcoming trial on charges that he extorted the sports apparel giant Nike.

A spokesman for the MCC did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Comment: See also: Michael Avenatti arrested at Los Angeles courthouse during state bar hearing


Arrow Down

'Twice the wokeness'! New York Times eviscerated for dual endorsement of Warren/Klobuchar

Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren
© REUTERS/Lucas JacksonAmy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren greet each other at second Democratic presidential debate. Detroit, Michigan .
New York Times editor Mara Gay said the paper's Sunday night dual endorsement of Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar is meant to point out that there's two ways forward for anti-Trump voters, but neither side is buying it.

"This is really our way of narrowing that field, and also just pointing out to voters there is more than one pathway forward here," Gay told Morning Joe on Monday, saying Warren and Klobuchar present the best "two paths" to beat US President Donald Trump.

Conservatives have mocked the dual endorsement for being motivated by identity politics — Warren and Klobuchar are two of the last three women running for the nomination from the Democrat Party — while potential Democrat voters have slammed the New York Times for being incapable of picking one candidate.

"BREAKING: The New York Times picks both the Chiefs and the 49ers to win the Super Bowl," conservative commentator and podcaster Ben Shapiro tweeted in response to its dual 2020 endorsement. The mocking tone was echoed by many in reaction to the paper's editorial board not only being unable to make a clear endorsement.

Quenelle - Golden

Protests continue in Lebanon's Beirut after hundreds injured in violent clashes with police

protests lebanon
© REUTERS / Mohamed Azakir
According to the Lebanese Red Cross, hundreds of people were injured during violent clashes between protesters and police last week.

Protests over economic crisis continue in Lebanon's Beirut following clashes between protesters and police that took place in the city during the weekend.

Lebanese riot police used tear gas, rubber bullets and water cannons to disperse crowds of anti-government protesters that occupied the downtown Beirut and attempted to storm the parliament building. Hundreds of people were injured, the country's Red Cross said.

Mass protests rocked Beirut in October 2019 when people took to the streets to express their outrage over a new tax the government planned to impose for making calls using the WhatsApp application. The resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri's government failed to quell the protests, and a new cabinet has not been formed in Lebanon ever since.

Follow Sputnik's feed to find out more.


Comment: See also:


Attention

Political pawn: Extradition trial of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou begins in Vancouver

Meng Wanzhou Vancouver
© AFP / Getty Images North America / Jeff VinnickMeng Wanzhou leaves her Vancouver home with a security guard, January 20, 2020.
A Canadian court is set to hear a much-anticipated case at the centre of the tech and trade war between the US and China, as Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou will fight a US extradition request based on charges her team say have no merit.

Meng was arrested at Vancouver International Airport in December 2018 at the bidding of the United States, just as tensions were mounting between Washington and Beijing over trade tariffs imposed by the Trump administration. US authorities accused her of defrauding financial institutions and lying in an attempt to circumvent US sanctions impeding other countries' abilities to do business with Iran.

The Huawei executive — who was forced to surrender her passports, abide by a curfew and wear a GPS tracker — has been living under house arrest in Vancouver since she was released on a $10-million bail. Formal hearings begin on Monday and are expected to continue until Thursday, though this is only phase one in what is expected to be a long and drawn out extradition trial. With so many moving parts to the case and potential for multiple appeals, it could still take months or even years for it to really come to an end.

Decisions this week will hang on the Canadian law principle, necessary for extradition, of 'double criminality'. That essentially means the crime the person is accused of by the country requesting extradition must also be a crime in Canada.

Comment: Additional background:


People 2

Virginia's capitol sees massive crowd of gun rights activists for Second Amendment rally - MSM disappointed at lack of violence

pro gun 2A rally virginia richmond
© Associated PressDemonstrators are seen during a pro-gun rally, Monday in Richmond, Va.
Thousands of Second Amendment supporters carrying long firearms and wearing stickers reading "Guns Save Lives" descended upon Virginia's Capitol in Richmond Monday for a widely publicized rally to protest a recent push by state Democrats for comprehensive gun control.

The rally comes as the city has been on high alert for days following threats of violence, leading to road closures as well as a ban on firearms in the Capitol and on its grounds. Yet as of midday Monday, the demonstrations were peaceful.

"If they can come for your guns in Virginia, they can come for them in West Virginia," demonstrator Annette Parker told Fox News, noting that she drove six hours to get to the event.

The throngs who gathered in Richmond Monday were heard in large groups reciting the Second Amendment in unison, while others broke out in chants of "we will not comply!"

Comment: RT reported:
Thousands of gun-rights supporters and militia members have gathered at the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond, in an armed show of defiance against a slew of gun laws proposed by Governor Ralph Northam.

Northam - who shot to international infamy last year when a yearbook picture of him in blackface surfaced - has proposed a bevy of new gun laws in the wake of a mass shooting at Virginia Beach last May. Democrats took control of the state's House of Representatives and Senate in November, giving Northam the political path to passing these laws. The proposed measures include universal background checks, 'red flag' laws, and a restriction on handgun purchases. A highly controversial ban on AR-style semi-automatic rifles was struck out by the State Senate last week.
pro gun 2a richmond virginia
© Reuters / Jonathan DrakeArmed militia members stand with people dressed in American revolution-era attire at a rally near Virginia's Capitol
President Donald Trump has lent his support to the gun activists, warning Virginians: "The Democrat Party in the Great Commonwealth of Virginia are working hard to take away your 2nd Amendment rights. This is just the beginning. Don't let it happen, VOTE REPUBLICAN in 2020."
Despite the MSM's clear directive to report the rally as a dangerous collection of gun crazy, white supremacists, with Hollywierd singing chorus, the gathering as reported by RT and tweets on the ground show the event was anything but:
Talking heads in the media and Hollywood tried to paint the pro-Second Amendment supporters in Richmond, Virginia as racist or potentially violent, creating a much gloomier image than the one that transpired in reality.

Folks walking around the Virginia State Capitol in Richmond with semi-automatic weapons strapped over their shoulders had anti-gun activists up in arms and concerned, but the pro-Second Amendment protest — which was against new anti-gun measures proposed by Governor Ralph Northam — ended up being quite peaceful.

'Westworld' actor Jeffrey Wright was similarly bothered by the gun-wielding protesters. He tweeted that the protest was "gun circle jerk" and said it had a "Klan-like rally smell" to it. This is despite the fact that plenty of videos and pictures showed minorities protesting for gun rights too.


"This is what's happening in Virginia right now. Trump's America," Democrat activist and Charmed actress Alyssa Milano tweeted in response to a video of protesters showing up, sporting rifles and tactical gear.


Mainstream media outlets got serious pushback from supporters of the rally and rally attendees for their coverage of the day's events.

MSNBC correspondent Gabe Gutierrez found himself in hot water when he tweeted a video of a large group of protesters saying the pledge of allegiance and captioned the video with: "Chants of 'we will not comply' from gun rights protesters in Richmond."

Since the audio in the video did not match what Gutierrez was saying, commentators like Ben Shapiro and Dana Loesch immediately descended on the man.


"We all have ears, dude. That's not what they're chanting," Shapiro tweeted.

Hours after his original post, Gutierrez posted the actual video of protesters chanting, "we will not comply." This video was of a much smaller group and its delayed posting led to more criticism.

"This should have been first with the proper context. I see no problem with law-abiding Americans peacefully assembling, as is their right, stating that they will not comply with unlawful orders that rob them of constitutionally protected rights," Loesch wrote in response to the new video.

MSNBC, Huffington Post and other outlets promoted the idea that thousands of "extremists" and "white nationalists" would descend on Virginia in support of gun rights, the coverage ended up being a far cry from the predicted doom.

MSNBC reporter Ben Collins deleted a tweet where he called the rally a "white nationalist rally."


CNN said ahead of the rally that the FBI was working with law enforcement to prepare for"threats of violence." They later had to report that the event ended "peacefully."

One video even showed protesters cleaning up after themselves as the rally came to a close.


To the disappointment of the MSM reporters on the scene, the rally WAS peaceful, even fun. This interview is a perfect example:









Footprints

Norway's Progress Party resigns after ISIS bride is given assistance to return to the country

Siv Jensen
© Reuters / Fredrik VarfjellNorway's Progress party leader and Finance Minister Siv Jensen speaks during a news conference in Oslo.
Norway's Progress Party has quit the country's coalition government after a jihadist bride and her children were allowed to return from Syria. The move leaves the remaining coalition partners ruling in a minority.

Finance Minister Siv Jensen announced the resignation of her Progress Party on Monday, after a woman suspected of marrying two Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) jihadists in Syria was given assistance to return to Norway over the weekend. The Norwegian government aided the woman's return out of concern for the welfare of her children, but Jensen's party had vehemently opposed any repatriation for Islamist fighters or their spouses.

"I brought us into government, and now I'm bringing the party out," Jensen told reporters on Monday, adding that her Conservative, Liberal, and Christian Democratic coalition partners had forced her to make "too many compromises" to her platform of tax cuts and immigration restrictions.

Bizarro Earth

Ukraine furious after UK adds its coat of arms to list of 'extremist' symbols in anti-terror guide

ukraine right wing
© Reuters / Marko Djurica
Ukraine's embassy in the UK has demanded an official apology after the Trident — its national coat of arms — was included among a group of "right-wing signs & symbols" in a guide by Britain's national anti-terrorist authority.

The Trident — or Tryzub as it's known in Ukraine — was featured in an Extremism Guide for UK teachers and medical staff produced by the National Counter Terrorism Policing Network - a collaboration of law enforcement entities tasked with preventing and combating terrorism.

A tattoo of the Trident is shown in a section on right-wing "signs & symbols" and is described simply as "nationalist." It appears alongside well-known extremist symbols including the Nazi swastika, the 'SS Runes,' the iron eagle, the iron cross and various white pride emblems.

Comment: The fruits of the Western-backed coup in Ukraine are clear for all to see: