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New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern explains why Kiwis should not avoid public events amid coronavirus COVID-19

Zane Small
Newshub
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:01 UTC
Jacinda Ardern
Jacinda Ardern does not want Kiwis to avoid public gatherings amid the COVID-19 outbreak despite asking officials for advice on two events this weekend.

The Prime Minister said on Tuesday morning she had sought advice from health officials about whether it is safe to go ahead with the Pasifika Festival and the Christchurch terror attack memorial on Saturday and Sunday, respectively.

By Tuesday afternoon, the Prime Minister said she was expecting to receive the advice from officials "later this afternoon" and that she would share the outcome when she has it.

Comment: See also:

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Megaphone

US now openly admits its goal in Syria is to make it 'difficult' for Moscow and Damascus to defeat terrorists

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 22:55 UTC
liberated idlib province Islam
© REUTERS/Omar Sanadiki
A Syrian soldier walks by the sign reading "Islam is the solution" in the town of Khan Sheikhoun, Idlib province, freshly liberated from militants; August 24, 2019.
The State Department's special envoy for Syria has just admitted that the US aims to defend jihadist militants in Idlib against 'Russian aggression,' proving once again that the swamp in Foggy Bottom is alive and well.

Russia and the Syrian government "are out to get a military victory in all of Syria," Ambassador James Jeffrey told reporters on a conference call out of Brussels on Tuesday.
Our goal is to make it very difficult for them to do that by a variety of diplomatic, military, and other actions.

Comment: See also:

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Snakes in Suits

Turkey will not receive Patriot System unless it returns S-400 to Russia - Pentagon


Sputnik
Wed, 11 Mar 2020 18:25 UTC
S-400
© AP Photo / Turkish Defence Ministry
The United States continues to condition the supply of the Patriot air defence systems to Turkey on returning the already purchased S-400 systems back to Russia, US Defense Department spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said in a briefing on Tuesday.

"Turkey is not going to receive a Patriot battery unless it returns the S-400," Hoffman told reporters.

Earlier on Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the United States has softened its stance on Turkey's purchase of the Russian S-400 air defence systems and reduced its demands to asking Ankara not to put the weapon on active service.

Comment: Russia has done a lot more for Turkey than simply provide it with superior weaponry and so if Erdogan and Turkey's ruling factions know what's best for it, they'll stick with Russia's S-400s:

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HAL9000

Democrats and Republicans pause their phony war to quietly extend NSA's mass surveillance powers


RT
Wed, 11 Mar 2020 00:24 UTC

Comment: The House always wins...


surveillance
© Pixabay / succo
Democrat and Republican House leaders have paused their partisan sniping to do the real work of governing: keeping unpopular surveillance programs, including roving NSA wiretaps and access to metadata, alive indefinitely.

With just four days to go before congressional authorization for the controversial provisions expires, a bipartisan contingent has swooped in to save the NSA from experiencing one second of separation anxiety from Americans' private communications. Committee heads from both sides of the aisle wrangled enough votes within their own parties to deliver a reauthorization bill on Tuesday night which they believe will pass the entire House on Wednesday.

Lawmakers reportedly sweated for months over the legislation, which extends key elements of the USA Freedom Act, the 2015 replacement for the NSA's "StellarWind" program exposed by whistleblower Edward Snowden - even though the NSA itself no longer uses the program. Indeed, it was the Trump administration, not Congress, that pleaded for its reauthorization, on the offchance it might be needed again in the future.

Comment: See also:

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USA

US-Israel is predictably behind Turkish aggression in Syria

Tony Cartalucci
New Eastern Outlook
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
US soldier
Turkey's ongoing fighting in northern Syria's Idlib governorate was - from the beginning of recent escalations - clearly a continuation of Washington's wider now 9 year-long proxy war against Damascus.

Whatever gains Turkey had made in terms of reducing its role in Washington's proxy war and repairing ties with Syria's allies Russia and Iran - were clearly less important to Ankara amid these recent weeks of renewed aggression than whatever Washington has either promised Anakara or threatened it with.

And precisely because Turkey's aggression in Idlib is merely one part of the much wider proxy war Washington continues to wage against Damascus - it was predicted that others involved in the proxy war would coordinate with Turkey elsewhere in Syria.

Israeli Airstrikes

In recent weeks Israel has continued carrying out attacks in Syrian territory.

Recent news has covered Israeli attacks on military targets in Homs - right at the edge of where Turkey's aggression trails off.

Chinese news site Xinhua in its March 5, 2020 article, "Syrian air defenses intercept Israeli missiles in central, southern regions," would report:
Syrian air defenses intercepted Israeli missiles in the central province of Homs and the southern Quneitra province after midnight Thursday, state news agency SANA reported.

The missiles were fired from Israeli warplanes over the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights and from Lebanese airspace, said the report, without providing details on the targets.

The attack is the latest in a string of missile strikes carried out by Israel.

Comment: See also:

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Eagle

The Federal Reserve's irresponsible rate cut accelerated panic

Daniel Lacalle
dlacalle.com
Sun, 08 Mar 2020 00:00 UTC
stone eagle
The monumental mistake of the Federal Reserve cutting rates this week can only be understood in the context of the rising God's complex of central planners. An overwhelming combination of ignorance and arrogance.

Less than a week ago, several members of the Federal Reserve board reminded - rightly so - that cutting rates would not have a significant impact in a supply shock like the current one. We must also remember that the Federal Reserve already cut rates in 2019 and inflated its balance sheet by 14% to almost all-time highs in recent months, completely reversing the virtually nonexistent prior normalization. Only a few days after making calls for prudence, the Fed launched an unnecessary and panic-inducing emergency rate cut and caused the opposite effect to what they desired. Instead of calming markets, the Federal Reserve 50 basis points cut sent a message of panic to market participants. If the jobs and manufacturing figures were better than expected, and the economy is solid with low unemployment, what message does the Fed transmit with an emergency cut? It tells market participants that the situation is much worse than it seems and that the Fed knows more than the rest of us about how dire everything can be. A communication and policy mistake driven by an incorrect diagnosis: The idea that the market crash would be solved with easy monetary policy instead of understanding the impact on stocks and growth of an evident supply shock from the coronavirus epidemic.
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Bad Guys

By tagging Trump's Biden video as 'manipulated' Twitter actually manipulates US electorate

Nebojsa Malic
RT
Mon, 09 Mar 2020 23:24 UTC
social media giants
© REUTERS/File Photo
Imagine thinking so little of Americans' intelligence to label a factual video clip 'manipulated' because it's being used as a meme in the presidential election campaign. Twitter just did that, following in Facebook's footsteps.

For the first time ever, Twitter applied a 'manipulated' tag to a video retweeted by President Donald Trump and shared by his social media director Dan Scavino. Mainstream media critics of the president were really excited at the news, calling the video "deceptively edited."

"We cannot get re-elect [sic]....we cannot win this re-election... excuse me, we can only re-elect Donald Trump," the video shows Democrat front-runner Joe Biden telling a crowd. According to Twitter and the mainstream media, this is deceptive because the clip leaves out the ending: "...if in fact we get engaged in this circular firing squad here."

The full video of Biden's remarks makes it clear that he didn't really endorse Trump. Of course, no actual person out there would think he did, merely that the 78-year-old establishment Democrat is having trouble stringing a coherent sentence together, even with the help of a teleprompter.

Comment: The Trump campaign blasted the actions of Twitter, saying the company is engaged in applying double standards in order to protect the Biden campaign, in a letter sent to top Twitter officials:
"The Biden campaign has a strategic interest in intimidating social media companies into suppressing true and embarrassing video evidence of Joe Biden's continued inability to communicate coherently.

"Still, it appears that many people employed by Big Tech corporations in Silicon Valley are assisting the Biden campaign" by enforcing a rule that effectively censors any speech which "Biden's campaign and its supporters do not like," the letter continues.

[...]

The Trump team also countered with its own examples of deceptive or manipulated videos put out by the Biden campaign, singling out three clips it said used selective editing to "mislead Americans and give a false impression" of President Trump - including one video edited to make it appear that Trump had described neo-Nazis as "very fine people."

Though at the time the president immediately clarified "I'm not talking about the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists," who he said should be "condemned totally," that did not stop the Biden campaign from circulating the edited footage without consequence.

Another clip from a recent campaign rally was modified to suggest Trump had dismissed the coronavirus as a "hoax." While the president did use the two words in the same sentence, he had actually accused his Democratic opponents of committing the 'hoax' by exploiting the lethal illness to score political points. That video also failed to earn a disclaimer from the social media giant or its allies in the corporate press.

Having taken no action against those videos and others, the campaign demanded the company prove that it is "not seeking to protect Joe Biden" and finally start applying its standards "equally across the board."


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Chess

Afghan president Ghani orders release of Taliban prisoners, important point of deal with US


RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 23:16 UTC
Afghan security force
© AFP / Noorullah Shirzada
Afghan security force escort detained Taliban members
President Ashraf Ghani has signed a decree pardoning Taliban fighters held in Afghan prisons. The move was part of the peace deal Washington made with the group, but official Kabul hesitated to act on it, demanding guarantees.

The Afghan president "has signed the decree that would facilitate the release of the Taliban prisoners in accordance with an accepted framework for the start of negotiation between the Taliban and the Afghan government," Ghani's spokesman Sediq Sediqqi tweeted on Tuesday, announcing the measure.

The decree will see around 1,500 Taliban militants freed from prisons across Afghanistan, starting within the next four days. Each of them will have to provide a written guarantee that they won't be returning to the battlefield.
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Putin

'Western ideologists will go crazy': Putin leaves door open to run for president again


RT
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 23:11 UTC
putin
© Reuters / Umit Bektas
Putin's speech to the Russian parliament Tuesday seemed to be one of his most sincere: he argued that stable leadership is good for a country in turbulent times but does it mean we'll really see him in power beyond 2024.

Putin said Tuesday that he will seek a new term when his current one is up "only if it's approved by the Constitutional Court and if citizens support such a proposal" when they vote for constitutional amendments on April 22.

He addressed the issue during a speech in parliament after MP and the first woman in space, Valentina Tereshkova, called for his tenure to be reset so that he would be eligible for two more runs before being subject to the new restrictions, envisaged by the amendments.

The changes to Russia's principal law, among other things, include redistributing some powers away from the president to the parliament, banning state officials from having foreign citizenship and setting the minimum wage above the basic cost of living.
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Eye 1

Hunter Biden says coronavirus is keeping him from attending child support deposition

Andrew Kerr
Daily Caller
Tue, 10 Mar 2020 16:22 UTC
hunter joe biden
© REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Hunter Biden's lawyers told an Arkansas judge on Tuesday that he is unable to attend a child support deposition scheduled for this week due to coronavirus and his pregnant wife's imminent due date.

"It is unsafe for the Defendant to travel, as travel restrictions have been implemented both domestically and internationally, particularly on airlines, due to the Coronavirus," Hunter Biden's lawyer wrote in a court filing. "Setting aside personal endangerment, Defendant reasonably believes that such travel unnecessarily exposes his wife and unborn child to this virus."

Hunter Biden's wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, is due to deliver his unborn child in two and a half weeks or less, according to the court filing. The couple is renting a $3.9 million home in Los Angeles at $12,000 per month.

Comment: What a scumbag.

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