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Philippines locks down economic hub to fight COVID-19 surge

Philippine COVID lockdown
© AFP/Jam STA ROSA
A previous months-long lockdown crippled the Philippine economy, cost millions of jobs and left many households hungry
More than 24 million people in the Philippines' economic hub entered a lockdown on Monday (Mar 29), as officials warned the week-long restrictions could be extended if coronavirus infections do not fall.

People have been ordered to stay home unless they are essential workers as Metro Manila - the national capital region - and four neighbouring provinces struggle to curb a surge that has strained hospitals.

Only hours into the latest lockdown imposed on the region - which accounts for around half of the country's economic activity - the health department's epidemiology chief Alethea de Guzman warned it could be prolonged to bring about a "sustained" drop.

Wedding Rings

Trump crashes Mar-a-Lago wedding reception and gives impromptu speech

Trump
© Mandel Ngan/AFP
The Party Crasher
Former President Donald Trump crashed a wedding reception at his Mar-a-Lago resort on Saturday night. The lucky couple who received the surprise guest were John and Megan Arrigo.

Trump drew big laugher from the crowd as he took jabs at the current administration.

TMZ, who first obtained the video, used it to trash Trump for making it "all about him" — but anyone who is getting married at Mar-a-Lago is not going to be upset about the surprise appearance.

Trump lambasted Biden for his foreign policy/deals with China and Iran, the border crisis, and other shortcomings of the administration's first few months:
"Look, it's a disaster. It's a humanitarian disaster from their standpoint and it's going to destroy the country — and frankly the country can't afford it!"

Comment: Whatever Trump had, he's still got it. In this short stand-up, he likely said more than Biden did all week.


X

Texas COVID numbers decrease 17 days after mask, other restrictions lifted

GregAbbot
© Unknown
Texas Governor Greg Abbott
Just over two weeks after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott lifted coronavirus mandates allowing businesses to operate at 100 percent capacity and made masks optional, the red state is still reporting decreases in cases and hospitalizations.

The governor championed his state's success in a Friday night tweet saying:
"Today Texas recorded the lowest 7-day COVID positivity rate since that data began being calculated: 5.43%. We also recorded the largest daily number of vaccines administered to Texans: 342,849. More Texans getting vaccines will keep down the positivity rate. Receiving the vaccine was 'always voluntary.'"
Texas reported 2,239 new infections Saturday, roughly 500 fewer cases on average from the previous week, according to data from the state's health department.

Biden slammed Abbott's decision -- which was shortly followed by similar mandate removals by Mississippi -- as "Neanderthal thinking." Biden told reporters from the White House earlier this month:
"We've been able to move that all the way up to the end of May to have enough [vaccines] for every American, to get every adult American to get a shot. The last thing we need is the Neanderthal thinking."

Comment: We shall see if this encouraging outcome is duplicated in other states. It would be helpful for statistical information to be separately factored on each component - especially the efficacy and rationale for a vaccine (given this flu is unremarkable and there are sudden deaths attributable). While masks are virally ineffective, they compromise the wearer. Losing the mask appears to have positive effects.



Pistol

At least 30 shot over weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot's Chicago

Lightfoot
© AP/Nam Y. Huh
1 Mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot
At least 30 people were shot, three fatally, over another deadly weekend in Mayor Lori Lightfoot's (D) Chicago.

Yesterday, Breitbart News noted some 20 people were shot in Chicago from Friday into Sunday morning alone. Those shooting victims included two fatalities.

On Monday morning ABC 7 / Chicago Sun-Times reported the number of individuals shot over the entire weekend had climbed to at least 30. And there was an additional fatality, which occurred late Sunday afternoon "in Logan Square on the Northwest Side." The fatality occurred just after 4:30 p.m. Sunday, when a 32-year-old man was shot multiple times. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

The Chicago Tribune observes 620 people were shot in Chicago January 1, 2021, through March 22, 2021, and that represents 159 more people than were shot during the same time last year as numbers show no sign of abatement.

Moreover, shootings on Chicago expressways are surging in 2021. WGNTV explained there were already 42 such shootings by March 5, 2021, and ABC 7 points out there was another expressway shooting Sunday night.

Sunday night's shooting occurred "on I-57 near 127th Street," and left four people injured.
About the Author:
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

NPC

'Shocking' & 'racist': Politician in hot water over telling whites to 'be silent' when people of color discuss racism

Audrey Pulvar
© AFP / Patrick Kovarik
Audrey Pulvar
A black deputy mayor of Paris, Audrey Pulvar, has sparked controversy online after she said white people should remain "silent spectators" if they attend meetings where people of color discuss racism.

A former TV host and journalist, Pulvar, told the French BFM TV on Saturday that she was "not shocked" to hear that people of color hold meetings closed to the whites. The politician, who now serves as a deputy to the Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, referred to a high-profile incident earlier this month, which saw the National Union of Students of France (UNEF) organizing meetings on racism that were off-limits to the whites.

Pulvar, herself a black person, said that "people who are discriminated against for the same reasons and who feel the same way need to meet together to discuss it." Still, she believes it would not be quite right to outright ban the white people from attending such meetings altogether.

Star of David

The ongoing Nakbah in Jerusalem

Man w sign
© Heather Sharona Weiss/ActiveStills
Palestinians and Israelis protest against forcible evictions in Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem.
Israel is committing an ongoing Nakba in occupied East Jerusalem. Settler organizations are threatening to forcibly evict 15 Palestinian families from their Jerusalem homes in the next few months. This amounts to 37 households and around 195 individuals, according to Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq. The families reside in the Karm al-Jaouni area of the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood and the Batan al-Hawa area of the Silwan neighborhood.

In November, Israeli courts ruled in favor of settler groups to evict the Palestinian families. The two groups are Nahalat Shimon International - a company registered in the United States, and Ateret Cohanim - a right-wing settlement organization.

Both organizations help implement the Israeli government's colonization of Palestinian properties in Jerusalem.

After seven decades

In February, a Jerusalem district court ruled against an appeal by six families living in Sheikh Jarrah against their eviction. Israeli settlement watchdog Peace Now said the families were given "one paragraph" each to make their case to remain in the four houses they've lived in for nearly 70 years.

Briefcase

Lawyers for Afghans claim Dutch troops failed to spare civilians

Afghan Soldiers/boy
© AFP
Dutch soldiers on patrol in The Chora Valley, Uruzgan, Afghanistan
Lawyers acting for Afghans wounded by bombardment by Dutch troops in 2007 on Monday told a Dutch district court that the soldiers had failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets and used disproportionate force.

The four Afghans and relatives of a fifth who has since died are suing the Dutch state in civil court for compensation for what they say are war crimes in Afghanistan's Uruzgan province. Lawyer Liesbeth Zegveld told Dutch judges in the first hearing of the case:
"The (Dutch) state has failed in upholding the fundamental distinction between military and civilian targets. [The attacks] "fit the picture that the life of an Afghan is not worth much to us."
Lawyers for the Dutch state dismissed the plaintiffs complaints that civilians were not properly warned that an attack was imminent, and that the soldiers were using outdated intelligence. "The serious reproaches plaintiffs make towards the Dutch state are unfounded," Karlijn Teuben, a lawyer for the Dutch state, told judges.

Arrow Down

US dropping FBI fingerprint tests for caregivers at migrant facilities

migrant children custody
© US Customs and Border Protection
There are currently 18,000 children and teenage illegal migrants currently in custody in the United States.
The Biden administration is using a less stringent standard to vet those caring for thousands of unaccompanied minors in migrant facilities at the border, according to a report.

Instead of subjecting caregivers to FBI fingerprint checks, which could reveal those using fake identities or changed names, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Department is simply relying on public records checks as it screens such workers, HHS said in a statement.

While FBI fingerprint tests rely on proprietary criminal databases, public records tests are dependent on the subject providing accurate information.

HHS's own Inspector General has warned the lower grade tests would not be as effective at sussing out past sexual or criminal offenses.

Attention

Do better than critical race theory

CRITICAL RACE THEORY, PROTEST, BLM
© Unknown
Many of you have noticed that more people than ever are presenting the stock Critical Race Theory ideas. Do not be alarmed. This is correct. Critical Race Theory mainstreamed during the Black Lives Matter protests following a similar incident in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2015. The rapid mainstreaming of Critical Race Theory is actually a problem, but you don't need to despair. Critical Race Theory is definitely mainstreaming more than ever now, but on the other hand, not only do more people know what it is now than in 2015 and before, more people than ever are also connecting the dots that something in it is leading not to healing but to harm. We have an opportunity to steal the motte and bomb the bailey, as it might be phrased, and hopefully get this conversation and our country back on track.

The present circumstances are volatile, and fighting for sense in mayhem like this is like trying to talk sense into a hurricane. This public rage, like all public rage, will not last forever. Thus, right now presents a valuable opportunity to educate ourselves and then others clearly about Critical Race Theory, including its role in the present outrage (some of it quite justified) and mayhem (utterly unjustifiable). We have a chance to learn how and why, while it points to important problems, Critical Race Theory is a bad way to deal with the real problems we are put face-to-face with now and to realize that there are better ways. To be clear, Critical Race Theory points to real problems, but it diagnoses them incorrectly and prescribes poisonous solutions that will only make the problems worse. And there are resources to do this now.

Attention

'Armed' antifa thugs descend on Oregon state capitol of Salem: Attack 'Back the Blue' car parade

Andtifa salem riot
© Andy Ngo/Tsitter
Armed antifa rioters in Salem, OR, March 28, 2021
Salem Police arrested at least three people and urged others to stay away from Oregon's State Capitol building Sunday evening as violence linked to Antifa-aligned protesters broke out.

The "heavily armed" crowd had grown to as many as 200 people, Fox 12 Portland reported. The chaos unfolded as a planned right-wing protest and Antifa counter-protest were scheduled in Salem for the same day.

Police received reports of vehicles driving past the Capitol being struck with balloons filled with paint as well as green lasers being pointed at drivers.

Comment: The New York Post reports on one man who chose to stand his ground against the thugs. HE was taken into custody.
Dramatic video shows the moment a man pulls a gun on Antifa protesters as they clashed with demonstrators taking part in a "Freedom Rally" near the Oregon state Capitol on Sunday.


He initially appeared calm as the counter-protesters dressed all in black surrounded and mocked him, with some threateningly aiming canisters at him throughout the confrontation.

But the squabble took an ugly turn after he was either sprayed in the face or struck with an object — prompting him to flinch and draw his weapon on the crowd.

"Get away from me!" he shouted, yanking a handgun from his waistband and cocking it as he aimed it toward the leftist activists.

As the mob screamed about his loaded gun, an armed officer quickly approached and forced the driver to the ground, with a large force of riot police quickly swarming the scene.

"F-k you, Proud Boy!" some in the mob screamed as the officers kept the alleged gunman on the ground.

Oregon State Police Capt. Tim Fox told The Oregonian that the man — who was not identified — had not yet been arrested, and that officers were still investigating the case.

Three others were arrested, however, including an 18-year-old man who was charged with five counts of "unlawful pointing of a laser," state police said in a release.

Police said more than 100 left-wing protesters — many linked to the Youth Liberation Front — turned up to "prevent the Freedom Rally caravan" that was planning to meet at the Capitol. The mob is accused of damaging vehicles, including the alleged gunman's, which was covered in yellow spray paint and had its windows smashed.

Most were "wearing black clothing and ballistic vests and carrying firearms, bats, skateboards, umbrellas, shields and gas masks," police said.

"Soon after their arrival, the Salem Police department began to receive reports that individuals from the Court Street group were targeting vehicles driving by," the statement said.

"The victims reported their vehicles were damaged by paint-filled balloons, rocks and other hard objects being thrown at them as they passed," the force said — highlighting one that "sustained significant damage after a large tree limb was thrown through the front window."
More from The Gateway Pundit:
Antifa terrorists threw rocks and paint bombs at cars and trucks driven by 'Back the Blue' supporters in Salem, Oregon. The demonstration was reportedly organized by the Proud Boys, though according to reports not many Proud Boys showed up. About one hundred fifty Antifa were there to counter and attack them. One driver was arrested by police when he pulled a gun on Antifa after getting out of his pickup truck when it was attacked. Otherwise it appears police let Antifa attack at will.




"Right now in Salem, Oregon. A truck plows thru a crowd of anti-fascist protesters nearly hitting one. The truck is part of a "pro Trump" convoy that has travelled to Salem to counter protest the "No Place for Hate Here" rally."

Another car attacked by Antifa:

The provocations can go on only for so long before someone snaps. As Trump once said:

Trump warns Antifa had better hope the 'other side' doesn't mobilize: They are 'tougher, smarter & angrier'