RTWed, 11 Mar 2020 18:24 UTC
© RT
A still from the news block
A trend of assaulting non-mainstream politicians over their views seems to be taking root in Germany, with a car owned by the head of the AfD party's Berlin branch being set on fire in the second such incident in over a week.
Arsonists set ablaze a greyish Skoda belonging to Nicolaus Fest, provisional head of Alternative for Germany's Berlin branch and member of the European Parliament, on Tuesday night. While the arson attack didn't destroy the entire car, it badly damaged the engine and the front part of the vehicle.
The Berlin wing of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party believes the incident was due to their dissenting views. "The arsonists sit in the strategy-making back rooms of the traditional parties, in which new hate campaigns against the AfD are devised every day," it tweeted,
posting an image of the damaged car.
Comment: The AfD (Alternative for Germany) party, is a right-wing radical answer to the equally radical leftwing parties that want Germany's borders to be completely open to migrants. The ideological war seems to be morphing into a material one.
Bill Chappell
NPRWed, 11 Mar 2020 16:38 UTC
© Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus gestures during a press briefing on evolution of new coronavirus epidemic on January 29, 2020 in Geneva.
The COVID-19 viral disease that has swept into at least 114 countries and killed more than 4,000 people is now officially a pandemic, the World Health Organization announced Wednesday.
"This is the first pandemic caused by coronavirus," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
Eight countries — including the U.S. — are now each reporting more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19, caused by the virus that has infected more than 120,000 people worldwide.
A severe outbreak in Italy has now caused more than 630 deaths there, and the country's case total continues to rise sharply. It's now at 10,000 cases,
second only to China. There are 9,000 cases in Iran, and more than 7,700 in South Korea.
Those countries are all imposing drastic measures in an attempt to slow the spread of the COVID-19 illness, which has a higher fatality rate for elderly people and those with underlying health conditions.
"In the Americas, Honduras, Jamaica and Panama are all confirming coronavirus infections for the first time," NPR's Jason Beaubien reports. "Elsewhere Mongolia and Cyprus are also now reporting cases."
Comment: "Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death," the director-general
said. Judging by the way people are behaving worldwide, it's safe to say that the word can and will case unreasonable fear. But in the words of that most helpful of books, the
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,
don't panic. And if you simply can't
not panic, at least keep your head on straight and do so responsibly.
Meanwhile in Iran, 63 new deaths have been
recorded, including
five members of the IRGC. In Palestine, with its first case outside of Bethlehem (brining the total to 29), the PA is considering
shutting the border. Schools, universities, banks, hotels, restaurants all remain closed. The PA has
arrested some locals for spreading false information about the virus, including false reports about cases in cities with no confirmed cases. A similar
false report in India about the virus being transmitted through white meat led one poultry farmer to destroy nearly $800k worth of chickens and eggs:
Though unfounded, the rumor has spread like wildfire on messaging platforms such as WhatsApp, prompting many to drop chicken and eggs from their daily diet, while sending poultry sales plummeting by up to 80 percent across India, the third-largest producer of eggs and fourth-largest of chickens in the world.
Moscow has
banned large-scale events, and Kiev plans to
close schools and universities. Italy has
suspended mortgage payments after the entire country was placed on lockdown yesterday.
Here's how Italians are
shopping to stock up during the lockdown:
UK Health Minister Nadine Dorries tested
positive days after meeting with PM Johnson. Merkel put on her precognition hat to
predict that up to 70% of Germans will contract the virus if no vaccine is developed. Norway
cancelled NATO's Arctic Cold Response exercises. And the CFR
cancelled their coronavirus-themed conference in NYC - how fitting! Also in NY, the state has
deployed the National Guard to set up a containment area. Nancy Pelosi
shut down Nadler's request to flee DC (several lawmakers have already self-quarantined after coming in contact with individuals with the virus). Meanwhile the Trump administration is
considering a payroll tax holiday, promising to support businesses in covering paid time off for employees on sick-leave, as well as a promise that insurers will cover all coronavirus costs.
Panic is a strong force, you could even say it's elemental. So, to repeat, your mind is your own. Don't let something else run it for you.
See also:
HIROLA CONSERVANCY: The giraffes lived in an unfenced conservancy
In the latest senseless crime against wildlife, two extremely rare white giraffes in Kenya have reportedly been killed by poachers.
Rangers at the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy discovered the carcasses of a female white giraffe and her calf in a village in Garissa County.
Conservancy manager Mohammed Ahmednoor on Tuesday said that after a long search, they were only able to recover the super-rare animals' skeletal remains. In a statement, he said:
"This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole. We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffe.
It's killing is a blow to the tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species and a wake-up call for continued support to conservation efforts.
This is a long-term loss given that genetics studies and research which were significant investment into the area by researchers, has now gone to the drain. Also, the white giraffe was a big boost to tourism in the area."
© Stephanie Keith/Getty Image
Disgraced producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison Wednesday in Manhattan court.
Weinstein was hit with a 23-year
sentence, according to the
Associated Press, which is just six years under the maximum sentence he could have received. Weinstein was
convicted of rape in the third degree and committing a criminal sexual act in the first degree last month.
All the women who testified against Weinstein were present at the hearing and two spoke in court Wednesday before Judge James Burke handed down the sentencing.
"He had crushed a part of my spirit," Miriam Haley said during the hearing. "If he was not convicted of rape & sexual assault by this jury it would have happened again & again. I'm relieved there are women who are safer because he is not out there."
Nigel Farage
NewsweekMon, 09 Mar 2020 14:07 UTC
© AFP / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Samuel Corum / AFP / CARL COURT
(L) Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage; (R) A BBC logo inside Broadcasting House
The first duty of any government is to protect the wellbeing of its citizens and their country. In times of crisis, the economy must always come second.
Last week, Boris Johnson shambolically contradicted Professor Chris Whitty, the UK government's chief medical adviser, about whether Britain was still in the so-called "containment" phase of the coronavirus disease or had moved on to the "delay" phase. Johnson said that dealing with coronavirus was all about timing.
Now, Britain's premier is following events rather than leading them. By continuing to allow dozens of airplanes from areas of Italy which have been affected by the disease to land on British soil without even bothering to check those arriving for signs of illness, he and his government are being negligent. They are not carrying out their principal responsibility of keeping their people safe.
Comment: RT
reports on the public's response to Farage voicing his opinions on the coronavirus hysteria:
[...]
Many critics laid into the public broadcaster for giving a platform to a divisive figure with no medical expertise. One person sarcastically asked: "Would that be the internationally renowned and respected infectious disease expert Nigel Farage?"
There were those who slammed the social media outrage over Farage's appearance, however, with some suggesting people were guilty of operating in an echo chamber - hitting back at those who suggested the Brexit Party leader's opinions had no value due to his lack of expertise on the matter.
Asked whether Farage was a doctor or scientist, one person fired back: "Is Greta [Thunberg]? Yet everyone bows down to her opinion and she's on stages with world leaders."
[...]
See also:
Panicked politicians making a show of 'doing something' are the real danger of the coronavirus outbreak
© AP Photo / Emilio Morenatti
One person died and 13 others were injured in an explosion on Tuesday at a small chemical plant in Barcelona, local emergency services in Catalonia's regional capital said.
There was no health risk to the residents of La Verneda neighborhood where the plant was located, said a Barcelona city government spokeswoman.
Officials were checking with the plant owners to determine what type of products exploded.
Debris from the blast, including bolts, was visible on a nearby street, footage from local channel Beteve showed.
U Vic has cancelled a conservative from speaking because there were "considerable concerns around safety and security for this event.”
The University of Victoria has cancelled a conservative activist from speaking at a "free speech club," because there were "considerable concerns around safety and security for this event."
As a result of this, the university would only allow the event to continue if the undergraduate student who organized the event paid for a security detail in order to guarantee the protection of both the speaker and the university's property.
The event in question was organized so that students could hear a conservative perspective over the recent #ShutDownCanada protests, which led to key areas of Canada's infrastructure being blockaded. Aaron Gunn, a mainstream conservative commentator with a large online following, was given the opportunity to express this perspective by the university's free speech club.
© Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | AP
Women cover their faces as they take part in a rally celebrating International Women’s Day at Washington Square Park in New York, March 8, 2020.
From Raytheon to the IDF, "woke" corporations and military powers are using International Women's Day to shore up their "social justice" credentials.
It was a familiar site yesterday on International Women's Day, as military contractors and other giant corporations used the holiday to attempt to associate themselves with progressive causes and agendas. Weapons manufacturer Raytheon
positioned itself as a feminist brand on Twitter. The United States Air Force - currently bombing
seven countries simultaneously -
announced that "On International Women's Day, we celebrate the women that lead the defense of our nation throughout our service. An equal world is an enabled world," sharing pictures of women in uniform. Meanwhile, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF)
created an "inspirational" video of its inclusive history, tweeting: "Here's to their risk-taking, barrier-breaking, history-making. Here's to their glass-ceiling-smashing, odds-defying, limits-pushing. Here's to the women of the IDF."
© AP
A courtroom sketch of Joshua Schulte.
A Manhattan federal jury on Monday found a former CIA programmer guilty of lying to the FBI and of contempt — but failed to reach a verdict on the far more serious charges that he turned a trove of secret documents from the spy agency over to Wikileaks.
US District Judge Paul Crotty declared a mistrial in the case of accused leaker Joshua Schulte after the jury declared itself "extremely deadlocked" on the eight most serious charges at the trial — including illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information.
Schulte, 31, still faces up to five years on the lesser counts.
Prosecutors accused the onetime programmer of pulling off the largest breach of classified information in the history of the CIA when he allegedly gave hackers access to the agency's top-secret hacking tools.
At his four-week trial, federal prosecutors portrayed Schulte as a vindictive and disgruntled employee who put US security at risk by leaking information on how the CIA spied on foreign adversaries.
"These leaks were devastating to national security," Assistant US Attorney Matthew Laroche said during closing arguments last week. "The CIA's cyber tools were gone in an instant. Intelligence gathering operations around the world stopped immediately."
Comment: The AfD (Alternative for Germany) party, is a right-wing radical answer to the equally radical leftwing parties that want Germany's borders to be completely open to migrants. The ideological war seems to be morphing into a material one.