Society's Child

Russia sitting pretty: Oil price crash not catastrophic for Russian economy — Kremlin

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 16:13 UTC

The current turmoil on the global oil market is not disastrous for Russia, Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said on Friday, noting the country has a safety cushion.

Russia holds vast gold and foreign exchange reserves to stabilize the economy in times of economic uncertainty. The country's total gold holdings amounted to 73.2 million troy ounces (2,276.8 tons) as of February 1, and are worth around $116 billion, while the country's total reserves have recently eclipsed $580 billion, according to the latest data from the Central Bank of Russia.

"Certainly, the price situation is unpleasant... But we can't agree that this is a disaster for Russia in the medium term because our government has a solid safety cushion which for several years could provide an opportunity to fulfill all social obligations, development plans, and so on."

Comment:

Russia's gold & near-zero debt give it best chance of thriving in post-coronavirus hysteria and global economic apocalypse - Max Keiser

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 07:00 UTC

The coronavirus pandemic has popped a quadrillion-dollar financial bubble and we can expect a very deep and prolonged period of adjustment, RT's veteran business commentator Max Keiser believes.

Comment: Perhaps things will never truly adjust and, just like with the financial implosion and bail outs of 2008, it's only a matter of time before reality forces societies to confront their collective delusions once more.

The financial crisis, which many believe we have just entered, stems from the times of Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, with the establishment of 'neoliberal' policies "that enriched bankers and destroyed workers by giving bankers free reign to borrow and speculate without oversight or accountability," Keiser told RT. Now, governments will have to adjust to a new reality, and having a low debt and massive reserves could be the trump card, according to the former Wall Street stockbroker.

"Russia has the best hand at the geopolitical poker table. The Kremlin, for 20 years, has been doing the opposite of everyone else by reducing their national debt to near zero, and buying thousands of tons of gold while simultaneously raising living standards," he said.

Comment: See also:

Two Turkish soldiers killed in rocket attack by 'radical groups' in Syria's Idlib

Sputnik
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 19:58 UTC

The situation in northern Syria recently calmed down, as Moscow and Ankara reached a ceasefire, suspending clashes between Syrian forces on the one side, and Turkish troops and Turkey-backed militants on the other.

Two Turkish soldiers have been killed and one more injured in a rocket attack by "radical groups" in the Syrian province of Idlib, the Turkish Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.

Turkish forces responded with retaliatory fire against detected targets of the radical groups, the statement added.

Later, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry's center for Syria reconciliation, Rear Adm. Oleg Zhuravlev, confirmed that two Turkish servicemen were killed in a clash with militants from a terrorist group on the M4 highway.

Comment: See also:

Botched 'Islamist attack': Car driven into Barcelona airport, two arrested

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 09:31 UTC

Police cordoned off a section of Barcelona's El Prat airport after an apparent failed Islamist attack, in which two men drove a car through the terminal building's doors.

The Mossos d'Esquadra, Barcelona's police force, confirmed that two men attempted to storm the Terminal 1 bulking at the El Prat international airport at approximately 5am local time on Friday.

The men made it as far as the food court of the airport, reportedly shouting Islamist slogans, before they were arrested.

Technicians from Spain's bomb squad Tedax were also deployed to investigate the vehicle which was found to not contain any explosive devices. No weapons or ammunition were discovered in the vehicle either.

Comment: More than a bit bizarre considering how well known it is that most European countries are on lockdown with very few travelling at the moment. They may be mentally deranged or that whoever is behind this is hoping that it will be a 'gentle' reminder that 'terrorism' is ever present. I guess we'll see whether this is just the beginning.

See also: Knife wielding man shot dead by police in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, on the same day of a similar incident in France

Licence to kill: Proposed emergency Coronavirus Bill protects NHS against negligence claims

Jack Montgomery
Breitbart
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 08:07 UTC

Emergency coronavirus legislation will empower the government to "provide indemnity for clinical negligence liabilities of healthcare professionals and others arising from NHS activities carried out as part of the response to a coronavirus outbreak."

The proposed Coronavirus Bill will, if it becomes law, provide the state with sweeping, authoritarian powers to regulate the public's behaviour throughout the emergency, in order to mitigate its potentially devastating effects.

By providing "indemnity for clinical negligence liabilities arising from NHS activities connected to the diagnosis, care and treatment of those who have been diagnosed as having coronavirus disease or who are suspected, or who are at risk, of having the disease" through the Secretary of State for Health or "a person authorised by the Secretary of State", the bill aims to "ensure that, in the exceptional circumstances that might arise in a coronavirus outbreak, sufficient indemnity arrangements are in place to cover all NHS activities required to respond to the outbreak," according to explanatory notes provided by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Chillingly, scariest coronavirus death toll may not come from covid-19

W. E. Messamore
CCN
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 07:06 UTC

A great deal of scientific research indicates the coronavirus containment strategy will cause more deaths than COVID-19 would have.

© REUTERS/Carlo Allegri
The link between unemployment and suicides will be a concern that has to be addressed while the majority of the population stays-in to duck the coronavirus pandemic.

While many countries are in lock down to prevent COVID-19 deaths, the reaction to coronavirus is likely to kill more people than the disease itself.
That's because coronavirus layoffs have already surged across the US. And unemployment projections are already as high as 4.6 million.
Meanwhile, there's a firm body of scientific literature establishing a strong link between unemployment and higher suicide rates.

Many people will die because of coronavirus, but drastic containment strategies in many countries may leave even more dead. Alarmingly, the death toll from a now imminent coronavirus recession could be much higher than that from COVID-19.

Comment: The death toll as a result of the measures government are taking will be far higher than the coronavirus. On top of higher suicides, there will also be more people stressed out because they can't make ends meet. That stress leads to disease and all that follows. Whatever aid package the government gives them, it is not a substitute for having something to occupy their time with. People (at least the majority) need something other than just to be perpetually looking for work. See also:

Russia testing MULTIPLE prototype Covid-19 vaccines

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 03:23 UTC

Russia's research center of virology and biotechnology, known as the Vector Institute, is testing multiple different vaccine prototypes against the Covid-19 disease, in a race to find a cure for the virus behind a global pandemic.

This week, the institute "began immunogenicity studies in sensitive laboratory animals ... of all developed vaccine prototypes," said consumer watchdog agency Rospotrebnadzor in a statement on Friday.

The Russian Health Ministry's Research Institute of Influenza previously said a prototype vaccine could take between four and six months, with a three-year timetable for a final product, but researchers at the institute suggest it could come much sooner.

Nirbhaya gang rape convicts executed at Delhi prison, bringing shocking 7+ year case to a close after countless delays

RT
Fri, 20 Mar 2020 02:39 UTC

The four men convicted for the grisly 2012 gang rape and murder of a young student in India have been executed by hanging, finally bringing the seven-year 'Nirbhaya' case to an end after a lengthy ordeal of appeals and delays.

The assailants were hanged at New Delhi's Tihar Jail 5:30am local time Friday, following a marathon legal proceeding the night prior which saw last-ditch attempts to appeal their sentence shot down.

"Now I will get peace," Asha Devi, the mother of the victim, - who has come to be known as 'Nirbhaya', or 'the fearless one' in Hindi - told PTI after the mens' final hanging date was set in stone early Friday morning.

The ghastly crime saw a group of attackers descended upon a 23-year-old student and her male companion riding on a bus in India's capital on the evening of December 16, 2012, savagely beating both and taking turns raping the young student. Though the woman lived through the initial onslaught, she later died of severe internal injuries, while her friend was critically injured but survived the encounter.

Coronavirus sends (some) British forces home from Iraq

RT
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 13:20 UTC

© Reuters / Azad Lashkari
FILE PHOTO: British troops with Peshmerga forces take part in training in Erbil, Iraq, March 17, 2016

Britain has pulled some of its forces home from a training mission in Iraq, due to a slowdown in operations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. The illness has forced the British military to reassess its priorities.

An unspecified number of the 400 or so British troops will be pulled from Iraq and sent home to "support loved ones facing the challenges of the virus," the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday. Some "key military personnel" will be left behind, the MoD added.

The troops were deployed to Iraq in 2014 to train Kurdish forces battling Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) militants, but Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said that the virus had slowed the "tempo of training," and led to the mission being paused for the last 60 days. Before training the Kurds, British soldiers fought alongside US and coalition forces in Iraq between 2003 and 2011, in a war that cost 180 British lives and remained unpopular with the public throughout.

CNN reporter praises Trump's coronavirus response, immediately clarifies on Twitter before she loses lib credibility

RT
Thu, 19 Mar 2020 19:25 UTC

Veteran CNN reporter Dana Bash furiously backpedaled on Twitter after getting praise from conservatives - and heat from 'the Resistance' - for calling President Donald Trump's coronavirus press conference "remarkable."

"He is being the kind of leader that people need, at least in tone, today and yesterday, in tone that people need, and want, and yearn for in times of crisis and uncertainty," Bash, CNN's chief political correspondent, said on-air Tuesday in response to Trump's coronavirus press conference.

She also called Trump "remarkable," an adjective you don't typically hear used on CNN to describe the president.

Comment: We're seeing anti-Trump hysteria play off with the coronavirus hoax pandemic hysteria. Who will win?

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Society's Child

Russia sitting pretty: Oil price crash not catastrophic for Russian economy — Kremlin

Russia's gold & near-zero debt give it best chance of thriving in post-coronavirus hysteria and global economic apocalypse - Max Keiser

Two Turkish soldiers killed in rocket attack by 'radical groups' in Syria's Idlib

Botched 'Islamist attack': Car driven into Barcelona airport, two arrested

Licence to kill: Proposed emergency Coronavirus Bill protects NHS against negligence claims

Chillingly, scariest coronavirus death toll may not come from covid-19

Russia testing MULTIPLE prototype Covid-19 vaccines

Nirbhaya gang rape convicts executed at Delhi prison, bringing shocking 7+ year case to a close after countless delays

Coronavirus sends (some) British forces home from Iraq

CNN reporter praises Trump's coronavirus response, immediately clarifies on Twitter before she loses lib credibility

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