© craigmurray.org.uk
I have always been very fond of this photo, for reasons which are perhaps obvious. We are left to right Celia, Stuart, Neil, Craig and throughout our childhood we really were that close and that happy. The reason that I post this now is that my mother always told me she was amazed how good we looked in the photo, because it was taken when we were all off school sick with
Hong Kong flu.
The Hong Kong flu pandemic of 1968/9 was the last really serious flu pandemic to sweep the UK. They do seem extraordinarily regular - 1919, 1969 and 2020. Flu epidemics have much better punctuality than the trains (though I cheated a bit there and left out the 1958 "Asian flu"). Nowadays "Hong Kong flu" is known as H3N2. Estimates for deaths it caused worldwide vary from 1 to 4 million. In the UK it killed an estimated 80,000 people.
If the current coronavirus had appeared in 1968, it would simply have been called "flu", probably "Wuhan flu". COVID-19 may not be nowadays classified as such, but in my youth flu is definitely what we would have called it. The Hong Kong flu was very similar to the current outbreak in being extremely contagious but with a fairly low mortality rate. 30% of the UK population is estimated to have been infected in the Hong Kong flu pandemic. The death rate was about 0.5%, mostly elderly or with underlying health conditions.
Lee Brown
NY PostWed, 11 Mar 2020 20:28 UTC
© AP; Getty Images
Prince Andrew and Ghislane Maxwell
Prince Andrew has hired a crisis management specialist dubbed "the backroom fixer" — after snubbing the FBI on the advice of Jeffrey Epstein's accused madam Ghislaine Maxwell, according to reports.
The Duke of York was on Monday once again shamed by US authorities who say he "completely shut the door on voluntary cooperation" with the investigation into his late pedophile pal's crimes.
Now a family friend of Maxwell's claims Andrew was "persuaded" to do so at her urging.
"Ghislaine told me that yes, the lawyers and Ghislaine have finally convinced Andrew that it would do no good for him to talk to the FBI," Maxwell friend Laura Goldman
told The Sun.
© AP
New York Stock Exchange President Stacey Cunningham consults with specialist Peter Giacchi, left, on the floor of the NYSE, Monday, March 9, 2020.
Global stocks plunged yesterday in the worst sell-off since the global financial crisis of 2008, with indications that worse may still be yet to come as reflected in the fall in Asian markets when trading began today.
Yesterday, after falls across the Asia-Pacific, where the Tokyo and Sydney markets dropped by around 7 percent and similar sell-offs in Europe, Wall Street plunged on opening.
The fall was so large that it triggered a circuit breaker that suspended trading for 15 minutes in order to try to halt panic selling.
The fall continued throughout the day with the Dow closing more than 2,000 points down,
its largest one-day point fall in history. There was a drop of more than 7 percent in all market indexes, taking Wall Street close to entering a bear market — defined as
a 20 percent fall — since its high in mid-February.
The downturn, initiated by the economic impact of the coronavirus, entered a new stage over the weekend with Saudi Arabia launching an oil price war. It boosted production and offered discount prices, following the breakdown of an agreement with Russia to limit supply and maintain prices.
The decision sent oil prices tumbling by between 25 and 30 percent when markets opened this week.
© Majdi Mohammed/AP
Members of Palestinian security forces wear masks outside a hotel n Bethlehem, West Bank, March 6, 2020.
Merely two weeks after Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, declared that the PA will suspend all 'security coordination' with Israel, Palestinian security forces in the West Bank
killed unarmed teenager, Salah Zakareneh.
Zakareneh is not the first and, sadly, will not be the last Palestinian to be killed by the PA security forces, which in recent years have dramatically increased their oppressive tactics against any form of political dissent in Palestine.
The 17-year-old boy died soon after PA security was dispatched to the village of Qabatiya, south of Jenin, in the northern West Bank to allegedly confront a "military-style demonstration" that was being planned.
The official version of the story claimed that as soon as the PA force arrived in Qabatiya, armed men from the village opened fire while others hurled rocks, prompting PA officers to respond with live bullets and teargas canisters, resulting in the death of Zakareneh and the wounding of others.
No PA officers were wounded by gunfire.
Comment: As a colluding appendage to Israel, power is the payoff for the PA and Abbas at the expense of their own people. The 'protectors' have become the oppressors.
See also:
RTTue, 10 Mar 2020 19:35 UTC
© Reuters/Eduardo Munoz
A man wears a face mask in New Rochelle, New York.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has ordered the state National Guard to New Rochelle, a town in the affluent Westchester County, to enforce a
two-week COVID-19 coronavirus quarantine.
The troops will help clean and deliver food in the designated "containment area" in a one-mile (1.6 km) radius around the area where the contagion appears to have originated, until the lockdown is lifted on March 25.
"It is a dramatic action, but
it is the largest cluster of cases in the country," Cuomo said at a news conference on Tuesday.
"The numbers are going up unabated, and we do need a special public health strategy for New Rochelle."
Westchester County is a suburban area just north of New York City, where
108 cases of COVID-19 have been registered so far - the vast majority of New York state's 173 known cases.
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."
Comment: See also: