March 5th, 2020 • 3h 3m
Shownotes
Every new episode of No Agenda is accompanied by a comprehensive list of shownotes curated by Adam while preparing for the show. Clips played by the hosts during the show can also be found here.
Super Tuesday
Republican iOS Democrat iPad made many uncomfortable
Texas updates reporting system to allow for tally of Super Tuesday delegates | The Texas Tribune
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 22:19
Texas counties have started seeing updates to the state's election reporting system that will allow them to break out the vote totals needed to determine how many delegates are won by presidential contenders on Super Tuesday. The refinements to the portal used by the state's 254 counties to report results come after Texas Democrats raised the prospect of a delay in calculating delegates.
A majority of the Democratic Party's 228 pledged delegates will be apportioned based on how the candidates do in each state Senate district. The election system update will allow local officials to report returns broken out at the district level on election night, so party officials can calculate delegate totals for the myriad Democratic hopefuls. Election day is March 3; early voting begins Feb. 18.
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Last week, Texas Democrats said the Texas secretary of state's office told them that data at that level would not be available on election night because that function was not yet "built out" in the state's new reporting system. Any delay would have complicated the party's ability to apply the complex formula it uses to distribute 149 Democratic delegates based on votes in each of 31 state Senate districts.
State officials refuted Democrats' claims that the data needed to calculate that delegate distribution wouldn't be available on election night and said the data would be ''reported in the same fashion'' as it was in the 2016 presidential primaries, when local officials used a different reporting system.
But until last week, the state's revamped reporting system did not allow local election officials to log that data at the state Senate district level.
In a Thursday email to county election officials obtained by The Texas Tribune, an election official with the Texas secretary of state's office informed counties that an update to the reporting system that would address that issue would be added ''in the next few days.''
Several county officials confirmed to the Tribune on Tuesday that the system has since been updated. The secretary of state's office offered no comment on the update.
Without that update, Texas Democrats feared a delay in distributing 149 district-delegates that are proportionally awarded to Democratic presidential candidates who garner more than 15% of the vote in each state Senate district. The number of delegates assigned in each district is based on how those districts voted for the 2016 Democratic presidential nominee and the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor. For the upcoming primary, that number ranges from two to 10 delegates in each Senate district.
Texas offers Democratic presidential hopefuls the second-largest prize on Super Tuesday, and its hefty delegate pool could prove decisive in a pitched race. With its Super Tuesday slot, Texas is set to award more delegates to Democratic presidential hopefuls on that day than all of the preceding primaries combined.
Disclosure: The Texas secretary of state has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.
The Latest: San Antonio Results Delayed by Software Snafu | Washington, D.C. News | US News
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 10:38
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Steven on Twitter: "@shaunking @MSNBC @maddow @BernieSanders This was circulating on twitter yesterday. Posted by Buttigieg campaign member who then deleted. ðð>> https://t.co/atq42DXCw9" / Twitter
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 21:18
BREAKING:
@MSNBC@maddow just reported that multiple ''senior officials'' within the Democratic Party are interfering with the primaries to stop
@BernieSanders. They reported that the party has asked Bloomberg to drop out so that Biden would have an easier time against Bernie.
Flavor Flav fired from Public Enemy following fight over Sanders rally
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 08:14
Public Enemy fired Flavor Flav, the band announced Sunday, after the rapper had sent a cease and desist letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders in response to an announcement that group co-founder Chuck D planned to perform under the group's name at a rally for the presidential candidate.
"Public Enemy and Public Enemy Radio will be moving forward without Flavor Flav," said a statement obtained by NBC News. "We thank him for his years of service and wish him well."
The statement said that Public Enemy Radio, a Public Enemy offshoot led by Chuck D and featuring DJ Lord, Jahi and the S1Ws would go on with their plan to perform at Sanders' 6 p.m. rally at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The rally and show were livestreamed on Sanders' website next to donation option buttons.
On Friday, Flav's lawyer sent a letter to the Sanders campaign alleging that the performance at the political rally would use Flav's "unauthorized likeness" and "image" for promotion purposes.
"While Chuck is certainly free to express his political view as he sees fit '-- his voice alone does not speak for Public Enemy. The planned performance will only be Chuck D of Public Enemy, it will not be a performance by Public Enemy. Those who truly know what Public Enemy stands for know what time it is, there is no Public Enemy without Flavor Flav," the letter read.
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Public Enemy kicked out Flavor Flav.....over Bernie Sanders?
This is PEAK 2020.
'-- Stefan Grant | Realtor ðð (@STEFisDOPE) March 2, 2020Flav added a personal note at the bottom of the letter that said: "Hey Bernie, don't do this," along with a drawing of his signature clock.
Flav and Chuck D in the early '80s were two founding members of the group, known for its politically-charged lyrics and messaging.
Chuck D ripped into Flav on Sunday saying, "It's not about BERNIE with Flav... he don't know the difference between BarrySanders or BernieSanders." Some Garth Brooks fans mixed up the football player and presidential candidate last week.
Chuck D said he's thrown his support behind Sanders because his "dad passing in 2016 and Granddaughter being born automatically put healthcare and childcare at the top of my brain."
If you had Flavor Flav getting booted from Public Enemy in a spat over performing at a Bernie Sanders rally on your Super Tuesday bingo card, please step forward.https://t.co/d1fwpTfnkP
'-- Jamie Dupree (@jamiedupree) March 2, 2020Later Sunday, Chuck D continued to criticize Flav, explicitly on Twitter and more subtly on Instagram.
"It's no longer tolerable to just pontificate and not do s--t. People gotta realize, whoever they vote for isn't going to be Jesus," Chuck D wrote in an Instagram post.
"Spoke @BernieSanders rally with @EnemyRadio. If there was a $bag, Flav would've been there front & center. He will NOT do free benefit shows. Sued me in court the 1st time I let him back in. His ambulance lawyer sued me again on Friday," Chuck D wrote on Twitter after the rally Sunday.
In a 2017 lawsuit, Flav accused Chuck D and two of his business of withholding Public Enemy royalties a merchandising revenue from him. It's unclear if Flav has more recently filed a second suit against Chuck D.
Flavor Flav has not publicly acknowledged his letter or dismissal from the group and did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chuck D also did not immediately respond to a request for further comment.
Elisha Fieldstadt Elisha Fieldstadt is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.
Variety contributed.
Here Are The Billionaires Funding The Democratic Presidential Candidates, As Of December 2019
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 21:00
This article reflects Federal Election Commission filings as of Dec. 31, 2019. Go here to see the latest billionaire donor count.
As Democratic candidates drop out of the race, more billionaires are jumping in. By the end of 2019, about 20% of American billionaires had donated'--either directly or through their spouse'--to at least one Democratic candidate running for president, according to a review of the latest Federal Election Commission filings. At least 100 billionaires donated in their own names. And at least 25 did not give any money directly, but are married to people who did.
Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg lead the pack of beneficiaries. Forbes found that Biden had received support from 60 billionaires or their spouses by the end of 2019. Buttigieg had 56 such backers. The two billionaire candidates, Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg, outspent both Biden and Buttigieg with their own resources. By the end of the year, Steyer and Bloomberg had each shelled out over $200 million on their campaigns.
Sixteen new donors supported Biden in the last three months of 2019, according to a Forbes analysis. Biden's largest donor appears to be real estate billionaire George Marcus, who gave $1 million to a super PAC supporting the former vice president in December. Marcus also hosted a fundraiser for Biden in the fall. His wife, Judy, pitched in another $2,800 to Biden, her first contribution to a presidential candidate this cycle, in October.
Forbes also found 16 new donors to Buttigieg's campaign, including Walmart heiress Christy Walton and Kleiner Perkins legend John Doerr, along with the spouses of hedge funder Steve Cohen and Google cofounder Sergey Brin. Brin's wife, Nicole Shanahan, reportedly cohosted a fundraiser for Buttigieg in December in concert with Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and Wendy Schmidt, the wife of ex-Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Earlier in the race, Shanahan donated $2,800 to the now-defunct campaign of Marianne Williamson.
Buttigieg likely has even more billionaire support. Forbes found two other donors whose names match the names of billionaire spouses, but we could not independently verify whether they were in fact the same people. The Buttigieg campaign also received a lift from VoteVets, a PAC that has paid for ads supporting Buttigieg and in August raised $100,000 from private equity billionaire Brian Sheth.
Forbes found eight new donors to Amy Klobuchar's campaign. All but one of her new supporters had also contributed to Biden, Buttigieg'--or both. Notable new backers include hedge funder Stephen Mandel, Laurene Powell Jobs and Nicole Systrom, the wife of Instagram cofounder Kevin Systrom. Powell Jobs'--who sits atop a $25 billion fortune she inherited from her late husband, Steve, the cofounder of Apple'--has also contributed to the campaigns of Biden, Buttigieg, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker and Michael Bennet.
While Buttigieg, Biden and Klobuchar's groups picked up new billionaire backers'--and Steyer and Bloomberg bankrolled their own operations'--three other candidates got virtually no love from the upper crust. After Forbes reported that Marta Thoma Hall, who is married to a billionaire self-driving car pioneer, donated to Bernie Sanders, the Vermont senator returned the money in November. No other billionaires have sent him funds since, according to a Forbes analysis. Elizabeth Warren had previously received support from six billionaires and their spouses. But she upped her proposed wealth tax from 3% to 6% during the final quarter of 2019, which might explain why no other billionaires got behind her campaign. Hawaii Representative Tulsi Gabbard'--who had previously received just one billionaire donation from Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey'--also did not pick up any new support from the richest of the rich.
Even the most recent campaign dropouts'--Andrew Yang, Deval Patrick and Michael Bennet'--received donations from new billionaires during the last three months of the year. But as Sanders has shown, success at the voting booth does not necessarily require support from the billionaires.
Tracking Billionaire Donations Over TimeForbes mined Federal Election Commission data for donations from billionaires and their spouses, searching for all itemized donations of at least $100. This chart represents how many donors we found for every candidate. * Includes the billionaire candidate. THE CANDIDATESJoe BidenDonors (billionaires and spouses of billionaires, as of December 31, 2019): 60Money raised (from all donors, as of December 31, 2019): $61 millionNotable backers: Timothy Boyle, Henry Laufer, Laurene Powell JobsDespite having support from more billionaires than any other Democratic candidate at the end of 2019, it's not a sure thing that they'll stick with Biden through the rest of the primary season. When asked about his contribution to Biden (and his wife's contribution to Buttigieg), private equity billionaire Thomas Lee made it clear his family has a new favorite, writing to Forbes in an email, ''All pre Bloomberg!!!''
Pete ButtigiegDonors: 56Money raised: $76.8 millionNotable backer: Alexandra Cohen (wife of Steve Cohen), John Doerr, Christy WaltonButtigieg is getting new support from the money capitals of America'--Wall Street and Silicon Valley. Private equity titan Barry Sternlicht of Starwood Private Equity Group and venture capitalist John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins are now backing Buttigieg. So are at least three members of the Chicago-based Pritzker clan, heirs to the Hyatt hotel fortune.
Amy KlobucharDonors: 29Money raised: $29 millionNotable backers: Mellody Hobson (wife of George Lucas), Stephen Mandel, Nicole Systrom (wife of Kevin Systrom)After contributing to Kamala Harris' campaign more than a year ago, Laurene Powell Jobs spread her support around during the last three months of 2019, giving to the campaigns of Klobuchar, Biden, Bennet, Booker and Buttigieg.
Tom SteyerDonors: 11Money raised: $206.3 millionNotable backer: Jim and Penny Coulter, Daniel Och, himselfSteyer doesn't need much from others, having shelled out more than $200 million of his own money. But fellow hedge fund billionaire Julian Robertson, who founded Tiger Management, pitched in $5,600 nonetheless.
Elizabeth WarrenDonors: 6Money raised: $82 millionNotable backer: Craig Newmark, Steven Rales, Chris and Crystal SaccaIn November, Warren announced that she would double her proposed wealth tax from 3% to 6% to fund Medicare For All. Not a good way to attract the billionaires. Zero donated to her campaign in the last three months of 2019, according to a Forbes analysis.
Michael BloombergDonor: 1Money raised: $200.4 millionNotable backer: HimselfWhy ask anyone else for money when your personal net worth is nearly 1,000 times more than the amount Donald Trump's campaign spent in 2016?
Tulsi GabbardDonor: 1Money raised: $12.6 millionNotable backer: Jack DorseyGabbard's only billionaire donor remains Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who gave $5,600 in June, maxing out the amount he can contribute to her campaign through the general election.
Bernie SandersDonors: 0Money raised: $109.1 millionSanders received $470 in contributions from the spouse of a billionaire over the summer. After Forbes notified his campaign of the contributions, he returned the funds to her last November.
Methodology: On January 13, 2020, Forbes compiled a list of 643 American billionaires and all of their publicly identifiable spouses. We compared that list with Federal Election Commission filings, which show donations to candidate committees. We counted individual itemized contributions made in increments of at least $100, then reviewed addresses and employment information to confirm identities. We left out donations made to PACs and super PACs, counting just the money that went straight to candidates' campaigns. We also ignored money transferred from other campaign committees. We reached out to every person we found to get their feedback. It's possible we missed someone. We'll continue searching through the 2020 election.Additional reporting by Giacomo Tognini
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Kung Flu
Nothing is more infectious than fear
Goldman Now Sees 2 Rate Cuts In Next 2 Weeks, Expects "Coordinated" Central Bank Easing | Zero Hedge
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:57
It was just Friday that Goldman finally gave up on its bizarrely optimistic global outlook that it had adopted in late 2019, and instead of seeing no rate cuts - or hikes - in 2020, the bank's chief economist Jan Hatzius capitulated, and said that the Fed will likely cut at least three times in the first half to offset the global economic slowdown due to the coronavirus, late on Sunday, just 48 hours after its first rate forecast revision, Goldman has officially thrown in the towel on even a trace of optimism for the foreseeable future, and now expects not only the Fed to cut 4 times by the end of Q2, but also cautions of a a high risk that the easing it expects over the next several weeks could occur "in coordinated fashion, perhaps as early as the coming week", which of course is disappointing for all those who were hoping the Fed would step in as soon as Sunday afternoon/evening.
In justifying the implosion of its outlook, Haztius writes that "on Friday morning, we downgraded our baseline view of global GDP growth in 2020 from just over 3% to around 2% on the back of developments related to the coronavirus, with weakness concentrated in the first half of the year. We also changed our Fed call to project 75bp of rate cuts by June, starting with a 25bp cut on March 18."
This was on Friday morning. Since then, so over the weekend, it appears that newsflow has taken a decided turn for the worse, and as Goldman adds, "the news on the outlook has remained negative, with significant further increases in infections outside of China and an exceptionally weak China PMI release. Moreover, the statement by Fed Chair Powell on Friday afternoon that the Federal Reserve is ''closely monitoring'' developments and ''will use [its] tools and act as needed to support the economy'' strongly hints at a rate cut at or even before the March 17-18 FOMC meeting."
Based on these developments, Goldman is making further adjustment to its Fed call and now projects a 50bp rate cut by March 18 followed by another 50bp of easing in Q2, for a total of 100bp in the first half. Which means that the US Fed Funds rate will be just above zero as the US enters the second half, and has a high chance of tipping negative around the time of the election. Hatzius explains:
The clear signal in Chair Powell's statement has led the bond market to price in more than 25bp of easing, and the FOMC will not want the cut to come as a disappointment in the present situation.
But wait, there's more: Goldman is now also forecasting rate cuts by most other G10 (and some EM) central banks, including a cumulative 100bp of cuts in Canada, 50bp in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Norway, India and South Korea, and 10bp in the Euro area and Switzerland. The chart below shows Goldman's new central bank forecasts along with market pricing as of Friday's close.
So does 4 rate cuts seem excessive? Not at all, and in fact Goldman even says that relative to some of its new policy rate forecasts, "the risk is on the downside, at least in terms of timing."
Specifically, we see a high risk that the easing we expect over the next several weeks occurs in coordinated fashion, perhaps as early as the coming week. Chair Powell's statement on Friday suggests to us that global central bankers are intensely focused on the downside risks from the virus. We suspect that they view the impact of a coordinated move on confidence as greater than the sum of the impacts of each individual move. If a coordinated move does occur, we think some central banks for which we are projecting a first 25bp cut in our new baseline forecast may well join the Fed in cutting by 50bp. This might apply to New Zealand and'--if the move occurs very soon'--Australia. While it is a close call, our baseline is that the UK and Canada will both cut the policy rate by 50bp at their next meetings, even if a coordinated move does not occur very soon.
Finally to all those who point out the obvious, namely that monetary policy is ill-suited to address the impact ofthe virus on the economy, and that it is really public health policy (and fiscal policy more broadly) that needs to act, Goldman agrees "but thinks that central bankers will still want to do their part" to support what Goldman erroneous calls the economy, when it clearly means the market, especially since there is not a trace yet of the US economy being impacted by the coronavirus, and last time we checked, the Fed is not a pre-cog cutting rates in advance of data developments. And while that obvious, what the Fed does do, is cut when stocks tumble, as they have now, and with the world habituated to a central bank bailout any time there is even a modest, 10% correction, this will be the first time we have a global coordinated central bank action in response to... the flu.
Banknotes may be spreading coronavirus, WHO warns
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:51
Banks in China began disinfecting and isolating used banknotes last month as part of efforts to stem the spread of coronavirus. (Feature China/Barcroft Media via Getty Images)
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has advised people to use contactless technology instead of cash as banknotes may be spreading coronavirus.
The infectious COVID-19 virus could be carried on the surface of banknotes for several days, the WHO warned on Monday night.
To stop the spread of the disease, people should use contactless payments where possible and wash their hands after handling cash, a WHO spokesman said.
The Bank of England also recognised that banknotes ''can carry bacteria or viruses'' and encouraged frequent hand washing.
Read more: Bank of England will take 'all necessary steps' on coronavirus
Last month banks in China and Korea began disinfecting and isolating used banknotes as part of efforts to stem the spread of the deadly virus.
Ultraviolet light or high temperature is being used to disinfect and sterilise banknotes, before the cash is sealed and stored for up to 14 days before being recirculated, China's central bank said at a press conference.
A Bank of England source said there were no plans to do the same in the UK.
A Bank of England spokesman told the Telegraph: ''Like any other surface that large numbers of people come into contact with, notes can carry bacteria or viruses.
''However, the risk posed by handling a polymer note is no greater than touching any other common surface, such as handrails, doorknobs or credit cards.''
Read more: Fears coronavirus threatens 'Boris bounce'
Coronavirus can be spread through contaminated objects as well as droplets and direct contact with infected patients, the WHO said.
''We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses,'' a spokesman told the Telegraph.
''We would advise people to wash their hands after handling banknotes, and avoid touching their face.
''When possible it would also be advisable to use contactless payments to reduce the risk of transmission.''
It is not yet known how long the coronavirus can survive outside the human body.
Read more: Stocks jump ahead of emergency G7 coronavirus call
It has been suggested that human coronaviruses can remain infectious on contaminated objects for as long as nine days at room temperature in an analysis of 22 earlier studies of similar viruses, including Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) published online this month in the Journal of Hospital Infection.
However, common disinfectants can swiftly remove them, and they may also be destroyed by high temperatures, the authors wrote. It is not yet clear whether the new coronavirus also behaves in this way.
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WHO Urges People To Go 'Cashless' Because 'Dirty Banknotes Can Spread The Virus' | Zero Hedge
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:19
It looks like the Chinese started something...
Following reports that Beijing had "quarantined" dirty cash, the WHO warned on Monday that the virus could survive on banknotes, potentially spreading Covid-19 within communities, and across the world. To reduce the risk of being infected by money, the NGO advised citizens in countries struggling with outbreaks to favor digital payments when possible, the Daily Telegraph reported.
That the WHO is telling the public to avoid cash is hardly a surprise: research has found that coronaviruses have been found to live on surfaces for as long as 9 days.
During the statement, a WHO spokesman referenced a Bank of England study claiming that banknotes "can carry bacteria or viruses" and urged people to wash their hands. Other studies have shown that 90% of US $1 bills had bacteria present, and one Swiss study found that viruses had survive on the faces of Swiss francs for days.
The WHO's warnings follow the People's Bank of China last month started disinfecting currency deposited at Chinese banks using ultraviolet light, before quarantining the bills for a week before releasing them back into circulation.
Brits, and their fellow Europeans, should be increasingly careful as the virus spreads across Europe, the WHO warned, via the Telegraph:
"We know that money changes hands frequently and can pick up all sorts of bacteria and viruses," a spokesman told the Telegraph.
"We would advise people to wash their hands after handling banknotes, and avoid touching their face. When possible, it would also be advisable to use contactless payments to reduce the risk of transmission."
Of course, that one of the world's major NGOs is seizing the opportunity to proclaim the virtues of 'paperless' money is hardly a surprise: the globalist push toward a 'cashless society' has been underway for years now, having had its biggest successes in Scandinavia. Sweden has gone virtually "cashless", and in such a short time, they've already confronted the many drawbacks of relying exclusively on digital money.
As we noted previously, here is what happens next:
...the virus spreads throughout the US and Europe and governments respond the same way China's government has; martial law and full blown concentration camp culture. This would lead to civil war in the US because we are armed and many people will shoot anyone trying to put us into quarantine camps. Europe is mostly screwed.
The establishment then suggests that paper money be removed from the system because it is a viral spreader. China is already pushing this solution now.
Magically, we find ourselves in a cashless society in a matter of a year or two; which is what the globalists have been demanding for years. Everything goes digital, and thus even local economies become completely centralized as private trade dies.
A viral outbreak is a significant danger to us all, but an even greater threat is the supposed cure. Trading our economic and social freedom in the name of stopping the coronavirus? No matter how deadly the bug, it's just not worth it.
The Spectator Index on Twitter: "JUST IN: Pope Francis has tested negative for coronavirus amid reports he has been unwell" / Twitter
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 09:20
Log in Sign up The Spectator Index @ spectatorindex JUST IN: Pope Francis has tested negative for coronavirus amid reports he has been unwell
11:17 PM - 2 Mar 2020 Corona 961 @ coronaV_lb
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@spectatorindex I was thisss close to be a historic virus
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@coronaV_lb @spectatorindex They're probably lying
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@spectatorindex I don't trust the Vatican.
View conversation · D'lorah Hunt @ latenig89476392
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@DiegoGiacomolli @spectatorindex I don't trust the tests. Some people test negative 8 times before they test positive. Still, I'm glad if it is true.
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@spectatorindex was he not purified by holy water to to get well from all viruses ??
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MipTV Canceled Due to Fears of Coronavirus Contagion '' Variety
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 20:08
After days of uncertainty, French conference organizer Reed Midem has officially canceled MipTV, its TV market in Cannes, and postponed third annual drama sidebar Canneseries, as France steps up efforts to contain the country's coronavirus outbreak.
Reed Midem informed both attendees and clients, including exhibitors, in one fell swoop on Wednesday afternoon.
The cancellation '-- which also covers offshoot events MipDoc and MipFormats, which take place the weekend before the market '-- marks another big blow for both Cannes and Reed Midem, which had to move Mipim, its real estate showcase initially scheduled to take place March 10-13 in Cannes, to June 2-5, where it will coincide with music industry conference Midem.
However, unlike with Mipim, it wasn't as feasible for MipTV to be postponed due to its proximity to October's Mipcom market, as well as its festival component, Canneseries, and the difficulty in getting high-profile guests to reschedule their trips.
Canneseries will now take place alongside Mipcom (Oct. 12-15), running from Oct. 9-14. Meanwhile, organizers have said MipTV will return next April, alongside a fourth edition of Canneseries.
Reed Midem said in its memo: ''In the current context, many of our clients have expressed concerns about travelling at this time. Rescheduling MipTV in the coming months is not feasible, so the most appropriate course of action is to cancel MipTV for 2020.
Popular on Variety
''The well-being of our clients, partners and staff is our priority. We are grateful to clients for their support and constructive input during this challenging period. We look forward to welcoming everyone to Mipcom (from) October 12-15 and we are delighted that Canneseries will be at our side again this year.''
MipTV keynotes this year included Sony Pictures Television president Wayne Garvie and Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon. Sky chief executive Jeremy Darroch was also set to receive a sustainability award.
For Canneseries, David Hasselhoff (''Baywatch''), up-and-coming actor Sydney Sweeney (''Euphoria'') and ''Transparent'' star Judith Light were expected to receive honorary tributes, while producer Gale Anne Hurd (''The Walking Dead'') and rocker Steward Copeland were among the guests who were supposed to take part in the jury. Among the shows that were expected to have their international premieres were AMC's ''The Walking Dead: World Beyond,'' Amazon Prime's ''Upload'' and Apple TV's ''Trying.''
Variety understands that Canneseries organizers are keen to re-invite all guests, including Light, Hasselhoff and Sweeney, to the October edition. They will also look to maintain some of the shows in competition with later release dates; however, some out-of-competition shows, such as ''The Walking Dead: World Beyond'' will be scrapped from the program because of earlier debuts.
This edition of MipTV, which was supposed to highlight Korea as its country of honor, was meant to roll out a new Palais-centralized layout. As part of a bid to reinvigorate the market, organizers had planned to move all outdoor stands inside and concentrate the event across three floors to generate more foot traffic and create a more vibrant atmosphere.
However, bringing such a large event entirely indoors proved even more problematic given France's ban on large-scale indoor gatherings.
MipTV's cancellation follows the French government's ban of indoor gatherings of more than 5,000 people, declared by France's health minister. Last year, MipTV welcomed 9,500 attendees. France has reported 212 cases of Covid-19 alongside four deaths. The first case of coronavirus in Cannes was reported on Friday.
At it stands, Lille-set drama festival Series Mania, which runs from March 20-28, is set to continue.
SXSW not canceling conference, despite petition - News - Austin American-Statesman - Austin, TX
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 17:31
Actor Jon Hamm walks the red carpet for the Amazon Prime Series Good Omens at Zach Theatre during SXSW 2019 in March 2019 [Scott Moore/Austin360]'²
More than 22,000 people have signed an online petition calling for the cancellation of the South by Southwest festival, due to run March 13-22 in Austin.
"I'm concerned about the hundreds of thousands of people who will be traveling" to Austin for the festival says the petition, which was posted by a person named Shayla Lee to Change.org.
"I believe that having an event like this is irresponsible amid an outbreak," says the petition, which is addressed to Gov. Greg Abbott, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Austin Public Health and SXSW.
But public health experts interviewed by the American-Statesman who are not involved with the SXSW decision-making say it may be premature to cancel the festival, given that the pockets of the disease remain isolated in a few communities in the U.S.
"It's a tough call," said Philip Keiser, an infectious disease expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston and a local health authority for Galveston County. "We understand that people are nervous. The risk in Texas is really, really low. We're still in that early, isolated case phase. The closure of schools or mass events '-- it's difficult to know what the right time is."
SXSW officials said Monday they are proceeding with conference.
"SXSW is working closely on a daily basis with local, state, and federal agencies to plan for a safe event," according to a statement posted on swsw.com.
SXSW officials said they made their decision in part based on recommendations from Austin Public Health.
"We're consulting with multiple organizations, state agencies and federal agencies along with health departments across the nation, that includes cities who also host large events, and consulting with what their process is right now, specifically with COVID-19," said Jen Samp at Austin Public Health. "We have to consult with many people in order to come up with these guidelines. We have emergency plans in place for large events and we are prepared, but as far as calculating the factors of what would go into a closure, we have many people to consult on that."
With only three official cases, Africa's low coronavirus rate puzzles health experts
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 22:57
To date, only three cases of infection have been officially recorded in Africa, one in Egypt, one in Algeria and one in Nigeria, with no deaths.
This is a remarkably small number for a continent with nearly 1.3 billion inhabitants, and barely a drop in the ocean of more than 86,000 cases and nearly 3,000 deaths recorded in some 60 countries worldwide.
Shortly after the virus appeared, specialists warned of the risks of its spreading in Africa, because of the continent's close commercial links with Beijing and the fragility of its medical services.
''Our biggest concern continues to be the potential for Covid-19 to spread in countries with weaker health systems,'' Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the head of the World Health Organization, told African Union health ministers gathered in the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa on February 22.
In a study published in The Lancet medical journal on the preparedness and vulnerability of African countries against the importation of Covid-19, an international team of scientists identified Algeria, Egypt and South Africa as the most likely to import new coronavirus cases into Africa, though they also have the best prepared health systems in the continent and are the least vulnerable.
'Nobody knows'
As to why the epidemic is not more widespread in the continent, ''nobody knows'', said Professor Thumbi Ndung'u, from the African Institute for Health Research in Durban, South Africa. ''Perhaps there is simply not that much travel between Africa and China.''
But Ethiopian Airlines, the largest African airline, never suspended its flights to China since the epidemic began, and China Southern on Wednesday resumed its flights to Kenya. And, of course, people carrying coronavirus could enter the country from any of the other 60-odd countries with known cases.
Favourable climate factors have also been raised as a possibility.
''Perhaps the virus doesn't spread in the African ecosystem, we don't know,'' said Professor Yazdan Yazdanpanah, head of the infectious diseases department at Bichat hospital in Paris.
This hypothesis was rejected by Professor Rodney Adam, who heads the infection control task force at the Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya. ''There is no current evidence to indicate that climate affects transmission,'' he said. ''While it is true that for certain infections there may be genetic differences in susceptibility...there is no current evidence to that effect for Covid-19.''
Nigeria well-equipped
The study in The Lancet found that Nigeria, a country at moderate risk of contamination, is also one of the best-equipped in the continent to handle such an epidemic.
But the scientists had not anticipated that the first case recorded in sub-Saharan Africa would be an Italian working in the country.
Little more than a week ago, ''our model was based on an epidemic concentrated in China, but since then the situation has completely changed, and the virus can now come from anywhere,'' Mathias Altmann, an epidemiologist at the University of Bordeaux and one of the co-authors of the report, told FRANCE 24 on Friday. The short shelf-life of studies testify to the speed of the epidemic's spread.
The Italian who tested positive for the coronavirus in Lagos had arrived from Milan on February 24 but had no symptoms when his plane landed. He was quarantined four days later at the Infectious Disease Hospital in Yaba. Several people from the company where he works have been contacted and officials are trying to trace other people with whom he might have had contact.
For Altmann, an expert in infectious diseases in developing countries, the fact that coronavirus appears to have entered sub-Saharan Africa through Nigeria is ''actually good news'', because the country appears to be relatively well prepared for confronting the situation.
In a continent that ''has had its share of epidemics and whose countries, therefore, have a huge knowledge of the field and real competence to react to this kind of situation'', Nigeria is in a very good position to confront the arrival of Covid-19, Altmann said.
''The CDC [Center for Disease Control] responsible for the entire region of West and Central Africa is located in Abuja, the capital of Nigeria, which means that their organisational standard in health matters is very high,'' he added.
The country was already renowned for ''succeeding to pretty quickly contain the Ebola epidemic in 2014,'' Altmann points out. It took the Nigerian authorities only three months to eradicate Ebola in the country. The World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control at the time congratulated Nigeria for its reactivity and ''world-class epidemiological detective work''.
But despite Nigeria's strengths, the coronavirus pathogen represents a particular challenge, in that it is hard to detect. The virus may be present in an individual who has few or no symptoms, allowing it to spread quietly in a country where, like everywhere in Africa, there is ''a shortage of equipment compared to Western countries, especially in diagnostic tools'', Altmann said.Neighbouring countries like Chad or Niger have ''less functional capacity to handle an epidemic,'' Altmann said. But they also have an advantage: these are agricultural regions where people are outdoors more, ''and viruses like this one prefer closed spaces and are less likely to spread in a rural setting,'' he added.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
'Nederlandse' producent van coronatesten verkocht voor 10 miljard euro | NU - Het laatste nieuws het eerst op NU.nl
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:53
Een deels Nederlands bedrijf dat onder meer testkits maakt die gebruikt worden om op het coronavirus te testen, is verkocht voor 10,4 miljard euro. Dinsdag maakte het Amerikaanse Thermo Fisher Scientific bekend dat het Qiagen, een concern met activiteiten in Duitsland en het hoofdkantoor in Nederland, gaat overnemen.
Qiagen is een van de grootste leveranciers van producten voor bloedtesten ter wereld. Deze testen spelen onder meer een grote rol bij onderzoek naar en de behandeling van kanker, infecties en genetische afwijkingen. Vorige maand werd gestart met het verschepen van een snelle coronatest naar China.
Thermo Fisher Scientific betaalt per aandeel 39 euro voor Qiagen, 23 procent meer dan de koers waarop het aandeel maandag sloot. Hiermee wordt het bedrijf gewaardeerd op 10,4 miljard euro.
Thermo Fisher Scientific, dat een marktwaarde van 120 miljard dollar (zo'n 107 miljard euro) heeft, is bekend als leverancier van producten, software en andere diensten voor wetenschappelijk onderzoek en de zorgbranche.
WHO Image
Coronavirus miracle? Vietnam says all its infected patients cured | Vietnam News | Al Jazeera
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 17:28
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam - Amid the rapid spread of the coronavirus outbreak around the world, Vietnam has announced that all 16 infected patients in the country were discharged from hospital and declared cured.
As of Wednesday, all 16 patients, including the oldest who is 73, had been cured and discharged from the hospital.
More:Coronavirus: Which countries have confirmed cases?What happens if you catch the new coronavirus?Coronavirus: All you need to know about symptoms and risks For the past 15 days, including on Friday, the government also detected no new cases of infections, the last one having been reported on February 13, even as a village north of Hanoi remains under a 20-day lockdown.
"If fighting COVID-19 has been a war, then we have won the first round but not the entire war because the situation can be very unpredictable," Vietnam's Ministry of Health quoted Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam as saying, referring to the illness caused by the coronavirus, during an online conference with city and provincial officials on Tuesday.
Worldwide, the outbreak has already killed almost 3,000 and infected more than 83,000 as of Saturday.
It is a different story, however, in Vietnam. World Health Organization (WHO) officials and health experts said the government's swift response to the emergency was crucial in containing the crisis at the early stage.
By Wednesday, the Vietnamese government declared that the 16th and final patient infected with the virus had been discharged from the hospital.
The 50-year-old man, identified as NVV, had earlier caught the infection from his 23-year-old daughter, identified only as NTD. Both are natives of Son Loi district in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, where 11 cases were found.
The daughter was one of eight employees of a Japanese company who returned from the Chinese city of Wuhan, the epicentre of the virus, on January 17. In all, six people among the group were found to have tested positive for the virus later.
Some of their relatives and friends were also infected, including a three-month-old baby, the youngest coronavirus patient to date.
Proactive, consistent responseDr Kidong Park, WHO representative in Vietnam, attributed the success to the government's "proactiveness and consistency throughout the response".
Vietnam's novel coronavirus nightmare began when two Chinese nationals were found to be the first cases the country on January 23 [File: Kham/Reuters]
Vietnam's novel coronavirus nightmare began when two Chinese nationals were found to be the first cases in Ho Chi Minh City on January 23, the first day of the Lunar New Year celebration holiday, casting a gloomy air over the festive season.
Vietnam officially declared the coronavirus an epidemic on February 1, when the number of cases in the country rose to six.
On February 13, the health ministry ordered all 10,600 residents of Son Loi to remain under lockdown for 20 days, after more cases were confirmed.
"The country has activated its response system at the early stage of the outbreak, by intensifying surveillance, enhancing laboratory testing, ensuring infection prevention and control and case management in healthcare facilities, clear risk communication message, and multi-sectoral collaboration," Park, the WHO official, told Al Jazeera.
No treatment yet "There's no medication for this virus yet. We rely on fundamental principles," Nguyen Thanh Long, deputy minister of health, said at a news conference in Hanoi in early February, after 10 cases were reported.
Healthcare workers have been instructed to follow some protocols to assess the infection and the level of severity.
First, the doctors are required to treat the symptoms, like fever. Second, the patients are placed on a strict, nutritious diet.
The third step, according to Nguyen, is to closely monitor the oxygen saturation level in the blood of the patients.
While efforts were made to eliminate infections behind hospital doors, Vietnam has also suspended classes, extending school breaks to protect students. Millions of students in 63 cities and provinces in Vietnam have not been back to school since the beginning of the Lunar New Year celebration.
'Safety first' Deputy Minister of Education and Training Nguyen Huu Do said during a meeting on Tuesday that, "the safety of students must be placed above all", according to the education ministry's website.
The ministry has instructed schools to disinfect classrooms before students resume their classes.
Teachers and staff have been asked to remind students about proper hygiene like hand-washing, and carry out temperature checks on students upon their arrival. Schools are also required to prepare health forms used to monitor students.
On February 13, the Health Ministry ordered all 10,600 residents of Son Loi to remain under lockdown for 20 days in an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus [File: Nhac Nguyen/AFP]
A document from the education ministry, issued on Thursday and seen by Al Jazeera, instructed authorities to allow students to return to school on March 2 "if the COVID-19 situation is well-controlled and there are no further complicated developments".
Students up to the secondary education level were given another week or two off school.
"I'm very nervous about going back to work. Hopefully, it's going to be OK considering this hot weather," said Le Hanh, a psychology consultant at a public high school with nearly 2,000 students in Ho Chi Minh City said.
Ho Chi Minh, the country's largest city, has nearly two million students, from kindergarten to continuing education and vocational training schools.
'Ban on wildlife export'While Vietnam has contained the virus well to this point, some believe that more needs to be done, especially with wildlife trade.
Wild animals have been identified as the link allowing the deadly disease to jump to humans, similar to the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2002 and the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) in 2012.
On January 28, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered a ban on imports of wild animals into Vietnam [File: Kham/Reuters]
Vietnam, a hotspot for wildlife trafficking and consumption, has also ramped up measures in this regard.
On January 28, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc ordered a ban on imports of wild animals into Vietnam.
The Forest Protection Department also temporarily prohibited the transport of wild animals out of Vietnam until further notice, according to an official document released two weeks ago.
How these directives are being implemented and how much action has been taken to address the root causes remains unclear, however, said Dr Ben Rawson of World Wildlife Fund in Vietnam.
"There is currently no direct ban on consumption of wildlife, which is the driver for illegal transport and illegal trade within the provinces," Rawson told Al Jazeera.
Illegal markets, restaurants and farms, where animals are caged, slaughtered, stored and served to buyers with no proper hygiene, may be largely unaffected by actions so far, as "it may not involve movement of wildlife across provincial borders which is restricted," he noted.
'It's not over yet'While Vietnam has managed to contain the virus, for now, the country should not lower its guard, given the spread of the infection elsewhere, like South Korea, authorities said.
Since South Korea became the biggest coronavirus centre outside China, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ordered a ban on travellers from there.
On Friday, Vietnam announced a temporary suspension of visas for South Korean nationals starting on Saturday.
Tourists wear protective masks as they travel around the historic city of Hanoi on Friday [Manan Vatsyayana/AFP]
At the same time, Vietnam announced that Iranian and Italian travellers will be subjected to a 14-day quarantine upon arriving in the country.
WHO has declared a global health emergency over the virus, and on Friday, the UN health agency said it is is "getting bigger" by the day.
Park of the WHO in Vietnam said the fight against the virus in the country is "far from over", sounding the alarm on the increasing global transmissions.
"We are at a critical juncture in the outbreak. Countries, including Vietnam, should use this time to prepare for the possibility of wider transmission."
Coronavirus in Italy: events in Lombardy canceled | En24 News
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 11:49
It is the worst known outbreak of the new corona virus in Europe: In Italy Sars-CoV-2 has now been detected in more than 50 people, the authorities said. 39 of the coronavirus infections were recorded in Lombardy in northern Italy, and twelve in Veneto.
Two deaths have been linked to the virus: In a 77-year-old woman from Lombardy who died on Thursday, the Sars-CoV-2 virus was posthumously proven to be now considered
Covid19 fatalities, even if it is unclear exactly what she died of, said Lombardy Health Commissioner Giulio Gallera. A 78-year-old from Veneto also believes that the lung disease is believed to be the cause of death, as a spokesman for the Italian civil defense said.
In ten municipalities in Lombardy, schools and most of the shops were temporarily closed. Around 50,000 residents are encouraged to stay at home if possible. Major events such as services, carnivals and sports events were prohibited. Measures were also prepared in Veneto to prevent the virus from spreading further. Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte met for crisis talks with the country's civil protection agency.
The problem: The authorities have not yet fully understood how the outbreaks could have occurred: According to the current state of knowledge, a 38-year-old who was seriously ill in Lombardy could have been infected by a friend. He had returned from China on January 21, but had shown no symptoms himself. For the outbreak in Veneto, Chinese businessmen working there are suspected to have been brought in, but there is no concrete evidence of this.
It is a problem that health authorities face in Singapore and Japan also know: There are also sick people for whom the route of infection has not been unequivocally clarified. This makes the fight against the disease difficult because contact persons cannot be fully recorded.
Cruise passengers were allowed to go home using public transportIn France twelve cases are recorded, including one death. In Germany 16 cases were reported. On Saturday, six German passengers on the cruise ship ''Diamond Princess'' landed in Berlin, which had previously been quarantined in Yokohama, Japan. The returnees from Berlin, Lower Saxony and Hesse should now remain in quarantine for two weeks as a precaution in order to be able to safely rule out that they are infected with Sars-CoV-2.
32 British and other Europeans from the cruise ship who landed in London on Saturday are said to be in a hospital in quarantine for 14 days. Such a quarantine was also ordered for 19 Italian returnees in a military complex in Rome.
All passengers disembarking were in
Japan tested negative for the virus, but the pathogen was later found in at least three of them in their home country. On Saturday, such a case became known from Japan: The virus was found in a woman who initially tested negative for Sars-CoV-2, the television station NHK reported.
600 infected people on the ''Diamond Princess'' aloneThe Tokyo government, like hundreds of other Japanese passengers, had sent the woman home by public transport and had not ordered any further quarantine. This decision had been misunderstood by experts.
According to the current status, well over 600 of the 3700 passengers and crew members of the ''Diamond Princess'' have been shown to have contracted the virus. Two Japanese passengers died, an infected couple from Hesse was initially cared for in a Japanese clinic. Not counting the infected people from the ship, more than a hundred people have already contracted the corona virus in Japan, including children.
The situation is also becoming more acute on the Korean peninsula: As the health authorities announced on Saturday, South Korea 229 further infections with the pathogen Sars-CoV-2 were detected within one day. The number of cases recorded rose to 433. No other country outside of China, where the disease broke out in December, has reported more infections so far. Three deaths have been recorded so far. The virus was last detected in a man after his death.
Disinfectants sold out in Iranian supermarketsThe majority of the new cases are concentrated in the southeastern city of Daegu and its surroundings. Affected are numerous members of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus. The origin is a 61-year-old follower of the Christian sect, who is said to have initially refused a virus test despite symptoms of illness. There was another outbreak in a Cheongdo hospital.
In IranFear of the virus overshadowed the general election on Friday, where five deaths in patients with Covid-19 were reported in quick succession by the Ministry of Health. Many voters and observers wore protective masks in the polling stations.
By Saturday, around 30 people had tested positive for the virus, but the actual number of people infected could be much higher. In the capital, Tehran, disinfectants are now sold out in almost all drug stores, pharmacies and supermarkets.
In China The number of infections recorded in the official statistics on Saturday was a good 76,000, so far more than 2,300 people have died of the lung disease. Experts assume that the number of unreported cases in the People's Republic is much higher. By far the largest number of deaths and infections are still reported from the particularly severely affected province of Hubei, where Covid-19 had broken out in the million-strong city of Wuhan in December.
Large parts of the Chinese economy have practically come to a standstill because of Covid-19 and the associated measures. Figures from the Chinese car association show what this means in practice. Accordingly, car sales slumped 92 percent from February 1 to 16 compared to the same period last year. While 59,930 cars were sold in the first two weeks of February in 2019, dealers were now only able to sell 4909 vehicles. Icon: The mirror
Source link https://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/medizin/coronavirus-in-italien-veranstaltungen-in-der-lombardei-abgesagt-a-0636daa0-94cf-4940-9eed-424df1bd9d6a
Dmca
The Misleading Arithmetic of COVID-19 Death Rates | Cato @ Liberty
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 17:19
Assuming the number of people who have reportedly died from COVID-19 is reasonably accurate, then the percentage of infected people who die from the disease (the death rate) must surely have been much lower than the 2''3% estimates commonly reported. That is because the number of infected people is much larger than the number tested and reported.
The triangle graph, from a February 10 study from Imperial College London, shows that most people infected by COVID-19 are never counted as being infected. That is because, the Imperial College study explains, ''the bottom of the pyramid represents the likely largest population of those infected with either mild, non''specific symptoms or who are asymptomatic.''
As the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom, explained in his February 28 briefing, ''Most people will have mild disease and get better without needing any special care.'' Several studies have found that about 80% of all the COVID-19 cases have relatively minor symptoms which end without severe illness and therefore remain unreported.
A Chinese study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, February 20, found a ''case''fatality rate'' of 2.3%, meaning 1,023 died out of 44,672 cases. But the total sample in that study (72,314) included an additional 27,642 non''confirmed cases, and simply including cases (let alone unreported minor cases) would have reduced the fatality rate to 1.4%. China''based estimates are largely confined to cases with the most severe symptoms, so it should be no surprise that the reported death rate among severe cases is much higher than it would be if the data also included ''most people'' who ''have a mild disease and get better.'' The risk of infecting more people is also more severe in China data, since severe cases are concentrated and transmitted in hospitals. This can also lead to overstated estimates of how many people are infected by someone with COVID-19, including the WHO ''reproduction number'' estimate of 1.4''2.5, which is mainly based on evidence from China.
As the graph indicates, other countries include more non''severe cases than China does, notably by testing incoming travelers who arrive with a cough and fever. Even after casting a slightly wider net, however, the number of confirmed cases probably captures only about 30% of the actual number.
By the morning of March 2, there had been 89,253 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported around the world, with about 96% of those in Asia. For comparison, the were an estimated 37.9 million people living with HIV in 2018.
It is worth noting that have also been 45,393 known recoveries from COVID-19 (compared to 3048 cumulative deaths) and, importantly, recoveries have been outnumbering new cases.
What about the relatively small number of COVID-19 cases outside China? In his February 28, the Director General of WHO reported that ''Outside China, there are now 4351 cases in 49 countries, and 67 deaths.'' Deaths of 67 divided by 4351 seems to demonstrate a death rate of 1.5%. But such calculations are highly misleading. They assume the denominator of that ratio (4351) is as accurate as the numerator (67). Yet people with ''mild cases who get better'' are unlikely to ever be included in the denominator.
If the WHO estimate of 4351 confirmed cases amounted to 30% of the actual number infected outside of China at that time, for example, then the combined total of both unreported and confirmed cases would be 4351 divided by 0.30 or 14,503. In that case, the actual death rate would 67 divided by 14,503, or less than one half of one percent (0.46%). Also, such death rates in the recent past are likely to come down over time, because they happened before promising new clinical trials of antiviral drugs that proved effective against more deadly viruses such as SARS, HIV and Ebola.
For perspective, the SARS coronavirus killed 774 people out of 8096 known cases in 2003, which was a death rate of 9.6% before it vanished the next year. Bird flu in 1997 was predicted to be a deadly pandemic, but it killed very few people before it disappeared. In its February 22 U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report, ''CDC estimates that so far this season there have been at least 32 million flu illnesses'... and 18,000 deaths from flu.'' Dividing 18,000 by 32 million implies a low U.S. death rate of .0138% from the flu. Looking at the death rate alone is obviously not enough: We also have to look at the numbers of people infected, and the duration of the epidemic, which is why the flu killed so many more people than SARS. Still, it is important to avoid scaring people about the risk of death from COVID-19 by continuing to ignore the fact that the vast majority of cases ''have mild disease and get better without needing any special care.''
Denver Democrat faces backlash after tweeting 'solidarity' for spreading coronavirus at Trump rallies | Fox News
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:26
Democratic Denver City Councilwoman Candi CdeBaca faced conservative criticism Tuesday after sharing a meme on Twitter suggesting she stands in ''solidarity'' with the idea of spreading coronavirus at President Trump's campaign rallies.
"These people are sick," Donald Trump Jr. tweeted.
CdeBaca, apparently posting in jest, had retweeted a meme that said: ''For the record, if I do get the coronavirus I'm attending every MAGA rally I can.''
CdeBaca commented: ''#solidarity Yaaaas!!'' with laughing emojis.
CdeBaca, based on her Twitter posts, appears to be a supporter of self-described democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., one of the leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.
Candi CdeBaca, Denver City Councilwoman, shared a meme suggesting those infected with coronavirus should attend "MAGA" rallies.
Republicans quickly hit back, coming amid a partisan war of words over allegations that lawmakers are politicizing the response to the coronavirus.
''This elected Democrat in Colorado doesn't seem very nice!'' the Trump campaign War Room Twitter account posted in response.
''The depths to which Democrats are sinking to politicize coronavirus is disgusting," Republican National Committee Rapid Response Director Steve Guest said in a statement to Fox News on Tuesday. "Democrat leaders, both nationally and in Colorado, need to condemn this deranged comment.''
Later, CdeBaca's office called it a "sarcastic tweet," in a statement to a Denver ABC affiliate.
The back and forth comes as the federal government grapples with the outbreak. Trump, over the weekend, authorized new travel restrictions and warnings in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The administration's strict travel warning affects Iran, Italy and South Korea at this point.
TRUMP CALLS ON US PHARMA COMPANIES TO 'ACCELERATE' CORONAVIRUS VACCINE
The virus has sickened 89,000 people across 66 countries, resulting in at least 3,061 deaths, including six in the U.S. Most of the deaths have occurred in mainland China.
Trump, on Monday, was asked whether it was ''safe'' for him to continue to hold his campaign-style rallies as the country battles the virus.
''You should ask the Democrats,'' Trump said. ''They're all having rallies. They're campaigning.''
He added: ''I think it's very safe.''
Coronavirus 'worst case scenario' could see 80% of UK population infected '' England's chief medical officer '-- RT UK News
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:49
England's chief medical officer has warned that coronavirus has the potential to infect 80 percent of the UK population and kill one percent of those who contract the disease, as the government unveils its Covid-19 battle plan.
During a joint-Downing Street press conference on Tuesday where UK PM Boris Johnson announced the publication of the government's 28-page 'Coronavirus: action plan', Professor Chris Whitty told reporters about the ''worst case scenario.''
Also on rt.com Vote of no confidence: Almost no UK doctors think NHS can handle coronavirus outbreak, survey finds Whitty claimed that up to 530,000 British citizens could die from contracting the virus, but stressed the number ''is likely to be lower than that and probably a lot lower than that.''
The UK government's action plan says that if there is an escalating outbreak, up to a fifth of the British workforce could be forced to stay at home, schools may close and elderly people advised to not attend social gatherings.
The document warns that there could be an increase in deaths from coronavirus '' particularly among vulnerable and elderly groups '' and so local authorities will have to deal with that challenge, which suggests morgue capacity could become an issue in such an event.
It also proposes that businesses could face ''short term cash flow issues'' as a result of low demand from customers.
Johnson's administration has warned that police and fire services will only respond to the most serious call-outs if their staff fall ill through coronavirus.
It comes after a survey conducted by the Doctors' Association UK showed that more than 99 percent of 1,618 NHS medical staff, contrary to the prime minister's assurances, say that the British healthcare system is not prepared to handle a major outbreak of Covid-19. To date 51 people in the UK have contracted the virus.
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Coronavirus - Frankrijk legt beslag op alle mondkapjes binnen de Vijfde Republiek | ThePostOnline
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:30
De Franse staat gaat beslag leggen op alle voorraden mondkapjes in het land en toezien op de productie ervan. President Emmanuel Macron zei dat de mondkapjes zullen worden verspreid onder mensen die met het coronavirus zijn besmet en onder de verzorgers van deze patinten.
Minister van Gezondheid Olivier V(C)ran liet weten dat er inmiddels tien miljoen mondkapjes zijn verspreid onder gezondheidsmedewerkers. Binnenkort komen er nog vijftien tot twintig miljoen mondkapjes beschikbaar.
Het coronavirus heeft in Frankrijk vier levens geist. Ruim tweehonderd mensen zijn besmet.
ANP
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South Korea Seeks Murder Charges Against Sect for Coronavirus
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:45
Some South Korean officials on Monday asked for murder charges to be brought against Lee Man-hee, founder and leader of a religious sect called the Shincheonji Church, and 11 of his top followers because they spread the Wuhan coronavirus across the country and interfered with efforts to track infected persons.
The government believes up to 60 percent of South Korea's 4,335 coronavirus cases can be traced to the Shincheonji Church.
The church, which has been denounced as a cult with apocalyptic beliefs revolving around Lee as a messiah who will take them to paradise on Judgment Day, has about 230,000 members. Almost 9,000 of them are currently exhibiting symptoms of the coronavirus.
The infection appears to have been spread by an elderly member who visited the Chinese city of Wuhan, refused to be hospitalized when she became ill, and contaminated fellow worshipers at four church meetings, including one in Daegu, South Korea's fourth-largest city. Church members then began spreading the disease through the South Korean population. Shincheonji worship services are notoriously overcrowded.
The South Korean government charged Shincheonji leaders with being slow to cooperate with health officials. Their secretive conduct has been cited as a violation of the National Infectious Disease and Control Act, and since the coronavirus has killed at least 26 South Koreans so far, the government wants them investigated for murder.
''The situation is this serious and urgent, but where are the leaders of the Shincheonji, including Lee Man-hee, the chief director of this crisis?'' asked Park Won-soon, the mayor of Seoul. Park charged that many of South Korea's coronavirus fatalities could have been avoided if Lee and his followers had been more cooperative.
88-year-old Lee offered a public apology from behind a medical face mask during a press conference on Monday as reported by Voice of America News (VOA), although he did not admit to any wrongdoing:
''I would like to offer my sincere apology to the people on behalf of the members,'' said Shincheonji head Lee Man-hee, his voice breaking.
The 88-year-old twice got down on his knees to bow before reporters in Gapyeong, his head to the floor.
''Although it was not intentional, many people have been infected,'' he said. ''We put our utmost efforts but were unable to prevent it all. I seek the forgiveness of the people.''
''I am very thankful to the government for its efforts. I also seek the forgiveness of the government,'' Lee Man-hee continued.
Lee promised his group was now ''actively cooperating with the government'' and would ''not spare human and material support'' for the fight against the coronavirus. Protesters shouted insults at Lee during his press conference, while over a million South Koreans have signed a petition asking for the sect to be disbanded.
The New York Times noted that last week Lee sent a message to members of his church that depicted the coronavirus as a form of divine vengeance against ''the evil who got jealous of Shincheonji's rapid growth.''
As the Times described it, the sect has indeed grown quickly while deflecting criticism of its unusual practices as religious persecution:
Mr. Lee has long courted controversy. He has been dogged by lawsuits, protest rallies and allegations of preaching heresy, splitting apart families, as well as going after rival churches. He has survived them all, commanding a messianic charisma over the 245,000 followers who he says the church has in South Korea and abroad.
Until now, Mr. Lee's Shincheonji has been one of the fastest-growing religious sects in South Korea. He has employed an aggressive proselytizing program that has unnerved mainstream Christian religions who liken the church to a cult. He has often staged large-scale outdoor events that remind critics of massive propaganda rallies in North Korea.
Like North Korea, the church has its own calendar, counting the years from the day Mr. Lee founded it in 1984. It hosts its own ''Olympiad,'' filling a stadium with worshipers from around the world. It features military-style honor guards, taekwondo exhibitions and other group performances similar to North Korea's Mass Games. Often dressed in snow white and carrying his trademark hand-held folding fan, Mr. Lee likes to snap a military salute to his adoring crowds.
''Shincheonji has been growing rapidly despite the persecutions'' from the mainstream Christian churches, Mr. Lee said in an interview with the newspaper Kyeonggi Ilbo last June. ''Why? Because we have a doctrine. We are not a traditional church.''
As the coronavirus spread, health officials became so desperate to track down its secretive and potentially infectious members that they resorted to sending text messages to the public asking for their help. The sect denounced these efforts as a form of ''witch-hunting'' and said its members were reluctant to turn themselves in to the authorities because they feared persecution. At one government clinic in Daegu, an official became sick with the coronavirus and then revealed he had secretly been a member of Shincheonji all along.
The mayor of Daegu accused Shincheonji of submitting an inaccurate list of members to health officials, as did a civic group called the National Shincheonji Victims Coalition, whose ranks include many former members of the sect and their families. After these complaints were leveled, Shincheonji gave another 65,000 names of ''trainees'' to the government and said it misidentified some of its 40,000 members who live outside South Korea.
FSI | CHP/PCOR - How Taiwan Used Big Data, Transparency and a Central Command to Protect Its People from Coronavirus
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 06:40
Taiwan is only 81 miles off the coast of mainland China and was expected to be hard hit by the coronavirus, due to its proximity and the number of flights between the island nation and its massive neighbor to the west.
Yet it has so far managed to prevent the coronavirus from heavily impacting its 23 million citizens, despite hundreds of thousands of them working and residing in China.
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus COVID-19 Global Cases map, as of Tuesday there were only 42 cases and one death in Taiwan, far behind China, with more than 80,000 cases and more than 2,900 deaths. The country also lags far behind its other Asian neighbors and ranks 17th in the world for the number of global cases. As of this writing, South Korea was second, with 5,186 cases; followed by Iran with 2,336 and Italy with 2,036 people infected with the virus.
The United States currently stands at 107 known cases and six deaths.
The viral outbreak in China occurred just before the Lunar New Year, during which time millions of Chinese and Taiwanese were expected to travel for the holidays.
So what steps did Taiwan take to protect its people? And could those steps be replicated here at home?
Stanford Health Policy's Jason Wang, MD, PhD, an associate professor of pediatrics at Stanford Medicine who also has a PhD in policy analysis, credits his native Taiwan with using new technology and a robust pandemic prevention plan put into place at the 2003 SARS outbreak.
''The Taiwan government established the National Health Command Center (NHCC) after SARS and it's become part of a disaster management center that focuses on large-outbreak responses and acts as the operational command point for direct communications,'' said Wang, a pediatrician and the director of the Center for Policy, Outcomes, and Prevention at Stanford. The NHCC also established the Central Epidemic Command Center, which was activated in early January.
''And Taiwan rapidly produced and implemented a list of at least 124 action items in the past five weeks to protect public health,'' Wang said. ''The policies and actions go beyond border control because they recognized that that wasn't enough.''
Wang outlines the measures Taiwan took in the last six weeks in an article published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
''Given the continual spread of COVID-19 around the world, understanding the action items that were implemented quickly in Taiwan, and the effectiveness of these actions in preventing a large-scale epidemic, may be instructive for other countries,'' Wang and his co-authors wrote.
Within the last five weeks, Wang said, the Taiwan epidemic command center rapidly implemented those 124 action items, including border control from the air and sea, case identification using new data and technology, quarantine of suspicious cases, educating the public while fighting misinformation, negotiating with other countries '-- and formulating policies for schools and businesses to follow.
Big Data Analytics
The authors note that Taiwan integrated its national health insurance database with its immigration and customs database to begin the creation of big data for analytics. That allowed them case identification by generating real-time alerts during a clinical visit based on travel history and clinical symptoms.
Taipei also used Quick Response (QR) code scanning and online reporting of travel history and health symptoms to classify travelers' infectious risks based on flight origin and travel history in the last 14 days. People who had not traveled to high-risk areas were sent a health declaration border pass via SMS for faster immigration clearance; those who had traveled to high-risk areas were quarantined at home and tracked through their mobile phones to ensure that they stayed home during the incubation period.
The country also instituted a toll-free hotline for citizens to report suspicious symptoms in themselves or others. As the disease progressed, the government called on major cities to establish their own hotlines so that the main hotline would not become jammed.
Some might say that because Taiwan is such a small country '-- about 19 times smaller than Texas '-- it is easier to mobilize during emergencies. Yet Taiwan is particularly challenged by its proximity to China and the fact that 850,000 of its citizens reside on the mainland; another 400,000 work there. Taiwan had 2.71 million visitors from China last year.
So when the WHO was notified on Dec. 31, 2019, of a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan, China, Taiwanese officials began to board planes and assess passengers on direct flights from Wuhan for fever and pneumonia symptoms before passengers could deplane.
As early as Jan. 5, notification was expanded to include any individual who had traveled to Wuhan in the past 14 days and had a fever or symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection at the point of entry. Suspected cases were screened for 26 viruses, including SARS and MERS. Passengers displaying symptoms were quarantined at home and assessed whether medical attention at a hospital was necessary.
What the U.S. Could Learn
One of Wang's co-authors, Robert H. Brook, M.D., ScD., of the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said Washington could learn a great deal from Taiwan's so-far successful management of the virus.
''In Taiwan, diverse political parties were willing to work together to produce an immediate response to the danger,'' said Brook, also of the nonprofit RAND Corporation. ''Transparency was critical and frequent communication to the public from a trusted official was paramount to reducing public panic.''
The other co-author of their study is Chun Y. Ng, MBA, MPH, of The New School for Leadership in Health Care, Koo Foundation Sun Yat-Sen Cancer Center, Taipei, Taiwan.
Brook said Taiwan got out ahead of the epidemic by setting up a physical command center to facilitate rapid communications. The command center set the price of masks and used government funds and military personnel to increase mask production. By Jan. 20, the Taiwan CDC announced that it had a stockpile of 44 million surgical masks, 1.9 million N95 masks and 1,100 negative pressure isolation rooms.
''In a country as complex as the United States,'' Brook said, ''there needs to be a sharing of intelligence on a real-time basis among states and the federal government so that action is not delayed by going through formal channels.''
Please contact Beth Duff-Brown for media requests.
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OTG
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey could be ousted by activist investors - Vox
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 17:43
Jack Dorsey is the CEO of Twitter. He is also the CEO of Square.
That shouldn't continue any longer, says an investment group, who wants Dorsey to stop running Twitter '-- or, at the very least, stop running both companies at the same time. And unlike other people who complain about Twitter, these guys might actually be able to do something about it.
Here's the deal: Elliott Management, an ''activist investor'' firm, has bought a lot of Twitter shares and wants to replace Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. It thinks pushing out Dorsey will make Wall Street value Twitter more favorably, which would make the value of Elliott's Twitter shares rise.
Elliott has acquired about $1 billion worth of Twitter shares, which means it has a sizable stake in Twitter, but nothing close to control of the company. Now, the firm wants to use that stake to replace four Twitter board members with its own nominees, who would then presumably pressure Dorsey to leave '-- or at least stop running Square, the payments company he founded after he first left Twitter.
Reps for Twitter and Elliott declined to comment. Bloomberg first reported on Elliott's moves.
There is more to the story, but not a lot more. That's because Elliott, like any other ''activist investor,'' thinks it has found a company whose stock should be worth more than it is today. So in many ways it doesn't matter what Elliott says, or why it's saying it: As long as Twitter stock goes up, Elliott will be happy.
In this case, Elliott is diverting from the standard activist investor playbook, which is to lay out a critique of many of Twitter's moves. This approach would also typically involve asking Twitter to slim down by firing people and/or selling off assets as well as calling for new management.
This time, Elliott isn't bothering with most of that. Its message so far, expressed initially in the Bloomberg piece that announced its plans, is that Twitter will be worth more if it had a full-time CEO, and that the CEO should likely not be Jack Dorsey. Although Dorsey attracts attention for his personality quirks, Elliott's complaints about his role at Twitter appear to be strictly business-related.
Of note: Unlike many tech companies '-- and some media companies, including the New York Times and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and 21st Century Fox '-- Twitter doesn't have multiple classes of stock. Companies with those arrangements often give some shareholders '-- usually founders and their families '-- extra voting rights and effective control of their companies.
Which means Dorsey is a plausible target for this kind of move. As opposed, to, say Mark Zuckerberg.
Activist investing isn't a new concept, but Elliott, run by billionaire Paul Singer, has become an increasingly high-profile example of the idea.
A year ago, for instance, Elliott announced that it had bought a lot of eBay stock and then made a series of demands. By September 2019, eBay's CEO resigned, announcing that he was ''not on the same page'' as Elliott and the rest of his board. Since then eBay has sold off its StubHub ticketing business and now plans on selling its classifieds business '-- both moves Elliott had wanted.
Last fall, Elliott also went after AT&T, and the firm got that company to reassess its plans to elevate COO John Stankey to CEO, among other moves. Other Elliott targets include Softbank, the Japanese conglomerate that owns Sprint and has put billions of dollars into tech companies like Uber and WeWork. Non-US targets have included the governments of Argentina and Peru.
Highly recommended reading: This 2018 New Yorker profile of Singer and Elliott, which should help shoot down facile theories '-- which you can find on Twitter, of course '-- about Singer, a prominent Republican donor, going after Twitter for political reasons. Singer and his team are motivated by money above all else. They also don't want to ''buy Twitter.'' They want the value of the Twitter shares they bought to increase.
Elliott isn't the first group to point out that having the same person running two, big, publicly traded companies at the same time could be a problem. In 2015, for instance, Twitter's board of directors, which was looking for a new CEO, put out a press release that told Dorsey, who was then the interim Twitter CEO, that he couldn't run Twitter and Square at the same time. Then Twitter's board changed its mind and gave Dorsey the job, after all.
What's unclear is why Elliott would go after Dorsey now, since he's had both jobs for more than four years. Twitter stock has lurched around during that timespan, but is a bit higher today than it was a year ago. The company also seems to be making headway on its plan to concentrate on getting Twitter's user base to spend more time with the service, and to turn that engagement into advertising revenue.
What Twitter doesn't seem able to do is get a significantly bigger audience to start using Twitter, either again or for the first time. Last year, as its monthly active users numbers stagnated, Twitter stopped reporting those numbers, but they hovered around 300 million at that time. Facebook, by comparison, has 2.5 billion monthly users.
Dorsey does make an inviting target for critics of every variety: Conservatives will complain that his service unfairly silences them. Actual Twitter users frequently complain about the toxic environment they find there, while proponents of democracy worry that the service has been a playground for Russia and other state actors attempting to undermine American elections. It was also somewhat alarming when, last December, Dorsey announced that he would spend up to six months living in Africa this year. Nevertheless, Elliott doesn't seem focused so much on ousting an eccentric CEO but, more generally, on boosting Twitter's stock price.
All that said, it's hard to see what Elliott thinks a Dorsey replacement would do that Dorsey hasn't. And one contingent that is relatively happy with Dorsey are Twitter's 4,800 employees, who tend to see him and the company he cofounded in 2006 as one and the same. If Elliott gets his way, it may have a hard time convincing Twitter employees that it made the right move.
Mastercard is pioneering new payment technology that identifies commuters by the way they walk - MarketWatch
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:36
Commuters may soon be able to ditch their bus pass and access public transport with technology identifying them by the way they walk.
Mastercard MA, +1.06% is working with transport firms to develop a new system that would authenticate passengers by their gait.
The payment provider told MarketWatch that everyone has a unique walk, and it is investigating innovative behavioral biometrics such as gait, face, heartbeat and veins for cutting edge payment systems of the future.
Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence solutions for Mastercard, told MarketWatch in an interview: ''We are working with transport organizations where your face or gait will authenticate you.
''The way you hold your phone, which ear you use, and how your fingers touch the buttons are all unique to you. We have been testing heartbeat, vein technology, and the way people walk to authenticate people.''
READ: Mastercard says it has a 'natural hedge' on coronavirus as much of its China-related volume is online
The gait technology is the most unusual. Closed-circuit television cameras would identify passengers approaching transport barriers. Once the system recognizes the individual, it would let them pass after matching them with an account that is in credit or linked to a valid payment card.
Developing secure payment systems that deliver speed and security is a major challenge for banks and credit card providers, as users migrate online for financial services. Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated technology to assume the identity of customers and providers are seeking high-tech solutions to stay one step ahead.
On Tuesday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation produced a report revealing as much as $3.5 billion has been reported lost from suspected internet crime over 2019 in the U.S. There were 467,361 complaints received last year.
READ: Hackers are ramping up attacks on retirement accounts '-- how to keep yourself safe
Sophisticated attacks, those focused on quality rather than volume, have grown 430% since July 2019, compared with the previous seven months, according to a study by NuData, a company owned by Mastercard.
Instances where a scammer gains control of a customer's account increased by 330% in the last four months of 2019.
This is despite huge leaps in technology, from customers using just basic passwords to access their accounts, to the use of fingerprint readers built into most smartphones and laptops, as well face identification, and some apps claiming to use retina recognition.
Vascular matching is another innovation Mastercard is exploring. It can identify individuals from the unique patterns of blood vessels that can be seen close to the surface of the skin.
A spokesman said: ''We are looking closely at a range of modalities for biometric authentication, including gait analysis, ECG [electrocardiogram] and vein pattern to identify a user.''
Bhalla explained that the rhythm of a person's heartbeat is also unique: ''A user could wear a band around their wrist that measures the pulse and constantly authenticates you.''
Mastercard acquired NuData Security in 2017 and it has been making advances in biometric identification. The payment provider has also been working with academics at the University of Oxford in the U.K. on what it describes as its ''top global priority.''
Bhalla said: ''The world is changing at a fast pace. Hackers are figuring out how to attack individuals to get their credentials.''
Watch: MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga on Taking Risks in Your Life and Career
Coronavirus: China To Deploy Health Rating App | PYMNTS.com
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:55
Tech giants in China are deploying a color-coded health rating system to help officials track the millions of people returning to work in the wake of the fast-spreading coronavirus outbreak, The New York Times (NYT) reported on Sunday (March 1).
The government of Hangzhou collaborated with Alibaba and Ant Financial to create a smartphone app feature called the Alipay Health Code that segments people into three categories '-- green, yellow or red '-- based on their medical conditions and travel history. Tencent developed a similar program for the southern city of Shenzhen. The software determines if a person should be quarantined or allowed in public.
The NYT analyzed the software's code and discovered that the feature appears to share data with law enforcement, which could start a precedent for new types of automated social control that could stay in place after the coronavirus is no longer an active threat.
Chinese residents sign up for Alipay Health Code using Alipay, Ant's wallet app. The system is now being used in 200 cities and will be launched throughout the country, Ant said.
Zhou Jiangyong, Hangzhou's Communist Party secretary, said the health rating software was ''an important practice in Hangzhou's digitally empowered city management'' and supports the further use of similar tools, according to state news media .
People given a green health code are free to be in public and are given a QR code to check in at subways, office buildings, and other densely populated public areas. Staff at checkpoints will scan the code and people's temperatures before allowing them to enter a space.
''The coronavirus outbreak is proving to be one of those landmarks in the history of the spread of mass surveillance in China,'' said Maya Wang, a China researcher for Human Rights Watch.
She added that China has historically used major events '-- like the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai '-- to launch surveillance tools that go beyond their original intent.
The virus has killed at least 3,056 people, all but 144 in mainland China. The number of people sick from the coronavirus hit 89,700 on Monday morning (March 2). Two Seattle-area residents were confirmed dead at the same hospital and the number of cases in the U.S. increased to 88 by Sunday (March 1) from 65.
Chinese authorities said the number of new coronavirus deaths in the country is the lowest number since Jan. 28.
alibaba, Ant Financial, china, Color-Coded, Coronavirus, data sharing, Health Rating App, News, Outbreak, quarantine, What's Hot
FBI Entrapment
Lori Loughlin claims FBI told college admissions scam mastermind Rick Singer to lie about bribes | Daily Mail Online
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 06:43
Lori Loughlin is armed with new evidence which could prove crucial in exonerating her and her husband Mossimo Giannulli in the college admissions scandal.
The couple claims to have proof that the mastermind behind the sprawling scheme, Rick Singer, was told by FBI agents to lie about whether parents knew they were paying bribes, rather than legitimate donations.
In a February 26 motion to postpone Loughlin and Giannulli's upcoming trial date, attorney Sean Berkowitz wrote that prosecutors had handed over notes from Singer's iPhone describing the alleged FBI coercion.
'Singer's notes indicate that FBI agents yelled at him and instructed him to lie by saying that he told his clients who participated in the alleged "side door" scheme that their payments were bribes, rather than legitimate donations that went to the schools,' Berkowitz wrote.
Although the judge denied the request to postpone and set a court date for October 5, Loughlin and Giannulli remain confident that the evidence will help get them off.
'They are not upset that the date didn't get moved,' a source close to the couple told People. 'Any new development that might challenge the prosecution's allegations is good for them.'
Lori Loughlin and her husband Mossimo Giannulli claim to have proof that FBI agents told Rick Singer to lie about whether parents involved in his college admissions scam knew they were paying bribes, rather than legitimate donations. Loughlin and Giannulli are seen leaving court in Boston last April after pleading not guilty to federal charges
In a February 26 motion to postpone Loughlin and Giannulli's upcoming trial date, attorney Sean Berkowitz outlined notes from Singer's iPhone in which he detailed the alleged FBI coercion. Singer is seen leaving federal court in Boston last March
'This is a defense attorney's dream and a prosecutor's nightmare,' criminal defense lawyer James J Leonard Jr, who is not representing anyone in the case, told the outlet.
'This changes everything.'
Loughlin and Giannulli were among the 33 parents indicted in Singer's admissions scam last March.
They are accused of paying $500,000 to get their daughters Isabella Rose, 21, and Olivia Jade, into USC by designating them as recruits to the crew team, even though neither girl ever rowed.
The couple pleaded not guilty to charges of fraud, money laundering and conspiracy to commit federal program bribery - arguing that the money they paid was meant as a donation.
Their lawyers say the newly-discovered notes from Singer further support that argument.
Loughlin and Giannulli are accused of paying $500,000 to get their daughters Olivia Jade Giannulli (left) and Isabella Rose Giannulli (right) into the University of Southern California as crew recruits even though neither was a rower
Olivia Jade was photographed on Wednesday in Beverly Hills
The YouTube star appeared carefree as she left lunch with friends while her parents' trial nears
Singer wrote that FBI agents yelled at him and told him to lie to get parents to say things in recorded phone calls that could be used against them.
'Loud and abrasive call with agents. They continue to ask me to tell a fib and not restate what I told my clients as to where the money was going - to the program and not the coach and that it was a donation and they want it to be a payment,' he wrote, according to the February 26 filing.
'This belated discovery ... is devastating to the government's case and demonstrates that the government has been improperly withholding core exculpatory information, employing a "win at all costs" effort rather than following their obligation to do justice,' Berkowitz stated.
Prosecutors said Singer's notes weren't given to the defense until last month because the government believed they were privileged and didn't review them further after discovering them in October 2018.
Berkowitz called that explanation 'bogus', and accused the government of 'egregious prosecutorial misconduct'.
'The fact that someone made a donation to USC with the goal of getting their children into USC is not a crime,' BJ Trach, another attorney for Loughlin and Giannulli, told the judge.
But assistant US Attorney Eric Rosen argued that the payments were still an illegal quid pro quo regardless of whether Singer called them bribes or donations.
'Just because it was called a donation doesn't make it legitimate,' Rosen told the judge.
Loughlin and Giannulli could face up to 40 years in prison if convicted.
Nineteen parents, including Loughlin and Giannulli, are currently fighting charges in the scandal while 15 others have already been sentenced after pleading guilty.
Fellow actress Felicity Huffman served two weeks in prison in exchange for paying $15,000 to have her daughter's test scores tweaked to get her a higher score after she took the exam.
Former CEO Douglas Hodge has been given the longest sentence so far - nine months - after paying $850,000 in bribes to get his children into top tier schools.
Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs was sentenced on February 25 to five months in prison after paying $300,000 for her two daughters.
Felicity Huffman (left) served two weeks in prison in exchange for paying $15,000 to have her daughter's test scores tweaked to get her a higher score after she took the exam. Hot Pockets heiress Michelle Janavs (right) was sentenced on February 25 to five months in prison after paying $300,000 for her two daughters
VARSITY BLUES SENTENCES Of the 53 parents and teachers who were wrapped up in the scandal, these are the ones who have been sentenced after accepting plea deals;
Gregory Abbott
1 month in prison, 1 year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $45,000
Marcia Abbott
1 month in prison, 1 year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $45,000
Jane Buckingham
3 weeks in prison, 1 year of supervised release, fine of $40,000
Gordon Caplan
1 month prison, 1 year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $50,000
Robert Flaxman
1 month in prison, 1 year of supervised released, 250 hours of community service, fine of $50,000
Felicity Huffman
14 days prison, 1 year supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $30,000
Agustin Huneus Jr.
5 months in prison, 2 years of supervised release, 500 hours of community service, $100,000 fine
Marjorie Klapper
Three weeks in prison, one year of supervised release, 250 hours of community service, fine of $9,500
Peter Jan Sartorio
One year probation, 250 hours of community service, fine of $9,500
Stephen Semprevivo
Four months in prison, 2 years supervised release, 500 hours of community service, fine of $100,000
Devin Sloane
4 months in prison, 2 years supervised release, 500 hours of community service, fine of $95,000
Toby Macfarlane
6 months in prison, 1 year of supervised release, 200 hours of community service, fine of $150,000
Jeffrey Bizzack
2 months in prison, 3 years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service per year of supervised release, fine of $250,000
Michael Center
Six months in prison, one year of supervised release, $60,000 forfeiture
Douglas Hodge
Nine months in prison, two years of supervised release, fine of $750,000, 500 hours of community service
Michelle Janavs
Five months in prison, two years of supervised release, fine of $250,000
SJW
Barbra Streisand on Why Trump Must Be Defeated in 2020 (Column) '' Variety
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 13:33
Yes, Mr. Trump, let's make America great again. But first, get one thing straight: America was great '-- before you were elected.
Every morning I wake up, holding my breath while I turn on my phone to see the latest news. I think to myself, ''It can't be worse than yesterday.'' But when the news loads, I think, ''Ohhhhh, yes, it is worse'''... now he's fired the director of national intelligence in an effort to suppress the truth about Russia interfering in our elections again. He's purging the government of anyone with any expertise who doesn't bow down before him.
By the way, why has Mitch McConnell blocked 10 election security bills?
No wonder doctors report that more people than ever are anxious and depressed. Since 2016, we've been dragged down into the mud of Trump's swamp. He has demolished our standing in the world with his laughable boasts and breathtaking ignorance. He has put the security of this country, and our planet, in a precarious position by abandoning the Paris climate accord and the Iran nuclear deal. He's a one-man weapon of mass destruction '... so reckless that he almost started a war.
Now we're facing another kind of war, against the coronavirus. Trump got rid of our pandemic specialist two years ago and has defunded the Centers for Disease Control because he continues to ignore science.
We can't go on like this. It's too dangerous.
We should have known from the beginning, when Trump fired James Comey for refusing to pledge loyalty to him, as if he were a king. But in America, we pledge allegiance to the flag, not one particular person. And the president swears to uphold the Constitution, which sets out the rules of law that every citizen, even the president, must obey.
But Trump thinks the rules don't apply to him. He, and his appointees, have set a whole new level of misconduct. His recent spree of pardons looks like a transparent attempt to normalize his own corruption and pave the way for pardoning his cronies, who have lied for him. (He fires people who obey the law and tell the truth.)
That's Trump's world. It's a place of paranoia, hypocrisy and lies, so many lies (16,000 and counting). He says he will protect people with preexisting conditions in his State of the Union address, while he supports a lawsuit that will strip away those protections. He says we have the cleanest air and water, but what he doesn't say is that he's rolling back the regulations that keep it that way. Someone should tell him you can have a good economy and still be good to the planet. But Trump doesn't listen, and therefore he doesn't learn.
As a candidate, he said he would never leave the White House to play golf, but now he shamelessly spends taxpayer money ($130 million and counting) for his constant trips on Air Force One to play at his own resorts, while Obama used to take a car to a nearby naval base to play golf. And Trump is even profiting off the Secret Service by charging exorbitant prices for their golf carts and rooms.
Trump can never live up to Obama's legacy, so he's trying to erase it. He inherited a growing economy and now claims credit for it, saying it's the best in history '... but that's another lie. In fact, the GDP, job growth and the S&P 500 all rose faster under Obama. Meanwhile Trump, with his tax cuts for corporations and the very wealthy, has basically doubled the budget deficit to more than a trillion dollars '-- unprecedented in a time of prosperity. And he's on track to add another 50% to the national debt, the fastest dollar increase in history. (That's a pattern. Republicans leave it to Democrats to clean up their mess.)
Trump is a man who has never once taken responsibility for his own actions, preferring to blame others when he's at fault. Even impeachment hasn't humbled him, because thanks to his Republican enablers, he has escaped accountability once again.
Every day, he takes another swipe at the pillars of our democracy, but we cannot allow him to irrevocably change this country.The ''beacon of hope'' that is America could be extinguished if he's given another four years.
In this upcoming election, we must bring back dignity and grace. We must care about the facts, the planet, each other and the least fortunate among us.
We need a new America, without pollution, without obscenities, without insults, without revenge. We need to restore the nobility of truth '... and only then will America be great again.
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Green New Deal
Balenciaga Flooded the Runway at Paris Fashion Week F/W 2020
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 08:20
The runways at Balenciaga's F/W 2020 show in Paris. Photo: Estrop/Getty Images
Balenciaga presented its fall/winter collection in high apocalypse style at Paris fashion week, purposefully flooding the runway and the first few rows of seats as a pointed statement on climate change.
Models splashed through the approximate inch of water piped onto the black catwalk, some wearing water socks while others braved the flood in stiletto heels. Balenciaga's creative director, Demna Gvasalia, reportedly envisioned this as a nod to rising sea levels, one already-evident consequence of global warming. Other ominous touches included looming LED screens on the ceiling, which projected images of inferno skies and great squalls of crows. A very doomy overall effect, especially as a backdrop for exaggerated supervillain shoulders:
The show was held in the Cit(C) du Cinema film studio complex in Saint Denis, a suburb north of Paris. The clothes themselves maintained the Matrix cosplay vibe prevalent in high fashion these days, with long pleathery coats and and spooky cloaks and futuristic eyewear reminiscent of space invaders. With water also running over the first two rows of seats, attendees were relegated to the third row or further back, saving them from backsplash.
If the idea of making climate change commentary through a somewhat wasteful visual metaphor '-- water is not a limitless resource, after all '-- feels a little convoluted to you, know that Balenciaga reportedly plans to return the water it used to the city. The brand will also donate the chairs to a children's sports center, according to Footwear News. So, all told, a fairly appropriate follow-up to Gvasalia's Paris show in September, held in what the Cut's Cathy Horyn described as a ''modern arena that resembled a government assembly, evoked the terrors of a world controlled by soulless bureaucrats.''
This post has been updated to reflect that the show's creative direction was by Demna Gvasalia.
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By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice and to receive email correspondence from us. Balenciaga Flooded the Runway at Paris Fashion Week
NASA has released figures showing the world has cooled recently.
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 09:13
Here at The RichardsonPost we are great lovers of the environment. We love animals, we love wildplaces, we love clean oceans and pristine forests.
Who the Hell would wantto turn our planet into a giant, boiling, toxic rubbish tip?
What parent would wishto bequeath such a legacy to their children.
If the world really isgoing to warm catastrophically and cause mass extinctions, then we will be callingfor genuine action.
Unfortunately, we arenot climate scientists and so we have to approach the subject with caution.
This is difficultbecause there is so much hysterical information coming from both sides of thedebate depending on whether the day is particularly hot, or particularly cold.
From Where can we get real Climate Information?Most of the information we hear comes from the media, politicians or scientists employed by politicians.
These people are not asreasoned as might be expected on such a complex topic.
The claim made by BarackObama, for instance, that 97% of scientists agree about global warming was nota truthful statement.
It would have been more truthful if he had said that 97% of our mainstream media and politicians agree that they need to tax the bejesus out of the rest of us to fix this problem''had there, in fact, been one.
Of course, we know howto tell when a politician is lying.
We simply check to seeif his lips are moving.
Are the Media Balanced?There was a time, however,when the media had rather more credibility.
So, if the media were not reporting this issue in an honest and unbiased fashion, this would be a big story in itself at one time in our history.
If the media werereporting this situation honestly, we would expect them to keep us up to dateon big temperature drops and not just big temperature rises.
Super sleuth Howell Woltzhas been looking into this issue and has discovered to his surprise, that thisis not the case.
Whilst significanttemperature rises have been front page news (accompanied by photos of starving polarbears), recent, significant drops in temperature have met with deafeningsilence.
Howell has been so incensed by this dishonest behavior, that he has decided to write a book on the subject.
In order to reach thelargest audience, he has decided to use a new twist on a very old marketingstrategy. I'll let Howell tell the rest in his own inimitable style.
THE CARBON HOAX IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE CARBON HOAX!NASA recently announced that global temperatures have plummeted to pre-1980s levels'--yet the media is still pushing the warming story.
Yes. You read that right. Global temperatures have had their largestdrop in a century just since Donald Trump's election, according to NASA, noless.
Any relation betweenthe two? Not really, other than thatTrump forced the Obama leftovers in the NOAA (National Oceanic and AtmosphericAdministration) to stop manipulating the data as you can see HEREand HERE.
Once they stoppeddropping all the 'low' numbers out of the data pool, guess what happened?
It showed the largesttemperature drop between 2016 and 2018, of any two years in a century.
Global temperatures are now at pre-1980s levels.
Why are Governments not Reporting Global Temperature Drops?But somehow governmentsall over the world '' and their media hacks '' missed the memo.
No one noticed whenReal Clear Markets published the NASA data for financial firms and traders,except one analyst, Aaron Brown, who wrote, 'From February 2016 to February2018, [quoting the report] ''globalaverage temperatures dropped by 0.56 degrees Celsius.''
That, he notes, ''is the biggest two-year drop in the past century.''
In case you missed this story in other news, this is Al Gore's new $8.85 m beachfront mansion in Montecito, California right on the same beach that he predicted would be under water'--a decade ago Here's a question for you:
If temperaturesare at pre-1980s levels, why did the Government of Queensland pay Al Gore$300,000 of your money to lie to you last summer?
It is doubtful that the High Priest of climate change, former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore, did not know this published NASA data existed when he came to warn you in 2019 that the world was burning up.
Al Gore Must KnowIt was a bold lie and he should have known it as the world's temperature has dropped for over 20 years now since he warned we were burning up. We haven't.
It is also highly doubtful that someone in Canberra or Queensland didn't know the truth as well when they stroked a check to Big Al for 'three large ones' as other shakedown artists and gangsters might say.
But as you can see, theHigh Priest of the Carbon Hoax has expenses. A beachfront mansion here, a beachfront mansion there '' it adds up.
And if lying this bigfor this long when all evidence points in the opposite direction can make youso rich, how could you be expected to give it up?
How Can we get the Truth About Climate Change?But they're doing itwith our money folks, so spread the truth and I'm asking you a favour
For two years I've been working on a book telling the background of the Big Lie that was intended to rule our world. It's called just that: The Carbon Hoax: A Story'' Ruling the World with a Big Lie.
I'm not asking you tobuy it '' I'm asking you to read it for free, one chapter each week, right hereon The Richardson Post '' and share it with everyone you can. We must alert the world quickly.
Charles Dickens was a Savvy Book MarketerIf you know CharlesDickens' story, you know he couldn't afford to publish his first book backthen, it was so expensive, so he bought some cheap newsprint from an out-of-businessprinter and published The Pickwick Papers, one chapter at a time.
Everyone could afford achapter on cheap newsprint and they shared it.
The chapters wore outquickly and new readers would buy the preceding chapters when it becamepopular.
Then he published thebook, and they bought it again.
Dickens' worst novel(in my opinion) The Pickwick Papers became the best-selling book inEnglish history (other than the Bible) because of how he published it, not itsquality.
Our goal is to get thisinformation out quickly and broadly '' through you '' and we're going to try thesame method.
It is important to know that this entire 'Global Warming' scheme was hatched in Rome back in 1968, and now is run by the most ruthless, dishonest, power-mongers in history.
We need to break thisstory worldwide, because no one else is.
I'd like your feedbackon the idea.
We will start puttingthis out bit by bit over the next days and weeks
DEDICATIONThe Carbon Hoax is dedicatedto the brave souls who dared to say the world was not flat '' because it wasn't.
To the brave souls whodared to say that the Earth was not the Center of the Universe '' because it isn't.
And to the brave soulsstanding against the Elite takeover of our world who scream carbon is killingus '' when it can't.
FOREWORDI noticed a few years ago that there were little snippets in the news saying things like ''97% of scientist agree'' that our world is burning up due to carbon in the atmosphere.
That was what tipped meoff that something was amiss.
Why? Because it was painfully obvious that none of the 'scientists' were ever named '' and very rarely do 97% of them agree on anything.
Plus, the wholeproposition made absolutely no sense to me.
Carbonis the most basic building block of life. We need it toeat, to build homes and to keep warm. How could it be killing a world that musthave it?
The human body is roughly70% water '' hydrogen and oxygen '' and guess what makes up most of the rest?
It's carbon of course,so the idea that it is deadly to our world is absurd.
Apart from the water inour bodies, we could be properly described as carbon units ourselves.
Scientists Never Agree on AnythingSo, when I startedtrying to find out more about these 'scientists' who all agreed with thisrather foolish notion, I couldn't find any.
The only ones who did agree were a group of grad students who participated in article reviews on the orders of a handful of very politically biased professors.
What I did find were numerous political hacks, Hollywood actors, tyrannical billionaires and other people who had an agenda to control us.
Meanwhile, actual 'scientists'with credentials who supported this idea simply weren't there.
And those ''GlobalWarming'' political hacks, actors, and purchased spokespeople all began gettingvery shrill about it as the world edged toward the big 2016 throw-down inAmerica '' but they had to change the name of their 'crisis' from Global Warming to Climate Change.
Why Did They Change from Global Warming to Climate Change?Why? Because the Globe wasn't warming '' and they knew it before I did.
In fact, NASA reportedthat 2016 began a cooling period the likes of which has not been seen in acentury.
In other words, real ''science'' proved they were lying.
In 2016 it was ''Theworld is burning to a cinder if you don't give us total control of everything'' crowdvs. the ''may we see even one small piece of actual evidence of your claims?'' crowd,and it was neck-and-neck.
2016 was when they plannedthe final takeover of our world based on unproven 'climate' claims.
They seemed verysurprised when we didn't buy the hype without proof.
Then it leaked out thatNASA's data '' when no longer subject to tampering '' showedthe opposite from their narrative. We'regetting cooler, and fast.
Donald Trump has Injected Truth into this DebateIn fact, we elected aman who refused to consider their claims without evidence '' kind of likeus. Our man wasn't even a One Worlder.
He was an outsider, just like we had been made to feel in our own countries, who started saying positive things about America for example, and talking about things '' just like we did amongst ourselves.
Now it's 2020, and they'retrying it again
This time, it's a fightlike none ever before in America's history.
At least not since wethrew off the yoke of Great Britain.
Like that fight, thisone may be to the death as our very nation is at stake.
The Swamp Dwellers are not our FriendsUnder the Obama/Bidenregime, the One Worlders and elitists allied all their national security andintelligence assets against 'us' and our man.
That is now an admittedfact.
They were managed bythe group seeking total control over our lives.
What's more, it has nowbeen proven that they were co-ordinating with other intelligence agencies worldwide.
Their aim was to targetand spy on any political campaign that had even a prayer of beating theiranointed one, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Hillary was Supposed to WinThe media was 100% intheir pocket except for a few hosts at FOX and 'the ballot boxes were stuffedby the poll places with care, in hopes that Queen Hillary, soon would be there'.
The smelly 'Deplorables' '' as Hillary called our half of America ''were expected to vote for the candidate ordained to destroy us.
On the Monday before Election Day, according to CNN's Political Prediction Market, ''Hillary Clinton's odds of winning the presidency rose from 78% last week to 91%.''
Not a chance in Hell,we were told, could anyone beat her '' especially some brash billionaire runningaround saying stupid things like ''America First!'' '' and really seeming to meanit.
Bush Republicans,Socialist Democrats and Globalists nursed an accepted 'wisdom.'
They believed that themillions of us losing our jobs would be OK with their managed decline of ournation '' in favor of other countries and people.
There were also anestimated 60,000 businesses that had been shuttered by their inane trade dealsdesigned to break our nation and people.
They thought that theowners and stockholders of these businesses were just going to let it go.
And they really seemedto be OK with their organized decline of the greatest nation on earth.
But the thing was ''that they had all forgotten to ask 'us' how we felt. So, we let them know in 2016.
No one in theirmedia/Democrat bubble realized just how many of 'us' had grown to hate them '' onboth sides '' for their betrayal.
Trump Caught TruthingThey hadn't a clue howour man could make the outrageous claim on March 22nd of 2016, ''We've lost, over a fairly short period of time,60,000 factories in our country '' closed, shuttered, gone. Six million jobs, atleast, gone.''
The CNN and MSNBC kookshad a field day with that one '' until every fact-checking outfit from far leftto far right confirmed he was right '' and that was only the businesses and jobslost between 2001 and 2015.
Back in 2016, we didnot know how close we had come to their plan to decimate and destroy our nationbeing realized '' but we believed him, because we felt the pure hatred of theGlobalists and Elites against him.
''What did we have tolose?'' he asked. And we thought, if theyall hated him that much, maybe he was OK.
We knew Donald J. Trumpbelieved what he said, so we voted for him even if we weren't sure '' because hewas the only one talking about 'us.'
Shocked Elites,Feminists, One World Republicans, Democrat Socialists and every other Anti-Americanforce on earth were openly weeping the night their candidate was beaten by abrash outsider '' who promised to put 'us' first instead of the rest of theworld.
And they have regroupednow and doubled down for a 2020 re-match of 'them' vs 'us' '' and this time it may be worse.
The Swamp is now UnmaskedIn just four years,they've gone from closet Socialists, scared to call their beliefs by their realname, to outright 'in your face' Marxists.
And we've already seenin the 2018 mid-terms how far they will go to win.
Judicial Watch filed afederal lawsuit against the heavily Democrat districts where fraud was theworst and found 3.5 million more 'votes' thanvoters.
Ballot-harvesting,voting dead, stuffing the rolls in Democrat precincts with illegal aliens '' nodevious or illegal act was or will be foregone.
That's because this isthe end game of a 50-year plot.
Global warming wasdecided on as their platform to sell the world and its people of the desperateneed for their own destruction back in 1971.
And it was working '' rightup until the big surprise on November 8th of 2016.
So, I first acknowledgethe victims of the Carbon Hoax and thank them for their incredible courage to standagainst the Mob.
They are, in fact, our last hope '' besides perhaps the man who beat the odds in 2016 '' supposing he can survive long enough to do it again in 2020.
Part 2 coming soon
Norway must curtail oil production to fight climate change, UN expert says
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:33
By Dana Drugmand
Ahead of a November court hearing in a lawsuit challenging the Norwegian government's approval of offshore oil drilling, a UN human rights official is calling on Norway to cease new oil exploration and to ''accept substantial responsibility'' for addressing the climate crisis.
''To provide international leadership on climate change'--the paramount human rights challenge facing humanity today'--Norway should stop exploring for additional oil and gas reserves, stop expanding fossil fuel infrastructure, and harness Norwegian wealth and ingenuity to plan a just transition to a fossil-fuel free economy,'' David Boyd, UN special rapporteur on human rights and the environment, wrote in a statement issued Monday. Boyd's statement followed a 12-day visit to Norway to assess the country's progress in safeguarding human rights and the environment.
Boyd highlighted what he called ''the Norwegian paradox:'' a country that prides itself as a leader in environmental sustainability and climate action while at the same time remaining a major petroleum producer. Norway is the world's 15th largest exporter of oil and second-largest exporter of natural gas.
''However, the Norwegian paradox is that its leadership in some aspects of addressing the global climate emergency is enabled by wealth generated by a large petroleum industry,'' Boyd wrote. ''Emissions from this sector are well above 1990 levels and exploration for additional oil and gas continues in Norway, despite clear evidence that human society cannot burn existing reserves of oil, gas and coal while meeting the targets established in the Paris Agreement.''
Norway's government also owns 67 percent of the country's largest oil company, Equinor (recently renamed from Statoil).
The Norwegian government is being sued by environmental groups Greenpeace and Nature and Youth, which argue that the country's new petroleum drilling licenses contradict Norway's commitment to the Paris Agreement and violates Article 112 of the Norwegian constitution that guarantees the right to a healthy environment. The Oslo District Court recognized this constitutional right while concluding that offshore oil licensing does not violate this right. The environmental groups appealed the decision and that appeal will be heard Nov. 5-14 in the Borgarting Court of Appeal.
Boyd referenced the lawsuit in his statement and is urging the Norwegian government to accept the district court's interpretation of Article 112 as a ''clear expression of the human right to live in a healthy environment,'' rather than an abstract principle.
''At this time in human history'--faced with a global environmental crisis of unprecedented severity'--recognizing, respecting, protecting and fulfilling the right to a healthy environment has never been more important,'' Boyd wrote.
Countries around the world are under increasing pressure to take more ambitious climate action, including curbing fossil fuel production, on the basis of honoring their international human rights obligations. UN human rights treaty bodies, leading environmental and human rights organizations, and young people around the world are demanding that governments be held accountable for insufficient climate policies in the context of human rights law.
''In Norway and all over the world, the young generation is deeply worried about the climate crisis and what the future can bring, especially when a government like the Norwegian government is gambling with people's health and safety by looking for even more oil,'' said Gaute Eiterjord, head of Nature and Youth in Norway. ''At the same time, young people are taking action both in the streets and courtrooms. We are looking forward to confronting the government in court and call for true climate action. The government needs to live up to its commitments and the Norwegian constitution and it is high time to stop the reckless drillings for more oil.''
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Eco-anxiety: Children are losing sleep and having bad dreams over climate change, study finds | The Independent
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:59
A growing number of children are being affected by eco-anxiety '' concern about ecological disasters '' new research suggests.
In order to find out more about how children feel about climate change, BBC Newsround conducted a survey of 2,000 eight to 16-year-olds.
The poll showed that young people are feeling frustrated and anxious about the state of the planet with 80 per cent saying the problem of climate change was important to them, and more than a third saying it was very important.
Download the new Independent Premium appSharing the full story, not just the headlines
Nearly three quarters (73 per cent) added that they were worried about the state of the planet right now, including 22 per cent who say they were ''very worried''.
When asked about their futures, almost three in five (58 per cent) children said that they are concerned about the impact that climate change will have on their lives, with many admitting these worries often come out in unusual ways.
Nearly one in five (19 per cent) of the children surveyed admitted to having a bad dream about the climate crisis, while 17 per cent said they have had their sleeping and eating habits affected by their concerns.
When questioned about the action being taken by grown-ups to tackle the problem, a large number of children said they feel frustrated about the progress being made.
More than half (59 per cent) of participants said they don't think their voices are being heard on climate change, while nearly two thirds (64 per cent) don't believe people in power are listening to them enough when they do talk about it.
What's more, 41 per cent said they don't trust adults to tackle the challenges that climate change presents.
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Emma Citron, a consultant clinical child psychologist, said that young people often find it difficult to come to terms with the scale of the problem of climate changes and what often seems like a lack of response shown by governments and world leaders.
''Public figures like David Attenborough and Greta Thunberg have helped young people to voice their worries and we have to make sure that we as adults listen to them and empower them by giving talks at school and in their communities to help them become involved in positive change,'' Citron said.
"We all need to support them not to feel hopeless but rather to present to them hopeful and balanced messages about their futures and ensure that they get the right professional help if their anxiety is unduly high."
Speaking of the results of the survey, Paul Plunkett, editor at BBC Newsround, said it is clear that children are ''passionate about protecting the planet''.
''The climate strikes in 2019 showed their determination to make their voices heard on environmental issues,'' Plunkett said,
''The question the survey raises for parents and adults is how to show young people that, as a society, we are committed to addressing the challenges raised by climate change, because this survey suggests that at the moment - they aren't convinced we are.''
In 2019, Caroline Hickman, a leading psychotherapist from the University of Bath, issued a warning of rising levels of eco-anxiety among young people.
Based on her research talking to children about their feelings about climate change, Hickman argued that young voices pressing for urgent change could act as a rallying cry to politicians around the world.
''Talking to children about climate change gives a fresh perspective on the absurdity of doing so little about the climate emergency and also highlights for young people the troubling disconnect between what politicians say and what they do,'' she explained, adding that children bear the emotional burden of climate change ''much more courageously'' than adults.
''We owe it to them to share it,'' she continued.
''We all need to do more to listen to young people when they talk about climate change. Through their experiences we'll all learn more about how we should take responsibility for the mess, apologise and start to act.''
Greta Thunberg mother Malena Ernman pens new memoir revealing extent of daughter's exploitation
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:36
| March 03, 2020 06:00 AM
Greta Thunberg is a victim, in almost every way imaginable. She's a victim of bullying, of mental health issues, of circumstance, and most notably, a victim of the left-wing climate movement that has exploited her vulnerability for political gain.
In an excerpt of Thunberg's mother's new memoir, Our House Is on Fire: Scenes of a Family and a Planet in Crisis, published in the Guardian, we learn more about the extent of the challenges and trauma Thunberg and her family have gone through. The tale is heart-wrenching, and only a monster could feel anything but sympathy for Greta after reading it. However, it also once again calls into question the decision to thrust someone so vulnerable and troubled into the spotlight.
Thunberg's mother, Malena Ernman, describes how her daughter's struggles began in 2014:
Greta was 11, had just started fifth grade, and was not doing well. She cried at night when she should be sleeping. She cried on her way to school. She cried in her classes and during her breaks, and the teachers called home almost every day. Svante had to run off and bring her home to Moses, our golden retriever. She sat with him for hours, petting him and stroking his fur. She was slowly disappearing into some kind of darkness and little by little, bit by bit, she seemed to stop functioning. She stopped playing the piano. She stopped laughing. She stopped talking. And she stopped eating.
Tragically, this was only the beginning of Thunberg's troubles. We learn of the intense extent of her struggles with an eating disorder, revealed by Ernman's chilling description of her desperate attempts to get Greta to eat more than five pieces of gnocchi. Her daughter, at one point, only ate three foods.
Her disorder reaches a crisis point:
After two months of not eating Greta has lost almost 10kg, which is a lot when you are rather small to begin with. Her body temperature is low and her pulse and blood pressure clearly indicate signs of starvation. She no longer has the energy to take the stairs and her scores on the depression tests she takes are sky high. We explain to our daughter that we have to start preparing ourselves for a stay at the hospital, where it's possible to get nutrition and food without eating, with tubes and drips.
We learn that Thunberg is diagnosed with autism and obsessive-compulsive disorder. We learn how, after viewing a documentary on environmentalism in school, she becomes obsessively concerned with the environment and climate change. Thunberg starts skipping school, and we learn about her struggles with vicious bullying of unimaginable cruelty:
It's like a movie montage featuring every imaginable bullying scenario. Stories about being pushed over in the playground, wrestled to the ground, or lured into strange places, the systematic shunning and the safe space in the girls' toilets where she sometimes manages to hide and cry before the break monitors force her out into the playground again. For a full year, the stories keep coming. Svante and I inform the school, but the school isn't sympathetic.
Thankfully, eventually things started to look up for Thunberg. We learn that her mental health struggles have improved, a fact for which we should all be grateful.
But despite all of the trauma and troubles revealed in Ernman's memoirs, left-wing activists have subjected Thunberg to a worldwide media frenzy, exposed her to the nasty cruelty of social media fame, and thrown her into the top levels of political debate.
This is unconscionable.
It's unfair to subject any person her age to the public scrutiny associated with being the leader of a political movement, which comes with having every word dissected, every argument debunked, and every aspect of your life publicized. But it's even worse to subject someone with clearly documented, severe mental health issues to this treatment, all for political advantage. That borders on child abuse.
Thunberg has received thousands of hateful messages online, has been mocked cruelly on cable news, and has even been the subject of President Trump's Twitter feed. Liberal climate activists have surely known this would happen, and they put her through it all anyway.
Now, Thunberg madly obsesses over the climate, stricken with fear over doomsday-level fantasies that the world will end. She rages at the United Nations and celebrities alike, scolding the world with tears in her eyes for having ''stolen [her] dreams and [her] childhood.''
Climate activists delight, exploiting her trauma to browbeat their political opponents into submission. In turn, they give her awards and even float her for the Nobel Peace Prize. All the while, Thunberg clearly continues to suffer, but evidently, to progressive activists, that's of little concern.
Idlib
PICTURES: Migrant Mobs Turn Violent at Greek Border, Army Deployed
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 08:20
Violent clashes erupted on the European Union's common external border over the weekend as Greek border guards tried to stop migrants promised they could travel to Europe by the Turkish president from entering.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who leads the Islamist government in Ankara, told migrants the border was now open several days ago '-- a move widely regarded as punishment for the West's failure to back his effective annexation of northern Syria, which has embroiled him in an increasingly deadly confrontation with the Syrian government and its backers in Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah.
A migrant who is trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, reacts as Greek riot police guard the border gate in Kastanies village (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Migrants trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, throw stones at Greek riot police guarding the border gate (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Migrants who are trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, clash with the Greek riot police who guard the border gate in Kastanies village (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A migrant who is trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, throws back a tear gas canister to Greek riot police who guard the border gate in Kastanies village (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
The EU, including the United Kingdom, had been funnelling the Turkish government billions of euros in order to encourage Erogan to bring the flow of migrants under a modicum of control, but he has now reneged on that deal, and they are again travelling to the frontier in their tens of thousands '-- many of them in unmarked buses seemingly laid on for the purpose of transporting them.
The Greek border, however, remains closed, resulting in angry confrontations between Greek personnel and migrants who believed border guards on both sides of the frontier had been stood down.
A migrant who is trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, throws stones at Greek riot police who guard the border gate in Kastanies village (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Migrants who are trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, throw stones at Greek riot police who guard the border gate in Kastanies village (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
A migrant throws a stone at Greek police and army personnel during clashes near the Kastanies border gate (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
A migrant throws a stone at Greek police and army personnel during clashes near the Kastanies border gate at the Greek-Turkish border (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
Migrants trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey, approach the border gate during clashes in Kastanies village (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Greek riot police who guard the border gate in Kastanies village try to stop migrants who are trying to enter Greece from the Pazarkule border gate, Edirne, Turkey (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)
Greek riot police and the army hold positions as migrants toss rocks and other projectiles on the Greek-Turkish border gate on March 1, 2020 in Kastanies, Greece (Photo by Byron Smith/Getty Images)
A migrant burns a tire as Greek riot police watch along the Greece-Turkey border in the village of Kastanies (Photo by SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Migrants have lit fires, hurled stones, and exchanged tear gas canisters with the Greek border guards, who have had to be reinforced by military personnel, in their efforts to breach the border and reach Europe.
The Greeks have for the most part held firm, although some dozens of migrants have illegally entered the country successfully, ranging down along the border in search of weak points to ford the Evros river or destroy sections of fencing with bolt cutters.
This picture taken from the Greek side of the Greece-Turkey border near Kastanies, shows migrants waiting on the Turkish side (Photo by SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Migrants stand behind a fence near the Kastanies border gate at the Greek-Turkish border (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)
A Greek army officer police walk along a separation fence during clashes with migrants along the Greece-Turkey border near the village of Kastanies (Photo by SAKIS MITROLIDIS/AFP via Getty Images)
A migrant throws tear gas at Greek police during clashes at the Turkish-Greek border near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Turkey (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Migrants try to cut the fence at the Turkish-Greek border near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Turkey on Monday, March 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Migrants try to cut the fence at the Turkish-Greek border during clashes with the Greek police near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Turkey on Monday, March 2, 2020 (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)
Migrants try to cut the fence at the Turkish-Greek border during clashes with the Greek police near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Turkey on Monday, March 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Darko Bandic)Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has promised that ''the level of deterrence at our borders [has been increased to the maximum'' and taken the extraordinary step of suspending all asylum applications.
The New York Times believes this move may have be illegal under the EU rules on asylum and immigration to which Greece is subject, but Prime Minister Mitsotakis says he has activated an emergency clause in the bloc's treaties to ''to ensure full European support''.
Whether or not this will be challenged in the Greek or EU courts by NGOs or other actors which favour open borders remains to be seen.
Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery Follow Breitbart London on Facebook: Breitbart London
Migrant Shot Dead by Greek Police as Border Clashes Grow '' Summit News
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 09:22
Greek border police have shot dead a Syrian migrant attempting to reach Europe as clashes grow following Turkey's announcement that the border was ''open.''
The Greek border is being besieged by thousands of migrants convinced they can reach EU welfare havens following Ankara's decision to stand down.
Following clashes that saw migrants pelt police with rocks and other objects, one victim was shot through the mouth and died at the scene.
''This is the first reported death among immigrants trying to cross the border from Turkey to Greece,'' tweeted journalist Jenan Moussa. ''A Syrian man is shot dead by Greek border guards. Here is the video.''
This is the first reported death among migrants trying to cross from Turkey to Greece.
One syrian man was shot dead by Greek border guards. Here is the video.@akhbar pic.twitter.com/LIM5L8d03h
'-- Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa) March 2, 2020
The clip shows the man being surrounded by a crowd before they begin chanting ''Allahu Akbar'' as they carry his body away.
Another more graphic video of the victim was posted by BBC World Service journalist Mughira Al Sharif names the migrant as Ahmed Abu Emad and says his body was taken to Turkey.
Bu sabah Yunan askeri tarafından ¶ld¼r¼len Suriyeli g¶§men Ahmed Abu Emad.
Ahmed, y¼zlerce g¶§menle #Ä°psala'da sınırı ge§meye §alıÅırken Yunan askeri tarafından saat 09:07'de boÄazından vurularak ¶ld¼r¼ld¼.
Ahmed'in cesedi T¼rkiye'ye g¶t¼r¼ld¼. pic.twitter.com/3v98lxNiOx
'-- Mughira Al Sharif (@SharifMugh) March 2, 2020
The clip will undoubtedly be used by news networks to propagandize Europeans into accepting more ''refugees'' in large numbers despite the utter disaster that turned out to be over the course of 2015-16.
Another video shows a woman sat on a shore screaming while multiple cameras surround her to catch every second of the drama.
Hey *Globalists*, next time you shoot refugee propaganda make sure your film crew isn't in the shot too.
Btw her first take was better pic.twitter.com/KALRCi4WxL
'-- Judge (@V8POW) February 29, 2020
Meanwhile, President Erdogan has reportedly activated The Grey Wolves, an extremist militant group that is attacking migrant-owned stores and homes in Turkey in an effort to force them to leave and head to the border.
The militant extremist and Erdogan-supporting Turkish organization "The Grey Wolves" has been put into action.
They are now attacking migrant homes and businesses (vandalizing & looting) across south-western Turkey in an attempt to force migrants to pack up and leave for #Greece pic.twitter.com/VRxx8HhJ7T
'-- BasedPoland (@BasedPoland) March 2, 2020
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Chiners
Institution of a Personnel Cap on Designated PRC State Media Entities - United States Department of State
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 12:16
For years, the government of the People's Republic of China has imposed increasingly harsh surveillance, harassment, and intimidation against American and other foreign journalists operating in China.
President Trump has made clear that Beijing's restrictions on foreign journalists are misguided. The U.S. government has long welcomed foreign journalists, including PRC journalists, to work freely and without threat of reprisal.
The U.S. government is today instituting a personnel cap on certain PRC-controlled state media entities in the United States '' specifically, the five entities that were designated by the U.S. State Department on February 18, 2020, as foreign missions of the People's Republic of China. This cap limits the number of Chinese citizens permitted to work for these organizations in the United States at any given time.
The cap applies to the five Chinese state media entities operating in the United States that have been designated as foreign missions, which recognizes that they are effectively controlled by the PRC government. Unlike foreign media organizations in China, these entities are not independent news organizations.
The decision to implement this personnel cap is not based on any content produced by these entities, nor does it place any restrictions on what the designated entities may publish in the United States.
Our goal is reciprocity. As we have done in other areas of the U.S.-China relationship, we seek to establish a long-overdue level playing field. It is our hope that this action will spur Beijing to adopt a more fair and reciprocal approach to U.S. and other foreign press in China.
We urge the Chinese government to immediately uphold its international commitments to respect freedom of expression, including for members of the press.
U.S. Designates China's Official Media as Operatives of the Communist State - The New York Times
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 12:17
The move is the latest in the Trump administration's efforts to counter Beijing's influence and intelligence operations in the United States.
Xinhua News Agency's North America headquarters in New York. Credit... Chang W. Lee/The New York Times WASHINGTON '-- For years they have operated as news organizations in the United States, deploying scores of journalists to cover the major events of the day and to report back to their readers and viewers at home, even if the most important of those was the leadership of the Communist Party of China.
Now, the Trump administration has declared them not practitioners of journalism, but rather operatives of the Chinese state.
The State Department told China on Tuesday that its five foremost news agencies '-- Xinhua, CGTN, China Radio, China Daily and The People's Daily '-- will officially be treated as foreign government functionaries, subject to similar rules as diplomats stationed in the United States. The new action was described on Tuesday afternoon by two senior State Department officials.
The decision '-- debated in Washington for years but never carried out, in part because of concerns over restricting the freedom of the press '-- comes at a time when the administration has moved aggressively on multiple fronts to fight what officials describe as extensive Chinese influence and intelligence operations in the United States.
In the past month alone, prosecutors have brought cases against Chinese intelligence operations involving scientific research at Harvard and the 2017 hacking of Equifax, one of the United States' largest credit reporting agencies. They also charged Huawei, the telecommunications company, and two of its subsidiaries with federal racketeering and conspiracy to steal trade secrets.
The legal assault on Chinese entities has unfolded even as bilateral tensions have flared over China's handling of the coronavirus epidemic, which prompted the evacuation of American diplomats and other citizens from Wuhan, the city in central China at the source of the outbreak. It is part of a concerted effort to put new pressure on China's government barely a month after President Trump signed a temporary truce in the trade war he started.
Some of China's critics in Washington have long called for action against the country's state media. The senior State Department officials described the new restrictions as part of the Trump administration's strategy to confront great power adversaries. The officials would not discuss whether Russian media working in the United States would face similar designations.
The State Department officials, who briefed reporters only on the condition of anonymity despite requests for public comment, said the new designation would not impede the five Chinese news agencies' ability to report, broadcast or carry out other journalistic activity.
Instead, the officials said, it requires the five organizations to provide names, personal details and turnover of staff in the United States to the State Department. The news organizations would also need to report whether they own or lease property in the United States.
The officials would not comment on how the new registration requirements would be enforced. Nor would they predict what backlash foreign journalists in China might face as a result of the designations.
One State Department official cited an already tough working environment for journalists in China, where he said that ''freedom of the press is under a severe siege.'' He also described the five Chinese news organizations as ''part and parcel of the P.R.C. propaganda apparatus,'' using an abbreviation for the People's Republic of China.
Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, echoed a suspicion held in national security circles that the decision could lead to retaliation against American journalists who work in China '-- especially those affiliated with the United States government, like Voice of America.
''China has long masked intelligence operations with journalistic credentials,'' Mr. Turley said. ''The danger is China could reciprocate against our journalists.''
He added, ''The difference is our journalists in China are actually journalists.''
The two State Department officials and a third Trump administration official said the restrictions against the Chinese news employees '-- similar to those required by diplomats in the Chinese Embassy in Washington or in consulates around the United States '-- were extended because they were substantially owned and effectively controlled by China's government.
The American government has already targeted some of the news agencies under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires anyone lobbying on behalf of foreign governments to submit regular reports on their activities to the Justice Department.
Partly in response to Russia's interference in the 2016 election, the administration has forced parts of China's official propaganda apparatus to register. They included CGTN, the English-language channel of China Central Television, Beijing's main domestic network, which was forced to register beginning last year. One of the others, China Daily, has been registered as a foreign agent since 1983.
The new action treats the news organizations as part of China's diplomatic missions whose activities are regulated under the Foreign Missions Act. Enacted in 1982, the law is a legal tool intended to ensure equitable treatment for American diplomats serving in countries around the world, often under onerous government restrictions. It deals with such things as providing visas, acquiring property and extending diplomatic immunity in matters of criminal wrongdoing.
Last fall, for example, the State Department began requiring Chinese diplomats to give notice before they have any meetings with local or state officials and with educational and research institutions. That move came in retaliation for similar Chinese government rules imposed on American diplomats. But the five Chinese news agencies whose employees are working in the United States will be exempted from that requirement, the State Department officials said.
American officials have become much more suspicious of the activities of Chinese diplomats and have increased scrutiny of their travels and meetings. In September, the State Department secretly expelled two Chinese Embassy officials in Washington after they were caught driving on a sensitive military base in Virginia with their wives. The expulsions appear to be the first of Chinese diplomats suspected of espionage in more than 30 years.
It was not clear why the Trump administration decided to act now on the Chinese news organizations, although the administration official said the move reflected long-simmering frustration over the forbearance shown to Chinese official media in the United States, despite evidence that the organizations serve as a front for intelligence agencies.
The U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, a congressionally mandated agency, warned in its report in 2017 that ''Chinese intelligence-gathering and information-warfare efforts are known to involve staff of Chinese state-run media organizations.''
In recent years, a growing number of American officials have discussed imposing strict visa reciprocity on Chinese news organizations after Beijing increasingly began limiting visas and residence permits issued to foreign journalists and curtailed the lengths of those documents.
Unlike Russia's information campaigns in the United States, which have been artfully tailored to sow distrust in the American government and the democratic system, China's media efforts in the United States have tended to reflect more traditional forms of government propaganda. Reports on CGTN or in China Daily, for example, are more likely to extol the country's economic and diplomatic achievements than to denigrate American democracy.
Xinhua, which is China's main news agency and serves as a channel for most major announcements, maintains bureaus around the world, with its largest in Washington and New York. It is common practice for many of them to produce internal documents, intended for consumption not by the public but by high-ranking officials.
Some disagreed with the action. ''I don't see any evidence that they are doing anything nefarious that would warrant this response,'' said Maria Repnikova, an assistant professor at Georgia State University and the author of ''Media Politics in China: Improvising Power Under Authoritarianism.''
China Daily, the English-language version of one of the main state newspapers, regularly publishes advertising supplements in newspapers around the country, including The New York Times. They generally offer an informative, if anodyne, view of world affairs refracted through the lens of the Communist Party.
''The China Daily advertisement insert is clearly labeled and meets our advertising acceptability standards,'' said Ari Isaacman Bevacqua, a Times spokeswoman. ''The New York Times covers China thoroughly and aggressively, and at no time has advertising influenced our coverage.''
However, some experts on China say China Daily pushes insidious propaganda onto foreign readers, especially in its attempts to whitewash vast human rights abuses against Uighurs, Tibetans and other ethnic minorities.
Sophie Richardson, the China director for Human Rights Watch, has repeatedly denounced China Daily. The paper, she said on Twitter last year, was ''nothing more than a mouthpiece for a government that conflates peaceful criticism with terrorism, crushes peaceful protests, and arbitrarily detains shocking numbers of #Uyghurs and other #Muslims.''
One issue in particular drew the attention of the White House in 2018. An advertisement placed in The Des Moines Register highlighted the benefits of free trade for Iowa's farmers at a time Mr. Trump was excoriating what he called China's unfair trade practices.
Mr. Trump, in typical fashion, responded on Twitter.
Lara Jakes reported from Washington, and Steven Lee Myers from Beijing. Edward Wong contributed reporting from Washington.
SXSW
Hillary Clinton Joins SXSW Lineup
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 10:40
Hillary Clinton, Adam Schiff and Beto O'Rourke will head to Austin, Texas, to participate in SXSW and The Texas Tribune Festival's two-day political series, Conversations About America's Future.
In its second year, the event will feature elected officials, political activists and thought leader in conversation with journalists.
"The 2020 election is the most important election of our generation, and at SXSW our goal is to address the issues that affect the lives of all citizens," SXSW chief programming officer Hugh Forrest said in a statement. "We're fortunate to have a young, diverse and engaged audience looking for solutions to the complex problems that face the next generation."
MSNBC's Joy Reid will sit down with Clinton, the former secretary of state and onetime presidential candidate; NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Kasie Hunt will interview Rep. Adam Schiff; and Recode co-founder and editor at large Kara Swisher will host a conversation with former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel.
Two former candidates for the Democratic nomination for president will also participate in the event. Beto O'Rourke will sit for a conversation with The Washington Post national political reporter Robert Costa, and Andrew Yang will be interviewed by New York Times media columnist Ben Smith.
Others who will sit for interviews include Anita Hill, the lawyer and head of the Hollywood Commission to Eliminate Sexual Harassment and Advance Equality in the Workplace; former Fox News anchor and Life Our Voices co-founder Gretchen Carlson; and Stockton, California, Mayor Michael Tubbs.
A panel of political reporters will feature The Daily Beast Washington bureau chief Jackie Kucinich, New York magazine Washington correspondent Olivia Nuzzi, CNN senior congressional correspondent Manu Raju and Politico senior writer Jake Sherman. NBC News' Dylan Byers will moderate.
The event will take place March 14-15 at the Fairmont Austin as part of SXSW's government and politics track.
Locusts
JasperJester on Twitter: "Following up on the NA show 1222 report on locusts, see this thread, @adamcurry for "rivers run red." https://t.co/f9G5jf342f" / Twitter
Clips
VIDEO - David1720 on Twitter: "@adamcurry @THErealDVORAK Do the two of you think this will be real one day? https://t.co/vTUyivUm36" / Twitter
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 07:13
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VIDEO - (1) Florian on Twitter: "A confused Joe Biden tells the crowd he wants to increase premiums and make sure that healthcare is "not quality, but only affordable". https://t.co/eK24KAbcir" / Twitter
Thu, 05 Mar 2020 06:17
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VIDEO-Trump administration sued by 19 states over border wall funding - YouTube
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VIDEO - DC Basement >> '¸ð¥ on Twitter: "@adamcurry clip, a Cenk Uygur meltdown? Or valid analysis? https://t.co/UEJ1tJkGep" / Twitter
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 12:20
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VIDEO - Hong Kong to hand out cash amid crisis - YouTube
VIDEO - Brain Freeze: Joe Biden Mixes Up Wife Jill with His Sister - YouTube
VIDEO - Northampton County executive issues executive order after arrest of undocumented immigrant at courthouse | Lehigh Valley Regional News | wfmz.com
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 11:30
EASTON, Pa. - Northampton County's executive issued a new order Tuesday after an undocumented immigrant was arrested at the courthouse.
In a 25-second video posted online, defense attorney Josh Fulmer demands a federal immigration agent show a warrant to arrest his client, 32-year-old Franklin Urrutia Cordon. When asked if the agent had a warrant, the agent said it was in his car.
"I was flabbergasted...it was so fundamentally wrong," Fulmer said.
"I feel he did not have the due process that's required, you should be served a warrant if you're being arrested," Northampton County Executive Lamont McClure said. "It's important for the federal government to enforce our immigration laws, it's also important for us to stand up for the principle of due process. If you're going to be placed in handcuffs, there should be a warrant."
So he signed an executive order that now requires federal agents to show a warrant for undocumented people to be turned over inside the courthouse. It doesn't apply elsewhere.
Urrutia Cordon is originally from Guatemala and has lived here about 12 years. His attorney says he's married to a U.S. citizen, pays taxes, and has applied for lawful status.
Fulmer says Monday's hearing was related to a 2017 DUI case and never caught ICE's attention before.
District Attorney Terry Houck says his office honors detainers but does not contact immigration.
"On March 2, officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arrested Franklin Urrutia-Cordon, a 32 year-old citizen of Guatemala, illegally present in the United States for immigration related violations," ICE officials said in a statement.
"Urrutia-Cordon was previously arrested by the Bethlehem Police Department on Sept. 13, 2017, and charged with driving under the influence. Those charges are pending. He remains in ICE custody pending the disposition of his immigration proceedings."
ICE said its officers are are authorized to make warrantless arrests. ICE said it is not required to get a criminal judicial warrant to take custody of someone on civil immigration violations.
It said supervisory immigration officers, not judges, have the authority to issue a warrant for a civil immigration violation. Current ICE policy says agency personnel must avoid conducting enforcement activities at sensitive locations unless they have prior approval from an appropriate supervisory official. ICE says courthouses are not considered sensitive locations.
VIDEO-Important '' Rand Paul Meets With President Trump: ''He Will Not Support Clean Reauthorization Without Significant FISA Reform'''... | The Last Refuge
Wed, 04 Mar 2020 09:22
Senator Rand Paul reported earlier this evening that he met with President Trump in the White House to discuss the pending FISA reauthorization. According to Senator Paul President Trump will not support reauthorization without ''significant FISA reform''.
Senator Paul appears with Lou Dobbs to discuss the latest developments. The position being put forth by Rand Paul is exactly correct. Change the law so that FISA can only be used against foreign actors, and force the DOJ or intelligence apparatus to go to a normal Title-3 court for a search/surveillance warrant against any American. WATCH :
.
The Senate is scheduled to go back into recess March 13, 2020. Additionally, the DOJ/FBI response to the FISA court order (due February 5th) has still not been made public. If congress is going to reauthorize the controversial FISA provisions, they have nine days.
In November of 2019 buried deep in the congressional budget Continuing Resolution (CR) was a short-term extension to reauthorize the FISA ''business records provision'', the ''roving wiretap'' provision, the ''lone wolf'' provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], all parts of the Patriot Act. As a result of the FISA CR inclusion the terminal deadline was pushed to March 15, 2020.
Prior to the December 9, 2019, inspector general report on FISA abuse, FISA Court judges Rosemary Collyer (declassified 2017) and James Boasberg (declassified 2019) both identified issues with the NSA bulk database collection program being exploited for unauthorized reasons. For the past several years no corrective action taken by the intelligence community has improved the abuses outlined by the FISA court.
Keep in mind the deadline for the DOJ to respond to the FISA court about the abusive intelligence practices identified in the Horowitz report was February 5th, more than four weeks ago. The responses from the DOJ and FBI have not been made public.
FISA Court Order '' FISA Court Notice of Extension.It appears the DOJ is trying to get the FISA reauthorization passed before the FISC declassifies the corrective action outlined from the prior court order. This response would also include information about the ''sequestering'' of evidence gathered as a result of the now admitted fraudulent and misrepresented information within the FISA applications.
The FISA ''business records provision'', the ''roving wiretap'' provision, the ''lone wolf'' provision, and the more controversial bulk metadata provisions [Call Detail Records (CDR)], again all parts of the Patriot Act, must not be reauthorized without a full public vetting of the abuses that have taken place for the past several years.
At a minimum the pending DOJ/FBI response to the FISA court needs to be made public prior to any reauthorization by congress. And to better understand the scale of the issue, the consequences when the system is abused, the upstream sequester material needs to be made public.
Let the American public see what investigative evidence was unlawfully gathered, and let us see who and what was exposed by the fraudulently obtained FISA warrants. At a minimum congress and the American people need to understand the scale of what can happen when the system is wrong '' BEFORE that exact same system is reauthorized.
Declassification of existing records would reveal the November 2015 through April 2016 FISA-702 search query abuse as outlined in the April 2017 court opinion written by FISC Presiding Judge Rosemary Collyer. Who exactly are these private sector FBI contractors behind the 85% fraudulent search queries? This was a weaponized surveillance and domestic political spying operation. [The trail was laid down in specific detail by Judge Collyer '' SEE HERE]
The U.S. constitution's fourth amendment is being violated by the continued abuse of bulk metadata collection, particularly when private contractors and government officials illegally access the system. The 2016 FISA review (party declassified in 2017) and the 2018 FISA review (party declassified in 2019) both show ongoing and systematic wrongdoing despite all prior corrective action and promises.
This needs to be stopped.
VIDEO-Coronavirus kills 6 in Washington state - YouTube
VIDEO-Donna Brazile Tells RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel to 'Go to Hell' on Fox News
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 11:34
Former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman Donna Brazile lashed out Tuesday at Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel during a Fox News appearance, repeatedly telling McDaniel to ''go to hell'' for claiming the Democratic primary will be ''rigged'' against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT).
Hours before polls close in 14 Democratic primary states, Brazile'--now a Fox News contributor'--was asked by America's Newsroom anchor Sandra Smith to react to comments made by McDaniel earlier on the program.
''It does depend on how big a lead that Sanders takes out of California is,'' the GOP chair said. ''If he picks up a huge proportion of delegates. I don't see anybody getting out soon. It is leading towards a brokered convention, which will be rigged against Bernie if those superdelegates have their way on that second vote.''
Brazile immediately became indignant over McDaniel offering up her take on the Democratic race, calling on her and other Republicans to ''stay the hell out of our race,'' adding that she's ''sick and tired'' of Republicans telling her about the Democrats' process.
''First of all, they don't have a process,'' Brazile declared. ''They are canceling primaries. They have winner-take-all. They don't have the kind of democracy that we see on the Democratic side.''
''For people to use Russian talking points to sow division among Americans is stupid,'' she continued. ''So Ronna, go to hell! This is not about '-- go to Hell! I'm tired of it.''
After Fox anchors Smith and Ed Henry audibly shouted ''whoa,'' Brazile went on to call McDaniel's remarks ''stupid'' while accusing her of ''using Russian talking points.''
At the end of the segment, Henry said that since it was Super Tuesday, the network would need to make sure to bring on McDaniel and Brazile so they could go at it.
''I'm all about reconciliation,'' Brazile concluded. ''It is Lent. I'm trying to keep my karma. But stop lying about the Democratic process.''
McDaniel later took to Twitter to respond to Brazile, retorting that she'd ''be having a bad day too if my party was still hopelessly divided.''
''Talk of a brokered convention and the DNC trying to stop Bernie obviously hit a little close to home,'' the RNC chair added.
VIDEO-I Tried Celery Juice To Cure My Chronic Illness | 1 YEAR UPDATE - YouTube
VIDEO-'¸ Bernie Doesn't Like Babies or Dogs (sus) '¸ on Twitter: "Why not just call us n*ggers and go, Michael Moore? https://t.co/qFQiyVfDOU" / Twitter
Tue, 03 Mar 2020 00:21
Log in Sign up '¸ Bernie Doesn't Like Babies or Dogs (sus) '¸ @ KHiveQueenB Why not just call us n*ggers and go, Michael Moore?
pic.twitter.com/qFQiyVfDOU 9:18 PM - 2 Mar 2020 Twitter by: '¸ Bernie Doesn't Like Babies or Dogs (sus) '¸ @KHiveQueenB Truth Sandwichð¥ªðºð¸''¸ð(C)ðð¥'¸ @ master_deli
1h Replying to
@KHiveQueenB To be fair, that's effectively what he did.
View conversation · '¸ Bernie Doesn't Like Babies or Dogs (sus) '¸ @ KHiveQueenB
59m Replying to
@master_deli Yeah. But he used too much time.
View conversation · ð"¸'ð PETTY RUBBLE ENDORSES JOE BIDEN @ HillaryzMyHmgrl
47m Replying to
@KHiveQueenB pic.twitter.com/MIhqxg7SWY View conversation · Kimberley Edwards @ kimmy6192004
47m Replying to
@HillaryzMyHmgrl @KHiveQueenB ð¤£ð¤£ð¤£ð¤£ð¤£ð¤£ð¤£
View conversation · Che ð @ CheReal85
59m Replying to
@KHiveQueenB You know he did with Susan Sarandon adding on and Nina Turner agreeing
View conversation · Steven Ochoa @ StevenGOchoa
28m Replying to
@KHiveQueenB Can't wait to be called a ''wetback'' by bernie supporters.
View conversation · '¸ Bernie Doesn't Like Babies or Dogs (sus) '¸ @ KHiveQueenB
2m Replying to
@StevenGOchoa Soon..
View conversation · This fuckin' guy again? @ NotThisAsshole1
46m Replying to
@KHiveQueenB South Carolina is not representative of the United States?
View conversation · KikaYaga @ QueenKika
44m Replying to
@NotThisAsshole1 @KHiveQueenB ¯\(°_o)/¯
View conversation · impeach the MFer. its time. #Resist @ annepearl1
57m Replying to
@KHiveQueenB So tired of that guy.
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VIDEO-BANNED.video on Twitter: "https://t.co/sqGkuBs8gx ð VIDEO: Turkey Invades Europe as Islamists Use Children as Human Shields!! #A̶l̶e̶x̶J̶o̶n̶e̶s̶Show #USA https://t.co/kHOjVHyewR" / Twitter
VIDEO-Tom Fitton on Twitter: "HUGE: State Dept "has thus failed to persuade the Court that all of Secretary Clinton's recoverable emails have been located. This is unacceptable." Court authorized deposition of Hillary Clinton today. https://t.co/Zp5GKdJB4
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 17:29
Log in Sign up Tom Fitton @ TomFitton HUGE: State Dept "has thus failed to persuade the Court that all of Secretary Clinton's recoverable emails have been located. This is unacceptable." Court authorized deposition of Hillary Clinton today.
judicialwatch.org/press-releases'... pic.twitter.com/8XP5tqqisK 3:19 PM - 2 Mar 2020 Twitter by: Tom Fitton @TomFitton Hattie @ qanoniam
8m Replying to
@TomFitton ThankQ!!
View conversation · Michael Ryan @ MichaelPRyan3
7m Replying to
@TomFitton bout time Tom you guys rock keep pushen
View conversation · The Red Votes are Coming! @ 1_Decided_Voter
7m Replying to
@TomFitton And Cheryl Mills too, right?
View conversation · Fly Over Patriot @ Deep6_DeepState
6m Replying to
@TomFitton Pure awesomeness! Keep up the great work Tom!
View conversation · misstina-Trump-cult 45 #KAG 2020 @ ptsd1471
5m Replying to
@TomFitton So proud of you !!!!!
View conversation · AyePatriot @ AyePatriot
1m Replying to
@TomFitton Finally! Make it pay-per-view and we could pay off the national debt.
View conversation · Rick Kuhns @ rvkuhns
7m Replying to
@TomFitton Does she have to come in personð¤--
View conversation · Holly Howard @ 50calHolly
6m Replying to
@TomFitton Thank you for fighting for the truth!
View conversation · Bradford Davis @ BradfordDavis7
5m Replying to
@TomFitton That's good, very good.Who gave the stand down orders?What happened to Libya's gold?
View conversation · Juanita Baisden @ BaisdenJuanita
5m Replying to
@TomFitton Rumors going around, has the statue of limitations up?
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VIDEO-What Drives Fears Of A Coronavirus Pandemic? (VIDEO)
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 17:26
Because so little is known about exactly how many people are infected, or just how dangerous the virus is, the anxiety index is climbing.
From big box warehouses to neighborhood drug stores '-- Americans are preparing for a pandemic.
"I've got like four backorders out there for masks to come in."Wayne Brown, an employee at Ace Hardware, told Newsy's sister station.
"I'm just concerned people are going to start panicking and they will start stocking up on medications," Dr. Hashim Zaibak, a pharmacist at Hayat Pharmacy, said.
"There is a certain component of panic. A pandemic is a new thing, most people have never lived through one that is, you know, moderate or severe. The important thing to remember is pandemic is all about where it's spread, not how bad it is," said epidemiologist Dr. Cyrus Shahpar, Prevent Epidemics Team Director at Resolve to Save Lives, a nonprofit who works global spread of infectious and heart diseases.
Officials say risk of coronavirus infection is still low, but because so little is known about exactly how many people are infected, or just how dangerous the virus is, the anxiety index is climbing.To help us understand people's concerns, Newsy spoke with Dr. Lynn Bufka of the American Psychological Association. She says the biggest factor is coronavirus's novelty.
"We don't see information about the flu in the news all the time. So we're being reminded there's this potential threat out there," Bufka, a Psychologist and Associate Executive Director of Practice Research & Policy at the American Psychological Association, said.
Medical research shows novel threats raise anxiety levels higher than more familiar ones, in a part of the brain called the amygdala. That's the section of the brain believed to detect and process fear '-- and the studies show an increased response when participants look at pictures of potentially threatening things, like unfamiliar flowers or snakes.
It also has to do with something psychologists call risk perception '-- subjective judgments we all make about if something is threatening to us.Research shows emotion impact risk perception too. Negative emotions like anger and fear can make you perceive higher risk.
Then there's the anxiety for people who just can't afford to have something like a virus interrupt their lives.
"The individuals that I'm particularly concerned about would be the individuals who don't have as much flexibility and resources in their daily lives," Bufka said. "So for somebody who can telework, being in a lockdown quarantine situation might feel somewhat annoying, you know, to always be in your home, to be sitting at your desk. I'm used to being out in the world, but for individuals who to earn money have to physically be in the location where they work. That's going to be more stressful."
Mental health experts say there are two things Americans can do right now to cut down on coronavirus related anxiety. First, mentally prepare for what disruptions in your daily life would mean for you, like being home sick for a week or even having to stay at home for a while if city lockdowns '-- like we've seen other places '-- would happen here. Second '-- seek out other perspectives that might challenge your risk assessment. Take stock of your behavior, especially if coronavirus fear has impacted it.
"If you're starting to see, oh, gosh, I'm maybe coping with this by having two glasses of wine every night because I just don't want to think about anything. See if you're able to dial that back, you know, and insert some of these healthier ways of coping," Bufka said.
And if making a dash to the nearest warehouse store to stock up helps ease your anxiety, that's just fine too.
VIDEO-Team Trump (Text TRUMP to 88022) on Twitter: "The #Coronavirus Outbreak shows how important it is to bring manufacturing back to America! https://t.co/3BeUxhdenR" / Twitter
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 16:58
Pieter de Wit @ pmgdewit
1h Replying to
@TeamTrump pic.twitter.com/HQBKkApQFR View conversation · Pat lafleur @ voteNotoALL
47m Replying to
@pmgdewit @TeamTrump and
2 others @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse Based on his tweet he should be hugging and kissing everyone in Washington State. We already knows he grabs women in DC
View conversation · The Black Culture @ TheBlaqCulture
1h Replying to
@TeamTrump True. The over-dependence on China is just toooo much.
View conversation · Deana Darby @ DeanaDarby
1h Replying to
@TeamTrump @TrumpWarRoom And to Secure Our Borders.
View conversation · ðºð¸ ' I ''¤¸Baseball ' @ M_USA1993
1h Replying to
@TeamTrump If we learned anything from the
#CoronaOutbreak is we are too dependent on China! It's time to end this dependency! Let's make our own Pharmaceuticals!
View conversation · Lora Pettiford @ PettifordLora
1h Replying to
@TeamTrump Absolutely agree. The House should have listened to him in 2018.
View conversation · David Koelle - #SXSW2020 @ dmkoelle
1h Replying to
@TeamTrump I thought we were supposed to not politicize this disease.
View conversation · All In ð"¸'ððºð¸ @ Moore1766
1h Replying to
@TeamTrump It's a shame he's crushing manufacturing jobs
View conversation ·
VIDEO-Illuminadia on Twitter: "@StrCrz @THErealDVORAK @adamcurry Uh oh." / Twitter
VIDEO-How California will steal 553,000 votes from Bernie Sanders - YouTube
VIDEO-CherokeeOwl on Twitter: "ð--¥Biden was Born a Liar! ð--¥Has Lied His Entire Life! ð--¥Moved From Lying to Profiting His Family & Himself off His Political Position ð--¥What a Corrupt Immoral Lowlife! https://t.co/CJqxxv0mnn" / Twitter
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 10:33
Replying to
@CherokeeOwl Wow, his memory was gone back then ... Looking like the late 70's??GeeessshhhKelly Bundy theory, I think ...
VIDEO-Sunday Drama: HHS Secretary Azar -vs- Hair On Fire Margaret Brennan'... | The Last Refuge
Mon, 02 Mar 2020 08:47
Sunday Drama: HHS Secretary Azar -vs- Hair On Fire Margaret Brennan'...HHS Secretary Alex Azar appears on Face The Nation with professional drama queen Margaret Brennan to discuss ongoing Coronavirus mitigation efforts. Ms. Brennan uses her best dramatic voice, and a recently attained expertise in virology, to advance her network's emotional hunches that all hope is lost. Ms. Brennan is verklempt.
The drama and anxiety riddled questioning is so stunningly over-the-top, mid-way through the segment the interview becomes a parody unto itself. WATCH :
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VIDEO-Mike Bloomberg on Twitter: "The coronavirus is spreading. Concern is growing. The economy has taken a hit. Tonight, I'm addressing the nation because Donald Trump has yet again failed to lead. I've led in crises before. As president, I'll trus
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 20:05
The coronavirus is spreading. Concern is growing. The economy has taken a hit. Tonight, I'm addressing the nation because Donald Trump has yet again failed to lead. I've led in crises before. As president, I'll trust the science and let the experts do their jobs.
pic.twitter.com/NHzT3fY3UK
VIDEO-Aaron Mat(C) on Twitter: "After SC, @maddow says that if Bernie Sanders "continues to underperform systematically with black voters... that's a existential question." In reality, among black voters, Bernie finished #2 in NV & is #1 natio
Sun, 01 Mar 2020 15:59
Aaron Mat(C) @ aaronjmate
21h Just like Moscow is the blank canvas boogeyman on which to project US elite failures -- Clinton's loss, POCs not voting, Bernie's surge -- here
@maddow disingenuously uses black voters to serve DNC elites goals: one vote in SC is deemed representative despite the *national* data.
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