Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/5/2020

Turkey has deployed 1,000 special forces police to its border with Greece to ensure that the migrants it has released don’t return to Turkey. Meanwhile, the Turkish army is reportedly helping the people-smugglers get the migrants to Europe, making sure they don’t overcharge their customers.

In other news, Hungary has announced that its two confirmed victims of the Wuhan Coronavirus are university students from Iran.

To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.

Thanks to Insubria, JD, Reader from Chicago, SS, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.

Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.

Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. I check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.

Financial Crisis
» ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 183,000 Jobs in February
» Poland’s Unemployment Likely at 5.5 Pct in February — Labour Ministry
» The Unstoppable Coronavirus vs. The “All-Powerful” Federal Reserve
» You’ll Never Guess How Big Banks Want the Fed to Handle the Coronavirus: More Wall Street Deregulation
 
USA
» “Coronavirus Anxiety” Is Running Rampant All Over America, And This Could be Only Just the Beginning…
» Bill Clinton Claims He Used Sex With Monica Lewinsky to ‘Manage His Anxieties’
» Coronavirus Updates: 3,500 Cruise Passengers Confined Off San Francisco; More Than 230 Infected in US
» Economic Analyst Spends Tens of Thousands of Dollars Stockpiling Food
» Elizabeth Warren Drops Out of 2020 Race
» Facebook Removes Trump Campaign Ads, Citing Violation of Census Policy
» Gun Rights Champion Mark Robinson Wins Republican Nomination for NC Lieutenant Governor
» Gun Sales Soar in Virginia as Dems Pass New Gun Control Measures
» Howard Stern Calls Bernie Sanders “Karl Marx Jr.” Who Can’t Beat Trump
» Is the Coronavirus China’s Revenge on Trump?
» LAX Medical Screener Tests Positive for Coronavirus
» Trump Says Schumer Must Pay ‘Severe Price’ For Threatening Two US Supreme Court Justices
» U.S. Congress Approves, Sends to Trump $8.3 Billion to Fight Coronavirus
» ‘Unfixable’ Boot ROM Security Flaw in Millions of Intel Chips Could Spell ‘Utter Chaos’ For DRM, File Encryption, Etc
» US County With 39 Coronavirus Cases Advises All Its 2.2million Residents to Work From Home and Tells Everyone Over 60 to Stay Indoors — While State Officials Urge Primary Voters Not to Lick Their Ballots
» West Virginia Sentences Man to 775 Years for Recording Sex Abuse of Infant
 
Canada
» Breaking: Train Derailment in Central BC, School Evacuated
» Canadian Military Shifts to Pre-Pandemic Planning
» Family of University of Alberta Student Killed in Flight 752 Missile Attack Flees to Edmonton
» Railway Blockaders Temporarily Stop Traffic Before Peacefully Dismantling
» Starbucks Refusing to Serve Customers With Reusable Mugs Due to Coronavirus
 
Europe and the EU
» Catholic Church Cancels Weekday Masses in Northern Italy
» Confirmed: Wuhan Coronavirus Spreads to Hungary Via Iranian Students
» Coronavirus Kills an Airline: UK’s Flybe Collapses as Bookings Fall
» Coronavirus: 1st European Hotbed in Germany — Report
» Coronavirus: Italy Says it’s Had 41 New COVID-19 Deaths in Just 24 Hours
» Exclusive — French Populist MEP: Brexit Like First Domino That Led to USSR Collapse
» First Coronavirus Patient in Hungary is a Pharmacy Student at Semmelweis University
» Hungary: Orban: Coronavirus Response Focusing on Individual Cases
» Hungary: Robust Retail Growth in January Partly Due to Coronavirus Stockpiling
» Italy: Priest Says Mass After Serving Time for Sex Abuse of Girl
» Spain: Family Takes Dictator General Franco’s Exhumation to European Court
» Swedish Mother Reports School to Police After a Teacher Told Her Daughter to Write “I Am a Muslim”
» UK: ‘If Parliament Shuts Everyone Else Will Shut’: Alarm at Plan to Close the Palace of Westminster for Five Months to Stop MPs Becoming ‘Superspreaders’ If Coronavirus Crisis Escalates
» UK: Anti-Brexit Lawyer Who Battered Fox to Death in a Kimono Will Not be Prosecuted
» UK: Football Icon Tells Reporters: ‘Politics? Coronavirus? It’s Not Important What Famous People Say’
» UK: Senior Tories Accuse Civil Servants and Labour of Coordinating Patel Bullying Allegations
» UK: The One-Stop Swab Shop: NHS Sets Up Drive-Thru Coronavirus Test Centre in Bid to Keep Infected Londoners Away From Hospitals — as UK Cases Rise to 53
» ‘White People Not Welcome’ Event to Take Place in Brussels
 
Middle East
» Another Senior Politician Has Died of Coronavirus in Iran, Where 8% of the Parliament is Infected
» Iranian General: Coronavirus is a Manmade Bio-Weapon
 
Russia
» Demand for ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ Bunkers Soars Six Fold Since Coronavirus Outbreak
 
South Asia
» Singapore Jails Indonesian Maid for Giving Money to ISIS-Linked JAD
 
Far East
» “It’s Like a Ghost Town”: Major Cities All Over the Globe Are Paralyzed by Fear of COVID-19
» COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak
» First British Victim, 25, Describes How ‘Worst Disease He Ever Had’ Left Him Sweating, Shivering, And Struggling to Breathe as His Eyes Burned and Bones Ached
» Scientists Name New Creature Discovered Deep Below Sea Level
 
Australia — Pacific
» Childcare Centre Panic as 17 Kids Are Tested for Coronavirus After Visiting an Aged-Care Home Where a Woman Died — as an Eight-Month-Old Baby Boy is Diagnosed With the Killer Virus
» Chinese Student Reveals How She Spent $20k to Flout the Coronavirus Travel Ban and Return to Australia — and Says She’s Been ‘Betrayed’ By Scott Morrison
» New Species of Gecko Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight
» Wild Brawl Over Toilet Paper Sees Shopper Tasered Then Charged With Attacking Two People and Assaulting Police
 
Immigration
» Another Illegal Alien Accused of Rape Protected by Sanctuary Policies
» Balkanization of America Accelerating Faster Than Expected
» Claim: Turkish Military Helping Migrants Cross Greek Border, Making Sure Smugglers Don’t Charge Too Much
» Coronavirus Patient Zero in Italy Was Pakistani Migrant Who Refused to Self-Isolate
» Erdogan’s Gamble Backfires as EU Gives Iron-Willed Greeks $780m to Secure Their Border
» Erdogan’s Attempts to Blackmail Europe Are Doomed to Fail
» Greek Migration Minister: All Migrants Who Arrived After March 1st Will be Deported
» Hungary Vows it Will Protect Europe From Illegal Mass Migration, Again
» Sweden Dems Leader Visits Greek-Turkish Border and Tells the Migrants: Do Not Come to Sweden
» Turkey Deploys 1,000 Police at Greek Border to Stem Push-Back of Migrants
» Turkish Authorities Fire Tear Gas at Greek Border on Evros
» Turkish Regime Deploys 1,000 Special Forces to Greek Border to Stop Migrants From Going Back to Turkey
» ‘Your Country is a Bridge to Europe’: Migrants Plead With Greek Soldiers and Insist They Want to Reach the Mainland After Turkey Deploys Police to Stop Them Being Pushed Back From the Border
 
Culture Wars
» Actress Screams Pride at Aborting Her Baby Because it Helped Her Career
» Arizona House Passes Ban on Men Participating in Women’s Sports
» Culture Sec Tells BBC to Ditch Metropolitan Elite Outlook, Reflect Real Britain
» Tennessee Bill Could Ban ‘Drag Queen Story Hours’ With Parental Oversight Boards
» The All-Time Dirty Deal
» Twitter Users Fear Saying “OK Boomer” Could be Banned Under New Rules
» WHO Warns Against Coronavirus Thought Crime
 

ADP National Employment Report: Private Sector Employment Increased by 183,000 Jobs in February

ROSELAND, N.J., March 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — Private sector employment increased by 183,000 jobs from January to February according to the February ADP National Employment Report(r). Broadly distributed to the public each month, free of charge, the ADP National Employment Report is produced by the ADP Research Institute(r) in collaboration with Moody’s Analytics. The report, which is derived from ADP’s actual payroll data, measures the change in total nonfarm private employment each month on a seasonally-adjusted basis.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Poland’s Unemployment Likely at 5.5 Pct in February — Labour Ministry

Poland’s registered unemployment rate likely remained at 5.5 percent in February 2020, unchanged from a month earlier, the Family, Labour and Social Policy Ministry wrote on Twitter on Thursday.

Economists polled by PAP expected exactly the same level of unemployment in February.

There were 921,000 unemployed people in Poland at the end of February, the ministry added.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

The Unstoppable Coronavirus vs. The “All-Powerful” Federal Reserve

Has the Federal Reserve finally met an opponent that it won’t be able to defeat? Ever since the last financial crisis, unprecedented intervention by the Fed at key moments has kept the economy and the financial system relatively stable. No matter what has come along, it has seemed like the Federal Reserve has always had an answer, and this has created an environment that has enabled the most ridiculous stock market bubble in U.S. history to grow to epic proportions. But now COVID-19 is perhaps the greatest challenge that the Fed has faced in modern times. No matter how low interest rates are pushed, and no matter how much helicopter money the Fed drops from the sky, it isn’t going to cause fearful Americans to go shopping, take trips or start businesses. And nothing that the Fed can do will be able to mitigate the severe disruptions to global supply chains that we are currently witnessing.

But that doesn’t mean that the Fed isn’t going to go back to the same old playbook that has worked so well in the past.

On Tuesday the Fed announced an emergency rate cut, and instead of soaring, stock prices absolutely tanked. In fact, the Dow Jones Industrial Average ended the day down 785 points…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

You’ll Never Guess How Big Banks Want the Fed to Handle the Coronavirus: More Wall Street Deregulation

A lobbying group for big banks in the United States came under fire Tuesday from financial industry experts for pressuring federal officials to push through long-sought regulatory rollbacks in response to the worldwide economic concerns sparked by the global coronavirus outbreak.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“Coronavirus Anxiety” Is Running Rampant All Over America, And This Could be Only Just the Beginning…

All across the United States people are getting really stressed out about COVID-19. Every effort to contain the virus has failed, cases have started to pop up all over America, and the latest numbers show that it is 34 times more deadly than the flu. And what makes this particular coronavirus even more frightening is the fact that it is so easy to catch. You can become infected simply by breathing in the air around you, it can live on solid surfaces for days, and some victims can carry it around for weeks before ever showing any symptoms. As this virus continues to spread, literally no public place will be safe, and that is really freaking a lot of people out.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Bill Clinton Claims He Used Sex With Monica Lewinsky to ‘Manage His Anxieties’

In the new documentary Hillary about Hillary Clinton premiering tomorrow on Hulu, Bill Clinton has revealed some of the reasons behind his pursuit of sexual relationship with West Wing intern Monica Lewinsky, per the Daily Mail.

In large part, he engaged with Lewinsky as a means to “manage his anxieties.” In considering the encounter, he thought to himself “here’s something that will take your mind off it for a while.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Coronavirus Updates: 3,500 Cruise Passengers Confined Off San Francisco; More Than 230 Infected in US

A cruise ship remains at arms length from San Francisco and the number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Washington state ballooned to 70 on Thursday — pushing the U.S. total above 230 — as the global struggle against the outbreak intensified.

The nation’s death toll rose to 12, 11 of them in Washington. Fifty-one of the confirmed cases are in King County, home to Seattle, where ten of the deaths have occurred, state health officials said. Many of the cases have stemmed from an outbreak at Life Care Center of Kirkland.

Nearby Snohomish County had 18 cases and Grant County, in the central part of the state, reported its first case Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Economic Analyst Spends Tens of Thousands of Dollars Stockpiling Food

An economic analyst who predicted the 2008 financial collapse has spent tens of thousands of dollars stockpiling food as “an insurance policy against chaos” should the coronavirus outbreak cause a global economic collapse.

Jesse Colombo told local news affiliate CBS DFW that the fallout from the virus and not necessarily the virus itself posed the biggest threat to stability.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Elizabeth Warren Drops Out of 2020 Race

Sen. Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the 2020 Democratic presidential race on Thursday after a dismal Super Tuesday showing.

In the all-important Super Tuesday contest, Warren failed to win a single state, even coming in third place in her home state of Massachusetts.

Her decision leaves Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as the final remaining challengers, one of whom will eventually face President Trump for the presidency.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Facebook Removes Trump Campaign Ads, Citing Violation of Census Policy

Facebook announced on Thursday that it had pulled several Trump campaign adsfrom its website, citing a policy that forbids posts interfering with the upcoming United States census.

The social media giant said a series of Trump ads broke that policy by advertising as the “Official 2020 Congressional District Census.” Those advertisements actually directed users to a fundraising website for Trump’s 2020 reelection effort.

This was the first Trump campaign ad removed under that policy, Facebook said. The advertisement was financed by the Trump Make America Great Again Committee, a fundraising effort between Trump’s central reelection campaign and the Republican National Committee.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Gun Rights Champion Mark Robinson Wins Republican Nomination for NC Lieutenant Governor

Mark Robinson became a national sensation when a video he appeared in went viral last year. The video showed Robinson at a city council meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina where he was championing the rights of law abiding gun owners.

He emphatically warned the council that people like him were not going to put up with having their rights infringed, while stating “I am the majority!”

If you’ve never seen the video, you can watch it below:

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Gun Sales Soar in Virginia as Dems Pass New Gun Control Measures

Virginia gun sales saw a drastic spike during the month of February amid Democrats’ passing of several new gun control measures within the same month.

According to data released by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, Virginia experienced its largest increase in background checks — a dependable barometer of total sales — performed in February.

Approximately 66,000 background checks were performed in February 2020 — an increase of 63.4 percent from the 40,381 checks in February 2019.

The increase in Virginia gun sales comes on the heels of Democrats’ proposal of seven gun-control measures. While five of the measures have already passed, the remaining two await a conference committee.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Howard Stern Calls Bernie Sanders “Karl Marx Jr.” Who Can’t Beat Trump

Stern branded Sanders as the scion of the socialist revolutionary.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Is the Coronavirus China’s Revenge on Trump?

In his 1968 non-fiction blockbuster, The Biological Time Bomb, Gordon Rattray Taylor wrote about the prospect of germ warfare in the context of “undeclared war.” He explained, “In current thinking the best way to wage war is to wage it without your enemy even being aware that it is happening.” He was predicting the use of infectious diseases to cripple a nation.

The current war, however, is out in the open.

Looking at the economic damage being inflicted on the United States and the world, one cannot dismiss the possibility that the rapidly-spreading coronavirus is China’s revenge on America for President Trump’s trade war. The virus has the potential impact to cause a major economic recession and sabotage President Trump’s reelection effort. Health emergencies are being declared around the country as the number of coronavirus cases increase. The interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve is an indication of desperation.

“Whether the agent comes from a deliberate biologic warfare attack, or the natural emergence of a novel virus, the results could be devastating,” notes the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness in a commentary on potential mass casualty events.

Politically, Trump and the Republicans could be the casualties.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

LAX Medical Screener Tests Positive for Coronavirus

The Department of Homeland Security has reported that an LAX worker in charge of conducting passenger screenings tested positive for COVID-19.

The last time the employee was screening travellers for the illness was on Feb. 21 according to an international email acquired by NBC News.

The email referred to the person as a “contract medical screener” who worked for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Trump Says Schumer Must Pay ‘Severe Price’ For Threatening Two US Supreme Court Justices

President Donald Trump took to Twitter Wednesday night to condemn Chuck Schumer’s threatening comments directed at US Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh.

The Senate Minority Leader said earlier Wednesday that Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh will “pay the price” if they attempt to take away “fundamental rights” in reference to a Louisiana law that aims to regulate abortion providers that is currently before the Supreme Court.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

U.S. Congress Approves, Sends to Trump $8.3 Billion to Fight Coronavirus

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed and sent to President Donald Trump an $8.3 billion funding bill to help state and local governments combat the spreading coronavirus, as public health experts outlined efforts to rapidly accelerate testing for the disease.

By a vote of 96-1, the Senate approved legislation that was overwhelmingly passed on Wednesday by the House of Representatives.

Republican Senator Rand Paul, who objected to spending the money without first reducing federal spending elsewhere, was the lone dissenter.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Unfixable’ Boot ROM Security Flaw in Millions of Intel Chips Could Spell ‘Utter Chaos’ For DRM, File Encryption, Etc

Buried deep inside modern Intel chipsets is what’s called the Management Engine, or these days, the Converged Security and Manageability Engine (CSME). We’ve written about this a lot: it’s a miniature computer within your computer. It has its own CPU, its own RAM, its own code in a boot ROM, and access to the rest of the machine.

More recently, the CSME’s CPU core is 486-based, and its software is derived from the free microkernel operating system MINIX. You can find a deep dive into the technology behind it all, sometimes known as the Minute IA System Agent, here [PDF] by Peter Bosch.

Like a digital janitor, the CSME works behind the scenes, below the operating system, hypervisor, and firmware, performing lots of crucial low-level tasks, such as bringing up the computer, controlling power levels, starting the main processor chips, verifying and booting the motherboard firmware, and providing cryptographic functions. The engine is the first thing to run when a machine is switched on.

The exploit

One of the first things it does is set up memory protections on its own built-in RAM so that other hardware and software can’t interfere with it. However, these protections are disabled by default, thus there is a tiny timing gap between a system turning on and the CSME executing the code in its boot ROM that installs those protections, which are in the form of input-output memory-management unit (IOMMU) data structures called page tables.

During that timing gap, other hardware able to fire off a DMA transfer into the CSME’s private RAM may do so, overwriting variables and pointers and hijacking its execution. At that point, the CSME can be commandeered for malicious purposes, all out of view of the software running above it.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

US County With 39 Coronavirus Cases Advises All Its 2.2million Residents to Work From Home and Tells Everyone Over 60 to Stay Indoors — While State Officials Urge Primary Voters Not to Lick Their Ballots

Public health officials in King County, which includes Seattle and is home to over 2.2 million people, have urged local businesses to allow employees to telecommute for the next three weeks.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

West Virginia Sentences Man to 775 Years for Recording Sex Abuse of Infant

A West Virginia man who was convicted of filming the sexual abuse of an infant was handed a hefty 775-year-sentence on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Breaking: Train Derailment in Central BC, School Evacuated

A train derailment in British Columbia led to a local school being evacuated. The train derailment happened approximately 40 kilometres east of Prince George, at 10 a.m. PST. It is still unknown what the train is carrying.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Canadian Military Shifts to Pre-Pandemic Planning

As the Covid-19 coronavirus continues its trot around the globe the Canadian military has shifted to “pre-pandemic planning,” according to the Global News.

Preparation for the spread of the virus within Canada has shifted the military’s focus toward planning for the potential of a pandemic, according to Canada’s Chief of Defence, CAF General Jonathan Vance. To date, the virus has infected over 94,000 individuals worldwide, and claimed the lives of over 3,200.

On Wednesday, a military-wide order was issued to all members of the Canadian Armed Forces, stating that there is a pandemic alert, and directives to prevent viral spread both within the military and across the country. General Vance stated that they are expecting about 25 percent of the military to be absent due to contagion.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Family of University of Alberta Student Killed in Flight 752 Missile Attack Flees to Edmonton

The family of an Iranian graduate student at the University of Alberta who died when Iran shot down a commercial jet in January is now living in Edmonton, alleging they were forced to flee threats from Iranian authorities.

The parents, younger brother, and aunt of Amir Hossein Saeedinia arrived in Edmonton eight days ago and will seek refugee status, said Reza Akbari of the Iranian Heritage Society of Edmonton, which helped the family.

Akbari said the family had been pressured by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps not to speak publicly about the government’s handling of the botched missile attack.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Railway Blockaders Temporarily Stop Traffic Before Peacefully Dismantling

A railway blockade set up by Mohawk community protestors nearly a month ago was taken down peacefully Thursday.

The move was confirmed by the Mohawk Council of Kahnawake this afternoon according to Global News.

After leaving their original location the group stopped traffic on the highway for a brief time before finding a new location near Highway 138 close to the Mercier Bridge.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Starbucks Refusing to Serve Customers With Reusable Mugs Due to Coronavirus

Starbucks is temporarily refusing to serve customers who bring in their own reusable mugs over fears that they may be spreading coronavirus, according to the CBC.

Starbucks is bringing in multiple new policies which intend to combat the virus, however, their stance on using only single-use mugs is sure to be contentious, owing to their effect on the environment.

Starbucks has over 1,400 chains in Canada and this policy will be in place at all of them.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Catholic Church Cancels Weekday Masses in Northern Italy

ROME — The Italian bishops’ conference has cancelled the celebration of weekday Masses in areas of the north of the country affected by the coronavirus outbreak, a move that has some Catholics up in arms.

Responding to a decree issued Wednesday by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti announcing new measures aimed at containing the coronavirus, the bishops’ conference (CEI) released its own statement Thursday instructing churches not to celebrate weekday Masses in the northern regions of Lombardy, Veneto, and Emilia Romagna, as well as the provinces of Savona, Pesaro, and Urbino.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Confirmed: Wuhan Coronavirus Spreads to Hungary Via Iranian Students

Hungary has confirmed its first two cases of the Wuhan coronavirus, spread to the country by a pair of Iranian students.

“Hungary has all the personnel, facilities and regulations in place to handle the situation,” promised Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who had previously predicted that the arrival of coronavirus in his country was inevitable.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Coronavirus Kills an Airline: UK’s Flybe Collapses as Bookings Fall

British airline Flybe went into administration in the early hours of Thursday morning, after the fall of airline bookings caused by the coronavirus scare impacted its revenue.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Coronavirus: 1st European Hotbed in Germany — Report

According to similarities between genetic sequences

(ANSA) — Rome, March 5 — The coronavirus entered Europe more than once and the first hotbed may have been isolated at Munich in Germany in January, according to a genetic map published Thursday on the Netxstrain site.

The site was founded and directed by a group led by Trevor Bedford, of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle.

The map, a sort of family tree of the virus, indicates that the German hotbed may have silently fed the chain of infection and is linked to many cases in Europe and Italy.

Italy reported its first coronavirus case on February 21.

The patient zero has still yet to be identified.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Coronavirus: Italy Says it’s Had 41 New COVID-19 Deaths in Just 24 Hours

Italy says it’s had 41 new COVID-19 deaths in just 24 hours.

The country’s civil protection agency said on Thursday evening that 3,858 people had been infected and 148 had died.

It came as the UK and Switzerland announced their first deaths from the disease.

Earlier on Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged people not to give up fighting the outbreak.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive — French Populist MEP: Brexit Like First Domino That Led to USSR Collapse

French populist National Rally (RN) Member of the European Parliament Jérôme Rivière stated that he believes the United Kingdom leaving the European Union is akin to the start of the collapse of the former USSR.

In an interview with Breitbart News political editor and Breitbart News Saturday host Matthew Boyle in Washington, DC, during the annual CPAC conference, Rivière stated that Brexit could lead to major changes in the European Union, saying the UK leaving the EU is a similar event to the first free elections in Poland that removed pro-USSR President Wojciech Jaruzelski in 1990.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

First Coronavirus Patient in Hungary is a Pharmacy Student at Semmelweis University

Shortly after Viktor Orban announced on Facebook that there are two Iranian students infected with coronavirus in Hungary, Semmelweis University issued a statement that one of the patients in question is a pharmacy student at the university.

In a statement published on Wednesday evening, Budapest’s Semmelweis University said that one of the two Iranian coronavirus patients is a pharmacy student at the university. (As of now, there is no information on the other student’s university, other than it is not SOTE.)

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary: Orban: Coronavirus Response Focusing on Individual Cases

The Hungarian authorities are currently focusing on individual cases in their response to the new coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting of the operative board coordinating the fight against the new virus was held, Orban said Hungary aims to prevent nodes of outbreak from forming around the country.

Citing data published on Wednesday evening, Orban said there were two confirmed coronavirus cases and 24 people quarantined in Hungary. The number of confirmed cases worldwide is over 95,000, with 3,268 fatalities and over 53,000 recoveries, he noted.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary: Robust Retail Growth in January Partly Due to Coronavirus Stockpiling

Retail sales in Hungary grew by an annual 7.6 percent in January, based on unadjusted and adjusted data, up from 6.7 percent in December, the Central Statistical Office (KSH) said on Wednesday.

Adjusted food sales increased by 4.9 percent, while non-food sales grew by 13.8 percent. Vehicle fuel sales were up 1.4 percent.

Online and mail order sales jumped by 30 percent and accounted for around 7.4 percent of total retail sales.

Sales of motor vehicles and vehicle parts, which are not included in retail sales, climbed 27 percent.

In absolute terms, retail sales came to 945 billion forints (EUR 2.8bn) in January. Food sales accounted for 46 percent, non-food sales for 37 percent and vehicle fuel sales for 17 percent of the total.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Priest Says Mass After Serving Time for Sex Abuse of Girl

At Alassio

(ANSA) — Savona, March 5 — Father Luciano Massaferro has resumed saying Mass in the Ligurian resort of Alassio after serving almost eight years in jail for sexually abusing an underage girl, anti-paedophile priest group Rete L’Abuso said Thursday.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Spain: Family Takes Dictator General Franco’s Exhumation to European Court

MADRID (AP) — Descendants of dictator Gen. Francisco Franco have filed an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights against the Spanish government’s exhumation and removal of Franco’s remains from a grandiose mausoleum outside Madrid last year.

Lawyers representing Franco’s grandchildren said in a statement Thursday that the family believes the government effectively “expropriated” the dictator’s remains with the exhumation last October as they now need permission to visit his new burial place.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Swedish Mother Reports School to Police After a Teacher Told Her Daughter to Write “I Am a Muslim”

In the Söderfors school, in the town of Tierp, in the north of Stockholm, Anamaria von Roteliuc was shocked when her nine-year-old daughter came home from school to tell her that her teacher had tried to force her and her classmates to say that they were Muslim.

“My daughter came home and was completely upset,” Anamaria says.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: ‘If Parliament Shuts Everyone Else Will Shut’: Alarm at Plan to Close the Palace of Westminster for Five Months to Stop MPs Becoming ‘Superspreaders’ If Coronavirus Crisis Escalates

Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle has held talks with England’s Chief Medical Officer to discuss plans for if the outbreak gets worse.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Anti-Brexit Lawyer Who Battered Fox to Death in a Kimono Will Not be Prosecuted

Jolyon Maugham QC will not be prosecuted for beating a fox to death with a baseball bat in London on Boxing Day whilst wearing his wife’s kimono.

The anti-Brexit lawyer had tweeted the day after Christmas day, “Already this morning I have killed a fox with a baseball bat. How’s your Boxing Day going?” prompting calls from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) for witnesses.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Football Icon Tells Reporters: ‘Politics? Coronavirus? It’s Not Important What Famous People Say’

Premier League football manager Jurgen Klopp declined to give reporters his opinion on the Wuhan coronavirus, saying the opinions of “famous people” on politics and pandemics are “not important”.

“What I don’t like in life is that [when it comes to] a very serious thing [like the coronavirus], a football manager’s opinion is important,” Klopp told reporters, said the Liverpool F.C. manager, known for his promotion of the aggressive, relatively action-packed Gegenpressing style of play.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: Senior Tories Accuse Civil Servants and Labour of Coordinating Patel Bullying Allegations

Conservative Party allies of Priti Patel have accused civil servants of colluding with the Labour Party to perpetuate allegations of bullying in an attempt to oust the home secretary.

Ms Patel has been accused of bullying Whitehall staff whilst she was working at the Department for International Development, the Department for Work and Pensions, and in her current role as head of the Home Office.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

UK: The One-Stop Swab Shop: NHS Sets Up Drive-Thru Coronavirus Test Centre in Bid to Keep Infected Londoners Away From Hospitals — as UK Cases Rise to 53

Photos taken today show brave nurses in west London donning face masks and protective glasses while swabbing patients in their nose and mouth through an open car window.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘White People Not Welcome’ Event to Take Place in Brussels

An event in Brussels, Belgium is set to take place where white people will not be welcome unless they pay a fee and clean up after the black attendees.

Apparently scheduled to mark ‘Black History Month’ (despite this taking place last month), the Black Liberation event on March 25th explicitly tells white people to stay away unless they meet certain requirements.

“Non-black people are only welcomed if they are accompanied by a black person. Black people always get priority,” a description for the event reads.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Another Senior Politician Has Died of Coronavirus in Iran, Where 8% of the Parliament is Infected

Another senior Iranian politician has died of the coronavirus amid reports that 8% of the country’s parliament has been infected.

Hossein Sheikholeslam, a diplomat and the country’s former ambassador to Syria, died Thursday, according to state news agency Fars. Sheikholeslam worked as an adviser to Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

Sheikholeslam studied at the University of California, Berkeley, before the Islamic Revolution and later interrogated US Embassy staff members during the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Iranian General: Coronavirus is a Manmade Bio-Weapon

Suggests US unleashed virus against China and Iran

An Iranian military leader has suggested that the coronavirus is not a naturally occurring disease, and that it is a manmade bioweapon cultivated and released against China and Iran by a ‘hostile state’.

Brigadier General Gholam Reza Jalali, an Iranian officer in charge of the country’s Civil Defense Organization claimed Tuesday that “A study of the consequences of the virus in terms of tolls or the extent of the epidemic and the type of media propaganda over this issue that is aimed at increasing fear and panic among people strengthens the speculations that a biological attack has been launched against China and Iran with economic goals.”

Strongly hinting that the the virus is a bio-attack by the US, Jalali told Iranian Fars News Agency, state media, that he is seeking “laboratorial investigations and comparing the genome of the primary virus and the new genomes” to confirm his theory.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Demand for ‘Zombie Apocalypse’ Bunkers Soars Six Fold Since Coronavirus Outbreak

Demand for Russian-made bunker houses marketed to withstand a “zombie apocalypse” have soared six-fold since the coronavirus outbreak.

According to the creators of Cyberhouse, interest in the homes has gone global.

Having had only two customers from America and Spain before January, since the turn of the year there are 10 additional customers, with some from Italy, which has been hit hard by the coronavirus.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Singapore Jails Indonesian Maid for Giving Money to ISIS-Linked JAD

An Indonesian maid was jailed for two years in Singapore on Thursday, March 5 for giving money to an Islamic State-linked organization blamed for a string of attacks in her home country.

The affluent city-state is home to over 250,000 maids from neighbouring Indonesia, and has seen a string of cases where foreign domestic helpers have allegedly been radicalized.

Anindia Afiyantari allegedly donated Sg$130 (US$94) last year to charities used as fronts by Indonesia-based Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), described by prosecutors as among “the most dangerous terrorist organizations” in Southeast Asia.

It has been blamed for attacks, including the stabbing of Indonesia’s security minister Wiranto and deadly suicide bombings at several churches.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

“It’s Like a Ghost Town”: Major Cities All Over the Globe Are Paralyzed by Fear of COVID-19

We haven’t seen anything cause this much worldwide fear in a really long time. But even though there is so much fear, we still don’t know if this is going to evolve into the next great global pandemic that kills millions of people or not. I wish that I had a definitive answer for you. At this point we do know that the number of confirmed cases outside of China continues to rise at a very alarming rate, and we also know that this virus is about 34 times more deadly than the flu according to the latest numbers. But in order for it to kill millions of people, a substantial percentage of the global population would have to be infected, and we don’t know if that is actually going to happen.

But in major cities around the globe where there has been an eruption of COVID-19 cases, we are seeing severe disruptions in normal activity.

For example, now that several coronavirus deaths have been reported in the area, the lack of tourists has turned downtown Seattle into “a ghost town”…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

COVID-19 Coronavirus Outbreak

Coronavirus Cases:

98,421

view by country

Deaths:

3,385

Recovered:

55,631

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

First British Victim, 25, Describes How ‘Worst Disease He Ever Had’ Left Him Sweating, Shivering, And Struggling to Breathe as His Eyes Burned and Bones Ached

Connor Reed, a 25-year-old expat from Llandudno in North Wales, has worked in a school in Wuhan, China, for almost a year. In November he became the first British man to catch the coronavirus. From coughs and aches to burning up and spending the night in hospital, here’s how he beat the illness that is sweeping the globe.

Day 1 — Monday November 25: I have a cold. I’m sneezing and my eyes are a bit bleary. It isn’t bad enough to keep me off work. I arrived in this country to teach English as a foreign language — but now I’m a manager at a school in Wuhan, the city in central China where I have lived for the past seven months.

I speak Mandarin well, and the job is interesting. My cold shouldn’t be very contagious, so I have no qualms about going to work. And I live alone, so I’m not likely to give it to anyone. There hasn’t been anything in the news here about viruses. I have no cause for concern. It’s just a sniffle…

Day 12: I’ve had a relapse. Just as I thought the flu was getting better, it has come back with a vengeance. My breathing is laboured. Just getting up and going to the bathroom leaves me panting and exhausted. I’m sweating, burning up, dizzy and shivering. The television is on but I can’t make sense of it. This is a nightmare.

By the afternoon, I feel like I am suffocating. I have never been this ill in my life. I can’t take more than sips of air and, when I breathe out, my lungs sound like a paper bag being crumpled up. This isn’t right. I need to see a doctor. But if I call the emergency services, I’ll have to pay for the ambulance call-out myself. That’s going to cost a fortune. I’m ill, but I don’t think I’m dying — am I?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Scientists Name New Creature Discovered Deep Below Sea Level

A new sea creature that was discovered deep below the ocean’s surface had a concerning find in its stomach.

The tiny crustacean was found living nearly 7km below sea level so scientists were shocked when they looked inside it to see plastic.

They were so concerned at finding plastic in an animal living in one of the deepest places on earth, they then named it Eurythenes plasticus.

Dr Alan Jamieson, from England’s Newcastle University, said they gave the animal that name because sadly it was one of the most conspicuous things they found on the species.

“And I think we need to get that down in the taxonomic record,” he said.

“We’re just making a statement to say that we’re now at the point where we are looking at a new species from an unexplored habitat and it’s already contaminated with plastic.

“We need to take immediate action to stop the deluge of plastic waste into our oceans.”

The animal was found in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench between Japan and the Philippines and below the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Childcare Centre Panic as 17 Kids Are Tested for Coronavirus After Visiting an Aged-Care Home Where a Woman Died — as an Eight-Month-Old Baby Boy is Diagnosed With the Killer Virus

Internationally, 95,180 people have been infected throughout 84 countries. Of those, at least 3,254 have died. Two people have died of the illness — which is now known as COVID-19 — in Australia.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Chinese Student Reveals How She Spent $20k to Flout the Coronavirus Travel Ban and Return to Australia — and Says She’s Been ‘Betrayed’ By Scott Morrison

Karen Ji says she was forced to spend nearly $20,000 on flights back to Australia in order to make it to her university classes amid the government’s coronavirus travel ban.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

New Species of Gecko Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight

Six new species of gecko that have essentially been hiding in plain sight have been described by Queensland Museum scientists.

One of the new species, named the plain tree gecko Gehyra gemina, is common on road houses and other building from Broome to the Queensland border, yet despite being widely found across northern Australia, the species was undescribed by science until now.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Wild Brawl Over Toilet Paper Sees Shopper Tasered Then Charged With Attacking Two People and Assaulting Police

The 50-year-old shopper was Tasered at the department store in Tamworth, in northeast New South Wales, on Thursday morning.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Another Illegal Alien Accused of Rape Protected by Sanctuary Policies

Democrat politicians have created safe places for criminals.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Balkanization of America Accelerating Faster Than Expected

If you look across the American landscape in 2020, you might notice half of America hates the other half. Half of our U.S. Congress hates the other half, so much so, they’re doing nothing to further the interests of the American people. It’s called, “legislative gridlock.”

Back in 1960, democrats and republicans worked together. Americans pulled together. Even with our black/white/brown challenges, we enjoyed a common heritage. We worked through those challenges in a positive manner. The only mistake: Teddy Kennedy’s “1965 Immigration Reform Act” that commenced the disintegration of America.

Today, about 100,000,000 million legal immigrants later, we’ve got ourselves into a tangled web of multiculturalism, incompatible religions and violent cultures—all by the hand of our elected leaders.

The same thing happened to France and Europe in the 1970’s. A perceptive writer noted: When France opened its borders to unlimited Muslim immigration in the 1970’s, Frenchman Jean Raspail, penned a prophetic novel, Camp of the Saints, describing the consequences of that senseless choice, “You don’t know my people—the squalor, superstitions, the fatalistic sloth that they’ve wallowed in for generations. You don’t know what you’re in for if that fleet of brutes ever lands in your lap. Everything will change in this country of yours. They will swallow you up!”

Today, another writer chronicled the result of that mistake in his book: The Strange Death of Europe—Immigration, Identity, Islam by Douglas Murray.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Claim: Turkish Military Helping Migrants Cross Greek Border, Making Sure Smugglers Don’t Charge Too Much

The Turkish armed forces stand accused of helping to smuggle migrants across the Greek border after the Turkish government opened the gates to Europe last week.

The accusations stem from an interview with a Turkish soldier named Ahmet who claimed that his commander had ordered him and his fellow border troops to show the migrants how to reach Greece.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Coronavirus Patient Zero in Italy Was Pakistani Migrant Who Refused to Self-Isolate

The man believed to be coronavirus patient zero in Italy is a Pakistani migrant refused to self-isolate after testing positive for the virus and continued to deliver food.

Health authorities asked the man to quarantine himself at his home in the Pavia area for two weeks, but he ignored the request and continued to work at a Chinese restaurant.

He then compounded the risk of spreading the virus by making home deliveries of Chinese food.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan’s Gamble Backfires as EU Gives Iron-Willed Greeks $780m to Secure Their Border

Seeing Erdogan’s transparent ploy for what it was, the EU for once decided to do the right thing and stand with Greece against weaponized migration

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan thought that by sending tens of thousands of “crying refugees” to invade Greece Europeans would cave and throw open their borders as happened in 2015 — instead he ran into the army of Sparta.

Rather than submit to this latest mass invasion, Greeks rose up against their own government and fought off their own police to stop new refugee centers from being built on their once pristine islands.

The Greek government quickly caved and threw their support behind their own people demanding an end to the invasion.

Seeing Erdogan’s transparent ploy for what it was, the EU for once decided to do the right thing and stand with Greece against weaponized migration.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Erdogan’s Attempts to Blackmail Europe Are Doomed to Fail

If Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes he can bully European leaders by provoking a fresh migrant crisis in southern Europe, then he would be well-advised to think again.

Ankara’s announcement that it is once again opening the floodgates to allow millions of refugees from Syria’s brutal civil war to travel to south-eastern Europe in search of refuge has been taken to persuade European leaders to back Turkey’s increasingly desperate situation in Syria.

Having launched an ill-considered military offensive against the Assad regime in northern Syria, Mr Erdogan now finds himself facing the consequences of his action, with regime forces, backed by Russia and Iran, waging a highly effective campaign against the Turks, which has so far resulted in the deaths of scores of Turkish troops.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Greek Migration Minister: All Migrants Who Arrived After March 1st Will be Deported

Greece’s conservative government has announced that it will be deporting any illegal migrants who arrived on its territory after March 1st back to their home countries.

Greek Migration Minister Notis Mitarachi announced late Wednesday evening that the government would be transferring all migrants who came to its territory illegally after the 1st of March to the city of Serres, where they then would be repatriated back to their home countries, Reuters reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Hungary Vows it Will Protect Europe From Illegal Mass Migration, Again

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that his country will defend Europe against a wave of illegal mass migration as it had done in 2015 during the first migrant crisis.

Speaking to the media at a press conference on Wednesday, Prime Minister Orban said while his country and the EU should “give all the help we can” to Greece to stop the migrant flows, “It won’t be enough just to defend the Greek-Turkish border.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Sweden Dems Leader Visits Greek-Turkish Border and Tells the Migrants: Do Not Come to Sweden

Jimmie Åkesson, the leader of the national populist Sweden Democrats — currently the largest party in Sweden — recently traveled to the Greek-Turkish border with a message to the migrants: Do not come to Sweden.

Åkesson traveled to the Turkish-Greek border area of Edirne, together with Mikael Eriksson, another top Sweden Democrat, Nyheter Idag reports.

Åkesson and Eriksson handed out flyers to many of the migrants gathered at the border.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Turkey Deploys 1,000 Police at Greek Border to Stem Push-Back of Migrants

EDIRNE, TURKEY (Reuters) — Turkey is deploying 1,000 special police forces along its border with Greece on Thursday to halt the pushback of migrants toward its territory, Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said, adding that 164 migrants had been wounded by Greek authorities.

Soylu’s comments come amid a war of words between Ankara and Athens following Turkey’s decision to no longer abide by a 2016 deal with the European Union to halt illegal migration flows to Europe in return for billions of euros in aid.

Since then, thousands of migrants have rushed to the Turkish border with Greece in hopes of crossing into Europe. Ankara has accused Greek authorities of shooting dead and injuring migrants near the border. Athens has rejected this, saying Turkish police were helping migrants cross the border illegally.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Authorities Fire Tear Gas at Greek Border on Evros

A video surfaced on Wednesday morning which appears to show Turkish police firing tear gas toward the Greek side of the border near the Evros river, not far from the village of Kastanies.

The video depicts members of the Turkish police firing no less than four tear gas rounds as Greek border guards clashed with a group of mostly fighting-aged migrant men, Greek Reporter reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Turkish Regime Deploys 1,000 Special Forces to Greek Border to Stop Migrants From Going Back to Turkey

The Turkish regime says that it will be deploying 1,000 police to its border with Greece to stop migrants from turning around and heading back towards Turkey.

Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced Thursday that the Erodgan regime is deploying 1,0000 special police forces to stop thousands upon thousands of migrants from making their way back to Turkish territory, Reuters reports.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

‘Your Country is a Bridge to Europe’: Migrants Plead With Greek Soldiers and Insist They Want to Reach the Mainland After Turkey Deploys Police to Stop Them Being Pushed Back From the Border

Thousands of desperate migrants have pleaded with Greek soldiers and insisted they simply want to use Greece ‘as a bridge to Europe,’ in a deepening crisis at the Turkish border.

Ankara today announced it was deploying 1,000 specialist police officers to stop the Greeks from pushing the refugees back. The EU has accused Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of using the destitute masses as ‘blackmail.’

Yesterday, amid violent clashes with Greek officers, a migrant shouted across the barbed wire fence: ‘We want to go to Europe, to every country that accepts us. We don’t want to stay in your country, your country is a way for us, it’s a bridge for us to move to Europe. We cannot go back, don’t ask us that, don’t ask us to go back.’

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Actress Screams Pride at Aborting Her Baby Because it Helped Her Career

Actress Busy Philipps gave a speech at a pro-abortion rally during which she angrily screamed about how proud she was for having an abortion because it helped advance her career.

Philipps gave the speech outside the U.S. Supreme Court at an event to protest a law coming out of Louisiana that would require abortion doctors to have admitting privileges to local hospitals.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Arizona House Passes Ban on Men Participating in Women’s Sports

The Arizona House of Representatives this week passed a ban on male participation in women’s school sports leagues, a significant development in the ongoing fight between exclusively female sports teams and transgender participation in those teams.

The bill, which passed along party lines 31-29, will now head to the Senate for debate and passage there. Its sponsor, Rep. Nancy Barto, had argued that the innate genetic advantages that men have made it unfair to allow them to compete against women in athletic events.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Culture Sec Tells BBC to Ditch Metropolitan Elite Outlook, Reflect Real Britain

Culture secretary Oliver Dowden has said that the BBC must abandon its “narrow urban outlook” and be sure to provide “genuine diversity of thought and experience” if it wants to survive.

The newly-appointed Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport made the remarks at the Enders Media and Telecoms Conference on Wednesday and raised the current government consultation on decriminalising non-payment of the TV tax (which sustains the BBC) as well as the upcoming mid-term review of the BBC Charter which expires in 2027.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

Tennessee Bill Could Ban ‘Drag Queen Story Hours’ With Parental Oversight Boards

A Tennessee legislator has introduced a bill that would establish a parent-led review board for each library that could ban “age-inappropriate sexual material,” including drag queen story hours.

The Parental Oversight of Public Libraries Act, sponsored by state Sen. Paul Bailey and state Rep. Andy Holt, would establish a five-member review board for each public library to determine “whether any sexual material provided to the public by the public library is age-inappropriate sexual material.” Voters would elect the members.

The board would hold public hearings, during which time “members of the community may present concerns to the board,” according to the bill’s text.

The bill is HB 2721 in the House and SB2896 in the Senate.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

The All-Time Dirty Deal

If your state has a state department of education, you have one department of education too many. And this was before we got a federal Dept. of Education.

The state of Illinois’ education commissars have a group called the “Affirming and Inclusive Schools Task Force,” which is one task force too many. It has issued a report: “Strengthening Inclusiveness in Illinois Schools”. Its recommendations are meant to apply to all schools, all the time, from preschool through Grade 12.

To list just a few of these asinine proposals: no more prom queens or kings; no more “gender language,” like “boys and girls”—absolutely forbidden; all school activities to be gender-neutral (can they still play football? Or only if the girls play, too?); gender-neutral dress code, whatever that might be; all bathrooms and locker rooms open to anyone who wants to stroll in; and—this is the kicker—

Only involve parents “as appropriate.” Translation: “Never.”

Meanwhile, up in Wisconsin, the Madison Metro School District teachers’ union has demanded—yes, demanded—the right of “transgender educators” to share bathrooms with the kiddies. Uh, does anybody still think teachers’ unions ought to be allowed? In Chicago the teachers’ union sends members on junkets to Venezuela so they can learn first-hand how to trash a country. You pay for those little trips, by the way.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Twitter Users Fear Saying “OK Boomer” Could be Banned Under New Rules

Twitter users fear the insult “OK boomer” could be banned after the social media giant introduced new rules that banned “dehumanizing speech” against “protected groups,” which has now been extended to include age.

The new rules forbid “dehumanizing speech based on age, disability and disease, suggesting that insults about fat people could also result in suspensions and bans.

Users responded to Twitter’s announcement by expressing concerns “OK boomer” when used as an insult could be characterized as “hate speech.”

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

WHO Warns Against Coronavirus Thought Crime

The World Health Organization is STILL more concerned about hurt feelings than stoppping coronavirus.

Just do your damn job, prevent the pandemic and stop policing words.

           — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago [Return to headlines]
 

7 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 3/5/2020

  1. “West Virginia Sentences Man to 775 Years for Recording Sex Abuse of Infant” this is hands down the best thing about America, that sentences get added to eachother, instead of using the penalty for the “worst” crime in a case.

    • The best thing would be if he gets put into the same prison as the one where the prisoner beat two pedophiles to death with his cane. No taxpayer should have to pay for that filth and his girlfriend accomplice to live out the rest of their lives behind bars.

  2. Iran is a problem.

    A prudent world would take care of problems, before it is too late.

Comments are closed.