Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/1/2020

According to the latest statistics, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary have the lowest rates of Wuhan Coronavirus infection in Europe. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin is now working remotely after coming into contact with a doctor who tested positive for the disease. Also, more than 350,000 people have been fined for breaking the lockdown rules in France.

In other news, a Tunisian migrant in the German city of Augsburg was arrested after wounding two bystanders with a machete.

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

Thanks to Fjordman, 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
» 49 Percent of U.S. Companies Expect Layoffs “In the Next Three Months” As Unemployment Heads to Great Depression Levels
» Turmoil in the Financial Markets Fells Ambitious Acquisition Plan
 
USA
» After Citizens Refused to Obey, Sheriff Reverses Decision to Close Gun Stores
» Authorities Find 2000-Foot Smuggling Tunnel Under San Diego, Seize $29 Million Worth of Drugs
» Bill Gates Calls for National Lockdown, Says “Shutdown Anywhere Means Shutdown Everywhere”
» CBS News Used Chaotic Hospital Footage From Italy for Report About New York
» Celebrity Whines About Being Quarantined in Luxury Mansion
» Christian Post Decries NY Mayor De Blasio’s ‘Reckless’ Threat to Close Churches
» Colleges Grapple Witth Admissions Uncertainty Due to Coronavirus, Economic Downturn
» Domestic Abuse Calls Soar as Nationwide Lockdown Extends
» Eight Registered Sex Offenders Released From NY Jail Due to Gov. Cuomo’s Statewide COVID-19 Orders
» Eugenicist and Population Control Advocate Bill Gates Says United States Must Shut Down for a Minimum of 10 Weeks Right Now to Beat Coronavirus
» Florida Governor Issues Stay-at-Home Order for Entire State
» Group Sues Northern California Governments, Alleging Rights Violations
» Michigan Democrat Governor Asks Feds for Hydroxychloroquine Just Days After Threatening Doctors for Prescribing it
» Microsoft Expands AI Features in Office, But Are They Any Good? Mixed, According to Our Vulture
» Office 365 Personal, Home Axed Next Month… and Replaced by Microsoft 365 Cloud Subscriptions
» Pennsylvania Pastor Promises “Woodstock”-Like Easter Service in Defiance of Coronavirus Lockdown
» President Trump’s Actions on Coronavirus
» Project Veritas Video Removed From Facebook After Being Flagged by CNN Reporter
» Prosecutors: Engineer Deliberately Ran Train Off Tracks in Attempt to Smash the USNS Mercy
» Shocking Magnitude 6.5 Tremor That Just Hit Idaho Continues Alarming Trend of Western Quakes
» Virginia Clerk is Locked Up for Shooting at 3 Masked Robbers in His Store. Not a Typo.
» William Engdahl: The Dystopian Scenario Arising From COVID-19
» Zoom Sued for Allegedly Sharing Personal Information With Facebook
 
Canada
» Canadian Subreddit r/CanadianMOM Blocked by Reddit in Canada After “Legal Request”
 
Europe and the EU
» A Counterintuitive Mystery
» Coronavirus: Italian Prosecco Maker Apologises After Owner Asks China to Pay Compensation
» Coronavirus: Salvini Defends Orban Taking New Powers
» Danish Conservatives Want Orban Party Kicked Out of EPP
» Facing ICU Crunch, Europe Rushes to Build Field Hospitals
» Former Obama-Era U.S. Ambassador Calls for Hungary to be Expelled From EU
» German Politician Intentionally Contracts Coronavirus
» Germany: Hanau Shooter Motivated by Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia
» Germany’s Hate Speech Laws Are About to Get Worse for Free Speech
» Human Rights Groups Ask Council of Europe to Crack Down on ‘Authoritarian’ Governments
» Hungary, Poland, And Slovakia Have Lowest Amount of COVID-19 Cases in EU Per Million People
» Is This What’s Behind Italy’s Outrageous 10% Mortality Rate From COVID-19?
» Italy: Bottega Founder Demands China to Compensate for Coronavirus Damage
» Italy: Risk of Nationalism if EU Not Up to Coronavirus Challenge Says Conte
» More Than 350,000 People Fined for Breaking Lockdown Rules in France
» NGO Resumes Migrant Pick-ups in Mediterranean Amid Global Pandemic
» Politicians Call for Hungary to be Punished by EU
» Sweden Begins to Abandon Liberal Coronavirus Approach as Deaths Surge
» UK Could be in Coronavirus ‘On and Off Lockdown’ For a Year: Expert
» UK Newspapers Beg Advertisers to Whitelist “Trusted News Brands” For Ads on Online Coronavirus Content
» UK: Alarmists: Climate Change Making Nightingales’ Wings Shorter
» UK: BBC Recommends New Ways to Force People to Pay for the Content Few People Want
» UK: Scientists: Petrol Pumps Should Carry Cigarette-Style Climate Change Warning Labels
» Wales: Surgery Urged Vulnerable Patients to Complete ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ Forms in Case They Caught Coronavirus
 
Israel and the Palestinians
» Netanyahu Asked to Allow Services at Holy Sepulchre Church
 
Middle East
» Trump: Iran is Planning “Sneak Attack” On American Forces
 
Russia
» Populist AfD Urges End to Sanctions Against Russia Amid Economic Fallout Caused by Virus
» Putin Working Remotely After Meeting Infected Doctor, Kremlin Says
 
South Asia
» India Suggests Cloud Storage to Slow the Spread of Coronavirus
 
Far East
» “One of the Worst Coverups in Human History”: MSM Attention Turns to Chinese Biolab Near COVID-19 Ground Zero
» China Using Coronavirus for Further Deceit
» China Shipping Uighurs Around Country to be Used as Slave Laborers to Jump-Start Economy: Reports
» China Proposes a New Internet Protocol That Gives Government Ultimate Control
» China Reports Asymptomatic Cases — Nearly 150 — for First Time
» Coronavirus: Police Arrest 54 at Hong Kong Prince Edward Protest, But None Over Social-Distancing Rules
» ‘Disappeared’ Wuhan Whistleblower Doc Suddenly Sends Cryptic Message
» Japanese Vice PM Says Who Should be Renamed ‘Chinese Health Organization’
» Japanese VP: The WHO Should be Renamed the ‘Chinese Health Organization’
» Leaked US Intel Report Accuses China of Deliberately Lying About Coronavirus Figures
» Nothing Left for the Americans: Chinese Woman Brags About Buying Up Supply of N95 Masks
» Taiwan to Donate Ten Million Masks to U.S., E.U.
» Tucker Carlson: The WHO Helped China Cover-Up Coronavirus
» Tucker Carlson: WHO Helped China Cover Up Truth About Coronavirus
» Twitter Has Removed Over 1,000 Tweets Since Its Recent Ban on “Denial of Expert Guidance” About Coronavirus
» U.S. Intel Concludes China Reported Fake Numbers to Conceal True Size of Coronavirus Outbreak
» Wuhan Doctor Who Was Among the First to Alert Other Medics to the Spread of Coronavirus ‘Goes Missing’ Amid Fears She Has Been Detained for Speaking Out
 
Australia — Pacific
» Beijing Would be So Proud: Pro-China Labor MP Praises the Communist Regime for ‘Containing’ The Coronavirus Pandemic — and Commends Xi Jinping for His ‘Unswerving’ Leadership
» Bondi Backpackers Ignore Social Distancing Rules as They Bunch Up in the Queue at McDonald’s — Even Though There Are Markers on the Floor
» Brainless Returned Traveller, 23, Skips Self-Isolation, Gets Drunk and Then Crashes Into a House at 5am
» Cruise Liner Begs for Coronavirus Death Ship Ruby Princess to Return to Sydney So Sick Crew Can be Treated — Despite Being Ordered to Leave After Over 400 Cases Came From the Vessel
» Exclusive: How Australia’s Ports Could Soon be Shut After a Foreign Company Stood Down Wharfies Who Refused to Unload a Chinese Vessel Over COVID-19 Fears — Shutting US Off From the Outside World Completely
» ‘Go Back to Your Own Country’: Fed-Up Locals at Bondi’s Free Pop-Up Testing Clinic Lash Out at Backpackers for Throwing Rooftop Parties Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
» How Police ‘Let a Wedding With 30 Guests and a Drummer Go Ahead’ In Melbourne Despite a Ban on Ceremonies With More Than Five Guests — Just Telling Them to Keep 1.5m Apart
» How Two Cousins From an Infamous Sydney Crime Crew Escaped Being Punished for a String of Crimes Inside Two of Australia’s Most Notorious Prisons
» Qantas Baggage Handler Coronavirus Cluster Grows to Thirteen — as Anyone Who Travelled Through Major Airport is Urged to Get Tested
» Sixty Australian Newspapers to Stop Printing
 
Latin America
» U.S. Offers to Lift Venezuela Sanctions for Power-Sharing Deal
 
Immigration
» 2,000 Migrants Camped Out in Calais Look to Flee to UK
» Berlin Ready to Airlift Greek Island Refugees
» Sweden: Pro-Migrant Protest Goes Ahead Despite Coronavirus
» Tunisian Migrant Arrested After Attacking German Bystanders With Machete
 
Culture Wars
» Federal Judge Rules That Killing Babies is Essential Service
» Trust the Plan — Q Secrets Revealed
» University Issues Decree to Students: Do Not Use Terms Such as ‘Chinese Virus’
 

49 Percent of U.S. Companies Expect Layoffs “In the Next Three Months” As Unemployment Heads to Great Depression Levels

If the U.S. economy remains in shutdown mode for the next several months, we are going to witness layoffs like we have never seen before in U.S. history. Of course what we have already witnessed is difficult to believe. Last week more than 3.2 million Americans filed initial claims for unemployment benefits, and that was more than four times higher than the previous all-time record. This week another massive surge is expected, and we will continue to see lots more layoffs for as long as this pandemic persists. It is going to be a very challenging time for the country as a whole, because we haven’t seen anything like this since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Turmoil in the Financial Markets Fells Ambitious Acquisition Plan

Xerox said on Tuesday that it is ending its hostile bid to acquire printer-and-PC maker HP due to financial complications arising from the ongoing COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

After Citizens Refused to Obey, Sheriff Reverses Decision to Close Gun Stores

With so much uncertainty on the horizon during the COVID-19 outbreak, there has never been a better time for a citizen to be prepared to defend themselves and their family. The market is reacting appropriately to this demand and business has boomed for the gun industry over the past two weeks, with long lines stretching outside gun stores across the country. The Wall Street Journal reports that on March 16, background checks were up 300% compared with the same day last year, according to federal data shared with the National Shooting Sports Foundation.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Authorities Find 2000-Foot Smuggling Tunnel Under San Diego, Seize $29 Million Worth of Drugs

Federal authorities announced on Tuesday that they had discovered a lengthy tunnel running from San Diego to Tijuana used to smuggle illicit drugs, a complex from which they seized $29 million in illegal drugs.

The tunnel, which extended more than 2,000 feet, ran from a warehouse in the Otay Mesa district of San Diego to one in Tijuana, Mexico. It reportedly possessed an underground railway system and sophisticated ventilation.

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

Bill Gates Calls for National Lockdown, Says “Shutdown Anywhere Means Shutdown Everywhere”

Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates called for a national shutdown in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post on Tuesday, saying that it would be the most effective way to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

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

CBS News Used Chaotic Hospital Footage From Italy for Report About New York

CBS News used chaotic hospital footage from Italy for report about New York. Caught red-handed, these highly-trained professional liars, oops, journalists were forced to admit to the substitution. And they sincerely apologized aka made excuses for the “editing mistake.”

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Celebrity Whines About Being Quarantined in Luxury Mansion

Multimillionaire celebrity James Corden says he is suffering “anxiety” due to being self-isolated over the coronavirus.

Corden lives in an 8,609 square feet $10 million dollar L.A. mansion which is located on a 20,000 square foot estate with a massive garden and swimming pool.

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

Christian Post Decries NY Mayor De Blasio’s ‘Reckless’ Threat to Close Churches

A leading Christian journal has accused New York Mayor Bill de Blasio of overstepping his authority by threatening to permanently close synagogues and churches that fail to comply with his ban on public gatherings.

Writing for the Christian Post Tuesday, seminary professor Michael Brown appealed to the mayor to withdraw his threat, insisting it was “reckless” and could “actually provoke people of faith to defy you.”

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

Colleges Grapple Witth Admissions Uncertainty Due to Coronavirus, Economic Downturn

(THE COLLEGE FIX) — One in six high school seniors who expected to attend a four-year college full-time before the coronavirus pandemic overtook the nation now say they will choose a different path, according to the results of a new survey.

It’s one of many troubling indicators higher education administrators face as they try to deal with the uncertainty of how their college campuses will look come fall. But one thing is for sure: college admissions faces a roller coaster ride.

One of the biggest unknowns facing colleges and universities is how many international students will apply and attend. Typically international students are cash cows for universities as their tuitions are often triple that of U.S. students. [Comment: Now fewer students will be indoctrinated by marxists.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Domestic Abuse Calls Soar as Nationwide Lockdown Extends

Across California, high unemployment and crashed economic activity are starting to pressure households as tens of millions of people have been forced by the government to “shelter in place” amid the COVID-19 outbreak.

A frightening new reality is starting to develop, one where households are becoming fractured because of the stress related to the virus outbreak. Many are experiencing job loss, limited savings, insurmountable debts, and or alcohol or drug abuse problems to cope with the financial pain as the economy dives into a depression in the second quarter. As a result of this unbearable stress, domestic abuse calls have skyrocketed in Sacramento, California, reported CBS13 Sacramento.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Eight Registered Sex Offenders Released From NY Jail Due to Gov. Cuomo’s Statewide COVID-19 Orders

“We can’t let the cure be worse than the problem,” President Trump emphasized to the press several weeks ago when talking about coronavirus. Perhaps he should have been stressing that message to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo instead.

Eight registered sex offenders were among those recently released from Monroe County Jail in New York, according to WIVB, as part of statewide orders by Governor Andrew Cuomo to allow 1,100 parole violators out of prison due to concerns about the coronavirus.

“We’re releasing people who are in jails because they violated parole for non-serious reasons,” Cuomo told MSNBC last week.

More than 50 prisoners were released from the jail on Saturday. Among the inmates released, three of them are level 3 sex offenders and are deemed by NY courts as “likely to re-offend”. All three of the Level 3 offenders that were released have been convicted of the rape of minors.

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

Eugenicist and Population Control Advocate Bill Gates Says United States Must Shut Down for a Minimum of 10 Weeks Right Now to Beat Coronavirus

Eugenicist Bill Gates outlines 3 steps US government needs to take ‘to save lives and get the country back to work’.

[Comment: Behind this is a plan to make the trillionaires even richer and more powerful and the public mere serfs under a tyrannical world government.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Florida Governor Issues Stay-at-Home Order for Entire State

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Wednesday that he would sign a stay-at-home order for residents of that state, joining other governors across the country in ordering citizens to remain in their homes to fight the spread of the coronavirus.

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

Group Sues Northern California Governments, Alleging Rights Violations

Seventeen plaintiffs including the Second Amendment Foundation has filed a federal lawsuit naming an almost equal number of local and county governments and officials within those jurisdictions in Northern California, asking the court for injunctive and declaratory relief in a challenge to gun control measures instituted in relation to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

SAF is joined by the California Gun Rights Foundation, California Association of Federal Firearms Licensees, Inc., Firearms Policy Coalition, Madison Society Foundation and the National Rifle Association, along with three private businesses and eight private citizens. The lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. They are represented by attorney George M. Lee of San Francisco. The complaint may be read here.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Michigan Democrat Governor Asks Feds for Hydroxychloroquine Just Days After Threatening Doctors for Prescribing it

Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer is now asking the federal government to send her hydroxychloroquine just four days after she threatened to revoke the medical licenses of doctors who prescribed it.

Last week, Whitmer sent a letter warning physicians and pharmacists of punishments for the prescribing of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine despite a major study recommending “COVID-19 patients be treated with hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin to cure their infection and to limit the transmission of the virus to other people in order to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the world.”

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

Microsoft Expands AI Features in Office, But Are They Any Good? Mixed, According to Our Vulture

Plus note to admins: sending content to Microsoft is on by default and users cannot disable it Hands On Microsoft made a number of Office 365 Microsoft 365 announcements yesterday, including touting an expanded set of AI capabilities in its core applications.…

[Comment: For most, it’s better off to dust off your older copy of office and use that instead (fully patched after installing). Any office older than office 2007 needs the office 2007 compatability patch so it can read write documents in the docx file format which was introduced in office 2007. Or switch to libreoffice.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Office 365 Personal, Home Axed Next Month… and Replaced by Microsoft 365 Cloud Subscriptions

Microsoft on Monday teased a few future features of its Edge web browser and Teams slack-killer. It also announced the rebranding of its cloud productivity suite Office 365 as Microsoft 365 — a subscription offering that already included Office 365, alongside Windows 10 Enterprise services and security features.…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Pennsylvania Pastor Promises “Woodstock”-Like Easter Service in Defiance of Coronavirus Lockdown

A pastor in Pennsylvania has promised a “Woodstock”-like Easter celebration later this month, threatening to defy the state’s coronavirus lockdowns that strictly limit the number of people that can congregate in one spot.

Jonathan Shuttlesworth promised an “outdoor Easter blowout service” in Prosperity, Pennsylvania. He described it as “a national gathering” where congregants will be able to “gather and lift up Jesus Christ.”

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

President Trump’s Actions on Coronavirus

President Trump didn’t wait to take action on Coronavirus, from imposing swift travel restrictions on China to organizing a White House Task Force in January.

These early moves—which at the time drew criticism from some in Washington as an “overreaction”—have allowed America to slow the spread of the deadly virus today.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Project Veritas Video Removed From Facebook After Being Flagged by CNN Reporter

James O’Keefe and his Project Veritas have made a name for themselves over the past couple of years with a series of investigative reports exposing ideological biases, manipulation, and censorship perpetrated by giant tech platforms.

This means there’s not much love lost between O’Keefe and Big Tech, and as if to prove that point, Facebook has now decided to remove his video report about the coronavirus outbreak.

The initiative to pull the video came from CNN reporter/hall monitor Oliver Darcy and the offense meriting such extreme action was the mention of coronavirus in the same breath as the flu.

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

Prosecutors: Engineer Deliberately Ran Train Off Tracks in Attempt to Smash the USNS Mercy

SAN PEDRO, LOS ANGELES (KABC) — An engineer deliberately ran a train off the tracks at high speed near the Port of Los Angeles in an attempt to crash into and damage the USNS Mercy hospital ship, prosecutors say.

The Pacific Harbor Line train derailed Tuesday, running through the end of the track and crashing through barriers, finally coming to rest about 250 yards from the docked naval ship.

Federal prosecutors allege train engineer Eduardo Moreno, 44, of San Pedro intended to hit the ship, saying he thought it was “suspicious” and did not believe “the ship is what they say it’s for.’“

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

Shocking Magnitude 6.5 Tremor That Just Hit Idaho Continues Alarming Trend of Western Quakes

On Tuesday, the constant barrage of headlines about the coronavirus pandemic was interrupted by an enormous earthquake that hit central Idaho. Of course Idaho is not exactly known for earthquakes, and so this was quite a surprise. In fact, the largest quake in Idaho history was the magnitude 6.9 Borah Peak earthquake in 1983. So when a magnitude 6.5 earthquake stuck not too far from Boise on Tuesday, it really stunned a whole lot of people. And according to the Spokesman-Review, this quake could be felt as far away as Calgary…

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Virginia Clerk is Locked Up for Shooting at 3 Masked Robbers in His Store. Not a Typo.

A Virginia store clerk heard a crash that sounded like a car had crashed into the place at 4:30 a.m. on Sunday. He grabbed a gun and shot at three masked men he found stealing merchandise and cash from the shop.

When it was over, the clerk was the one in handcuffs. He now sits in jail on no bail, charged with crimes for which he could be locked up for 20 years. Those charges include: “Malicious Wounding, Reckless Handling of a Firearm and Violation of a Protective Order.”

Police say they’ll get around to charging the robbers later.

What’s wrong with this picture?

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

William Engdahl: The Dystopian Scenario Arising From COVID-19

Strategic risk consultant and best-selling author F. William Engdahl discusses the Coronavirus “pandemic” and how scenarios by the Rockefeller Foundation in their 2010 report and the 2019 “Event 201” Coronavirus pandemic simulation by Microsoft’s Bill Gates (in conjunction with pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson, US military, CIA, and the head of Chinese CDC) foretold in detail the events we are experiencing in real-time with the COVID-19 crisis.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Zoom Sued for Allegedly Sharing Personal Information With Facebook

Zoom is facing increased scrutiny and a lawsuit in California for allegedly giving users’ personal information to Facebook without fully informing customers.

The teleconferencing company reported customers’ personal information such as what device someone used, the device’s model, and the device’s unique advertising identifier to Facebook when a user logged on for a conference call, according to a lawsuit filed Monday.

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

Canadian Subreddit r/CanadianMOM Blocked by Reddit in Canada After “Legal Request”

Marijuana has been legal in Canada since 2018, but not all customers are happy: much of the distribution is controlled by the government, the quality of the drug is often said to be low, and the price high.

All this means that many marijuana users in Canada continue to get their supply from other markets and through other channels — including from online sources.

With this in mind it’s easy to understand why Canadian law enforcement might go after and geoblock a Reddit community that is, in its own words, dedicated to the discussion of mail order marijuana (MOM). Why Reddit would comply with such a request coming from the police, though — that’s an entirely different matter.

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

A Counterintuitive Mystery

Here’s a counterintuitive mystery for you. Mortality data in Europe show an actual decline from what would be expected in a normal year. Apparently all the handwashing, social distancing, and overdone panic have reduced normal deaths from other various bugs, more than the coronavirus has increased deaths.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Coronavirus: Italian Prosecco Maker Apologises After Owner Asks China to Pay Compensation

Italian prosecco producer Bottega Spa apologised to its Chinese customers and wine importers on Tuesday after its owner’s comments demanding China compensate Italy and the rest of the world for the economic damage resulting from the coronavirus caused a storm of outraged reactions on Chinese social media.

The incident suggested that tensions remain high over attempts to assign blame for the pandemic, during which more than 853,000 people have been infected and nearly 42,000 killed globally. The widespread economic damage is expected to push the world economy into recession this year.

The Chinese reaction also underscored the risk that foreign companies run of losing access to China’s large domestic market if actions or comments are seen as offensive by the public.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Coronavirus: Salvini Defends Orban Taking New Powers

‘Democratic choice’ says League leader

(ANSA) — Rome, March 30 — Nationalist opposition League leader Matteo Salvini said, amid criticism of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban getting full powers Monday, that it had been a democratic choice by the Hungarian parliament.

“Special powers for Orban to fight the virus? I greet with respect the free choice of the Hungarian parliament (137 votes in favour and 53 against), democratically elected by the citizens. Good work to my friend Victor (sic) Orban and good luck to all the people of Hungary in these difficult moments for all”.

The ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD) was among those condemning Orban’s apparent power grab saying that he was undermining the foundations of democracy and saying the EU should act. With his new powers, Orban can rule by decree, close parliament, change or suspend existing laws and block elections.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Danish Conservatives Want Orban Party Kicked Out of EPP

The Danish Conservative People’s party has called for the the expulsion of Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party from the centre-right European political family, the European People’s Party (EPP). “For too long we have watched the democratic decline in Budapest!,” MEP Pernille Weiss tweeted. The party has sent a letter to EPP president Donald Tusk. Fidesz is suspended in EPP, but a decision on its membership was delayed earlier this year.

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

Facing ICU Crunch, Europe Rushes to Build Field Hospitals

ROME (AP) — Facing intense surges in the need for hospital ICU beds, European nations are on a building and hiring spree, throwing together makeshift hospitals and shipping coronavirus patients out of overwhelmed cities via high-speed trains and military jets. The key question is whether they will be able to find enough healthy medical staff to make it all work.

Even as the virus has slowed its growth in overwhelmed Italy and in China, where it first emerged, hospitals in Spain and France are reaching their breaking points, and the U.S. and Britain are bracing for incoming waves of desperately ill people.

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

Former Obama-Era U.S. Ambassador Calls for Hungary to be Expelled From EU

Former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice has called for Hungary to be expelled from the European Union after the country passed emergency measures to combat the Wuhan coronavirus.

Ms Rice, who served as UN Ambassador and later National Security Advisor in the administration of former President Barack Obama, demanded that Hungary be removed from the European Union, stating: “Kick Hungary out of the EU.”

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

German Politician Intentionally Contracts Coronavirus

Mayor says sickness much worse than he imagined.

[Comment: Unlikely a globalist puppet would do this. Sounds like another mini psy-op designed to add to the fear hysteria.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Germany: Hanau Shooter Motivated by Conspiracy Theories and Paranoia

Local media and a leaked police report have revealed that a mass shooter who killed 10 people was driven more by paranoia and conspiracy theories about government surveilance than racism, The Telegraph reports.

When Tobias Rathjen killed 9 people of foreign descent in two Shisha bars in the German town in Hesse, it was widely reported as a far-right terrorist attack. However, the killer then turned the gun on his 72-year-old mother and himself which didn’t seem to fit any particular ideology. It’s also worth noting that Hanau has a foreign population of over 20%, so a random mass shooter would have more than a one-in-five chance of killing someone with an immigrant background.

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

Germany’s Hate Speech Laws Are About to Get Worse for Free Speech

Germany’s Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG), passed in 2017, is a piece of legislation heavily criticized by many civil and digital rights activists, legal experts, and journalists for promoting government censorship and restricting freedom of expression.

The act’s declared purpose is to fight online incitement and fake news, and it seeks to regulate content on social networks by forcing them to delete “obviously unlawful content” within 24 hours or pay fines up to 50 million euros. But it has come under sharp criticism both in the country and abroad.

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

Human Rights Groups Ask Council of Europe to Crack Down on ‘Authoritarian’ Governments

Ten human rights groups are petitioning the Council of Europe to take action against governments that they claim are exploiting the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic to introduce authoritarian measures.

A number of European administrations, including Boris Johnson’s in the UK, have passed emergency laws that temporarily limit parliaments and increase the central government’s powers to act without going through the usual legislative procedures. Such governments claim that these measures are necessary to allow them to act quickly in response to the rapidly evolving crisis as it unfolds.

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

Hungary, Poland, And Slovakia Have Lowest Amount of COVID-19 Cases in EU Per Million People

Per million inhabitants, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia have the lowest amount of cases of coronavirus in Europe with approximately 50 cases per million people, according to the National Agency for Communication and Information Technologies (NAKIT).

The Czech Republic also ranks near the bottom in Europe in terms of coronavirus cases, coming in 16th in the European Union and seventh in the number of performed tests. The country features 265 cases per million people.

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

Is This What’s Behind Italy’s Outrageous 10% Mortality Rate From COVID-19?

Researchers have proposed a theory that’s being vetted by peers: Italy’s mild flu season left a larger victim pool for COVID-19.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Bottega Founder Demands China to Compensate for Coronavirus Damage

Sandro Bottega, the founder of Italian Prosecco producer Bottega SPA in Treviso, wrote in an open letter to demand China to compensate Italy and rest of the world for the economic damages caused by COVID-19, causing controversy in China.

In the letter sent to Italian newspaper La Stampa on March 28, Bottega made a teary plea as he prepares to close his company on April 15, a decision that will put 300 of his company employees out of work.

           — Hat tip: Fjordman [Return to headlines]
 

Italy: Risk of Nationalism if EU Not Up to Coronavirus Challenge Says Conte

(ANSA) — Rome, March 30 — The risk of the coronavirus fueling Euroskepticism in countries like Italy “is clear,” Premier Giuseppe Conte told Spanish daily El Pais Monday after an EU summit last week’s rejected the ‘coronabonds’ advocated by Italy to offset the economic impact of the pandemic.

“Nationalist instincts, in Italy and in other countries, will be very strong if Europe is not up to the challenge,” Conte told the Madrid daily.

“The number of unemployed that we’ll have after this tsunami will be very high. We must achieve reconstruction before that happens”.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

More Than 350,000 People Fined for Breaking Lockdown Rules in France

More than 350,000 people have been fined in France for not following the rules during lockdown, according to the interior minister.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

NGO Resumes Migrant Pick-ups in Mediterranean Amid Global Pandemic

Berlin (AFP) — The Alan Kurdi migrant rescue boat is heading back out into the Mediterranean after a two-month break despite the coronavirus pandemic, according to the German organisation that operates it.

The boat has already left port in Spain where it had been undergoing repairs and is expected to reach waters off the coast of Libya this weekend, NGO Sea Eye said in a statement on Monday evening.

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

Politicians Call for Hungary to be Punished by EU

Liberal politicians across the world have been quick to call for Hungary to be punished following the Hungarian government’s adoption of its emergency Coronavirus Protection Law on Monday, which gives Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s administration wide powers to deal with the pandemic without consulting Parliament.

Italy’s former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi was among the chorus of voices who have called for the European Union to take action against Hungary. “I have been dreaming of a ‘United States of Europe’ for years,” he tweeted on Monday. “Precisely for this reason, I have the right, and the duty, to say that after what Orban has done today, the European Union MUST act and make him change his mind. Or, simply, expel Hungary from the Union.”

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

Sweden Begins to Abandon Liberal Coronavirus Approach as Deaths Surge

Having been one of the few European countries in the world not to impose a coronavirus lockdown, Sweden is now starting to abandon its liberal approach after a surge in deaths.

Up until now, Sweden had kept schools, bars, restaurants and cinemas open while only restricting gatherings that were over 50 people.

People were encouraged to observe social distancing measures, but there were no quarantine protocols enforced by force of law and unlike its Scandinavian neighbors, Sweden’s borders remained open.

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

UK Could be in Coronavirus ‘On and Off Lockdown’ For a Year: Expert

An international expert on global pandemic management has said the UK could be “on and off lockdowns over the course of the next year” in the event that a vaccine for coronavirus is not developed in that time.

Devi Sridhar, a professor at the University of Edinburgh, told Channel 4 News that the “best case” is for the UK to implement its current short-term lock-down measures and increase testing. She added further that in the near future, “we might have a vaccine, we might have anti-viral therapies” or drug repurposing studies may bear some fruit. She continued that “this is the hope: that one of these will come through” so that the UK no longer has to operate under the “medieval practises of quarantine”.

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

UK Newspapers Beg Advertisers to Whitelist “Trusted News Brands” For Ads on Online Coronavirus Content

The economic impact of the coronavirus has devastated the online media landscape with large legacy media outlets and smaller independent creators all faced with reduced advertising revenues.

Some of this reduction in ad revenues has been caused by advertisers using blocklists which prevent their ads running alongside content that contains the word “coronavirus.”

While this landscape has made it harder for publishers of all sizes to monetize their content, larger legacy media outlets have been given preferential treatment in big tech’s algorithms.

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

UK: Alarmists: Climate Change Making Nightingales’ Wings Shorter

Climate change is causing the wings of nightingales to get shorter, endangering their ability to migrate, the Guardian newspaper reported Wednesday.

In what appeared an April fools joke at first glance, the UK’s flagship of climate alarmism announced that thanks to climate change there are barely 7,000 nesting pairs of nightingales left in England, since fewer are able to make the journey from sub-Saharan Africa to breed in Europe.

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

UK: BBC Recommends New Ways to Force People to Pay for the Content Few People Want

The UK government is now considering decriminalizing license fee evasion. This means that defaulting on paying a fee for watching live TV can no longer be taken to the court and criminalized. They shall only be served with a penalty notice. The BBC, however, doesn’t seem to welcome this approach.

Simply put, the TV license in the UK is paid to the BBC for accessing its channels, radio, and other content.

While there’s so much more choice available on the free market these days, and viewers and listeners are increasingly shunning BBC content for better alternatives, the BBC isn’t happy about losing market share.

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

UK: Scientists: Petrol Pumps Should Carry Cigarette-Style Climate Change Warning Labels

Petrol pumps in Britain should carry climate change warning labels akin to the legally-mandated health warnings on cigarette packages, a group of scientists have said.

In a blog post for the British Medical Journal (BMJ), British, American, and Indian professionals from within healthcare and environmental studies have claimed that petrol pumps, airline tickets, and even energy bills should come with “warning labels” which “state clearly that continuing to burn fossil fuels worsens the climate emergency”.

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

Wales: Surgery Urged Vulnerable Patients to Complete ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ Forms in Case They Caught Coronavirus

A GP surgery in Wales sent letters to patients with serious illnesses recommending them to sign ‘do not resuscitate’ forms in case they contracted coronavirus.

The letter from Llynfi surgery, in Maesteg near Port Talbot, asked their vulnerable patients to sign a “DNACPR” — do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation — so that ambulances would not be called out to their homes in case their condition deteriorated due to the Chinese virus.

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

Netanyahu Asked to Allow Services at Holy Sepulchre Church

Three Christian churches sent him a letter

(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, MARCH 31 — Israel was asked Tuesday by Christian church leaders to allow services to be held at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for Easter and access to the church for the Catholic, Greek and Armenian church leaders. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received the letter, which was also addressed to President Reuven Rivlin and State Attorney Avichai Mandelblit.

           — Hat tip: Insubria [Return to headlines]
 

Trump: Iran is Planning “Sneak Attack” On American Forces

President Trump on Wednesday claimed that Iran was planning a “sneak attack” on U.S. forces in Iraq, an alleged maneuver for which the president promised a “very heavy price” if the regime followed through with it.

The president made the announcement on Wednesday afternoon after attending an intelligence briefing earlier in the day, according to his schedule.

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

Populist AfD Urges End to Sanctions Against Russia Amid Economic Fallout Caused by Virus

Germany’s populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has urged the country’s lawmakers yet again to end sanctions against Russia amid the difficult economic situation caused by the Chinese COVID-19 virus.

The Right-wing populist party has called on Germany to oppose extending sanctions levied against Russia at the next meeting between EU heads of state, adding that Russia should be restored as a member of the G7 and other transnational organizations, Junge Freiheit reports.

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

Putin Working Remotely After Meeting Infected Doctor, Kremlin Says

Russian leader Vladimir Putin has decided to handle his duties remotely, the Kremlin said Wednesday, after the head of the country’s main coronavirus hospital tested positive following a meeting with the president.

Denis Protsenko, who met with Putin last week as the Russian leader visited the Kommunarka hospital in Moscow, said Tuesday he had been infected with the coronavirus but was feeling well.

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

India Suggests Cloud Storage to Slow the Spread of Coronavirus

Citizens advised to put away their papers and use the national data locker instead

India is advising its citizens that cloud storage can help to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus.…

[Comment: What a coincidence — this is what globalists want. All the publics private files on the “cloud” (privately owned data centres who have no skin in keeping the data private.) Now intel apparatus can easily watch on the public for signs of dissent. The “cloud” — a light fluffy name designed to reassure the public.]

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

“One of the Worst Coverups in Human History”: MSM Attention Turns to Chinese Biolab Near COVID-19 Ground Zero

In late January we asked whether a prolific Chinese scientist who was experimenting with bat coronavirus at a level-4 biolab in Wuhan China was responsible for the current outbreak of a virus which is 96% genetically identical — and which saw an explosion in cases at a wet market located just down the street.

For suggesting this, we were kicked off Twitter and had the pleasure of several articles written by MSM hacks regarding our ‘conspiracy theory’ — none of which addressed the plethora of hard evidence linked in the post. These are the same people, mind you, who pushed the outlandish and evidence-free Trump-Russia conspiracy theory for years.

Whether or not the virus was engineered (scientists swear it wasn’t) — it shouldn’t take Perry Mason to conclude that a virulent coronavirus outbreak which started near a biolab that was experimenting with — coronavirus — bears scrutiny. Could a lab worker have accidentally infected themselves — then gone shopping for meat at the market over several days, during the long, asymptomatic incubation period?

In February, researchers Botao Xial and Lei Xiao published a quickly-retracted paper titled “The possible origins of 2019-nCoV coronavirus” — which speculated that the virus came from the Wuhan biolab.

Now, mainstream outlets are catching on — or at least have become brave enough to similarly connect the dots.

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

China Using Coronavirus for Further Deceit

The coronavirus may be strengthening the determination of China’s government. So far, it has been trying to guarantee absolute loyalty from its populace through surveillance technology and turning China into a spookily Orwellian society. Any hope that the West may have harbored in the past about China evolving into a member of the liberal-democratic international order, should by now be considered dead, expired, extinct.

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

China Shipping Uighurs Around Country to be Used as Slave Laborers to Jump-Start Economy: Reports

China is reportedly using Uighurs as slave labor to kickstart its battered economy in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, according to social media videos trickling out of the communist country.

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

China Proposes a New Internet Protocol That Gives Government Ultimate Control

After years of meddling with the internet and censoring everything left and right, China now wants to introduce a new authoritarian-friendly internet protocol.

The Financial Times has recently gained access to several documentsabout the protocol.

Huawei, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MITT), and state-run Unicom and China Telecom were the ones to craft the proposal and presented it to the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

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

China Reports Asymptomatic Cases — Nearly 150 — for First Time

April 1 (UPI) — China reported a surge in new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday after it included asymptomatic cases in its daily update for the first time.

Beijing’s National Health Commission reported 36 confirmed infections of the novel coronavirus, 33 of which were imported, continuing a trend of more cases entering from outside the country than those transmitted locally.

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

Coronavirus: Police Arrest 54 at Hong Kong Prince Edward Protest, But None Over Social-Distancing Rules

Hong Kong police arrested 54 people during a protest in Kowloon on Tuesday night, though none of them fell foul of rules on public gatherings brought in amid the coronavirus epidemic.

A resident as young as 12 was among those detained.

But some lawyers and legislators on Wednesday accused officers of nonetheless abusing the public health crisis, by having the metal strips removed from arrested demonstrators’ surgical masks, saying they were dangerous.

From Sunday, groups of more than four have been banned in public, as the city tries to curb the spread of Covid-19, which by Wednesday had infected 765 people locally, with four related deaths.

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

‘Disappeared’ Wuhan Whistleblower Doc Suddenly Sends Cryptic Message

Chinese whistleblowing Wuhan doctor Ai Fen, who claimed Beijing prevented her from warning the world about COVID-19, has mysteriously disappeared, according to an investigation by 60 Minutes, Australia.

Besides Chinese doctor Li Wenliang, Fen was one of the first to notice a steady stream of patients with pneumonia-like symptoms in Wuhan before Beijing declared the COVID-19 outbreak. Fen is the Director of the emergency department at Wuhan Central Hospital, told a Chinese media outlet in February that the government silenced her for bringing awareness to the localized virus outbreak that would eventually spread across the world.

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

Japanese Vice PM Says Who Should be Renamed ‘Chinese Health Organization’

Taro Aso slammed the WHO for reciting CCP talking points.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Japanese VP: The WHO Should be Renamed the ‘Chinese Health Organization’

The deputy prime minister of Japan says that the WHO should be renamed the ‘Chinese Health Organization’ for its role in helping Beijing cover-up the severity of the coronavirus outbreak.

Referring to a petition which now has almost 700,000 signatures calling on WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom to resign, Taro Aso tore into the organization for conspiring with China and failing to stop a global pandemic that could have been prevented.

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

Leaked US Intel Report Accuses China of Deliberately Lying About Coronavirus Figures

Update (1200ET): Vice President Mike Pence just said during an appearance on CNN that it “would have been better” if China was more forthcoming with the US during the early days of the outbreak, and basically blamed the Chinese for the White House’s slow response.

And there you have it, the purpose for this particular leak, is to begin laying out the administration’s defense when accosted by critics who accuse Trump of not doing enough early on to combat the virus.

A day after China reported more than 1,500 additional “asymptomatic” cases that authorities said had been left out of the country’s data, while promising to start reporting these cases (they’ve already reported 50 more on Wednesday, blaming most of them on travel) going forward, an intelligence report has been submitted to the White House accusing Beijing of deliberately underreporting cases.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Nothing Left for the Americans: Chinese Woman Brags About Buying Up Supply of N95 Masks

A Chinese woman filmed herself traveling around Florida buying up N95 face masks while bragging, “I didn’t leave a single mask for the Americans.”

The woman shared video clips of her callous stunt on Chinese social media site Weibo. The video was captioned, “So much fun shopping. Bought them all. Left nothing for the Americans.”

“It feels so awesome to buy all the masks!” she states.

The clip shows her filling a pick up truck with boxes full of the masks.

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

Taiwan to Donate Ten Million Masks to U.S., E.U.

Taiwan will donate ten million face masks to countries struggling with the coronavirus pandemic, a move that will likely rile China, which claims Taiwan as a territory and has donated far fewer masks to other countries despite its role in covering up the risk posed by a deadly virus that originated within its borders.

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

Tucker Carlson: The WHO Helped China Cover-Up Coronavirus

Tucker Carlson exposed during a powerful monologue last night how the World Health Organization helped China cover-up the severity of coronavirus and how the U.S. media turned a blind eye.

The Fox News host noted how World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom “got his job with Chinese support after he covered up cholera outbreaks in his home country” of Egypt.

Tedros has denied the allegation, which centered around claims he had downplayed cholera epidemics in Ethiopia in 2006, 2009 and 2011 by passing them off as “acute watery diarrhea,” a symptom of cholera.

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

Tucker Carlson: WHO Helped China Cover Up Truth About Coronavirus

The World Health Organization is complicit in lies spread by the Chinese Communist Party about the nature and spread of coronavirus and about the party’s response to the virus, Fox News host Tucker Carlson argued on his show Tuesday evening.

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

Twitter Has Removed Over 1,000 Tweets Since Its Recent Ban on “Denial of Expert Guidance” About Coronavirus

It has been two weeks since Twitter introduced its controversial coronavirus rules that prohibit the “denial of expert guidance” on the virus and some coronavirus jokes.

And Twitter is reporting that it has already removed 1,100 tweets that it deemed to be “harmful and potentially harmful” since these rules were rolled out — an average of 550 tweets per week.

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

U.S. Intel Concludes China Reported Fake Numbers to Conceal True Size of Coronavirus Outbreak

The U.S. intelligence community has concluded that China has been reporting fake coronavirus numbers — under-reporting both cases and deaths — in order to conceal the true size of the outbreak in the communist nation, three U.S. officials confirmed to Bloomberg Wednesday.

The news comes one day after Dr. Deborah Birx, response coordinator for the White House Coronavirus Task Force, suggested that the U.S. response to the pandemic may have been slower than ideal because China withheld a “significant amount of data.”

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

Wuhan Doctor Who Was Among the First to Alert Other Medics to the Spread of Coronavirus ‘Goes Missing’ Amid Fears She Has Been Detained for Speaking Out

Dr Ai Fen said she faced ‘unprecedented, extremely harsh reprimanded’ by officials at Wuhan Central Hospital after she shared a picture of a patient report labelled ‘SARS coronavirus’.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Beijing Would be So Proud: Pro-China Labor MP Praises the Communist Regime for ‘Containing’ The Coronavirus Pandemic — and Commends Xi Jinping for His ‘Unswerving’ Leadership

A Labor MP with a history of sympathising with China’s communist regime has praised the nation’s ‘containment’ of COVID-19 and the ‘unswerving leadership’ of authoritarian president Xi Jinping.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Bondi Backpackers Ignore Social Distancing Rules as They Bunch Up in the Queue at McDonald’s — Even Though There Are Markers on the Floor

The three young women huddled together even though there were taped x marks on the tiles indicating the need to stand 1.5 metres apart, at Bondi McDonald’s, in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Brainless Returned Traveller, 23, Skips Self-Isolation, Gets Drunk and Then Crashes Into a House at 5am

The 23-year-old Deepdene man drove into the Balwyn North property at about 5am on Tuesday and returned a positive breath test at the scene, Victoria Police said.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Cruise Liner Begs for Coronavirus Death Ship Ruby Princess to Return to Sydney So Sick Crew Can be Treated — Despite Being Ordered to Leave After Over 400 Cases Came From the Vessel

Carnival Cruises has begged for the coronavirus-infected Ruby Princess cruise ship to be allowed to return to Australia despite being ordered to leave.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Exclusive: How Australia’s Ports Could Soon be Shut After a Foreign Company Stood Down Wharfies Who Refused to Unload a Chinese Vessel Over COVID-19 Fears — Shutting US Off From the Outside World Completely

Dock workers are preparing to bring Australia’s shipping channels to a grinding halt over fears they are being put at risk of catching COVID-19.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

‘Go Back to Your Own Country’: Fed-Up Locals at Bondi’s Free Pop-Up Testing Clinic Lash Out at Backpackers for Throwing Rooftop Parties Amid Coronavirus Pandemic

Residents living around Australia’s coronavirus ‘hot spot’ Bondi Beach have lined up to get tested for the infectious disease, and told backpackers to ‘go back to their own country.’

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

How Police ‘Let a Wedding With 30 Guests and a Drummer Go Ahead’ In Melbourne Despite a Ban on Ceremonies With More Than Five Guests — Just Telling Them to Keep 1.5m Apart

Police allegedly allowed a Melbourne wedding with at least 30 guests to continue celebrating, provided they kept a distance and in small groups.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

How Two Cousins From an Infamous Sydney Crime Crew Escaped Being Punished for a String of Crimes Inside Two of Australia’s Most Notorious Prisons

Infamous cousins Talal and Bilal Alameddine (pictured) were over the past week both sentenced in NSW courts for crimes carried out behind bars at separate New South Wales prisons.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Qantas Baggage Handler Coronavirus Cluster Grows to Thirteen — as Anyone Who Travelled Through Major Airport is Urged to Get Tested

Six Adelaide airport employees tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday after several new cases appeared in South Australia. More were confirmed on Wednesday.

           — Hat tip: SS [Return to headlines]
 

Sixty Australian Newspapers to Stop Printing

(AFP) — Rupert Murdoch’s Australian flagship media group News Corp announced Wednesday it will stop printing around 60 regional newspapers, as the troubled sector received a fresh blow from a COVID-19 advertising downturn.

News Corp said papers in the states of New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia would cease printing and move online.

“We have not taken this decision lightly,” News Corp Australasia Executive Chairman Michael Miller was quoted as saying by the group’s Australian newspaper title.

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

U.S. Offers to Lift Venezuela Sanctions for Power-Sharing Deal

April 1 (UPI) — The Trump administration has offered to lift sanctions from Venezuela if the opposition party and President Nicolas Maduro’s socialist party create an interim transitional government with the aim of holding a free and fair presidential election in less than a year.

The State Department unveiled the 13-point plan Tuesday after more than a year of attempting to strong-arm Maduro from power with escalating sanctions imposed against him, his government and those the Trump administration accuses of keeping him at the country’s helm.

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

2,000 Migrants Camped Out in Calais Look to Flee to UK

Over two thousand migrants who have been living in makeshift camps in Calais and Dunkirk, in northern France, are desperately looking to make it to the UK by illegally crossing the English channel.

To avoid being transferred to one of the French refugee camps, the migrants are trying last ditch effort to enter the UK, Remix News reports.

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

Berlin Ready to Airlift Greek Island Refugees

German activists have collected funds to start airlifting refugees and asylum seekers from the Greek islands to Berlin.

“If the governments say yes, we can start immediately. It is a matter of organisation with a flight broker, which means it could take two days,” Axel Steier of the German NGO Mission Lifeline, told EUobserver on Tuesday (31 March).

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

Sweden: Pro-Migrant Protest Goes Ahead Despite Coronavirus

A pro-migrant protest in Sweden continues to take place every day despite authorities banning large gatherings and demanding social distancing as a result of the coronavirus.

Sweden has more lax lockdown measures than most European countries, but has still banned gatherings over 50 people and urged all sports teams to cancel games. People who violate this law face up to six months in jail.

However, attendees of a pro-migrant protest in Gothenburg, which has been ongoing for weeks, are apparently immune from prosecution.

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

Tunisian Migrant Arrested After Attacking German Bystanders With Machete

Police arrested a 27-year-old Tunisian migrant in the German city of Augsburg after he randomly attacked two people with a machete and an axe.

The migrant started his random attack at around 4am on Tuesday, first attacking a bus carrying drivers to their morning shifts, smashing the windshield with an axe. The driver managed to speed away and inform the police of the attack without being injured.

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

Federal Judge Rules That Killing Babies is Essential Service

Federal judge rules that killing babies is “essential service.” Hip replacements for those struggling in disabling pain are not essential. Pastors are getting arrested for holding church services in contravention of shelter-in-place declarations. Violent inmates are being released from prisons. But this nincompoop decided the one thing we cannot stop doing is killing unborn babies.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

Trust the Plan — Q Secrets Revealed

Is the New World Order making its final move?

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

University Issues Decree to Students: Do Not Use Terms Such as ‘Chinese Virus’

‘And do not allow others to use them’.

           — Hat tip: JD [Return to headlines]
 

16 thoughts on “Gates of Vienna News Feed 4/1/2020

    • Rioters + machine guns = no more rioters.

      I am positive the Israelis know this equation quite well. Math was never a strong muslim skill.

  1. “Hungary, Poland, And Slovakia Have Lowest Amount of COVID-19 Cases in EU Per Million People”
    That’s because they don’t do that much testing.
    We had barely any cases until we started large scale testing as well.

  2. Off-topic.

    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qmWIi_4Ep7I

    If you have serious acrophobia like me, see if you can make it to the end of the video. Just so alien looking to me—how can modern society have such anal retentive safety standards by comparison yet be so politically suicidal? Strange, maybe the safer society becomes, the more we are willing to commit to irrational social experiments.

  3. German Steel! Bremen made…

    https://m.jpost.com/international/venezuelan-warship-shoots-rams-into-german-cruise-vessel-before-sinking-623422
    > A Venezuelan navy ship fired shots at a German-owned cruise ship on March 30 and rammed into the passenger vessel, leading to the sinking of the warship in the Caribbean.

    >The Iranian regime-allied Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro accused the captain of the RCGS RESOLUTE cruise ship of “terrorism and piracy” and sought to force the ship into a new direction on the high seas. The cruise ship, which had no passengers on board and was flying under a Portuguese flag, has a reinforced hull that enables it to sail through ice water.

    Silly Venezuelans, clearly they didn’t learn the cautionary tale of HMS Glowworm. Why do South Americans always get owned when they take on Europe?! Don’t they know you need to immigrate to bully euros? On the battlefield you’ll just get obliterated.

  4. Okay, apparently it was Finnish made, I jumped ahead of myself and saw it was in drydock at Bremen at one point rather than take to the time and see it’s actual builder, but it was German operated, nevertheless.

    https://i.4cdn.org/pol/1585859724760.jpg

    Ramming the bow? Darwin Award, reminds me of a certain episode on the eighth of April, 1940

    https://i.4cdn.org/pol/1585862228683.jpg
    https://i.4cdn.org/pol/1585863559638.jpg
    https://i.4cdn.org/pol/1585863637392.jpg

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