The prime minister of Belgium has announced plans for ending the country’s coronavirus lockdown. Meanwhile, an Italian man was fined for going to visit his dying father during the lockdown.
In other news, according to the latest polls, 40% of Italians want to abandon the euro and leave the European Union.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Caroline Glick, Fjordman, Insubria, 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.
CBO: Budget Deficit Will Top $3.7 Trillion This Year
The Congressional Budget Office on Friday revealed that the U.S. budget deficit this year is expected to explode to $3.7 trillion, a stark reminder of the brutal economic toll the coronavirus pandemic has wrought on the economy.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
1993 Clip Surfaces of Tara Reade’s Mother Appearing to Support Allegation Against Biden
A 1993 clip of “Larry King Live” resurfaced on Friday in which the mother of Tara Reade appears to affirm sexual assault allegations against 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Reade’s late mother, Jeanette Altimus, allegedly called into the program seeking advice on how her daughter could deal with “problems” she experienced “working for a prominent senator” without “go[ing] to the press” “out of respect for him.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Alarmists: Climate Change Will Turn Earth Into ‘A Giant, Raging Fire Ball’
A new Climate Action Plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions seeks to keep the earth from becoming “a giant, raging fire ball floating atop a bubbling hot ocean of acid,” writes Gwendolyn Knapp for Houstonia magazine.
Knapp praised the city of Houston for launching a Climate Action Plan, along with hundreds of other U.S. cities with “like-minded, science-backed, and community-driven strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” just in time for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Caroline Glick: American Jewry’s Organizational Crack-Up
Last week an event occurred will be remembered as a key moment in the disintegration of organized American Jewish support for Israel and American Jewish organizational life itself.
Last Friday, the leaders of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations announced that the Conference’s nominating committee had selected Dianne Lob, the immediate past president of HIAS to run unopposed for the position of Chairman of the Conference’s Executive Board. Her election is scheduled to take place on April 28.
The Conference of Presidents — an umbrella group that comprises 53 Jewish American organizations — is widely viewed as the most important Jewish organization in the United States.
Why is Lob’s selection important? On the face of things, it was unremarkable. People who have known Lob for decades describe her as a garden variety New York Jewish liberal whose views on Israel are in keeping with the views of the vast majority of American Jews.
Members of the Conference of President for their part claim not to know her at all. During her term as Chairman of HIAS from 2016-2019, she didn’t participate in major Conference events like its trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Lob’s selection is an earthquake in American Jewish organizational life is not because of anything she has said or done, but because of her organizational affiliation to HIAS…
| — Hat tip: Caroline Glick | [Return to headlines] |
Coronavirus: This is Where All 50 States Stand on Reopening
More than 97% of the US population is currently under a stay-at-home or shelter-in-place order as the coronavirus pandemic continues to upend life as we know it. But worries for the economy — and people’s mental health — are raising the question: When will things go back to normal?
President Donald Trump has indicated many states can reopen by May 1, and shared federal guidelines for restarting the economy with governors.
Across the country, governors have been forming pacts. Those leaders are highlighting the importance of using science and advice from health officials rather than politics to choose when to reopen the economy. Expanded testing, tracking contacts of people who had the virus, improved treatment options and vaccine development are important, they say. However, 40 states and DC have ordered or recommended school closures through end of the academic year.
Here’s the latest on where states stand in their plans to reopen.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Federal Judge Blocks California Law Requiring Background Checks for Ammunition
A federal judge on Thursday blocked a California law that sought to require a background check in order to purchase ammunition, according to the Associated Press.
U.S. District Judge Roger Benitez ruled in favor of the California Rifle & Pistol Association, which asked the judge to halt the checks and restrictions on ammunition.
Benitez called the regulations “onerous and convoluted” and said they violated California citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Florida Man Friday: Tom Brady Embraces His New Identity
What do you get when you take a GenX California native, move him to Boston to play professional football where he quarterbacked in nine Super Bowls and won six of them over a 20-year career with the New England Patriots, and then move him down to Florida for a few weeks?
He begins The Becoming. He starts evolving into Florida Man. Nearly instantly.
True story, and we’ll get to it immediately on this week’s enthralling…
Florida Man Friday!
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Joe Rogan Slams YouTube’s Ban on Anything That Goes Against the WHO
Podcaster Joe Rogan, who has one of the most popular channels on YouTube, has blasted YouTube’s controversial ban on anything that goes against the World Health Organization (WHO) and warned that it could lead to proven advice about boosting immunity being taken down.
The policy was recently announced by YouTube CEO Susan Wojcickiwho also said that anything “that is medically unsubstantiated” including advising people to “take vitamin C” or “take turmeric” as a cure would be a violation of YouTube’s policies.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Michigan Legislature to Create Oversight Committee to Monitor Gov. Whitmer’s Coronavirus Response
The Michigan Legislature is holding a special session Friday to create an oversight committee to monitor Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
Many within the state have accused Whitmer of abusing her powers after she implemented aggressive stay-at-home policies earlier this month, including a ban on the sale of gardening and flooring supplies.
Last week, Whitmer even threatened to expand the state’s stay-at-home order after residents protested at the state capital.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nearly all coronavirus patients who needed ventilators in New York’s largest health system to help them breathe died, a study found.
Overall, about 20% of COVID-19 patients treated at Northwell Health died, and 88% of those placed on ventilators died, according to the study. A ventilator is a device that forces air into the lungs of patients who cannot breathe on their own because of severe pneumonia or acute respiratory distress syndrome.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Proposes Editorializing the Tweets of World Leaders Like Trump
A handful of companies are controlling the majority of the world’s conversations, subtly introducing rules to close the gap of what ideas they find acceptable and slowly edging out those they don’t.
One of the most prominent ways that tech companies have been doing that, of late, is the result of realizing that they get ample media support and can stay in the good graces of legacy media outlets when they censor content for being “misinformation.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: This is Why Bin Laden Wanted Biden in Charge
In response to news that Joe Biden is somehow polling favourably against President Trump, Fox news dredged up a 2012 story about how Osama Bin Laden wanted to assassinate Barack Obama, so that a ‘totally unprepared’ Biden would become President.
That was 10 years ago.
The Biden of a decade ago was a spring chicken compared to the sad figure we see today who struggles to string two words together.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
40 Per Cent of Italians Want to Leave the Euro and the European Union
Italian anger at the European Union continues to remain high as a poll released this week shows four in ten would like their country to leave both the euro currency and the political bloc.
The Bidimedia poll showed that while 6.1 per cent said they wanted only to leave the EU and 7.1 per cent said they only wanted to leave the euro, 40 per cent said they back pulling out of both institutions. Meanwhile, 41.7 per cent of Italians prefer to remain in both, Il Giornale reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
British ‘ISIS rapper’ Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary was identified by his ears after sneaking into Spain by boat, it emerged today. Bary, 29, took advantage of coronavirus lockdown to hide behind a face mask.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
Coronavirus: Chinese Couple Thank Italy After Ending Rehab
First people infected in Italy, discharged from hospital
(ANSA) — Rome, April 20 — A Chinese couple who were the first coronavirus patients in Italy on Monday thanked Italy after completing their rehabilitation at Rome’s San Filippo Neri Hospital.
The husband and wife from Wuhan, admitted to the capital’s Spallanzani Hospital at the end of January, “are in excellent condition and have announced a thank you letter to the health facilities which saved them and treated them,” said Lazio Health Councillor Alessio D’Amato.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Coronavirus: Belgium Unveils Plans to Lift Lockdown
Belgian Prime Minister Sophie Wilme’s has announced a detailed plan to gradually lift the country’s coronavirus restrictions.
Under new rules, all shops will be allowed to open their doors again from 11 May, with schools reopening the following week — albeit with a cap on pupil numbers in each class.
But Ms Wilme’s cautioned that “nothing is set in stone”.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
England Knife Crime Hit All-Time High in Final Statistics Before Coronavirus Lockdown
“Higher-harm” crimes committed with knives have risen 49 per cent in less than a decade and is now at a historic high, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has revealed.
The number of police-recorded crimes categorised under ‘knife or sharp instrument offences’ rose seven per cent in a year, according to the latest set of government statistics that cover the year up to December 2019. The rise took the total number of knife offences to 45,627, the highest on record, and 49 per cent higher than “when comparable recording began” in 2010-11.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Nurses at a hospital in Paris took a break from dealing with coronavirus patients to re-create Leonardo Da Vinci’s The Last Supper painting with themselves playing the part of Jesus and his apostles.
The image was posted on the Instagram page of the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière.
“HUGE THANKS TO OUR DAILY HEROES!” said the message accompanying the post. “And big up to the care team of the Cardiac Surgery unit of the CHU de la Pitié-Salpetrière for this masterpiece.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Coronavirus Man Sentenced for Spitting in Face of Police
A homeless migrant-background man has been sentenced to two years in prison after spitting in the face of a French police officer and claiming to be infected with the Wuhan coronavirus.
A French court sentenced 39-year-old Isam Driouech to two years in prison. Driouech, along with his Moroccan migrant partner, had been involved in two robberies before his arrest that took place last month in Montauban.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greta Wants World to Battle Climate Change Alongside Pandemic
Battling the novel coronavirus has become the world’s top priority, but teen climate activist Greta Thunberg on Wednesday compared the pandemic to the “climate crisis” and insisted that “we need to be able to tackle two crises at once.”
The 17-year-old Swedish activist’s comments came in a video conversation hosted by the Nobel Prize in Stockholm for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Italy: Coronavirus: Man Fined for Going to See Dying Father
Man drove from Savona to Pavia
(ANSA) — Savona, April 20 — A man was fined for breaching the coronavirus lockdown rules Sunday after he drove from Pietra Ligure near Savona to Pavia to see his dying father.
Police ruled it was not a case of “absolute urgency”.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Italy’s Coronavirus Epidemic Began in January, Study Shows
ROME (Reuters) — The first COVID-19 infections in Italy date back to January, according to a scientific study presented on Friday, shedding new light on the origins of the outbreak in one of the world’s worst-affected countries.
Stefano Merler, of the Bruno Kessler Foundation, told a news conference with Italy’s top health authorities that his institute had looked at the first known cases and drawn clear conclusions from the subsequent pace of contagion.
“We realized that there were a lot of infected people in Lombardy well before Feb. 20, which means the epidemic had started much earlier,” he said.
“In January for sure, but maybe even before. We’ll never know,” he said, adding that he believed the immediate surge in cases suggested the virus was probably brought to Italy by a group of people rather than a single individual.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Norway: Man Kidnapped, Robbed, And Stabbed by Four ‘Youths’
A Norwegian court has indicted four so-called ‘youths’ for kidnapping, robbing, and stabbing a man in the Tosenhagen district of Oslo in January.
The ‘youths’, aged 17 to 19, are said to have forced the victim into their car before robbing, stabbing, and threatening to kill the man, according to a report from the news portal Document Norway.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
President Trump Praises ‘Incredible’ Boris Johnson as PM Slated to Return to Work Monday
Boris Johnson will return to Downing Street as early as Monday, it is claimed, a development that comes as Donald Trump reveals he’s spoken to the UK PM and was amazed at the energy and drive of his British counterpart.
Britain’s Prime Minister is expected to be back at work as early as Monday, The Daily Telegraph — a right of centre newspaper with strong links to Britain’s ruling Conservative party — claims, just 15 days after he was released from a central London hospital to his country retreat to convalesce.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Spain Passes 22,000 Coronavirus Deaths, 46,000 in USA
China donates 30 million euros to WHO for fight against COVID
(ANSA) — Rome, April 24 — The number of coronavirus deaths and contagions in Europe continues to grow, but many countries have started to officially announce the first easing of their restrictive measures.
In Spain, where the number of deaths linked to the pandemic has passed 22,000 and the number of confirmed cases stands at 213,000, children will be free to go out one hour a day within a radius of a kilometre from their home. The number of deaths in France has gone over the 21,000 mark, including fatalities in hospitals, care homes and facilities for the disabled. But for the first time in several weeks, the number of people in hospital has gone below 30,000. And the country is set to reopen its schools on May 11.
The general lockdown in the United Kingdom, introduced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on March 23 and subsequently renewed, will be subject to a second review on May 3. But at the moment, the government considers it premature to even talk about an exit strategy, given that the numbers of deaths and contagions in the country are still high: 18,700 and 138,000 respectively.
The situation remains dramatic in the United States, where coronavius deaths have passed 46,000 and the number of positive cases is over 842,000, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University. Beijing, meanwhile, has announced a donation of a further 30 million dollars to the WHO to support the fight against COVID-19.
The move, announced by Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Geng Shuang, follows an initial donation of 20 million dollars and comes amid the suspension of US funding to the UN agency that President Donald Trump decided to impose.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Spain: Left-Wing Mayor Resigns After Arrest for Drunk Driving During Lockdown
The socialist mayor of the Spanish city of Badalona has resigned after he attacked a police officer who caught him driving drunk and violating the country’s strict Wuhan coronavirus lockdown measures.
Alex Pastor, a member of the Socialist Workers’ Party of Catalonia, announced his resignation on Wednesday, a day after he was arrested for attacking the police officers who pulled him over for ignoring lockdown measures and exhibiting symptoms of drunkenness, La Vanguardia reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Health Secretary Matt Hancock thanked Muslims for their Ramadan “sacrifice” on St George’s Day, but made no mention of the English national day itself.
Hancock, who as Secretary of State for the Department of Health and Social Care has arguably played the leading role for the British government in Boris Johnson’s absence — although the Prime Minister’s official substitute is Dominic Raab — neglected to mark St George’s Day in any way, or to offer a message to English citizens prevented from celebrating it properly by the lockdown regulations.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK Mother ‘Named and Shamed’ On Facebook for Not Clapping for the NHS
A mother in the UK was named and shamed on Facebook because she failed to participate in the weekly ‘clap for the NHS’.
Every Tuesday at 8pm in the United Kingdom, people emerge from their homes to applaud health workers for their role in fighting coronavirus.
The event has become a massive nationwide spectacle, with people cheering, banging pots and pans and even setting off fireworks.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Heathrow Demands Mass Coronavirus Screenings of Airport Arrivals
The chief executive of London’s Heathrow Airport has written to health secretary Matt Hancock demanding mass coronavirus screenings at all British airports after the government has insisted on keeping Britain’s borders fully open with no restrictions in place.
The Daily Mail revealed on Thursday that John Holland-Kaye had written the letter calling for a set of measures which could include temperature checks or antibody tests. He also suggested requiring all airline passengers to carry documentation proving they are medically fit to enter the country.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Man Claims He Was Arrested & Fined for Buying Wine
A man in the UK claims he was arrested and fined by police for buying wine, despite this not being a violation of the lockdown laws.
A video posted by Samuel Jack shows him involved in a confrontation with police in north London during which he was issued with a £30 fine.
In the clip, officers suggest that Jack, who was apparently arrested and “dearrested” according to his Tweet, was being apprehended for a public order offence.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Multiple ‘Modern Slavery’ Arrests After Westminster Brothels Raided
Police have arrested a number of people for a range of money laundering and “modern slavery” offences after a series of raids on brothels and related addresses in Westminster.
The Modern Day Slavery Investigation Team of the Metropolitan Police Force raided seven addresses, four of which were brothels, and made at least six arrests, according to an official statement.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: May-Era Civil Servants Frustrated Brexiteer Govt Negotiators Won’t Back Exit Delay
Theresa May-era civil servants are said to be frustrated that the Conservative government’s EU trade deal negotiating team will not consider an extension of the transition period.
Britain’s chief trade negotiator David Frost oversees a team of some 40 specialists comprised of Whitehall career bureaucrats and figures appointed by the Brexit-backing Conservative leadership.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Police Searching for Men Who Assaulted Victim at Brighton Burger King
The police are asking for help from the public in their efforts to track down two men who assaulted a victim outside a Burger King in Brighton on February 27.
A 21-year-old man was at the Burger King franchise on North Street in Brighton at approximately 4:15 AM when the two men attacked him, according to a report by The Argus. The victim was kicked and punched repeatedly, and received head wounds serious enough to be hospitalized.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Supermarket Runs Ads Promoting Ramadan But Not St. George’s Day
People across the UK have noticed that the British supermarket chain Morrisons has been running ads which promote the Muslim holiday Ramadan but not St George’s day — England’s national day — which is on April 23rd.
Interestingly enough, a quick search for Ramadan on the grocery chain’s homepage brings up this page. However, a search of St. George’s day on the website gives no results.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Universities in EU on Alert to China Spy Threat
Universities in the EU ought to appoint civilian spy-catchers to stop China and others stealing secrets, the European Commission has suggested.
The special “individual” or “group” in each university would “liaise” with real counter-intelligence officers from national security services “interested in dealing with issues of foreign infringement”, the commission said.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Thwarted Hamas Attack on Teddy Football Stadium
Hamas praises today’s attack on Jerusalem
(ANSAmed) — TEL AVIV, APRIL 22 — Shin Bet, Israel’s security service, neutralised a three-member cell of Hamas activists that were planning “a series of attacks against civilians and soldiers”, one of which was supposed to take place at the Teddy football stadium in Jerusalem, said a statement from Shin Bet.
It said one member of the cell had an Israeli ID card and in December attended a football match at the stadium in order to study its security measures.
The three members of the cell attended Bir Zeit University in Ramallah and there they had been placed in a clandestine Hamas formation that Shin Bet said is still “very dangerous and in constant search of successes”.
In the meantime, Hamas praised the attack that took place Tuesday in Abu Dis, near East Jerusalem, in which an Israeli soldier was hit by a van and stabbed.
The attacker, Ibrahim Helse, 25, was killed.
Hamas said the episode confirms that Palestinians are determined to fight against any Israeli project of annexation in the West Bank.
| — Hat tip: Insubria | [Return to headlines] |
Authorities in China’s Hubei Arrest Woman Who Organized Price Protest
Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei have formally arrested a woman on public order charges after she organized local people to protest against price-gouging on essential goods during the coronavirus lockdown.
Police in Hubei’s Yingcheng city formally arrested Zeng Chunzhi on suspicion of “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” on April 17, an overseas rights group reported.
Zeng had organized a protest in which hundreds of residents in a housing compound in Haishan district took part, the Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD) network said in a statement on its website.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
China Sends Team Including Doctors to North Korea Regarding Kim Jong UN: Report
China has reportedly dispatched a team of officials and medical experts to North Korea just days after reports emerged that leader Kim Jong Un might be having health issues.
The team is led by a senior member of the Chinese Communist Party’s International Liaison Department, which deals with the hermit nation. The delegation left on Thursday, according toReuters. It is unclear what the delegation’s visit means in terms of the dictator’s health.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
ByteDance Inc, known for the popular Tik Tok app, has been forced to temporarily suspend its newest app that allowed working from home, due to an order from the Chinese internet regulatory body.
The coronavirus crisis has led companies to turn to digital apps to continue working even during the quarantine.
ByteDance Inc, Tik Tok creators, have wanted to take advantage of this to expand into the global market, but the Beijing government has thwarted their plans.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Coronavirus: China Rejects Call for Probe Into Origins of Disease
China has rejected calls for an independent international investigation into the origin of the coronavirus.
A top diplomat in the UK, Chen Wen told the BBC the demands were politically motivated and would divert China’s attention from fighting the pandemic.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Coronavirus Has Brought UK and China Closer Together, Claims Chinese Ambassador
Beijing’s ambassador to London Liu Xiaoming has claimed that the Chinese coronavirus has brought the United Kingdom and the communist state closer together.
Ambassador Liu made the comments had a webinar for the Asia House think tank. Stating that the UK and China are working on a vaccine, he said: “Our two countries are sharing information and experience, conducting joint scientific research… President Xi [Jinping] and Boris Johnson expressed support for the scientists of the two countries to work together on this very important area.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Under Fire for Helping Vietnam Censor Content
Facebook came under fire from Vietnamese and international rights activists Wednesday after the social media giant publicly admitted that it had agreed to help communist authorities censor posts critical of the government.
Two Facebook employees told Reuters news agency Tuesday that the company’s local servers in Vietnam were taken offline earlier in the year until the company gave in to the demands of the government to remove posts, a period of about seven weeks when the website was often not usable in Vietnam.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Japan: Mayor in Trouble for Saying Women Take Longer to Shop
Japanese Mayor faces “public backlash” for saying women take longer to shop than men!
Erm, how is this a controversy? He’s completely correct.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Ruling Party Lecturers Admit COVID-19 is Spreading in North Korea, Contradicting Official Claims
Authorities in North Korea have been telling citizens in public lectures that there were confirmed coronavirus cases within the reclusive country’s borders as early as late March, contradicting Pyongyang’s claims that it remains free of the epidemic that has spread to all of its neighbors, RFA has learned.
Two sources within North Korea say the government held lectures at every organization and neighborhood watch unit in late March to educate people about the pandemic, where speakers publicly stated that COVID-19 was spreading in three specific areas of the country.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Tibetan Monk Dies After Living Two Years With Torture Injuries Sustained in Custody
A Tibetan monk who ran afoul of Chinese authorities in 2017 for sharing messages from the exiled Dalai Lama has passed away, after spending the last few years in bad health from the torture he experienced while in custody as a political prisoner that year, RFA has learned.
Gendun Sherab is believed to have died on April 18, according to a Tibetan source who requested anonymity for legal reasons.
“[He] was arrested three years ago on the charge of sharing and disseminating politically sensitive documents on WeChat and social media,” the source told RFA’s Tibetan Service.
The shared document was “a recognition letter from His Holiness the Dalai Lama regarding the reincarnation of [religious figure] Choedon Rinpoche from Sera Je Lhopa Khantsen,” he added.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
US Lab Director Who Visited Wuhan Viral Facilty: “Accidents Happen”
A University of Texas Medical Branch Lab director who visited the Wuhan Institute of Virology in 2017 says that it would be foolish to dismiss the idea that the coronavirus escaped from the facility, and that “Accidents happen” in such labs.
The Houston Chronicle reports that James Le Duc, the director of the Galveston National Laboratory at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB), believes it is possible that an accident in the Wuhan lab could have led to the global virus outbreak.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
The request for a four plane service over RSLs in south-east Queensland has been knocked back by Queensland’s Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young.
| — Hat tip: SS | [Return to headlines] |
New Species of Turtle Discovered
Together with an international team, Senckenberg scientist Uwe Fritz described a new species of mata mata turtle based on genetic analyses. Until now, it had been assumed that the genus Chelus only contained a single species. The new description also necessitates a reassessment of the conservation status of these species, which are frequently sold in the illegal animal trade. The study was recently published in the scientific journal Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution.
There is a good reason for the bizarre appearance of the mata mata turtle: hidden in the mud under water, the up to 53-centimeter-long animals look like algae-covered rocks. But when a prey animal approaches, the turtle sucks it in by suddenly opening its large mouth and swallows it whole. “Although these turtles are widely known due to their bizarre looks and their unusual feeding behavior, surprisingly little is known about their variability and genetics,” explains Professor Dr. Uwe Fritz of the Senckenberg Natural History Collections in Dresden, and he continues, “Until now, we assumed that there is only one species of this armored reptile that ranges widely across South America.”
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Scientists Found a Fossilized South American Frog in Antarctica
When you picture Antarctic wildlife, the first animals that probably come to mind are blubbery winter survivors such as penguins, seals, and whales. But this frigid continent was once covered with a temperate rainforest that was welcoming to warm-weather creatures—including a newly identified fossilized frog that lived in Antarctica some 40 million years ago.
The fossils represent “the first modern amphibian found in Antarctica,” according to a study published on Thursday in Scientific Reports. Measuring just a few millimeters across, the specimens are fragments of the ancient frog’s ornamented skull and a portion of its hip bone.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Erdogan Sent Agent to Norway to Keep Turkish Migrants Religious
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan sent an agent to the Turkish embassy in Norway late last month to ensure that Turks living in Norway remain loyal to Turkey, Erdogan, and Islam, according to reports.
The agent, Mehmet Fatih Ozer, was apparently presented as an advisor on religious services, and is known to work the Directorate of Religious Affairs, an organization which has tentacles that stretch across Western Europe, news portal Rights Norway reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
France: Migrant and Partner Sentenced for Spitting on Police Officer
A migrant and his partner have been sentenced for spitting in the face of a police officer in Montauban, southern France while claiming to be infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Isam Driouech, 39, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. His partner, Ismaël A., 25, who is from Morocco, was given a six-month suspended sentence, according to a report by La Depeche. The court proceedings were conducted by video conference as a social distancing measure.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Greek Aid Workers Overwhelmed by Aggressive Migrants (Video)
The French news agency AFP has released a video which shows a large group of aggressive migrants overwhelming Greek aid workers who were passing out items like toilet paper, food, and other essentials.
The incident occurred outside of a hotel in Kranidi on Greece’s Peloponnesian peninsula.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Report Finds That Journalist Lied to Get Roma Into Sweden
An internal investigation at Sweden’s state-run SVT television network has determined that Gellert Tamas, one of the country’s leading journalists, distorted facts to get migrant Roma (gypsy) families into the country.
In 2006, Tamas had produced an episode of the Uppdrag Gransknings news programme in which it was claimed that children of asylum-seeking Roma suffered from a condition called “apathy,” and that they therefore needed to be admitted to Sweden to receive treatment. Tamas also published a book on the subject.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Romania: A Dozen Migrants Escape Quarantine Center
Twelve migrants have escaped from a quarantine center situated on the outskirts of Timisoara, Romania, not far from the country’s western and northern borders with Serbia and Hungary.
The twelve migrants — Turkish, Moroccan, Libyan, and Algerian nationals — were under strict lockdown at a village museum on the edge of the city when police who were guarding the facility noticed they had gone missing around midday on Thursday, regional news outlet Timis online reports.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Salvini: Soros-Backed NGO Lawyers Are Helping North African Boat Migrants Reach Europe
Migrants from North Africa set sail on the Mediterranean already in possession of phone numbers of a Soros-funded organization’s lawyer in their pockets, said Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini in reference to a report from Italian daily Il Giornale.
The migrants contacted the lawyer while they were still sailing on a damaged rubber boat from Libya to Europe. The lawyer then filed an appeal on their behalf with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) while they were still at sea.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
UK: Dinghies Carrying 76 Migrants Intercepted in Channel
Five dinghies carrying 76 migrants have been intercepted in the Channel by Border Force.
All those on board were brought to Dover and will be monitored for signs of coronavirus, the Home Office said.
Footage showed officials at the port in personal protective equipment escorting people from Border Force vessels.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Watch: CNN Reporter Claims Coronavirus Has “Helped Humanity Buy Some Time Against Global Warming”
CNN reporter Bill Weir suggested during a report that the pause in industry and transportation due to coronavirus has “helped humanity buy some time” against global warming, a pointless suggestion, even if you believe the most ardent of climate doomsayers.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Women’s Studies Lecturer Worries a UK-Developed COVID-19 Vaccine Will Increase Patriotism
A former university diversity center researcher is concerned that if a coronavirus vaccine is developed in the United Kingdom, it will spur an increase in patriotism.
Emily Cousens, who’s working on her PhD in “vulnerability and gender” and teaches a women’s studies course (at Oxford Brookes University and the University of Oxford respectively), writes in the Huffington Post that she doesn’t want Oxford developing a COVID-19 cure because researchers say rich countries will “hoard supplies” … and the UK will prioritize Britons.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
Facebook Rolls Out Free Video Calling for Up to 50 People
Facebook this week announced a new video service for its users, allowing up to 50 individuals to gather in one video call, likely in a bid to compete with other video apps such as Zoom.
Video chats have exploded in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic as more companies have transitioned to work-at-home arrangements and virtual offices.
The services will be free and have no time limit. Zoom offers free group meetings for up to 100 participants, but sets a 40-minute limit on those meetings unless hosts buy into monthly subscription packages.
| — Hat tip: Reader from Chicago | [Return to headlines] |
It’s good that Putin’s hardworking migrants started with the so-called “elite”. Now this “elite”, as from a submarine, has nowhere to run.
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Unknowns attacked Ministry of Defense staff in their homes
In the suburbs and New Moscow, robbers attacked the cottages of two high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defense. One of them was beaten with a hammer so that he would give out where he hid money and valuables. According to the description of the victims, there was a gang of “Asians”.
The first victim is the assistant to the Deputy Minister of Defense, Major General Alexander Kirilin. The criminals broke the window in his house, climbed inside and brought out all the valuable that caught their eye.
The second was much less fortunate – the head of the development and modernization department of the Ministry of Defense Igor Kuznetsov was beaten, hit him and his wife with a hammer several times, and then they took two kilograms of collectible silver coins, money and phones from the house.
Kuznetsov and his wife described the suspects – according to them, they were three men of Asian appearance, they had medical masks on their faces.
https://veved.ru/events/142426-neizvestnye-napali-na-sotrudnikov-ministerstva-oborony-v-ix-domax.html
Details:
… The villains tied a woman with a dressing gown belt, and Kuznetsov with tape. The raiders in gloves and medical masks twisted the owner and began to torture him – the monsters beat the man in the legs with a hammer to tell him where the money is. In the end, Igor gave uninvited guests (he later explained that they were Asians) valuables – totaling about one million rubles. The bandits broke the phones of their victims and disappeared. In the morning, Igor Kuznetsov was able to crawl to the car and drive out into the yard, where he woke up the neighbors who called the police with a signal.
According to the source, the detectives are working out the version that the robbers could previously work on the site with Igor Kuznetsov. Some time ago, he hired workers – Tajiks and Uzbeks.
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Haha Karma.
Those robbers and their entire families will all rue the day they harmed those people. The GRU special units are not to be crossed. They will be found and dealt with typical Russian flair.
https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/25/nyc-to-provide-over-half-a-million-free-halal-meals-for-muslims-during-ramadan/
New York goes full Sweden.
https://mobile.twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1254100499328008192
We are constantly told here how St George’s Day is “un-inclusive”, yet St Patrick’s Day? Nah, the Irish are just expressing their identity. But not you Englishman, your identity is BIGOTRY!
Dear Baron,
The cathedral of Lérida, Catalonia, Spain, was assaulted by 5 Muslims equipped with a powerful audio system from which they then broadcast the call to prayer. This was recently, not sure when, though. It merits a special focus: due to the SARS-COV-2 situation, the sentries have left the watchtowers.
https://mobile.twitter.com/guajesalvaje/status/1253971626875670528?ref_url=http%3a%2f%2fm.libertaddigital.com%2f
Lerida is one of the places where mass dog-poisoning was done. Of course, it is not possible to trace the individual culprits, though everyone knows which community is responsible.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_YALhoKX4w/
Left German youth congratulates Muslims on Ramadan.
Gay Muslims! Love it!
They have what they call Bacha Boys who dress up like women. and the muslim men have homosexual acts with them. But it is also true that those muslim have goats they use for sex. They ARE degenerates.
They follow the principle that one is only gay if one is the receiver of the carnal act. And goats, donkeys, sheep, dogs, etc don’t count as long as one doesn’t eat the meat from an animal they have copulated with.