RUTHFULLY YOURS

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2020/03/corona-riot-china-lloyd-billingsley/

“Thousands of residents of the central Chinese province of Hubei gathered in angry protest on Friday,” Wong Siu-san and Lau Siu-fun of Radio Free Asia reported Friday, “amid a physical melee between their police force and that of neighboring Jiangxi province at a checkpoint on a bridge between the two.”

As Athan Vanderklippe of Canada’s Globe and Mail reported, “Violent clashes erupted on a bridge between China’s virus-stricken Hubei province and neighboring Jiangxi province, days after authorities relaxed an epidemic lockdown.” The confrontation came after “authorities in Jiangxi blocked entry to people from Hubei,” and according to the Communist Party’s People’s Daily, “the risk of sporadic cases and local outbreaks still exists.”

The next morning, March 28, CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times and the Washington Post were dodging a story they should have seen coming.

“Large-scale protests could break out in Wuhan, the epicenter of China’s coronavirus epidemic,” Yuichiro Okuma of KYODO News reported on March 25, “when a lockdown on the city ends next month, as residents unhappy with unprecedented restrictions on their movements vent their pent-up frustrations.” Wuhan had been on lockdown since January 23 and “the authorities have been lambasted for having tried to deliberately conceal information about infections at the beginning of the outbreak of the new coronavirus, first detected in Wuhan late last year.”

The riots exploded the line that China’s Communist Party has the coronavirus whipped, as proclaimed by World Health Organization boss Tedros Adhanom Ghegreyesus. On Friday he tweeted, “For the first time, #China has reported no domestic #COVID19 cases yesterday. This is an amazing achievement, which gives us all reassurance that the #coronavirus can be beaten.” In reality, the virus isn’t beaten in China, and the RFA report outlined the back story.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15741/sweden-culture-of-silence

“The interviewee realized that the conclusions would be politically unpopular, but had nevertheless written them… Other former employees have pointed out that it was clear that there were political reasons why they were pressured to change content in reports…” — Report by Linköping University about the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), “Can Brå be trusted?”

“One employee reported, among other things, that a director-general expressed that ‘there is a reality and a political reality’ when the director-general demanded that an employee change a report…” — Report by Linköping University, “Can Brå be trusted?”

“If results were not liked then censorship was used, correction of results, toning down results and highlighting other parts of [the] study that were not so sensitive or that could show positive results”. — Report by Linköping University, “Can Brå be trusted?”

“After I was hired at Brå, it took me a short time to understand that working at Brå is a big challenge. As an employee of Brå, you should write and think in a certain way. Brå is extremely controlled from the top. There are some people at Brå who control with an iron hand. If one were to be a little harsh then one could liken it to a sect. I don’t think they really understand what kind of culture they have created” — Another employee, from the report by Linköping University, “Can Brå be trusted?”

The report also found that Brå appears to strive to hire employees that will “act as obedient bureaucrats at an authority, rather than people who have accepted a researcher’s role”.

Meanwhile, Sweden continues its downward spiral.

A recent report published by Linköping University about the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå), “Can Brå be trusted?” has claimed that Brå’s reports are politically biased.

According to Brå’s own website, “Brå is an agency under the auspices of the Ministry of Justice and a knowledge centre for the criminal justice system. The agency’s mandate is to contribute to the development of knowledge within the criminal justice system and the criminal policy area, as well as to promote crime prevention work. Brå is responsible for the official criminal statistics and other statistics, which includes producing, following, analysing, and reporting on criminality and the criminal justice system’s responses to crime”.

It is therefore crucial that Brå fulfill its obligations in a factual and objective manner, not least in the current environment, when Sweden is experiencing a veritable crime wave, including shootings, bombings and other gang-inspired violence that some commentators have likened to “war”.

According to the Linköping University report, the results of which were based primarily on interviews with former and current employees and managers of Brå, in addition to a number of former police chiefs and ministers of justice, Brå’s work is politically biased due to political pressure from the Ministry of Justice as well as the management of Brå. The report states:

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15821/coronavirus-how-progressive-ideology-led-to

A class action lawsuit filed on March 19 accuses the Spanish government — highly ideological by any standard, as the Communist coalition partner, Podemos, was founded with seed money from the Venezuelan government — of knowingly endangering public safety by encouraging the public to participate in more than 75 feminist marches, held across Spain on March 8, to mark International Women’s Day.

The Spanish government’s main point man for the coronavirus, Fernando Simón, claimed in a nationwide press conference that there was no risk of attending the rallies on March 8. “If my son asks me if he can go, I will tell him to do whatever he wants,” he said.

“Honestly, it seems to me a joke that the government has waited until today, clearly for political reasons, to make this announcement. The Socialist-Communist government has once again put its political interests above the common good. This gross negligence should lead to resignations. — Elentir, Contando Estrelas, March 9, 2020

The Spanish government, comprised of a coalition of Socialists and Communists, is facing legal action for alleged negligence in its handling of the coronavirus pandemic. The government is accused of putting its narrow ideological interests ahead of the safety and wellbeing of the public, and, in so doing, unnecessarily worsening the humanitarian crisis now gripping Spain, currently the second-worst afflicted country in Europe after Italy.

A class action lawsuit filed on March 19 accuses the Spanish government — highly ideological by any standard, as the Communist coalition partner, Podemos, was founded with seed money from the Venezuelan government — of knowingly endangering public safety by encouraging the public to participate in more than 75 feminist marches, held across Spain on March 8, to mark International Women’s Day. The nationwide rallies were aimed at protesting the government’s perennial bugbear: the alleged patriarchy of Western civilization.

Hundreds of thousands of people participated in those marches, and several high-profile attendees — including Spain’s deputy prime minister, as well as the prime minister’s wife and mother, and also the wife of the leader of Podemos — have since tested positive for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). It is unknown how many people were infected by the coronavirus as a result of the rallies.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/woody-allen-and-affirmative-action/

On March 7, the coronavirus death toll in Italy was 233. As of March 28, Italy’s coronavirus death toll was 10,023.

Some skeptics of “social distancing” have suggested that if most Americans had generally carried on with life as usual, the coronavirus would not present any greater threat than the seasonal flu or car crashes, each of which kill about 40,000 Americans a year. The fact that 10,000 people have died from the coronavirus in three weeks in Italy — a country with one-fifth the population of the United States — should dispel such wishful thinking.

And keep in mind that this is the death toll in Italy weeks after lockdowns were imposed — first within the region of Lombardy on February 21 (affecting only about 50,000 people) and then on March 9 for the entire country.

The spike in the daily death toll in Italy — a record 919 coronavirus deaths were recorded on March 27 alone — does not mean that the national lockdown is not working.

There is an average five-day delay between infection and appearance of symptoms and an average 18.5 days between the appearance of symptoms and death (for those who don’t survive).

The good news out of Italy is that the daily percentage growth of new cases has been decreasing:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/britains-creaking-national-health-system-gears-up-for-coronavirus-crisis-11585479601

EXCERPTS

LONDON—A vast convention center in east London is being turned into a sprawling hospital that can handle up to 4,000 patients. Thousands of retired nurses and doctors are being drafted back to work. The British army is delivering protective clothing to dozens of hospitals around the country.As the new coronavirus spreads here, Britain’s tightly funded National Health Service is taking drastic action to manage a crisis that some worry will overwhelm it.

How the NHS deals with an expected flood of patients will test whether a relatively low-cost, state-run health care system that is free at the point of delivery proves more resilient than its U.S. equivalent.The British system is limping into the crisis following 10 years of government belt tightening.

“This is a real problem at the moment,” said Chris Ham, a former director of strategy at Britain’s Department of Health. “The chickens are coming home to roost.” Already, doctors are complaining about a lack of protective clothing, with one NHS supplier reaching out to hardware stores to donate protective masks. The NHS is also struggling to ramp up mass testing for the coronavirus.

Going into the pandemic, U.K. hospital bed numbers had halved in three decades to 140,000, according to the King’s Fund, a health care charity.

More than 90% of hospital beds were occupied for all but four days of the 2017-18 winter, according to the British Medical Association, the doctors’ trade union. “It always runs right on the edge,” Mr. Edwards said.

The U.K. had 2.1 acute hospital beds—those where a patient receives treatment for severe injuries or illnesses—for every 1,000 inhabitants. That is among the lowest among members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, according to 2017 data, and compares with 2.4 beds per 1,000 in the U.S.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/italy-reports-second-straight-daily-drop-in-ccp-virus-deaths_3289999.html

Italian health officials reported a second daily drop in CCP virus deaths, hoping that strict measures implemented by the government will help curb the spread of the disease.

Italy’s Civil Protection agency said on Sunday that 756 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, compared to 889 on Saturday as well as 919 deaths on Friday, according to ANSA.

The total number of those who have succumbed to the virus is now 10,779 in the country. New infections in the past 24 hours totaled 5,217, compared with 5,974 during the previous day, officials said in an update, bringing the number of cases to above 97,000.

The drop in numbers shows that Italians must continue to adhere to national lockdown measures, said officials. Politicians in the country have been quick to seize on drops in cases and deaths as proof that the lockdown is working.

“We must be even more convinced in respecting such measures,” said pulmonologist and government committee member Luca Richeldi during the conference. “The battle is very long, we must not let our guard down. In particular, the drop in deaths and ICU admissions gives solid and concrete data.”

https://www.theepochtimes.com/north-korea-fires-more-missiles-than-ever-amid-ccp-virus-pandemic_3289909.html

North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the ocean off its east coast on Sunday, the latest in an unprecedented flurry of launches that South Korea decried as “inappropriate” amid the global CCP virus pandemic, also known as the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Two “short-range projectiles” were launched from the coastal Wonsan area, and flew 143 miles at a maximum altitude of 19 miles, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) reported.

“In a situation where the entire world is experiencing difficulties due to COVID-19, this kind of military act by North Korea is very inappropriate and we call for an immediate halt,” South Korea’s JCS said in a statement, according to Yonhap news agency.

Japan’s Ministry of Defense said they appeared to be ballistic missiles, and they did not land in Japanese territory or its exclusive economic zone.

They would be the eighth and ninth missiles launched in four rounds of tests this month as North Korean troops conduct ongoing military drills, usually personally overseen by leader Kim Jong Un.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15813/uncertainty-bleak-moment

Uncertainty may also be affecting politics in Iran, where the “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei may have slowed down his bid for exclusive hold on power, in the hope that Hassan Rouhani, the hapless president, will end up carrying the can for the disaster caused by the pandemic.

On positive note, the pandemic may have slowed down India’s tragic rush towards a major Hindu-Muslim civil war that threatened to tear its democracy apart.

If the best we hoped for a few months ago didn’t happen, there is no reason why the worst that we now fear may come to pass. The beauty of uncertainty is that it works both ways.

Regardless of its denouement, the current coronavirus crisis may end up affecting the authority of the political, economic, media and scientific elites who shape world public opinion. The function of the elites, and their claim to legitimacy, has been linked to their ability to create certainty, in defiance of all and sundry Cassandras.

However, the current crisis, which struck like thunder out of the blue, has reasserted the evanescence, even the uncertainty, of human affairs. Just a few weeks ago the received wisdom was that stock exchanges will continue to move upwards while US President Donald J. Trump would sail to a second term and the post-Brexit European Union would settle for a period of anemic growth on the edge of recession. Globally, the elites peddled the certainty of business as usual.

And, yet, what we now have is uncertainty on a degree not seen in recent memory. Already the Brexit agenda in Europe is delayed, if not actually derailed, as British Premier Boris Johnson’s stiff upper lip is less impressive under a surgical mask. With French airplanes ferrying abandoned Brits back home from the four corners of the globe and British aircraft providing the same service to European tourists, the old union, cursed by the Brexiters, does not look as dead as Boris hoped.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15789/turkey-christians-attacks-discrimination

When Protestants introduce themselves to the authorities as a church, they receive warnings that they are not legal and may be closed down.

In 2019, however, many members of the foreign clergy, as well as church members, were deported, refused residence permits, or denied entry visas into Turkey — as in previous years.

Some textbooks also target Christian communities. “Missionary Activity” continues to be a heading under the section related to “National Threats” in the eighth grade elementary school textbook entitled, Revolutionary History and Kemalism. This teaching continues to be referenced in supplementary textbooks and tests related to missionary activity being considered a “national threat”.

Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches has released its 2019 “Human Rights Violations Report” detailing the state of religious freedom in the country.

The report sheds light on problems Protestant Christians faced in Turkey in 2019. These included barring foreign Protestants from entering Turkey for no other reason than their faith, as well as the inability of Christians to train their own religious workers.

One major difficulty for Protestant Christians in Turkey is that the Protestant community is not recognized as a legal entity.

According to the report, the Protestant community has mostly tried to solve this problem by establishing associations or becoming a representative of an already existing association. Associations and foundations, however, are not accepted as a “church” or a “place of worship.” The Protestants, therefore, cannot benefit from the advantages given to officially recognized places of worship. When Protestants introduce themselves to the authorities as a church, they receive warnings that they are not legal and may be closed down. On March 21, in Bolu, for example, a house church used by Iranian refugees was sealed off by the Bolu Governorate.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/15814/persecution-of-christians-january

Boko Haram… released another execution video. In it, a masked Muslim child holding a pistol appears standing behind a bound and kneeling hostage, later identified as Ropvil Daciya Dalep, a 22-year-old Christian… kidnapped on January 9 while traveling to his university, where he majored in biology. After chanting in Arabic and launching into an anti-Christian diatribe, the Muslim child proceeds to shoot Ropvil several times in the back of the head. — Independent Catholic News, January 23, 2020; Nigeria.

On January 2, Islamic gunmen abducted Reverend Lawan Andimi, a pastor … in Nigeria. After the terrorists demanded an exorbitant ransom for his release—two million euros, which his church and family simply could not raise—they beheaded the married father-of-nine…. — Morning Star News, January 21, 2020; Nigeria.

“Since the government and its apologists are claiming the killings have no religious undertones, why are the terrorists and herdsmen targeting the predominantly Christian communities and Christian leaders?” — The International Center for Investigative Reporting, January 21, 2020; Nigeria.

After Muhammad ‘Awad, 32, was arrested and questioned as to why he tried to murder Rafiq Karam, 56, he confessed that he did not know him, but that he simply “hates Christians.” — Coptic Solidarity, January 21, 2020; Egypt.

The Slaughter of Christians in Nigeria

During several separate incidents, militant Muslims—whether Fulani herdsmen, Boko Haram, or generic terrorists—continued to attack and massacre several Christians.