activistpost--2020-03-07--Airport Gold Seizure in Amsterdam Points to Bitcoin Utility for Private, Borderless Travel

A 27-year-old Brazilian man was arrested at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam Friday for failing to declare 15 kilograms of gold bars to customs , according to local reports .
After failing to provide a convincing explanation as to how he acquired the gold , the traveler flying from Rio de Janeiro to Hong Kong was placed under arrest on money laundering suspicions .
The news has crypto Twitter alive with chatter , bringing renewed focus to the benefits cryptocurrencies like bitcoin can bring to the table , where privately traveling with large sums of money is becoming increasingly difficult .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ media , notes the man was taken in by the Royal Military Police “ because he had 15 kilos of gold bars in his luggage , ” and “ couldn ’ t give a good explanation for that.
” The Netherlands Royal Police gave further details in a Facebook post stating that “ Customs staff checked the luggage of the man who came from Rio de Janeiro and was traveling to Hong Kong .
He turned out to carry six gold bars in his hand luggage with a total weight of almost 15 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from the SVLM on suspicion of money laundering.
” The translated post further details : “ The man is trapped and the gold , a cell phone and about 750 US dollars have been seized .
Investigators from SVLM conduct further investigations under the direction of the Public Prosecution Service Noord Holland.
” SVLM , to be clear , is a collaborative regulatory effort comprising customs , the Netherlands ’ Fiscal Information and Investigation Service ( FIOD ) and Royal Military Police .
It wasn ’ t long after the news hit Twitter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ began not only to roast Netherlands authorities for the privacy invasion , but also to remind everyone of what they view as the benefit of borderless digital money while traveling .
“ That ’ s why you need crypto to move gold , ” one user replied to the news , “ Sell gold before taking off for crypto .
Buy gold with crypto in the new country .
Problem solved… ” Twitter handle @ Coinosphere one-upped this idea with the comment : “ Now just skip the gold parts and you ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ user , @ rusticbison , wrote : “ Gold is expensive to move , easy to steal at border crossings ( I ’ ve got the gun , so it ’ s mine now ) .
Bitcoin is cheap to move , often impossible to steal at border crossings .
Gold is a stable store of value , but it is not portable .
It has to remain in a stable jurisdiction.
” Not lost on many commenters was the fact that a man was kidnapped on mere suspicion , generated by carrying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ since it exists on a distributed digital ledger — can be carried as a small cold storage device on a keychain , a seed phrase on some paper tucked into a book , or on a phone or computer .
It can also be very private compared to traveling with the shiny , heavy stuff .
While some feel those holding value while passing through customs — like the Brazilian man at the Amsterdam airport — should always obey the law and declare what they are carrying , others think it ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ legitimate suspicion of a crime .
Simply having a lot of money should not , in and of itself , incriminate anyone .
Thanks to the rise of civil asset forfeiture laws , however , stories of police stealing large sums of money from the public have now become the norm , and the recourse required to reclaim stolen assets can end up costing a fortune for the extorted .
If you ’ ve got a seed phrase stored in your brain wallet however , that kind of abuse could be a hell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pull off .
What are your thoughts on the arrest of this man for carrying undeclared gold ?
Let us know in the comments section below .
Disclaimer : This article is for informational purposes only .
It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell , or as a recommendation , endorsement , or sponsorship of any products , services , or companies .
Bitcoin.com does not provide investment , tax , legal , or accounting advice .
Neither the company nor the author is responsible , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content , goods or services mentioned in this article .
Graham Smith is an American expat living in Japan , and the founder of Voluntary Japan—an initiative dedicated to spreading the philosophies of unschooling , individual self-ownership , and economic freedom in the land of the rising sun .
Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial , peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform ?
The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world trading BCH right now .
And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins , you can download one from us here .

By Graham Smith
A 27-year-old Brazilian man was arrested at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam Friday for failing to declare 15 kilograms of gold bars to customs, according to local reports. After failing to provide a convincing explanation as to how he acquired the gold, the traveler flying from Rio de Janeiro to Hong Kong was placed under arrest on money laundering suspicions. The news has crypto Twitter alive with chatter, bringing renewed focus to the benefits cryptocurrencies like bitcoin can bring to the table, where privately traveling with large sums of money is becoming increasingly difficult.
Gold Carrying Traveler Arrested in Amsterdam
The arrest, as reported by Dutch media, notes the man was taken in by the Royal Military Police “because he had 15 kilos of gold bars in his luggage,” and “couldn’t give a good explanation for that.”
The Netherlands Royal Police gave further details in a Facebook post stating that “Customs staff checked the luggage of the man who came from Rio de Janeiro and was traveling to Hong Kong. He turned out to carry six gold bars in his hand luggage with a total weight of almost 15 kilograms … and was arrested by investigators from the SVLM on suspicion of money laundering.”
The translated post further details: “The man is trapped and the gold, a cell phone and about 750 US dollars have been seized. Investigators from SVLM conduct further investigations under the direction of the Public Prosecution Service Noord Holland.” SVLM, to be clear, is a collaborative regulatory effort comprising customs, the Netherlands’ Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) and Royal Military Police.
Pro-Bitcoin Social Media Reacts
It wasn’t long after the news hit Twitter that bitcoiners and advocates of economic freedom began not only to roast Netherlands authorities for the privacy invasion, but also to remind everyone of what they view as the benefit of borderless digital money while traveling.
“That’s why you need crypto to move gold,” one user replied to the news, “Sell gold before taking off for crypto. Buy gold with crypto in the new country. Problem solved…” Twitter handle @Coinosphere one-upped this idea with the comment: “Now just skip the gold parts and you’ll be up to speed.”
Another user, @rusticbison, wrote: “Gold is expensive to move, easy to steal at border crossings (I’ve got the gun, so it’s mine now). Bitcoin is cheap to move, often impossible to steal at border crossings. Gold is a stable store of value, but it is not portable. It has to remain in a stable jurisdiction.”
User @LightningSats sarcastically remarked:
How dare this individual own an asset the state doesn’t want him to own. Thank god they caught him, who knows what could have happened if they didn’t.
Not lost on many commenters was the fact that a man was kidnapped on mere suspicion, generated by carrying a store of value. Bitcoin — since it exists on a distributed digital ledger — can be carried as a small cold storage device on a keychain, a seed phrase on some paper tucked into a book, or on a phone or computer. It can also be very private compared to traveling with the shiny, heavy stuff.
While some feel those holding value while passing through customs — like the Brazilian man at the Amsterdam airport — should always obey the law and declare what they are carrying, others think it’s nobody’s business unless there is legitimate suspicion of a crime.
Simply having a lot of money should not, in and of itself, incriminate anyone. Thanks to the rise of civil asset forfeiture laws, however, stories of police stealing large sums of money from the public have now become the norm, and the recourse required to reclaim stolen assets can end up costing a fortune for the extorted. If you’ve got a seed phrase stored in your brain wallet however, that kind of abuse could be a hell of a lot harder for authorities to pull off.
What are your thoughts on the arrest of this man for carrying undeclared gold? Let us know in the comments section below.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. It is not an offer or solicitation of an offer to buy or sell, or as a recommendation, endorsement, or sponsorship of any products, services, or companies. Bitcoin.com does not provide investment, tax, legal, or accounting advice. Neither the company nor the author is responsible, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use of or reliance on any content, goods or services mentioned in this article.
Article source: Bitcoin.com
Graham Smith is an American expat living in Japan, and the founder of Voluntary Japan—an initiative dedicated to spreading the philosophies of unschooling, individual self-ownership, and economic freedom in the land of the rising sun.
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, fair use.
Did you know you can buy and sell BCH privately using our noncustodial, peer-to-peer Local Bitcoin Cash trading platform? The Local.Bitcoin.com marketplace has thousands of participants from all around the world trading BCH right now. And if you need a bitcoin wallet to securely store your coins, you can download one from us here.


activistpost--2020-03-07--AT&T’s Low Band 5G in 80 U.S. Cities Despite Lawsuits, Request for 5G Moratorium by Experts

Few people have subscribed to 5G where it ’ s been installed .
People and animals have also been getting sick where it has been turned on ( see 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) .
In December 2019 doctors , scientists , engineers , and public advocates asked President Trump for a moratorium on 5G because of biological , environmental , and safety risks ( see 1 , 2 ) .
Multiple 5G lawsuits have also been filed in the U.S. ( see 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) .
Additional 5G warnings have come @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the U.S. Navy , security experts and other respectable sources ( see 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) .
Congressional members have started raising red flags about deployment as well .
Cities and countries have taken action against 5G – even banning it .
Switzerland is one of the most recent .
Telecom companies have still offered NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that it ’ s safe .
Unfortunately , The Federal Communications Commission ( FCC ) and some elected officials still want to force and even fund installation anyway ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ makes it easy for telecom companies to continue installing it ( see 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) despite all of the above .
Last month AT & T announced they were operating it in 32 U.S. cities .
They recently unleashed it in more .
Thousands of peer-reviewed , independent studies show that wireless radiation harms human health and the environment at-large .
Now , millions of radiation-emitting 5G antennas are being hastily installed across the world close to where people live and work .
This sounds like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t you think ?
“ AT & T is planning for nationwide 5G coverage by the end of this year , and has been slowly progressing towards that goal .
The operator ’ s latest low-band rollouts included Denver , CO ; Cincinnati , OH ; Columbus , OH ; Albany , NY ; Binghamton , NY ; and Athens , GA. AT & T now has low-band 5G coverage in a total of 80 cities across the country.
” A few months ago , AT & T launched its 5G sub-6GHz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has announced that its high-band , mmWave 5G network , branded as “ 5G Plus , ” will be commercially available in parts of 35 cities tomorrow .
The network launch will coincide with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and S20 Ultra .
As a refresher , AT & T has three different 5G brands : 1 ) 5GE , which is more like an upgraded LTE service ; 2 ) 5G , which makes up the bulk of the carrier ’ s 5G network and uses low-band 850MHz spectrum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 600MHz network ; and 3 ) 5G Plus , the operator ’ s mmWave 5G , based in high-band radio frequencies .
The high-band network should , according to the operator , achieve even faster speeds than AT & T ’ s existing low-band offerings , potentially reaching peak download speeds of over 2Gbps .
Whether those speeds are possible still remains to be seen .
Profit outside the rigged system !
Protect yourself from tyranny and economic collapse .
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- Trends & Strategies for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ T ’ s mmWave network is only available on the Galaxy S20 Plus and S20 Ultra , while the Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G , which was the operator ’ s first 5G phone , will only be able to access the low-band 850MHz portion of the network .
AT & T is planning for nationwide 5G coverage by the end of this year , and has been slowly progressing towards that goal .
The operator ’ s latest low-band rollouts included Denver , CO ; Cincinnati , OH ; Columbus , OH @ @ @ @ @ @ @ NY ; and Athens , GA. AT & T now has low-band 5G coverage in a total of 80 cities across the country .
AT & T has also offered a map of 5G coverage .
Of course , all sources of cell phone and wireless WiFi radiation – 1G through 4G – are also biologically and environmentally harmful .
Pollution from Electromagnetic Radiation ( “ Electrosmog ” ) was also problem before 5G .
Many doctors and scientists have been warning that we should be drastically reducing sources of Electrosmog , whereas @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it significantly .
It even includes blasting 5G from space with satellites .
Activist Post reports regularly about 5G and other sources of unsafe technology .
For more information visit our archives and the following websites .
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $ 1 per month at Patreon .
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Provide , Protect and Profit from what ’ s coming !
Get a @ @ @ @ @ @ @

By B.N. Frank
Few people have subscribed to 5G where it’s been installed. People and animals have also been getting sick where it has been turned on (see 1, 2, 3, 4). In December 2019 doctors, scientists, engineers, and public advocates asked President Trump for a moratorium on 5G because of biological, environmental, and safety risks (see 1, 2). Multiple 5G lawsuits have also been filed in the U.S. (see 1, 2, 3, 4).
Additional 5G warnings have come from meteorologists, NASA, NOAA, the U.S. Navy, security experts and other respectable sources (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5). Congressional members have started raising red flags about deployment as well. Cities and countries have taken action against 5G – even banning it. Switzerland is one of the most recent.
Telecom companies have still offered NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that it’s safe. Unfortunately, The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and some elected officials still want to force and even fund installation anyway (see 1, 2). This makes it easy for telecom companies to continue installing it (see 1, 2, 3, 4, 5) despite all of the above. Last month AT&T announced they were operating it in 32 U.S. cities. They recently unleashed it in more.
From 5G Crisis:
Thousands of peer-reviewed, independent studies show that wireless radiation harms human health and the environment at-large. Now, millions of radiation-emitting 5G antennas are being hastily installed across the world close to where people live and work. This sounds like a public health crisis waiting to happen…don’t you think? “AT&T is planning for nationwide 5G coverage by the end of this year, and has been slowly progressing towards that goal. The operator’s latest low-band rollouts included Denver, CO; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Albany, NY; Binghamton, NY; and Athens, GA. AT&T now has low-band 5G coverage in a total of 80 cities across the country.”
From RCRWireless:
A few months ago, AT&T launched its 5G sub-6GHz 850MHz network, and now the operator has announced that its high-band, mmWave 5G network, branded as “5G Plus,” will be commercially available in parts of 35 cities tomorrow. The network launch will coincide with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S20 Plus and S20 Ultra. As a refresher, AT&T has three different 5G brands: 1) 5GE, which is more like an upgraded LTE service; 2) 5G, which makes up the bulk of the carrier’s 5G network and uses low-band 850MHz spectrum technology, similar to T-Mobile’s 600MHz network; and 3) 5G Plus, the operator’s mmWave 5G, based in high-band radio frequencies. The high-band network should, according to the operator, achieve even faster speeds than AT&T’s existing low-band offerings, potentially reaching peak download speeds of over 2Gbps. Whether those speeds are possible still remains to be seen. For now, AT&T’s mmWave network is only available on the Galaxy S20 Plus and S20 Ultra, while the Galaxy Note 10 Plus 5G, which was the operator’s first 5G phone, will only be able to access the low-band 850MHz portion of the network. AT&T is planning for nationwide 5G coverage by the end of this year, and has been slowly progressing towards that goal. The operator’s latest low-band rollouts included Denver, CO; Cincinnati, OH; Columbus, OH; Albany, NY; Binghamton, NY; and Athens, GA. AT&T now has low-band 5G coverage in a total of 80 cities across the country.
AT&T has also offered a map of 5G coverage.
Of course, all sources of cell phone and wireless WiFi radiation – 1G through 4G – are also biologically and environmentally harmful. Pollution from Electromagnetic Radiation (“Electrosmog”) was also problem before 5G. Many doctors and scientists have been warning that we should be drastically reducing sources of Electrosmog, whereas the “Race for 5G” increases it significantly. It even includes blasting 5G from space with satellites.

Activist Post reports regularly about 5G and other sources of unsafe technology. For more information visit our archives and the following websites.
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Follow us on SoMee, Flote, Minds, Twitter, and Steemit.
Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.


activistpost--2020-03-06--As the New Virus Spreads, Some Important Things to Remember

We ’ ve been expecting the Big One for some time now .
As far as pandemics go , the Big One has been alluded to by as far flung entities as The Guardian , the UN Secretary General and the former head of the WMD Center in DC .
With the spread of Covid-19 , the worry beads are again out and being publicly aired .
Cases of the coronavirus have exceeded 100,000 and new cases are popping up across the globe .
Over 3400 people have died .
Schools and government buildings are being shut down and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So it seems an appropriate moment to revisit what we know about the secrecy surrounding biological weapons and a rather nasty agenda that has reared up concerning them .
The US has been nailed as having a covert delivery system , at least one , involving its dedicated reconfiguration of water systems , countrywide , which could easily facilitate the delivery of a pandemic agent to pre-selected targets .
Embedded in Section 817 of the USA Patriot Act is a legalism which grants the US government immunity from violating its own biological weapons @ @ @ @ @ @ @ international mechanism which would give any level of protection should a state party launch a biological weapons attack .
The international accord known as the Biological Weapons Convention , which came into force in 1975 , lacks any verification mechanism or any protocol for dealing with violators .
Efforts by a group with the BWC to present such a protocol to the Convention at large were boycotted in 2001 by the US delegation , led by John Bolton .
There are also concerns in many sectors that vaccines could potentially be used as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reporter has stated in previous articles that a black project already exists involving “ doppelganger ” pharmaceuticals , pills which might look just like the antibiotic or antifungal or antidepressant that you may have become accustomed to taking .
However , the impostor or doppelganger will result in heart failure and death .
It is not known if the current President , with all his proclivities as a renegade , would indeed deploy the pandemic through available means .
Certainly , when he signed CISA in 2018 , it did not bode well @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more layers of secrecy to an already secret and potentially deadly system .
He had a golden opportunity to denounce this as a Deep State project but he did not .
Increasingly , Americans realize that they are pretty much on their own .
Betrayal and lies by government have become the norm rather than the exception .
So while we are glued to our screens and wondering if Covid-19 is lurking outside our door , it would behoove us to remember that water can also be a delivery system and to take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Phelan is an investigative journalist and author of the groundbreaking exposé , EXILE .
Her articles previously appeared in such mainstream venues as the Los Angeles Times , Orange Coast Magazine , Long Beach Press Telegram , etc .
In 2004 , Janet “ jumped ship ” and now exclusively writes for independent media .
She is also the author of two collections of poetry—The Hitler Poems and Held Captive .
She resides abroad .
You are invited to support her work on Buy Me A Coffee here : https : //www.buymeacoffee.com/JanetPhelan Subscribe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and freedom news .
Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $ 1 per month at Patreon .
Follow us on SoMee , Flote , Minds , Twitter , and Steemit .
Provide , Protect and Profit from what ’ s coming !
Get a free issue of Counter Markets today .

By Janet Phelan
We’ve been expecting the Big One for some time now. As far as pandemics go, the Big One has been alluded to by as far flung entities as The Guardian, the UN Secretary General and the former head of the WMD Center in DC.
With the spread of Covid-19, the worry beads are again out and being publicly aired. Cases of the coronavirus have exceeded 100,000 and new cases are popping up across the globe. Over 3400 people have died. Schools and government buildings are being shut down and the financial impact is already of concern.
So it seems an appropriate moment to revisit what we know about the secrecy surrounding biological weapons and a rather nasty agenda that has reared up concerning them. The US has been nailed as having a covert delivery system, at least one, involving its dedicated reconfiguration of water systems, countrywide, which could easily facilitate the delivery of a pandemic agent to pre-selected targets.
Embedded in Section 817 of the USA Patriot Act is a legalism which grants the US government immunity from violating its own biological weapons legislation. Equally, there is no international mechanism which would give any level of protection should a state party launch a biological weapons attack. The international accord known as the Biological Weapons Convention, which came into force in 1975, lacks any verification mechanism or any protocol for dealing with violators. Efforts by a group with the BWC to present such a protocol to the Convention at large were boycotted in 2001 by the US delegation, led by John Bolton.
There are also concerns in many sectors that vaccines could potentially be used as a delivery system. Indeed, this reporter has stated in previous articles that a black project already exists involving “doppelganger” pharmaceuticals, pills which might look just like the antibiotic or antifungal or antidepressant that you may have become accustomed to taking. However, the impostor or doppelganger will result in heart failure and death.
It is not known if the current President, with all his proclivities as a renegade, would indeed deploy the pandemic through available means. Certainly, when he signed CISA in 2018, it did not bode well. In doing so, Trump provided more layers of secrecy to an already secret and potentially deadly system. He had a golden opportunity to denounce this as a Deep State project but he did not.
Increasingly, Americans realize that they are pretty much on their own. Betrayal and lies by government have become the norm rather than the exception. So while we are glued to our screens and wondering if Covid-19 is lurking outside our door, it would behoove us to remember that water can also be a delivery system and to take appropriate steps to protect ourselves.
Janet Phelan is an investigative journalist and author of the groundbreaking exposé, EXILE. Her articles previously appeared in such mainstream venues as the Los Angeles Times, Orange Coast Magazine, Long Beach Press Telegram, etc. In 2004, Janet “jumped ship” and now exclusively writes for independent media. She is also the author of two collections of poetry—The Hitler Poems and Held Captive. She resides abroad. You are invited to support her work on Buy Me A Coffee here: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/JanetPhelan
Image credit: Spiro Skouras
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Follow us on SoMee, Flote, Minds, Twitter, and Steemit.
Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.


activistpost--2020-03-08--Coronavirus: Follow The Money

Coronavirus: Follow The Money

The headlines regarding the coronavirus are inescapable at this point , as more and more cases are being reported across the US and across the world .
At this point no one knows for sure how bad this situation really is , as we have seen major issues with the testing , especially here in the US , where more often than not , many people are not even being tested .
In this report , we focus on who is benefiting from this crisis — specifically , who is financially benefiting from this crisis .
As any detective or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you , follow the money .
The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing https : //www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-many-americans-have-been-tested-coronavirus/607597/ Grand Princess cruise ship at center of coronavirus fight amid concerns about spread https : //www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-04/los-angeles-county-declares-coronavirus-emergency-6-new-cases Utah announces its first coronavirus case .
And the governor declared a state of emergency .
https : //www.sltrib.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-fears-leads/ New York governor declares state of emergency over coronavirus https : //thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/486439-new-york-governor-declares-state-of-emergency-over-coronavirus Johnson & Johnson Announces Partnership With U.S. government to Accelerate Coronavirus Vaccine Development https : //www.nasdaq.com/articles/johnson-johnson-announces-partnership-with-u.s.-government-to-accelerate-coronavirus UN releases US $ 15 million to help vulnerable countries battle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ //www.who.int/news-room/detail/01-03-2020-un-releases-us-15-million-to-help-vulnerable-countries-battle-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus World Bank announces up to $ 12 billion in immediate funds for coronavirus https : //www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-world-bank-announc/world-bank-announces-up-to-12-billion-in-immediate-funds-for-coronavirus-idUSKBN20Q2YA IMF Makes Available $ 50 Billion to Help Address Coronavirus https : //www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/03/04/sp030420-imf-makes-available-50-billion-to-help-address-coronavirus World Bank ’ s $ 500m pandemic scheme accused of ‘ waiting for people to die ’ https : //www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/28/world-banks-500m-coronavirus-push-too-late-for-poor-countries-experts-say Government agents ‘ directly involved ’ in most high-profile US terror plots https : //www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/21/government-agents-directly-involved-us-terror-plots-report Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and ISIS Are Such Grave Threats ?
https : //theintercept.com/2015/02/26/fbi-manufacture-plots-terrorism-isis-grave-threats/ Bioweapons : At the Breaking Point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ //journal-neo.org/2016/08/20/at-the-breaking-point-of-what-we-call-history/ Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $ 1 per month at Patreon .
Follow us on SoMee , Flote , Minds , Twitter , and Steemit .
Provide , Protect and Profit from what ’ s coming !
Get a free issue of Counter Markets today .

By Spiro Skouras
The headlines regarding the coronavirus are inescapable at this point, as more and more cases are being reported across the US and across the world.
At this point no one knows for sure how bad this situation really is, as we have seen major issues with the testing, especially here in the US, where more often than not, many people are not even being tested.
In this report, we focus on who is benefiting from this crisis — specifically, who is financially benefiting from this crisis. As any detective or investigative journalist worth their salt will tell you, follow the money.

Links
The Strongest Evidence Yet That America Is Botching Coronavirus Testing
https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2020/03/how-many-americans-have-been-tested-coronavirus/607597/
Maryland declares state of emergency as 3 coronavirus cases confirmed
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/05/coronavirus-maryland-cases-122587
Grand Princess cruise ship at center of coronavirus fight amid concerns about spread
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-03-04/los-angeles-county-declares-coronavirus-emergency-6-new-cases
Utah announces its first coronavirus case. And the governor declared a state of emergency.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/2020/03/06/coronavirus-fears-leads/
Coronavirus: UW suspends classes, coronavirus moves to more counties
https://www.kiro7.com/news/local/coronavirus-washington-cases-increase-70-death-toll-remains-10/XIDPHMLVOJAAREQ5YCL75367PU/
New York governor declares state of emergency over coronavirus
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/486439-new-york-governor-declares-state-of-emergency-over-coronavirus
Johnson & Johnson Announces Partnership With U.S. government to Accelerate Coronavirus Vaccine Development
https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/johnson-johnson-announces-partnership-with-u.s.-government-to-accelerate-coronavirus
The $35 Billion Vaccine Market
https://greatgameindia.com/the-35-billion-vaccine-market/
This Small Elite Group Made Millions From Coronavirus
https://greatgameindia.com/this-small-elite-group-made-millions-from-coronavirus/
How A Harvard Professor Made $400 Million From Coronavirus Vaccine
https://greatgameindia.com/how-a-harvard-professor-made-400-million-from-coronavirus-vaccine/
UN releases US$15 million to help vulnerable countries battle the spread of the coronavirus
https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/01-03-2020-un-releases-us-15-million-to-help-vulnerable-countries-battle-the-spread-of-the-coronavirus
World Bank announces up to $12 billion in immediate funds for coronavirus
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-world-bank-announc/world-bank-announces-up-to-12-billion-in-immediate-funds-for-coronavirus-idUSKBN20Q2YA
IMF Makes Available $50 Billion to Help Address Coronavirus
https://www.imf.org/en/News/Articles/2020/03/04/sp030420-imf-makes-available-50-billion-to-help-address-coronavirus
Trump signs $8.3 billion emergency coronavirus aid package
https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/6/21167822/coronavirus-donald-trump-aid-package-emergency-shelby-rand-paul
CDC director’s resignation caps bad year for health agency
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/cdc-director-s-resignation-caps-bad-year-health-agency-n843646
World Bank’s $500m pandemic scheme accused of ‘waiting for people to die’
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/feb/28/world-banks-500m-coronavirus-push-too-late-for-poor-countries-experts-say
Government agents ‘directly involved’ in most high-profile US terror plots
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/21/government-agents-directly-involved-us-terror-plots-report
Why Does the FBI Have to Manufacture its Own Plots if Terrorism and ISIS Are Such Grave Threats?
https://theintercept.com/2015/02/26/fbi-manufacture-plots-terrorism-isis-grave-threats/
CDC Public Health Advisor (Quarantine Program)
https://jobs.cdc.gov/job/dallas/public-health-advisor-quarantine-program/250/14136286
Trump Signs Bill to Further Protect Critical Infrastructure, Including Pandemic Delivery System
https://www.activistpost.com/2018/11/trump-signs-bill-to-further-protect-critical-infrastructure-including-pandemic-delivery-system.html
Bioweapons: At the Breaking Point of What We Call History
https://journal-neo.org/2016/08/20/at-the-breaking-point-of-what-we-call-history/
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activistpost--2020-03-08--How Chinese Social Media Platforms Control Information on COVID-19

Canada-based Internet censorship research organization , Citizen Lab , points out in their latest report , “ Censored Contagion : How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media “ , that on December 31 , 2019 , China ’ s web censors introduced a new list of 45 coronavirus-related keywords to block online discussion about the Novel Coronavirus ( COVID-19 ) outbreak .
According to the report ’ s authors , the scope of censorship broadened in February 2020 , with the identification of 516 coronavirus-related keyword combinations blocked on the messaging and social media app WeChat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The research notes that at the initial stage of the outbreak of COVID-19 in China , the censorship curbed alerts to the public on the threat of the then-unknown virus .
Later , the censored contents were broadened to include criticisms of top leaders and officials , government policies , speculative stories , any reference to Dr. Li Wenliang , and Chinese netizens ’ demands for political change .
Prior to being investigated by the police , Dr. Li was among a number of Wuhan-based medical practitioners to first raise the alarm about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a result of the virus on February 6 , sparking online criticism of the Chinese authorities .
Citizen Lab ’ s research found that on December 31 , 2019 , one day after a number of medical workers — including the late Dr. Li — attempted to alert the public to the spread of a new SARS-like virus , the Chinese web censors updated the list of blocked terms on social media .
YY , a Chinese streaming platform , introduced 45 coronavirus-related blocked terms in its mobile application on December 31 , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ unknown Pneumonia ” （武漢不明肺炎 ) , “ unknown SARS ” ( 不明沙市 ) , “ SARS variation ” （沙市變異 ) , “ P4 virus research lab ” （P4病毒實驗室 ) , “ Wuhan fresh food market ” （武漢海鮮市場 ) , and “ Wuhan censored epidemic outbreak ” （武漢封禁疫情 ) .
As social media platforms in China are obliged to follow the instructions of the country ’ s Propaganda and Cyber-administration Authorities , the finding shows that Beijing was well aware of the outbreak since last December .
However , instead of informing the public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ news of the virus from circulating online .
On the same day the newly-blocked terms were introduced , eight netizens were arrested for spreading rumors .
It was later revealed that the “ rumor-mongers ” were medical workers — among them , the late Dr. Li — discussing the outbreak with family members or peers on WeChat groups .
WeChat , in fact , adopted a more sophisticated censorship system .
While some sensitive terms like “ June Fourth ” and “ Tiananmen Square ” are completely blocked , the app has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ detect the semantic meaning of the texts — which means only a certain cluster of keywords would trigger censorship .
The research team therefore ran tests on WeChat between January 1 to February 15 , identifying at least 516 keyword combinations that were blocked .
Should a user send messages containing those combinations , the messages would remain blocked in the server and not delivered to the intended recipient .
The research team then grouped the keywords into content categories : Among the 516 keyword combinations , 192 are related to China ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ handling the outbreak .
In fact , 87 percent of the terms in this category contains references to Chinese President Xi Jinping , such as “ Xi Jinping + formalism + epidemic prevention ” ( 習近平+形式主義+防疫 ) , “ Xi Jinping goes to Wuhan ” ( 習近平到武漢 ) , “ Someone [ a substitution of Xi Jinping ] + in person ” ( 某人+親自 ) , and “ Xi Jinping + epidemic spread ” ( 習近近+疫症蔓延 ) .
After Wuhan was locked down on January 23 , many netizens wondered why the Chinese @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in person to lead the battle against COVID-19 .
Instead , Xi entrusted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to visit the center of the epidemic .
Such criticism soon became a key target of the censors , as shown in the censorship patterns above .
The second most censored content terms were related to criticisms of government and Chinese Communist Party ( CCP ) -related institutions , and their policies regarding containment of the outbreak .
As many as 138 keyword combinations were found in this category , including wordplay on COVID-19 , calling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ( 官狀病毒 ) , as well as “ local officials + epidemics + central government + cover-up ” ( 地方官+疫情+中央+隱瞞 ) , “ Wuhan + CCP + crisis + Beijing ” ( 武漢+中共+危機+北京 ) , “ hold + criticize China + Two Sessions + cover up ” ( 舉行+批評中國+兩會期間+隱瞞 ) , and “ CCP + pneumonia + performance + rule ” ( 共产党+肺炎+表现+统治 ) .
In addition to the CCP and central government authorities , other institutions that triggered semantic censorship include the China Red Cross , the Wuhan Institute of Virology , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CCTV ) .
The China Red Cross was heavily criticized for corruption in its handling of citizens ’ donations to Wuhan .
As for the Wuhan Institute of Virology , speculations had been circulating on social media since late January that the Novel Coronavirus originated from its lab .
Meanwhile , CCTV was slammed by netizens for its censorship practices , such as closing the comment function of its live-stream of the Spring Festival Gala .
Criticisms of central and local governments ’ policies to fight the outbreak were also heavily censored , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Centralized Quarantine + Wuhan Lockdown ” ( 集中隔离 + 武汉封城 ) , “ public opinion guidance + Politburo + centralized leadership + standing committee ” ( 傳播 + 判死刑 + 危害公共安全 + 病毒 ) , “ public opinion guidance + Politburo + centralized leadership + standing committee ” （舆论引导 + 政治局 + 集中统一领导 + 常委会）and “ since January 3 + notified US of + epidemic ” , ( 1月3日起 [ + ] 30次向美方通报 [ + ] 疫情信息 ) .
Although the compulsory quarantine measures in Wuhan and other cities have been praised for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the virus , Wuhan residents were angry that the government offered little support in the early days of the lockdown , leaving medical workers and their patients in a desperate situation .
Chinese netizens were shocked by a statement made by a high court in Heilongjiang which , in its interpretation of existing criminal law , stressed that anyone who intentionally and maliciously spread the virus to undermine public safety could be sentenced to death .
As more cities and regions in China required close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients to be quarantined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officers and citizens who refused to subscribe to the policy .
The court statement therefore served as a warning to those considering resistance .
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying ’ s daily briefing on February 3 , 2020 , about the Chinese government having “ notified the United States of the epidemic and [ China ’ s ] control measures 30 times altogether since January 3 ” , generated mockery online , as Chinese citizens were only made aware of the outbreak after CCTV aired pulmonologist Dr. Zhong Nanshan ’ s interview on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even amidst the outbreak , CCP leaders continued to view political propaganda as more important than public accountability .
News about Dr. Li ’ s death and calls for political reforms also triggered censorship .
Citizen Lab ’ s research identified 26 combinations on this content category , including “ coronavirus + human transmission + Li Wenliang ” ( 冠状病毒+人传人+李文亮 ) , “ epidemic + color revolution + Li Wenliang ” ( 疫情+颜色革命+李文亮 ) , “ epidemic + virus + Li Wenliang + Central government ( 疫情+病毒+李文亮+中央 ) , “ Wuhan + 5 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ Wuhan + Liberate ” 武漢+光復 .
Borrowing political vocabulary like “ 5 demands ” and “ liberate ” from the 2019 Hong Kong protests , many netizens called for freedom of expression reforms after learning of Dr. Li ’ s passing .
News about the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong , Macau and Taiwan also faces censorship .
About 99 keyword combinations in the research were related to the Chinese-speaking regions , like “ Medical workers + strike + partial close the border checkpoints ” ( 醫護人員+罷工+局部封關 ) , “ Carrie Lam @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ mask + Taiwan + export + nation ” ( 口罩+台灣+出口+國家 ) , “ Macau + government + wear mask ” ( 澳門+政府+戴口罩 ) .
In Hong Kong , Chief Executive Carrie Lam ’ s refusal to tighten control on border checkpoints after the Lunar New Year faced strong public criticism ; there was also speculation that Beijing did not approve the border control measures .
Medical workers from government-funded public hospitals took the lead in launching a strike to press the Hong Kong government to tighten border control , and pro-Beijing groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Authority to punish its employees .
In Taiwan , the government ’ s decision to ban the export of masks created an uproar on social media in mainland China .
Speculation and fact both subjected to censorship The report found 38 keyword combinations related to speculative or non-official claims , such as “ Wuhan pneumonia epidemic out of control ” ( 武漢肺炎疫情失控 ) , “ Wuhan + Infection + Tens of thousands ” ( 武漢+感染+十幾萬 ) , and “ Shanghai + Background + Drug + Virus ” ( 上海+背景+药物+病毒 ) .
While some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the outbreak could be as many as hundreds of thousands infected in Wuhan , such discussions are not allowed in China .
Even though official data on March 6 showed that there were 49,797 infections in Wuhan , the Chinese government never admitted that the city was out of control , even after the January 23 lockdown of the city , during which many Wuhan residents were calling for help on Weibo and WeChat .
Reports from government-affiliated media outlets also triggered blocking on WeChat , via 23 keyword combinations including “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ + Virus ” ( 有关+疾病控制+旅行限制+病毒 ) , and “ Pneumonia + Disease control and prevention + Virus + Medical journal ” ( 肺炎+疾病预防控制+病毒+医学期刊 ) .
On March 1 , China ’ s Provisions on Ecological Governance of Online Information Content became effective .
These regulations provide a legal framework for enforcing content platforms to censor vaguely defined “ harmful ” or “ negative information ” , including exaggerated headlines , celebrity gossip , vulgar or sexually suggestive content , and “ inappropriate comments and descriptions of natural disasters and large-scale incidents ” .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ critics raised concerns about the Chinese media ’ s failure to alert and inform the public , and the implications of such information repression on global public health .
In its report , Citizen Lab stressed the need for the international society to address the problem : Oiwan Lam is a media activist , researcher and educator currently based in Hong Kong .
Her Chinese writings are in inmediahk.net and her Twitter account is @ oiwan .
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Become an Activist @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 per month at Patreon .
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By Oiwan Lam
Canada-based Internet censorship research organization, Citizen Lab, points out in their latest report, “Censored Contagion: How Information on the Coronavirus is Managed on Chinese Social Media“, that on December 31, 2019, China’s web censors introduced a new list of 45 coronavirus-related keywords to block online discussion about the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. According to the report’s authors, the scope of censorship broadened in February 2020, with the identification of 516 coronavirus-related keyword combinations blocked on the messaging and social media app WeChat between January 1 to February 15.
The research notes that at the initial stage of the outbreak of COVID-19 in China, the censorship curbed alerts to the public on the threat of the then-unknown virus. Later, the censored contents were broadened to include criticisms of top leaders and officials, government policies, speculative stories, any reference to Dr. Li Wenliang, and Chinese netizens’ demands for political change. Prior to being investigated by the police, Dr. Li was among a number of Wuhan-based medical practitioners to first raise the alarm about the new coronavirus. He died as a result of the virus on February 6, sparking online criticism of the Chinese authorities.
Coronavirus-related blocking updated on December 31, 2019
Citizen Lab’s research found that on December 31, 2019, one day after a number of medical workers — including the late Dr. Li — attempted to alert the public to the spread of a new SARS-like virus, the Chinese web censors updated the list of blocked terms on social media.
YY, a Chinese streaming platform, introduced 45 coronavirus-related blocked terms in its mobile application on December 31, 2019. The list included “Wuhan unknown Pneumonia”（武漢不明肺炎), “unknown SARS” (不明沙市), “SARS variation”（沙市變異), “P4 virus research lab”（P4病毒實驗室), “Wuhan fresh food market”（武漢海鮮市場), and “Wuhan censored epidemic outbreak”（武漢封禁疫情).
As social media platforms in China are obliged to follow the instructions of the country’s Propaganda and Cyber-administration Authorities, the finding shows that Beijing was well aware of the outbreak since last December. However, instead of informing the public of the health threat, it banned news of the virus from circulating online. On the same day the newly-blocked terms were introduced, eight netizens were arrested for spreading rumors. It was later revealed that the “rumor-mongers” were medical workers — among them, the late Dr. Li — discussing the outbreak with family members or peers on WeChat groups.
WeChat, in fact, adopted a more sophisticated censorship system. While some sensitive terms like “June Fourth” and “Tiananmen Square” are completely blocked, the app has been using artificial intelligence (AI) to detect the semantic meaning of the texts — which means only a certain cluster of keywords would trigger censorship. The research team therefore ran tests on WeChat between January 1 to February 15, identifying at least 516 keyword combinations that were blocked. Should a user send messages containing those combinations, the messages would remain blocked in the server and not delivered to the intended recipient.
The research team then grouped the keywords into content categories:
Censored COVID-19-related keyword combinations cover a wide range of topics, including discussions of central leaders’ responses to the outbreak, critical and neutral references to government policies on handling the epidemic, responses to the outbreak in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau, speculative and factual information on the disease, references to Dr. Li Wenliang, and collective action.
Criticism of Chinese president Xi Jinping censored
Among the 516 keyword combinations, 192 are related to China’s top brass and their role in handling the outbreak. In fact, 87 percent of the terms in this category contains references to Chinese President Xi Jinping, such as “Xi Jinping + formalism + epidemic prevention” (習近平+形式主義+防疫), “Xi Jinping goes to Wuhan” (習近平到武漢), “Someone [a substitution of Xi Jinping] + in person” (某人+親自), and “Xi Jinping + epidemic spread” (習近近+疫症蔓延).
After Wuhan was locked down on January 23, many netizens wondered why the Chinese leader did not go to the city in person to lead the battle against COVID-19. Instead, Xi entrusted Chinese Premier Li Keqiang to visit the center of the epidemic. Such criticism soon became a key target of the censors, as shown in the censorship patterns above.
The second most censored content terms were related to criticisms of government and Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-related institutions, and their policies regarding containment of the outbreak. As many as 138 keyword combinations were found in this category, including wordplay on COVID-19, calling it the “virus of officialdom” (官狀病毒), as well as “local officials + epidemics + central government + cover-up” (地方官+疫情+中央+隱瞞), “Wuhan + CCP + crisis + Beijing” (武漢+中共+危機+北京), “hold + criticize China + Two Sessions + cover up” (舉行+批評中國+兩會期間+隱瞞), and “CCP + pneumonia + performance + rule” (共产党+肺炎+表现+统治).
In addition to the CCP and central government authorities, other institutions that triggered semantic censorship include the China Red Cross, the Wuhan Institute of Virology, and the China Central Television Station (CCTV).
The China Red Cross was heavily criticized for corruption in its handling of citizens’ donations to Wuhan. As for the Wuhan Institute of Virology, speculations had been circulating on social media since late January that the Novel Coronavirus originated from its lab. Meanwhile, CCTV was slammed by netizens for its censorship practices, such as closing the comment function of its live-stream of the Spring Festival Gala.
Criticisms of central and local governments’ policies to fight the outbreak were also heavily censored, as reflected in keyword combinations like “Centralized Quarantine + Wuhan Lockdown” (集中隔离 + 武汉封城), “public opinion guidance + Politburo + centralized leadership + standing committee” (傳播 + 判死刑 + 危害公共安全 + 病毒), “public opinion guidance + Politburo + centralized leadership + standing committee”（舆论引导 + 政治局 + 集中统一领导 + 常委会）and “since January 3 + notified US of + epidemic”, (1月3日起 [+] 30次向美方通报 [+] 疫情信息).
Although the compulsory quarantine measures in Wuhan and other cities have been praised for their effectiveness in containing the spread of the virus, Wuhan residents were angry that the government offered little support in the early days of the lockdown, leaving medical workers and their patients in a desperate situation.
Chinese netizens were shocked by a statement made by a high court in Heilongjiang which, in its interpretation of existing criminal law, stressed that anyone who intentionally and maliciously spread the virus to undermine public safety could be sentenced to death. As more cities and regions in China required close contacts of confirmed COVID-19 patients to be quarantined, there were conflicts between law enforcement officers and citizens who refused to subscribe to the policy. The court statement therefore served as a warning to those considering resistance.
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying’s daily briefing on February 3, 2020, about the Chinese government having “notified the United States of the epidemic and [China’s] control measures 30 times altogether since January 3”, generated mockery online, as Chinese citizens were only made aware of the outbreak after CCTV aired pulmonologist Dr. Zhong Nanshan’s interview on January 20. People were outraged that even amidst the outbreak, CCP leaders continued to view political propaganda as more important than public accountability.
Dr. Li Wenliang and political reform demands
News about Dr. Li’s death and calls for political reforms also triggered censorship. Citizen Lab’s research identified 26 combinations on this content category, including “coronavirus + human transmission + Li Wenliang” (冠状病毒+人传人+李文亮), “epidemic + color revolution + Li Wenliang”( 疫情+颜色革命+李文亮), “epidemic + virus + Li Wenliang + Central government (疫情+病毒+李文亮+中央), “Wuhan + 5 demands” (武汉+五大诉求), and “Wuhan + Liberate” 武漢+光復. Borrowing political vocabulary like “5 demands” and “liberate” from the 2019 Hong Kong protests, many netizens called for freedom of expression reforms after learning of Dr. Li’s passing.
News about the COVID-19 outbreak in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan also faces censorship. About 99 keyword combinations in the research were related to the Chinese-speaking regions, like “Medical workers + strike + partial close the border checkpoints” (醫護人員+罷工+局部封關), “Carrie Lam + Puppet” (林鄭月娥+傀儡), “mask + Taiwan + export + nation” (口罩+台灣+出口+國家), “Macau + government + wear mask” (澳門+政府+戴口罩).
In Hong Kong, Chief Executive Carrie Lam’s refusal to tighten control on border checkpoints after the Lunar New Year faced strong public criticism; there was also speculation that Beijing did not approve the border control measures. Medical workers from government-funded public hospitals took the lead in launching a strike to press the Hong Kong government to tighten border control, and pro-Beijing groups in Hong Kong pressured the government-appointed Hospital Authority to punish its employees. In Taiwan, the government’s decision to ban the export of masks created an uproar on social media in mainland China.
Speculation and fact both subjected to censorship
The report found 38 keyword combinations related to speculative or non-official claims, such as “Wuhan pneumonia epidemic out of control” (武漢肺炎疫情失控), “Wuhan + Infection + Tens of thousands” (武漢+感染+十幾萬), and “Shanghai + Background + Drug + Virus” (上海+背景+药物+病毒).
While some academic studies have estimated that the scale of the outbreak could be as many as hundreds of thousands infected in Wuhan, such discussions are not allowed in China. Even though official data on March 6 showed that there were 49,797 infections in Wuhan, the Chinese government never admitted that the city was out of control, even after the January 23 lockdown of the city, during which many Wuhan residents were calling for help on Weibo and WeChat.
Reports from government-affiliated media outlets also triggered blocking on WeChat, via 23 keyword combinations including “Relevant + Disease control + Travel ban + Virus” (有关+疾病控制+旅行限制+病毒), and “Pneumonia + Disease control and prevention + Virus + Medical journal” (肺炎+疾病预防控制+病毒+医学期刊).
On March 1, China’s Provisions on Ecological Governance of Online Information Content became effective. These regulations provide a legal framework for enforcing content platforms to censor vaguely defined “harmful” or “negative information”, including exaggerated headlines, celebrity gossip, vulgar or sexually suggestive content, and “inappropriate comments and descriptions of natural disasters and large-scale incidents”.
Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many critics raised concerns about the Chinese media’s failure to alert and inform the public, and the implications of such information repression on global public health. In its report, Citizen Lab stressed the need for the international society to address the problem:
Censorship of the COVID-19 outbreak is troubling, and shows the need for thorough analysis of the effects of information control during a global public health crisis. Countering misinformation and uninformed speculation related to the epidemic may help keep public fear in check and remove information that would mislead people about how best to protect themselves. However, restricting general discussions and factual information has the opposite effect and limits public awareness and response.
Article source: Global Voices
Oiwan Lam is a media activist, researcher and educator currently based in Hong Kong. Her Chinese writings are in inmediahk.net and her Twitter account is @oiwan.
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Follow us on SoMee, Flote, Minds, Twitter, and Steemit.
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activistpost--2020-03-08--Why this Draconian Response to COVID-19?

Imagine if you are the organizer of a major arts and tech event that attracts a quarter-million attendees .
One week out from the conference , the mayor cancels your event .
Your event is not named specifically , just that all events involving more than 2,500 people are officially banned .
He does this using emergency powers , justified in the name of containing a virus .
And that ’ s it .
This is what happened to South by Southwest , one of the most important events in the world in Austin , Texas , which has thus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ COVID-19 .
Based on last year ’ s numbers , It ’ s the end for : Local merchants are devastated .
All hotel and flight reservations are lost .
It ’ s a financial calamity for the city ( last year brought half a billion dollars for local merchants ) and for untold millions of people affected by the abrupt decision .
Draconian , to say the least .
Making matters worse , a vicious and completely false report published by Variety said that the festival was aching for the city to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could collect insurance money .
This turns out to be entirely wrong : South by Southwest had no insurance against infectious disease .
It was a smear and response to mass frenzy .
After all , a petition on Change.org signed by 55,000 people had demanded the cancellation .
The city acquiesced to the mob .
A grand and glorious conference was destroyed – the first of many this season .
Italy now has 16 million people under quarantine , which is to say that they are prisoners .
Americans have been quarantined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pay for their later hospitalization .
The government that quarantines you has zero intention to pay the costs associated with your care , to say nothing of the opportunity costs of missing work .
The press isn ’ t helping .
The New York Times has cheered it all on , aggressively advocating that governments go Medieval on this one .
In six months , if we are in a recession , unemployment is up , financial markets are wrecked , and people are locked in their homes , we ’ ll wonder @ @ @ @ @ @ @ containment ” over disease mitigation .
Then the conspiracy theorists get to work .
The containment strategy was never debated or discussed .
For the first time in modern history , governments of the world have taken it upon themselves to control population flows in the hopes of stemming the spread of this disease – regardless of the cost and with scant evidence that this strategy will actually work .
More and more , the containment response is looking like global panic .
What ’ s interesting , Psychology Today points out , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : Meanwhile , the New England Journal of Medicine reports as follows : On the basis of a case definition requiring a diagnosis of pneumonia , the currently reported case fatality rate is approximately 2 % .
In another article in the Journal , Guan et al .
report mortality of 1.4 % among 1,099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19 ; these patients had a wide spectrum of disease severity .
If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ considerably less than 1 % .
This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza ( which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1 % ) or a pandemic influenza ( similar to those in 1957 and 1968 ) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS , which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10 % and 36 % , respectively .
Slate ’ s piece on this topic offers more perspective : This all suggests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for most young people , and a potentially devastating one for the old and chronically ill , albeit not nearly as risky as reported .
Given the low mortality rate among younger patients with coronavirus—zero in children 10 or younger among hundreds of cases in China , and 0.2-0.4 percent in most healthy nongeriatric adults ( and this is still before accounting for what is likely to be a high number of undetected asymptomatic cases ) —we need to divert our focus away from worrying about preventing systemic spread among healthy people—which is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ our control—and commit most if not all of our resources toward protecting those truly at risk of developing critical illness and even death : everyone over 70 , and people who are already at higher risk from this kind of virus .
Look , I ’ m obviously not in a position to comment on the medical aspects of this ; I defer to the experts .
But neither are medical professionals in a position to comment on the political response to this ; mostly they have assiduously declined to do so .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ decisions that profoundly affect the status of human freedom .
Their decisions are going to affect our lives in profound ways .
And there has thus far been no real debate on this .
It ’ s just been presumed that containment of the spread rather than the care of the sick is the only way forward .
What ’ s more , we have governments all-too-willing to deploy their awesome powers to control human populations in direct response to mass public pressure based on fears that have so far not been justified @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reason , we have every reason to be concerned .
Are we really ready to imprison the world , wreck financial markets , destroy countless jobs , and massively disrupt life as we know it , all to forestall some uncertain fate , even as we do know the right way to deal with the problem from a medical point of view ?
It ’ s at least worth debating .
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Op-Ed by Jeffrey A. Tucker
Imagine if you are the organizer of a major arts and tech event that attracts a quarter-million attendees. One week out from the conference, the mayor cancels your event. Your event is not named specifically, just that all events involving more than 2,500 people are officially banned. He does this using emergency powers, justified in the name of containing a virus.
And that’s it. This is what happened to South by Southwest, one of the most important events in the world in Austin, Texas, which has thus far not reported a single case of COVID-19. Based on last year’s numbers, It’s the end for:
73,716 conference attendees and 232,258 festival attendees;
4,700 speakers
4,331 media/press attendees
2,124 sessions
70,00 trade show attendees occupying 181,400 square feet of exhibit space
351 official parties and events
612 international acts
1,964 performance acts
Local merchants are devastated. All hotel and flight reservations are lost. It’s a financial calamity for the city (last year brought half a billion dollars for local merchants) and for untold millions of people affected by the abrupt decision.
Draconian, to say the least.
Making matters worse, a vicious and completely false report published by Variety said that the festival was aching for the city to make the call so that the festival could collect insurance money. This turns out to be entirely wrong: South by Southwest had no insurance against infectious disease. It was a smear and response to mass frenzy. After all, a petition on Change.org signed by 55,000 people had demanded the cancellation.
The city acquiesced to the mob. A grand and glorious conference was destroyed – the first of many this season.
Italy now has 16 million people under quarantine, which is to say that they are prisoners.
Anyone living in Lombardy and 14 other central and northern provinces will need special permission to travel. Milan and Venice are both affected. Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte also announced the closure of schools, gyms, museums, nightclubs and other venues across the whole country. The measures, the most radical taken outside China, will last until 3 April.
Americans have been quarantined on cruise ships and then forced to pay for their later hospitalization. The government that quarantines you has zero intention to pay the costs associated with your care, to say nothing of the opportunity costs of missing work.
The press isn’t helping. The New York Times has cheered it all on, aggressively advocating that governments go Medieval on this one.
In six months, if we are in a recession, unemployment is up, financial markets are wrecked, and people are locked in their homes, we’ll wonder why the heck governments chose disease “containment” over disease mitigation. Then the conspiracy theorists get to work.
The containment strategy was never debated or discussed. For the first time in modern history, governments of the world have taken it upon themselves to control population flows in the hopes of stemming the spread of this disease – regardless of the cost and with scant evidence that this strategy will actually work.
More and more, the containment response is looking like global panic. What’s interesting, Psychology Today points out, is that your doctor is not panicking:
COVID-19 is a new virus in a well-known class of viruses. The coronaviruses are cold viruses. I’ve treated countless patients with coronaviruses over the years. In fact, we’ve been able to test for them on our respiratory panels for the entirety of my career.
We know how cold viruses work: They cause runny noses, sneezing, cough, and fever, and make us feel tired and achy. For almost all of us, they run their course without medication. And in the vulnerable, they can trigger a more severe illness like asthma or pneumonia.
Yes, this virus is different and worse than other coronaviruses, but it still looks very familiar. We know more about it than we don’t know.
Doctors know what to do with respiratory viruses. As a pediatrician, I take care of patients with hundreds of different viruses that behave similarly to this one. We take care of the kids at home and see them if the fever is prolonged, if they get dehydrated, or if they develop breathing difficulty. Then we treat those problems and support the child until they get better.
Meanwhile, the New England Journal of Medicine reports as follows:
On the basis of a case definition requiring a diagnosis of pneumonia, the currently reported case fatality rate is approximately 2%. In another article in the Journal, Guan et al. report mortality of 1.4% among 1,099 patients with laboratory-confirmed Covid-19; these patients had a wide spectrum of disease severity. If one assumes that the number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic cases is several times as high as the number of reported cases, the case fatality rate may be considerably less than 1%. This suggests that the overall clinical consequences of Covid-19 may ultimately be more akin to those of a severe seasonal influenza (which has a case fatality rate of approximately 0.1%) or a pandemic influenza (similar to those in 1957 and 1968) rather than a disease similar to SARS or MERS, which have had case fatality rates of 9 to 10% and 36%, respectively.
Slate’s piece on this topic offers more perspective:
This all suggests that COVID-19 is a relatively benign disease for most young people, and a potentially devastating one for the old and chronically ill, albeit not nearly as risky as reported. Given the low mortality rate among younger patients with coronavirus—zero in children 10 or younger among hundreds of cases in China, and 0.2-0.4 percent in most healthy nongeriatric adults (and this is still before accounting for what is likely to be a high number of undetected asymptomatic cases)—we need to divert our focus away from worrying about preventing systemic spread among healthy people—which is likely either inevitable, or out of our control—and commit most if not all of our resources toward protecting those truly at risk of developing critical illness and even death: everyone over 70, and people who are already at higher risk from this kind of virus.
Look, I’m obviously not in a position to comment on the medical aspects of this; I defer to the experts. But neither are medical professionals in a position to comment on the political response to this; mostly they have assiduously declined to do so.
Meanwhile, governments are willy-nilly making drastic decisions that profoundly affect the status of human freedom. Their decisions are going to affect our lives in profound ways. And there has thus far been no real debate on this. It’s just been presumed that containment of the spread rather than the care of the sick is the only way forward.
What’s more, we have governments all-too-willing to deploy their awesome powers to control human populations in direct response to mass public pressure based on fears that have so far not been justified by any available evidence. For this reason, we have every reason to be concerned.
Are we really ready to imprison the world, wreck financial markets, destroy countless jobs, and massively disrupt life as we know it, all to forestall some uncertain fate, even as we do know the right way to deal with the problem from a medical point of view? It’s at least worth debating.
Article source: AIER.org
Tw | FB | LinkedIn Jeffrey A. Tucker is Editorial Director for the American Institute for Economic Research. He is the author of many thousands of articles in the scholarly and popular press and eight books in 5 languages, most recently The Market Loves You . He is also the editor of The Best of Mises . He speaks widely on topics of economics, technology, social philosophy, and culture. Jeffrey is available for speaking and interviews via his email
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activistpost--2020-03-08--Lebanon Announces Default On $1.2BN Debt Payment In Historical First

Lebanon announced Saturday it will default on its Eurobond debt for the first time in its history .
The protest-racked country has seen a recent change in government , banks opened for merely about half of the past few months , strict controls on hard currency withdrawals and transfers abroad amid a liquidity crisis , a plummeting Lebanese Lira since October , a run on dollars , and crushing public debt which has lately blown up to nearly 170 % of its gross domestic product ( now about $ 89.5 billion ) .
Prime Minister Hassan Diab confirmed in public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billion due on Monday will not be paid : “ The debt has become bigger than Lebanon can bear , and bigger than the ability of the Lebanese to meet interest payments , ” he said in a televised address .
“ We are paying the price for the mistakes of the past years .
Must we bequeath them to our children ?
” The broader crisis is being widely described as the worst and most potentially destabilizing disaster since the 1975-90 civil war .
It also means that the country ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last traded at a price of 57 cents on the dollar ( or roughly 8000 % YTM ) won ’ t be repaid .
Local banks , which own some of the Eurobonds set to mature on March 9 , have long argued against a default .
But clients also fear the continued rapid depletion of their savings .
Diab , appearing to respond not only to the people in the streets but to criticisms from the West centered on the Mediterranean nation ’ s decades of state corruption , pledged to continue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ debt “ with all creditors… in a manner consistent with the national interest.
” “ How can we pay creditors abroad when the Lebanese can not get their money from their bank accounts ?
” Diab questioned , referencing controversial emergency measures banks have enacted since the start of the year , which in most places has limited account holders to withdrawing a mere $ 200 total a week .
The Lebanese had “ lived a dream that was a delusion as though things were just fine , while Lebanon was drowning in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The domestic divide on the first ever default , which didn ’ t even occur during the civil war period , is further described as follows : According to Marwan Barakat , head of research at Bank Audi , Lebanese banks owned $ 12.7bn of the country ’ s outstanding $ 30bn Eurobonds as of the end of January .
The central bank held $ 5.7bn and the remainder was owned by foreign creditors , he said .
According to local media reports , Lebanese banks have recently sold a chunk of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ demonstrators who have remained on the streets since October have lobbied against repayment , fearing a depletion of reserves could further limit access to their savings .
In one of the more deeply alarming moments of his speech , Diab — who ’ s only been prime minister since January after the former government stepped down — cited World Bank figures forecasting that over 40 % of the population could soon enter poverty .
And Monday ’ s default , it will be even sooner .
Stretching back to last year , massive @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at times brought major cities to a stand-still , as the enraged public has consistently accused the national and commercial banks of “ theft ” while the bankers desperately attempted to defend against a massive run on the dollar and lack of confidence in the local currently .
All of this of course also comes as ill-prepared Beirut health officials deal with coronavirus , given there ’ s been at least 15 confirmed cases since late February .
“ Whether it ’ s coronavirus , or any disease , or any problem , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ deal with anything , ” a real estate broker told Reuters this week .
It will be remarkable how often that complaint is repeated when addressing countless other governments around the globe .
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By Tyler Durden
Lebanon announced Saturday it will default on its Eurobond debt for the first time in its history. The protest-racked country has seen a recent change in government, banks opened for merely about half of the past few months, strict controls on hard currency withdrawals and transfers abroad amid a liquidity crisis, a plummeting Lebanese Lira since October, a run on dollars, and crushing public debt which has lately blown up to nearly 170% of its gross domestic product (now about $89.5 billion).
Prime Minister Hassan Diab confirmed in public statements the bond payment of $1.2 billion due on Monday will not be paid: “The debt has become bigger than Lebanon can bear, and bigger than the ability of the Lebanese to meet interest payments,” he said in a televised address. “We are paying the price for the mistakes of the past years. Must we bequeath them to our children?”
The broader crisis is being widely described as the worst and most potentially destabilizing disaster since the 1975-90 civil war. It also means that the country’s bond which mature on Monday and which last traded at a price of 57 cents on the dollar (or roughly 8000% YTM) won’t be repaid.
Local banks, which own some of the Eurobonds set to mature on March 9, have long argued against a default. But clients also fear the continued rapid depletion of their savings. Diab, appearing to respond not only to the people in the streets but to criticisms from the West centered on the Mediterranean nation’s decades of state corruption, pledged to continue negotiations to restructure the country’s debt “with all creditors… in a manner consistent with the national interest.”
“How can we pay creditors abroad when the Lebanese cannot get their money from their bank accounts?” Diab questioned, referencing controversial emergency measures banks have enacted since the start of the year, which in most places has limited account holders to withdrawing a mere $200 total a week. The Lebanese had “lived a dream that was a delusion as though things were just fine, while Lebanon was drowning in more debt,” he said further.
The domestic divide on the first ever default, which didn’t even occur during the civil war period, is further described as follows:
According to Marwan Barakat, head of research at Bank Audi, Lebanese banks owned $12.7bn of the country’s outstanding $30bn Eurobonds as of the end of January. The central bank held $5.7bn and the remainder was owned by foreign creditors, he said. According to local media reports, Lebanese banks have recently sold a chunk of their Eurobonds to foreign lenders. Anti-government demonstrators who have remained on the streets since October have lobbied against repayment, fearing a depletion of reserves could further limit access to their savings.
In one of the more deeply alarming moments of his speech, Diab — who’s only been prime minister since January after the former government stepped down — cited World Bank figures forecasting that over 40% of the population could soon enter poverty. And Monday’s default, it will be even sooner.
Stretching back to last year, massive and sometimes violent intermittent anti-corruption protests have at times brought major cities to a stand-still, as the enraged public has consistently accused the national and commercial banks of “theft” while the bankers desperately attempted to defend against a massive run on the dollar and lack of confidence in the local currently.
All of this of course also comes as ill-prepared Beirut health officials deal with coronavirus, given there’s been at least 15 confirmed cases since late February.
“Whether it’s coronavirus, or any disease, or any problem, the government isn’t prepared to deal with anything,” a real estate broker told Reuters this week. It will be remarkable how often that complaint is repeated when addressing countless other governments around the globe.
Article source: ZeroHedge
Top image: Bitcoin.com
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activistpost--2020-03-08--5G Proponents Warn About Cyber Attacks, “Huge Levels of Vulnerability,” and Threats to National Secu

5G Proponents Warn About Cyber Attacks, “Huge Levels of Vulnerability,” and Threats to National Security

Warnings from experts about cybersecurity risks from 5G and Internet of Things ( IoT ) technology are not breaking news ( see 1 , 2 , 3 ) .
Internet of Things ( IoT ) technology has a 74 % failure rate and experts report that cybersecurity risks are increasing with its use – not decreasing .
Here ’ s yet another warning from 5G Radar : 5G is here to stay , and it ’ s set to shake up a lot of different industries .
It brings a host of benefits , including super-fast speeds , reliability , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
However , these innovations will change the way we approach security , as 5G opens up many new opportunities for hackers .
This is a concern , as research firm Gartner predicts that 66 percent of organizations will adopt 5G by the end of 2020 .
And 59 percent of these businesses plan to use 5G to support the Internet of Things .
According to the 2019 Brookings report , there are five ways in which 5G networks are more susceptible to cyberattacks , which are : • 5G is no longer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ distributed , software-defined digital routing – cyber hygiene checks can not be implemented • Higher-level network functions are no longer physical but virtualized in software – this increases cyber vulnerability • 5G networks are managed by software and so can not be shutdown if a hacker gains control of the software , they have complete control of the network • 5G has a huge increase in bandwidth , giving hackers additional areas to attack • Billions of devices can be attached to an IoT network which provides huge levels of vulnerability So there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about 5G that have absolutely nothing to do with cybersecurity : • In 2017 doctors and scientists requested a worldwide 5G moratorium due to biological and environmental risks .
• Since 2018 people and animals have also been getting sick where it has been turned on ( see 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ) .
• In February 2019 telecom executives gave congressional testimony that they have NO SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE that it ’ s safe .
• In December 2019 doctors , scientists , engineers , and public advocates asked President @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of biological , environmental , and safety risks ( see 1 , 2 .
3 ) .
• Meteorologists , NASA , NOAA , the U.S. Navy , and other credible sources have also issued grave warnings about widespread installation ( see .
1 , 2 , 3 ) .
Cities and countries have taken action against 5G – even banning it .
Switzerland is one of the most recent .
Opposition to 5G continues to increase in the U.S. ( see 1 , 2 ) and worldwide .
Adding insult to injury @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where it ’ s been installed .
Nonetheless , the “ Race to 5G ” continues anyway AND includes launching thousands of satellites to blast 5G from space .
Nervous yet ?
Activist Post reports regularly about 5G and other sources of unsafe technology .
For more information visit our archives and the following websites .
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth , peace , and freedom news .
Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $ 1 per month at Patreon .
Follow us on SoMee , Flote , Minds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Protect and Profit from what ’ s coming !
Get a free issue of Counter Markets today .

By B.N. Frank
Warnings from experts about cybersecurity risks from 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) technology are not breaking news (see 1, 2, 3). Internet of Things (IoT) technology has a 74% failure rate and experts report that cybersecurity risks are increasing with its use – not decreasing.
Here’s yet another warning from 5G Radar:
5G is here to stay, and it’s set to shake up a lot of different industries. It brings a host of benefits, including super-fast speeds, reliability, efficiency and support for many more devices. However, these innovations will change the way we approach security, as 5G opens up many new opportunities for hackers.
This is a concern, as research firm Gartner predicts that 66 percent of organizations will adopt 5G by the end of 2020. And 59 percent of these businesses plan to use 5G to support the Internet of Things.
[…]
According to the 2019 Brookings report, there are five ways in which 5G networks are more susceptible to cyberattacks, which are:
5G is no longer centralized, hardware-based but has switched to distributed, software-defined digital routing – cyber hygiene checks cannot be implemented Higher-level network functions are no longer physical but virtualized in software – this increases cyber vulnerability 5G networks are managed by software and so cannot be shutdown if a hacker gains control of the software, they have complete control of the network 5G has a huge increase in bandwidth, giving hackers additional areas to attack Billions of devices can be attached to an IoT network which provides huge levels of vulnerability
Read full article
So there’s all of that AND warnings about 5G that have absolutely nothing to do with cybersecurity:
Cities and countries have taken action against 5G – even banning it. Switzerland is one of the most recent. Opposition to 5G continues to increase in the U.S. (see 1, 2) and worldwide.
Adding insult to injury – few people have subscribed to it where it’s been installed. Nonetheless, the “Race to 5G” continues anyway AND includes launching thousands of satellites to blast 5G from space. Nervous yet?
Activist Post reports regularly about 5G and other sources of unsafe technology. For more information visit our archives and the following websites.
Subscribe to Activist Post for truth, peace, and freedom news. Become an Activist Post Patron for as little as $1 per month at Patreon. Follow us on SoMee, Flote, Minds, Twitter, and Steemit.
Provide, Protect and Profit from what’s coming! Get a free issue of Counter Markets today.