News Burst 24-25 April

• China has decided to donate additional $30 million in cash to WHO to support its global fight against #COVID19, in particular strengthening developing countries’ health systems. China already donated $20 million in cash to WHO on March 11.

• A study published in the journal The Lancet on Tuesday suggests that the numbers of COVID-19 cases in China provided by the CCP is total BS.

• The commander of the nuclear-powered submarine HMS Trenchant is under investigation by the UK Royal Navy for violating coronavirus lockdown restrictions, they held a BBQ and DJ party for his crew after arriving to the UK following two months at sea. Following the party, which took place dockside at the Devonport naval base, all 150 crew members of the MS Trenchant have been forced into self-isolation for two weeks due to coronavirus concerns. They had previously undergone the procedure before the submarine docked at the base.

• Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson’s blood will be used by medical researchers who are developing a vaccine for coronavirus after they won their battle with the illness.

• [Apr 20] CNNanon here. Been lurking for a while. Before you all accuse me of trolling, please know there are some of us here who have families to support and we have no other job prospects right now, so we put up with fucktards like Cuomo and Stelter. Just wanted to let you know that major news is coming soon about network management. Big. BIG. Changes in personnel. BOMBSHELL type information will go public soon. Some of our “leaders” have been enjoying themselves on the weekend doing things that “Krafty” types got busted for. Watch the news. Spoiler: The story will not be covered by CNN. Footnote: I have a dick so unless you want to see it, keep the Tits or GTFO comments to yourselves faggots. [AT&T CEO resigned – AT&T owns CNN]

• Cambodian Ministry of Environment officials have warned it will take legal action against Prey Lang Community Network (PLCN) and several other organisations if they continue to collect deforestation data in the area. The ministry’s warning comes after PLCN suggested a new programme that would use satellite imagery to monitor and collect information on forest clearance in Prey Lang after the ministry banned the group from patrolling it. But the ministry’s secretary of state and spokesman Neth Pheaktra said that the activities of the PLCN are now against the law.

• Chinese officials demolished a building under construction which was built for housing 16 monks in Langdi monastery in Markham, Tibet. On Apr. 2, Chinese police arrived with a bulldozer to strike off the building which was being built by the local people in the traditional style by using collective labour. The officials arrived at the monastery a day before and told monks that the building was not allowed. As the abbot of the monastery appealed against the demolition, he was beaten and was threatened with imprisonment along with two other monks. The report details the images prior to the demolition sent from Tibet depicting local people singing as they work on the building in a tiny monastery. The image also showed the monastery displaying two red Chinese flags, compulsory for monasteries in Tibet, while Tibetan prayer flags fluttered in the breeze beside them.

• China has included parts of Arunachal Pradesh within its boundaries, in an updated map issued by Sky Map, an authority on digital maps which is a unit operated under Beijing’s National Surveying and Mapping Geographic Information Bureau. Users discovered that the new map has updated China’s borders that included India’s Arunachal Pradesh, a region it claims as part of Southern Tibet.

• The CEO of Ryanair, one of the world’s largest airlines, said his planes wouldn’t fly if the airline had to keep the middle seat empty to comply with what he described as an “idiotic” social-distancing proposal during the coronavirus pandemic. Michael O’Leary told that such action would be “entirely ineffective” — even as experts proposed it and some airlines have agreed to it at least temporarily as a way to keep social distancing in place as countries start to reopen and more flights resume. O’Leary said the Irish airline’s plans to start flying more would be ruined by “some entirely ineffective social-distancing measures like having middle seats empty — because if middle seats are empty, we’re not returning to flying at all.” He said the airline had told the Irish government that if it tried to impose such a rule, then “either the government pays for the middle seat or we won’t fly.”

• For weeks, the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank have stated the only solution for emerging market economies severely damaged by the coronavirus outbreak is a “debt jubilee.” The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) published a note on Thursday morning that said about $1 trillion in debt owed by developing countries should be canceled to avoid an emerging market debt crisis. “This is a world where defaults by developing nations on their debt is inevitable,” warned Richard Kozul-Wright, director of UNCTAD’s Division on Globalization and Development Strategies.

• Another grim milestone was reached this week. Human rights monitors have recorded that Saudi Arabia has carried out its 800th execution since King Salman bin Abdulaziz (and by extension MbS) began his rule five years ago — most being in the form of the kingdom’s ‘favored’ beheadings.

• Iran ended the social distancing, officials are considering the re-opening of cinemas and religious centers.

• In a recent highly targeted BEC attack, hackers managed to trick three British private equity firms into wire-transferring a total of $1.3 million to the bank accounts fraudsters have access to — while the victimized executives thought they closed an investment deal with some startups.

• The government of Jair Bolsonaro just lost its biggest star, Sergio Moro, the Brazilian Justice Minister who rose to fame as the lead judge in the infamous Petrobras ‘Car Wash’ investigations; investigations that ultimately led to the arrest of ex-president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and, arguably, the election of Bolsonaro. Moro is leaving the government over a disagreement that stems from the head of the Federal Police, Brazil’s version of the FBI, stepping down. Bolsonaro wants more control over that division, and Moro doesn’t like the idea. He wants the Federal Police to be independent of politics and signaled that Bolsonaro was interfering with investigations by messing with leadership.

• Fifty-eight 105mm artillery shells were removed from a cornfield by the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC) in Battambang province on Wednesday. The owner of the field, Chhun Hoeub, said he was in a state of shock and panic when his plough tractor unearthed three shells, although it didn’t cause an explosion. According to the technical specifications, cluster bombs can weigh up to 340kg and have a length of 3.22m and a width of 401mm. They are dropped from jets and inside the body is a cluster of 444 bombs, each weighing 500g, which are smaller sub-munitions that are ejected and scattered. This type of cluster bomb is an American product.

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