HOW ABOUT NO? Democrat Senators Propose Coronavirus Stimulus Bill For The Media

Never let a crisis go to waste, right?

Democrats sense that people are open to stimulus spending, so they are taking advantage and proposing things they would never suggest under normal circumstances.

The latest laughable proposal from Senator Amy Klobuchar and other Democrats, is a stimulus bill for their friends in the media.

The Hill reports:

Democratic senators call for funding for local media in coronavirus stimulus

More than a dozen senators are calling for any future stimulus package addressing the economic fallout from the novel coronavirus to include funding for local journalism, saying that communities across the U.S. are at risk of losing their source of news because of the pandemic.

“Local news is in a state of crisis that has only been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic,” the senators wrote in a letter sent to the upper chamber’s leadership on Wednesday.

The letter was signed by 18 Democratic senators, including Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Sherrod Brown (Ohio) and Joe Manchin (W.Va.), as well as Independent Sen. Angus King (Maine).

The letter notes many of the struggles the news industry has felt over the last two decades as big tech platforms swallow up a majority of the ad revenue that was a key source of profit during the print age. Newsroom employment has significantly decreased and about 1,800 local newspapers have ceased their operations since 2004, according to a University of North Carolina report.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/04/no-democrat-senators-propose-coronavirus-stimulus-bill-media/

Coronavirus Australia live updates: NSW imposes new, on the spot $5000 fine

New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard has been forced to announce an extraordinary new on the spot fine of $5000.

New South Wales Health Minister Brad Hazzard has announced a new on the spot fine of $5000 for anyone who spits or coughs on a health care worker or police officer.

It seems extraordinary that such a measure even needs to exist, but here we are.

“In my view, what we are seeking to do this afternoon is to send messages to people that I cannot actually believe do what they do,” Mr Hazzard said.

“Unfortunately, we have had a series of incidents now where some of the most incredible frontline workers, keeping us safe, have actually had people spitting on them and people coughing on them.

“How incredibly ridiculous is that, that anybody could think it is acceptable to spit or cough on frontline health care workers, health officials, police.

“These frontline workers are caring for us and the simple fact is, we need to care for them, so this on the spot $5000 fine will send a clear message that we are all as one.

“We are telling you to stop it, or you will cop it with a $5000 fine.”

There are now well over 6000 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Australia with 2773 in New South Wales, 1228 in Victoria, 953 in Queensland, 420 in South Australia, 495 in Western Australia, 107 in Tasmania, 100 in the Australian Capital Territory and 28 in the Northern Territory .

https://www.news.com.au/world/coronavirus/australia/coronavirus-australia-live-updates/live-coverage/43d9c7e124649ff8d65d48a2db9a60f7

Two Young Women Convicted of Raping 12-Year-Old Boy in Norway

The crime was filmed, and the video was shared with an underage acquaintance who alerted the authorities.

Two young women have been convicted of raping a 12-year-old boy in the Norwegian town of Sarpsborg, national broadcaster NRK reported.

The crime occurred in May 2019, when the victim was invited by the young women, aged 19 and 17 respectively. Another girl, age 15, was present.

Eventually, two women went upstairs to the bedroom and had sexual intercourse. The older of the two women was also found guilty of filming the incident and passing the video on to the 15-year-old girl.

The incident was discovered two days later when the 15-year-old girl told her teacher about what had happened. The school subsequently reported the case to the police.

According to the verdict, the 12-year-old was not subjected to any violence, pressure, threats or persuasion. However, the law defines all sexual relations with children below the age of 14 as rape. In this case, the rape was defined as gross because it was committed by several people.

The older woman was initially sentenced to three years in prison, but after an assessment of her social functioning and emotional state the court considered unconditional imprisonment too severe and made two years and eight months of the sentence conditional. That means the woman has to serve 120 days in jail.

Her younger partner in crime received so-called “juvenile punishment”, which in Norway is an alternative to both unconditional imprisonment and stricter social penalties for youths in the 15 to 18 age bracket and involves meetings with the police and child welfare services and follow-up checks in a bid to reform.

The two women are also sentenced to pay the boy NOK 75,000 ($7,300) in damages. That's half of what the boy's lawyer Eline Toverud Antonsen suggested would be the correct sum.

“We do not want to comment on the verdict, but can confirm that it will not be appealed,” defender Anne Grete Bjerketvedt Ludvigsen said.

The verdict by the Sarpsborg District Court was approved of by Attorney General Jeanette Westlund Hegna, who said her authority was “well satisfied with the court's assessment”.

https://sputniknews.com/society/202004091078890027-two-young-women-convicted-of-raping-12-year-old-boy-in-norway/

Just How Bad Is It Going To Get: JPMorgan Halts All Non-Government Guaranteed Small Business Loans

With America's small and medium businesses suffering from cardiac arrest now that the economy is in a indefinite coma, it is hardly a surprise that the largest US bank, JPMorgan Chase has been inundated with more than 375,000 requests for $40bn of loans under the $350bn small business rescue scheme, a higher number of applications than any other bank, its consumer head Gordon Smith told President Donald Trump on Tuesday.

It is in this context that the FT reports that Chase has temporarily stopped accepting applications for small business loans outside the government’s Paycheck Protection Program. A Chase spokeswoman told the FT that the bank was now devoting all of its small business underwriting resources to processing these applications and had “temporarily suspended” taking other applications from small businesses. The bank was continuing to process non-PPP applications already in train, she said, and would revisit the issue of new applications next week.

This means that any small business that have borrowing needs beyond the PPP’s limits, or if they want to borrow for purposes beyond wage bills, they would need to seek other facilities or other lenders.

Ok fine, JPM is so busy trying to bail out mom and pop shops, it doesn't have time to deal with anyone else. Why is that a story? Here's why.

https://www.zerohedge.com/economics/just-how-bad-it-going-get-jpmorgan-halts-all-non-government-guaranteed-small-business

OPCW points finger at Syrian government for 2017 chemical attacks amid whistleblowers scandal

The OPCW has issued its first report explicitly blaming Syria’s government for chemical attacks on civilians, pointing to three incidents in 2017 and saying there’re “reasonable grounds” to believe the air force was responsible.

“Attacks of such a strategic nature would have only taken place on the basis of orders from the higher authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic military command,” Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) coordinator Santiago Oñate-Laborde said. In the end, the ITT “was unable to identify any other plausible explanation,” he added.

The chemical weapons watchdog maintains that Syrian Arab Air Force pilots flying a Sukhoi Su-22 military plane dropped a sarin bomb in southern Ltamenah on March 24, 2017. On March 25, the OPCW claims, a helicopter belonging to the Syrian Arab Air Force dropped a chlorine cylinder on the Ltamenah hospital which went through the roof and ruptured. Another bomb containing Sarin was dropped in southern Ltamenah on March 30 by an Su-22 military plane, the report said.

OPCW Director-General Fernando Arias noted in a statement that the IIT is “not a judicial or quasi-judicial body with the authority to assign individual criminal responsibility.” It is now up to the Executive Council and the Conference of the States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the United Nations Secretary-General, and the international community as a whole “to take any further action they deem appropriate and necessary.”

While the mainstream media will likely take the latest claims from the OPCW entirely at face value, the new report comes as the watchdog is embroiled in a major whistleblower scandal over alleged inconsistencies in a previous probe into a separate “chemical attack” in Douma in 2018, which at the time was used to justify US, British and French airstrikes on Syria.

But two former senior OPCW inspectors had revealed that the watchdog had tried to cover up inconvenient evidence in the Douma investigation, which did not suit the mainstream Damascus-blaming story. Veteran inspector Ian Henderson and another former employee known as ‘Alex’ challenged the organization’s narrative which too strongly implied the government’s responsibility, but the OPCW has since tried to discredit them.

In mid-March, a fourth whistleblower came forward to support their claim, saying that other employees had been “frightened into silence.”

Henderson, who led the probe on the ground in Douma, had concluded that cylinders were likely manually placed on the ground, indicating the attack could have been staged by anti-government militias to frame the Syrian government — but his evidence was dismissed without explanation.

The fourth whistleblower said Henderson and ‘Alex’ were “trying to protect the integrity of the organization which has been hijacked and brought into shameful disrepute.”

https://www.rt.com/news/485314-opcw-report-syria-chemical/

Bolsonaro says experimental Covid-19 drug could save “thousands of lives” & thanks India for approving exports of raw ingredients

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has thanked Indian PM Narendra Modi after New Delhi gave the nod to continue exporting ingredients for hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), stressing that the drug could save thousands of lives.

After a series of requests to the Indian leader to allow exports of HCQ – an anti-malarial drug that has shown early promise as a treatment for Covid-19 – Bolsonaro said Brazil would soon receive “raw materials” to continue producing the drug itself, thanking Modi for the gesture.

“I am grateful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and to the Indian people, for this very timely help to the Brazilian people,” Bolsonaro said in an address on Wednesday.

The Brazilian president has repeatedly touted HCQ’s effectiveness against the lethal virus gripping Brazil and some 180 other nations. Though the drug is still undergoing clinical trials for treating Covid-19, Bolsonaro said the decision to use it now “could go down in history as having saved thousands of lives in Brazil.”

“After listening to doctors, researchers and heads of state from other countries, I began to publicize … the possibility of treating the disease,” the president said in the same address, adding that he recently spoke with a doctor who had used the drug to treat “dozens of patients” and “all of them were saved.”

Earlier this week, New Delhi lifted a blanket export ban on HCQ, allowing shipments of the drug to resume to the US and other nations hit hardest by the coronavirus after a brief spat with Washington. US President Donald Trump initially slammed the export restriction, threatening “retaliation,” but thanked Modi after the ban was overturned.

Taking a less confrontational approach, Bolsonaro penned a letter to his Indian counterpart last weekend, drawing comparisons between Hindu and Christian religious figures and likening HCQ to “holy medicine” that must be shared with Brazil.

Just as Lord Hanuman brought the holy medicine from the Himalayas to save the life of Lord Rama’s brother Laksmana, and Jesus healed those who were sick … India and Brazil will overcome this global crisis by joining forces and sharing blessings for the sake of all people.

While conclusive proof is still lacking, thousands of doctors in some 30 countries have pointed to anecdotal evidence that HCQ could help patients with Covid-19, according to a recent survey, while several small-scale studies have also indicated its effectiveness. The drug – used to treat lupus and arthritis in addition to malaria – was previously considered as a possible therapeutic for SARS and MERS, which both belong to the same family of viruses as Covid-19.

https://www.rt.com/news/485342-bolsonaro-modi-coronavirus-drug/

>>8731892

FFS where you been