Today's News: February 03, 2020

World News

Is This The Real Reason Why The Coronavirus Is Absolutely Devastating China?

Michael Snyder – Sometimes we overlook the obvious because we don’t like the implications. Right now, China is being hit with plague after plague. As I discussed earlier today, the epicenter for the worst coronavirus outbreak in modern human history is in China, the worst African Swine Fever pandemic ever recorded has wiped out “about two-thirds of China’s swine herd”, and now an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu threatens to decimate Chinese chicken production. The attention of the entire planet is now keenly focused on China, and it appears that things are only going to get worse in the months ahead.
Meanwhile, the Chinese government has initiated a campaign that is designed to stamp out the Christian faith throughout the entire nation. If you are under the age of 18, you are no longer allowed to go to church in China. Officials all over the country are forcing churches to replace pictures of Jesus with pictures of President Xi Jinping, hymns are being replaced with patriotic songs praising the communist government, and there has even been talk of rewriting the Bible to bring it more into alignment with communist values.
It has been estimated that the number of Bible-believing Christians in China now exceeds the number of Bible-believing Christians in the United States, and obviously a lot of the underground churches did not want to go along with these deeply repressive measures. So Chinese officials have conducted mass arrests, they have shut down thousands of churches, and Bibles have been publicly burned to send a message to others that may be thinking of attempting to defy the government.
I would use the word “tyranny” to describe what is happening, but it doesn’t seem nearly strong enough. The following is how the New York Post described the current state of affairs in China…
Catholic churches torn down or denuded of their crosses and statues. Images of the Madonna and Child replaced with pictures of “People’s Leader” Xi Jinping. Signs posted outside evangelical churches forbidding anyone under the age of 18 from entering. The Ten Commandments painted over with quotes from Xi.
These are just some of the ways that the Chinese Communist Party is persecuting Christians in China
Things have gotten so bad that Chinese officials even continue to persecute some Christians after they have died.
And now a new set of extremely harsh regulations just went into effect on February 1st, and these new rules will make every major decision that a church makes subject to government approval…
On Feb. 1, 2020, new restrictions on all forms of religious activity came into force.
The “Control Measures for Religious Groups,” as the 41 new rules are called, deal with everything from the holding of rites and rituals, to the selection of leaders and annual meetings, to the hiring of staff and the handling of funds. All of these must be reported — in advance, no less — to the comrades at the “Religious Affairs” office for their approval.
In essence, every last shred of religious freedom is being entirely wiped out.
The new regulations require “all religious personnel to support and implement total submission to the Chinese Communist Party”, and Dr. Bob Fu is warning that they will basically make every religious institution in China an arm of the national government
In addition, the Chinese carefully monitor church attendance, and thanks to technology that is now easier than ever.
In fact, at many churches people have to line up “for facial recognition checks” before they are allowed to enter.
There is no doubt that the communist Chinese government has declared war on the Christian faith.
And it is also certainly true that China is now being hit by plagues that are absolutely unprecedented in modern Chinese history.
Could it be possible that there is a connection?

Shocking Footage Inside China’s Newly-Constructed Hospitals, ‘Like Jail Cells Where You Go To Die’

ZeorHedge – China has gone from constructing ghost cities to now erecting hospitals to treat coronavirus patients. As we’ve reported, China could be hiding the true number of confirmed cases and deaths, and in some cases, not reporting the deaths at all, and “immediately” hauling the bodies down the street to a local crematorium, effectively burning the evidence.
The government’s official death toll on Saturday night topped 300, with more than 14,550 cases reported globally.
China is attempting to show the world, it has been proactive and responsible during the outbreak, and in one way that it can optically please everyone that it has everything under control, is to build a hospital in Wuhan, the epicenter of where the deadly virus supposedly began.
UK researchers have warned upwards of 75,000 could be infected in Wuhan, as more than 137,600 have been placed under observation across China.
While China and the World Health Organization (WHO) attempt to calm fears of a deadly virus outbreak, the actions by Beijing in locking down dozens of cities and quarantining 50 million people or more, suggest the situation remains severe.
RT News reports that Wuhan’s new 25,000-square-meter hospital, one of two new facilities commissioned in response to the coronavirus outbreak, has been completed.
Construction started on Jan. 24, has made national press and headlines across the world for China’s quick response in handling the epidemic. Though as we’ve noted before, China stalled for weeks if not a month, with minimal action in attempting to contain the virus and notify world health officials about the developing incident, hence why confirmed cases are now seen across the world.
State-owned China Global Television Network (CGTN) published satellite images of the facility’s construction, declaring the hospital was completed on Saturday and can start receiving patients next week.

Zerohedge Suspended On Twitter

First it was Facebook, then all of New Zealand; now Twitter has decided to suspend Zero Hedge.
Just as in the prior bans, which were eventually overturned, it is unclear what prompted Twitter’s abrupt censorship: the only notification we received from twitter was the following:
What appears to have happened is that twitter received a complaint from the website best known for publishing the discredited Steele dossier when no other media outlet would touch it, and making cat slideshows of course, Buzzfeed, in which someone called Ryan Broderick (who appears to have a rather “colorful” history), writes that Zero Hedge “has released the personal information of a scientist from Wuhan, China, falsely accusing them of creating the coronavirus as a bioweapon, in a plot it said is the real-life version of the video game Resident Evil.”
A few points: the article referenced by Buzz Feed, “Is This The Man Behind The Global Coronavirus Pandemic?”, is as the title implies, a question, and one which considering the huge significance and life or death import of the Coronavirus pandemic, has to be answered, especially since even the establishment’s Foreign Policy magazine writes bat soup, which is widely being cited and circulated by the mainstream press as the cause of the coronavirus breakout, is not the cause of the Wuhan virus. The widely read website Health.com also chimes in: “No, Coronavirus Was Not Caused by ‘Bat Soup‘”. Meanwhile, Business Insider writes “Experts think the Wuhan coronavirus jumped from bats to snakes to people. Bats have been the source of at least 4 pandemics.”
So considering that Peng Zhou, who currently works at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, is the Leader of the Bat Virus Infection and Immunization Group at the Institute, the question certainly is a reasonable one and, in a normal world, would demand an answer from the established media (assuming it wasn’t afraid of risking lucrative Chinese funding) instead of leaving it to “fringe” websites.
The impetus to ask the question if the disease originated at the Wuhan Institute of Virology is especially relevant in light of social media reports such as this one which claims to “have evidence here that the outbreak originated from Wuhan P4 Research Institute. You need to find a truly patriotic journalist to publish it to the public. You can personally trust me to provide a complete chain of evidence. Thank you.”
So did we have a right to ask the question if there is an alternative version for the emergence of the Coronavirus pandemic, especially with hundreds if not thousands of lives at stake? Absolutely.
As for Broderick’s statement that Peng was “accused falsely” we wonder how he knows this: did he speak to Peng? Did he get any comments? Did he get an official denial? No, he did not: as he writes, “BuzzFeed News has reached out to the scientist, whom it is declining to name.” So, it actually turns out that it is Buzzfeed that is once again presenting a false statement as fact, something Buzzfeed has been accused of doing over and over and over.
Meanwhile, those who wonder if Dr. Zhou has any link to the possible emergence of the Coronavirus following years of experimenting with bats, we urge you to read our full article instead of relying on the hearsay of ideologically biased journalists.
Second, and contrary to the claims presented by Buzzfeed, we did not release any “personal information”: Peng Zhou (周鹏) is a public figure, and all the contact information that we presented was pulled from his publicly posted bio found on a website at the Wuhan Institute of Virology which anyone with access to the internet can pull from the following URL: http://sourcedb.whiov.cas.cn/zw/rck/201705/t20170505_4783973.html, which is also the information we used.

Russia may deport any foreigners found with coronavirus, prime minister says

CNBC – Foreigners could be deported from Russia if they test positive for the coronavirus, the prime minister said Monday, according to country’s media outlets.
Newly appointed Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said a national plan to prevent the spread of the infection in Russia has been signed.
“It will allow us to deport foreigners if they are diagnosed with this disease and introduce special restrictions, including isolation and quarantine,” the prime minister said in comments reported by the Tass news agency and Interfax.
Mishustin added that Russia has “all the necessary medications, protective means to counter the coronavirus spread.”
On Sunday, Mishustin signed a decree that put the virus, known formally as the “novel coronavirus 2019-nCoV,” in the list of diseases posing a threat to citizens, Tass reported. It said that until recently the list, compiled in 2004, included “15 diseases such as HIV, malaria, tuberculosis, Siberian plague, cholera and plague.”
Russia reportedly plans to start evacuating its citizens from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the outbreak originated, on Monday. More than 600 Russians are in the Chinese city, according to a Reuters report citing Russia’s deputy prime minister.

Coronavirus: 438 Wuhan Travellers ‘Lost’ in The United Kingdom as 11 More Brits are Evacuated

Breitbart – The government of the United Kingdom is currently trying to track down 438 people who travelled to the UK from Wuhan before the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) quarantined the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak.
As the death toll of the deadly coronavirus has climbed to over 300 victims within China, health officials in the United Kingdom are desperately trying to locate a third of the 1,561 people who travelled to Britain from the Chinese city of Wuhan.
At least 438 people who are still within the incubation period for the coronavirus, are currently unaccounted for in the UK, according to The Times.
Eleven British citizens were evacuated from Wuhan last night, joining the 83 who are already in quarantine at Arrowe Park Hospital in Merseyside, England.
One of the passengers fell ill during the flight and was separated from the other ten, reports the Liverpool Echo.
“During the flight, one of the passengers started to feel slightly unwell and self-isolated immediately. Upon landing, that passenger remains isolated and was taken to another NHS hospital for tests” wrote Janelle Holmes, the chief executive of Arrowe Park.

Study: Coronavirus Outbreak Could Get Worse Over Next Two Weeks

Newsmax – The coronavirus outbreak could be even worse than it already appears — and could get dramatically worse over the next two weeks, according to a new study.
The startling conclusion published in Lancet was based on a study by University of Hong Kong scientists who found as many as 75,815 people in Wuhan had been infected with the coronavirus by Jan. 25, based on an assumption that each infected person could have passed the virus to 2.68 others. It also said the epidemic was doubling every 6.4 days.
If the virus was spreading at a similar level around the country, “we inferred that epidemics are already growing exponentially in multiple major cities of China with a lag time behind the Wuhan outbreak of about 1-2 weeks,” the scientists wrote.
There’s also been a revision in how the virus is spread, the Washington Post reported.
Medical advice over the past two weeks has emphasized the need to wear masks to stop transmission through respiratory droplets from the mouth and nose. But Chinese authorities are now saying that the virus can be passed from fecal matter, the Post reported.
In Shenzhen, on China’s southern border with Hong Kong, scientists at the Third People’s Hospital said the stool samples of infected people had tested positive for the virus, further suggesting that it could be transmitted through feces in addition to through respiratory droplets, the Post reported.
According to the Post, the number of coronavirus infections has continued to rise rapidly, passing the total infected by SARS, with confirmed cases increasing by almost 2,000 between Saturday and Sunday in China.

Venezuela’s Capital is Booming. Is This the End of the Revolution?

DNYUZ – Swaying to the D.J. and sipping cocktails on the open terrace of a mountain side bar, a party of private-school teenagers in Prada sneakers and Chanel bags looked down over the shantytowns of Venezuela’s capital, Caracas, spread over the valley below.
On the poorer outskirts of the city, residents continue to struggle with water shortages and malnutrition. And in the countryside beyond, Venezuela is falling apart, with residents lacking even the most basic services, like electricity and the police.
But the wealthier areas dotting the capital have undergone a striking economic boom in recent months.
Shopping malls that were deserted six months ago are bustling, and imported SUVs course through the streets. New restaurants and bars are popping up weekly in the wealthier parts of town, their tables packed with foreign businessmen, fashionable locals and government insiders.
“The people are tired of getting by,” said Raul Anzola, the manager of the 1956 Lounge & Bar, which hosted the party. “They want to spend, they want to live.”
Almost overnight, the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro, has made that possible — for some.
With the country’s economy derailed by years of mismanagement and corruption, then pushed to the brink of collapse by American sanctions, Mr. Maduro was forced to relax the economic restraints that once defined his socialist government and provided the foundation for his political legitimacy.
The changes have helped transform Venezuela in ways few in Washington or Caracas had envisioned, but that are reminiscent of how its allies, Cuba and Nicaragua, relaxed Communist policies and allowed some private investment when faced with economic collapse in previous decades.
After years of nationalizing businesses, determining the exchange rate and setting the price of basic goods — measures that have long contributed to chronic shortages — Mr. Maduro seems to have made peace with the private sector and let it loose. And while the country’s economy continues to contract overall, the declining regulations have encouraged companies serving the wealthy or the export market to invest again.
Dollars are now accepted everywhere, despite Mr. Maduro’s frequent denouncing of the United States as the root of all of Venezuela’s problems. The country’s currency, the bolívar, made worthless by hyperinflation, is hard to find.
“I don’t see it badly, this process they call dollarization,” Mr. Maduro said in a television interview in December, referring to the free circulation of dollars. “Thank God it exists.”
Seeing shelves stocked again has also helped ease tensions in the capital, where anger over the lack of basic necessities has, over the years, helped fuel mass protests.

U.S. News, Politics & Government

US troops who recently traveled to China quarantined in South Korea

The Hill – U.S. military officials in South Korea announced on Sunday that a 14-day self-quarantine has been imposed on U.S. troops who have recently traveled to China, although it was emphasized there have been no known cases of service members visiting the areas of China hit hardest by the deadly coronavirus.
The 14-day quarantine applies to any service members returning from mainland China to South Korea on or after Jan. 19, U.S. Forces Korea (USFK) said in a statement.

3 More Coronavirus Cases Confirmed in California, Total Rises to 11 in U.S.

Breitbart – Three additional cases of the deadly Chinese coronavirus were confirmed in California on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases to 11 in the United States.
Two patients are receiving treatment for the viral illness in San Benito County and another in Santa Clara County.

Twitter bombarded with conspiracy theories after release of final Iowa poll AXED ahead of Democratic caucuses

RT – The decision to cancel publication of the final Iowa poll before the Democratic caucuses has led to incendiary accusations that organizers had no legitimate reason to pull the survey and simply wanted to suppress its results.
A methodological error has been cited as the reason why the highly-anticipated final poll, originally scheduled to be released on the eve of Iowa’s Democratic caucuses, would not be made public.
The CNN/Des Moines Register/Mediacom survey, conducted by respected polling agency Selzer & Co, is viewed as one of the most accurate — and important — polls during the presidential primaries season. Several polls are released in the run-up to the Iowa caucuses, but the final survey is seen as by far the most consequential.
The Register announced in a brief statement on Saturday evening that it received a complaint that a candidate’s name was omitted in at least one interview in which a respondent was asked to name their preferred candidate. Subsequent reports said that Pete Buttigieg’s name had either been accidentally omitted or mispronounced by a poll worker during at least one call.
The Register has published the poll for 76 years, correctly predicting the winner in ten out of the last twelve presidential primary races. The Iowa caucuses will be held on Monday, with the victor likely to receive a major boost in nationwide polls.
The paper’s decision to withhold the survey’s results sent social media into a frenzy. Supporters of Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders — who led the last Iowa Poll, published on January 10, by three points — theorized that the Register and its polling partners were trying to suppress Sanders’ growing lead in the state.
Other fans of the Vermont lawmaker shrugged off the unorthodox move, claiming that the huge crowds at Bernie rallies across Iowa reveal just as much as any poll could.
People “feeling the Bern” in Iowa weren’t the only ones raising their eyebrows, though. Rumors began to spread that the poll was nixed because it had Andrew Yang with over 20%.
Whatever the results actually showed, many Twitter pundits agreed that the numbers were not favorable for “establishment” candidates such as Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren and Michael Bloomberg.
The surge of conspiracies puzzled journalists covering the election, who pointed out that it would be odd to try and sabotage Sanders by omitting Buttigieg’s name.
Others noted that polls are designed to factor in possible errors or variables that could affect results, and that it seemed “crazy” to pull the entire survey, as opposed to simply making necessary computational adjustments.

Bannon: Trump Shouldn’t Deliver SOTU Until AFTER Senate Impeachment Acquittal

Infowars – “If I was the president, I’d say, ‘Hey look. Let’s do it the following Tuesday, let’s do it the night of New Hampshire. I’ll address the nation and see how they like that.’”
Bannon went on to say that Trump should unleash the full weight of the Senate’s investigative powers to expose the Democrat coup against him.
“Trump’s right. It is the crime of the century,” Bannon said. “There was an attempted coup here. That’s what has to come out. And you don’t have to depend upon conservative media to do that.”
“Let’s use the official apparatus of what the Framers set up,” he continued. “We need to bring the whistleblower, we need to bring Adam Schiff as a fact witness, we need the second whistleblower, we need the entire apparatus. We need their phone records, their text messages, and we need to have them up there addressing the American people.”
“Nancy Pelosi and these people are not going to stop. The formal acquittal vote on Wednesday is just the curtain coming down on one act. They’re going to continue on,” he added.

Trump Calls Bernie Sanders ‘A Communist,’ Blasts Other Democrats In Super Bowl Pregame Interview

Daily Caller – President Donald Trump called Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders “a communist” and blasted other Democrats in an interview that aired Sunday before Super Bowl LIV.
Speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump was asked to respond to some of the names of Democrats who are seeking their party’s presidential nomination. When asked about Sanders, Trump replied, “Well, I think he’s a communist. I mean you know, look. I think of communism when I think of Bernie. Now you could say socialist, but didn’t he get married in Moscow?”
Hannity reminded the president that Sanders and his wife honeymooned in Moscow.
“I’m not knocking it, but I think of Bernie sort of as a socialist but far beyond a socialist.”
But Trump allowed that Sanders is “true to what he believes,” which is more than the president could say about Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
“You mention now, Elizabeth Warren. She’s not true to it. I call her fairy tale because everything is a fairy tale. That’s how Pocahontas got started. Everything is a fairy tale. This woman can’t tell the truth.”
As for fellow billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who was just cleared to enter the next Democratic presidential debate when the Democratic National Committee changed its rules, Trump dismissed him as diminutive.

WATCH: Buttigieg Refuses To Walk Back Previous Statement That Trump Supporters Are ‘At Best, Looking The Other Way On Racism’

Daily Wire – On Sunday, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” with host Jake Tapper. During the segment, he was asked about his previous broad characterization of individuals who support President Trump.
Tapper asked: “One of your closing arguments in Iowa is that you can win over Republican voters. I know a number of your precinct captains are former Trump voters … but Republicans have been seizing, including in a new Trump ad, on a statement you made, saying, ‘Anyone who supported this President is, at best, looking the other way on racism.’ You’ve also said that on my show. That’s almost 63 million Americans who you’re painting with a pretty broad brush. Do you regret saying that at all?”
Buttigieg replied:
No, I’m very concerned about the racial division that this president has fostered, and I’m meeting a lot of voters who are no longer willing to look the other way on that, looking for a new political home, and I think it’s one of the reasons that we have seen so many people – in addition to the die-hard Democrats who are coming to our events – we’re seeing independents and a remarkable number of people who tell me that they are those future former Republicans that I like to talk about in our campaign. And it’s not that I am pretending to be more conservative than I am, but that if we don’t agree on everything, we can at least agree on turning the page and moving past what this president has done to the country.

Oregon makes it illegal for cops to look for other crimes during traffic stops

Law Enforcement Today – The Oregon Supreme Court has decided that police can no longer inquire about criminal behavior outside of whatever a police officer has pulled someone over for within the state.
What does that mean?
Essentially, cops can no longer use a broken taillight or a failure to signal as a justification for scouting a driver’s car for illegal guns or drugs.
The irony of this ruling is that it spawned from a police officer who asked during a traffic stop if he may search a vehicle, to which the driver consented, and the officer found some meth. Apparently, police are no longer allowed to stumble upon crimes when stopping for traffic infractions.
The ruling forces officers to stick to questions “reasonably related” to the reason the driver was pulled over, basically hindering law enforcement’s ability to turn a routine traffic stop into the discovery of a more egregious offense.
Law enforcement agencies are engaged in several stages of reviewing the ruling and drafting new procedures for officers.
While the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office and the Salem Police Department said they were both in anticipation of direction from their district and city attorneys, correspondingly, police departments in Beaverton and Gresham, as well as the Oregon State Police, were working on a training announcement related to the new guidelines. The Portland Police Bureau said it is reviewing its training protocols and updating officers as well.
While numerous agencies have directed officers to keep the conversation related to the purpose of the initial stop, they stated that if there’s legitimate evidence of other offenses while the stop is being worked, officers may take measures to confirm or dispel their suspicion.
Sergeant Danny DiPietro, a spokesman for the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, commented on the situation.
“If a deputy pulls someone over for a traffic violation, walks up, smells the odor of alcohol and sees blood shot eyes, poor coordination in their hands, that would establish reasonable suspicion for a DUI. Then they can inquire about that crime.”
While the aforementioned inquiries are protected, police can no longer simply question those stopped about possible infractions that are not directly related to the stop without credible suspicion.
“Each officer or deputy in this case are going to have to change the way they conduct their traffic stops on a day to day basis. It’s very significant,” DiPietro commented.

VIDEO: Jay Z, Beyonce Refuse to Stand For National Anthem During Super Bowl

National File – Beyonce and Jay Z, attending the Super Bowl with their child Blue Ivy, both sat during Demi Lovato’s performance of the National Anthem during the opening moments of Super Bowl LIV.
Video uploaded by the Demi Lovato News Media Twitter account seems to confirm reports that the American music stars did not stand for the National Anthem, seemingly in an homage to former football player Colin Kaepernick, who led to a series of boycotts and national controversy when he knelt for the anthem.
“Beyonce and Jay Z watching Demi perform the National Anthem at the #SuperBowl,” wrote the account.
The family was seen arriving at the stadium hours earlier with security.
“Beyonce and Jay Z have just arrived at the Hard Rock Stadium,” wrote Moe Samir on Twitter.
No strangers to political activism, Jay Z and Beyonce famously performed concerts for failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016.
In the aftermath of Kaepernick’s infamous protest, sports brands have continued to signal their virtue. Late last year, after pulling a Betsy Ross flag design from their collection, Nike released a new line of shoes commemorating the kneeling protest.

WATCH: J-Lo and Shakira Super Bowl Halftime Show Features Kids in Cages

Breitbart – The Super Bowl halftime show with Jennifer Lopez and Shakira, appeared to feature several children in cages.
Jennifer Lopez’s 11-year-old daughter, Emme Maribel Muniz, crawled out of a cage before she joined her mother and began singing.
In all, roughly a dozen children crawled out of cages as the song Born in the U.S.A. pulsated throughout the stadium.
Emme Maribel Muniz also sang her mother’s hit song, Let’s Get Loud during the cage scene.
“The kids eventually joined Emme onstage and surrounded her as a backing choir, all in white sweatshirts with rhinestone American flags emblazoned across the front,” Billboard reported.
The display of children in cages, could be a reference to the Department of Homeland Security policy of separating children at the border from their parents and putting them in areas sectioned off by expanded metal fences.
“In June 2018, President Trump signed an executive order to end child separation at the border, but the apprehension of family units at the border have increased since then,” Breitbart’s Charlie Spiering reported.
“Lopez and Shakira were recruited for the show by Jay Z shortly after he announced he would be partnering with the NFL on social justice efforts and helping it ‘enhance’ its entertainment offerings last year,” the Hill reported.

Economy & Business

China Bans Short Selling, Plans Massive Liquidity Injection To Prevent Market Crash

Judging by the collapse in Chinese futures and the Offshore Yuan over the past week, China’s key cash equity index – The Shanghai Composite – is set to plunge around 6-8% as the market re-opens for the first time since Lunar New Year (and the coronavorus chaos).
And Offshore Yuan is fighting at the 7.00/USD level…
Which of course will not do for the nation has to maintain the appearance of a minor flesh-wound than a catastrophic coronary. And so, as Bloomberg reports, China unveiled a raft of measures over the weekend to aid companies hit by the coronavirus outbreak and also shore up financial markets.
Quarantative easing?
The People’s Bank of China announced that the total injection announced was 1.2 trillion yuan, the largest single-day addition of its kind in data going back to 2004. The money will be supplied using reverse repurchase agreements to ensure liquidity is “reasonably ample” during the outbreak, according to the PBOC.
The new measures follow the announcement last week that China’s biggest banks will lower interest rates for firms in Hubei, the center of the outbreak.
However, as Tommy Xie, an economist at Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp notes, the net effect of this admittedly huge liquidity injection is much lower as there are more than 1 trillion yuan of short-term funds scheduled to mature on Monday.
“The amount of the net injection isn’t huge. The PBOC may want to retain some flexibility, which means it can add more liquidity in the rest of the week if the sentiment is too bad.”
In addition to the concrete measures, Bloomberg notes that senior officials from various regulators and the central bank put out statements urging brokerages and funds to guide investors to “rationally and objectively” evaluate the impact of the epidemic, calling it “short-term and temporary.”
Financial regulators said they have “full confidence” they can keep the economy stable in the long term, according to the Saturday statement, which urged investors not to be affected by “irrational sentiment.”
We are not quite sure what they mean by “irrational sentiment,” as it seems entirely rational to expect economic growth to slow and earnings to be pressured lower given the nation is practically on total lockdown for the foreseeable future.

Brexit trade deal clash: UK and EU begin sparring over rules

Al Jazeera – The European Union and Britain clashed over a post-Brexit trade deal on Monday with Prime Minister Boris Johnson insisting he need not sign up to the bloc’s rules and Brussels warning of tariffs and quotas unless he did.
Britain wants to negotiate a trade deal by the end of 2020, though EU leaders say the further Britain diverges from their rules the less access it will have to the EU market.

Science & Technology

Fears UK’s new 5G network could ‘lower sperm counts and sterilise young men’

Daily Star – There are fears that increased levels of radiation in the UK as 5G coverage spreads across the country could seriously impact human fertility levels.
The rollout of the high-speed network, which was launched in Britain in May last year, has sparked protests from those who believe higher levels of electro-magnetic radiation (EMR) in the atmosphere are dangerous and 5G’s potential health effects need to be tested.
A letter presented to Downing Street last week urged Prime Minister Boris Johnson to open an inquiry into “establishing the true impact of wireless communication systems on the health of the UK population”.
“We are extremely concerned by the vulnerability of our young and very young people to the harmful effects of pulsed RF radiation,” read the letter which was handed over along with two petitions, one of which was signed by 268 physicians and scientists.
“Study upon study is showing that this non-ionising radiation is causing oxidative DNA damage in cellular systems and this may be particularly harmful to the reproductive system of young boys, adolescents and young men.”
Sperm counts among British men have fallen by 29% in the last decade. Multiple international studies have found a link between increased mobile phone use and a drop in both the quantity and quality of sperm.
A 2016 review by the Society for Reproduction and Fertility reported that of 27 studies investigating the effects of mobile phone EMR on the male reproductive system, 21 resulted in negative consequences of exposure.
In a 2018 article called ‘Wi-Fi is an important threat to human health’ which was published in the journal Environmental Research, Dr Martin Pall from Washington State University cites a 1997 experiment with chilling results.
Two pairs of young mice were placed into cages with different levels of exposure to a functioning antenna, although the exposure levels at both sites were well within safety guidelines.
The pair in the cage with a higher exposure level produced one litter of smaller than normal babies, a second litter with fewer than normal babies, and demonstrated infertility or very low fertility from this point on.
The pair exposed to a lower level of EMR produced four litters with fewer numbers of babies each time, before they became completely infertile.

Health

New Study: One Egg per Day Is Heart Healthy

Newsmax – It’s no yolk: Americans for decades have gotten dietary whiplash from the back-and-forth science on whether eggs are good for them.
But a major new study will have many egg-lovers relieved: You can enjoy an egg a day without having to worry about your heart.
“Moderate egg intake, which is about one egg per day in most people, does not increase the risk of cardiovascular disease or mortality even if people have a history of cardiovascular disease or diabetes,” said study lead author Mahshid Dehghan. She’s an investigator at the Population Health Research Institute (PHRI) of McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada.
Most of the people in the studies had one or fewer eggs a day, suggesting that this level of consumption is safe, Dehghan said.
“Also, no association was found between egg intake and blood cholesterol, its components or other risk factors,” she said in a McMaster news release. “These results are robust and widely applicable to both healthy individuals and those with vascular disease.”
Eggs are an inexpensive source of essential nutrients, but some nutritional guidelines have advised that people should limit intake to fewer than three eggs a week, due to concerns they increase the risk of heart disease. But as study principal investigator Salim Yusuf pointed out, prior studies about eggs and health have yielded conflicting findings.

The One Spice This Expert Wants You To Add To Your Spice Rack

Mind Body Green – It’s time for spices to get the recognition they deserve. Feeling low-energy? Add some cloves to your tea or cider. Want to boost the flavor of a boring salad? Sprinkle on some coriander. Looking to curb inflammation and stabilize blood sugar? Cinnamon is your guy. Needless to say, adding spices to your favorite dishes is worth it, due to their plethora of health benefits and flavor profiles (plus, they’ll make your whole home smell heavenly).
And if you’re looking for a new seasoning to add to your collection, spice expert Kanchan Koya, Ph.D., has the answer. When we asked Koya what spice she wants to see people using every day, she didn’t even hesitate: Sumac, she says, is a spice worth including on the rack.
What is sumac?
According to Koya, sumac has been used in Middle Eastern cuisine for centuries but is a “relative newcomer” in the West. Coming from the sumac bush commonly found in East Asia, the spice is produced when the bush’s deep red berries are dried and ground up.
Along with its beneficial phytonutrients and antioxidant compounds (called anthocyanins), sumac can be used as a powerful anti-inflammatory. Koya says these properties are indicated by the spice’s “beautiful burgundy-purple color.”
Anthocyanins have been used to treat a variety of health conditions, including high blood pressure, colds, and viruses. In a 2014 study, sumac was found to be effective in treating patients with type 2 diabetes, helping to lower blood sugar levels.
How do you use it?
For how to use the spice, Koya recommends sprinkling it anywhere you can. As a topping, she suggests using sumac to season your hummus. On main dishes? Any and all salads, fish, chicken, and even eggs. “It’s lemony, zingy, earthy, fruity notes will elevate any dish,” she says.

Vitamin D and Normal Intestinal Bacteria for Optimal Sleep

Mercola – Vitamin D deficiency has become epidemic in many parts of the world as we’ve been taught to avoid the sun. Lower vitamin D levels have produced two unexpected consequences: poor sleep and a dangerous change in the intestinal microbiome.
Vitamin D is needed to produce acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that helps you get into the deeper, healing phases of sleep, and controls your normal paralysis during deep sleep.
Certain B vitamins also play an important role in sleep. For example, B5 — pantothenic acid — makes coenzyme A, which you use to make acetylcholine.
If you’re healthy you have four types of gut bacteria living inside you. Those bacteria need your vitamin D to grow properly, and in return they make eight B vitamins that you need. Without enough vitamin D the healthy bacteria are replaced by others that don’t require vitamin D but are unable to make the B vitamins that you need to sleep normally.
Ideally, you need to normalize your gut microbiome so that your gut bacteria make all the B vitamins your body and brain need.
To normalize your gut microbiome, maintain a vitamin D level over 40 ng/mL and take B50 or B100 (all eight B’s at 100 mg each) for three months