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Biological warfare is an established weapon of war. From the disease-based experimentation on humans mounted by Japans Unit 731 during World War II to the Soviet Unions development of natural diseases such asanthrax into weaponized pathogens in its illicit Biopreparat research facilities, this is not a topic reserved to Tom Clancy novels or Mission Impossible movies.

As a result, it is reasonable to ask whether COVID-19, which originated in China and has taken more than 167,350 lives globally to date, is a naturally occurring disease or a man-made (or modified) agent of attack.

This is an especially justified question given that the geographic locus for the new coronavirus that causes the disease is Wuhan, home to one of communist Chinasinstitutes for virological research.

>>> When can America reopen? The National Coronavirus Recovery Commission, a project of The Heritage Foundation, is gathering Americas top thinkers together to figure that out.Learn more here.

Recent media reports indicate that the virus that causes the disease COVID-19 indeed may have been accidentally leaked. Indeed, much analysis points to the possibility of a connection between the Chinese governmentswork on corona-type viruses and the novel coronavirus that has killed so many across the globe.

It is crucial for all Americansto understand the depths and extent of what Secretary of State Mike Pompeo hascalled Beijings coronavirus disinformation campaign.

To that end, here is the chronology of exactly what happened when, and how the communist regime in Beijing lied about it. (I am grateful to Pompeos team, especially the Bureau of Global Public Affairs, for compiling the original COVID-19 cover-up chronology.)

Nov. 17:The first case of someonein China suffering fromCOVID-19 is reported, according to government dataseen by theSouth China Morning Post.

Dec. 10:WeiGuixian, a seafoodmerchant in WuhansHuananmarket, began to feel sick. She will be discharged from the hospital in January, having survived thecoronavirus.

Dec. 27:ZhangJixian, a doctorfrom Hubei Provincial Hospital of Integrated Chinese and WesternMedicine,tellsChinas health authorities that a new disease affecting some 180 patients was caused by a newcoronavirus.

Dec. 26-30:Evidence of a new virus emergesfrom Wuhan patient data sent tomultipleChinese genomics companies.

Dec.31:Chinese officials alert theWorld Health Organizations China Country Office of several cases of pneumonia of unknown cause detected in Wuhan.

Jan. 9: The World Health Organization releases a statement on the cluster of pneumonia cases inWuhan.

Jan.11: Having provided the genomic sequence of the virus to national authorities Jan. 5 and seeing no action from them,professor ZhangYongzhenof theShanghai Public Health ClinicalCentrepublishesthe data onvirological.organd GenBank, allowing teams around the world to begin work on testing methods.

Jan. 14:The WHO announces for the first time that there may have been limitedhuman-to-human transmission of thevirus.

Jan. 18:Wuhan authorities go ahead with apotluck banquet for 40,000 families in an attempt to break a world record.

Jan. 20:Dr. Zhong Nanshan, a leading authority on respiratory health who was well known for his role in fighting SARS, confirmsin a TV interview that the diseaseisspreadingfrom person to person, a fact first identified by doctors in Wuhan in December. Zhong later will say that if the government had takenaction earlier, in December or even early January, the number of sick would have been greatly reduced.Wuhan Mayor ZhouXianwangsays that rules imposed by the central government in Beijing limit what he could disclose about the threat posed by the Wuhan virus.

Jan. 23: Chinese authorities lock downWuhan after allowing 5 million people to leave the city without screening amid the growing outbreak.

Feb. 7:Dr. Li Wenliangdies of COVID-19 after contracting it from a patient, five weeks after police detained him for trying to alert fellow doctors to the outbreak. His death triggers an outpouring of grief and anger at Chinese authorities.

***

Those are the crucial facts ofwhat happened in China last year and at the beginning of this year.

Another, just as important chronology exists, though: the timeline of how China hid the truth, destroyed crucial biological and genetic evidence, and intimidated those who tried to tell the truth about the Wuhan virus.

Dec. 26-30: The health commission in Chinas Hubei province orders a genomics company to stop testing and to destroy all samples of the new coronavirus.

Dec.31: Chinese internet authorities begincensoring terms from social media, including Wuhan unknown pneumonia, SARS variation, Wuhanseafood market, and related keywords and phrases critical of thegovernments handling of the infection.

Jan. 1:Authorities bring in for questioning eight doctors in Wuhan who had warned about the new virus via social mediain late December, including Li. They condemn the doctors for making false statements on the internet. Authorities also force Lito write a classic Maoist self-criticism denouncing his own prior statements.

Wuhan authorities close the citys seafood market, then disinfect it without swabbing individual animals and cagesfor samples ordrawing blood frominfected workers,eliminatingevidence of whichanimal might have been the source of the coronavirus and who had been infected but survived.

Jan.3: Chinastop healthauthority, theNational Health Commission,follows Hubeis health commissionby issuinga gag order directing that Wuhan pneumonia samples be moved todesignated state testing facilities or destroyed. The National HealthCommission also orders institutions not to publish any information related tothe unknown disease.

Jan. 10:Prominent Chinese governmentexpert WangGuangfatells state broadcaster China Central Televisionthat the Wuhan pneumonia was under control and mostly a mild condition.

Jan. 12: Authorities close Zhangslab in Shanghaifor rectificationone day after sharing genomic sequence data with the world for the first time.

Jan. 14:Plainclothes policedetain journalistswho are trying to report from WuhansJinyintanHospital, andforce them to erasetheirvideo footage and hand in their cellphones and cameras.

Jan. 15:LiQun, head of the emergency center at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, plays down the threat of human-to-human transmission on state television: After careful screening and prudent judgment, we have reached the latest understanding that the risk of human-to-human transmission is low.

Feb. 6: Chinas internet watchdog tightens controls on social media platformsfollowing Chinese President Xi Jinpings directive to strengthen online media control to maintain social stability.

Citizenjournalist and former human rights lawyer ChenQiushidisappears in Wuhan after posting mobile-phone videos of packedhospitals and distraught families.

Feb. 9:Citizen journalist andlocal businessman Fang Bin disappears after posting videos from Wuhan that circulated widelyon Chinese social media.

Feb. 15:Authorities arrest lawyer and civil rights activist XuZhiyong, who has been on the run fornearly two months, after he publishes a Feb. 4 essay calling on Xi to step down for suppressing information about the Wuhan virus.

Feb. 16: Authorities place Tsinghua University professor XuZhangrununder house arrest, bar him from social media, and cut him off from the internet after he publishes an essay declaring: The coronavirus epidemic has revealed the rotten core of Chinese governance.

Feb. 19: Beijing revokes the press credentials of threeWall Street Journalreporters who had covered the coronavirusoutbreak, including one who was reporting from Wuhan.

March 14:Real estate entrepreneur and activist RenZhiqiangdisappears in Beijing after criticizing Xis coronavirus response.

***

At the same time that the Chinese Communist Party and its security organs were suppressing the truth domestically and arresting those who knew the truth about the new coronavirus, its diplomats and bureaucrats initiated a global disinformation campaign.

Their most egregious lie was that COVID-19 originated in America and was brought to China by U.S. military personnel.

China hasnt just lied about thevirus that originated in Wuhan and may have escaped from its own virology lab.The communist regime also is using this global pandemic as a weapon ofdisinformation against the United States.

President Donald Trump is on the cusp of making the decision to reopen America. He has established a task force on restarting the economy, and key nongovernmental organizations, such as The Heritage Foundation, are submitting recommendations as to how we can revitalize and resurrect an economy that was the end of the world prior to our self-enforced lockdown.

The question now is will thedeaths of tens of thousands of Americans, in large part as a result of themendacity of communist China, be our new Sputnik Moment?

We have one strategic-level adversary in the world today.That adversary is China, and it has a plan to displace America and become, at the very least, a regional hegemon. China is using the coronavirus, man-made or not, as a tool in that plan.

We will come through this national emergency. But will we draw the right conclusions?

Follow this link:
The Truth About China and the Coronavirus - Daily Signal

Associated Press Published 10:53 p.m. ET April 20, 2020 | Updated 8:19 a.m. ET April 21, 2020

Media reports say North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is believed to be in "grave danger" after surgery, but officials in South Korea believe otherwise. USA TODAY

The South Korean government on Tuesday was looking into U.S. media reports saying North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was in fragile condition after surgery.

Officials from South Koreas Unification Ministry and National Intelligence Service said they couldnt immediately confirm the report. CNN cited an anonymous U.S. official who said Kim, believed to be 36, was in grave danger after an unspecified surgery.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is reported to be in grave condition following surgery in his home country. In this photo, people watch a TV screen showing a news program reporting about North Korea's firing projectiles with file footage of Kim at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Monday, March 2, 2020.(Photo: Lee Jin-man, AP)

The Unification Ministry, which deals with inter-Korean affairs, said it couldnt confirm another report by Daily NK, which cited anonymous sources to report that Kim was recovering from heart surgery in the capital Pyongyang and that his condition was improving.

Speculation about Kims health was raised after he missed the celebration of his late grandfather and state founder Kim Il Sung on April 15.

Credible information about North Korea and especially its leadership is difficult to obtain and even intelligence agencies have been wrong about its inner workings in the past.

Outside governments and media have a mixed record on tracking developments among North Koreas ruling elite, made difficult by Pyongyangs stringent control of information about them.

In 2016, South Korea media quoted intelligence officials as saying Kim Jong Un had Ri Yong Gil, a former North Korean military chief, executed for corruption and other charges. But North Koreas state media months later showed that Ri was alive and in possession of several new senior posts.

Kims absence from state media often triggers speculations or rumors about his health. In 2014, Kim vanished from the public eye for nearly six weeks before reappearing with a cane. South Koreas spy agency said days later that he had a cyst removed from his ankle.

Kim took power upon his fathers death in December 2011 and is the third generation of his family to rule the nuclear-armed country.

Kim met President Donald Trump three times in 2018 and 2019 and had summits with other Asian leaders as he pursued diplomacy in hopes of ending crippling sanctions and getting security guarantees. But he maintained his right to a nuclear arsenal and most diplomacy has stalemated since.

Read or Share this story: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2020/04/20/north-korean-leader-kim-jong-un-possibly-grave-condition-media-reports-say/5169828002/

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South Korea looking into reports that dictator Kim Jong Un in 'grave' condition after surgery - Courier Journal

At his daily pandemic briefing the other day, President Donald Trump announced, We are continuing our relentless effort to destroy the [corona]virus. A lot of people manage not to see much continuity in the presidents efforts, and wouldnt use a word like relentless to describe his commitment to the struggle.

They havent been listening to him carefully.

We pored over dozens of transcripts of briefings, tweets, and media comments in an attempt to distill Trumps core positions on the coronavirus threat, on Chinas efforts to combat the virus, on the economic impact of the virus, and on the seriousness of efforts by the administration to fight it. We cannot fathom why people are confused as to his positions.

As Trump himself put it, There was no difference yesterday from days before. I feel the tone is similar, but some people said it wasnt. We hope the following clarifies what areand always have beenthe clear, consistent positions of the president.

Trump has consistently said that his administration has the coronavirus under control: We have it totally under control, he said back in January. A lot of people think that [it] goes away in April with the heatas the heat comes in, he said in February. It will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away, he reassured us in March. Its going to disappear one day; its like a miracle.

Continue reading here:
Whats So Hard to Understand About What Trump Has Said? - The Atlantic

Some of the disinformation is produced by state-run media outlets, and some has been put out by the governments themselves. A website run by Russias Defense Ministry, for instance, highlighted the conspiracy theory that billionaire Bill Gates played a role in creating the virus.

Before the virus spread outside of China, per the report, the overlap between the three governments messaging was fairly narrow: They all defended President Nicolas Maduro's government in Venezuela, which the U.S. and other Western powers do not recognize as legitimate; and argued the U.S. fails to uphold its commitments to international agreements.

But by February 2020, according to the report, the messaging began to converge. The report argues this came and accelerated as those governments have struggled to keep public opinion in their own countries on their side.

One core message has been that China is a strong global health leader and that the United States, meanwhile, is a weak ally. Lea Gabrielle, who helms the GEC, told POLITICO that China has also let Russia's propaganda efforts targeting the U.S. spread through its country where the Beijing governments internet censorship is notorious and relentless.

What we saw as the health crisis started to come under control in China is that the CCP really started pushing a concerted effort to try to re-shape that narrative, she said, using the acronym for the Chinese Communist Party. So in a short period of time the CCP went from letting Russian disinformation claiming the U.S. was the source of the virus proliferate in Chinese social media, to raising questions on state media about the origins source, to promoting disinformation that the U.S. was the source of the virus.

The Chinese governments messaging is both defensive and offensive, she said.

At the same time, we saw Beijing unleashing a steady drumbeat of pro-PRC content across its global media networks and also from its overseas missions and that included increasingly vocal criticism of how democratic countries were responding to the crisis, she said.

In response to a comment request, a Chinese embassy spokesperson pointed to an interview between the Chinese ambassador to the U.S. and Axios on HBO. In the interview, the ambassador declined to explain why a spokesperson for Chinas Ministry of Foreign Affairs promoted the claim the the U.S. was responsible for the virus. The spokesperson also flagged an interview the ambassador did with Ian Bremmer where he intimated the United States is trying to take political advantage of other peoples sufferings.

A spokesperson for Irans mission to the U.N. said the U.S. is responsible for any propaganda or disinformation about the pandemic, not Iran.

It seems, it became a part of the U.S.s domestic campaign, and unfortunately the U.S. medias are full with stories of lies and disinformation spread by the administration in the lead up to the virus creating a tragic pandemic in almost every state in America, the spokesperson emailed. Blaming others for its own mistakes is a hallmark of this U.S. administration.

A spokesperson for Russias embassy in the U.S. flagged an embassy tweet claiming the country has not spread disinformation, as well as a Facebook post criticizing the Department of Defense for accusing Russia of disinformation efforts. In these conditions, frantic #Russophobia persists in American mainstream media, obtaining inaccurate information from such a briefings by the Pentagon and the U.S. Department of State, the post added.

The State Department report pointed to a March 10 article in the Global Times, a property of Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece Peoples Daily. The article argued that Chinas image as a responsible world power has been further strengthened, rather than dented by the pandemic. Two weeks later, the Iran-based Tasnim News Agency which describes its mission as [d]efending the Islamic Revolution against negative media propaganda campaign highlighted comments from the countrys top general thanking China for humanitarian moves related to the pandemic.

Whos helping fight the virus and who isnt has been a core focus for governments and citizens around the world. On March 3, a media company controlled by Russias armed forces ZVEZDA ran a story headlined Bill Gates, a secret laboratory and a conspiracy of pharmaceutical companies: who can benefit from coronavirus.

The piece intimates that Gates had foreknowledge of the virus and claims that only people of the Mongoloid race can contract Covid-19.

In addition to flagging the Russian government's intimation that Gates may have been read in on the viruss spread, the report cited material from all three governments calling coronavirus a U.S. bioweapon. It noted the infamous tweet from Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lijian Zhao touting an article claiming the novel coronavirus could have come from the U.S., as well as a Russia Today article highlighting a claim from the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps that the virus could be an American bioweapon. The RT story noted that theres still no official proof of that conspiracy theory.

Analysts outside the U.S. government are also tracking the global message wars. Camille Francois, the chief innovation officer at the network analysis firm Graphika, said her company has seen one of the same major themes that the State Department report highlighted.

We have observed both public diplomacy and covert campaigns originating from Iran, China, and Russia converge around Covid-19 narratives, particularly in blaming the U.S. for its own response to the crisis and current role in geopolitical affairs, she said.

Read the rest here:
State report: Russian, Chinese, and Iranian disinformation narratives echoing each other - POLITICO

Former Red Sox GM Ben Cherington received plenty of scrutiny when the 2014 and 15 teams he constructed lost 175 games combined and finished last in the AL East standings both years.

Still, he won one World Series (2013) and most of the 2018 World Series champion Red Soxs young core was drafted and developed during Cheringtons tenure both as assistant GM and general manager. Reflecting back, he did a much better job as GM than it appeared when ownership replaced him with Dave Dombrowski in August 2015.

He thinks the scrutiny he received from the Boston media was fair.

We lost too many games. And in a place like that, if you lose too many games two years in a row, theres going to be scrutiny and theres going to be changes," Cherington said back at spring training media day. "I dont look back on it as an unfair experience.

The Pirates hired Cherington as their new GM in November. Some Boston media members mentioned Cherington as a potential nice fit to return to Boston before principal owner John Henry selected Chaim Bloom as chief baseball officer.

I never really thought about that, Cherington said. But I dont feel like my experience there was unfair. I think I learned a lot from it. I hope I learned a lot from it. Hopefully, I continue to learn all the time.

MassLive.com asked Cherington for advice hed give Bloom as the 37-year-old enters his first regular season in Boston.

To remind himself and ask others to remind him and each other every day just about who they are, how they really want to do the job and what that looks like every day," Cherington said. "And to help each other manage the inevitable scrutiny that comes with that job anywhere but certainly in a place like that. The scrutiny is a good thing because it drives the interest and holds the team to the highest level of accountability.

So Im saying that in the positive sense, Cherington added. But operating within it, youve got to be able to manage that. Its your name. Youve got to be able to work with a group of people just to be the best version of yourself every day. So thats what I would tell him.

Cherington delivered a World Series in 2013, then experienced a difficult rebuild in 2014-15 that eventually led the Red Sox to three straight AL East titles after his departure.

He acquired Brock Holt, Rick Porcello Eduardo Rodriguez, Heath Hembree, Joe Kelly, Sandy Leon and Steven Wright.

Rafael Devers, Andrew Benintendi, Mookie Betts, Jackie Bradley Jr., Xander Bogaerts, Blake Swihart, Matt Barnes, Christian Vazquez, Brian Johnson and Bobby Poyner were among the players drafted/signed and developed during Cheringtons tenure as Red Sox assistant GM and general manager.

Cherington learned from mistakes as Red Sox GM and hopes to improve in those areas in Pittsburgh.

Its really to try to control my interactions with people, Cherington said. The amount Im listening. The amount of information were taking in and absorbing and try to control the pace at which we make decisions. I think there were probably ... times early on in Boston where I didnt control that pace well enough. We made decisions too quickly or maybe didnt get as many inputs as needed.

Dombrowski received criticism for trading too many prospects. Cherington received criticism for holding onto too many prospects.

He could have sold high on Henry Owens and Blake Swihart when Baseball America ranked Owens a top 100 prospect from 2013-15 and Swihart a top 100 prospect in 2012, 2014-15. Owens, who Boston eventually designated for assignment in December 2017, pitched in the independent American Association during 2019.

Bloom must strike the right balance as he looks to maintain a strong farm system and sustain success at the major league level longterm. Evaluating your own organizational talent arguably is the most important part of professional scouting.

"Every team in theory should be most precise or closest to precise on its own players because you have access to more information," Cherington said. "There's some information that every team has access to. But we have more information on our own players, Pirates minor league players, than any other team. We do. We should. So that ought to give us a chance to be more accurate. And so it is really important. Even when that happens, players are human beings and human beings change. Some human beings just improve a lot more than others. So it's still hard. You're going to make mistakes.

The rate at which were right on our own players should always be higher in theory than other teams. I dont know if thats specific to the tech or data. I think thats probably always been the case. And some of the tech and data thats available helps us with other teams, too."

Cherington spent from 1999-2015 in Boston, arriving before Epstein and the Henry ownership group.

Its a unique place to go to work every day," Cherington said. "That part (about leaving) was strange. Everyone experiences change in life, right? Everyones got things in life that happen that are either unexpected or you just dont want to have happen. Adversity happens and youve got to move on or learn and get to the next thing.

Link:
Ben Cheringtons advice to Boston Red Soxs Chaim Bloom? Manage the inevitable scrutiny, view it positively - MassLive.com