North Korea Stops Reclaiming Escaped Citizens From China Due to Coronavirus Fears

By Breitbart. North Korea on Friday temporarily suspended “all air and train routes” to China due to the coronavirus outbreak, in addition to closing off its land border.

Pyongyang has also taken steps to close its border with South Korea, fearing the virus could spread there from China. According to South Koreans who work with North Korean defectors, the North is also temporarily halting the repatriation of defectors due to infection concerns.

Voice of America News reported that North Korea asked South Korea to close the liaison office in the border town of Kaesong and postpone operations to dismantle resort facilities on Mount Kumgang until the Wuhan coronavirus has been “completely erased.”

South Korea is planning to demolish the Mount Kumgang tourist complex on orders from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un, who declared the long-unused resort an “eyesore” with “no national character at all” in October. The resort fell into disuse due to international sanctions and the shooting of a South Korean tourist who wandered off the grounds by a North Korean soldier in 2008.

The movement of people and goods across the North-South Korean border has reportedly halted. South Korean pastor Kim Sung-eun, noted for his work with North Korean refugees, said North Korea has asked China to stop repatriating defectors until the coronavirus epidemic has passed. Chinese sources said they expected even black-market shipping into North Korea would be sharply curtailed, despite serving as a major component of the North Korean economy. (Read more from “North Korea Stops Reclaiming Escaped Citizens From China Due to Coronavirus Fears” HERE)

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Washington State Businesses Brace for Impact of the Coronavirus

By The Seattle Times. As worries over the spread of the new coronavirus intensify, many businesses in Washington state said they’re monitoring the situation closely, taking precautions to protect their employees’ health and adjusting other plans.

Some major employers are halting travel or postponing opening new offices in Asia. Real estate brokers say they’re seeing fewer Chinese home shoppers.

And local industries already hard-hit by the U.S.-China trade war, like agriculture and tourism, are forecasting continued strain on profits. Nearly 18 months of retaliatory tariffs have cut exports through Washington state to China, its biggest trading partner, by nearly 40% since 2018.

The coronavirus outbreak — which public health experts predict could soon be a global pandemic — may send trade volumes plummeting further, said J. Norwell Coquillard, executive director of the nonprofit Washington State China Relations Council.

The new coronavirus, which seems to be less lethal than SARS but spreads more easily, has infected more than 17,000 people in at least 23 countries, leaving more than 400 dead, as of Monday. Nearly all the deaths are in China, where the new virus originated. (Read more from “Washington State Businesses Brace for Impact of the Coronavirus” HERE)

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Catholic Church in Nigeria Appeals to the West: ‘Make Known the Atrocities’

The president of the Nigerian bishops’ conference has launched an appeal to the West to “make known the atrocities” being suffered by Christians throughout the country.

Nigeria is living in an unprecedented climate of insecurity not seen since the civil war of 1967-1970, which is particularly affecting Christians, said the President of the Bishops’ Conference, Augustine Obiora Akubeze, Archbishop of Benin City.

While “in the past security problems were limited to the north-east of Nigeria, now there is insecurity throughout the whole country,” the archbishop said in an interview with the papal foundation Aid to the Church in Need (ACN).

In the face of this “serious lack of security and the increase in anti-Christian attacks,” the prelate called on Western governments and media to “make known the atrocities” taking place in Nigeria. “In this way our government may feel pressure and act,” the archbishop said, and in this way the other nations of the international community may “feel a moral obligation to protect the lives of Christians and all Nigerians who are constantly attacked and killed by Boko Haram and the Islamist Fulani herdsmen.” . . .

Catholics are not the only victims of religious violence in the country, however. This past month, the Rev. Lawan Andimi, a local leader of the Christian Association of Nigeria, was beheaded by jihadists in the northeast after having been kidnapped in early January by an armed group of the so-called Islamic State. (Read more from “Catholic Church in Nigeria Appeals to the West: ‘Make Known the Atrocities’” HERE)

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U.S. Troops Who Recently Traveled to China Quarantined in South Korea; China Reports Bird Flu Outbreak Near Epicenter of Coronavirus

By Washington Examiner. U.S. troops who traveled to China in the last two weeks were ordered to self-quarantine amid the coronavirus outbreak, according to American military officials in South Korea.

“The 14-day quarantine applies to any service members returning to South Korea from mainland China since Jan. 19, regardless of whether they show any symptoms,” officials said Sunday. There are not any known cases of American military personnel being infected with the deadly virus.

U.S. Forces Korea also encouraged family members, Pentagon civilians, contractors, South Korean employees, and United Nations military personnel to quarantine themselves “in the interest of public health safety.” (Read more from “U.S. Troops Who Recently Traveled to China Quarantined in South Korea” HERE)

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China Reports Bird Flu Outbreak Near Epicenter of Coronavirus

By New York Post. China has detected an outbreak of the bird flu near the epicenter of the deadly coronavirus, according to a report.

The bird flu outbreak was reported Saturday in Hunan, which borders the province of Hubei where the coronavirus broke out last month, according to the South China Morning Post.

“The outbreak occurred in a farm in the Shuangqing district of Shaoyang city,” officials said. “The farm has 7,850 chickens, and 4,500 of the chickens have died from the contagion.” (Read more from “China Reports Bird Flu Outbreak Near Epicenter of Coronavirus” HERE)

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Muslim Goes on Stabbing Spree in London Terror Attack

Law enforcement officials in London shot and killed a man on Sunday who allegedly went on a mass stabbing spree in a “terrorist-related” attack. . .

“As part of a proactive Counter Terrorism operation, armed officers were in immediate attendance and shot a male suspect, who was pronounced dead at the scene,” D’Orsi continued. “A device was found strapped to the body of the suspect and specialist officers attended. Cordons were put in place and it was quickly established that this was a hoax device.”

“The situation has been contained and officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command are now leading an investigation into the incident,” D’Orsi added. “The incident was quickly declared as a terrorist incident and we believe it to be Islamist-related.”

British Prime Minister responded to the attack by tweeting, “Thank you to all emergency services responding to the incident in Streatham, which the police have now declared as terrorism-related. My thoughts are with the injured and all those affected.”

Johnson later added: “An investigation is taking place at pace to establish the full facts of what happened, and the Government will provide all necessary support to the police and security services as this work goes on.” (Read more from “Muslim Goes on Stabbing Spree in London Terror Attack” HERE)

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The Democrat Palestinian ‘Peace’ Plan: Immoral and Indefensible

Democrats have a real problem with borders. Even as emphatic as the Left is about demanding that Trump destroy our secure borders, leftists seem to go absolutely apoplectic over his support for Israel’s right to secure its borders. Democrats condemned Trump’s peace plan in unison, regarding his generous proposal for a demilitarized Palestinian state as not substantial enough for their Hamas allies. “Trump’s ‘peace plan’ is a rubber stamp for annexation and offers no chance for a real Palestinian state,” fumed Sen. Elizabeth Warren.

So what do the Democrats and leftists want? The global elites and leftists repeat their mantra of a two-state solution and a Palestinian state like mindless robots without any regard for the geography, security situation, or logistical reality of such a proposition. It’s become a punch line without any meaning – much like the need for “comprehensive immigration reform” or “criminal justice reform.”

Regardless of the history of the Holy Land and how we’ve gotten to this point in history, it makes no sense to push for another state west of the Jordan River at this point – unless the objectives of those pursuing it are more sinister than a mere credulous desire to make peace with terrorists.

A geographically impossible approach

If one were to come to Earth from Mars and listen to the world leaders discuss Israel and a two-state solution with a laser focus on every last morsel of land (the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza, Golan), he would come away with the impression that the land in dispute is a massive territory – one in which can be created two viable, contiguous countries. In reality, modern-day Israel, even without the so-called West Bank, is only 8,522 square miles, roughly the size of New Jersey. When coupled with the “West Bank,” that area only expands by 2,180 square miles.

New Jersey has almost 8.9 million residents and is already the most densely populated state in the United States. Israel’s population is roughly 8.7 million and is rapidly growing. Just based on geography alone, does it make any sense to deny Israel the 2,180 square miles it was originally granted and won back in a defensive war?

Moreover, none of the proponents of this mythical yet unassailable solution have ever explained how two independently contiguous states could be created by uniting Gaza with Judea/Samaria. Presumably, there is an unspoken plan to grab even more land from the heart of Israel in the south to make a proposed Arab “Palestinian” state contiguous in all its territory. An underground tunnel will not suffice in the long run.

Let’s take this a step further. The Arab/Muslim countries constitute a land mass 640 times the size of Israel. Does it make sense to squeeze the last few thousand square miles from the only Jewish state in order to create an Arab national state in the Holy Land for the first time in history, if there are well over 12 million square miles of Muslim lands?

Indefensible “Auschwitz borders”

It is clear that anyone peddling a two-state solution without the conditions Trump prescribed has either never looked at a map of the region or is implicitly supporting a “final solution” of pushing the Jews into the Mediterranean Sea. Just consider the consequences of Israel’s surrender of Gaza and extrapolate those grave dangers to Judea and Samaria.

When Israel surrendered the Gaza Strip in 2005, it immediately came under attack by short-range and medium-range rockets, attacks that continue to this very day. It was during one iteration of the rocket war that Israel discovered an even more serious threat to its existence. Hamas had dug a series of complex tunnels from Gaza underground that extended for miles deep into Israeli territory. Hamas planned to use those tunnels to commit mass terror attacks and conduct kidnapping missions throughout southern Israel.

Now consider the fact that Gaza is located in the southwest corner of Israel, the “least” perilous location for a tiny country defending against a genocidal enemy. Imagine if Hamas were allowed to create a state in Judea and Samaria – the heart of Israel? There would not be a single square inch of the remainder of Israeli territory that would not be subject to a perennial threat of terror attacks and infiltrations.

Were Israel to cede Samaria, even if the “Palestinian” state were demilitarized (which in itself is a pipe dream), any two-bit terror cell could paralyze the country indefinitely with cheap surface-to-surface, surface-to-air, and shoulder-fired rockets. Samaria is a mountainous region overlooking Israel’s coastal plain – the area containing 70 percent of the Jewish population and 80 percent of the country’s industrial base, as well as its only international airport. This tiny geographical strip, at its narrowest point, is nine miles wide. There is no way to defend it against the rockets and tunnels. This is exactly what Israel’s legendary diplomat Abba Eban meant when he referred to such an idea as “Auschwitz borders.”

Worse, once a recognized state is created, Israel would have no ability to conduct counterterror operations to halt the inevitable terror attacks. Any incursion would be regarded acts of war. Also, the newly created Arab government would play good cop/bad cop with the local terror networks and accuse Israel of launching a war of aggression against a peaceful government.

The only conclusion one can draw from leftist politicians and world leaders pushing an Arab Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria is that either they are ignorant of the security situation and geography of the land, or they are seeking something much more sinister than a “two-state solution.”

The immoral double standard of a two-state solution

If the dangerous motives of the two-state solution aren’t apparent already, consider one final point that speaks to the immoral dichotomy inherent in creating an Arab Palestinian state. Israel is the only Jewish state in the world, yet despite its relatively tiny size, there are two million Arabs – mostly Muslims – living within the “pre-1967” Israeli borders. They enjoy full civil rights, voting rights, and representation in the Israeli parliament. Their elected officials have been free to side with Israel’s enemies while serving in the Knesset. Their members have even been free to walk out while the Israeli national anthem is played.

Now let’s examine the nature of the proposed Arab Palestinian state. What is the unspoken, yet implicit, directive of creating a Palestinian state? To make that land completely Judenrein – deracinating every last vestige of Judaism from the heart of the inherited land.

When Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it used its own military to physically uproot every last Jewish resident of the region. Jewish houses, businesses, and farms were destroyed and the Jews exiled from their land. What’s worse, far from the painful concession fostering a peaceful reconciliation, Israel had to exhume every last Jewish grave in Gaza so that Jewish cemeteries would not be desecrated by the inevitable violence of the local Arabs. The Israeli government was originally going to destroy the synagogues but left them intact after the State Department and the Palestinian Authority promised to guard them. Yet within minutes of the Arabs occupying the land, the synagogues were torched and destroyed, vividly conjuring up images of Kristallnacht.

This is the Orwellian peaceful “solution” that would occur for the hundreds of thousands of Jews living in Judea and Samaria, along with their cemeteries and holy sites, were Democrats and world leaders to successfully “promote a just and durable agreement,” as Bernie Sanders promised. In addition, remember, they also want to negotiate flooding the remaining skeleton borders of Israel with potentially millions more Arabs in addition to the two million already there.

If this double standard – forcing Israel to accept an unlimited number of hostile Arabs in a land the size of a broom closet on the geographical map while forcing out every Jew from the lands trodden by Abraham in Judea – is not inherently racist, then the oft-overused term has no meaning.

Hence, there is no moral, historical, or practical justification for pushing the creation of an Arab state west of the Jordan River other than ensuring the destruction of the only Jewish state in the world. And that’s exactly what these Democrat presidential candidates want. They despise Israel’s sovereignty and its desire to protect its people as much as they despise our own sovereignty and the security of our people. (For more from the author of “The Democrat Palestinian ‘Peace’ Plan: Immoral and Indefensible” please click HERE)

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Longest-Ever Border Smuggling Tunnel Found Stretching Between Tijuana and San Diego; Portion of Newly Built Wall on Mexico Border Collapses

By Fox News. U.S. authorities discovered the longest smuggling tunnel ever found along the southwest border.

The tunnel originates in Tijuana, Mexico, near the Otay Mesa Port of Entry and extends a total of 4,309 feet long — more than three-quarters of a mile. The next longest tunnel in the U.S., discovered in San Diego in 2014, was 2,966 feet long.

“While subterranean tunnels are not a new occurrence along the California-Mexico border, the sophistication and length of this particular tunnel demonstrates the time-consuming efforts transnational criminal organizations will undertake to facilitate cross-border smuggling,” Cardell Morant, acting special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) San Diego, said in a press release. The investigation that led to the discovery spanned many years and involved various agencies.

The tunnel features a complex cart and rail system, forced air ventilation, high-voltage electrical cables and panels, an elevator at the tunnel entrance and a complex drainage system, according to U.S. Border Patrol. (Read more from “Longest-Ever Border Smuggling Tunnel Found Stretching Between Tijuana and San Diego” HERE)

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Portion of Newly Built Wall on Mexico Border Collapses

By The Hill. High winds caused a section of wall along the border between California and Mexico to break off and land on the Mexican side Wednesday, CNN reported.

The section in question had been part of a continuing project attempting to reinforce sections of the wall, according to Agent Carlos Pitones of Customs and Border Patrol’s El Centro, Calif., sector. He told the network that the portion of the wall in Calexico had recently been set in a new concrete foundation that had not yet cured at the time it broke off. . .

The section landed in a grouping of trees across the border in Mexicali amid winds estimated to have reached 37 miles per hour, according to the network. (Read more from “Portion of Newly Built Wall on Mexico Border Collapses” HERE)

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United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to Create 600,000 Jobs

By Fox Business. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette said Wednesday he expects the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to boost the American workforce by creating about 600,000 jobs.

“You’re going to see more jobs all across the economy, in the automobile sector, in the agricultural sector and of course in the energy sector as well,” Brouillette said in an interview with FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo. “We’re looking at approximately 600,000 jobs being created by this deal.” (Read more from “United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to Create 600,000 Jobs” HERE)

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USCMA Signed Into Law, Considered Victory for Trump Administration

By Central Illinois Proud. On Wednesday, President Trump signed the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement into law.

The deal will replace the 1994 NAFTA agreement and is considered a big win for the White House.

“Today we are finally ending the NAFTA nightmare,” Trump said.

The President invited 400 guests to the White House lawn as he signed the USMCA into law.

He said that this is the “fairest” and most “balanced” trade agreement ever achieved. (Read more from “USCMA Signed Into Law, Considered Victory for Trump Administration” HERE)

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Could a Vaccine Be on the Horizon to Combat Coronavirus?

China now has more cases of Wuhan coronavirus than it did of the SARS virus during the 2002-03 outbreak, according to the country’s own numbers, but a vaccine could be on the way soon.

According to the New York Post, China has reported 5,974 cases of the fast-spreading illness, which surpasses the 5,327 cases of SARS the country experienced over a decade ago. The Associated Press, however, notes that Wednesday’s death toll of 132 is well below the SARS outbreak’s Chinese death toll of 348.

But while it appears to be less deadly, CNN notes, the Wuhan virus is spreading much faster than SARS, taking less than two months to hit around 75 percent of the total number of worldwide infections of the 2002-03 outbreak, which took place over a period of nine months.

The news comes on the same day as a World Health Organization official described the rapid spread of the virus as a matter of “grave concern” at a news conference at the organization’s headquarters in Geneva.

“These developments in terms of the evolution of the outbreak and further development of transmission, these are of grave concern and has spurred countries into action,” said Dr. Mike Ryan, executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies program. “What we know at this stage, this is still obviously a very active outbreak and information is being updated and changing by the hour.”

(Read more from “Could a Vaccine Be on the Horizon to Combat Coronavirus?” HERE)

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The U.S. Government Is Letting Marine Veteran Austin Tice Languish in a Syrian Prison, According to His Mother

The mother of Marine veteran Austin Tice told reporters on Monday that a top U.S. official is refusing to give permission for a meeting with the Syrian government to negotiate the release of her son, who went missing near Damascus in 2012. . .

The Syrian government sent Debra Tice a message in March 2014 that they would be willing to meet with a U.S. official to negotiate her son’s release, Connecting Vets reporter Abbie Bennett wrote in her article about the event. . .

“There is no possible way for me to understand why anyone would defy the president’s will and choose to leave our beloved son, who put his life on the line serving this country three tours as a Marine Corps officer, waiting in captivity instead of taking the necessary steps to get this critical discussion underway,” she said. . .

Austin Tice was taken prisoner on Aug. 14, 2012 while he was working in Syria as a freelance reporter. He later appeared in a Sept. 26, 2012 video that was posted to YouTube. He was blindfolded and his captors wore jihadist garb but it was not known if they were disguised allies of the Syrian regime.

Air Force Maj. Gen. Alex Grynkewich, the deputy commander for intelligence and operations for U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria had no information about Austin Tice’s status or U.S. government efforts to secure his release when a reporter asked him about the issue on Jan. 22. (Read more from “The U.S. Government Is Letting Marine Veteran Austin Tice Languish in a Syrian Prison, According to His Mother” HERE)

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BREAKING: Massive 7.7 Earthquake Hits Cuba, Jamaica; Felt in Miami

The United States Geologic Service just reported that a massive 7.7 earthquake has struck Cuba and Jamaica. The nearly-unprecedented Caribbean quake was relatively shallow, estimated at a depth of a little over 6 miles and was located about 80 miles from both Cuba and Jamaica. The U.S. Tsunami Warning System has not yet reported any risk of tsunami, but eastern Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba would all be in the potential path of any resultant waves.

According to AccuWeather, “there has not been a major earthquake associated with the Puerto Rico Trench in over 200 years. The last event was a 8.1 tremor in 1787.”
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Caribbean 7.7 Earthquake Felt in Miami, Buildings Evacuated

By Steve Almasy, Brandon Miller and Alla Eshchenko. People in Miami, 440 miles from the epicenter, felt shaking.

Miguel Charon was on the 13th floor of a building on Brickell Avenue. He told CNN he felt the walls shake for 30 to 40 seconds. His initial thought was that it must have been caused by a machine of some sort. He said building officials issued an evacuation order and people left the building in a smooth and calm manner.

Jose Borrego, who also works in the Brickell area, said he was in a meeting.

“We felt slight movement of the building, then we got told to evacuate the building,” he said. “Once we came outside (we) noticed that there are evacuations every building in the area.”

Read more from this story about the 7.7 earthquake HERE.