COVID's Elusive Origins : WHO Report

 Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus Fabrice Coffrini/AFP

"Although the team has concluded that a laboratory leak is the least likely hypothesis, this requires further investigation, potentially with additional missions involving specialist experts, which I am ready to deploy."

"[The international expert team had] expressed the difficulties they encountered in accessing raw data [while in China]."

"[The report also] raises further questions that will need to be addressed by further studies."

"I expect future collaborative studies to include more timely and comprehensive data sharing."

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General, World Health Organization

 

Members of the World Health Organization (WHO) team investigating the origins of the novel coronavirus arrive by car at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province on February 3, 2021. (Hector Retamal/AFP)

"I still think the most likely etiology of this pathogen in Wuhan was from a laboratory escape."

"Other people don't believe that, that's fine, science will eventually figure it out."

Robert Redfield, virologist, former head, Centres for Disease Control

"[The Institute saw] no disruptions or incidents."

"[A formal audit of the laboratory was] far beyond what our team is mandated to do or has the tools and capabilities to do."

"The fact that we assessed this hypothesis [that the SARS-CoV-2 virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology lab] as extremely unlikely doesn't mean it's ruled out."

Peter Ben Embarek, WHO investigative team

"We were allowed to ask whatever questions we wanted, and we got answers. The only evidence that people have for a lab leak is that there is a lab in Wuhan."

"A thousand samples [of animals sold at the Huanan market when the WHO investigative team took samples from 188 animals of 18 species at the market, all of which tested negative] is a great start, but there’s more to do."

WHO team member Peter Daszak

Animal markets like this one in China could be a source of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the WHO report.   Credit: Eric Lafforgue/Art In All Of Us/Corbis via Getty

The World Health Organization's investigative team of ten travelled to Wuhan, China for the express purpose of conducting an unbiased, scientific survey of any available evidence in an attempt to determine the source of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that swept the world when it first surfaced as a strange new pneumonia-like pathogen deadlier and more infectious than most viruses that erupt from time to time in the East and spread eventually worldwide. The WHO team had plenty of local assistance in their diligent search for answers during their two-week stay.

There were quite a few interviews and on-site examinations, bearing in mind that the team had to first isolate on arriving in China before they could proceed. With them throughout their investigative exercise was a matching team of Chinese scientists to give them aid and direction, some 17 in number. The People's Republic of China was deeply and sincerely invested in the search for the origins of the novel coornavirus, making certain that at all times the WHO researchers were escorted by Chinese officialdom.

WHO microbiologists and medical researchers fully intended to do a thorough and creditable job of searching for answers while conducting interviews under constant supervision in the presence of government officials. Needless to say every individual who was questioned to gain a wider and more full understanding of what had occurred would have been under a certain level of constraint, testifying under the fixed scrutiny of government agents. In their minds no doubt, the fate of Li Wenliang accused of 'spreading harmful rumours' when he first alerted his colleagues to the presence of a threatening new virus. Before he himself died of COVID.

"It's essentially a highly-chaperoned, highly-curated study tour ... this group of experts only saw what the Chinese government wanted them to see", explained Jamie Metzl, former senior adviser to then-U.S.President Bill Clinton. What is known is simply that a novel coronavirus erupted from some source within walking distance of the high-security laboratory under the aegis of the Wuhan Institute of Virology specializing in the study of coronaviruses. It is also known that the laboratory is located not far from the wild animal 'wet' market where both domestic animals and exotic animals were sold, dead and alive.

And it was the market that Chinese authorities pointed to as the unfortunate source of cross-species, animal-to-human viral vector. These wet markets exist throughout Asia where an insatiable appetite for exotic animals like bats, snakes, pangolins and many other creatures can be satisfied. Crossing the species barrier for pathogens is rare, but it does happen. It did with AIDS and we know what agony that led to throughout the world.

"We could show the virus was circulating in the market as early as December 2019."

"A lot of good leads were suggested in this report, and we anticipate that many, if not all of them, will be followed through because we owe it to the world to understand what happened, why and how to prevent it from happening again."

Peter Ben Embarek,  co-leader, WHO investigative team

Long before the novel coronavirus was identified, the Wuhan Institute of Virology had come in for lax safety regulation criticism when a U.S. team of scientists had visited the premises and felt alarm at the situation prevailing there. That very same laboratory is involved in a security breach that took place in Canada's own National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg when a high-profile Chinese scientist and her husband, both employed there, were escorted from the lab never to return. Involved in an unauthorized transfer of highly sensitive biological samples from there to the Wuhan lab.

The team of WHO investigators appear to have reached the conclusion through a joint report that a lab escape of the coronavirus was to be regarded as "extremely unlikely" following a brief examination of the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Four hours were spent at the facility by the WHO team, the investigation limited to interviews with laboratory staffers where the investigators were informed that no disruptions or incidents occurred, and nor did the WHO investigators request collaborative documentation.

The Beijing government appears to have withheld case data from outside investigators, the WHO team no exception. China, it would appear, deigned not to honour a request to turn over 174 health records from the first patients in Wuhan to contract COVID-19: "They showed us a couple of examples, but that's not the same as doing all of them, which is standard epidemiological investigation", explained Dominic Dwyer of the WHO team.

What the WHO team reported was that 92 cases of Wuhan patients exhibiting COVID-like symptoms were documented in October of 2019, quite a few weeks before the officially recognized first cases were reported by the Chinese government. The investigators were given Chinese assurances that serological tests indicated no link to COVID-19.

 

 

When The Experts Get It Wrong

People wait in line to receive their COVID-19 vaccination at a clinic in the Fraser Health region of Surrey, B.C., on Wednesday. New early data suggests that Canada’s recommendation to delay the second dose of COVID-19 vaccines for up to four months may not be effective in some older, more vulnerable people. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

"People who want their second shot are now in limbo. Some don't know when their next shot is coming, some [are] told four months. They don't know if they have sufficient protection or if they have to wait, or whether the second shot will work."

"They signed a consent, which included a vaccine information sheet that says in several places, three weeks for the second Pfizer shot and 28 days for Moderna. [This could be a problem for governments resulting from the legal principle of] detrimental reliance [where one party can force another to abide by its obligations under a contract]."

Toronto lawyer Ian Cooper

"Pfizer could be held legally liable for a death caused by an extension of the time between vaccine doses. I doubt that would ever happen."

"I think it highly likely that Pfizer has been given some 'undertaking' by the Canadian federal government that will hold them harmless. Pfizer would have been legally wise to require that to be in place."

David McCarthy, founder, pharmaceutical industry consulting company

 

"The dosage of the Pfizer vaccine for the second dose is in three weeks, perhaps at the most in four weeks, in order to be effective -- 95 percent, based on clinical studies."

"The delay by our government to postpone the second dose by an extra three months, to July, is irresponsible and dangerous."

"The prime minister should advance the administration of the second dose, from July to April or May."

Leslie Dan, founder of Novopharm Pharmaceuticals

Canada became the sole country in the world earlier this month to mandate a gap of four months between doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. The country is in a position of severe vaccine shortage. Mostly resulting from the federal government's delay in ordering vaccines from trustworthy pharmaceutical sources. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had directed his officials and federal health agencies to work in tandem with a Chinese pharmaceutical company, CanSino Pharmaceuticals which had a link to Canada since its founder was educated and worked for a Canadian pharmaceutical company before returning to China.

 

The National Research Council allowed CanSino unrestricted use of its biopharmaceutical platform on which to base its vaccine. The arranged contract, however, fell through when Beijing refused to permit the vaccine to be shipped to Canada where it was to undergo third trials and production. In the face of the reality of resulting late-order vaccine shortages from Western-oriented reliable sources, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization that had been appointed by the government, decided to stretch available resources by delaying second dosages in favour of vaccinating more people with a first dose.

This decision was undertaken on the theory that while the completed vaccine regimen of two doses reduces risk of infection by over 95 percent, data indicated the first shot on its own can reduce a patient's risk of contracting COVID-19 by a still-impressive 80 percent, ensuring a good level of protection from the virus despite failing to adhere to the 21-day recommended schedule. "Extending the interval between doses was shown to be a good strategy through modelling, even in scenarios considering a six-month interval and in theoretical scenarios where waning protection was considered", the Committee wrote.

Guido Armellin, 86, receives the COVID-19 vaccine during a clinic at a church in Toronto on March 17. A team was on-site administering the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to parishioners as part of a community outreach program to get seniors vaccinated at their place of worship. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

 

Data exists, however, indicating that a delayed second dose can present a disproportionately risky threat to the elderly, most vulnerable to COVID-19. Britain's Public Health Agency shows COVID-19 vaccines not to be as efficaciously potent in elderly populations. First shots for the elderly shown to provide 57 percent protection over the age of 80 in Britain, where 85 percent protection was achieved only when the second dose was administered. 

Members appointed to Canada's National Advisory Committee on Immunization were found to be composed largely of pediatric specialists. "The overwhelming majority of deaths among COVID-19 victims have been elderly, and their interests and unique health and immunological considerations do not appear to be adequately represented on the NACI Working Group", wrote Toronto lawyer Ian Cooper, representing two retired elderly physicians threatening to take Canadian pandemic authorities to court over the decision to delay the second dose of Pfizer, the vaccine they also recommended for use in the elderly.

A notice of claim drafted by Ian Cooper representing the two retired elderly physicians, aged 79 and 83 who have expressed their opposition at having to wait a pharmaceutical-unauthorized protracted length of time for full vaccine coverage was forwarded to the Public Health Agency of Canada, the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and the federal and Ontario ministers of health. "The province broke the promise that was made both in writing and orally at the vaccination site", the draft notice of claim reads; conceivably prior to lodging a legal suit on behalf of the complainants insisting on being vaccinated in a "timely" fashion.

To further emphasize the inadequacy of the policy stretching out those unfortunately scarce vaccine resources, the head of the University of Ottawa Heart Institute has made an urgent appeal for all patients in treatment at the Institute and all patient-facing health workers to receive second doses of vaccine without further delay. Although those involved have received their first dose, in the interval between the first and the second both patients and health-care workers have contracted the novel coronavirus. "I am very worried for the staff" said Dr.Thierry Mesana, president and chief executive of the Heart Institute, at the very time that more transmissible variants are on the rise.

 

"Health Canada has the statutory mandate to authorize drugs for sale in Canada, and only it can authorize changes to the time interval between injections, and then only after the sponsor's submission of new data to support such a change."

"Direct questions need to be asked to Dr. Supriya Sharma, chief medical adviser to the deputy minister and senior medical adviser, health products and food branch -- and specific answers are required."

"Our politicians have played very loose with defined legal requirements, lied to Canadians and jeopardized our lives."

Conservative Member of Parliament Michelle Rempel-Garner

"I’m not aware of data showing that there is efficacy beyond two months of the first dose."

"In the past few weeks, we’ve seen different studies come out showing that the response to the first dose of the vaccine in the people who are elderly, in the people who are immuno-compromised is actually not that good and it wanes quite rapidly."

"[Both Health Canada and the NACI will also have access to the updated findings, meaning a new recommendation could be on the way]. I’m sure they’re following this and they may well be looking at perhaps modulating the recommendation as we go."

"As data emerges about what it takes to protect [seniors and immune-compromised people], we need to be reviewing what we’re doing."

"[As long as there aren’t issues with the vaccine supply, reverting to the original recommendations from the pharmaceutical companies] would be the ideal approach."

"The very people we want to protect the most require that we give them the second dose using the shorter interval, originally as done by the manufacturer in the clinical trials. The one-size-fits-all approach really needs to be modulated in terms of who we need to be protecting."

Canada’s chief science adviser Dr. Mona Nemer

 

 

 

 

The New Beijing School of Wolf-Warrior-Diplomacy

"Boy, your greatest achievement is to have ruined the friendly relations between China and Canada, and have turned Canada into a running dog of the U.S."

"Spendthrift!!!"

Consul General Li Yang, Chinese Diplomatic Mission, Brazil

 

"This is a very unfortunate and unnecessary tweet. Insulting leaders of other countries is not a thing a diplomat should do"

"It is not only undiplomatic, but also against China's own culture of being polite and respectful."

Zhiqun Zhu professor of international relations, Bucknell University, Pennsylvania

 

"Those are fighting words, and lack specificity. They're not explaining what it is that Mr.Trudeau has done to ruin the friendly relations."

";Greatest achievement' could be some kind of dig at him."

"China is shooting itself in the foot by encouraging such a confrontational style of diplomacy."

"When China's image suffers, one knows that this type of diplomacy is problematic."

Charles Burton, former Canadian diplomat in Beijing

Chinese Wolf-Warriors Diplomats' Abusive War on Twitter    TechStream  

"A little more than a year ago, China had almost no diplomatic presence on Twitter. A handful of accounts, many representing far-flung diplomatic outposts, operated without apparent coordination or direction from Beijing. Today, the work of Chinese diplomats on Twitter looks very different: More than 170 of them bicker with Western powers, promote conspiracies about the coronavirus, and troll Americans on issues of race. The quadrupling in the past year and a half of China’s diplomatic presence on a site blocked within China suggests that turning to Western platforms to influence the information environment beyond China’s borders is no longer an afterthought but a priority."

Jessica Brandt and Bret Schafer,  TechStream

China goes out of its way to make friends in countries that become dependent on its largesse, opening up trade opportunities for developing nations; giving out generous credit to countries who cannot afford to pay back the debt and thus become involuntarily indebted; helping to build critical infrastructure in countries of the world that need a leg-up and don't look past the gift horse to view its long-term agenda that might not in future years, be too advantageous to themselves while binding them within China's orbit as unquestioning satellite-vassal states.

 

To those obliging, appreciative countries whose need overrides caution, China turns its smiling Janus face. The scowling face is reserved for those countries which are advanced in their experience of China, whose technologies Beijing is accustomed to siphoning off through surveillance and espionage, who take steps to cut off access to their industrial and military trade formulae, and who take the occasion to condemn the Chinese Communist Party for its stealth infiltration into their countries as well as Beijing's human rights abuses.

Of all people to accuse of China-baiting and hostility to Beijing, Canada's prime minister would be the very least to point accusatory fingers at. Justin Trudeau has gone out of his way on countless occasions to ingratiate himself into the favour of Beijing, anxious to achieve a free trade agreement with the hope of integrating Canada's financial future with that of the second largest economy in the world. Prepared in the process to overlook human rights abuses perpetrated by the CCP, and willing to trade Canada's scientific and technology successes for the opportunity to dine at China's economic table.

A confluence of circumstances beyond Mr. Trudeau's control, however, made it increasingly difficult to placate an irate Chinese establishment when Beijing's demands could no longer be accommodated and the world looked on at Canada's under-performance in protecting its own Chinese-Canadian citizenry from persecution by shadowy CCP-affiliated figures. Subsequent events have created hostility from the fire-breathing dragon that is Beijing in its insulting, vituperative lashing out at Canada, which balks at 'learning from its mistakes' as Beijing demands.

Justin Trudeau's father Pierre as then-prime minister of Canada, initiated a trek by Western governments to Beijing in expressions of forgiveness for the mass slaughter during the Cultural Revolution and the later crackdown on student rebellion crying out for democracy which came to a shuddering halt in Tiananmen Square settling once and for all China's communist bona fides. Democracy in Hong Kong has had its death knell, and only Taiwan awaits its forced unification back to the Chinese fold.

Beijing's diplomatic action came into renewed view on Monday as fighter jets and surveillance planes of the Chinese military entered Taiwan's air defence zone just as Palau's president was visiting Taipei accompanied by Washington's ambassador to Taiwan, forcing Taiwan's air force to scramble in interception of the ten Chinese aircraft, following an earlier 20 Chinese jets overflying the country's exclusive air zone on Friday

Several weeks ago Canada finally publicly supported the European Union and the United States in denouncing Chinese repression of its Turkic Muslim minorities in Xinjiang province. Canadian Conservative Member of Parliament Michael Chong who instigated a House of Commons motion to declare the treatment of China's Uyghurs a genocide was hit by Chinese sanctions.

Last week the French government called in China's ambassador to Paris for discussions relating to tweets attacking French lawmakers while labelling a think tank analyst critical of Beijing a "small-time hoodlum" and "crazed hyena", fully abandoning all pretense at civilized diplomacy in its all-out war against its human-rights critics. Its uncivil bullying goes hand-in-glove with its rapacious claims of new Chinese territory at the expense of its neighbours.

Beijing is using its size and influence on the world stage to consolidate its holdings and stretch further and further to acquire more, including land, sea and air. Its odyssey for world dominance in manufacturing and trade, in technology and above all communications, leaves no stone unturned be it the acquisition of precious earth minerals or fossil fuels. It is a conscienceless behemoth intent on swallowing the world to fill its greedy belly. 

The "Falling Stars" of Myanmar

"Words of condemnation or concern are frankly ringing hollow to the people of Myanmar while the military junta commits mass murder against them."

UN Special Rapporteur Tom Andrews 

"While we are singing the revolution song for him [the deceased at a funeral], security forces just arrived and shot at us."

"People, including us, run away as they opened fire."

Aye, funeral mourner, Yangon

 

"An 11-year-old boy, an 11-year-old girl, two 13-year-old boys, a 13-year-old girl, three 16-year-old boys and two seventeen-year old boys, all reportedly shot and killed."

"A one-year-old baby girl gravely injured after being struck in the eye with a rubber bullet. These were the latest child casualties on the bloodiest day in Myanmar since the military takeover."

"Millions of children and young people have been directly or indirectly exposed to traumatizing scenes of violence, threatening their mental health and emotional well-being."

UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore

Anti-coup protesters run around their makeshift barricade they burn to make defense line during a demonstration in Yangon, Myanmar, Sunday, March 28, 2021. (AP Photo)

 Once again, using live ammunition, and according to some eyewitnesses, even machine guns, Myanmar security forces opened fire on civilians protesting the takeover of the military junta now controlling Burma, after the ouster of the duly elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. Even while promising the protesters that the junta planned to restore democracy at some point, they haven't hesitated to use raw munitions against their own civilian population determined to restore democracy even at the steep price of loss of life.

The UN Special Rapporteur for Myanmar stated that the army was conducting "mass murder", calling on the world to isolate the junta and halt its access to weapons. This, when a member of the UN Security Council, Russia, has committed itself to supporting the military junta and will continue providing it with the military arms deemed a necessity to pursue its goal of dominating the country by force. The junta should be cut off from funding, from oil and gas revenues, repeated the UN Special Rapporteur.

Sunday was the day for funerals as people gathered to mourn 114 protesters killed the day before in the most disastrous crackdown on protesters since the February1 coup. At a service for 20-year-old student Thae Maung Maung in Bago, close to the capital Yangon, the military opened fire and mourners fled for their lives. The Assistance Association for Political Prisoners advocacy group spoke of another 12 people killed on Sunday bringing the total death toll since the coup to 469.

In Yangon and Mandalay where the brunt of the casualties took place on Saturday large-scale protests were no longer in evidence after the Armed Forces Day celebrations and subsequent killing of 114 people. In Mandalay people surrounded a police station accusing the security forces of arson after five houses were burned down. Six children between ten and 16 years of age were among those killed on Saturday. They were, said the protesters, "Falling Stars".

 

Family members and relatives attend the funeral ceremony of 13 year-old Sai Wai Yan, who was shot dead while playing outside his house in Yangon, Myanmar on March 28

 

"We salute our heroes who sacrificed lives during this revolution and We Must Win This REVOLUTION", one of the main protest groups, the General Strike Committee of Nationalities posted on Facebook. Two dozen ethnic armed groups that control swathes of the country took part in heavy fighting against the army, resulting in 3,000 people fleeing to neighbouring Thailand after military jets bombed areas controlled by the Karen National Union militia.

The Kachin Independence Army fought on Sunday with the military in Hpakant, a jade-mining area of the north where Kachin forces attacked a police station and the military responded in an aerial assault. During the parade marking Armed Forces Day, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing assured the country that the military would protect the people while striving toward democracy.

Mourners attend the funeral of Tin Hla, 43, who was shot dead by security forces during a protest against the military coup in Thanlyin township, outskirts of Yangon, Myanmar on March 27.

Temporary Risk of Product Scarcity and Elevated Costs: Suez Canal vs Horn of Africa

"The market is betting that the issue might go on for a while."

"If you detour to the Cape of Good Hope, it will probably take at least one more week to reach the Netherlands from Shanghai ... if you have to detour, it should raise current freight rates further."

Kim Young-ho, analyst, Samsung Securities

 

"We see that the pirates are acting with greater impunity."

"They are spending more periods of time on board vessels. In one case, they were on board a vessel for more than 24 hours, totally unchallenged."

International Maritime Bureau (IMB) Director Michael Howlett 

"There is a risk there, and it's probably another reason why the ocean carriers will think twice before they actually go around the Horn (of Africa)."

Genevieve Giuliano, University of Southern California's Sol Price School of Public Policy

While piracy in Somalia has fallen in recent years, crime is thriving off the shores of West Africa.

Farah Abdi Warsameh / AP

 

Stuck on the horns of a dilemma, shipping has been inadvertently put on hold through the Suez Canal. Now, an alternative to waiting possibly several weeks for the mammoth vessel Ever Given to be freed, is to consider rounding the Horn of Africa. The accidental ramming of the side of the canal by a ship so long that the width of the canal holds it captive at either side of the canal until it is freed, while other cargo-carrying ships await their opportunity at either end to continue their journeys delivering cargo has created a maritime backlog of unprecedented proportions.

The fear of rerouting vessels through to Africa rather than wait for weeks for the Suez Canal to finally be cleared of the massive obstruction, is that of falling prey to pirates operating off both the West and East coasts of Africa. In their concern, shipping companies have appealed to the U.S. Navy in fear of the elevated threat of piracy should ships be rerouted, given the choice of anchoring with billions of dollars of cargo tied up at sea or deciding to embark on a lengthy and potentially risky route around Africa.

"Africa has the risk of piracy, especially in East Africa", said Zhao Qing-feng, office manager of the China Shipowners' Association from Shanghai, even as serious consideration is being given to the potential alternative. There was "nothing we can do" about cargo stuck on vessels outside the Suez Canal awaiting entrance, warned Rolf Habben Jensen, chief executive of Hapag-Lloyd, the world's fifth-largest container carrier. The focus is to have ships arrive at their intended destinations as soon as possible.

 

Supply chains concerns are of the utmost importance to manufacturers' dependence on container shipping. East Africa has long had a reputation for piracy, while a surge in kidnappings at sea and other maritime crimes have surged in recent months in West Africa, as well. Chief commercial officer Dimitris Maniatis of Seagull Maritime Security which provides ship guards explained that private security doesn't come cheap; between $5,000 to $10,000 each vessel should those waiting at the southern entrance of the Suez Canal need to turn and sail through the Gulf of Aden.

Bypassing the Suez Canal to travel around South Africa's Cape of Good Horn would effect the opportunity to steer clear of areas known to be dangerous off the coast of West Africa. While companies express their concerns that should the blockage continue their vessels could face piracy risks, the U.S. Navy observed that no impact on naval operations in the region has yet been noted. The decision of whether to reroute represented a "roll of the dice", in the words of the head of liner operations at Maersk Asia Pacific, James Wroe.

 

The Ever Given is stuck across the Suez Canal (Photo by Suez Canal Authority/Handout/AFP via Getty Images)

According to Rolf Jansen, three vessels in its alliance with other shipping companies had been diverted, as has the Ever Green, sister-ship to the Ever Given, the very vessel crammed widthwise in the Suez Canal. In Singapore and Tokyo similar rerouting decisions were "imminent", affecting a number of oil tankers and other vessels. Travelling from Singapore to Rotterdam via the Cape of Good Hope vessels would face added costs of $400,000 each vessel for the entire voyage.

Close to two hundred vessels were stranded either side of the Suez Canal, representing the choke point through which approximately twelve percent of global trade flows; a route critical for oil, gas and high-demand food commodities like coffee. Asian carmakers rely on the route to transport parts meant for European factories. Their delay raises the potential of plant stoppages across the U.K. and Europe should the blockage be extended.

Nissan is "assessing the impact on our operations", of which the Suez Canal is part of, shipping to Europe from Asia, while Honda is monitoring the situation. Carmakers maintain very little stock, relying on "just in time" delivery of components. Delivery delays at sea forces carmakers to turn to expensive air freighting of parts as an emergency measure. Rerouting cargo around southern Africa would add at least seven days and potentially force cancellation of other scheduled routes.

The Ever Given blocks the Suez Canal.

Satellite image ©2021 Maxar Technologies

Dutch and Japanese salvage specialists have a variety of theories on how best to proceed intending to free the Ever Given, presenting a formidable technical challenge complicated by inclement weather conditions. According to Hapag-Lloyd's Jansen it would "at least take a few weeks" for congestion at the Suez Canal to ease, even after the gigantic container ship is refloated.

Russia, a "True Friend" to Myanmar

"Security forces are murdering unarmed civilians, including children, the very people they swore to protect."

"This bloodshed is horrifying. These are not the actions of a professional military or police force."

"Myanmar’s people have spoken clearly: they do not want to live under military rule."

"We call for an immediate end to the violence and the restoration of the democratically elected government."

U.S. Ambassador Thomas Vajda   

 

"I think around 10am or 10.30, police and soldiers came to that area and then they started to shoot at civilians. They didn't give any warning to the civilians." 

"They just came out and they started to shoot. They used rubber bullets but they also used live bullets to kill civilians in a violent way." 

Student protester, Mandalay  

 

"[At least 50 people had now been killed] and many wounded."

"[One video clip showed police beating an unarmed volunteer medical crew. Another showed a protester being shot and probably killed on the street]."  

"I asked some weapons experts and they could verify to me, it's not clear but it seems that the police weapons like 9mm submachine guns, so live ammunition [was in use]."

UN envoy to Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener

The US said it was appalled by Wednesday's violence  Reuters

Ahead of the Myanmar junta's plan to proceed with the annual Armed Forces Day celebration, the most prestigious of days for the military, a broadcast on the MRTV news channel spoke directly to protesters, telling them: "You should learn ... that you can be in danger of getting shot to the head and back"; warning protesters of the military's no-hold-barred response to continuing protests against proceeding as they have been since the February 1 coup that removed the elected government to be replaced by the military.

The response from determined Burmese was to just go on protesting. Even though the day before saw a record 38 protesters dying from counter-protest actions on the part of the military who fired live rounds at the people. Western sources are horrified, condemning the violence against the civilian population. The United Nations, as usual, urges calm and a return to democracy. The Security Council cannot proceed with a condemnation of the Burmese military, since China and Russia are in full support of the coup.

Troops parade in Naypyitaw on March 27 during Armed Forces Day, the Myanmar military's most important annual event.   © Reuters

Saturday's festivities celebrating the Myanmar military proceeded as planned. There were military representatives from eight neighbouring nations besides Russia, including China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Russia's deputy defence minister Alexander Fomin arrived in the capital Naypyitaw to meet with junta leader Senior General Min Aung Hlaing. Nyanmar state television broadcast the two men inspecting a display of 'weapons' seized from protesters.

That included makeshift shields, motorcycle helmets and unlit petrol bombs. The Deputy Defence Minister lauded Myanmar as a reliable ally to Russia and a valued strategic partner in Asia. He was there to attend the parade marking Armed Forces Day held on Saturday, as an indication of Russia's high regard for its ally. All others were military attaches, lower ranking personnel representing Burma's near neighbours.

Russia's Defence Ministry's Zvezd TV channel ran a video showing Fomin shaking hands and receiving a medal and a ceremonial sword from Min Aung Hlaing with uniformed military officers in attendance. "You, distinguished Senior General, took part in our parade last year, our parade commemorating the 75th anniversary of victory in the Great Patriotic War", Fomin is shown, telling the junta leader, in reference to the Second World War.

Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Aleksandr Fomin (left) receives a medal from Burma's armed forces chief, Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, on March 26.

In the most  high-profile sign to date of Russia's support for the new Myanmar rulers despite outrage throughout the West along with deep concerns the country's Asian neighbours have expressed for the plight of the protesters in the Burmese military's violent response to the public's wish to have Aung San Suu Kyi returned to govern the nation, Myanmar is clearly content with the support it has received from Russia and China, to offset the condemnation from the West.

According to MRTV, Min Aung Hlaing informed Fomin of his gratitude for the visit "amid our political transformational situation and the COVID-19 pandemic". A total of 320 people have been killed in the crackdown on dissent, according to activist groups. The result of which has seen the United States, Britain, Australia and the European Union imposing sanctions on the ruling military council, along with the army's broad network of businesses.

Moscow has provided army training and offered university scholarships to thousands of Burmese soldiers. It has also provided arms to the military that has been blacklisted by a number of Western countries reacting to the military's atrocities against its civilian population. According to a 2020 study by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, Russia is the source of some 15 percent of weapons sourced by Myanmar from 2014 to 2019. Which it has so far  used only against its own people.

Getty Images

Testing the Bounds of International Patience

"Downplaying North Korean ballistic missile tests will not help U.S. diplomacy with North Korea in any way, and would only encourage North Korea to further test the bounds of what the new administration can accept."

Markus Garlauskas, senior fellow, Atlantic Council; former U.S. National Intelligence Officer for North Korea

"Every day that passes without a deal that tries to reduce the risks posed by North Korea's nuclear and missile arsenal is a day that it gets bigger and badder."

Vipin Narang, nuclear affairs expert, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

"We are consulting with our allies and partners, and there will be responses. If they choose to escalate, we will respond accordingly."

"But I'm also prepared for some form of diplomacy, but it has to be conditioned upon the end result of denuclearization."

U.S. President Joe Biden

An electronics shop in Seoul displays television screens showing a news program reporting about North Korea's missiles with file images. North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan, also known as the East Sea. (Chung Sung-Jun/Getty Images)

Like an errant juvenile delinquent who enjoys being regarded as a social deviant, North Korea's unpredictable leader Kim Jong Un enjoys what he interprets as celebrity notice by the global community through his provocative and dangerous displays of military prowess with the use of technologically advanced missiles and hinting that it would be simple enough for his technicians to mount a miniaturized nuclear warhead on any of his latest, more advanced, more powerful, longer-range ballistic missiles.

He hungers to be recognized as the leader of a powerful, influential country, piggy-backing his notoriety on to China's fearsome new and growing naval power and global influence. The alarm that Kim Jong Un causes his uneasy neighbours is second only to that of China's in claiming extraterritorial sites as China's exclusively, ranging from disputed land, sea and air borders to international areas not in dispute and held to be open to all.

After launching two ballistic missiles into the Sea of Japan at a time when Japan is launching its preliminaries to the Olympic Games this summer, it is clear that Kim is bored, awaiting notice from the new U.S. administration, and taking deliberate action to pry the attention of the new Biden administration away from cold-war-era-returned disputes with China and Russia to North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is shown attending a ceremony to inaugurate the start of a construction project in Pyongyang, in a photo released Wednesday by the country's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). (KCNA/Reuters)

The missiles' launch flaunted North Korea's impressive technological advances in weapons and rocketry as it continues to recklessly defy and provoke the patience of its neighbours and that of the United States involved in protecting the sovereign rights of those neighbours and which Pyongyang interprets as posing a military threat to itself. A threat that Kim feels can be countered with more advanced weaponry to persuade the United States to walk on eggs around North Korea.

According to analysts, the missile tests need not be conflated with the belief that talks on denuclearization are spinning in circles awaiting their final gasp of rejection. The North Korean arsenal, experts warn the U.S. administration, is a clear demonstration that Pyongyang is advancing its military arsenal's effectiveness. In itself a new threat to stability in the region. As greater scrutiny is being fixed on the North Korean arsenal Kim basks happily in what he construes as fear and admiration.

Several days earlier North Korea had fired a number of cruise missiles. President Biden responded sounding unperturbed claiming no message was intended other than a friendly greeting; and did not in the least bit portend future problems, but was merely, for North Korea, "business as usual". There can be little doubt that Kim is feeling his oats, having been approached by the U.S.to think deeply on issues of human rights, sanctions and denuclearization.

 

All of which the North Korean leader was pleased to rebuff. Along with shoving aside Biden administration overtures with a diplomatic mission to re-establish denuclearization talks putting an end to tactical mission provocations. 

"If the US continues with its thoughtless remarks without thinking of the consequences, it may be faced with something that is not good."

"It is a gangster-like logic that it is allowable for the US to ship the strategic nuclear assets into the Korean peninsula and launch ICBMs any time it wants but not allowable for the DPRK, its belligerent party, to conduct even a test of a tactical weapon."

"[North Korea has the] right to self-defense [and the Biden administration] took the wrong first step."

North Korean military official Ri Pyong Chol

Commuters watch a TV showing a file image of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Joe Biden during a news program at the Suseo Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Friday

AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon

                                                                                                                                                             

Canada's Liberal Government's Love Affair with China

"The [opposition] Conservatives are calling on the Liberal government to stop making payments to the Asian Infrastructure Bank in light of the ongoing detention and lack of transparency around the trials of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor in China. The party's foreign affairs critic says it's unacceptable that Canada would send about $40 million to the China-led agency."

"Michael Chong says the Liberal government should use all of the tools at its disposal, including withholding the payment, to put pressure on Chinese authorities to stop the trials of the two Michaels and to release them."

"Global Affairs Canada [Department of Foreign Affairs] and Finance Canada have not responded to several requests for information on whether the payment that's due this month has been made and whether Ottawa will withhold the payment."

The Canadian Press

Protesters hold photos of Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, who are being detained by China, outside British Columbia Supreme Court, in Vancouver, March 6, 2019.

 

Canada's relations with China are in the diplomatic dungeon. And two innocent Canadian citizens who just happened to be in China and thus vulnerable to abduction by Chinese authorities are now languishing in a Beijing dungeon, and have been for over two years. This is called 'hostage diplomacy' originating in China for the express purpose of placing other countries on notice that China will not be trifled with; should any country attempt to hold Chinese nationals to face justice for wrongdoing, China will exact its revenge.

Australia is suffering a different kind of destructive diplomacy which the Chinese Communist Party brought to bear to teach the Australian government that in holding China to account for its questionable role in failing to halt the spread of the novel coronavirus that first surfaced in Wuhan, China, there are consequences to be paid. Beijing exacted consequences on Australian wine, coal, agricultural products striking a blow against accountability for the more important purpose of bringing Australia to heel. It failed.

 

But Canada is eager to do the bidding of China, even at a dread cost, because the Liberal Party of Canada believes there is no greater benefit than aspiring to trade with the trade-and-production behemoth. Official Canada in the guise of the Liberal party in power cannot abase itself too much to satisfy Beijing. Covertly. Since the Canadian public has a very low opinion of China's tactics, from interfering in Canadian affairs to infiltrating government and business, to threatening Chinese-Canadians who fail to genuflect to Beijing, to abducting Canadian citizens.

 

This kind of hostage diplomacy is by no means confined only to Canada. In Canada's case it was inspired by the arrest on a U.S. warrant of Huawei Technologies' chief financial officer. An act that Beijing seethes is contrary to international law. Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig, the two abducted Canadian citizens accused of 'espionage' were put on trial in the past week; separate closed trials at which no Canadian diplomatic presence was permitted. Their verdicts are yet to be announced.

 

Diplomats from various countries wait outside of the Dandong Intermediate People's Court, where the trial of Canadian businessman Michael Spavor is being held, in Dandong in China's northeast Liaoning province, March 19, 2021.

 

Huawei is vying for involvement in setting up Canada's 5G network. As a member of the Five Eyes intelligence network comprised of Great Britain, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, all of whom have refused Huawei entrance to their 5G upgrades, Canada still has not made a decision, imperilling its position within the Five Eyes, averse to Chinese involvement for obvious reasons of surveillance and espionage at which China is so superbly skilled and experienced.

 

During the trial of  Michael Kovrig on March 22, Canada was supported by the presence outside the courthouse of 26 diplomats from allied Western countries. Shortly afterward Canada joined its allies in sanctions against Chinese officials suspected of involvement in persecution of Uyghurs, the Muslim minority living in Xinjiang province. Canada's Minister of Foreign Affairs alerted other countries of risks to their nationals in being detained by China should they have 'disagreements' with the CCP. 

Behind the scenes, covertly, three is a powerful high level lobby group, the Canada China Business Council that is planning to escort its members on a trip to the Chinese cities of Nanjing and Hangzhou on March 24. The CCBC board of directors represents Canada's power elite, its chair is Olivier Desmarais, senior vice-president of Power Corporation of Canada, of the billionaire Desmarais family. Former Prime Minister Jean Chretien, who while prime minister, led a number of business delegations to China, is his grandfather.

There will be involvement in the event by officials from the Shanghai Canadian Consulate along with Chinese government officials. Another partner for the event is CanExports Associations, a grant program under the authority of Global Affairs Canada. This follows on the commitment by the government of Justin Trudeau to fully engage commercially with China. A move expedited when Trudeau chose Dominic Barton as Canada's Ambassador to China, a man with ample experience and connections in China.

He was, in fact, managing director of a global consulting giant. Aside from which he personally has close commercial and financial interests in China. His appointment in September of 2019, not because he is a career diplomat, but because of his extensive insider contacts in China, sent the message to China that Canada values and gives high priority to a prized commercial relationship between the two countries. A relationship that trumps any other issues, inconsequential by comparison.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board investing taxpayers' money as a Crown corporation, has $56 billion representing 12 percent of their total investments, in China. That would include investments in companies with known links to human rights abuses. So, while condemning Beijing for its human rights abuses against Tibetans and Uyghurs and Christians in China; in particular what Canadian Members of Parliament just two weeks ago passed a resolution for, condemning Chinese 'genocide' against Muslim Uyghurs, official Canada gives its support to what it accuses China of.

Leaving China to understand, wink-wink, that despite the external noise that is so irritating to Beijing, it's business as usual, with Canada. Even though Beijing decided to withhold from Canada agreed-upon shipments of the CanSino vaccine that Canadian technology helped to develop, leaving the Canadian health care system void of desperately-needed vaccines. Another ill-judged, inept and ultimately life-destructive decision, courtesy of Justin Trudeau's love affair with China.

Policemen wearing face masks patrol at the compound of No. 2 Intermediate People's Court in Beijing on March 22, 2021, the day the trial of Canadian Michael Kovrig took place.

 

Not an Islamist Terrorist But a Paranoid Social Deviant

Alissa’s own writings reveal he is a sharia adherent muslim. His numerous writings on Facebook and elsewhere reveal he is committed to Islam and its doctrinal teachings. On December 18, 2018 Alissa posted the following on his Facebook page: “Muslims might not be perfect but Islam is.” On May 7, 2019, Alissa posted “So Mary wears a hijab and Jesus doesn’t eat pork and prays on his knees and hands. There (sic) both Muslims it’s obvious.”  

The Islamic Center of Boulder works with known hostile jihadi organizations including the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA) and its affiliates. Evidence in the largest terrorism financing trial ever successfully prosecuted in American history – US v Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (“HLF”), Northern District of Texas, 2008 – identifies ICNA as a member of the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood’s network, whose stated goal is the overthrow of the U.S. government and the implementation of an Islamic State under Islamic Law/sharia.

A snapshot of Colorado reveals there is a significant jihadi (terrorist) network across the state which has been present for decades with little interference from state/local officials or law enforcement. The following organizations primarily present themselves as non-violent community organizations, when in fact they are at the core of the U.S. jihadi Movement:

• The Muslim Students Association (MSA), the first national Islamic organization established in America, is a Muslim Brotherhood organization whose goal is identical to that of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State (formerly ISIS). MSA chapters are present on every major college/university campus in Colorado.
• Hamas, doing business as the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), has at least one office in Colorado.
• The Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), and their affiliates including Islamic Relief, have offices in Colorado.
• Numerous properties across Colorado are owned by the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), the bank for the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood, which has directly funded Hamas terrorist organizations and leaders.
• The Muslim Brotherhood’s Muslim American Society (MAS) has at least one office in Colorado.
• The Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), identified in the US v HLF trial as a Muslim Brotherhood organization which funds the terrorist group Hamas and its subsidiaries have chapters across Colorado, including the Islamic Society of Colorado Springs and the Denver Islamic Society.
• Anwar al Awlaki, the leader of Al Qaeda in Yemen, who was killed in a U.S. missile strike in 2011, was the President of the Muslim Students Association at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, one hour north of Boulder.

  John D. Guandolo, former FBI agent, Jihad Watch

A mourner leaves a bouquet of flowers Tuesday along a fence put up around the parking lot where a mass shooting took place in a King Soopers grocery store Monday in Boulder, Colo. (David Zalubowski/The Associated Press)

 

Although the link is plainly there, it is unspoken. A delicate dance of avoidance. No mainstream news reports suggest anything as controversial as a Muslim terrorist, doubtlessly locally radicalized in an area mosque as another successful recruit to Islamism, set out -- well weaponized, to hunt down Jews in a place where he assumed Jews would be available -- to terrorize and shoot to kill with little interference before he would be able to take a sizeable toll. The supermarket he chose, catering to Jews as a 'kosher' market was certainly crowded on Monday when a man by the name of Ahmad Al Aliwi Alissa stormed in shooting to kill. But those within weren't all Jews.

That Jews were the target is an unassailable argument. The connection is blatant. A man posting his questionable views on social media. A man whom his brother identified as socially averse and 'paranoid'. A man whose sister-in-law informed police that she had seen him toying with an assault rifle in the home the family shared. Born in Syria, raised in the United States where he attended school during his formative years. He had amassed a little collection of weapons, discovered in the family home. No one there in his family questioned him?

The three pieces of a readily-solved puzzle; young radicalized Muslim, assault weapons, kosher supermarket equalling Jews there for the harvesting where martyrdom and notoriety/celebrity status beckoned. No authorities have so much as murmured the word 'terrorism' in public though unavoidably he is spoken of as the 'suspect', and nor have any news outlets spoken of an antisemitic assault leading to the murder of ten innocent people. Yes, the suspect has been charged with ten murders, but authorities claim to see no 'reason' for the atrocity.

And perhaps that being the case, during his prosecution, his defence will claim not guilty by reason of mental imbalance, which has already been alluded to by his family who evidently seem to feel that mental delicacy and assault weapons pose no risk to anyone. Witnesses describe the man shooting wildly before he even exited his vehicle parked in front of the supermarket. Then he repeatedly shot an  elderly man standing outside the supermarket, before entering.

 

Among the dead ...Denny Stong, 20; Neven Stanisic, 23; Rikki Olds, 25; Tralona Bartkowiak, 49; Suzanne Fountain, 59; Teri Leiker, 51; Kevin Mahoney, 61; Lynn Murray, 62; and Jody Waters, 65.

 

Once in the crowded supermarket, shots rang out repeatedly, people panicked, streaming out of the store. A 911 call earlier had reached police, and Eric Talley, a 51-year-old, father of seven, ten-year veteran of the Boulder police force was the first to respond. In a gunfire exchange with the terrorist, he lost his life. He and nine other people, including the store manager; victims from age 20 to 65. Boulder, Colorado is now ten people poorer, and well and truly traumatized.

"My heart aches today."

"Flags had barely been raised back to full-mast after the tragic shooting in Atlanta that claimed eight lives, and now a tragedy here close to home at a grocery store that could be any of our neighbourhood grocery stores."

Colorado Governor Jared Polis

But it wasn't just any neighbourhood grocery store. The King Soopers outlet in Boulder was a kosher supermarket, deliberately chosen for the assumption that there would be within Jews, perhaps only Jews and the hunt was on. In Atlanta days earlier it had been Asian-Americans who were the target, when eight people were shot, six of them Koreans. Racists in general have been targeting those they think are Chinese, linking them, though they are as American as any others, to the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19 which originated in Wuhan, China.

"It would be premature for us to draw any conclusions at this time", advised the agent in charge of the FBI's field office in Denver at a news briefing. Authorities claim to have no idea what might have motivated the killer to open fire on helpless shoppers at the King Soopers supermarket. Just as in the Atlanta shooting spree at the massage parlours, there is a denial that the killings were racist-motivated but rather stemmed from the murderer's sex-overdrive mental state.

People are led out of the King Soopers grocery store after the shooting on Monday. (Hart Van Denburg/Colorado Public Radio/The Associated Press)