Turkey charges 20 Saudis over Khashoggi murder

Yahoo – AFP, March 25, 2020

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was a commentator who worked for the
Washington Post (AFP Photo/Yasin AKGUL)

Istanbul (AFP) - Turkish prosecutors on Wednesday charged 20 suspects including two former top aides to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the brutal 2018 murder of Riyadh critic Jamal Khashoggi.

Prosecutors accuse Saudi Arabia's deputy intelligence chief Ahmed al-Assiri and the royal court's media tsar Saud al-Qahtani of leading the operation against Khashoggi and giving orders to a Saudi hit team.

Khashoggi, 59, a commentator who wrote for The Washington Post, was killed after he entered the Saudi consulate on October 2, 2018, to obtain paperwork for his wedding to Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.

The Saudi insider-turned-critic was strangled and his body cut into pieces by a 15-man Saudi squad inside the consulate, according to Turkish officials.

His remains have never been found despite repeated calls by Turkey for the Saudis to cooperate.

Riyadh insists he was killed in a "rogue" operation.

But the CIA, a UN special rapporteur and Ankara have directly linked the Saudi crown prince to the killing, a charge vehemently denied.

Cengiz on Wednesday welcomed the charges, describing the prosecutor's decision as a "good step towards justice".

She urged the US National Director of Intelligence to publish a report on who is responsible for the murder, and called on Washington to carry out "an international investigation".

"Not holding Jamal's real killers accountable gives those officials a green light to continue their oppression of their people (and) sends the wrong message to the world that the wealthy and powerful are above the law."

'Monstrous killing'

Turkey carried out its own investigation after being unhappy with Saudi Arabia's explanations.

The Istanbul prosecutor's office said in a statement that Assiri and Qahtani were charged with "instigating the deliberate and monstrous killing, causing torment".

The murder caused relations between Ankara and Riyadh -- longstanding rivals -- to worsen.

Saudis, who enjoy investing and holidaying in Turkey, were urged to boycott the country last year.

The CIA, the UN and Turkey have directly linked Crown Prince Mohammed bin 

Salman to the killing, a charge the kingdom vehemently denies (AFP Photo/Brendan 

Smialowski)

Turkey meanwhile is a key backer of Qatar, especially after a Riyadh-led economic blockade began against the Gulf state in 2017, and is accused of supporting groups including the Muslim Brotherhood.

Saudi Arabia views the Brotherhood as an existential threat.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vowed Ankara will not give up the case.

"This happened in my country, how am I not going to follow up on that? Of course I'm going to follow up. This is our responsibility," Erdogan told Fox News last year.

'Insufficient evidence'

Eighteen other suspects -- including intelligence operative Maher Mutreb who frequently travelled with the crown prince on foreign tours, forensic expert Salah al-Tubaigy and Fahad al-Balawi, a member of the Saudi royal guard -- were also charged with "deliberately and monstrously killing, causing torment".

They face life in jail if convicted.

Mutreb, Tubaigy and Balawi had been among 11 people on trial in Riyadh. Western officials said many of those accused defended themselves by saying they were carrying out Assiri's orders, describing him as the operation's ringleader.

Five unnamed people were sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia in December while three others were handed jail terms totalling 24 years over the killing.

Qahtani had been investigated but he was not charged by the Saudi authorities because of "insufficient evidence" while Assiri was charged but eventually acquitted on the same grounds.

The Turkish prosecutor said a trial in absentia would be opened against the 20 suspects but did not give a date.

The prosecutors have already issued arrest warrants for the suspects who are not in Turkey.

Saudi halts prayers in mosques over coronavirus

Yahoo – AFP, March 17, 2020

Mecca's Grand Mosque, the holiest site in Islam, has been almost empty since
the coronavirus outbreak (AFP Photo)

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia on Tuesday suspended prayers inside all its mosques except the holiest two sites in Islam as it steps up efforts to contain the new coronavirus, state media reported.

Mosques will be temporarily shut for the five daily Islamic prayers as well as the weekly Friday prayers, the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing the council of senior scholars -- the kingdom's highest religious body.

It said mosques would continue to issue the ritual call to prayer.

The decision seeks to direct worshippers to pray at home but does not affect prayers in Mecca's Grand Mosque and the Prophet's Mosque in Medina, it added.

The announcement risks riling fringe hardliners, for whom religion trumps health considerations.

Saudi Arabia has reported 171 coronavirus cases but no deaths so far.

The Arab world's biggest economy has shut down cinemas, malls and restaurants, halted flights and suspended the year-round umrah pilgrimage in a bid to contain the deadly virus.

More than 1,000 cases of the virus have been recorded so far across the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Qatar, which has the GCC's highest toll of 442 cases but no deaths, on Tuesday ordered the indefinite closure of banks and all shops except pharmacies and food retailers.

It has already shuttered mosques, banned the entry of non-citizens and ordered the closure of bars, cinemas and schools while suspending football matches and other sporting events.

Authorities urged people not to leave home without urgent cause and to avoid all gatherings, but stopped short of the blanket lockdowns seen in Kuwait and Saudi.

On Monday, Bahrain's health ministry said a woman had died from the coronavirus, the GCC's first death from the COVID-19 illness.

The government there has said it will pay electricity bills on behalf of individuals and companies for three months starting April.

In Jordan, where 36 cases of coronavirus have been recorded, authorities have asked people "not to leave their homes except in cases of absolute necessity".

Only supermarkets, bakeries and pharmacies remain open, and the army has been deployed to help enforce the measures.

Thousands of Afghans return from Iran as virus hits economy

Yahoo – AFP, Aref KARIMI, March 16, 2020

A volunteer (L) hands out free face masks to people in Afghanistan's Herat city near
Iran on February 26, 2020 (AFP Photo/HOSHANG HASHIMI)

Herat (Afghanistan) (AFP) - Nearly 70,000 Afghans have returned from virus-hit Iran in the past 20 days, an official said Monday, overwhelming health workers at border crossings and raising fears of a major outbreak in the impoverished country.

Many Afghans who had gone to Iran to look for work are returning home as the contagion cripples Iran's economy, which was already devastated by US sanctions. Afghanistan's spring harvest is also drawing workers back, said the International Organization for Migration.

They were allowed to re-enter after Kabul reopened land crossings for Afghans wanting to return home -- despite having earlier suspended air and ground links over fears of the virus spreading from Iran, one of the world's worst-hit countries.

More health workers and better testing facilities were needed to cope with the increasing number of returnees and avoid a health disaster, warned Jawed Nadim, head of the refugees repatriation department in the western province of Herat, which borders Iran.

Health workers "only ask (returnees) some questions and test their temperature", Nadim told AFP, adding: "This is not enough."

Iran has recorded 853 deaths from the new coronavirus since February 19, officials said Monday, appealing for people to stop travelling.

Afghanistan has 21 confirmed infections so far, most of them in Herat.

But the official number likely understates the scale of the problem due to inadequate testing measures and shoddy health infrastructure in the war-ravaged country.

In a sign of authorities struggling to contain the disease, dozens of people fled the isolation section of a Herat hospital on Monday.

An Afghan health services worker wearing protective gear at a market sprays 

disinfectant against the spread of the COVID-19 illness in Herat city -- Herat's 

governor has said Afghanistan must act quickly as Afghans return from 

hard-hit Iran (AFP Photo/HOSHANG HASHIMI)

They escaped "with the help of their relatives, after beating up the doctors and breaking windows," health ministry spokesman Wahidullah Mayar said, adding the police had been of "no help".

Ebrahim Mohammadi, director of the Herat ambulance service, said 37 people had absconded. Two had tested positive for the COVID-19 illness while results were pending for the rest.

"They were getting impatient because after more than five days their test results still hadn't come," Mohammadi told AFP.

Returnees more than double

The number of returnees jumped by 106 percent at two border crossings in the first week of March from the previous week, its figures show.

Ninety percent of those returnees came home voluntarily, while the remaining 10 percent were deported, it added.

Herat's governor Abdul Qayum Rahimi last week said Afghanistan needed to act quickly to avoid a spiralling crisis.

"With the number of people coming in from Iran (and) entering Afghanistan from several entry points if we don't take any measures now and don't work together... we will witness an even worse situation than Iran," Rahimi said Saturday.

"I am afraid... (that) a day will come that we won't be able to count the dead bodies," he said.

Returnees told AFP they were tested for coronavirus symptoms -- mainly fever -- at the border crossing.

"The doctors at the border use thermometers to test (for) fever and... are advising us how to protect ourselves from coronavirus", said Malik, a 46-year-old labourer.

Public Health Minister Ferozuddin Feroz announced Monday the government would build a 300-bed facility in Herat to tackle the outbreak.

"With that, the capacity of the health facilities in Herat will increase to 1,000 beds," he said.

Related Article:

"Kryon on Corona", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar 13, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis) - New

Spanish king distances himself from scandal-hit father

Yahoo – AFP, March 15, 2020

Juan Carlos handed over power to his son, Felipe in 2014 (AFP Photo/Juanjo Martín)

Madrid (AFP) - King Felipe VI of Spain moved Sunday to distance himself from his scandal-hit father, stripping him of his palace allowance and renouncing what he was due to inherit from him.

A statement from the palace announced that he had stripped the former king Juan Carlos, of his allowance and was himself renouncing what he was due to inherit from him.

The announcement came after media reports that Juan Carlos had received 100 million dollars (90 million euros) from Saudi Arabia via an offshore account -- and that King Felipe himself was also a beneficiary.

The money was lodged in a Swiss bank account in the name of a Panamanian foundation.

In the palace statement, the reigning king said that in April he had made it clear to a notary that he would accept no money from the foundation in question.

He also that he had absolutely no knowledge of having been named as a beneficiary to another foundation, which according to press reports paid millions of euros towards his father's flights in private jets.

On Tuesday, the Spanish parliament decided against launching an investigation into suspected money laundering by the former king Juan Carlos.

Reported Saudi payments to ex-king

Spain's hard-left Podemos party had called for it after reports earlier this month that in 2008 Juan Carlos received $100 million from Saudi king Abdallah via the Swiss account of an entity listed in Panama.

The Swiss daily Tribune de Geneve added that in 2012, $65 million of that sum was given by the king to his former mistress, Corinna zu Sayn-Wittgenstein.

Then a report in Britain's Daily Telegraph said that 52-year-old King Felipe was also a beneficiary of the fund, which it said had been set up when Juan Carlos was still on the throne.

Juan Carlos, now 82, came to the throne after the death of the military dictator Francisco Franco in 1975 and is widely respected for having favoured a transition to democracy.

But he lost his immunity from prosecution after handing power to his son, Felipe, in June 2014 following a 39-year reign.

He resigned from public life last year after a series of scandals about his private life.

In 2012, he outraged Spaniards by going elephant hunting in Botswana at the height of the country's recession.

Spanish reports say Juan Carlos has until now received an annual allowance from the state of more than 194,000 euros.

Theory that Coronavirus Escaped from a Lab Lacks Evidence

The pathogen appears to have come from wild animals, virologists say, and there are no signs of genetic manipulation in the SARS-CoV-2 genome.

The Scientist, Emily Makowski, Mar 5, 2020

Since the early days of the COVID-19 epidemic, theories have circulated about the origin of the novel coronavirus causing the disease, SARS-CoV-2. One prominent rumor is that it first escaped from a lab in Wuhan studying bat coronaviruses and then spread to the public. This theory has also evolved into claims that the virus was genetically engineered to be a bioweapon. But scientists say that while there’s not enough information to pinpoint where the virus came from, there is no evidence that it was created in a lab.

The lab-escape theory had been circulating on social media and various blogs for weeks, but gained considerable visibility in a New York Post article in late February. In it, Steven Mosher, a social scientist and the president of the Population Research Institute in Front Royal, Virginia, summarizes why he believes SARS-CoV-2 may have been accidentally spread by China’s National Biosafety Laboratory at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, where researchers have studied bat coronaviruses.

In the article, Mosher describes several lines of reasoning, namely, that the lab is less than 10 miles away from the seafood market where a cluster of COVID-19 cases was first discovered, and that after the 2003 SARS outbreak, the SARS-CoV virus escaped from virology labs multiple times in China. He also describes how Chinese virologist and bioweapons expert Major General Chen Wei went to the Wuhan Institute of Virology with military scientists in January to study thenew virus, which Mosher sees as a form of damage control.

“The circumstantial evidence surrounding it is pretty compelling. . . . The idea that the epicenter of this epidemic would be just a few miles from the Institute of Virology in Wuhan, which is where we know that dangerous pathogens are being kept and looked at as potential bioweapons, I think the odds against that are just astronomical,” Mosher tells The Scientist.

Dimitrios Paraskevis, an epidemiologist at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece, tells The Scientist that while it’s not possible to rule out the idea of lab escape, he believes that it is unlikely. “Any person who works in a lab must follow very strict safety regulations. It sounds to me very extraordinary that something happened and nobody took care about such an accident,” he says. The World Health Organization updated SARS surveillance guidelines in 2004 after the lab-based outbreaks, urging labs to follow proper biosafety procedures, and China replaced the director of its Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

One problem leading to a lot of apprehension and speculation about the new coronavirus is that scientists “don’t know what the actual source of the virus was,” Anthony Fehr, a coronavirus researcher at the University of Kansas, tells The Scientist. Additionally, researchers don’t know if SARS-CoV-2 immediately started to spread in humans after a single transmission from an animal, or if it took multiple zoonotic events between an infected animal population and humans.

Despite the question mark around the exact source of the disease, it does appear to have originally come from wildlife, according to a team of international public health scientists who wrote a statement published in The Lancet. An analysis of SARS-CoV-2 by scientists at the Wuhan Institute of Virology suggests that the virus’s genome is 96 percent similar to a coronavirus found in bats.

Mosher agrees that animals were the likely origin. “That doesn’t mean [the virus] wasn’t collected, brought to the lab, and was being tested on in various ways, and escaped from the lab,” he says. Mosher also does not claim that China genetically engineered the virus. “I’m not saying this has been genetically engineered to be a bioweapon that’s escaped from the lab. . . . I’m just saying that [China is] collecting dangerous pathogens, [and] they have a history of letting them escape from the lab,” he says.

Transmission from an animal, with no lab experiment or genetic manipulation involved, fits best with what scientists know about how other coronaviruses have made the jump to humans. In the past, these viruses have spread through wild bats that infect another type of animal—an intermediate host—that then spreads it to humans. SARS-CoV, for example, was transmitted from bats to civets to humans, while camels were an intermediate host in MERS, according to Quanta. The civet version of SARS-CoV was 99.8 percent similar to the one found in humans—much more closely related than the bat and human varieties of SARS-CoV-2—so researchers believe the new coronavirus also infected another type of animal on its way from bats to humans. But they have not found a candidate so far, according to Nature.

This ability to move in between different animal hosts is a characteristic feature of coronaviruses, according to Paul McCray, a pulmonologist at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine whose lab studies coronaviruses. “It’s exactly what we’ve learned in studies of SARS in 2002 and 2003, and MERS in 2012. . . . So the concept that this is happening again should come as no surprise,” he says. “For people that work with these viruses, this is completely unsurprising. We don’t need to come up with farfetched theories when the genome sequences and the characteristics of these viruses support what we’re seeing.”

No signs of engineering in SARS-CoV-2 genome

In addition to the claim that a naturally evolved virus escaped from a lab by mistake, some conspiracy theories have posited that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered. In fact, researchers throughout the world, including in the US and China, have conducted research involving the creation of experimentally engineered hybrid coronaviruses. But there is no evidence that SARS-CoV-2 was genetically engineered, says Paraskevis, whose genomic analysis of the new virus was reported as a preprint in January.

RNA viruses, which include coronaviruses, “accumulate mutations at a rate one million times faster than human DNA [does]. . . . It gives them the ability to survive against an immune response,” Paraskevis says. While the new coronavirus does have some genetic differences to other known viruses due to mutations, “there’s no evidence that this is the result of a human experiment,” he says, adding that if the virus were engineered, scientists would expect to see additional genetic material in its genome. For example, an early bioRxiv preprint on SARS-CoV-2 found HIV-like genetic sequences, but online commenters pointed out that “the findings were at most a coincidence” and that research has since been retracted, reports STAT.

As there are still many unknowns about SARS-CoV-2, researchers worldwide are trying to uncover as much as they can about the virus. Chinese researchers “released the genomic sequence incredibly rapidly online. . . . They were very public in sharing the most important first piece of information” about it, McCray tells The Scientist. “The fact that scientists all over the world had access to that genomic sequence” made a lot of early research possible, he says.

Emily Makowski is a freelance writer based in Boston. Find her on Twitter @EmilyRMakowski.

"China is seeking to deflect criticism for its role in starting a global pandemic and not telling the world" by spreading "dangerous and ridiculous" conspiracy theories, a US State Department official said https://t.co/wBxj3p3Sjl pic.twitter.com/myx3OcoixS

— AFP news agency (@AFP) March 13, 2020

Related Articles:

US sees new pressure point as coronavirus hits Iran - New

"Kryon on Corona", Reykjavik, Iceland, Mar 13, 2020 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (>13.46 Min - Reference to the Global Coronavirus crisis) - New

China allows some firms to resume work at virus epicenter

Yahoo – AFP, Beiyi SEOW, March 11, 2020

The number of daily new coronavirus cases has fallen steadily in Wuhan in
recent weeks (AFP Photo/STR)

Beijing (AFP) - Key companies can resume work in coronavirus-hit Wuhan, China announced Wednesday, in another sign authorities are confident they are winning the battle against the epidemic as they seek to revive the economy.

The decision came a day after President Xi Jinping paid his first visit to the capital of Hubei province since it was placed under lockdown in late January after the outbreak became a national emergency.

The number of daily new cases has fallen steadily in Wuhan in recent weeks, while all other cities in Hubei have reported zero fresh infections for several days in a row -- prompting Xi to declare that the spread of the virus has been "basically curbed" in the province.

Hubei's quarantine measures, along with temporary closures of factories across the country, caused China's economy to come to a standstill but authorities have encouraged firms to resume work nationwide in recent weeks.

The Hubei provincial government said Wednesday that Wuhan businesses involved in providing daily necessities, prevention and control of the epidemic, or in the operations of public utilities, are among those that can resume work and production immediately.

Wuhan firms that are key to "global industrial chains" may do so as well, after getting approval, the government added.

Other companies are expected to resume production only after March 20.

Japanese carmaker Honda said on Wednesday that some of its staff have started going to work in its Wuhan plant.

Honda has also begun production of a "small number of vehicles" while checking on its production equipment starting Wednesday.

Nissan, another Japanese automaker, told AFP its Xiangyang plant in Hubei province and Zhengzhou plant in the neighbouring Henan province have "started preparations to restart operations this week".

A spokesman from Wuhan-based Dongfeng Motor Corporation, one of China's biggest auto groups, told AFP it is getting ready to resume working in Wuhan, but did not specify a time.

Similar rules apply to areas outside Wuhan that are considered high-risk, where companies involved in epidemic prevention, public utilities and providing necessities are among those that may get back to work.

In areas considered medium or low risk, there is a broader range of companies allowed to start up again.

Passenger flights, trains, cars, ships and city buses in middle and low-risk areas -- moving within the province and excluding Wuhan -- will "gradually resume operations" as well, although no timeframe was given.

But authorities said they will continue strict control measures on channels out of Wuhan and Hubei.

Health codes

The announcement came a day after Hubei authorities loosened travel restrictions, allowing people from medium and low risk areas to move within the province if their health code is labelled "green".

A mobile app will be used to give residents a coloured health code. Green indicates holders have no contact with virus cases, while those with yellow codes have close contacts.

Confirmed or suspected cases will get a red code, and must be quarantined.

Authorities added in the latest statement on Wednesday that outside of Wuhan, a "point-to-point" system will be adopted to send employees back to work, and help those stranded in Hubei to return home.

Schools will continue to be suspended in Hubei.

Wuhan city has been on lockdown since January 23 as China scrambled to contain the spread of the deadly coronavirus, which has now killed over 3,100 and infected nearly 81,000 in the country.

Other cities in Hubei soon followed suit, placing a total of around 56 million people under quarantine.

Dubai ruler ordered abduction of daughters: UK judge

Yahoo – AFP, Phil HAZLEWOOD, March 5, 2020

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, 70, applied to the UK's highest court to
block the publication of two judgments in the case against his wife (AFP Photo/
KARIM SAHIB)

London (AFP) - Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum ordered the abduction of two of his daughters and subjected his former wife to a "campaign of fear and intimidation", forcing her to flee to London with their two children, according to a British court ruling made public on Thursday.

Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, 45, fled the United Arab Emirates last April having become "terrified" of her husband, who is also the vice-president and prime minister of the United Arab Emirates.

Soon afterwards, the 70-year-old sheikh applied for their two children -- a son aged eight and a 12-year-old daughter -- to be returned to the Gulf kingdom.

But Princess Haya, a half-sister of Jordan's King Abdullah II, applied for the children to be made wards of court and filed a non-molestation order for herself.

She asked during a London hearing for a judge to make findings of fact about the kidnapping and forced detention of two of the sheikh's adult daughters from a previous marriage.

She also alleged she had faced a "campaign of fear and intimidation" since she left last year.

Seized and detained

Sheikh Mohammed, who owns the Godolphin horse racing stable, tried to prevent two of the court rulings being made public.

But the Supreme Court rejected his application on Thursday morning, allowing them to be published.

Judge Andrew McFarlane, who heads the Family Division of the High Court of England and Wales, found Sheikh Mohammed "ordered and orchestrated" the abduction of Sheikha Shamsa from the UK city of Cambridge when she was 19 in August 2000.

She was forcibly returned to Dubai and "has been deprived of her liberty for much, if not all, of the past two decades", he said.

He also found Shamsa's sister, Latifa, 35, was seized and returned to Dubai twice, in 2002 and again in 2018.

She was held "on the instructions of her father" for more than three years after the first attempted escape. Her second made global headlines in March 2018.

Claims by a friend of Latifa who helped her escape that Indian special forces boarded a boat off the Indian coast on March 4, 2018 before she was returned to Dubai were also found to be proven.

"She was pleading for the soldiers to kill her rather than face the prospect of going back to her family in Dubai," McFarlane said.

"Drawing these matters together I conclude, on the balance of probability, that Latifa's account of her motives for wishing to leave Dubai represents the truth.

"She was plainly desperate to extricate herself from her family and prepared to undertake a dangerous mission in order to do so."

Secret divorce

Lawyer Charles Geekie, representing Princess Haya, said at a hearing last November that his client had been left anonymous notes threatening the lives of her son and daughter.

She also told the court of "deliberate threats" and even of a helicopter landing outside her house when the pilot told her he had come to take a passenger to a desert prison.

The court was also told the sheikh divorced Princess Haya without her knowledge on February 7, 2019 -- the 20th anniversary of the death of her father king Hussein of Jordan.

Judge McFarlane said it was "clear the date will have been chosen... to maximise insult and upset to her".

He agreed with Geekie that events since 2000 showed "a number of common themes, at the core of which is the use of the state and its apparatus to threaten, intimidate, mistreat and oppress with a total disregard for the rule of law".

"I also accept Mr Geekie's submission that these findings, taken together, demonstrate a consistent course of conduct over two decades where, if he deems it necessary to do so, the father will use the very substantial powers at his disposal to achieve his particular aims."

- One-sided -

In a statement after the publication of the rulings, Sheikh Mohammed strongly denied the claims and said the case involved "highly personal and private matters relating to our children".

He said he appealed to the Supreme Court "to protect the best interests and welfare of the children".

"The outcome does not protect my children from media attention in the way that other children in family proceedings in the UK are protected," he said, calling the process one-sided.

"As a head of government, I was not able to participate in the court's fact-finding process."

Related Articles:

Dubai ruler's wife seeks UK forced marriage protection order for children

Princess Haya, who is battling her husband, Dubai's ruler Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, in a UK court, is the third princess who has sought to escape the Gulf emirate in recent years https://t.co/u2kIiH02Kc pic.twitter.com/Pbf5LGygPD

— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 31, 2019

You have a virus which is ‘spreading’ in your world …

The Federation of Light channeled by Blossom Goodchild – 2 February 2020

Blossom Goodchild

Blossom: Hello there! Giving it another go, to see if we are able to communicate. So much going on for everyone. So many Energies of all Vibrations flying around and yet, onwards we march! How is it where you are and do you fancy a swap?

Federation of Light: Dearest Blossom. Welcome to you and may our Energies be compatible … Indeed, ALL Energies be compatible in order for us to chat and discuss as we like to do.

You are correct in saying about the different Vibrations. This is what is causing so much upheaval for everyone in these times. As the Vibration of your Planet is lifting into a more deserving position, it is rejecting Vibrational magnetic fields that ‘want to come along for the ride’. The struggle between the Higher and the lower frequencies is an unruly dance conducted by the lower sensations and this is what is causing so much ‘unforgettable’ disturbance.

Why do you say ‘unforgettable’?

Because is it not a term used to ‘remember’ if we look at it that way?

I guess so. Yet, I wouldn’t really want to remember this particular time as it is not one to put in the ‘Fondest memories’ album.

And yet WHEN THS IS ALL OVER … WHEN EVERYTHNG THAT NEEDS TO BE SAID AND DONE IS SAID AND DONE … you WILL remember it and look back fondly upon it because it is recognised as the ending process of the old … as you bring in the New.

The New shall bring such Strength and Happiness to all.

The New shall allow you to FEEL the YOU that you TRULY are.

Everyone, including myself, seems to be feeling so vulnerable. So much is happening to so many … is it absolutely necessary for this to take place on an individual, personal level? So many needing to be in hospital, so many being served up, what I consider to be unnecessary predicaments that are far from pleasant. I mean why does it have to be so personal when the clearing of Energies is ‘in the air’, if you get me?

Yet, you are all One and the same. That which one is experiencing … is experienced for the Whole.

ALL that is taking place in one person’s life is like ‘taking one for the team’. Everything that you are now working through, is ridding the planet of all the ‘stuff’ that HAS TO BE RELEASED in order for the pathway ahead to be clear.

With respect … Haven’t we been doing that for the last few decades and then some?

Keep in mind Blossom, you and everyone else aware of their Light, are not just dealing with a few fibs here and there, or a little bit of jewellery theft.

You are dealing with the dark side of the WHOLE! You are choosing to be part of the removal system of all that has fallen into the pit of misery, greed, hate, … shall we go on?

No need, yet, yes, please do, just out of interest.

Jealousy, lust, pride, deceit. ALL that is below the line of that which is acceptable.

We previously expressed to you that this coming year would be a most interesting one in many forms of itself. One thing after another shall be presented to you as those of lesser Light … much lesser Light … struggle to redeem their status of power and control over the populous.

You have a virus which is ‘spreading’ in your world …

The Corona virus?

This is its given name.

I felt you wanted me to look up the meaning of the word ‘Corona’.  (Gaseous envelope of the sun and other stars … or ‘of the crown’.)

Interesting name. Considering there is much talk of solar flares and the sovereignty of a country that is under much strain due to news that has been leaked out. All that you are told goes much deeper than has so far been offered. Yet, it shall be revealed and there shall be no stopping these condemnations as they flow forth.

So, the virus?

A decoy! Put in place to mask rescue missions of those ‘under the thumb!’

‘Under the thumb’ meaning being controlled or dominated by someone. So, to speak as it is … you are saying the virus was put in place to take the attention away from those of darkness who are about to be ‘caught’.

Correct, Blossom.

Yet, none the less the virus is a real thing that is killing people!

As with many viruses that have been concocted to cause great alarm and fear. There will always be ‘some medical situation’ that is made prominent at a time suitable for undercover agents to slip through the bar and slip away unseen.

So much that is presented in your world is that of a decoy nature. So much!

Then the fear that builds, feeds itself until this particular threat ‘dies down’ and those who created it, sit happily in the knowing that once again their mission was successful.

Most of you who are aware KNOW all this.

May we ask … whenever you have heard about this virus or anything else, or seen it on your news, what have you felt? How have you reacted?

Well, to be honest … I very rarely watch the news, yet, if someone mentions it, I feel very unsympathetic, for I know it is just a ploy. Even though people are dying, I feel unattached somehow. It is just another part of the game and I am on the winning team. Of course, the I AM THE LIGHT. I AM THE LOVE. I AM. mantra comes into play at all times. For that which I cannot fully understand or accept is so very much ‘eased in strength’ by doing so. Saying this mantra allows me to stop questioning and pondering about it all and just BE (the Light and the Love.) Over and over again in every situation I say it and I know many, many are doing the same.

Yet, what you do not know, is the difference it is making to yourselves, each other and your Planet. When you continue to do so, you realise that you are not ‘falling for/under the spell’ that is deliberately designed to trap you. YOU ARE FREE OF IT … just by saying/feeling these few simple, yet so very Powerful words.

Dearest Blossom and all Souls of Earth who are struggling through these times … let the strength that lies within the coding of this mantra, guide you safely home. Use it as you are doing throughout … not just your daily circumstances … yet, use it throughout your Entire Being.

Let it become you. For you are THE LIGHT. THE LOVE. THE I AM presence in human form. Here to make the change into your Brighter world.

The particular Energies that are around at the moment shall subside and settle for a short time, yet, then, Dearest Ones …  A STORM OF GREAT MAGNITUDE SHALL BREAK and THEN shall you gather forces to see yourselves through.

I am assuming you mean storm, metaphorically?

Yes. Yet, when it arrives you will know why we used this as its sign.

Is this to come soon? I don’t believe I just asked that! I should know so much better.

We cannot give dates as you know. This ‘storm’ is a build up of events … and as each one ‘becomes exposed’ … the bigger the uproar which then leads to ‘the final straw’ … for want of an easy way of description.

Yet, it is to be this year?

We feel quite sure of this … yet, as you know Blossom … nothing is written in stone.

This year is to be the year of all years from the point of view of changes on a massive scale.

We trust your hats are firmly secured …

They will obviously need to be … judging from all that is going on for everyone in one way or another at the moment. It’s a strange feeling of surrendering to what is. No point in fighting it. It seems to be a one day at a time scenario and then I get into bed and the minute I close my eyes, my mind says, I AM THE LIGHT. I AM THE LOVE. I AM … Happy to have got through another day … somehow. Yet, knowing also, this is just the beginning.

You Know your strength. Each one of you can FEEL it from deep within. You can FEEL now that al the preparation you have ‘endured’ was leading up to these times, as you walk into the unknown/known segments of this journey of your lives.

We LOVE you. We are excited to watch the Glorious outcome unfold.

And so many Love you. Hope to bump into you one day … perhaps hitch a ride? In Gratitude. In Loving service. I AM.