"As MPs and senators returned to Canberra this week for a parliamentary sitting, it was a topic of lively concern. Government members knew that the universities had been agitating behind the scenes for the China travel ban to be relaxed as soon as possible. Some 100,000 of their Chinese students are caught by the ban and the unis want them back in Australia. Paying fees."

"It was the next day, on Thursday morning, that the chief medical officers of all the states, with their Commonwealth counterpart, Brendan Murphy, advised the government unanimously that a global pandemic was already under way. They had observed the accelerating spread of notified cases around the world, the growing number of countries affected, and that the outbreaks were now self-sustaining within some communities far from China."

"The United States signed a peace agreement with Taliban militants Saturday in an effort to bring the 18 years of war in Afghanistan to an end.

The agreement outlines the process for U.S. troops to be removed from the area with the complete withdrawal to depend on the Taliban meeting its terrorism-prevention commitments, The Associated Press reported."

“By the end of next week we should have the capacity to test 10,000 Americans a day,” @ScottGottliebMD says on @CNBC special report just now. “Once we have that capacity in place and doctors are ordering more tests we’re going to find more positives.” #COVID19

U.S. SAYS TO RECONSIDER TRAVEL TO ITALY OVER VIRUS IN ADVISORY.

In a company-wide memo, Amazon instructed all of its employees to avoid 'nonessential' travel within the US. Though many companies have been canceling events and conferences while issuing travel warnings, this is one of the more extreme warnings we've seen, CNBC reports.

"Personally, inasmuch as I hate-hate-hate, the thought of FISA being renewed in its current context, I am cautiously okay with a deal because I trust current CIA Director Gina Haspel, current ICIG Michael Atkinson, current DoS Secretary Mike Pompeo and current DoD Joint Chief’s Chair Mark Milley, about as far as I can spit while facing a hurricane.

Having John Ratcliffe as ODNI at least provides President Donald Trump with control at the intelligence hub.  If DNI Ratcliffe can then help to remove corrupt schemer Michael Atkinson (ICIG), even better.

The position of DNI is critical within the intelligence community.  Essentially the Office of the Director of National Intelligence is the boss of the CIA Director and NSA Director; and the ODNI handles the flow of classified intelligence and, importantly, the declassification of information to provide public sunlight."

Everything about Coronavirus is hyped with purpose. The CDC official who lit the fuse to create the panic was Dr. Nancy Messonnier who read a script handed to her by resistance operatives inside the government.  Dr. Messonnier is Rod Rosenstein’s sister.

There have been a flurry of other interesting developments in the global coronavirus outbreak over the last hour or so:

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa with 200M people and a population density of 212.04 individuals per sq km, has confirmed its first coronavirus case.

Following the hysteria in California, Hawaii health officials said they will 'soon' begin testing for the virus, and the state already has 80 people on 'self-monitoring'. 

Fox 40 Sacramento is reporting that students at two Los Rios community colleges briefly came into contact with the 60th American coronavirus patient - the one whose case might be the first harbinger of a "community outbreak" inside the US.

According to a statement from the Los Rios Community College District, two students - one who attends American River College and one who attends Cosumnes River College - both came into contact with the patient in their roles as 'medical professionals'.

This is an important story. Note the woman who was reinfected. We don't know exactly what this means. Was she not fully cured when released? Or was it a brand new version that reinfected her?  So until this is better studied we just don't know. This is not very good news.

"Japan’s entire school system, from elementary to high schools, will be asked to close from Monday until spring break late in March to help contain the coronavirus outbreak, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Thursday. "

"A woman working as a tour bus guide was reinfected with the coronavirus, testing positive after having recovered from an earlier infection, Osaka’s prefectural government said. Her case, the first known of in Japan, highlighted how much is still unknown about the virus even as concerns grow about its global spread. "

"

The Trump administration can withhold millions of dollars in law enforcement grants to force states to cooperate with U.S. immigration enforcement, a federal appeals court in New York ruled Wednesday in a decision that conflicted with three other federal appeals courts.

The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned a lower court’s decision ordering the administration to release funding to New York City and seven states — New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Virginia and Rhode Island."