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The Plot: What did Pelosi know and when did she know it - www.independentsentinel.com
The Plot: What did Pelosi know and when did she know it
By
M Dowling
-
February 10, 2021
3
6857
The riot at the Capitol appeared to be staged well in advance. There were many warning but they went unheeded. In fact, the opposite occurred. Now that we know about the cabal, Speaker Pelosi’s role takes the forefront.
Devin Nunes was on Laura Ingraham’s show last night as part of a panel to discuss the impeachment trial.
Rep. Nunes said what we are also not hearing is the FBI and the police knew of the groups that were going to be there. They had good intelligence.
There was the smallest fencing he had ever seen around the Capitol. There was a request for additional security and the Speaker is responsible for that. We need to know what the Speaker knew and when did she know it.
Watch:
Kyle Becker has an extensive report reviewing the resignation letter of the Capitol Hill Police Chief and it hits upon the question of Pelosi’s role [emboldened below]. He also discusses the six times the Capitol Police Chief asked for assistance before the riot. Later, when the riot did materialize his calles for National Guard assistance went unheeded.
INTELLIGENCE CAME IN THREE DAYS BEFORE
The former Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund left a resignation letter to the Congress that states he warned the Congress six times about the high risk of impending attacks on the capitol building before the January 6th “insurrection.” He kept getting “blocked.”
“Perfect hindsight does not change the fact that nothing in our collective experience or our intelligence – including intelligence provided by FBI, Secret Service, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and D.C. Metropolitan Police (MPD) – indicated that a well-coordinated, armed assault on the Capitol might occur on Jan. 6,” Sund wrote.
This intelligence, given at least three days prior to the attack, indicates that the pre-planned riot could not have been “incited” by former President Trump’s speech. The reasoning is fallacious, it claims “after this, therefore because of this.”
THE ATTENDEES
Sund’s intelligence explicitly named violent left-wing extremist group Antifa as a “expected” to participate.
“Members of the Proud Boys, white supremacist groups, Antifa, and other extremist groups were expected to participate in the Jan. 6 event and that they may be inclined to become violent,” he wrote.
“This was very similar to the intelligence assessment of the Dec. 12, 2020, MAGA II event.” Sund says there was a “limited amount of violence and/or injuries to officers, and a limited number of arrests.”
“Having previously handled two major post-election demonstrations successfully utilizing an action plan that was based on intelligence assessments that had proven to be credible, reliable, and accurate, we reasonably assumed the intelligence assessment for Jan. 6, 2021, was also correct,” he added.
HE NOTIFIED THE ARMY FIVE TIMES
The former Capitol Police chief said that he notified the U.S. Army five times about the danger in a local interview:
“We need boots on the ground, immediate assistance,” he said. “Right then and there, helping to form police lines and secure the foundation of the United States capitol building.”
He knew they needed emergency assistance at 1:00 pm. But the first boots on the ground weren’t present until 5:40 pm.
The capitol police and national guard presence was light as protesters carried on throughout the Capitol.
WHAT DID PELOSI KNOW?
Speaker Pelosi demanded that Sund resign after the capitol riots, despite his repeated warnings to the Congress, the military, and the intelligence community about what was about to occur. Senator Ron Johnson is now asking questions about Pelosi’s possible knowledge of the impending attack.
“Is this another diversionary operation?” Johnson said in an interview with Maria Bartiromo. “Is this meant to deflect away from potentially what the Speaker knew and when she knew it? I don’t know, but I’m suspicious.”
THERE WAS A CABAL OF CONSPIRATORS
It has since come out in a Time piece that there was coordination between radical agitators and a powerful “shadow campaign” operating behind the scenes to “fortify” the election. As the Time piece relates, a coalition of big tech companies, corporate giants, labor unions and influential left-wing organizations engaged in a “conspiracy” to ensure that Donald Trump would not be re-elected.
Meanwhile, Washington D.C. had become the central focus for both die-hard Trump supporters and a mix of far-right groups, including the “Stop the Steal” organizers and the Proud Boys. There was a conspicuous absence of the usual left-wing suspects that are typically drawn to large right-wing gatherings, such as Antifa and Black Lives Matters leaders.
TRUMP’S GUILT
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, was guilty only of giving a boilerplate speech making his shopworn case that the election was illegitimate. The president had pleaded this same case countless times before. He said nothing remarkable deviating from that script. And nothing remarkable had happened after all of those times he had made a virtually identical case.
Trump told the gathered crowd of his actual most fervent supporters who had come from all across the country to listen to him speak explicitly to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
A timeline reveals that the Capitol riot began twenty minutes before the president’s speech ended. Yet there appears to have been a trap set to frame President Trump for inciting a riot.
THE STAGING AND WARNINGS
Numerous aspects of the entire capitol riot affair appears to have been staged. There were pipebombs placed at the RNC and DNC buildings the night before. And not near the capitol building, as some Democrats have falsely claimed. It was a classic diversion tactic to draw away police forces from the site of an actual incursion.
There was an obscenely insufficent lack of capitol building security. This was despite advance warnings that the odds of an attack on the capitol building were increasing by the day. There was also an intelligence report issued by the Capitol Police itself:
Three days before thousands of rioters converged on the U.S. Capitol, an internal Capitol Police intelligence report warned of a violent scenario in which “Congress itself” could be the target of angry supporters of President Trump on Jan. 6, laying out a stark alert that deepens questions about the security failures that day.
In a 12-page report on Jan. 3, the intelligence unit of the congressional police force described how thousands of enraged protesters, egged on by Trump and flanked by white supremacists and extreme militia groups, were likely to stream into Washington armed for battle.
This time, the focus of their ire would be members of Congress, the report said.
The now-resigned Capitol Police chief warned the Congress about an imminent pre-planned attack six times, according to his account, but was denied a stronger presence. It is important to read exactly what the Washington Post reported:
Two days before Congress was set to formalize President-elect Joe Biden’s victory, Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund was growing increasingly worried about the size of the pro-Trump crowds expected to stream into Washington in protest.
To be on the safe side, Sund asked House and Senate security officials for permission to request that the D.C. National Guard be placed on standby in case he needed quick backup.
“We knew we would have large crowds, the potential for some violent altercations,” he added.
The responses from the House’s and the Senate’s respective Sergeant at Arms were reckless at best:
House Sergeant at Arms Paul Irving said he wasn’t comfortable with the “optics” of formally declaring an emergency ahead of the demonstration, Sund said. Meanwhile, Senate Sergeant at Arms Michael Stenger suggested that Sund should informally seek out his Guard contacts, asking them to “lean forward” and be on alert in case Capitol Police needed their help.
Thus, an emergency could have been declared before the riot broke out. Instead, the message to the Capitol Police and the National Guard: Keep the presence light and the security passive. The House and Senate Sergeant at Arms have since resigned.
OTHER SUSPICIOUS ASPECTS
The Capitol Police held the doors open for protesters to enter the building. “I disagree with it, but I respect it,” one officer said as protesters shuffled past him.
There were other suspicious aspects of the assembled mob. One high-profile actor was John Earle Sullivan, a radical self-described “revolutionary” who literally founded a group called “Insurgence USA.” After documenting his own account of what transpired, including the suspect shooting death of Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, he was arrested and charged for his role in helping to incite the riot.
He would later be given an open and welcome platform on CNN to relate what he saw at the capitol building, along with a CNN correspondent who had been right next to him within the building.
One of the protesters that Sullivan filmed appears to have staged the event that led to Babbitt’s shooting. He used a helmet handed to him to smash a window that Babbitt crawled through before being shot. He escaped with police standing by idly nearby, and was recently arrested. The FBI launched a manhunt, and has finally apprehended and charged the suspect, named Zachary Alam. No charges were recommended for the officer who shot and killed Babbitt.
The Capitol riots chaos meant that the president’s claims the election was ‘ stolen ‘ would never be fully heard by the bulk of the American people. The censorship of the big tech thought police drove the narrative. The tale spread was that President Trump had incited a ‘riot.’ It was presented overwhelmingly through a mainstream media filter.
IT’S ALL ERRONEOUS
It turns out that basis for suspending Donald Trump from digital and social media platforms was entirely erroneous. Therefore, their rationale for continuing their bans and suspensions is purely political. It has nothing to do with public “safety.”
Furthermore, the entire basis of the Democrats’ impeachment vendetta against Donald Trump is fundamentally eroded. It is now nothing more than a cynical ploy.
The question that now arises: Was it a “trap”?
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Russia vetoes Africa-led Security Council resolution tying climate change to terrorism
CLIMATE AND SECURITY
Russia vetoes Africa-led Security Council resolution tying climate change to terrorism
By Julian Pecquet
Posted on Friday, 10 December 2021 15:48, updated on Monday, 13 December 2021 20:32
Chadian soldiers march during Flintlock 2014, a U.S.-led international training mission for African militaries, in Diffa, March 3, 2014. REUTERS/Joe Penney
Russia on Monday vetoed an African-led effort at the United Nations to link climate change with terrorism and other security challenges in the Sahel and beyond.
The UN Security Council voted 12-2 on the draft resolution on climate security spearheaded by Niger and Ireland, with India joining Russia in opposition and China abstaining. The measure would have required the security council to measure the impact of climate change when assessing peacekeeping operations and other actions.
The draft was supported by several African countries as well as Europe and the United States.
READ MORE Role of climate change in Central Sahel’s conflicts: not so clear
“We know very well that this resolution would have been a historic and important, not to mention necessary, move for the council at a critical point in time,” the missions of Niger and Ireland said in a joint statement after the vote. “This resolution is about looking at the Security Council’s role in our current world. Research and evidence on the ground show clearly that climate change is creating insecurity and instability.”
Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum addressed the council on the matter on Thursday to drum up support from member states that aren’t on the council. The resolution was a top priority for Niger as it presides over the council in December to close out its two-year stint.
Climate change is “reducing access to resources is increasing poverty and all the scourges that go with that,” Bazoum said. As a result, intra-communal violence is on the rise as is the number of refugees and internally displaced people.
Research and evidence on the ground show clearly that climate change is creating insecurity and instability.
“That’s why we’ve chosen the subject of today’s debate,” Bazoum told the council. “It’s the expression of our willingness to see the council establish the clear link between international peace and security on the one hand, and the fight against terrorism and the effects of climate change on the other.”
“The plan for the next few days is to get as many co-sponsors as possible,” Ashish Pradhan, a senior UN analyst for the International Crisis Group, told The Africa Report last week. In the end 113 countries co-sponsored it, but Russia still blocked the measure.
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A systemic approach
By embedding climate experts in peacekeeping and other UN missions, the draft resolution sought to plug a “major gap” for on-the-ground reports that help inform Security Council decisions, says Pradhan. That would have helped ensure that the council doesn’t miss “obvious warning signs”, such as drought in South Sudan causing population displacements that could lead to pre-election violence.
The draft resolution also aimed to “systematise” security council discussions, he said.
“There have been a number of discussions on climate and security at the council, but it’s been very ad hoc,” Pradhan tells The Africa Report. “What this would do is create a systemic cycle so every X number of months, this issue would come up.”
READ MORE South Sudan: How to achieve a post-conflict constitution
In addition, within two years, the UN Secretary General would have had to issue a report on how climate is impacting all of the issues on the security council agenda, “which would then potentially open up different pathways for the council to continue not just considering this impact … but also doing something about it.”
Africa and the West versus Russia and China
Niger’s two African partners on the council supported the draft.
“In light of the current climate-change related challenges facing the world,” said Tunisian envoy Tarek Ladeb, “it is necessary to let go of the context-based approach in addressing such a situation and instead include climate dangers systematically in the security council’s approaches when it shoulders its primary responsibility to maintain international peace and security.”
Any action in the UN Security Council ignoring the basic principles and provisions relating to climate has the potential to disrupt the nature of our overall discussion on this important topic.
Kenya’s permanent representative Martin Kimani called it a “good starting point” to the security council living up its responsibility to help countries suffering the brunt of climate change in Africa and other regions that have done little, historically, to contribute to the problem.
READ MORE 'Climate change does not care where you are' says UK's COP26 Ambassador Rogan
US Ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield said it’s time for the security council to address the issue “head on”.
“It is time for us to stop debating whether the climate crisis presents a threat to international peace and security. That debate is over,” she said. “The impact on the continent of Africa is clear.”
Even so, other countries were worried about moving the climate debate out of the consensus-driven United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and into the more rough-and-tumble security council.
The “automatic attribution of cause and consequence,” said Russian permanent representative Vasily Nebenzya, “will lead the security council down the wrong path.”
READ MORE Nigeria: Climate change is driving the cost of jollof rice
“We have to recognise that our approach differs from the opinion of many of our security council colleagues,” Nebenzya said. “First and foremost, we believe there is a need to look at each country or each region individually and in connection with other, often more significant factors that give rise to socio-economic or political instability, including foreign intervention in states or, on other hand, a lack of assistance from outside where the local authorities and the state institutions cannot cope with the task in front of them.”
Indian envoy T.S. Tirumurti shared similar misgivings.
“We do not think it is appropriate to draw a separate link between security and climate change,” he said, “especially when all aspects of climate change are being dealt with holistically under the mandate of the UNFCCC.”
“Any action in the UN Security Council ignoring the basic principles and provisions relating to climate has the potential to disrupt the nature of our overall discussion on this important topic,” he said. “To move the climate change discourse from a consensus-driven template to a potentially divisive process may not be advisable.”
If African forces like the G5 Sahel are not receiving the predictable and adequate financing they need to deliver international peace and security […] then what real actions on climate and security can we expect?
Chinese envoy Zhang Jun for his part urged “further consultations” and “unity in our actions”.
He also discussed Chinese support for African countries at length, including efforts to mitigate climate change impacts, highlighting Beijing’s unease at finding itself at odds with African nations as it seeks to deepen its presence on the continent.
Sahel funding fight
Western powers are on the same side as Africa on this issue, but they did not escape criticism at Thursday’s council debate.
Bazoum and Kimani pressed for more support from developed countries for the G5 Sahel, a group of countries made up of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.
“If African forces like the G5 Sahel are not receiving the predictable and adequate financing they need to deliver international peace and security,” Kimani said, “then what real actions on climate and security can we expect?”
READ MORE Somalia: How climate insecurity can trigger more conflict
The United States has provided almost $600m in bilateral security assistance and other counter-violent extremism support to the G5 countries since they established the Joint Force of the Group of Five for the Sahel (FC-G5S) in 2017. However, along with the United Kingdom, it opposes a proposal from Niger and France to use UN-assessed peacekeeping funds to provide logistical support for a non-UN mission, particularly in countries with a history of human rights abuses.
Congress shares those concerns and included a prohibition on US funding for UN contributions to the Group of Five for the Sahel in its version of the pending FY2022 defense bill. The prohibition did not survive a conference with the Senate, however.
READ MORE US - Morocco: Congress to condition military cooperation with Rabat over Western Sahara
“If this doesn’t find the support of all member states,” Bazoum said, “then we will be forced to find another initiative to substitute.”
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Ma'Khia Bryant case shines light on 'adultification' of Black girls - ABC News
Ma'Khia Bryant case shines light on 'adultification' of Black girls
Ma'Khia Bryant, 16, was shot and killed by police.
By Kiara Alfonseca
May 14, 2021, 10:20 AM
• 9 min read
1:57
Death of Ma’Khia Bryant sparks calls for examination of police using lethal force
The police union is standing by the officer involved in the shooting, saying the use of for...
Stephen Zenner/AFP via Getty Images
Ma'Khia Bryant was 16 when she was shot and killed by police outside of her foster home in Columbus, Ohio. Since her death, the Bryant family lawyer, Michelle Martin, said she has had to combat negative portrayals of the teenager, who has been described by her family as "sweet" and "loving."
"Everyone wants to see her as an aggressor before we can even see her as a child," Martin said in an interview with ABC News. She said she wished people would give Ma'Khia the benefit of the doubt about what she says were her attempts to defend herself in the moments leading up to her death. "They're looking at our [Black] youth as if they are three to four years older and that could go from 'being a child' to 'you're a dangerous adult' -- not a child who was in a situation asking and calling for help" as her family claimed she was doing.
In the wake of the shooting, Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther received backlash for calling the teenager a "young woman" in a tweet, instead of a child or teen. He later corrected himself in a press conference.
Advocates have argued that the "adultification" of Black girls -- being seen as less innocent and more aggressive than their peers -- has played a role in how Ma'Khia has been portrayed and perceived since the incident. Bodycam footage released by police appears to show that officers encountered Ma'Khia lunging at a woman with a kitchen knife when she was shot, 11 seconds after police arrived on the scene.
Law enforcement experts say the situation justified the use of deadly force. But her family and others wonder how much "adultification" has factored into her life prior to this incident, as well as her depiction afterward.
Her sister Ja'Niah, 15, has said that two former foster family members were threatening them during a confrontation about the house's cleanliness. Her family claimed Ma'Khia and Ja'Niah were the ones who had called 911 to the scene for help, as opposed to being the aggressor. The account has not been verified by police.
"She was being a bigger sister," Ja'Niah said. "She was trying to protect herself."
Martin said that she hopes Ma'Khia is remembered as the "bubbly" girl seen in the TikTok videos she made -- a smiling young girl dancing and singing along to music, and doing her hair.
Black girls "are instantly seen as aggressive early on and then that puts them in a position where they aren't even comfortable speaking about any injustices or unsafe positions in the home," Martin said about Ma'Khia's life in foster care. "They're not able to feel like they're safe and protected like they should be. Their vulnerabilities aren't really taken into consideration."
Scott Olson/Getty Images
Family and friends attend a visitation and funeral service for 16-year-old Ma'Khia Bryant...
"'Adultification' is a form of dehumanization -- it's stripping Black girls of what it means to be a child," said Jamilia Blake, the lead researcher in a Georgetown University study on bias against young Black girls. "The idea is that your youth protects you from some of the significant outcomes that you're not protected from as an adult because you don't know better."
Her research, published under the title "Girlhood Interrupted: The Erasure of Black Girls' Childhood," concludes that Black girls are perceived as needing less nurturing, less protection and less support than white girls of the same age. As a result, they are subject to harsher responses by those exercising discretion, including use of force, the research found.
Harsher penalties for Black girls: research
This "adultification" may manifest itself in harmful, tangible consequences for Black girls. According to 2018 data from the U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights, Black girls are six times more likely to be expelled from school, four times more likely to be arrested, and three times more likely to be suspended.
MORE: Younger sister remembers Ma'Khia Bryant: 'She wanted to grow up and be great'
Black girls also tend to be punished more severely by school authorities and are more likely to have police use force on them, Blake's research found. Two high-profile incidents in January underscored this trend -- in New York, a 9-year-old unarmed Black girl was pepper-sprayed in her eyes after being handcuffed and forced into a squad car by Rochester police. All three officers were suspended and are being investigated internally by the department.
In Florida, an Osceola County deputy was seen on video slamming a young female Black student onto concrete. The officer was placed on administrative leave while the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigates the incident.
Incidents like these, according to psychiatrist and ABC News contributor Dr. Divya Chhabra, are the product of unconscious racial bias, which goes hand-in-hand with "adultification" bias. She said that unintentional prejudices or biases can affect the way people act and respond to certain situations and people of different races.
"On a conscious level you don't actually have that belief nor do you want to have that belief, yet something inside your brain has been programmed for a long time because of society, because of the environment," Chhabra said. "We maybe don't want to 'adultify' Black girls, we may not actually believe that Black girls are more dangerous, but something in our brain is making us behave that way."
Stephen Zenner/AFP via Getty Images
A program displays photos of Ma'Khia Bryant during her funeral in Columbus, Ohio on April 30, 2021.
Implicit racism can affect the way Black girls are treated in their day-to-day lives, Chhabra said, and individual and systemic work needs to be done on acknowledging and actively challenging these unconscious biases. The first step, she recommended, is to be aware of the bias, recognize when the bias might be affecting thoughts or actions, and challenge those ideas.
"No person is immune to implicit bias, even people of color or people of oppressed backgrounds are not immune to implicit bias," Chhabra said.
History rooted in slavery and racism
The perceptions of Black girls as more dangerous or more adult, Blake said, stem from slavery and the history of racism in the U.S. Black children were dehumanized, separated from their families and viewed as property. This, combined with the over-sexualization and rape of Black women, has affected the way people see Black girls still today, she said.
"Beginning in slavery, Black boys and girls were imagined as chattel and were often put to work as young as two and three years old," the Georgetown study reads. "Subjected to much of the same dehumanization suffered by Black adults, Black children were rarely perceived as being worthy of playtime and were severely punished for exhibiting normal child-like behaviors."
MORE: Ma'Khia Bryant's family demands answers, investigations into teenager's death
Nishaun T. Battle, an assistant professor of criminal justice at Virginia State University, said Black girls face a "double victimization" of racism and sexism, and that the children suffer from the responsibility of combatting these stereotypes and unconscious biases.
"Even if you do follow all of the directions, stay in line, follow all of the policies, you still can face certain consequences," Battle said. "It's just a very, very dangerous position that Black girls find themselves in wherever they go."
Battle said she hopes a collective movement can prevent future violence against Black girls. She said resources and policies need to be targeted against police use of force against young Black girls and that legislators can instead invest in bettering community systems, like the foster care system that Ma'Khia belonged to.
"It's not about what happened after the fact but what we can do to prevent the fatality," Battle said. "Justice would be better schools, better communities, and more resources."
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What is a heat dome?
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Explained
Explained: What is the 'heat dome' causing record temperatures in parts of North America?
Explained: What is the ‘heat dome’ causing record temperatures in parts of North America?
The temperatures reported from the Pacific northwest and some parts of Canada are part of a "historic" heat wave, a result of a phenomenon referred to as a "heat dome".
By: Explained Desk | New Delhi |
Updated: July 2, 2021 7:14:28 am
Strong change in ocean temperature from the west to the east is what a team of scientists believe is the reason for the heat dome, which is when the atmosphere traps heat at the surface, which encourages the formation of a heat wave. (AP Photo)
In Portland city in Oregon, US, temperatures as high as 46 degree Celsius were recently registered – just three degrees short of the internal core temperature of a cooked shrimp and a few degrees hotter than summer temperatures recorded in New Delhi – a record for the city. In Salem, barely 72 km away from Portland, the temperatures were highest at about 47 degree Celsius on June 28.
On June 29, temperatures in Portland advanced to 46.7 degree Celsius. Referring to a map with heat spots, the National Weather Service (NWS) Portland tweeted, “That is not a lot of red and yellow dots in our area. This just shows how uncommon these temperatures are in our neck of the woods.” For three consecutive days, the city saw record temperatures. Before this, the highest temperatures were in August 1981 and July 1965.
These temperatures being reported from the Pacific northwest and some parts of Canada are part of a “historic” heat wave that lasted over a week, a result of a phenomenon referred to as a “heat dome”. Several media reports note that people who are experiencing the heat wave are scrambling to buy air conditioners, some of them for the first time.
Canada too saw its highest temperature ever recorded in the country’s west. In Lytton in British Columbia, temperatures soared to over 46 degree Celsius last week.
Deadly Canadian heatwave still shattering records
Watch on
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What is a heat dome?
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) says that to understand what causes a heat dome, one should liken the Pacific ocean to a large swimming pool in which the heater is turned on. Once the heater is on, the portions of the pool close to the heating jets will warm up faster and therefore, the temperature in that area will be higher. In the same way, the western Pacific ocean’s temperatures have increased in the past few decades and are relatively more than the temperature in the eastern Pacific.
This strong change in ocean temperature from the west to the east is what a team of scientists believe is the reason for the heat dome, which is when the atmosphere traps heat at the surface, which encourages the formation of a heat wave. To compare, the reason that the planet Venus is the hottest in the Solar System is because its thick, dense cloud cover traps the heat at the surface, leading to temperatures as high as 471 degree Celsius.
A Salvation Army EMS vehicle is setup as a cooling station as people lineup to get into a splash park while trying to beat the heat in Calgary, Alberta. (AP Photo)
A heat wave is a period of unusually hot weather that lasts for more than two days. NWS notes that heat waves can occur with or without high humidity and have the potential to cover a large area, “exposing a high number of people to hazardous heat.”
Also in Explained |What to know about the US heat wave
Are heat waves dangerous for humans?
Randall Munroe notes in The New York Times that if a person is at rest, wearing minimal clothing in a very dry room with about 10 per cent relative humidity, and is drinking water constantly (so that sweat can be produced), they can avoid overheating at temperatures as high as 46 degree Celsius.
So as long as the body is producing sweat, which is then able to evaporate quickly, the body will be able to remain cool even under high temperatures. But, Munroe notes that there is a limit to this, a limit called the wet-bulb temperature–that considers heat and humidity–beyond which humans cannot tolerate high temperatures. Some heat-related illnesses include heat stroke, heat exhaustion, sunburn and heat rashes. Sometimes, heat-related illnesses can prove fatal.
Is this heat wave a result of climate change?
It cannot be said for sure if the heat wave is a direct result of global warming. Scientists are usually wary of linking climate change to any contemporary event mainly because of the difficulty in completely ruling out the possibility of the event having been caused by some other reason, or being a result of natural variability. This is also the case with the recent wildfires that ravaged California.
However, in an updated review of scientific articles that try to establish a link between climate change and fire risk published since January 2020, scientists noted in September last year that human-induced climate change promotes the conditions on which wildfires depend, enhancing their likelihood and challenging suppression efforts. The update focussed on the wildfires seen in the western US last year and the bushfires that ravaged southeastern Australia in 2019-2020.
Similarly, scientists who have been studying the climate tend to agree that the heat waves occurring today are more likely to be a result of climate change for which humans are responsible.
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The Pandora Papers financial leak shows us the secrets of the world's rich and powerful - ABC News
The Pandora Papers financial leak shows us the secrets of the world's rich and powerful
The Pandora Papers financial leak shows us the secrets of the world's rich and powerful
Four Corners
/
By Elise Worthington and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists
Posted Sun 3 Oct 2021 at 7:54pm, updated Tue 5 Oct 2021 at 8:14pm
The leak of nearly 12 million financial documents is one of the largest in history.(Graphic: Nick Wiggins. Photos: Ludovic Marin/Reuters, Alesia Kozik/Pexels.)
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A global leak of nearly 12 million documents, dubbed the Pandora Papers, unlocks the financial secrets of politicians, billionaires and criminals.
The investigation is one of the biggest ever conducted by journalists and lays bare the global entanglement of political power and secretive offshore finance.
Here's what you need to know.
What are the Pandora Papers?
That's the name that's been given to the more than 11.9 million financial records, containing 2.94 terabytes of confidential information from 14 offshore service providers.
They're enterprises that set up and manage shell companies and trusts in tax havens and secrecy jurisdictions around the globe.
The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) shared the files with 150 media partners, including the ABC's Four Corners and Background Briefing, whose journalists were among more than 600 in 117 countries and territories who spent months combing through the files.
The little-known Australian accountant exposed in one of the world's biggest leaks
A leak of 11.9 million files reveals how the rich and powerful disguise and move their money offshore.
Read more
They uncovered the secret deals and hidden assets of more than 330 politicians and high-level public officials in more than 90 countries and territories, including 35 current and former country leaders
The documents span five decades, with most created between 1996 and 2020.
Are these offshore trusts and shell companies legal?
While owning an offshore company is legal, and there are some legitimate reasons to have one, the secrecy it provides can be a problem.
Experts say it can give cover to illicit money flows, enabling bribery, money laundering, tax evasion, terrorism financing and human trafficking and other human rights abuses.
Reporting by the ICIJ and its partners has challenged the offshore industry's claims that service providers judiciously vet clients and strive to act within the law.
The documents show how countries like Samoa are used as offshore tax havens.(Four Corners)
Who are the big names included?
International media partners working on the ICIJ's investigation found current and former world leaders who owned secret companies and trusts included: King Abdullah II of Jordan, the prime ministers of Côte d'Ivoire and the Czech Republic, the presidents of Ecuador, Kenya and Gabon and the former presidents of El Salvador, Panama, Paraguay and Honduras.
The ICIJ's analysis of the files found they contained details of the secret offshore holdings of more than 130 billionaires from 45 countries, including 46 Russian oligarchs.
King Abdullah II of Jordan is just one of the 35 current and former leaders who feature in the documents.(Getty Images: Max Mumby/Indigo)
Other clients include bankers, big political donors, arms dealers, international criminals, pop stars, spy chiefs and sporting giants.
Offshore investments were linked to Bollywood actors, soccer stars, corrupt sports officials, a king's lover, feuding princesses, movie directors and stars, supermodels, acclaimed designers and world-famous singers.
How does Australia come into it?
As with the Panama Papers, there are hundreds of Australians named in the leak. They include a prominent board member, bankrupts, a criminal and several small business owners.
But the leak also highlights the role of "gatekeepers", the lawyers and accountants who help Australians set up complex offshore structures.
Importantly, one of the 14 service providers in the leak, called Asiaciti, was founded and run by an Australian accountant named Graeme Briggs.
Asiaciti also had a number of Australian clients, including former Sydney accountant Vanda Gould, who was jailed for perverting the course of justice.
Asiaciti, an offshore accounting firm founded by Australian Graeme Briggs, is one of the providers featured in the leaks.(Four Corners)
Gould was arrested during Australia's largest tax fraud investigation, Project Wickenby. While his tax fraud charges were later dropped, his clients were ordered by the Australian Tax Office (ATO) to pay back more than $300 million.
The documents show Asiaciti helped Vanda Gould set up a network of offshore Samoan Superannuation accounts for his clients, which some used to reduce their tax.
Last year Asiaciti's Singapore office was fined $1.1million by the Monetary Authority of Singapore for failing to comply with anti-money laundering requirements.
In a statement, Asiaciti says it is committed to the highest business standards, including ensuring they "fully comply with all laws and regulations".
"We recognize there have been isolated instances where we have not kept pace, and in these situations we have worked closely with regulatory authorities to address any deficiencies and quickly updated our policies and procedures."
Haven't there been leaks like this before?
Not this big.
The documents include information on more than 29,000 'beneficial owners' — those are the ultimate owners of offshore assets.
That figure's more than twice the number found five years ago in the Panama Papers investigation, which was based on a leak from a single law firm.
This time there are 14 offshore service providers that operate from Anguilla, Belize, Singapore, Switzerland, Panama, Barbados, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates, the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, the Seychelles and Vietnam.
Singapore is one of the countries that's home to an offshore service provider.(Four Corners)
The records include spreadsheets, tax declarations, invoices, PowerPoint presentations, emails and company records, as well as suspicious activity reports, due diligence reports, passports, utility bills and photos.
Why should we care?
By some estimates 10 per cent of the world's total economic output is parked in offshore financial centres, costing governments billions of dollars in lost revenue.
That's money that could be spent on roads, hospitals and schools.
Experts say poor nations are disproportionately harmed by the stashing of wealth in tax havens, which starves treasuries of funds.
ICIJ director Gerard Ryle says the investigation shows how little has changed since the Panama Papers.(Four Corners)
ICIJ director Gerard Ryle says the Pandora Papers reveal that some international leaders who could tackle offshore tax avoidance have themselves secretly moved money and assets beyond the reach of tax and law enforcement authorities as their citizens struggle.
"I think what we're seeing here is a lot of hypocrisy," he says.
"We're now seeing the very people who could end the system themselves benefiting from it.
"I think what it shows really is that there is a shadow economy, a shadow world out there that we are not aware of, and that this is a world that is enriching the people who are already rich."
Who leaked the documents?
The source of the documents hasn't been revealed to media partners but made it clear to the ICIJ he wanted the public to see where dirty money is really flowing.
Ryle says the source had two conditions for leaking the documents.
"First of all the source wanted anonymity. I presume for safety reasons," he says.
"The second thing is that I was told that he wanted to make these documents available to governments all over the world."
What does the ATO think?
The ATO released a statement on Monday morning saying it would be analysing the Pandora Papers data to identify any possible Australian links.
"We will certainly look at this data set and compare it with the data we already have to identify any potential connections."
In 2016 the Panama Papers leak led to the ATO investigating 800 Australians.
ATO Deputy Commissioner Will Day tells the ABC it's important to remember offshore structures aren't necessarily dodgy.
"We know most Australians do the right thing." Mr Day says.
But he warns that it's easy for people to be tempted to use offshore arrangements to hide assets or to avoid paying tax.
Mr Day warns people not to 'cheat' everyday Australians.(Four Corners)
"For those who consider these sorts of arrangements, they're not clever or sexy or harmless. They victimise the entire Australian society," Mr Day says.
"The victims, when people don't pay taxes, is everyday Australians, the millions of taxpayers who do the right thing, who declare their income, pay their employees and have fair competition against other business.
"Don't facilitate lying, cheating, and stealing from other Australians."
Watch the full investigation on Four Corners tonight at 8:30pm on ABC TV or livestream on the Four Corners Facebook page.
Listen to the Background Briefing podcast Untouchable Assets, live now.
Posted 3 Oct 2021, updated 5 Oct 2021
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Alec Baldwin fires prop gun on movie set, killing crew member
Entertainment
Alec Baldwin says 'my heart is broken' after prop gun he fired kills cinematographer on movie set
Sarah Whitten @sarahwhit10
Key Points
The actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop firearm on a movie set, killing the film's director of photography and injuring its director, police said.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed and Joel Souza, 48, was injured on the set of "Rust," a Western being filmed at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Sante Fe, New Mexico.
The circumstances of the shooting are under investigation. No charges have been filed in regard to the incident.
VIDEO 03:11
Cinematographer killed with prop gun on the set of a movie
Actor Alec Baldwin said his "heart is broken" after a prop gun he fired on a movie set Thursday killed the film's director of photography and injured its director.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed and Joel Souza, 48, was injured on the set of "Rust," a Western being filmed at the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Sante Fe, New Mexico, according to the Santa Fe County Sheriff's office.
Court documents released Friday show Baldwin was handed a loaded weapon by an assistant director who indicated it was safe to use in the moments before the actor fatally shot Hutchins, the Associated Press reported. A search warrant filed in a Santa Fe court shows that the assistant director did not know the prop gun was loaded with live rounds.
The warrant notes that Baldwin's blood-stained costume as well as the weapon were taken as evidence. No immediate charges were filed, sheriff's spokesman Juan Rios said.
Alec Baldwin speaks on the phone in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office in Santa Fe, N.M., after he was questioned about a shooting on the set of the film "Rust" on the outskirts of Santa Fe, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, officials said.
Jim Weber |Santa Fe New Mexican via AP
Hutchins was transported via helicopter to the University of New Mexico Hospital where she was pronounced dead. Souza was brought to Christus St. Vincent Regional Medical Center to undergo treatment for his injuries. He has since been released.
"I am gutted by the loss of my friend and colleague, Halyna," Souza said in a statement on Saturday. "She was kind, vibrant, incredibly talented, fought for every inch and always pushed me to be better. My thoughts are with her family at this most difficult time. I am humbled and grateful by the outpouring of affection we have received from our filmmaking community, the people of Santa Fe, and the hundreds of strangers who have reached out….. It will surely aid in my recovery."
VIDEO 03:21
It says to me they didn't have a professional arms handler on set: Expert
Around half a dozen camera crew members walked off the "Rust" set just hours before the shooting in protest of working conditions, a person familiar with the matter told NBC News. Earlier, The Los Angeles Times reported that there were two previous prop gun misfires on set, one the previous week and one on Saturday.
Rust Movie Productions told the Los Angeles Times that it had not been made aware of any official complaints concerning weapon or prop safety on set.
The production company told NBC that it would be conducting an internal review of its procedures while production is shut down, and it is cooperating with the Santa Fe authorities in their investigation. No charges have been filed.
"This case is still in its preliminary states of investigation," said Mary Carmack-Altwies, First Judicial District Attorney, in a statement Friday. "We are assisting the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office and have offered our full support to them. At this time, we do not know if charges will be filed. We will look into all facts and evidence of the case with great discretion and have further information at a later time. Our thoughts are with all affected by this tragedy."
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (L), and Director Joel Souza (R). Halyna was accidentally shot and killed with a prop gun on set while Souza sustained injuries.
Getty Images
Hutchins graduated from the American Film Institute in 2015. She was involved in several short films before working on "Archenemy," a 2020 feature film starring Joe Manganiello.
Originally from Ukraine, she held a graduate degree in international journalism from Kyiv National University and previously worked as an investigative journalist with British documentary productions in Europe.
In 2019, she was selected as one of American Cinematographer's rising stars.
"All of us at Innovative Artists are heartbroken," Hutchins' agency said in a statement Friday. "We mourn for her family and we hope this tragedy will reveal new lessons for how to better ensure safety for every crew member on set."
Hutchins' death echoes that of actor Brandon Lee, the son of martial arts movie legend Bruce Lee. Brandon Lee died after he was shot by a round from a prop gun while filming for the movie "The Crow" in 1993.
"There was an accident today on the New Mexico set of Rust involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks," a spokesperson for Baldwin said in a statement to NBC News. "Production has been halted for the time being. The safety of our cast and crew remains our top priority."
Baldwin, 63, is a co-producer on "Rust" and plays infamous outlaw Harland Rust, whose 13-year-old grandson is convicted of an accidental killing. Rust travels to Kansas to break his grandson out of prison and the two fugitives must outrun U.S. Marshal Wood Helm and bounty-hunter Fenton "Preacher" Lang.
"There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours," Baldwin wrote on Twitter Friday. "I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family."
"My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, Baldwin posted a photo of himself on Instagram in costume for the film, complete with what appeared to be fake blood on his shirt.
Recently known for portraying President Donald Trump on "Saturday Night Live" and starring in the NBC comedy "30 Rock," Baldwin has won multiple Emmy and Golden Globe awards and been nominated for an Academy Award and a Tony Award.
Baldwin has hosted "SNL" 17 times, more than any other person, and starred in films like "The Departed," "Glengarry Glen Ross" and the "Mission Impossible" franchise. He was also the producer on director Souza's film "Crown Vic."
Baldwin has a history of losing his temper, which has included incidents leading to his arrest. In 2019, he pleaded guilty to harassment of another person in connection to a dispute over a parking spot in Manhattan in Nov. 2018. He agreed to undergo anger management counseling in that case.
Before that, police arrested him for riding his bicycle the wrong way, and for disorderly conduct after he allegedly became belligerent with the cops who stopped him.
Baldwin was also acquitted of misdemeanor battery charges after being accused of punching a freelance photographer in California in 1995, breaking the lensman's nose.
The actor is married to Hilaria Baldwin, and they have six children together. He also has a daughter named Ireland from his previous marriage to actress Kim Basinger.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
The Associated Press and CNBC's Dan Mangan contributed to this report.
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Denmark launches children's TV show about man with giant penis | Denmark | The Guardian
Denmark
This article is more than 1 year old
Denmark launches children's TV show about man with giant penis
Critics condemn idea of animated series about a man who cannot control his penis, but others have backed it
Still from the first episode of John Dillermand. Photograph: DRTV
Helen Russell in Jutland
Wed 6 Jan 2021 06.43 EST
Last modified on Tue 21 Dec 2021 10.24 EST
John Dillermand has an extraordinary penis. So extraordinary, in fact, that it can perform rescue operations, etch murals, hoist a flag and even steal ice-cream from children.
The Danish equivalent of the BBC, DR, has a new animated series aimed at four- to eight-year-olds about John Dillermand, the man with the world’s longest penis who overcomes hardships and challenges with his record-breaking genitals.
Unsurprisingly, the series has provoked debate about what good children’s television should – and should not – contain.
Sesame Street creates Rohingya Muppets to help refugee children
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Since premiering on Saturday, opponents have condemned the idea of a man who cannot control his penis. “Is this really the message we want to send to children while we are in the middle of a huge #MeToo wave?” wrote the Danish author Anne Lise Marstrand-Jørgensen.
The show comes just months after the TV presenter Sofie Linde kickstarted Denmark’s #MeToo movement.
Christian Groes, an associate professor and gender researcher at Roskilde University, said he believed the programme’s celebration of the power of male genitalia could only set equality back. “It’s perpetuating the standard idea of a patriarchal society and normalising ‘locker room culture’ … that’s been used to excuse a lot of bad behaviour from men. It’s meant to be funny – so it’s seen as harmless. But it’s not. And we’re teaching this to our kids.”
Erla Heinesen Højsted, a clinical psychologist who works with families and children, said she believed the show’s opponents may be overthinking things. “John Dillermand talks to children and shares their way of thinking – and kids do find genitals funny,” she said.
“The show depicts a man who is impulsive and not always in control, who makes mistakes – like kids do, but crucially, Dillermand always makes it right. He takes responsibility for his actions. When a woman in the show tells him that he should keep his penis in his pants, for instance, he listens. Which is nice. He is accountable.”
Højsted conceded the timing was poor and that a show about bodies might have considered depicting “difference and diversity” beyond an oversized diller (Danish slang for penis; dillermand literally means “penis-man”). “But this is categorically not a show about sex,” she said. “To pretend it is projects adult ideas on it.”
DR, the Danish public service broadcaster, has a reputation for pushing boundaries – especially for children. Another stalwart of children’s scheduling is Onkel Reje, a popular figure who curses, smokes a pipe and eschews baths – think Mr Tumble meets Father Jack. A character in Gepetto News made conservatives bristle in 2012 when he revealed a love of cross-dressing. And Ultra Smider Tøjet (Ultra Strips Down) caused outrage in 2020 for presenting children aged 11-13 with a panel of nude adults, but, argues Højsted, such criticism was unjustified.
“What kind of culture are we creating for our children if it’s OK for them to see ‘perfect’ bodies on Instagram – enhanced, digitally or cosmetically – but not ‘real bodies’?” she said.
DR responded to the latest criticism by saying it could just as easily have made a programme “about a woman with no control over her vagina” and that the most important thing was that children enjoyed John Dillermand.
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Suez Canal Blocked: Why Is Ever Given Ship Stuck in Suez Canal?
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After 6 Days Stuck in the Suez Canal, the Ever Given Is Finally Free
Salvage crews finally dislodged the massive cargo ship with some help from high tides.
By Jennifer Leman
Mar 29, 2021
HANDOUT Getty Images
For almost a week, a massive container ship called the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal, preventing travel through one of the world's busiest shipping corridors.
The vessel, which belongs to the shipping company Evergreen Marine, became stranded in the waterway after facing high winds last Tuesday.
On Monday, crews finally excavated the humongous ship.
Update 03/29/21 10:30 a.m. ET: After 6 grueling days, crews have managed to wrench the Ever Given free from its perch in the Suez Canal. Now that the ship is under way—thanks to high tides and a fleet of tug boats and dredgers—hundreds of vessels that have been stranded on either side of the canal are gearing up to resume their journey along the vital shipping corridor.
It marks the end of an agonizing week for the maritime trade industry—one that saw losses as high as $10 billion per day, highlighted the frailty of an already strained global supply chain, and spurred a slew of incredible memes.
So long, Ever Given. We hardly knew 'ye.
A colossal container ship that ran aground in the Suez Canal on Tuesday has ensnarled one of the world's busiest shipping lanes in a marine traffic jam.
Two days later, more than 100 container ships are still waiting at each end of the canal as tug boats and dredgers struggle to free the Ever Given, which weighs 200,000 metric tons and stretches 1,300 feet long.
➡ You love badass ships. So do we. Let’s nerd out over them together.
“It’s just like having an accident on the interstate,” Donald Maier, the Dean for the School of Maritime Transportation, Logistics, and Management at the Cal Maritime, tells Pop Mech. “That accident shuts down all lanes of travel, and everything will then start to back up.”
If the Panamanian-flagged ship isn’t freed soon, it could spell disaster for a global shipping industry already hobbled by the effects of COVID-19.
How Did the Ship Get Stuck?
The Ever Given, which is owned by the Japanese company Shoei Kisen Kaisha, was on its way to the port of Rotterdam from China when it became stuck after a sandstorm blew through the region. Visibility plummeted and wind gusts reached speeds of up to 31 miles per hour.
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Suez Canal Authority
In addition to the eight local tugboats working to free the Ever Given, a small fleet of construction vehicles—dwarfed by the size of the 1,300-foot-long ship—has appeared at the shore to dig the giant vessel out. However, that effort to free the ship hasn’t worked as of Thursday morning, according to a statement provided to the New York Times, and authorities have since brought in a dredger to assist in the efforts.
How Will the Ship Get “Unstuck”?
So, now what? The key to “unstucking” the Ever Given will be lightening the ship’s load. One way to do that is to empty the ballast tanks. That solution, however, could destabilize the ship, Captain Morgan McManus, Master, Empire State VI, of SUNY Maritime College, tells Pop Mech. Another option would be to unload the ship’s cargo, but that could prove difficult without the necessary equipment readily available.
“In the middle of the Suez Canal, there’s no infrastructure for that, so that would mean getting a crane barge alongside and then taking those boxes off one at a time,” says McManus. With a ship as big as the Ever Given, the effort could take weeks.
How Does Something Like This Happen?
The gargantuan Ever Given, which the shipping company Evergreen Marine built in 2018, is a Golden-class container ship. It can carry as many as 20,000 20-foot-long shipping containers.
The push to build increasingly larger ships may partially be to blame for the Ever Given’s precarious situation. “The scale has gotten so big that a lot of the infrastructure has yet to catch up with the size of the ship,” McManus says.
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Whoops.
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Steering ships of the Ever Given’s size can be challenging, and any evasive maneuvers must be done far in advance to ensure the ship has enough horsepower to make the move in time. It takes a skilled crew to anticipate potential issues. In some cases, a captain may not recognize an issue before it’s too late.
What To Do If Your Ship Sinks
Adverse weather conditions only exacerbate these challenges.
“It’s basically a huge wall,” Steven Browne, the Department Chair of Marine Transportation and International Business and logistics at the Cal Maritime, tells Pop Mech. “If there’s wind from the beam, or the side of the vessel, and you have a lack of steering control, it’s very easy for the ship to be turned sideways.”
Why Is the Suez Canal So Important?
The Suez Canal snakes through Egypt and serves as the sole connection between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. The 120-mile-long waterway has become a vital shipping passage and can accommodate as many as 50 ships a day, quickly linking markets in Asia and Europe. Roughly 12 percent of all maritime trade makes its way through the Suez; it’s second only to the Panama Canal, the world’s busiest marine throughway.
The Egyptian pharaoh Senausert III, who reigned from 1887 to 1849 B.C., is credited with first digging the canal. According to the Suez Canal Authority, it has opened and closed numerous times since its official inauguration in 1869. In 2015, crews expanded parts of the passage to allow travel in both directions at certain points along the nearly 80-foot-deep waterway.
Suez Canal Authority
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This isn’t the first time a vessel has run aground in the Suez Canal. A Japanese container ship, OOCL Japan, rammed into the side of the waterway in 2017. Fortunately, crews refloated the ship hours later. The canal was also closed for three days in 2004 after the Liberian-flagged oil tanker, Tropic Brilliance, became stuck.
What Happens Next?
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, the global shipping industry has faced several shortages of setbacks in the past year. The obstruction of the canal could set off a domino effect of delays. “Just like on the interstate, once that accident is cleared, you still have this bottleneck of everybody trying to rush through,” Maier says.
Suez Canal Authority
Ports strategically plan their labor needs and offloading capacity, so even minor delays can snowball into large delays that have the potential to derail entire supply chains. They could become overwhelmed by the influx of delayed ships on top of ships that arrive on time from other locations.
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And while there may be some wiggle room in a ship’s charter to account for, say, the adverse weather or the wait to get into port, “they usually don’t plan on having the Suez Canal closed for days on end,” Browne says. If the blockage lasts any longer, ships stranded on either side of the Suez may decide to turn around and take the scenic route down around the southern tip of Africa.
The impacts of the Ever Given’s precarious situation could be passed on to customers in the form of additional delays, higher prices, and bare shelves, impacting everything from fuel to sneakers to TVs. “There is everything on that ship,” McManus says. “If you buy it in a store, it is on that ship.”
Gear We Love: The Best Inflatable Boats
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Seahawk 3
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You can use this three-person boat for fishing, relaxing, or rowing. The Seahawk, which is heavy-duty thanks to puncture-resistant PVC, inflates and deflates easily and comes with two aluminum oars.
Large Capacity
Excursion 5
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This inflatable boat can hold up to five people, and it even comes with a motor mount fitting. The Excursion 5 features three air chambers for extra buoyancy, and an I-Beam floor construction adds rigidity.
Budget Buy
Explorer 300
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This budget-friendly boat has a three-person capacity, comes with two oars, and includes a manual pump. It's not the most heavy-duty on our list, but if you're just looking for casual cruising, you can't beat this.
Best For Fishing
Colorado XT
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This pontoon-style boat features removable gear bags for storage (including 20 pockets and two drink holders), an anchor system, a rod holder that can be mounted in six different positions, and a motor mount.
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Jennifer Leman Jennifer Leman is a science journalist and news editor at Popular Mechanics, where she writes and edits stories about science and space.
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“Fauci Gate” and what his emails tell us about Covid-19 and American politics - Vox
What the “Fauci Gate” emails tell us about Covid-19 and American politics
How social media has triggered conspiracy theories over Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails.
By Maryam Gamar Jun 6, 2021, 4:25pm EDT
Dr. Anthony Fauci at a Senate Appropriations subcommittee meeting on May 26 on Capitol Hill.
Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images
In March 2020, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ top federal infectious disease expert, quickly became a character of contention whose audience was clearly split by political alignment. He was either known as a reliable source or a “ disaster .” Much of the criticism he received was directly in line with the Trump administration’s scorn for health protocols and skepticism of safety measures like closed infrastructure and mandatory masking.
And although a majority of Americans today have received at least one vaccine dose and are ready to let all Covid-19-related news go, Fauci is once again under fire.
Through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by various news outlets, thousands of Fauci’s personal and work emails from as early as March 2020 were released to BuzzFeed and the Washington Post. Within hours of this release, #FauciLeaks and #FauciGate were trending on Twitter, in an onslaught of social media conspiracy theories from Covid-19 deniers using the emails as proof that they were right all along. To be clear, no emails were leaked; they were obtained through access granted under federal law.
Apart from countless false claims about the virus and a habit of downplaying its public health risks, the Trump administration created a narrative in which everyday activities could and should continue. In October 2020, Vox’s Aaron Rupar wrote:
“Not only is Trump’s rhetoric irresponsible, but the fact is, he’s holding rallies that make a mockery of social distancing and mask-wearing guidelines recommended by his own government. And these rallies appear to be actively making the pandemic worse by spreading the virus.”
Even with Trump out of office, the country remains heavily polarized, and Trump’s influence on public discourse has proven long-lasting. According to the Washington Post, “to Trump supporters, [Fauci] was a contrarian who seemed to undermine the president at every turn, while others viewed him as a reassuring voice of reason.” This pent-up aggression is part of what made the email release such a big deal. The email release gave conservatives an opportunity to get an inside look at the person they have made a scapegoat, and to cherrypick the fodder they needed to spread false information.
Countless Trump-supporting Republican politicians have taken advantage of the moment to stoke resentment and fill their coffers. Among them, Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has been a leading figure in helping to spread misinformation about the Fauci emails. On June 3 he tweeted “FAUCI has been lying” and included a link to his fundraising website.
It's time to fire Fauci! Emails that have been released now under Freedom of Information Act show two very important things:
1. FAUCI has been lying
2. I’ve been right all along
Stand with me today while we keep showing the way: https://t.co/B42p8TpuXz https://t.co/k5rWif6erb
— Rand Paul (@DrRandPaul) June 2, 2021
This isn’t the first time social media has blown something Covid-19-related out of proportion or helped to spread misinformation. So what did those emails actually say that conservatives have latched onto?
Anti-maskers have been looking for proof that masks don’t work
One of the biggest points of contention throughout the pandemic, especially among right-leaning Americans, has been the mandate to wear masks. One email that addresses this has been held up as evidence that Fauci knew that masks were ineffective and prescribed them anyway.
In early February of 2020, Fauci received an email from a woman asking if she should wear a mask while traveling. He responded on February 5, “masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection. The typical mask you buy at a drugstore is not really effective in keeping out virus.”
In February and early March of 2020, anything Covid-19-related was unclear even to health professionals, and a leading line of discourse was that Americans should not wear masks because they weren’t thought to be effective in screening out viral particles shed by others. While that information continues to be believed accurate — except in the case of hospital-grade masks, the N95 and KN95 face mask respirators, which have a much higher efficacy — it was eventually found that encouraging everyone to wear masks helped to prevent the actively infected from spreading the shed viral particles as easily to others.
There was also an effort to keep the panic-driven public from buying all available masks and putting health care workers at risk of running out of supplies. In an interview on June 12 with The Street, Fauci said, “the public health community — and many people were saying this — were concerned that it was at a time when personal protective equipment, including the N95 masks and the surgical masks, were in very short supply.”
During a June 3 CNN interview addressing the emails, Fauci reiterated that if he had all the information he had today, his advice from early in the pandemic would be drastically different, and that masks do in fact work.
But it doesn’t look like Fauci’s explanation will ease the backlash. After a year and a half of anti-mask protests, it’s being treated as an “I told you so” moment for conservative Americans, and they are making the most of it.
There’s a bittersweet satisfaction in being right about this. #FauciGate #FauciEmails #COVID19 #WuhanLabLeak pic.twitter.com/M71nP7wmph
— Joel Agius (@Joel_Agius1) June 4, 2021
As more and more Americans get vaccinated, there will be a decline in mask-wearing, but interestingly, it will likely remain a political symbol. As Vox’s Anna North reported, “when people like Trump don’t wear masks and make wearing masks a political issue, their supporters are less likely to wear them.” It follows that when people like Fauci do wear a mask and are involved in suggesting rules about wearing them, these same people will be waiting for an opportunity to prove him wrong.
The Wuhan lab leak conspiracy theory
Trump infamously referred to Covid-19 as the “ Chinese virus ,” a statement which has led to more hate directed against Asian people. Sixty percent of all adults believe that discrimination against Asian Americans has increased compared to last year, according to an AP poll conducted between April 29 and May 3. Trump’s choice of wording has also led to false accusations, such as his claim that the coronavirus was created in China’s Wuhan Institute of Virology and intentionally spread to the rest of the world. Few reputable sources, Fauci included, believe this is likely.
But if anything, this heightened reaction to one of the released emails, titled “Thank you for your public comments re COVID-19’s origins”. The email, from Peter Daszak, the CEO of a nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance, which had been studying the origins of the coronavirus and had worked with the Wuhan viral lab in the past, reads, “I just wanted to say a personal thank you on behalf of our staff and collaborators, for publicly standing up and stating that the scientific evidence supports a natural origin for COVID-19 from a bat-to-human spillover, not a lab release from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.”
Fauci also received an email from Kristian Andersen, a professor of immunology and microbiology at Scripps Research, which suggested that the virus could potentially be engineered. Anderson wrote: “The unusual features of the virus make up a really small part of the genome, so one has to look really closely at all the sequences to see that some of the features (potentially) look engineered.”
Similar to the mask-related emails, these emails played into narratives that Republican politicians and their supporters had been perpetuating since the start of the pandemic. According to Politico, “Theories about a leak from the Wuhan virology lab became a consistent line of questioning for Republican lawmakers by last spring and soon turned into a mainstay of congressional hearings and increasingly contentious exchanges between Fauci and [Sen. Rand] Paul.”
In April 2020, Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, sent Fauci an email with the subject line “Conspiracy gains momentum.” Other than a link to an article about the possibilities of Covid-19 being created in a lab, the message is fully redacted. This specific email has become a lightning rod because of the redaction, and has spurred a belief among conspiracy theorists that Fauci may be under investigation. In fact, on June 4, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) sent a letter to President Joe Biden demanding an investigation into whether Fauci was involved in an alleged coverup of the virus’ potential origins.
In his CNN interview on June 3, Fauci restated that he still believes the most likely origin of Covid-19 is “a jumping of species,” but said he is committed to keeping an open mind, and recommended others do the same.
Conservative Americans want to discredit Fauci whether it makes sense or not
Amid all the confusion and frustration that the pandemic has prompted, many Americans are looking for someone to blame. Everyone has suffered, whether from losing a loved one to the virus, getting laid off, or simply a canceled trip.
While many liberals blame Trump’s erratic speeches and refusal to follow health guidelines for a failed response to the virus, these are the same people who are more likely to read the emails and feel bolstered in their support by the inside look at Fauci’s work.
On the other hand, for many conservatives, Fauci has been an obstruction, or worse, a villain set on upending the Trump agenda. His advice to stay at home, stay distanced, and wear a mask got in the way of Trump’s messaging about reopening the economy and getting back to normal.
Fauci’s emails, if anything, have affirmed how divided the country remains. On Sunday, CBS News released a poll in which 33 percent of Republicans, but just 10 percent of Democrats, say they won’t get the vaccine when it becomes available to them, a potential lingering influence of Trump’s rhetoric. Interestingly, according to the same poll, six in 10 of those who say they won’t get vaccinated also say that mask mandates and social distancing requirements aren’t effective in controlling the spread of the virus, which further aligns with this rhetoric. As Vox’s Zeeshan Aleem has reported,
Throughout his presidency, Trump ignored and downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic, and spread misinformation and disinformation about Covid-19. That in turn has contributed to distrust in the vaccine or beliefs that Covid-19 simply isn’t a serious issue among many of his supporters.
Fauci’s released emails have garnered a lot of attention and criticism, but as of June 5, 50 percent of Americans have had at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. The emails, then, are merely a retrospective glance back to the beginning of the pandemic, and not so much the “gotcha” moment that some believe.
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https://www.vox.com/2021/6/6/22521289/fauci-gate-email-covid-19-trump
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Marc Lore's woke city will screen 'settlers' for diversity
Breaking News
Business
Billionaire Marc Lore’s woke city will screen ‘settlers’ for diversity
By
Will Feuer
October 19, 2021 11:12am
Updated
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The woke city that former Walmart executive and e-commerce billionaire Marc Lore is planning to build somewhere in the US will screen “settlers” to ensure diversity and inclusion, the entrepreneur said.
Lore, the former president of Walmart e-commerce and co-founder of Jet.com and Diapers.com, hopes to have 50,000 people move to the city, called Telosa, from the ancient Greek word Telos, meaning “highest purpose,” by 2030.
The selection of those first “settlers” will likely include an application process focused on diversity and inclusion, Lore, 50, told USA Today.
A team of 50 volunteers and staff that includes architects, economists, engineers, climate experts, historians and designers are helping to come up with the screening criteria, he added.
Despite the need to screen would-be settlers of the futuristic city, Lore — who reportedly has a net worth of up to $4 billion — has insisted that the community will be open and welcoming.
“I don’t want to be the ruler of the city; this is more of a public service,” Lore told USA Today. “I’m wanting to give it a place to grow and flourish. It’s not meant to be a private city; it’s meant to be a city for everyone – with an innovative way we live.”
Marc Lore hopes to have 50,000 people move to Telosa.
Angel Chevrestt
To lure some of the city’s earliest businesses, Lore will also build a venture capital fund for startups willing to relocate to Telosa, he said.
“We can’t create a city without some early nudging to move to the city,” Lore told the paper. “We’ll have to kickstart in an unconventional way, but the hope is we’ll position the people to grow a culture.”
There’s currently no location for the city, and its website says Lore and his team are scouting locations across the US, including Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, Texas and the Appalachian region.
The selection of Telosa’s first “settlers” will likely include an application process focused on diversity and inclusion.
City of Telosa
Telosa is derived from the ancient Greek word Telos, meaning “highest purpose.”
City of Telosa
Lore, co-owner of the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves, unveiled his plans for the city last month, touting the yet-to-be-constructed city as “the most open, the most fair and the most inclusive city in the world.”
Key to the city’s plans is Lore’s economic vision, called “Equitism,” in which the land upon which the city is built will be donated to a community endowment.
Residents, in turn, own their homes on the land and are enriched as home values increase, according to the project’s site, and after a period of “hyper-growth,” residents can buy the land from the community endowment.
Telosa’s website says Marc Lore and his team are scouting locations for the city across the US.
City of Telosa
“The sole purpose of creating a city in the desert would be so it’s owned by the community, basically take all the appreciation of the land and give it back to the citizens,” Lore told USA Today.
“Taxes paid will go back to the city for infrastructure – roads, tunnels and bridges – so everyone would know exactly where their money is going.
The city is meant to take on what Lore views as the United States’ biggest challenge — the rapidly growing wealth gap, which he previously said “is going to bring down America.”
“I’m not pursuing this to make money, I’m doing this because of what it can mean for others and the future,” Marc Lore explained.
Seth Wenig/AP
“While the current economic system is a growth engine, it has led to increasing inequality,” the project’s website explains. “Equitism is inclusive growth.”
The initial phase of the project, targeted for completion by 2030, would be built to accommodate 50,000 residents across roughly 1,500 acres at a cost of $25 billion.
Over 40 years, the city will eventually require $400 billion in funding and grow to house as many as 5 million people across 150,000 acres, the site says.
Telosa will be built on “equitism,” in which the land upon which the city is built will be donated to a community endowment.
City of Telosa
“I’m not pursuing this to make money,” Lore told USA Today. “I’m doing this because of what it can mean for others and the future. If this entire attempt doesn’t work, then hopefully there are things to learn from it and it will inspire others to take their shot.”
Sleek renderings of the city imagine plenty of space for pedestrians to stroll in the lush metropolis, and include images of planes and other aircrafts that appear to be from Archer Aviation, the electric “air taxi” startup in which Lore is an investor.
Another image on the site shows a skyscraper called Equitism tower that houses elevated water storage, aeroponic farms and an energy-producing roof.
The streets “prioritize bikes and pedestrians,” according to the website, and slow-moving self-driving cars share the street.
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https://nypost.com/2021/10/19/marc-lores-woke-city-will-screen-settlers-for-diversity/
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Biden Has Cancelled $11.5 Billion Of Student Loans, But Here’s What This Means For Student Loan Forgiveness
May 12, 2022,
May 12, 2022,
May 12, 2022,
Personal Finance
Biden Has Cancelled $11.5 Billion Of Student Loans, But Here’s What This Means For Student Loan Forgiveness
Zack Friedman
Senior Contributor
CEO, Mentor (mentormoney.com). Bestselling Author, The Lemonade Life.
Oct 12, 2021, 08:30am EDT
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President Joe Biden (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images)
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President Joe Biden has cancelled $11.5 billion of student loans, but here’s what this means for student loan forgiveness.
Here’s what you need to know.
Student Loans
Since becoming president, Biden has cancelled more than $11.5 billion of student loan debt, which is the most of any president. This includes:
$5.8 billion of student loan cancellation for student loan borrowers with a total and permanent disability;
$1.5 billion of student loan cancellation for student loan borrowers who were misled by their college or university and got student loan forgiveness through borrower defense to repayment;
$4.5 billion of student loan cancellation for student loan borrowers seeking public service loan forgiveness, including $1.7 billion automatic student loan cancellation and at least $2.8 billion of additional student loan cancellation.
What does this student loan cancellation mean for wide-scale student loan forgiveness? Will your student loans get cancelled? Let’s explore.
Latest student loan forgiveness: the details
To date, Biden has used existing student loan forgiveness programs to enact student loan forgiveness. This has included, for example, student loan forgiveness of federal student loans through borrower defense to repayment as well as total and permanent disability. Biden’s latest student loan forgiveness, however, major changes to student loan cancellation for public servants. These major changes to student loan forgiveness include:
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which student loan payments count toward student loan forgiveness;
which types of student loans should count for student loan forgiveness;
which employers qualify for student loan forgiveness;
when student loan payments start counting for student loan forgiveness;
With public service student loan forgiveness, Biden didn’t choose wide-scale student loan forgiveness. This means that Biden didn’t decide to cancel student loans for every public servant. Rather, Biden, in concert with the U.S. Department of Education, changed the rules of the public service loan forgiveness program to help more student loan borrowers to get student loan forgiveness.
Does Biden have legal authority to cancel student loans (or not)?
While there is debate over the amount of student loan forgiveness to enact, the major roadblock appears to be legal authority. (Biden is ready to sign student loan forgiveness, but Congress also hasn’t passed any legislation). Specifically, Biden supports wide-scale student loan forgiveness of up to $10,000, while Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) support up to $50,000 of student loan forgiveness for student loan borrowers. So, among the president and these leading senators, there is no disagreement over whether there should be wide-scale student loan forgiveness. The parties disagree, however, over the amount of student loan forgiveness and who can act to cancel student loans. Biden says only Congress has legal authority to pass legislation to cancel everyone’s student loan debt. Warren and Schumer say Biden has existing legal authority to cancel everyone’s student loan debt by signing an executive order. (Even if there is wide-scale student loan forgiveness, these student loan borrowers would be excluded ).
To break this apparent stalemate, in March, Biden asked the U.S. Department of Education to issue a non-binding legal opinion on the president’s legal authority to cancel student loan debt. The Trump administration determined in a non-binding legal opinion that only Congress, not the president, has the legal authority to cancel student loans on a wide-scale basis. (Here’s how to get approved for student loan forgiveness ). Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-NY) also said that only Congress, not the president, has the power to enact wide-scale student loan cancellation. To date, neither the White House nor the U.S. Department of Education has not released the memo or confirmed whether it’s been completed. This prompted several progressive members of Congress — including Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Ayanna Pressley (D-MA) — to urge the president to cancel student loan debt for every student loan borrower and release the memo on student loan forgiveness by October 22, 2022.
Targeted student loan cancellation suggests no wide-scale student loan forgiveness
While progressive Democrats continue to lobby the president to cancel everyone’s student loan debt, Biden has given no indication that he will use an executive order to cancel all student loan debt, or even up to $50,000 of student loans. (If Biden doesn’t cancel your student loans, do these 3 things ). Biden has consistently favored targeted student loan cancellation, which is student loan forgiveness for specific types of student loan borrowers, over wide-scale student loan cancellation. All $11.5 billion of Biden student loan forgiveness to date has been through targeted student loan cancellation. Certainly, Biden can change his mind and opt for wide-scale student loan forgiveness. (Here are 17 ways for Biden to fix student loan forgiveness ). However, his actions to date do not suggest that course of action. Every example of Biden student loan forgiveness has been through an existing student loan forgiveness program authorized by Congress and through the U.S. Department of Education. To switch to wide-scale student loan forgiveness could be challenged in court. Why? Even if Biden agrees with Warren and Schumer’s argument that the Higher Education Act of 1965 grants a president executive authority to cancel everyone’s student loan debt, the statutory language regarding the president’s legal ability to cancel all student loan debt in that law is, at minimum, ambiguous. If Biden proceeded to cancel student loan debt under the Higher Education Act, it likely could result in litigation, which could delay any potential student loan forgiveness for months, if not years.
The bottom line is that Biden will continue to cancel student loans. However, this student loan cancellation will be targeted to specific student loan borrowers rather than to every student loan borrower. Most student loan borrowers likely won’t qualify for student loan forgiveness through Biden student loan forgiveness. That said, there are still opportunities to pay off student loans. With student loan relief ending soon, it’s essential that you understand all your options for student loan repayment. Here are some popular ways to save money with your student loans:
Student loan refinancing (get a lower interest rate + lower monthly payment)
Income-driven repayment plans (get a lower monthly payment)
Public service loan forgiveness (get student loan forgiveness)
Student Loans: Related Reading
Student loan forgiveness won’t be available to these borrowers
Major changes to student loan forgiveness may come this week
How to get student loan forgiveness
Why Navient quit your student loans
Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn . Check out my website or some of my other work here .
Zack Friedman
Zack Friedman is the Founder & CEO of Mentor (mentormoney.com ), a leading online financial marketplace where you can shop for loans and
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https://www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2021/10/12/biden-has-cancelled-115-billion-of-student-loans-but-heres-what-this-means-for-student-loan-forgiveness/
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How Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Oprah Claims Compare to Full Timeline
News
How Meghan Markle and Prince Harry's Oprah Claims Compare to Full Timeline
By Jack Royston On 3/30/21 at 11:18 AM EDT
01:57
Biggest Quotes From Meghan Markle And Prince Harry’s Revealing Oprah Interview
News Meghan Markle Prince Harry Royal Family Oprah Winfrey
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry told their story to a global audience of millions—here's how their allegations fit in a timeline with what we already knew.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex accused royal family members of racism and said the palace prevented Meghan from getting professional help with suicidal feelings.
However, before their interview was broadcast, their former palace staff brought to light their own allegations of bullying against Meghan sparking a review by the very institution the duchess sought to criticise.
Here is a timeline of the claims and counter claims.
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"He's happier than he's been for many years"—October, 2016
Meghan and Harry's whirlwind romance is made public for the first time on the front page of U.K. newspaper the Sunday Express.
The story describes Harry as "besotted" and quotes a source "close to the prince" saying: "He's happier than he's been for many years."
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex attend the Cirque du Soleil Premiere Of "TOTEM" at Royal Albert Hall on January 16, 2019 in London, England. Meghan told Oprah that before the event she confided in Harry that she was experiencing suicidal feelings. Paul Grover - WPA Pool/Getty Images
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"The past week has seen a line crossed"—November 8, 2016
Prince Harry's communications secretary Jason Knauf releases a statement saying the prince has "has never been comfortable with" the "significant curiosity about his private life."
He added: "He has rarely taken formal action on the very regular publication of fictional stories that are written about him and he has worked hard to develop a professional relationship with the media, focused on his work and the issues he cares about.
"But the past week has seen a line crossed. His girlfriend, Meghan Markle, has been subject to a wave of abuse and harassment.
"Some of this has been very public—the smear on the front page of a national newspaper; the racial undertones of comment pieces; and the outright sexism and racism of social media trolls and web article comments."
"That conversation, I'm never going to share"—Right at the beginning
Prince Harry told Oprah the royals discussed how there was not going to be money to pay for Meghan, and suggested she carry on acting.
This is the same time Harry suggests the incendiary comment was made about the color of their unborn baby's skin, though Meghan discussed the remark as though it took place while she was pregnant.
The duke does not say exactly when the discussions took place, however, Meghan did not give up acting until their engagement announcement.
A selection of British newspaper publications in response to the Meghan, Duchess of Sussex and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex's interview with Oprah Winfrey on March 08, 2021 in London, England. The interview first aired in the US at 1am that morning U.K. time. Chris Jackson/Getty Images
Describing the skin tone comment, Harry told Oprah: "That conversation, I'm never going to share. But at the time, it was awkward. I was a bit shocked.
"That was right at the beginning when she wasn't going to get security, when members of my family were suggesting that she carries on acting because there's not enough money to pay for her, and all this sort of stuff."
"He got on one knee"—November, 2017
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle announce their engagement with a BBC interview in which the prince said: "It happened a few weeks ago, earlier this month, here at our cottage; just a standard typical night for us."
Meghan said: "Just a cozy night, it was—what we were doing just roasting chicken."
She added: "Trying to roast a chicken and it just—just an amazing surprise, it was so sweet and natural and very romantic. He got on one knee."
The Royal Wedding—May, 2018
Prince Harry and Meghan got married at St George's Chapel on May 19, 2018, in a star-studded ceremony attended by Elton John, George Clooney and their future celebrity interviewer Oprah Winfrey.
In the CBS tell-all, Meghan describes how the couple got married in secret in their back garden three days earlier with just the Archbishop of Canterbury present.
This has since been confirmed to be an informal exchange of vows with the real legal wedding being the one watched around the world by millions.
Meghan also said Kate Middleton made her cry in the days before the big day during an argument over a bridesmaid's dress for Princess Charlotte.
She said the Duchess of Cambridge apologized with a bunch of flowers, though none of that was known at the time.
The big public drama in the days leading up to the ceremony came when her father Thomas Markle was caught by the Mail on Sunday staging paparazzi pictures with photographer Jeff Rayner.
He then announced he would not go to the wedding via TMZ before confirming he suffered a heart attack and went to hospital for treatment.
A private letter to her father—August, 2018
Meghan and Thomas Markle have not spoken since the wedding but, following a series of interviews by her father, Meghan consults two senior members of the royal family for advice on how to handle the fallout.
Court filings from a privacy case she brought against the Mail on Sunday described how it was decided she would write him a letter begging him to stop talking to the media.
She enlisted the advice on the letter of both her husband and Kensington Palace communications secretary Jason Knauf.
"I am very concerned that the duchess was able to bully two PAs"—October, 2018
Meghan and Prince Harry tour Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand over 16 days, announcing while away that Meghan is pregnant.
The tour would later be described to U.K. newspaper The Times as a point when tensions between the couple and their Kensington Palace aides reached fever pitch.
Times journalist on why he believes Meghan 'bullying' allegations were brought to him | ITV News
Watch on
Later that month, Knauf emailed Prince William 's private secretary, then Simon Case, to claim Meghan had bullied two PAs out of the royal household.
Knauf wrote: "I am very concerned that the duchess was able to bully two PAs out of the household in the past year.
"The treatment of X [name removed] was totally unacceptable."
Tears over a bridesmaids' dress fitting—November, 2018
The Daily Telegraph reported that Meghan had made Kate cry in the days before the royal wedding, in the first report to emerge of the notorious argument over Charlotte's dress.
The story was followed up on the front page of The Sun and described by Meghan to Oprah as a turning point.
Earlier that month, another story in The Sun described an argument about which tiara Queen Elizabeth II would lend Meghan on her wedding day.
Biography Finding Freedom, published last summer, would later suggest the dispute was not over which tiara but over whether Meghan's New York stylist could see her wearing it for a hair trial ahead of the ceremony.
"Duchess Difficult"—December, 2018
Meghan was described as "Duchess Difficult" in a headline for a Sunday Times story detailing how she was to lose two close aides, private secretary Samantha Cohen and PA Melissa Touabti.
The press would later report on further staff leaving Kensington Palace as speculation began to grow in the media that all was not well between Meghan, Harry and their staff.
"I just didn't want to be alive anymore"—January, 2019
Meghan told Oprah about suicidal feelings triggered by negative reports in the media, saying: "I just didn't want to be alive anymore."
She said she told Harry about her mental health crisis before an event at the Royal Albert Hall, a premiere of Cirque du Soleil's Totem, on January 16, 2019.
Meghan told Oprah how Prince Harry had considered going by himself but she was scared to be left alone.
The duchess said: "Every time those lights went down in that royal box, I was just weeping," she explained.
#EXCLUSIVE: Prince Harry reveals to @Oprah a “large part of” the reason he and Meghan left the UK was because of racism. #OprahMeghanHarry pic.twitter.com/ksAZWargg1
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 8, 2021
"[Harry] was gripping my hand and it was 'Okay an intermission's coming, the lights are about to come on, everyone's looking at us again' and you had to just be 'on' again."
She added: "You have no idea what's going on for someone behind closed doors. You've no idea.
"Even the people that smile the biggest smiles and shine the brightest lights, it seems."
Meghan described how she asked the palace for permission to go to an institution to get help with her mental health problems and was told she could not because it would make the monarchy look bad.
"She's like, 'Dad, I'm so heartbroken'"—February, 2019
Five of Meghan's closest friends give anonymous interviews to People magazine praising the duchess and saying she has been unfairly criticized.
One describes the letter Meghan wrote her father Thomas Markle in the months after the wedding in which she told him he had broken her heart by dealing with the media.
Headlined "The Truth About Meghan Markle's Dad — and the Letter She Wrote Him After the Wedding," the story quotes the friend saying: "After the wedding she wrote him a letter.
"She's like, 'Dad, I'm so heartbroken. I love you. I have one father. Please stop victimizing me through the media so we can repair our relationship.'"
Markle Sr then gives the letter to the Mail on Sunday along with an interview in which he says he was expecting the handwritten note to be an olive branch but found it to be a dagger to the heart.
"In those months when I was pregnant"—before May, 2019
Meghan gives birth to baby Archie at a private hospital in London on May 6, 2019.
She told Oprah that at some point prior to the birth there were conversations about denying her son the title prince.
The duchess said: "In those months when I was pregnant, all around this same time, so we [had] the conversation of he won't be given security, he's not going to be given a title.
"And, also, concerns and conversations about how dark his skin might be when he's born."
Prince Harry placed the conversation about skin color "right at the beginning."
"Not many people have asked if I'm OK"—October, 2019
Meghan and Harry tour South Africa with their son Archie who meets Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
While abroad, it is announced Meghan is suing the Mail on Sunday for publishing the letter she sent her father in the months after the breakdown of their relationship.
The couple also gave interviews to ITV journalist Tom Bradby in which Harry acknowledged a rift with his brother Prince William for the first time.
He said: "Part of this role and part of this job and this family being under the pressure that it's under inevitably, you know, stuff happens.
"But look, we're brothers. We'll always be brothers."
Bradby also famously asked Meghan how she was coping. The Duchess replied: "Look, any woman especially when they are pregnant, you're really vulnerable and so that was made really challenging.
"And then when you have a newborn—you know. And especially as a woman, it's a lot.
"So you add this on top of just trying to be a new mum or trying to be a newlywed.
"And, also thank you for asking, because not many people have asked if I'm OK."
Time away from Britain—November, 2019
The couple go to Canada to spend some time away from Britain over Christmas and New Year.
While there, the couple begin negotiations with the royal family about quitting royal duties.
The prince told Oprah: "That announcement that we put out on the 8th of January in 2020, that was the content of that was put in a letter to the institution, to my father, which was then shared at the end of December while we were in Canada."
"I would never blindside my grandmother"—January, 2020
Meghan and Harry's royal exit plans are published in The Sun after a leak and the couple follow up on January 8 by announcing their roadmap out of the royal family on their new Sussex Royal website.
British newspapers reported the move blindsided the queen while Finding Freedom later suggested Elizabeth was left "devastated."
However, Harry told Oprah: "No, I would never blindside my grandmother, I have too much respect for her."
In January 2020, Prince Harry and Meghan announced plans to step back as senior members of the Royal family. In this exclusive clip, they tell @Oprah they were then invited to spend time with his grandmother, the Queen, but the plans abruptly changed citing she's "busy all week." pic.twitter.com/dLhq0SAgfN
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) March 8, 2021
"My family literally cut me off financially"—April 2020
Prince Harry and Meghan begin their new lives in America but from the start of April they receive no more money from the royals.
The prince told Oprah they cut him off and the couple were only able to pursue their new arrangement because of the money he inherited from his mother Princess Diana.
Harry said: "My family literally cut me off financially."
An insider told Newsweek the comment was intended to refer not only to the public money Harry had received but also to the private funds from his father, Prince Charles.
"Recollections may vary"—March 2021
Meghan and Harry talk to Oprah about their experiences of royal life after a whirlwind year in which they signed multi-year Netflix and Spotify deals.
Days before the interview airs, their former palace staff tell British newspaper The Times they were bullied by the couple.
Buckingham Palace announces a review of the allegations to establish any lessons for the future, with the result to be published in the Sovereign Grant report.
What Kate Middleton's Uncle Said About Claim She Made Meghan Markle Cry
Read more
The next day, Oprah goes on CBS This Morning to say Harry and Meghan confirmed the racism allegation did not relate to the queen or her husband Prince Philip, who was ill in hospital at the time.
Two days after the interview, Buckingham Palace makes its first statement in response, on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II.
It read: "The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan.
"The issues raised, particularly that of race, are concerning. While some recollections may vary, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately.
"Harry, Meghan and Archie will always be much loved family members."
Prince William later said when asked by a journalist: "We are very much not a racist family."
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Netanyahu era ends in Israel as new government survives key parliament vote
Mideast
Netanyahu era ends in Israel as new government survives key parliament vote
"He’s been here for so many years, and won so many elections, that for so many Israelis it’s difficult to imagine any other reality," said one analyst.
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June 13, 2021, 10:57 AM PDT /UpdatedJune 13, 2021, 1:36 PM PDT
By Saphora Smith and Rachel Elbaum
The Benjamin Netanyahu era is over in Israel. After 12 consecutive years in power, and another three before that, the country’s longest serving prime minister will no longer be its leader.
An unlikely coalition that came together to oust Netanyahu survived a confidence vote in the Israeli parliament Sunday, passing 60-59, overcoming the final hurdle on its path to unseating him and taking a fragile hold on power.
After the new government was sworn in, Netanyahu and his right-wing Likud party moved to the opposition for the first time in more than a decade.
To rub salt into Netanyahu’s wound, Naftali Bennett, his former protege and a right-wing leader, will serve as the next prime minister, holding office for the first two years of the new government’s term. He will then hand the role to Yair Lapid, the leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party.
Israeli Knesset swears in Naftali Bennett as prime minister, ousting Netanyahu after 12 years
June 13, 2021 02:10
The government will be made up of a broad group of Netanyahu opponents that includes the United Arab List, known in Israel as Ra’am, which made history as the first Arab party to join an Israeli governing coalition.
The son of American immigrants, Bennett is a former settler leader whose nationalist politics contrasts with several of the dovish left-wing parties included in his unwieldy coalition. As head of such a disparate clan, he may find it difficult to achieve much beyond ending Netanyahu’s grip on the premiership.
“We will focus on what can be done, instead of arguing over what is impossible,” he said when announcing his deal with Lapid.
But Bennett promised on Sunday to continue Netanyahu’s confrontational policy in a speech prior to the vote, opposing any movement from the U.S. to revive the dismantled Iran nuclear deal.
“Israel will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons,” Bennett said. “Israel will not be a party to the agreement and will continue to preserve full freedom of action.”
Until now Netanyahu had an unrivaled ability to cling to power, through conflict, corruption charges and countless elections. That has finally come to an end, but his legacy — and perhaps his political ambitions — will live on. Netanyahu did not take his defeat lightly, promising Israel's enemies that the Likud party would return to power in his final speech as prime minister.
“If it is destined for us to be in the opposition, we will do it with our backs straight until we topple this dangerous government and return to lead the country in our way,” he said.
U.S. President Joe Biden congratulated Bennett in a statement Sunday, saying he was looking forward to working with Bennett's new government "to advance security, stability, and peace for Israelis, Palestinians, and people throughout the broader region."
"Israel has no better friend than the United States," Biden said. "The bond that unites our people is evidence of our shared values and decades of close cooperation and as we continue to strengthen our partnership, the United States remains unwavering in its support for Israel’s security."
The leaders spoke on the phone Sunday, where Biden offered his congratulations and the two agreed to "consult closely on all matters related to regional security, including Iran," according to a White House summary of the call.
Power and paralysis
Netanyahu, or Bibi, as he is known in Israel, first became prime minister in 1996 and served for three years as head of the right-wing Likud party. After losing the next election, he left politics, only to return in 2002 as foreign minister and then as prime minister in 2009. He won elections in 2013 and 2015, and retained his grip on power through three more elections between 2019 and 2020.
“He’s been here for so many years, and won so many elections, that for so many Israelis it’s difficult to imagine any other reality other than Netanyahu winning an election and forming a government,” Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, said.
More recently, however, Netanyahu's image has taken a battering. The veteran lawmaker has found himself increasingly isolated since he was indicted on charges of fraud, breach of trust and bribery in late 2019. He denies all wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch hunt.”
Netanyahu’s trial began earlier this year. During the case, he has publicly diminished law enforcement and independent judicial institutions that have been a source of pride for Israel since its establishment seven decades ago, according to David Makovsky, an author and fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
A man walks by an election campaign billboard showing Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tel Aviv, Israel, in April 2019. Oded Balilty / AP
The unlikely coalition of parties that will form Israel’s next government speaks to the desperation of many to end his yearslong grip on power. Since 2019, the country has held four elections that were all seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s fitness to govern. All ended in deadlock.
He managed to survive the first three votes, but the fourth has brought his premiership to an end — at least for now.
Netanyahu has forged a reputation as a hard-liner, skeptical of the peace process with the Palestinians that was initiated by his predecessors in the early 1990s. He is no fan of the two-state solution, accepted by most of the world as the likeliest way of achieving peace and justice for both Palestinians and Israelis.
He has supported the continued building of Jewish settlements in east Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank — also home to some 2.7 million Palestinians who seek the territory, captured by Israel from Jordan in 1967, for a future independent state.
Most countries consider settlements in the territory to be illegal and an impediment to peace.
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According to Diana Buttu, a former adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Netanyahu has worked throughout his time in office to entrench policies that would be hard to reverse.
“What he did was set into place a course of action where nobody is challenging Israel,” Buttu, who is an Israeli citizen, said. “He set about trying to marginalize Palestinians and Palestinian demands for freedom.”
Netanyahu’s close relationship with former President Donald Trump paid dividends for the Israeli leader. He was handed a number of political wins by the White House, including the move of the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and a widely rejected peace plan that Palestinians said favored Israel.
While Netanyahu did engage in talks with Palestinians that failed in 2014, he did not come up with a plan on how to partition the land and thereby secure Israel’s identity as both a democratic and a Jewish state, Makovsky said.
“For all his achievements, part of his legacy is that he didn’t put forward a wider strategy on an issue that cuts to the core of Israel’s identity, namely how to keep Israel a Jewish state,” he said. “I don’t think anyone expected him to solve the problem, but at least to identify a direction.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presided over a deadly military confrontation with Hamas in Gaza in 2014. Ashraf Amra / AFP via Getty Images file
After years in which he had advanced Israel’s cause while avoiding a Palestinian intifada, or uprising, like those that scarred previous eras, the recent 11-day war with Hamas thrust the issue back to the international fore. The war left more than 260 people dead — the vast majority Palestinians — and brought widespread devastation to the already impoverished Gaza Strip.
And its impact was felt within Israel’s cities, where the country’s 2 million-strong Arab minority makes up about 20 percent of its 9.2 million population. They have complained of being second-class citizens in Netanyahu’s Israel, pointing to the impact of both legislation and rhetoric.
Simmering tensions and decades-old divisions came to a head during the Gaza conflict as a wave of Jewish-Arab violence swept across the country’s mixed-ethnicity cities in scenes that left many fearful about the country’s future with or without Netanyahu at its head.
Tech, vaccines and the Abraham Accords
Despite the lack of progress toward a peace agreement with the Palestinians, Netanyahu is lauded by many Israelis for modernizing the country’s economy and presiding over a period of relative prosperity that saw the Israeli tech sector in particular attract international investment.
The rollout of Israel’s world-beating vaccination program against the coronavirus has also been a point of pride for Netanyahu, according to Makovsky. It has allowed Israel to loosen many of its restrictions and meant Israelis can enjoy relative freedom as much of the rest of the world struggles to emerge from the pandemic.
Benjamin Netanyahu, President Donald Trump, Bahrain Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan Abraham at the Abraham Accords signing ceremony at the White House in September. Alex Brandon / AP file
The new government will also inherit normalization agreements with four Arab countries — the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco — that many in the Jewish state hope can stand as a lasting foundation for efforts to end its isolation in the Middle East.
The U.S.-brokered agreements were a huge diplomatic coup for Israel, pushing quietly warming relationships with some Arab states out into the open, and successfully chipping away at the decadeslong united front put up by Arab states in antipathy toward Israel over the plight of the Palestinians.
Under Netanyahu, Sunni Arab countries have increasingly seen Israel as a potential strategic partner against Shiite-led Iran and an economic model for the region. Many in Israel consider Iran an existential threat.
Relationship with the U.S.
Beyond his interventions on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal was a significant boon for Netanyahu.
The Israeli leader’s relationship with former President Barack Obama, who entered into the 2015 agreement with other world powers, was notoriously prickly.
Netanyahu was welcomed by Republicans in Congress for an unprecedented address, in which he said the deal “paves Iran’s path to the bomb."
Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama in the Oval Office of the White House in May 2009. Charles Dharapak / AP file
Since Biden was sworn into office, the relationship has been harder to pin down.
Biden’s administration has restored some aid to and contact with the Palestinians. It has also held indirect talks with Iran in a bid to revive the tattered nuclear deal.
But Biden resisted public criticism of Israeli actions and airstrikes in the latest Gaza conflict despite pressure from progressives for Washington to take a heavier hand with its close ally. Biden will now have to work with Bennett, who is opposed to a two-state solution to the conflict.
After so many years in office, Netanyahu leaves a long and wide-ranging legacy.
“His self-image is someone that’s a leader on the world stage, a protector of Israel from Iranian nuclear capability, an advocate of Israeli high-tech industry and someone who is Israel’s campaigner par excellence,” Makovsky said.
However, he has also helped contribute to a contentious political environment, according to Plesner.
While the formation of a new “change government” has brought Netanyahu’s premiership to an end for now, it’s too early to rule him out for good. After all, it would not be the first time he has lost the premiership only to return to power.
Saphora Smith
Saphora Smith is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital.
Rachel Elbaum
Rachel Elbaum is a London-based editor, producer and writer.
Doha Madani and The Associated Press contributed.
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Japan says it will dump radioactive water from crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific, sparking protests - CBS News
World
Protests as Japan says it will dump radioactive water from crippled Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific
By Lucy Craft
April 13, 2021 / 7:07 AM / CBS News
Tokyo — Japan said Tuesday that it would start discharging treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean within two years. Officials in Tokyo said the water would be filtered and diluted to safe levels first, but many residents remain firmly opposed to the plan.
Protesters gathered outside Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga's residence in downtown Tokyo to denounce the government's decision.
More than a million tons of contaminated water is currently being stored at the Fukushima power plant in a massive tank farm big enough to fill 500 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The wastewater comes from water pumped in to cool the plant's damaged reactors and also rain and groundwater that seeps into the facility, which was seriously damaged by the 2011 earthquake and subsequent tsunami that ravaged Japan's northeast coast.
The unit three reactor building and storage tanks for contaminated water at the Tokyo Electric Power Company's (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima prefecture, Japan, February 3, 2020.KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP/Getty
The government says it has simply run out of room to store all the water. The plan to dump the water into the ocean first came to light in the autumn of last year, when Japanese news outlets cited anonymous officials as saying the decision had been taken.
"We can't postpone a decision on the plan to deal with the... processed water, to prevent delays in the decommission work of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant," Chief Cabinet Secretary Katsunobu Kato said in October 2020, without commenting directly on the plan or its timing.
On Tuesday, Suga said that after years of study, his scientific advisors had concluded that ocean discharge was the most feasible way to cope with the surplus of contaminated water.
"The International Atomic Energy Agency also supports this plan as scientifically reasonable," he said.
But the decision to dump Fukushima wastewater into the ocean has drawn fire from neighboring Asian countries and local fishermen along Japan's coast.
China called the decision "extremely irresponsible," and South Korea summoned the Japanese ambassador in Seoul over the matter.
Japan plans to release wastewater into ocean
01:59
"They told us that they wouldn't release the water into the sea without the support of fishermen," Kanji Tachiya, who leads a local cooperative of fisheries in Fukushima, told national broadcaster NHK ahead of the announcement on Tuesday. "We can't back this move to break that promise and release the water into the sea unilaterally."
Critics, including Greenpeace nuclear specialist Shaun Burnie, argue that Japan should continue storing the wastewater near the stricken Fukushima plant.
"Deliberately discharging and contaminating the Pacific Ocean after decades of contamination already from the nuclear industry and nuclear weapons testing is just not acceptable," he said.
The actual release of water from the Fukushima plant will take decades to complete. Critics have called on Japan's government to at least ensure that independent monitoring is in place to verify the level of radiation in the discharged water is safe for the environment.
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First published on April 13, 2021 / 4:53 AM
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How to make a Russian invasion of Ukraine prohibitively expensive - Atlantic Council
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UkraineAlert
January 9, 2022
How to make a Russian invasion of Ukraine prohibitively expensive
By Andriy Zagorodnyuk
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has recently attempted to seize the initiative in his diplomatic duel with the West by presenting a comprehensive list of security demands while massing a formidable invasion force on the Ukrainian border. This thinly veiled threat has created the impression that Western leaders must either make sweeping concessions to the Kremlin or face the prospect of the largest European conflict since WWII.
However, there is a third option. The best way to prevent a full-scale invasion of Ukraine may be by increasing the military costs Putin would be likely to face if he chooses to roll the dice and launch a major new offensive.
Before exploring how to enhance Ukraine’s defensive capabilities, it is vital to underline the folly of continuing to appease Putin. Ever since Russia first attacked Ukraine in spring 2014, many within the democratic world have advocated policies of appeasement. Far from deescalating the situation, this has only made matters worse.
Eight years on, Russian aggression against Ukraine continues with no end in sight to the simmering conflict in eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Meanwhile, an evidently emboldened Putin is now seeking to dismantle the entire post-Cold War European security architecture and reestablish a Russian sphere of influence over Eastern and Central Europe.
At this point, any further accommodations would be extremely dangerous. If NATO leaders bow to Russian demands and agree to withdraw from the region or limit future cooperation with Ukraine, this will not have a calming effect on the Kremlin. On the contrary, Moscow would become even more convinced that negotiations at gunpoint should continue. This would make a major war in Ukraine far more likely, while also paving the way for additional acts of Russian aggression from the Baltic to the Balkans.
Rather than appeasing the Kremlin, the West must seek to make any further escalations prohibitively expensive. The unprecedented sanctions measures that are currently on the table in the event of a new Russian offensive against Ukraine are certainly a step in the right direction, but it is far from clear whether economic measures alone will be sufficient to deter Putin.
Russia has built up its international reserves to record levels in recent years and is currently well positioned to weather a severe sanctions storm. Indeed, Putin may regard the economic pain of Western sanctions as a price worth paying for the decisive geopolitical gains he envisages from a successful Ukrainian campaign.
In order to be effective, economic measures must be deployed alongside a convincing military deterrent. At present, Western military planners are primarily focused on Russia’s overwhelming advantages in terms of missiles, aviation, and naval capabilities. This has helped to convince many that a full-scale invasion of Ukraine is a realistic military objective because of its apparently high chance of success.
With the threat of invasion imminent, there is not much that the US or Ukraine’s other international partners can do to rapidly reduce the existing capability gap between Russia and Ukraine. Complex air or naval defense systems would take years to become fully operational, and would cost billions to acquire and sustain.
Other sophisticated weapons systems have similar limitations and would require extensive training before they could be deployed. Instead, Ukraine and the country’s partners should seek asymmetric answers to the formidable military challenges posed by Putin’s Russia.
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If Putin launches a full-scale operation, Russian forces will face a combined Ukrainian military of around 500,000 personnel including a considerable reserve contingent. However, if Ukrainian troops operate in large formations, they will become easy targets for Russian airstrikes. Indeed, any Russian offensive would likely begin with a devastating air and missile campaign designed to wipe out Ukrainian armored units, fighter jets, and key elements of the country’s military infrastructure.
In such circumstances, it is likely that the Russian military will be able to advance deep into Ukrainian territory. However, holding this territory will be a different matter entirely.
Russian occupation forces will face highly motivated opponents fighting in familiar surroundings. By combining serving military units with combat veterans, reservists, territorial defense units, and large numbers of volunteers, Ukraine can create tens of thousands of small and highly mobile groups capable of attacking Russian forces. This will make it virtually impossible for the Kremlin to establish any kind of administration over occupied areas or secure its lines of supply.
The readiness of Ukrainians to defend their country should not be any doubt. Thousands joined impromptu volunteer battalions in spring 2014 when Ukraine was on the verge of being overrun by Kremlin forces. In recent weeks, a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology indicated that as many as one in three Ukrainians would be ready to participate in armed resistance to a Russian occupation.
The same poll found that a further 20% of Ukrainians would be prepared to engage in civil resistance efforts. Indeed, everything from opinion surveys to election results points to the fact that a Russian invasion would be deeply unpopular and Kremlin forces would find themselves operating in a hostile environment ideal for asymmetric warfare.
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An asymmetric approach to countering a possible Russian invasion does not imply a loss of overall military coordination. Ukraine’s regular armed forces would remain at the heart of the resistance movement and would retain command and control structures even while operating in smaller units in a seemingly decentralized manner.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SOF) would play a crucial leadership role in guerrilla warfare efforts, and would be able to call upon the invaluable training and considerable investments made in recent years.
Ukraine already has the tools and the personnel in place for an asymmetric campaign against any potential invaders. However, the country’s partners can also make a significant contribution to further enhancing this deterrence factor by bolstering Ukraine’s ability to wage an effective insurgency.
While there is no time to supply Ukraine with complex weapons systems, there is a shopping list of items that could significantly raise the cost of a Russian invasion. The most expensive items on Ukraine’s short-term wish-list include portable air defense systems, anti-tank missiles, anti-ship missiles, and counter-battery radars. Drones of all kinds would be most welcome. Sniper rifles and anti-sniper equipment would also be extremely useful, as would large deliveries of night vision goggles, encrypted radio communication devices, and satellite communication devices.
The Ukrainian armed forces are battle-hardened and highly motivated. After eight years of undeclared war with Russia, the country as a whole is perhaps more psychologically prepared to defend itself than any other nation in today’s Europe.
Given the right equipment and tactics, Ukraine can dramatically reduce the chances of a successful invasion. A Russian offensive would be likely to make impressive initial progress, but could quickly unravel as occupation forces encountered relentless opposition from mobile units operating on home turf.
Ever the amateur historian, Putin is acutely aware of the damage caused to Soviet society by the invasion of Afghanistan. He no doubt recognizes the potential dangers of becoming bogged down in a brutal occupation of his own in Ukraine.
Recent polls indicate very little appetite among the Russian public for a major war against Ukraine. This absence of enthusiasm could soon turn to outright opposition if large numbers of coffins began returning to Russia from Ukraine.
Despite the risks involved, the Russian leader wishes to continue diplomatic negotiations while holding a gun to Ukraine’s head. He clearly expects the Western world to blink first. Putin needs to be reminded that Ukraine is not a helpless hostage and will fight back. The consequences of such a campaign for his own regime are entirely unpredictable and could end up being very costly indeed.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk is chairman of the Center for Defence Strategies. He is a former Minister of Defense of Ukraine (2019–2020) and was the head of the MOD Reforms Project Office (2015–2018).
Further reading
UkraineAlert Dec 17, 2021
Russian court accidentally delivers guilty verdict on Putin’s Ukraine war
By Peter Dickinson
A Russian court in Rostov has accidentally issued a guilty verdict on Putin’s Ukraine war by publishing official documents confirming the presence of Russian military units in Kremlin-occupied eastern Ukraine.
Conflict Disinformation
UkraineAlert Dec 3, 2021
Europe’s future will be decided in Ukraine
By Oleksii Reznikov
The international community must urgently demonstrate its resolve to punish Russia in order to deter a full-scale invasion of Ukraine that would plunge Europe into chaos, warns Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
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UkraineAlert
Memo to the international media: Putin has already invaded Ukraine
One depressing aspect of Russia’s latest military build-up on the Ukrainian border has been the flurry of headlines posing the same question: will Putin invade Ukraine? In reality, Russia has already invaded Ukraine and the war is now in its eighth year.
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The views expressed in UkraineAlert are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Atlantic Council, its staff, or its supporters.
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AUKUS seen as violating rules on arms control - World - Chinadaily.com.cn
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AUKUS seen as violating rules on arms control
By CHEN YINGQUN |
China Daily |
Updated: 2022-01-10 09:23
US President Joe Biden delivers remarks on a National Security Initiative virtually with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, inside the East Room at the White House in Washington, US, Sept 15, 2021. [Photo/Agencies]
Trilateral security pact undercuts world peace and stability, say alliance's critics
The trilateral security pact between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, known as AUKUS, violates rules on global nonproliferation and undermines regional and world peace and stability, analysts say, even though the three countries have said they would comply with nonproliferation obligations and commitments.
The White House issued a statement recently saying the three countries held inaugural meetings of the AUKUS Trilateral Joint Steering Groups at the Pentagon in Washington on Dec 9 and 14.
The participants reaffirmed their commitment to bring Australia's capabilities into service at the earliest possible date and agreed on the next steps in an 18-month consultation period to define the best pathway for Australia to acquire nuclear-powered submarines.
The participants also discussed how they will work to ensure that "the submarine program upholds their long-standing leadership in global nonproliferation", including through continued close consultation with the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA, the statement said.
The three countries remain steadfast in supporting the nuclear nonproliferation regime and its cornerstone, the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and the participants will comply with their nonproliferation obligations, the statement said.
When the US, the UK and Australia announced the establishment of AUKUS in September, they said the US and UK will transfer technology to Australia to enable it to build nuclear-powered submarines.
Xu Liping, director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the US has branded itself "a defender of rules-based international order", but it failed to explain on which rules AUKUS was established. So the legitimacy of the AUKUS is questionable, he said.
Proliferation risk
Collaboration on nuclear submarines under AUKUS poses a serious risk of nuclear proliferation, and clearly violates the aims of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, he said.
The three countries will try to make AUKUS look legitimate by saying they have consulted certain officials of the IAEA, he said.
"But because of US global hegemony, it is difficult for the IAEA to talk with the US in an equal way. If AUKUS truly respects the rules-based global order, the three countries should gain recognition of all members of the IAEA, rather than just consult with certain officials of the IAEA Secretariat."
Xu said AUKUS is a genuine military alliance system that is exclusive and will bring new challenges to regional and even global security. It may also cause a regional arms race and more tensions in the South China Sea, and have a negative impact on the nuclear-free weaponization of the ASEAN region.
The ultimate goal behind the political moves is to seek economic benefits, he said. The US and the UK want to beef up the military presence in the region so they can manipulate smaller countries and draw economic benefits from them. Containing China's influence in the region and disrupting its economic collaboration with other countries is another goal.
Tian Dewen, deputy director of the Institute of European Studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said Australia's pursuit of nuclear submarines is dangerous and will seriously affect the international nuclear nonproliferation regime. There may also be countries that would like to follow suit and join AUKUS, causing greater concern for world security.
Moreover, once Australia obtains weapons-grade nuclear materials, the power balance of the Asia-Pacific region will be tipped and conflicts among countries may be deepened.
"Although AUKUS said it does not seek to change the security situation in the Asia-Pacific region, it will undermine regional and world peace and stability," Tian said.
The chaotic withdrawal of the US from Afghanistan in August without properly consulting its allies demonstrated US unilateralism and the country's unreliability as a partner, he said. Thus, US allies in the Asia-Pacific not in AUKUS may also make certain moves to ensure that the pact does not threaten their interests.
Collaboration urged
Tian urged countries in the region to strengthen collaboration and build a new type of international relations to promote the building of a community with a shared future for mankind to tackle the challenges that AUKUS poses.
Koh King Kee, president of the Centre for New Inclusive Asia in Malaysia, said AUKUS has triggered great concern among ASEAN countries because the pact will help Australia acquire technology to build nuclear submarines, which will break the security balance in the region.
"It is likely to cause instability in the regional peace and security of ASEAN and thus affect the investment climate in the region."
AUKUS is unlikely to harm ASEAN unity because ASEAN countries will abide by the spirit of zone of peace freedom and neutrality and maintain centrality in big power rivalry.
All ASEAN member states are signatories to the Southeast Asia Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaty, or SEANWFZ, which is committed to keeping nuclear weapons out of the region. "The formation of AUKUS is an obvious challenge to the spirit of SEANWFZ," Koh said.
Objections voiced
Of the 10 ASEAN countries, Malaysia and Indonesia have voiced the strongest objections to AUKUS, Koh said. Even Singapore, Australia's most reliable ally in the region, has expressed concern. "AUKUS is unlikely to find other supporters among ASEAN nations as they fear AUKUS would exacerbate US-China rivalry in the region and provoke more aggressive acts by both countries in the South China Sea."
Russia has also expressed serious concerns about AUKUS. President Vladimir Putin warned it "undoubtedly" undermines regional stability.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin recently urged the three AUKUS countries not to go ahead with the pact.
He stressed safeguards issues regarding AUKUS, how it bears on the integrity and efficacy of the IAEA, that it concerns the interests of all member states, and that it should be discussed by all IAEA member states. China has suggested that the IAEA should establish a special committee open to all member states to properly seek a solution acceptable to all parties.
Last Monday leaders of the five declared nuclear-weapon states－China, France, Russia, Britain and the US－issued a joint statement on preventing nuclear war and avoiding arms races.
The increased risk of nuclear proliferation calls for nuclear-weapons states to enhance collaboration and adopt responsible policies, Tian said.
Xinhua contributed to this story.
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Aung San Suu Kyi Sentenced: Why Myanmar Will Fight on Anyway | Time
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Aung San Suu Kyi Is Going to Prison. But the Resistance Has Learned to Fight Without Her
An anti-coup protester holds up a placard featuring de-facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi on March 02, 2021 in Yangon, Myanmar.
Hkun Lat—Getty Images
By Amy Gunia
Updated: December 7, 2021 8:28 PM EST | Originally published: December 6, 2021 3:16 AM EST
T he four-year prison sentence given to Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Monday will likely only be her first. The military junta that overthrew and detained her in February has lodged a raft of charges against the 76-year-old Nobel Peace laureate—from violating COVID-19 rules, to illegally importing walkie-talkies and corruption.
The sentence was halved to two years by the military later in the day, but the combined charges carry more than a century in combined prison terms, and Aung San Suu Kyi seems sure to be “sentenced into political oblivion” to ensure the popular pro-democracy leader “becomes a non-entity in Myanmar’s bloody politics,” says Lee Morgenbesser, an expert on authoritarian politics in Southeast Asia at Australia’s Griffith University.
However, locking up Aung San Suu Kyi is likely to do little to quell protests—or slow the increasingly violent resistance to the military junta. While she was at the center of the democratic reform movement that began in 2011, Aung San Suu Kyi is no longer the lone standard-bearer for it, experts say.
“Whether the movement has clear leadership or not, the Myanmar people have a clear set of ideals and expectations about democracy in their country,” Morgenbesser says. “The military was naïve to think it could expand political rights and civil liberties in 2011, but then simply rescind those newfound freedoms a decade later.”
There were signs the democracy movement had been evolving even before the coup. Democracy activist Thinzar Shunlei Yi told TIME in a February 2021 interview that she and many other young people weren’t pinning their hopes for a democratic Myanmar on Aung San Suu Kyi. “We want equality, we want a real democracy led by real people, not by one person or one group,” she said. “We look beyond Aung Sang Suu Kyi.”
READ MORE: Can Myanmar’s Democracy Survive Without Aung San Suu Kyi?
Aung San Suu Kyi and other members of her party, the National League for Democracy, were swept up in pre-dawn raids in a military coup on Feb. 1. The military’s power grab came after Myanmar’s generals complained of fraud in the November 2020 election—although international observers did not report major voting irregularities.
At the time of the coup, military officials said they were assuming control for one year under emergency powers granted to them in the constitution, but experts warned that the coup seemed likely to undo the country’s hard-won democratic reforms. Mark Farmaner, the director of the London-based advocacy group Burma Campaign UK, tells TIME that Aung San Suu Kyi’s prison sentence means that “it’s absolutely clear the military are not willing to compromise in any way, and are making sure opponents are silenced before they impose their new form of dictatorship.”
The coup was met with nationwide non-violent demonstrations, which the military has cracked down on with shocking violence. More than 1,300 people have been killed by the military, according to the organization the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (AAPP). On Sunday, at least five people were reportedly killed in Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, when a military vehicle plowed into a march of peaceful protesters, according to local media.
Opposition to military rule remains strong. Protesters are increasingly adopting violence to counter the military, and some civilians have begun training to use weapons in jungle camps and joining ethnic minority militias, which have long fought the military.
Human rights groups and world governments have criticized the sentencing. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken called Aung San Suu Kyi’s conviction another “affront to democracy and justice in Burma.” “The regime’s continued disregard for the rule of law and its widespread use of violence against the Burmese people underscore the urgency of restoring Burma’s path to democracy,” he said in the statement.
It’s not the first time Aung San Suu Kyi has been imprisoned by the military. She spent 15 years under house arrest, before her release in 2010. This time, it’s unlikely Aung San Suu Kyi, who was once called a “beacon of hope” by former president Barack Obama for her non-violent resistance against the military, will receive as much international support.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s defense of the military’s 2017 atrocities against the Rohingya —a mostly Muslim ethnic minority group that lives in western Myanmar—badly tarnished her international reputation. “She is no longer this moral person who has suffered or who is suffering at the hands of the Burmese military anymore,” says Maung Zarni, co-founder of FORSEA.co, a group of Southeast Asian scholars that focuses on democratic struggles in the region.
That means that whatever outside support Myanmar’s opposition manages to get will likely be geared toward the pro-democracy opposition as a whole, especially the National Unity Government—which has formed in exile to oppose the junta, says Dan Slater, the director of the Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan.
Aung San Suu Kyi’s sentencing may spark even more violence—at least some protests against the sentencing occurred in the country on Monday. “There has never been widespread popular acceptance of military rule in Myanmar, and there never will be,” says Slater, of the University of Michigan. “So the current conflict over Myanmar’s political future has no end in sight.”
—With reporting by Chad de Guzman/Hong Kong
Write to Amy Gunia at [email protected].
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Canada's hypocrisy: Recognizing genocide except its own against Indigenous peoples
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visits a memorial on Parliament Hill in recognition of the discovery of children’s remains at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
Canada’s hypocrisy: Recognizing genocide except its own against Indigenous peoples
Published: June 4, 2021 12.20pm EDT
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David MacDonald
Professor of Political Science, University of Guelph
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The Canadian Parliament is sometimes at the cutting edge of genocide recognition and human rights.
Earlier this year, the House of Commons passed a non-binding motion to recognize China’s treatment of Muslim Uyghurs as genocide. It was a principled and courageous stand and Canada was just the second country in the world to take this position.
A report by a prominent British legal team documented crimes of the genocide which included “evidence of Uyghur children being forcibly removed from their parents,” placed in orphanages and mandatory boarding schools.
It also said children “are deprived of the opportunity to practise their Uyghur culture…are sometimes given Han names, and are sometimes subject to adoption by Han ethnic families.” The report concludes there is enough evidence that their forced removal is carried out with the intention of “destroying the Uyghur population as an ethnic group.”
Shameful history of residential schools
Similar descriptions could be applied to what churches and governments in Canada did to Indigenous children who were sent to Indian Residential Schools.
Is it a double standard for Canada to recognize the Uyghurs and not Indigenous people? It’s a question that needs to be considered once again after the recent announcement by the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation that a ground penetrating radar specialist had discovered the buried remains of 215 children who attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School.
The former Kamloops Indian Residential School is seen in Kamloops, B.C. The remains of 215 children have been discovered buried near the former school. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
In addition to the February motion against China’s treatment of its Uyghur population, Canada recognizes seven other genocides: the Holocaust during the Second World War, the Armenian genocide, the Ukrainian famine genocide (Holodomor ), the Rwandan genocide, the Srebrenica massacres, the mass killing of the Yazidi people and the mass murder of the Muslim Rohingya in Myanmar.
Recognition of our country’s own genocide against Indigenous people is long overdue.
A violation of UN convention
There have been calls for Parliament to recognize the Indian Residential Schools as a violation of the United Nations Genocide Convention, in particular of Article 2e which prohibits “forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.”
Almost two decades ago, the Assembly of First Nations (AFN) described the residential school system as “the forcible transfer of children from one racial group to another with the intent to destroy the group.” AFN National Chief Atleo made reference to genocide in 2011, as has current National Chief Perry Bellegarde, who reiterated his views on genocide after the announcement of the discovery of the graves in Kamloops.
There is ample evidence in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission final report of state intentions, legislation, actions and legacies of genocide.
Sen. Murray Sinclair regularly discussed the Indian Residential Schools system as violating Article 2e and stated that he would have put this in the TRC’s Final Report, had it been permitted.
As he explained in an interview with me for my book The Sleeping Giant Awakens: Genocide, Indian Residential Schools, and the Challenge of Conciliation:
“I had written a section for the report in which I very clearly called it genocide and then I submitted that to the legal team and I said, can I say this, or, can we say this? And the answer came back unanimously no, we can’t as per our mandate, because we can’t make a finding of culpability, and that’s very clear. So, we did the next best thing.”
The TRC ultimately concluded that cultural genocide had been committed in the Indian Residential School system, while also making hints throughout the report that the government was culpable of more.
Former senator Murray Sinclair, who spent six years hearing stories of the effects of Canada’s residential school system for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, has used the term ‘genocide’ to describe the IRS system. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld
Preventable deaths
The discovery of the graves of 215 Indigenous children makes it clear that preventable deaths were always a part of the Indian Residential School system. We are now at the beginning of compiling the evidence of mass deaths in the schools.
Ground radar scans will help us get to the truth, and Sinclair believes the death toll may reach 15,000 lives. But we need not wait for the results of these investigations to make a conclusion of genocide. We have ample evidence of violations of Article 2e.
Remember that Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term genocide, was clear that genocide need not mean killing. In 1944 he wrote:
“The objectives of such a plan would be disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and even the lives of the individuals belonging to such groups.”
Killing marks only the final stage of genocide. Lemkin was clear that “the machine gun” was often “a last resort” instead of the primary means of destruction.
In 2016, MP Robert-Falcon Ouellette, with help from Maeengan Linklater, a Winnipeg man whose parents went to residential schools, introduced C-318 “An Act to establish Indian Residential School Reconciliation and Memorial Day.” It called for Parliament to recognize that “the actions taken to remove children from families and communities to place them in residential schools meets this (UN) definition of genocide.”
Never debated
This private member’s bill didn’t make it to the committee stage and was never debated or discussed in the House. Bills have a long and complex route through Parliament to be enacted into law.
A motion, like the one about the Uyghur genocide, is a much shorter and simpler process and can be passed quickly. However, a motion in Parliament must pass unanimously; there can be no votes against. In the Uyghur case 266 voted for genocide recognition and the rest chose to abstain, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and most of the cabinet.
Within days of the news about the discovery in Kamloops, the Dakota Ojibway Tribal Council at Keeshkeemaquah, Man., recommended that “the Parliament of Canada should recognize the Indian Residential School system as an act of genocide.”
I wholeheartedly agree. A motion to recognize the Indian Residential School system as a violation of Article 2e of the UN Genocide Convention can go some way towards establishing a ground floor of truth on which we can build for the coming generations.
If you are an Indian Residential School survivor, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line: 1-866-925-4419
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After the fall of Kabul, mainstream media erases the real lessons | Salon.com
COMMENTARY
After the fall of Kabul, mainstream media erases the real lessons
America's major newspapers lament the Afghan debacle — without looking at why it happened and who suffered most
By Gregory Shupak
Published August 20, 2021 5:40AM (EDT)
A U.S. Chinook military helicopter flies above the US embassy in Kabul on August 15, 2021. Several hundred employees of the US embassy in Kabul have been evacuated from Afghanistan, a US defense official said on August 15, 2021, as the Taliban entered the capital. (WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)
This article originally appeared at FAIR.org. Used by permission.
Corporate media coverage of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the collapse of the country's U.S.-backed government has offered audiences more mystification than illumination. I looked at editorials in five major U.S. dailies following the Taliban's retaking of Kabul: the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post. The editorial boards of these papers consistently trivialized South Asian lives, erased U.S. responsibility for lethal violence, and made untenable assertions about Washington's supposedly righteous motives in the war.
Uncounted civilian cost
The New York Times ( 8/15/21) ran the next best thing to a photo of a helicopter taking off from the Kabul embassy roof: a photo of a helicopter flying over the embassy roof.
The editorials evince a callous indifference to the toll of the war on civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan, where the war has also been fought. The New York Times ( 8/15/21) referred to "at least 2,448 American service members' lives lost in Afghanistan," and to "Afghan casualties so huge — 60,000 killed since 2001, by one estimate — that the government kept them a secret." The link makes clear that the authors are talking about deaths among Afghan police and soldiers. Yet, as of April, more than 71,000 civilians — over 47,000 Afghans and more than 24,000 Pakistanis — have been directly killed in the U.S.-initiated war.
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The Boston Globe's piece (8/16/21) described "two decades of the United States propping up Afghan forces to keep the Taliban at bay at the cost of more than $2 trillion and more than 2,400 lost military service members." Tens of thousands of dead Afghan and Pakistani civilians evidently aren't significant enough to factor into "the cost" of the war.
"The war in Afghanistan took the lives of more than 2,400 American troops," said the Los Angeles Times editorial (8/16/21 ), which went on to add, "For decades to come, America will be paying the medical bills of veterans suffering from the emotional and physical toll of their trauma and injuries." The authors ignored dead, wounded and psychologically scarred South Asian civilians, though the UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) logged 3,524 civilian injuries in the first half of 2021 alone, and 5,785 in 2020.
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The Wall Street Journal ( 8/15/21 , 8/16/21 ), meanwhile, didn't mention any deaths that took place during the war.
"Some 66,000 Afghan fighters have given their lives in this war during the past 20 years, alongside 2,448 U.S. service members," the Washington Post ( 8/16/21) pointed out, declining to spare a word for noncombatants. U.S. troops, the article assured readers, "endured very modest casualties, since 2014," without noting that the U.S. inflicted a great many on Afghan civilians in that period: For instance, a 2019 Human Rights Watch report noted that, in the first six months of that year, the U.S. and its partners in what was then the Afghan government killed more civilians than the Taliban did.
Forever war > withdrawal
The "Afghan debacle" was "avoidable," the Washington Post ( 8/16/21) argued, if only Biden had been willing to commit to an indefinite military occupation.
Two of the editorials were clear that they would prefer continuous U.S. war against Afghanistan to withdrawal. The Washington Post ( 8/16/21) claimed that
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a small U.S. and allied military presence — capable of working with Afghan forces to deny power to the Taliban and its Al Qaeda terrorist allies, while diplomats and nongovernmental organizations nurtured a fledgling civil society — not only would have been affordable, but also could have paid for itself in U.S. security and global credibility.
Costs such as the harm the "U.S. and allied military presence" does to Afghans did not enter into the Post's accounting for "affordability." No explanation is offered as to why Afghans should endure the lack of "security" entailed in "U.S. and allied" bombs falling on their heads. Nor did the authors clarify why the U.S.'s "global credibility" is a higher priority than, say, stopping the U.S. from killing Afghan children, as it did last October.
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The Wall Street Journal ( 8/15/21) professed concern for the "thousands of translators, their families, and other officials who are in peril from Taliban rule and didn't get out in time," and said that what it sees as the impending "murder of these innocents" will be a "stain on the Biden presidency." Yet the authors argued that the U.S. should continue bombing Afghanistan indefinitely, asserting that
Afghans were willing to fight and take casualties with the support of the U.S. and its NATO allies, especially airpower. A few thousand troops and contractors could have done the job and prevented this rout.
Over the course of the war, that airpower tended to mean the mass death of Afghan civilians: In 2019, for example, U.S. airstrikes killed 546 of them (Washington Post, 9/4/21 ). In advocating the continued American bombing of Afghanistan to stop the "murder of these innocents," the authors are calling for the "murder of … innocents," just by the U.S. rather than the Taliban.
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The "American dream"
The Los Angeles Times ( 8/16/21) praised the U.S.'s "noble hopes to build a multiparty democracy," insisting that "the people of Afghanistan were failed by their leaders."
The New York Times' editorial board (8/15/21) gushed about the purity of U.S. values, saying that the Taliban's return to power is
unutterably tragic. Tragic because the American dream of being the "indispensable nation" in shaping a world where the values of civil rights, women's empowerment and religious tolerance rule proved to be just that: a dream.
The editors did nothing to explain how they square their view that the U.S. "dream" entails worldwide "civil rights" and "women's empowerment" with the U.S. carrying out torture in Afghanistan or its propensity for killing Afghan women (Guardian, 7/11/08 ).
The board went on:
How [the war] evolved into a two-decade nation-building project in which as many as 140,000 troops under American command were deployed at one time is a story of mission creep and hubris, but also of the enduring American faith in the values of freedom and democracy.
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That faith in "freedom" was manifest by such practices as training warlords who killed and abused civilians, and propping up an Afghan state that included officials who sexually assaulted children — actions that U.S. troops were told to ignore, as the New York Times ( 9/21/15) itself reported.
Similarly, the Los Angeles Times ( 8/16/21) claimed that
the U.S. and its Western allies had noble hopes to build a multiparty democracy — with respect for the rights of women and minorities, an independent judiciary and a new constitution — but nation-building was not an appropriate goal.
It's anyone's guess how the paper reconciles the U.S. and its partners' "noble hopes" for such things as "respect for the rights of women" with the U.S. working with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan to finance and arm extremely conservative forces in Afghanistan, so as to undermine progressives in the country while strengthening reactionary elements, a history (described in Robert Dreyfuss' book "Devil's Game ") that all the editorials obscure.
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Swallowing official justifications
The Wall Street Journal ( 8/15/21) argued that "Mr. Trump's withdrawal deadline was a mistake, but Mr. Biden could have maneuvered around it" — meaning he could have ignored it.
Indeed, the editorials suffered from a basic failure to question the official justifications offered for the war and occupation. The New York Times editorial board (8/15/21) wrote that
the war in Afghanistan began in response by the United States and its NATO allies to the attacks of September 11, 2001, as an operation to deny Al Qaeda sanctuary in a country run by the Taliban.
There's no place in that narrative for the fact that eight days into the war, in October 2001, the Taliban offered to discuss turning over Osama bin Laden (Guardian, 10/14/01 ). The Journal characterized the Taliban as "the jihadists the U.S. toppled 20 years ago for sheltering Osama bin Laden." But it was in mid-November 2001 (Guardian, 11/17/01) that the U.S. toppled the Taliban, a month after they had said they were willing to talk about extraditing bin Laden.
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In the same vein, the Los Angeles Times editorial (8/16/21) said that
after the U.S. ousted the Taliban — which had hosted the Al Qaeda terrorist network and refused to turn over terrorists such as Osama bin Laden — the George W. Bush administration expanded the goals of the mission in ways that in hindsight were never realistic.
This phrasing implies that the U.S. overthrew the Taliban because they "refused to turn over terrorists such as Osama bin Laden." However, in addition to the Taliban signaling that it could be open to extraditing the al-Qaida leader in October 2001, according to a former head of Saudi intelligence (Los Angeles Times, 11/4/01 ), the Taliban said in 1998 that it would hand over bin Laden to Saudi Arabia, the U.S.'s close ally; the Saudi intelligence official says the Taliban backed off after the U.S. fired cruise missiles at an apparent bin Laden camp in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical factory in Sudan, following attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania attributed to al-Qaida.
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The outlets thus failed to inform their readers that, had the U.S. pursued negotiations for bin Laden's extradition, Afghans may have been spared 20 years of devastating war. That U.S. planners might have drawn up their Afghanistan policies with a view to the country's vast resource wealth and strategic position — and there's evidence that they did (In These Times, 8/1/18) — is not a perspective that the editorials opted to share with their readers. Neither is the idea that the U.S. doesn't have the right to decide who governs other countries.
Engineering forgetfulness about America's Afghan war, if left unchallenged, will make it easier to wage the next one.
Gregory Shupak
Gregory Shupak teaches media studies at the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto. He is the author of "The Wrong Story: Palestine, Israel and the Media," published by OR Books.
MORE FROM Gregory Shupak
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El Salvador & Bitcoin: President Bukele Usurping Power | National Review
International
Bukele’s Bitcoin Blunder, Totalitarian Troubles in El Salvador
El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele delivers a speech to the country to mark his second year in office in San Salvador, El Salvador, June 1, 2021. (Jose Cabezas/Reuters)
By Steve H. Hanke
About Steve H. Hanke
September 10, 2021 6:30 AM
Listen to article
How the president of El Salvador is using cryptocurrency to usurp power.
E l Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele gained notoriety when he announced in June that he would force the country’s population to use Bitcoin as legal tender. On September 7, El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law went into effect, making it the first country to adopt a cryptocurrency as legal tender. The law is unnecessary, fanciful, and highly unpopular. Indeed, over 95 percent of Salvadorans don’t want to be forced to use Bitcoin.
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El Salvador has been dollarized since 2001. It was then that the colón was mothballed, the U.S. dollar became legal tender, and all other currencies were legalized. The dollarized, competitive currency regime has worked like a charm. Since 2001, El Salvador’s average annual inflation rate of 2.03 percent has been the lowest in Latin America. Furthermore, 25-year mortgages are available at an interest rate of around 7 percent. GDP per capita growth and export growth have both outpaced those of most Latin American countries.
Why introduce an untested idea into a monetary system that is working well? It’s just one piece in Bukele’s broader scheme to obtain absolute power. The path Bukele is marking with his words and deeds passes through all the stages used by populist leaders on their way to the establishment of totalitarian regimes.
Just consider the Bitcoin Law itself. Contrary to the libertarian vision put forth by some cryptocurrency proponents, Article 7 of El Salvador’s new law renders Bitcoin not only legal tender, but “ forced tender .” If an El Salvadoran offers a merchant or financial institution Bitcoin, it must be accepted. Forced-tender laws like Article 175 of the Soviet Union’s civil code are a communist staple and are also common during military occupations.
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In little more than two and a half years since he was first elected, Bukele has crushed the two powerful political parties that could oppose him. He has used illegal and abusive tactics such as cutting off his competition’s financing prior to the February 2021 National Assembly elections. If that wasn’t enough, he invaded the National Assembly with heavily armed soldiers as a show of power. On May 1, with control of the National Assembly, Bukele fired the attorney general, who had initiated investigations of gross corruption in the Bukele government. At the same time, he fired all five judges from the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court who had been attempting to apply the rule of law to discipline Bukele. He replaced these thorns in his side with “yes men.” Furthermore, the president instructed the National Assembly to exempt his government from disclosing its expenditures related to the pandemic. If that wasn’t enough, Bukele also announced that he would totally overhaul El Salvador’s constitution and eliminate the clause that bans one-party rule.
This month, Bukele’s lackeys in the National Assembly passed two laws that will remove from office all judges and state attorneys over 60 years of age. This move was made because some of the old-timers were gunning for Bukele. The crowning blow in Bukele’s quest for absolute power came just last week when members of Bukele’s handpicked new Constitutional Chamber gave Bukele the green light to run for reelection in a consecutive term, something explicitly prohibited in El Salvador’s constitution.
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Just where is Bukele’s quest for absolute power going? It’s going to land El Salvador in a heap of trouble. Less than a month after the Bitcoin Law was passed, the U.S. State Department, on July 1, published the Engel List — a list of corrupt and undemocratic actors from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. Out of the 14 Salvadorans named, 11 are close to Bukele, including his cabinet chief, minister of labor, vice minister of security, and legal adviser. All 14 Salvadorans have been sanctioned.
In response, and to deflect the public’s attention, Bukele doubled down. In a dramatic television appearance, he initiated his own anti-corruption campaign. According to Bukele, it wasn’t his administration and friends who were corrupt, but his predecessors. So, he ordered the arrest of a former president and several former ministers. He also expelled Daniel Lizárraga, a respected journalist from El Faro, a digital news publication in El Salvador, who had been investigating corruption in Bukele’s ranks. Ironically, Bukele’s new anti-corruption initiatives began shortly after he did away with the International Commission against Impunity in El Salvador (CICIES), the country’s anti-corruption body.
The most recent slap on Bukele’s authoritarian hands was delivered on September 5 when the U.S. State Department released a stunning press release targeting Bukele. The title says it all: “Salvadoran Re-Election Ruling Undermines Democracy.” And, with the adoption of Bitcoin as forced tender, this won’t be the last slap. Now that the Bitcoin Law is implemented, El Salvador is positioned to violate 27 of the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) virtual-asset regulations. The FATF is the international money-laundering and terrorist-financing policeman. Once El Salvador is flagged, it will face sanctions by the FATF’s 39 member nations and over 200 affiliated nations.
Like most authoritarians, Bukele has a delusional side. He thinks El Salvador’s Bitcoin Law will provide a never-ending stream of financing for his grandiose plans.
Next Article Afghanistan: A Poster Child for Foreign-Aid Failure
Steve H. Hanke is a professor of applied economics at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He is a senior fellow and the director of the Troubled Currencies Project at the Cato Institute in Washington, D.C.
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New malaria vaccine proves highly effective – and COVID shows how quickly it could be deployed
Konstantin Nechaev / Alamy Stock Photo
New malaria vaccine proves highly effective – and COVID shows how quickly it could be deployed
Published: April 23, 2021 8.30am EDT
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Adrian Hill
Director of the Jenner Institute, University of Oxford
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Adrian Hill receives funding from government and charitable funders of malaria vaccine development. He may benefit for a share of any royalty stream to Oxford University from the R21/MM vaccine.
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Coronavirus vaccines have been developed and deployed in record time, but as global rollout has progressed, too few doses have been made available in low-income countries. It’s a stark reminder that when it comes to infectious diseases, the world’s poorest often get left behind.
This is a problem that extends far beyond COVID-19. In Africa, for example, malaria has probably caused four times as many deaths as COVID-19 over the past year. Thankfully, our new research shows that an effective vaccine against malaria could now be closer than ever before.
For the first time, a vaccine has shown high efficacy in trials – preventing the disease 77% of the time among those receiving it. This is a landmark achievement. The WHO’s target efficacy for malaria vaccines is over 75%. Until now, this level has never been reached.
The speed and success of developing COVID-19 vaccines shows what’s possible, and should be an inspiration to get this malaria vaccine finished, licensed and distributed. It’s important not just because of the threat malaria poses, but also because investing in vaccines can help prepare us for the next pandemic. Work on this vaccine helped speed the development of the Oxford vaccine for COVID-19 as well.
The World Health Organization estimates there were 229 million cases of malaria in 2019. Globally, malaria’s annual death toll stands at over 400,000, with no improvement in the last five years. Two-thirds of this terrible loss is among African children under five years of age.
Billions of dollars are being spent each year on bed nets, insecticide spraying and antimalarial drugs just to keep death rate as it is. New technologies are needed, especially as the WHO is targeting a 90% reduction in deaths by 2030.
The world spends billions on treated mosquito nets each year. Irene Abdou / Alamy Stock Photo
No malaria vaccine has yet been authorised for use, though the idea of controlling malaria by vaccination has been around for a long time. The first scientific report was from Algiers in 1910. Clinical trials began in the 1940s, got serious from the 1980s onwards and, today, over 140 malaria vaccine candidates have been tested in humans.
But none has progressed to approval and deployment. The science is tough. The malaria parasite is complex, with more than 5,000 genes, meaning it has many different characteristics for vaccine designers to choose to target. SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, has just 12 genes, and its spike protein was the obvious target for vaccine scientists.
Malaria parasites have evolved with humans and their ancestors over the last 30 million years, not only generating a multitude of strains but also impacting our own evolution, with gene variants that lessened the effects of malaria being passed on over time. Worse still, these parasites generate chronic infections in millions, suppressing the human immune response that a vaccine tries to generate.
New success with a new vaccine
But progress on malaria vaccine development is accelerating, as illustrated by a new report from a multi-national group of researchers, including myself, published in the Lancet. The team of Professor Halidou Tinto, based in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, studied the new R21 malaria vaccine in 450 children – the key population where a vaccine is most urgently needed. They found it to be safe and have unprecedented efficacy in those aged 5-17 months.
In this controlled trial, 105 of the 147 children who received a placebo contracted malaria. But of the 292 who received a dose of the vaccine, only 81 contracted the disease – surpassing the WHO’s 75% target for protection. A phase 3 trial – to test the safety and efficacy of the vaccine in a much larger number of people – will start in four African countries in late April 2021, aiming for accelerated approvals if successful.
Scientists in four continents contributed to the design and testing of this promising vaccine. Design and early development took place at the Jenner Institute at the University of Oxford, where malaria vaccine clinical trials have been pursued since 1999. “Challenge” studies in Oxford, Southampton and London, where volunteers are deliberately infected with malaria by mosquito bites to test vaccine efficacy, highlighted the potential of the R21 vaccine. An adjuvant component for the vaccine is required and provided by Novavax, a biotechnology company in the US and Sweden.
Manufacturing of the vaccine is ongoing at the world’s largest vaccine supplier, the Serum Institute of India. This malaria partnership with was already in place last year when COVID-19 struck, allowing us to pivot rapidly to manufacturing the Oxford coronavirus vaccine. (The method it uses for delivery, a chimpanzee adenovirus called ChAdOx1, is a technology previously tested for use against malaria.) Having this collaboration already in place, even prior to our partnership with AstraZeneca, helped the Indian company accelerate its COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing such that today it is producing more doses than anywhere else.
The Serum Institute of India’s partnership with Oxford allowed rapid development of COVID vaccines. Pacific Press Media Production Corp. / Alamy Stock Photo
Could the same rapid, large-scale production happen for malaria vaccines? Maybe, but there are risks. Another promising vaccine candidate – from GlaxoSmithKline, called RTS,S – hit safety issues in its major phase 3 trial five years ago, and this has delayed its approval while further large-scale assessments take place.
Financing will also be required for malaria vaccine deployment, but with the low-cost large-scale manufacturing capacity in India available, an inexpensive widely accessible vaccine should be achievable. However, as COVID-19 is increasing in several parts of Africa, this could potentially impact the R21 vaccine phase 3 trials that are starting soon in Mali, Burkina Faso, Tanzania and Kenya.
The UK has long been a force in global health research, and fighting malaria is a flagship activity. Funding has been hit hard by this year’s reduction in the overseas aid budget. But COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of maintaining capacity in vaccine research and development, as well as the feasibility of moving more quickly than ever before to vaccine approval and supply.
One lasting benefit of a terrible pandemic might be a quicker route to a malaria vaccine and a safer future for children in some of the world’s poorest countries.
Malaria
Vaccine development
Coronavirus
AstraZeneca vaccine
COVID-19
Coronavirus insights
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John Kerry: 'Great Reset' Will Happen – RedState
John Kerry: 'Great Reset' Will Happen
By The Heartland Institute | Nov 30, 2020 10:20 AM ET
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(AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
As many of you know who have been following closely my work on the “Great Reset” movement, this stunning proposal to usher in a completely new global economic system has not received nearly enough attention from the mainstream press. A small group of prominent writers, reporters, and commentators have been, for the most part, leading the charge against the Great Reset on its own–a group that includes myself, Glenn Beck, Chris Talgo and Donald Kendal at The Heartland Institute, Andrew Stuttaford at National Review, and a few others.
The Great Reset is, without question, the most important issue facing the United States today–and probably the most important issue facing the country since the fall of the Soviet Union. I used to think the rise of socialists like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders reached that level, but now, I think it’s clear that the globalist Great Reset movement, which also has very strong collectivist and socialist elements to it, is much more worrisome.
Unlike with AOC and Sanders, the Great Reset has far more powerful supporters. It’s not a populist movement. In fact, as the comments appearing below will show, it largely rejects populism, instead favoring increasing the authority and influence of international ruling elites and billionaire investors. Rather than deride massive, multi-national corporations, the Great Reset seeks to use them as tools to accomplish leftist goals. In return, corporations will receive billions in government funding and woke CEOs will be warmly welcomed into Davos’s most exclusive cocktail parties.
Yet, despite the gargantuan amounts of evidence revealing the truth about the Great Reset agenda, the media has largely ignored it. And when the media has spent time discussing it, it has usually been to deride people like me for pushing a “conspiracy theory” about globalism. The proof is crystal clear, however. You don’t need to take my word for it. You can read mountains of quotes from Great Reset supporters indicating what their plans for the future are. (Here’s a good place to start.)
Over the past several months, I’ve been collecting quotes, articles, books, speeches and other materials discussing the Great Reset, and part of that investigation has led me to believe that Joe Biden and his allies are closely aligned with the movement. It’s something I’ve written about numerous times, including for Fox News, Fox Business, and The Blaze. However, I fully admit that Biden and his campaign have never directly addressed the issue of the Great Reset, leaving many to think that the claims that I’ve been making, as well as others, about Biden’s potential involvement are nothing more than wild speculation. The quotes below should, once and for all, put that question to rest.
What you’re about to read is the strongest evidence yet that Joe Biden and members of his future presidential administration (assuming President Trump’s legal challenges fail) are fully committed to the Great Reset. I don’t believe that I’m exaggerating when I say that the quote below could be the most important material discovered about the Great Reset to date.
The quotes at the bottom of this article are by John Kerry, the former secretary of state under Barack Obama and failed Democratic presidential nominee. Kerry, who has openly stated his support for the Great Reset in the past, served as the co-chair of Joe Biden’s “Unity Task Force” on climate change during the 2020 campaign (alongside Ocasio-Cortez). Biden recently announced Kerry will be his administration’s special presidential envoy for climate–a position commonly referred to as “climate czar”–and will sit on the National Security Council, which means Kerry will officially join Biden’s cabinet when he begins his first term in January 2021.
The comments by Kerry come from a panel discussion hosted by the World Economic Forum earlier in November, following the 2020 election. The host of the panel is Borge Brende, the president of the World Economic Forum, an organization that has thus far devoted more time and money to promoting the Great Reset than any other group in the world.
These quotes are noteworthy for a number of reasons, but perhaps the most important is that Kerry makes it clear that Biden himself supports the Great Reset and that under a Biden administration, the reset “will happen with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine.”
The following is a transcript of some of Kerry’s most important comments. I urge you to read through all of the quotes, as they provide a tremendous amount of insight into the thinking of Kerry, Biden, and the Biden administration’s plans for a Great Reset:
Host Borge Brende, president of the World Economic Forum: “Are we expecting too much too soon from the new president, or is he going to deliver first day on this [sic] topics?”
Kerry responds by thanking the host and says this:
John Kerry: “The answer to your question is, no, you’re not expecting too much. And yes, it [the Great Reset] will happen. And I think it will happen with greater speed and with greater intensity than a lot of people might imagine.
“In effect, the citizens of the United States have just done a Great Reset. We’ve done a Great Reset. And it was a record level of voting. What astounds me is that as many people still voted for the level of chaos and breach of law and order and breaking the standards. …
“And I think the underlying reason for that, Borge, is something that everyone has to examine. I think Europe has to look at that, with Brexit, and the rising nationalist populism, nationalistic populism—which is really one of the priorities we all have to address. You can’t dismiss it. It has to be listened to. It has to be understood. We have just had it manifested. And Europe has it too, in various countries, to a greater or lesser degree.
“It’s a reflection of the inability of democratic governments in many parts of the world to deliver. And I just have to put it bluntly. We’re certainly the primary exhibit. We’re exhibit number one. …
“Government just has to find a way to move faster, and to address more of the real concerns of its citizens. Or there will be an increasing backlash. What I think we’ve won is a reprieve. And I think, therefore, that the notion of a ‘reset’ is more important than ever before. I personally believe, Borge, that we’re at the dawn of an extremely exciting time.
“And if you can get away from the craziness of the politics of chaos that have consumed so many, and the politics of identity politics, I think that there’s a real opportunity here to look and see that even as all this craziness has been going on around us, there are really amazingly positive things happening. And one of them is in the private sector.
“I believe no government is fundamentally going to make the climate crisis go away. Government’s best effort is going to be to create a structure which will make it possible for certain things to happen. And the next opportunity for that structure to be fully defined is Glasgow.
“Now, I don’t believe—and I think Joe Biden, I know Joe Biden believes this—it’s not enough just to rejoin Paris [the Paris Climate Accords] for the United States. It’s not enough for us to just do the minimum of what Paris requires.”
Kerry then talks about the Paris Climate Agreement briefly and discussions he had with signatories after the agreement was made. He then says this:
“The best that we’ve [the signatories] done [by signing the Paris Agreement] is send a message to the marketplace that 190 countries plus are all going to move in the same direction to try to deal with the climate crisis. And that means that people who allocate capital have an opportunity to look at the largest market the world has ever had—196 countries all doing the same thing, all trying to move to change their energy policy and deal with the climate crisis. And that’s the biggest market the world has ever known, folks. …
“And the private sector now is beginning to really see this. Borge, yours was the stage where the letter from Larry Fink of Black Rock came out, and it put squarely in front of a lot of these CEOs the issue of stakeholder versus shareholder—which is really at the bottom of what I was talking about, about the dysfunctionality of government and the reaction of citizens. It’s shareholder versus stakeholder. And the issue is whether or not we’re going to move fast enough to provide for what people need at this moment. I think the greatest opportunity we have to do that is in dealing with the climate crisis. …
“Now, all the effects we’re seeing today of glaciers melting and fires raging and floods inundating and so forth … so any of you involved in risk analysis know exactly where we’re heading here. And, therefore, we have to move faster. That’s what has to happen. And the entities that can move the fastest, I believe, is the private sector.
“ESG [environment, social, and governance standards] is now in every discussion in every board room. Many, many more financial institutions are looking for what was fashionably called ‘impact investing,’ but everybody is now considering how do we have an impact that’s positive and meet ESGs. The global development standards, the SDGs [U.N. Sustainable Development Goals] are being talked about more.”
Kerry finishes by talking about Joe Biden’s commitment to rejoin the Paris Climate Agreement and Biden’s plans to impose carbon-dioxide restrictions.
SOURCE: John Kerry’s remarks at “The Great Reset: Building Future Resilience to Global Risks,” World Economic Forum, weforum.org, November 17, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/the-great-reset-building-future-resilience-to-global-risks. (Remarks begin just before the 26-minute mark.)
This article originally appeared on StoppingSocialism.com.
Justin Haskins ([email protected]) is the editorial director and research fellow at The Heartland Institute and the editor-in-chief of StoppingSocialism.com.
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Tucker Carlson: Everything the media didn't tell you about the death of George Floyd | Fox News
OPINION
Published March 11, 2021 1:12am EST
Tucker Carlson: Everything the media didn't tell you about the death of George Floyd
The trial of Derek Chauvin is not an open-and-shut-case
By Tucker Carlson | Fox News
00:01 00:00
Tucker: World watches Minneapolis as Derek Chauvin's trial begins
'Tucker Carlson Tonight' host takes a closer look at George Floyd's death in police custody
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Jury selection has begun in the murder trial of Derek Chauvin. Chauvin is one of the officers who has been accused of murdering George Floyd in Minneapolis last Memorial Day. On one level, the trial is a local crime story, one of many unfolding right now. But of course, it’s also incalculably more than that.
The death of George Floyd changed the United States, profoundly and forever. George Floyd, we were told, wasn’t simply an individual. He was every African-American in this country. Derek Chauvin wasn’t just a cop. He was the physical embodiment of America’s institutions. We were told that when Chauvin murdered George Floyd, he was doing to one man what our country has done to all African- Americans. Many people told us this, including Joe Biden:
BIDEN: I just want to say a few words about the horrific killing of George Floyd in Minnesota ... It sends a very clear message to the Black community and Black lives that are under threat every single day ... They speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk ... George Floyd's last words spoke to a nation where the color of your skin dictates the safety of you and your future ... I'm a white man. I think I understand. But I can't feel it.
George Floyd was murdered because he was Black. That’s what they told us. They demanded that we believe that, and if you doubted it in any way, if you had any questions about the facts of the case, then you were effectively as guilty as the racist cop. One theology teacher at a Catholic high school in Columbus, Ohio, learned that the hard way.
DEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL JUROR DISMISSED OVER CONCERNS GEORGE FLOYD RIOTERS COULD ATTACK HIS HOME
During a virtual class, teacher Deborah DelPrince noted that the cause of George Floyd's death was "disputed." That’s literally true. The trial hadn’t even begun yet, a dispute is at the core of every trial. But, for the crime of observing this, the Catholic Diocese of Columbus fired Deborah DelPrince. According to the Diocese, DelPrince had made, quote, "unsupported personal assertions and opinions" about the death of George Floyd.
We're going to do what you're not allowed to do in Catholic high schools in Columbus, or anywhere else in America. We're going to assess, calmly and as honestly as we can, what happened to George Floyd on Memorial Day. George Floyd’s death was sad. Every death is sad, as we often point out. But the question is: Was it murder?
That question matters deeply, because Floyd’s death has been used to reshape how we live in this country. Because he died, we have something called "equity." Under the pretext of equity, our leaders have enshrined open racism in nearly all of our institutions, from corporate hiring quotas to woke kindergarten lesson plans. Americans have been told that George Floyd’s death was a racist murder, and they’re responsible for it.
On CNN, Don Lemon asked Chris Cuomo, "It is not incumbent upon Black people to stop racism. To stop this, it is incumbent upon people who hold the power in this society to help to do that, to do the heavy lifting. And guess who that is? Who is that, Chris?"
DON LEMON ASKS 'HOW CAN YOU NOT BE RACIST' IF YOU GREW UP IN AMERICA?
Cuomo responded, "White people."
"White people" are responsible. CNN said that out loud, but many others joined them. That assertion led to rioting that killed at least 19 people, and may continue to kill more. It destroyed hundreds of businesses. Minneapolis, where this all began, may never return to normal.
There was rioting last summer, before the Minneapolis city council cut police funding, and the city hasn't gotten any safer since then. In the first weeks of January, Minneapolis saw a 250% increase in gunshot victims compared to the same period last year. The neighborhood where George Floyd died is now more dangerous than ever. Businesses are boarded up. Residents call it "George Floyd Square." I visited that neighborhood a few weeks ago, and walked around, just to see what it looked like. I got lunch at the convenience store where George Floyd passed his fake $20 bill.
It was awful. It had not improved, it was much worse. Nothing BLM has done in Minneapolis has improved the lives of the people who live there. On Saturday night, a man was shot to death in the neighborhood. A reporter from The Washington Examiner, Joe Simonson, tried to get to George Floyd Square to find out what happened. But he couldn’t. He was informed no White people were allowed in. That is a snapshot of the equity George Floyd’s death has been used to justify.
Video
The second reason we're going to assess what happened to George Floyd is that it's likely Derek Chauvin won't receive a fair trial. You may not care, but you should. That should matter to you, regardless of who you voted for. Every American deserves a fair trial, period. That’s the whole point of this country. Equal justice under the law. There is no other point.
But how will Chauvin have one? Hundreds of activists – some dressed in all black – have been staring down National Guard troops outside the courthouse in Minneapolis all week. They shut down streets outside the courthouse on Monday. "We need justice, people," one shouted. "Justice by any means necessary."
In other words, if you vote to acquit Derek Chauvin, the mob is saying, the community will burn because we will burn it. It’s like something from Mississippi in the 1920s. But where’s the Justice Department? Where’s the so-called Civil Rights Division to protect the civil rights of Derek Chauvin? Yes, even accused cops have the right to a fair trial. Your civil rights are not suspended when you’re accused. This is America.
But of course, the Civil Rights Division nowhere to be found. They're doing nothing. So not surprisingly, during jury selection Tuesday, several would-be jurors expressed a reluctance to have anything to do with the case. Would you want to be a juror in this trial? I don’t think so. One prospective juror explained the threats he would face:
DEREK CHAUVIN TRIAL JUROR DISMISSED OVER CONCERNS GEORGE FLOYD RIOTERS COULD ATTACK HIS HOME
"It’s more from a safety, security standpoint. As far as I’m concerned I feel comfortable and safe. But I just wouldn’t want any issues or harm to come to my wife or my family ... If certain individuals who were out to intimidate or cause harm, if they knew where I lived, there’s potential [they] could damage the house or spray paint the house or garage door. Or break a window."
So the jurors are intimidated. That’s the point of mob justice. It was the point of mob justice 100 years ago in the American South, it’s the point of mob justice in Minneapolis today. The thugs outside the courthouse don't want jurors to focus on the evidence. They know that evidence might not help their case. Most of that evidence hasn’t been seen by most of the American population. The effort to hide that evidence began immediately after George Floyd died. Everyone saw the footage of Derek Chauvin with his knee on George Floyd's neck. It was horrible. It is also confusing. When you watch it, you ask yourself "Why would a police officer act like that? Of course, it must be illegal."
No one in the media thought to tell us that, in fact, using a knee to restrain an uncooperative suspect is the official policy of the Minneapolis Police Department. In fact, it’s taught at their academy.
But you didn't know that last summer, because our media was busy building a murder case against Derek Chauvin and using it to transform the country, which they successfully have.
CHAUVIN TRIAL: MINNESOTA SUPREME COURT REJECTS APPEAL OVER THIRD-DEGREE MURDER CHARGE REINSTATEMENT
Nor did anyone in the press think to report what happened before Derek Chauvin put his knee on George Floyd's neck. Authorities in Minnesota made certain no one saw the body camera footage that showed it. Body cameras exist so that we can know what happened, but they hid this footage. We only saw it because The Daily Mail, which is based in Great Britain and therefore slightly less terrified and dishonest than our media, got a copy.
The video showed officers working for about 20 minutes trying to detain a man who they believed had just committed the crime of passing a fake $20 bill, a man who clearly had lost all sense of reality. The footage showed George Floyd begging officers to stay with him. He was clearly suffering. The tape is wrenching, it really is. By the end, you’re filled with sympathy for George Floyd. But it’s not the picture of a murder.
The incident began around 8 p.m. on May 24, when a grocery clerk called police to report that George Floyd had tried to make a purchase using a counterfeit bill. Officers found George Floyd in a car nearby. Immediately, it was very obvious that something was very wrong with him.
George Floyd was emotionally out of control, and that’s why you feel so deeply for him as you watch that video. He’s panicked, he’s terrified, he’s hysterical. The question is, why? The Minneapolis Police Department does not have some fabled history of brutality, and this certainly wasn’t George Floyd’s first encounter with law enforcement.
MINNEAPOLIS WON'T PAY SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCERS DURING CHAUVIN TRIAL AFTER BACKLASH
Between 1997 and 2007, police in Texas arrested Floyd a total of nine times, on charges ranging from drug possession to theft. Then, on Aug. 9, 2007, George Floyd barged into a woman's home and held a gun to her abdomen in front of her toddler. It was a home invasion, and George Floyd got five years in prison for participating in it.
If he'd been in custody before, why was George Floyd on the verge of hysteria? The police officers wondered the same thing. "You’ve got foam around your mouth," one says. A bystander tells Floyd, "You’re gonna die of a heart attack."
"Are you on something right now?" one police officer asks.
"No," says George Floyd.
FLASHBACK: MEDICAL EXAMINER MEMO SAYS FLOYD HAD 'FATAL LEVEL OF FENTANYL' IN HIS SYSTEM, IS 'NOT SAYING THIS KILLED HIM'
But that wasn’t close to true. According to the Hennepin County Medical Examiner's Office, George Floyd wasn't just high. He had a lethal dose of fentanyl in his system, in addition to methamphetamine. The autopsy report showed that Floyd had 11 nanograms of fentanyl per milliliter of blood in his system when he was tested at a hospital. That's more than three times the amount of fentanyl that can kill a healthy person.
Again, that’s not our judgment. That’s directly from the autopsy report, the one people didn’t see until after the riots.
It read, "Signs associated with fentanyl toxicity include severe respiratory depression, seizures, hypotension, coma and death. In fatalities from fentanyl, blood concentrations are variable and have been reported as low as 3 nanograms of fentanyl per milliliter of blood."
No one is denying this. The Floyd family’s own lawyer admits that it’s true. It’s "true that the Hennepin County medical examiner's office autopsy showed that Floyd had fentanyl in his system," he conceded, but then he insisted that George Floyd was actually killed by racism.
FLOYD'S CAUSE OF DEATH, EX-COP'S FORCE WILL BE KEYS AT TRIAL
In fact, the medical examiner found that George Floyd's heart was diseased, and on Memorial Day it finally gave way. According to a press release from the medical examiner's office, Floyd's cause of death was, "Cardiopulmonary arrest complicating law enforcement subdual, restraint, and neck compression" Contributing factors included, quote, "arteriosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease; fentanyl intoxication; recent methamphetamine use." According to the report, George Floyd was also infected with COVID. That’s a lot.
In August, after months of rioting, documents related to the autopsy were released in court. One was a memo detailing a conversation the prosecutor's office had with Andrew Baker, the chief Hennepin County medical examiner. Andrew Baker told prosecutors that, "if Mr. Floyd had been found dead in his home (or anywhere else) and there were no other contributing factors, he would conclude that it was an overdose death." The memo noted that Baker said Floyd's fentanyl levels were "pretty high" 'and that it is a "fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances."
In a separate memo, Baker announced that "the autopsy revealed no physical evidence suggesting that Mr. Floyd died of asphyxiation."
Well, Floyd was having trouble breathing. That's the the most notable part of the videos. What explains that? Why was George Floyd telling officers "I can’t breathe?"
Here’s one possible explanation: One of the primary symptoms of fentanyl overdoses is "slowed or stopped breathing," leading to "unconsciousness" and death. That might also explain why George Floyd was saying "I can't breathe" long before any police officer’s knee was anywhere near him. In fact, George Floyd was complaining that he couldn't breathe as cops tried to get him in a police car, while he resisted.
No one can watch the footage without feeling sympathy for George Floyd. He’s terrified. But does it amount to murder? No, it doesn’t. It clearly doesn’t.
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The problem is, no one saw that footage during the riots last summer. They weren't allowed to. That could be why, last June, 60% of respondents in a USA TODAY/Ipsos Poll described George Floyd's death as a "murder." That was then. More facts have emerged from behind the media blackout, and that perception has changed dramatically and accordingly.
The percentage of people who think George Floyd was murdered has now dropped to 36%. In other words, the question of whether George Floyd was murdered is, in fact, "disputed," by a majority of Americans. The bad news is you’re still not allowed to say that out loud.
This article is adapted from Tucker Carlson's opening commentary on the March 10, 2021 edition of "Tucker Carlson Tonight"
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Why a predictable cold snap crippled the Texas power grid | Reuters
Commodities News
February 20, 2021 4:46 PM Updated a year ago
Why a predictable cold snap crippled the Texas power grid
By Tim McLaughlin, Stephanie Kelly
10 Min Read
(This February 20 story refiles to fix reference to celsius temperature in fourth graph from bottom)
FILE PHOTO: An electrical substation is seen after winter weather caused electricity blackouts in Houston, Texas, U.S. February 20, 2021. REUTERS/Go Nakamura/File Photo
(Reuters) - As Texans cranked up their heaters early Monday to combat plunging temperatures, a record surge of electricity demand set off a disastrous chain reaction in the state’s power grid.
Wind turbines in the state’s northern Panhandle locked up. Natural gas plants shut down when frozen pipes and components shut off fuel flow. A South Texas nuclear reactor went dark after a five-foot section of uninsulated pipe seized up. Power outages quickly spread statewide - leaving millions shivering in their homes for days, with deadly consequences.
It could have been far worse: Before dawn on Monday, the state’s grid operator was “seconds and minutes” away from an uncontrolled blackout for its 26 million customers, its CEO has said. Such a collapse occurs when operators lose the ability to manage the crisis through rolling blackouts; in such cases, it can take weeks or months to fully restore power to customers.
Monday was one of the state’s coldest days in more than a century - but the unprecedented power crisis was hardly unpredictable after Texas had experienced a similar, though less severe, disruption during a 2011 cold snap. Still, Texas power producers failed to adequately winter-proof their systems. And the state’s grid operator underestimated its need for reserve power capacity before the crisis, then moved too slowly to tell utilities to institute rolling blackouts to protect against a grid meltdown, energy analysts, traders and economists said.
Early signs of trouble came long before the forced outages. Two days earlier, for example, the grid suddenly lost 539 megawatts (MW) of power, or enough electricity for nearly 108,000 homes, according to operational messages disclosed by the state’s primary grid operator, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
The crisis stemmed from a unique confluence of weaknesses in the state’s power system.
Texas is the only state in the continental United States with an independent and isolated grid. That allows the state to avoid federal regulation - but also severely limits its ability to draw emergency power from other grids. ERCOT also operates the only major U.S. grid that does not have a capacity market - a system that provides payments to operators to be on standby to supply power during severe weather events.
After more than 3 million ERCOT customers lost power in a February 2011 freeze, federal regulators recommended that ERCOT prepare for winter with the same urgency as it does the peak summer season. They also said that, while ERCOT’s reserve power capacity looked good on paper, it did not take into account that many generation units could get knocked offline by freezing weather.
“There were prior severe cold weather events in the Southwest in 1983, 1989, 2003, 2006, 2008, and 2010,” Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and North American Electric Reliability Corp staff summarized after investigating the state’s 2011 rolling blackouts. “Extensive generator failures overwhelmed ERCOT’s reserves, which eventually dropped below the level of safe operation.”
ERCOT spokeswoman Leslie Sopko did not comment in detail about the causes of the power crisis but said the grid’s leadership plans to re-evaluate the assumptions that go into its forecasts.
The freeze was easy to see coming, said Jay Apt, co-director of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center.
“When I read that this was a black-swan event, I just have to wonder whether the folks who are saying that have been in this business long enough that they forgot everything, or just came into it,” Apt said. “People need to recognize that this sort of weather is pretty common.”
This week’s cold snap left 4.5 million ERCOT customers without power. More than 14.5 million Texans endured a related water-supply crisis as pipes froze and burst. About 65,000 customers remained without power as of Saturday afternoon, even as temperatures started to rise, according to website PowerOutage.US.
State health officials have linked more than two dozen deaths to the power crisis. Some died from hypothermia or possible carbon monoxide poisoning caused by portable generators running in basements and garages without enough ventilation. Officials say they suspect the death count will rise as more bodies are discovered.
Slideshow ( 3 images )
THIN POWER RESERVE
In the central Texas city of Austin, the state capital, the minimum February temperature usually falls between 42 and 48 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 9 degrees Celsius). This past week, temperatures fell as low as 6 degrees Fahrenheit (-14 degrees Celsius).
In November, ERCOT assured that the grid was prepared to handle such a dire scenario.
“We studied a range of potential risks under both normal and extreme conditions, and believe there is sufficient generation to adequately serve our customers,” said ERCOT’s manager of resource adequacy, Pete Warnken, in a report that month.
Warnken could not be reached for comment on Saturday.
Under normal winter conditions, ERCOT forecast it would have about 16,200 MW of power reserves. But under extreme conditions, it predicted a reserve cushion of only about 1,350 MW. That assumed only 23,500 MW of generation outages. During the peak of this week’s crisis, more than 30,000 MW was forced off the grid.
Other U.S. grid operators maintain a capacity market to supply extra power in extreme conditions - paying operators on an ongoing basis, whether they produce power or not. Capacity market auctions determine, three years in advance, the price that power generators receive in exchange for being on emergency standby.
Instead, ERCOT relies on a wholesale electricity market, where free market pricing provides incentives for generators to provide daily power and to make investments to ensure reliability in peak periods, according to economists. The system relied on the theory that power plants should make high profits when energy demand and prices soar - providing them ample money to make investments in, for example, winterization. The Texas legislature restructured the state’s electric market in 1999.
LOOMING CRISIS
Since 2010, ERCOT’s reserve margin - the buffer between generation capacity versus forecasted demand - has dropped to about 10% from about 20%. This has put pressure on generators during demand spikes, making the grid less flexible, according to North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), a nonprofit regulator.
That thin margin for error set off alarms early Monday morning among energy traders and analysts as they watched a sudden drop in the electrical frequency of the Texas grid. One analyst compared it to watching the pulse of a hospital patient drop to life-threatening levels.
Too much of a drop is catastrophic because it would trigger automatic relay switches to disconnect power sources from the grid, setting off uncontrolled blackouts statewide. Dan Jones, an energy analyst at Monterey LLC, watched from his home office in Delaware as the grid’s frequency dropped quickly toward the point that would trigger the automatic shutdowns.
“If you’re not in control, and you are letting the equipment do it, that’s just chaos,” Jones said.
By Sunday afternoon about 3:15 p.m. (CST), ERCOT’s control room signaled it had run out of options to boost electric generation to match the soaring demand. Operators issued a warning that there was “no market solution” for the projected shortage, according to control room messages published by ERCOT on its website.
Adam Sinn, president of Houston-based energy trading firm Aspire Commodities, said ERCOT waited far too long to start telling utilities to cut customers’ power to guard against a grid meltdown. The problems, he said, were readily apparent several days before Monday.
“ERCOT was letting the system get weaker and weaker and weaker,” Sinn said in an interview. “I was thinking: Holy shit, what is this grid operator doing? He has to cut load.”
Sinn said he started texting his friends on Sunday night, warning them to expect widespread outages.
‘SECONDS AND MINUTES’
Early Monday morning, one of the largest sources of electricity in the state - the unit 1 reactor at the South Texas Nuclear Generating Station - stopped producing power after the small section of pipe froze in temperatures that averaged 17 degrees Fahrenheit (-8 degrees Celsius). The grid lost access to 1,350 MW of nuclear power - enough to power about 270,000 homes - after automatic sensors detected the frozen pipe and protectively shut down the reactor, said Victor Dricks, a spokesman for the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.
About 2:30 a.m. (CST), the South Plains Electric Cooperative in Lubbock said it received a phone call from ERCOT to cut power to its customers. Inside the ERCOT control room, staff members scrambled to call utilities and cooperatives statewide to tell them to do the same, according to operational messages disclosed by the grid operator.
Three days later, ERCOT Chief Executive Bill Magness acknowledged that the grid operator had only narrowly avoided the calamity of uncontrolled blackouts.
“If we hadn’t taken action,” he said on Thursday, “it was seconds and minutes (away), given the amount of generation that was coming off the system at the same time that the demand was still going up.”
Reporting by Tim McLaughlin and Stephanie Kelly; additional reporting by Nichola Groom; editing by Simon Webb and Brian Thevenot
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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Donald Trump Is Brazenly Flouting His Twitter Ban With Aide's Help | HuffPost Latest News
Politics
Donald Trump Is Brazenly Flouting His Twitter Ban With Aide's Help
All of Trump's incendiary website messages are immediately posted by former GOP spokesperson and new aide Liz Harrington on her Twitter account.
By
Mary Papenfuss
Jul. 20, 2021, 12:03 AM EDT | Updated Jul. 20, 2021
Former President Donald Trump is boldly defying his Twitter ban-for-life with daily posts on the Twitter account of his paid assistant.
Former Republican Party spokesperson Liz Harrington — hired last month to replace Trump’s former top aide, Jason Miller — each day posts every one of Trump’s messages from his blog. In many cases, the posts appear on Harrington’s Twitter account even before showing up on Trump’s site.
Harrington began posting Trump’s messages — often several a day — after she was hired in mid-June.
The Trump messages include the same provocative, bombastic rhetoric about a “rigged and stolen” election and an appeal to “patriots” linked to the U.S. Capitol insurrection on Jan. 6 — which is the reason Trump was kicked off Twitter.
Screen Shot of Google search for Liz Harrington's Twitter account.
In a post on Trump’s website that went straight to Harrington’s Twitter account Monday, the former president also appeared to defend Americans refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19 because they “don’t trust [the Biden] administration, they don’t trust the Election results, and they certainly don’t trust the Fake News.” Medical experts have warned that the unvaccinated in the country are a health risk for all Americans because they can act as incubators for more powerful COVID-19 strains.
Harrington always chimes in, touting Trump’s messages with each post and often repeating them word for word.
Twitter banned Trump two days after the Capitol insurrection because of fears his messages risked inciting violence and violated Twitter’s ban on “ glorification of violence .”
“After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them ... we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence,” Twitter said in a statement at the time.
The company referenced Trump’s repeated lies about election fraud and his appeal to “American patriots.” Such tweets “are likely to inspire others to replicate the violent acts that took place on January 6, 2021,” warned Twitter.
After close review of recent Tweets from the @realDonaldTrump account and the context around them we have permanently suspended the account due to the risk of further incitement of violence. https://t.co/CBpE1I6j8Y
— Twitter Safety (@TwitterSafety) January 8, 2021
Trump on Monday demanded in a post on Harrington’s account that internet routers be turned over to the inexperienced Cyber Ninjas company that is conducting the controversial Arizona audit of 2020 presidential election ballots. He again railed about a rigged election, adding ominously, “They are fighting for life and death .”
Last Friday, Trump falsely insisted in a post on Harrington’s Twitter account: “Arizona shows Fraud and Voting Irregularity many times more than would be needed to change the outcome of the Election.”
Earlier that same day, Trump blasted reporting by The Associated Press that there were only 182 suspicious ballots out of 4 million in Arizona, and of voters charged with election crimes, two were Democrats and two were Republican.
“When the real numbers are released, people will be shocked ,” Trump insisted in the message Harrington posted. “This is a concerted effort by the Fake News to discredit and demean.”
(Ironically, in an even earlier post that day — one of six carried by Harrington’s Twitter account that day — Trump insisted he was “not on any social media platform.”)
NEW!
President Donald J. Trump:
"As an answer to the many people asking, I am not on any social media platform in any way, shape, or form, including Parler, GETTR, Gab, etc. When I decide to choose a platform, or build or complete my own, it will be announced. Thank you!" pic.twitter.com/WVa2Ivelfu
— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) July 17, 2021
In a particularly chilling tweet last Thursday — reminiscent of Trump’s goading of his supporters at the Capitol on Jan. 6 — he railed about a hearing over the Arizona vote. “The Senate patriots are moving forward with final results to be announced in the not-too-distant future, but based on today’s hearing, why even wait? ”
Twitter has a “ ban evasion policy ” that bars attempted run-arounds to a Twitter shutout. “We prohibit attempts to circumvent prior enforcement, including through the creation of new accounts,” as well as “repurposing” existing accounts, according to the policy.
Several other accounts that served to post Trump’s messages in the past were pulled down in May by Twitter — including his own team’s attempt: @DJTDesk, which was created as a landing site for the messages now being posted by Harrington.
After Trump was bounced off Twitter, he boasted that he was going to launch his own bigger and better social media platform. That plan turned into his not-very-popular “blog” of messages from “The Desk of Donald J. Trump.” The scheme to roll it out into a social media powerhouse died a month later.
His overheated messages soon ended up back on Twitter.
Twitter did not respond to multiple requests for comment from HuffPost.
Mary Papenfuss
Trends Reporter, HuffPost
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Still reeling from fire season, Merritt, B.C., evacuees now taking stock of 'devastating' floods | CBC News
British Columbia
Still reeling from fire season, Merritt, B.C., evacuees now taking stock of 'devastating' floods
Entire city of 7,000 ordered to evacuate Monday after wastewater system failed
Bridgette Watson · CBC News · Posted: Nov 16, 2021 10:29 AM PT | Last Updated: November 16, 2021
A resident stands looking out at a flooded part of Merritt, B.C., on Nov. 15. All 7,000 residents were ordered to evacuate their homes that morning. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
Residents of Merritt, B.C., still reeling from a raging wildfire season that put the entire city on evacuation alert this summer, are now waiting for fall floodwaters to recede so they can survey the damage the latest disaster has delivered.
All 7,000 residents were ordered to evacuate the city, located about 200 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, shortly after 10 a.m. PT on Monday after flooding from the Coldwater River caused the complete failure of the municipality's wastewater treatment plant.
That led to what city officials called an "immediate danger to public health and safety." As of Tuesday, all three bridges across the river were unpassable — one collapsed, the other two require inspection.
Residents with odd-numbered addresses were directed to an emergency centre in Kamloops, while residents with even-numbered addresses were directed to a similar setup in Kelowna.
Members of the Nooaitch Indian Band living on Nooaitch lands were also ordered by the chief and council to evacuate.
Entire city of Merritt, B.C., ordered to evacuate after flooding of wastewater treatment plant
Now, after days of relentless rain that pummelled the province and caused chaos in the community, locals are left wondering what happens when the water recedes.
"It's a devastating loss," said local restaurant owner Elijah Black, speaking to CBC's The Early Edition from a Kamloops motel on Tuesday.
Flooding in Merritt, B.C., caused the complete failure of the municipality's wastewater treatment plant, leading to what city officials called an 'immediate danger to public health and safety.' (Submitted by Bailee Allen)
Black, who has lived in Merritt for almost 20 years and owned the Kekuli Cafe for about two years, has already weathered the impact of COVID-19 and the wildfires on his profits and personal life.
At this point, he is almost resigned to the idea that extreme weather and climate events are becoming business as usual in his part of the province. "It's starting to feel normal," he said.
'One day at a time'
Gordon Swan, chair of the local school district, told The Early Edition the lockdown of the community is "indefinite" at this point.
Swan said once it is safe, district staff will begin to assess what state local schools are in, but without power or sewage, in-class learning will not be possible — and if homes are in the same state, distance learning could be off the table, too.
He said he feels particularly sorry for rural students who just lived through the fear of fires and are once again in limbo.
"It will be one day at a time," he said.
Wildfire fanned by winds near Merritt prompts evacuation alert
A fire known as the Brenda Creek wildfire is seen burning south of Highway 97C between Kelowna and Merritt, B.C., on July 14. (Chloé Dioré de Périgny/Radio-Canada)
Greg Lowis, an emergency public information officer in Merritt, told CBC's Suhana Meharchand that the city's main goal is still to make sure that all those who can be safely evacuated are moved out, and that those who can't are cared for.
Water levels appear to be receding, he said, but he cautioned people to stay away.
"All that means is that we're potentially going to be getting to a place where we can assess what the damage looks like," he said. "It doesn't mean that this is coming to an end any time soon."
Emergency responders are pictured driving a truck through flooded streets in residential part of Merritt, B.C. (Maggie MacPherson/CBC)
The town is facing some serious infrastructure concerns beyond the water treatment plant. On Monday night, a span on one bridge collapsed into the river, he said, sparking concern about the structural integrity of other bridges.
"We're going to be calling in structural engineers to assess them, but they can't even do their work until the waters recede."
Lack of preparation for weather
Because of the concern around bridges, Lowis said people still in Collettville in the city's south have to stay there for now, "as there is no way to get them out."
Jackie Tegart, Liberal MLA for Fraser-Nicola — which includes Merritt — wants to know why no province-wide emergency alert system went off to warn people about the dangerous weather they were about to face.
"I think that provincially we could do more in preparing people," she told CBC Tuesday, adding the province has an alert system for tsunamis and that this should be expanded to include extreme weather events.
Non-stop extreme rain brings flooding, mudslides and evacuations to southern B.C.
Analysis
B.C. government defends disaster response, says emergencies like flooding and mudslides start at 'local level'
"We didn't see an announcement for people to get prepared and to understand the gravity of what was coming."
She said an alert might have prevented people from travelling on the weekend and getting trapped on highways.
Six times at news conferences on Monday, as the scope of the greatest flooding disaster B.C. has experienced in several decades became clear, Public Safety Minister Mike Farnworth was asked if the government could have been more prepared, or done more to warn people.
"Travel advisories had been issued by the appropriate ministries," he said at one point.
Asked why the province didn't use the B.C. Alert system, which has sent several test messages to British Columbians' phones this year, Farnworth answered, "It is one tool. It is not a silver bullet."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bridgette Watson
Bridgette Watson writes and produces for news and current affairs at CBC British Columbia. You can reach her at [email protected] or @Beewatz on Twitter.
With files from Jennifer Walter and Justin McElroy
CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices|About CBC News
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Astroworld, crowd surge, and the trickiness of tragedy blame games - Vox
Astroworld and the trickiness of tragedy blame games
Social media doesn’t always help us make sense of horrific events.
By Melinda Fakuade @melindafakuade [email protected] Nov 10, 2021, 8:00am EST
Stacey Sarmiento places flowers at a memorial in memory of her friend Rudy Pena, who died during a crush of people at the Astroworld music festival in Houston on November 5.
Robert Bumsted/AP
Eight people have been confirmed dead in the aftermath of a crowd crush at Astroworld in Houston on November 5, a concert festival headlined and founded by rapper Travis Scott, and more than 300 people were injured at the event. At least 50,000 people were in attendance, and according to a report from Rolling Stone, 528 police officers and 755 private security officers were present for the event.
The deaths and injuries were the result of thousands of people rushing the stage as Scott performed. During the melee, ambulances arrived on scene, but the artist only briefly stopped the show. The deaths have left onlookers with many questions, including who exactly is to blame. It’s likely impossible to answer.
The tragedy of Astroworld Festival is not the first of its kind, but feels unusually chaotic, due in part to social media. Footage is still being released, and as online rumors are shared, lawsuits roll in; as the timeline of events is determined, confusion and shock still hovers around what took place. Crowd surges, too, are by no means specific to this type of concert, but the events at Astroworld raise fears in some about the future of gathering with others when live music has just begun to return.
The confluence of factors that led to a deadly moment — questions have been raised about planning from event producers, an apparently reckless artist, a lack of trust between security and concertgoers, and an amped-up crowd — defy our desire to neatly place blame on any single party. The dynamics of crowd crush make the situation murkier, but we can consider who is responsible for this, without blind condemnation.
Scott’s music can lend itself to hordes of young people who want to mosh, a remnant of past punk culture. This itself is not a sin. The fans are not at fault for wanting to go to a big concert with splashy artists, alongside other eager fans. Fingers have been pointed in many directions: at Live Nation, the company behind the event; at Scott himself, for continuing to perform despite the violence. Here’s what we know so far.
What happened at Astroworld?
Attendees and live footage depict a scene that was chaotic from the jump. Early in the day, fans were already breaching security gates to the festival. According to the New York Times, Houston police chief Troy Finner visited Travis Scott in his trailer before the show began, to express “concerns about the energy in the crowd.” Fans were packed into what has been described as a cage-like enclosure, with exit points and medical personnel that were not immediately accessible.
Scott began performing at 9 in the evening at NRG Park, and it did not take long for the crowd situation to become dangerous. Around 9:30 pm, the music was paused for an ambulance to go through the crowd, but it soon resumed as Scott asked the crowd to “make the ground shake.”
By 9:38 pm, firefighters and police officers declared Astroworld a “mass casualty” event, after reports of injuries and medical distress throughout the crowd. While Travis Scott seemingly stopped the concert briefly at around 9:42 pm to direct medics to an unconscious fan, the concert largely continued as others became victims of the packed space. Scott reportedly continued performing until at least 10:15 pm. The rapper Drake joined him onstage toward the end, despite what was going on in the crowd.
Travis Scott performs during the Astroworld music festival at NRG Park in Houston on November 5.
Erika Goldring/WireImage
Police chief Finner says he was concerned that putting a sudden stop to the concert could incite rioting, but it’s unclear how things would’ve actually played out. While some fans pleaded with security guards and camera operators to stop the show, others mocked those who tried to get help. Those entangled in the pushing and shoving struggled to get out of the grasp of the crowd, attendees say. Witnesses have stated that it was difficult to breathe, and even harder not to be physically swept up in the crush. In a fan account of the event on Instagram, it was described as “like watching a Jenga tower topple.” One woman reported becoming unconscious; she said she was crowdsurfed to safety.
The videos from Astroworld are disturbing and difficult to watch; many of those in attendance — both the concertgoers and the medical personnel — were ill-equipped to handle the disaster. Online, attendees have been sharing footage of the concert, in which there are screams, failed attempts to get proper help, and even apparent mishandling of unconscious fans by medical personnel. By the end of the night, hundreds of people had been injured. A 10-year-old was reported to be in critical condition, and a 9-year-old was put in a medically induced coma. Twenty-four people had been hospitalized, and eight people, ranging in age from 14 to 27, were dead.
everybody asking why a 10 yr old was there when a 5 year old was damn near front n center #astroworldfestival pic.twitter.com/v7ZRdMi1iP
— jacqueline (@AsToldByJackie) November 6, 2021
What is crowd surge and how can it be prevented?
The injuries and deaths at Astroworld were most immediately the result of crowd surge. The sheer number of people present, the inability to quickly access medical help, and strained personnel resources created a deadly environment. Crowd surges can occur when a large group of people is densely packed into a tight space. According to experts, it often happens when the crowd is “running either away from a perceived threat or toward something they want, such as a performer, before hitting a barrier.”
Jennifer Matarese, a writer and the host of Disaster Area, a podcast about disasters and tragedies throughout history, has researched crowd crush in her work. She says that time and time again, crowd crush is preventable with the proper infrastructure and control measures. While some people have tried to imply that what happened at Astroworld is specific to rap fans or young people in the crowd, Matarese has studied similar events that involved all kinds of people. “In 1883 England, a thousand children gathered for a show, and over a hundred of them died in a stampede, because they had been promised free toys at the bottom of the theatre,” she said. Aside from being trampled, the danger is compression asphyxia — serious force coming from many directions, which makes it impossible to breathe.
It’s not a matter of mosh pits or rap music, she explains. It’s crowds. “This type of thing has happened at sporting events, religious festivals, rock concerts, bars, even a game show in the Philippines. It’s a matter of a crowd, and an incentive driving them forward. It’s not a matter of who’s in the crowd, and it doesn’t make them any rougher or any worse of people if there is a crushing incident.”
The Astroworld disaster reminds Matarese of similar tragic events at a Pearl Jam concert in 2000, where nine people died in a crush. The difference, however, is that the show was stopped to prevent further harm. “Travis Scott doesn’t seem to have done anything. I’ve been really frustrated because it didn’t seem like there was as much crowd control as necessary considering the artist, who has a history of inciting the crowd to not listen to security,” she said, referring to Scott’s previous incidents encouraging crowds to break the rules. “In a crush, you need an audience to be able to listen to the authorities, and if they can’t listen to the authorities, they need to listen to you.”
In a 2011 New Yorker article about crowd crush, Iain Couzin, a behavioral biologist, says that “we are at our most primitive in crowds. We have never evolved a collective intelligence to function in large crowds — we have no way of getting beyond the purely local rules of interaction, as ants can.” While some animals can coordinate easier in a group, humans are more likely to abandon collective behavior in a crowd. The exception is in the case of an informed leader — research has shown that instruction from a leader can help guide a crowd on what to do. In this case, that leader figure would have been Scott and the authorities present. In Couzin’s research, he found that “the ‘naïve’ group followed the informed ‘leaders,’ even though they had no idea, in most cases, that they were following leaders at all.”
The fans at Astroworld who tried to get help were sometimes ignored, even when they climbed to platforms to alert people. Matarese says that when trust between the crowd and concert personnel is thin, it can often have deadly consequences.
“If it was the world scrapbooking conference, for example, it’s probably more likely that they’re gonna listen to a crowd of little old ladies. If it was the Insane Clown Posse or something, with people walking up to the staff in makeup or heavily tattooed or acting a certain way, it’s gonna affect the amount of trust they have in what the audience is telling them.”
Who could have stopped the tragedy at Astroworld?
Footage from the event makes it seem as though the loss of lives was largely preventable.
Many are upset with fellow concertgoers for showing what they feel was a lack of humanity. Amy Harris, a freelance journalist attending the concert for the Associated Press, told Rolling Stone that she witnessed hundreds of people jumping over barricades between the crowd and the photographer area. “They were the most aggressive fans I’ve ever seen at a festival,” she said.
Disturbing video shows Travis Scott watching & singing as he watched a passed out fan in the crowd get carried away by medical personal. #ASTROWORLDFest
pic.twitter.com/mV3PlUWN1J
— TheHouseGossip (@thehousegossip) November 6, 2021
Others look to the security forces on the ground. One attendee recounted to Rolling Stone how he tried to get the attention of police around 9:15 pm, but they did not seem too concerned. “I told them, ‘Hey, there’s a group in this little section who are suffocating. They’re gonna die. They cannot breathe. We need to go help them, get them out.’ They basically said, ‘Calm down. We’re aware of the situation. We’re dealing with something else right now, but we’ll take care of it.’” Concert resources were spread thin even before Scott took the stage. According to the New York Times, by 8:15 pm, the medical staff at the festival reported that “they were unable to document patients because there were so many who needed help.”
Security and medical services were provided by entertainment giant Live Nation, which organized Astroworld along with Scott. According to the Los Angeles Times, the concert organizers presented “a medical plan by New York City-based ParaDocs Worldwide Inc., and a security plan by Austin-based promoter ScoreMore Shows addressing potential emergencies” before the event. It does not seem that the plan referenced possible crowd crush or crowd management. In the past, Live Nation has been linked to about 200 deaths at their events. Live Nation has been sued and fined numerous times in the past for safety violations, including in 2018 when someone required hospitalization after being struck with a metal post.
Others are angry with Travis Scott, and feel his apology video was apathetic. “I could never imagine the severity of the situation,” he said. Many believe that he was able to see the extent of the violence and did nothing to stop it. Houston Chronicle music critic Joey Guerra said that moshing is not unusual at Scott shows. “Anybody who’s been to a Travis Scott show knows the energy exchange between him and the crowd is really electric,” he said. “There’s moshing, he encourages people — he calls his fans ‘ragers’ — that kind of aggressive, high-pitched energy is, I think, a signature of his show.”
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I can’t write anymore. To all the lost souls tonight, you were robbed. #astroworld #astroworldfestival #astroworldfest
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(and my friend: @taygrr_ is okay! I have so many people reaching out asking if she made it. Thank you all.)
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Remember through all of this, those we lost are who we fight for. Please be kind to one another. I will do all I can for the families, and if you are able to help them, do!
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Travis Scott has a history of rowdy concerts. In 2017, a man was pushed off a balcony at his show and was paralyzed. In November 2019, three people were trampled and hospitalized at an Astroworld event. Scott has been charged with reckless or disorderly conduct on two occasions in the past after crowds rushed his stage and ignored security rules — in 2015 at Lollapalooza and in 2017 at a show in Arkansas. (He pleaded guilty in both incidents.) He also once encouraged a crowd to turn on a fan who had seemingly attempted to steal his sneakers.
Scott has announced that he will cover the funeral costs of those who died at the 2021 Astroworld concert. He has canceled his appearance at the upcoming festival Day N Vegas, and will issue refunds to Astroworld attendees. He is also partnering with the company BetterHelp, which is offering mental health aid to those impacted.
In the fallout from this event, rumors and outright misinformation have spread. Some have speculated wildly about the event being some kind of Satanic ritual, a new take on the Satanic panic threaded throughout decades of popular culture. On TikTok, conspiracy theories were shared about the imagery and general vibe at the concert; wide-ranging conspiracy theories have long followed performers of pop music.
It doesn’t help that Scott is in the Kardashian orbit (Kylie Jenner is pregnant with their second child), a frequent subject of wild theorizing. The family’s initial lack of response to the tragedy was distasteful to some — Kris Jenner, for example, posted on social media about her birthday flowers and wishes while the news continued to break — and has compounded online outrage. But rumors online obscure the very real planning and execution concerns around Astroworld.
So far, Live Nation Entertainment and promoter ScoreMore Holdings have been sued, as well as Scott and Drake. A restraining order has been filed against Live Nation to prevent the company from “damaging, modifying, altering, selling, or disposing of any evidence of negligence.” According to the Houston Chronicle, at least 36 lawsuits are in the works. As more litigation is filed in the coming days, it may become clearer who will be held accountable, and for how much of the chaos.
Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today.
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What to know about GameStop's 'once-in-a-decade' stock spike
Jim Cramer remembers why his mom was embarrassed when he became a millionaire
Tripled salaries, big bonuses, spot offers: Recruiters go into extreme hiring
Kevin O'Leary reacts to a 27-year-old entrepreneur who made $650,000 last year
Save and Invest
'You will lose your money very, very quickly': What investors need to know about GameStop's stock surge
Alicia Adamczyk @AliciaAdamczyk
Share
GameStop store signage is seen on January 27, 2021 in New York City.
Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Average Joe investors, coordinated on Reddit, have roughly quadrupled the stock price of the struggling video game retailer GameStop (GME) over the past two weeks in a trading frenzy that has cost traditional Wall Street hedge funds millions of dollars and turned GME into something of a meme on social media platforms.
The GameStop surge is making headlines because it's being driven by retail investors — individuals who buy and sell stocks for their own gains, as opposed to professional investors working on Wall Street — on the subreddit r/WallStreetBets (WSB), a community 2.9 million-strong that refers to members as "degenerates" and idolizes Elon Musk.
These retail investors have beaten Wall Street at its own game, at least temporarily. It works like this: Many hedge funds have taken short positions in companies like GameStop, in which they borrow shares of the stock at a certain price under the expectation that its market value will be worth less when it's time to actually pay for those borrowed shares. In other words, they are betting on the stock price dropping.
But Redditors are snapping up shares and stock options in GameStop en masse, knowing their momentum together is sending the stock price up. In turn, Wall Street pros betting against the stock have to run and cover that short position by buying the stock as well. That increases demand for the shares, which increases the price even more.
This so-called "short squeeze" isn't unusual, says Craig Fehr, investment strategist at Edward Jones. "It happens all the time, but it doesn't tend to play out in this public or dramatic a manner."
For some followers of the subreddit, buying GameStop stock is both a troll of the hedge funds they call "parasites," and a real attempt at making big bucks. Along the way, the users have been encouraged by Musk and fellow billionaire Chamath Palihapitiya, CEO of venture capital firm Social Capital.
2:53
Investor Chamath Palihapitiya: The GameStop story is pushback against Wall Street establishment
Why are Reddit investors gaming GameStop?
Simply put, an army of retail investors joined together on WSB to "bleed the short hedge funds dry," as one user put it. The subreddit's followers explicitly characterize their campaign as a "great wealth redistribution ," in which they are attempting to trounce the hedge funds and make everyday retail investors rich. A comprehensive summary of the movement can be found on WSB.
"We've democratized the market [and] trading more generally," wrote one user on Wednesday. "We've found a way to stick it to the suits [and] literally take back what is rightfully ours."
But it's no longer just WSB traders who have gotten in on GME's wild ride, says James Royal, senior investing reporter at Bankrate. As the stock increased, investors around the world jumped on what they view as a money-making opportunity.
"This stock is trading more dollar volume than Apple, than Tesla," says Royal. "This is not just an isolated corner of Reddit" anymore.
Trading has become gamified, but it's real money
While traders on WSB who bought GameStop three or four months ago might be riding high now, investing experts, including Royal, are worried about posts from users declaring that they are putting their entire retirement funds and life savings into the single stock today.
Veteran WSB followers understand that the sub isn't meant as a financial advice forum. But fledgling investors, many of whom started trading on free trading apps like Robinhood during the pandemic, might not understand the intricacies of what is happening, leading to some incredibly risky bets with money they can't afford to lose.
"This is tremendously dangerous for retail traders who haven't traded before," says Royal. "The stock can drop precipitously in a matter of seconds or minutes. If you have no experience dealing with that kind of thing, you will lose your money very, very quickly."
The good news is that so far, the mania is only influencing a handful of businesses, adds Fehr. The rest of the market is still behaving rationally, to the benefit of most average investors.
"Investments that are geared toward longer-term goals like retirement, your portfolio is comprised of higher-quality names that aren't subject to these shorter-term market whims," he says.
The GameStop situation is "fascinating and fun to watch," but most people are better off on the sidelines, says Sarah Newcomb, director of behavioral science at investment research firm Morningstar. While the price is increasing now, it's only a matter of time before it falls. No one should invest money they can't afford to lose.
"Some people like to keep a small portion of their money in brokerage accounts for exactly this kind of speculative event," she says. "But just like you wouldn't take your rent money to Vegas, don't put your life savings on the line trying to guess what the herd will do next."
There will be some winners who will make money off of their GameStop trades. But there likely be many more losers who got in at the wrong time and didn't understand what they were doing.
"It's a game of musical chairs and you don't know when it's going to stop," says Royal. "It's all going to end in tears, it's just a matter of when."
Check out: Robinhood is having a moment. Users should be careful
Don't miss: The best credit cards for building credit of 2021
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Japan's Ex-Princess Mako and Kei Komuro's Love Story and Sweet Quotes | PEOPLE.com
People.com
Royals
Princess Mako Gave Up Her Title for Kei Komuro: Their Love Story, in Their Own Words
Mako, former Princess of Japan, and Kei Komuro have remained loyal to each other throughout the controversy caused by their decision to marry
By Skyler Caruso October 27, 2021 12:36 PM
Kei Komuro and Princess Mako
| Credit: SIPA Press/Nicolas Datiche/Pool/Anadolu Agency via Getty
Princess Mako's love don't cost a thing — not even the $1.3 million Japan offered to pay her when she abdicated her royal title in favor of marrying commoner Kei Komuro.
On Tuesday, Japan's Princess Mako renounced her royal status to tie the knot with her college sweetheart, commoner Kei Komuro. The couple became engaged in 2013 but did not announce their intention to wed until 2017. Public backlash to Mako's plans was so strong that it caused her father Fumihito, Prince Akishino (the brother of Japan's Emperor Naruhito) to withhold his approval of the marriage; the couple postponed the wedding for more than four years but stayed the course.
During the time that their wedding had been postponed, Mako began to experience PTSD from relentless negative public opinion in the media. But three years after their intended wedding date, the former princess, 30, formally lost her royal status when she wed Komuro, 30, after the Imperial Household Agency (IHA) submitted their marriage documents at a local office.
The IHA explained that Mako and her now-husband did not want to have a big, blowout wedding "because their marriage is not celebrated by many people."
According to Japanese law, women are not eligible to be in the line of the succession for the throne, so there is no impact on the potential heirs to the Chrysanthemum Throne (currently, the only two considered in line for the throne are Mako's father, Crown Prince Fumihito, and his teenage nephew, Prince Hisahito).
Mako, the Japanese emperor's niece, also made the decision to forfeit a $1.3 million payout from the Japanese government – a Japanese tradition that occurs when women lose their royal status when they marry (making her the first woman to decline this offer).
RELATED: PEOPLE Explains: Why Women In Japan's Imperial Family Must Give Up Their Royal Status to Marry Commoners
Kei Komuro and Princess Mako
| Credit: SHIZUO KAMBAYASHI/AFP via Getty Images
Princess Mako, who is now Mako Komuro (after taking the surname of her husband), is not the first person from a royal family to trade in the crown for love (or scandal!).
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle made headlines when the couple opted to exchange a regal life in the U.K. to relocate their family to California. Mako and Komuro are often compared to the British duo due to their decision to leave Japan and move to New York. Komuro graduated from Fordham Law in New York this year and currently works for law firm Lowenstein Sandler LLP. He recently completed the state bar exam for New York and is awaiting his results.
Mako has not announced her plans but holds a masters in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester and has until recently been a researcher at the Museum of Tokyo. First, she will have to obtain a passport, which members of the Japanese royal family do not have.
Mako's marriage move follows in the footsteps of her older cousin Ayako Moriya (formally Princess Ayako of Japan), who chose to wed shipping executive Kei Moriya in 2018, ultimately giving up her royal title. "I want to support her firmly and hold hands to look forward and build a family full of smiles," said Moriya at the time.
RELATED: Congrats Grad! Japan's 'Undercover Princess' Mako Graduates From University Of Leicester
Credit: JIJI PRESS/JAPAN POOL/AFP via Getty
In contrast to the negative reactions Mako and Komuro have received, Akayo thanked the public for its good wishes at the time. "How happy I am that so many people have celebrated [our wedding]. We want to make efforts to become a couple like my mother and father," Akayo said at the time, adding that her father would have "rejoiced at my marriage."
In addition, Ayako's older sister, Princess Noriko, married a commoner (a Shinto priest) in 2014. The Japanese royal family is now down to 17 members — compared to 67 in 1945.
Credit: JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty
RELATED: Princess Mako, Who Gave Up Her Royal Status for Love, Postpones Marriage Due to 'Immaturity'
Despite the controversy, Mako and Komuro have been each other's biggest supporters throughout the past near-decade in the public eye. Here are the sweetest things they've said about each other.
It was love at first sight.
The couple first met as students at Tokyo's International Christian University in 2012 (where she studied art and cultural heritage and obtained a national certificate in curation), during a meeting for a study abroad program. "First I was attracted by his bright smiles like the sun," she said when they announced their engagement, according to the AP, adding that she soon learned that he was "a sincere, strong-minded, hard worker and he has a big heart."
Can't get enough of PEOPLE 's Royals coverage? Sign up for our free Royals newsletter to get the latest updates on Kate Middleton , Meghan Markle and more!
Credit: AIZAR RALDES/AFP via Getty Images
They describe each other as "irreplaceable."
In 2020, despite postponing her wedding for a second time, she reaffirmed her intention of marrying Komuro in a joint statement.
Issued through the Imperial Household Agency, it read: "For us, marriage is a necessary choice to live and honor our hearts. We are irreplaceable to each other and we can lean on each other in happy and unhappy times."
In a statement released Tuesday after their wedding, Mako reiterated the sentiment: "I am very sorry for the inconvenience caused and I am grateful for those ... who have continued to support me. For me, Kei is irreplaceable — marriage was a necessary choice for us."
Further, in a press conference following the wedding, she was quoted by CNN as saying, "To me, Kei is a very important, indispensable existence."
The Asahi Shimbun/Getty Images
They're planning for a family.
Upon the couple's relocation to the United States, Komuro strives to provide for Mako – and has even hinted at starting a family together.
"I love Mako. I would like to spend my one life with the person I love," he said at the press conference following their wedding, according to the New York Times.
CNN further quoted the groom as saying, "Mako and I would like to build a warm, nice family. At the same time, I would like to do the best I can to support Mako. Happy times, unhappy times, we would like to be together, and we will be indispensable to each other."
At the time of their 2017 engagement, Mako had also mentioned that a family with Komuro was on her mind. "Having a family still goes beyond my imagination, but I hope to make one that is warm, comfortable and filled with smiles," she said, according to the AP.
RELATED: What to Know About Princess Charlene of Monaco, from Her Olympic Past to Her Current Stint in South Africa
Credit: KURITA KAKU/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Komuro and Mako have defended each other in the press.
The couple has endured plenty of criticism from the Japanese press and on social media; much of the criticism stemmed from an episode in which Kamuro's mother was said to have an unpaid debt to her former fiancé, inviting speculation about whether Kamuro's marital intentions were fueled by money. (He eventually presented the palace a document explaining the matter .)
The palace announced on October 1 that Mako had been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the criticism, and she seemed to address the negativity in remarks for the press after their wedding. "Many people have difficulty and hurt feelings while trying to protect their hearts," she said, according to the AP. "I sincerely hope that our society will be a place where more people can live and protect their hearts with the help of warm help and support from others."
"I love Mako. We only get one life, and I want us to spend it with the one we love," said Komuro Tuesday. "I feel very sad that Mako has been in a bad condition, mentally and physically, because of the false accusations."
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Update: Shenzhou-13 crew delivers first spacewalk; Wang Yaping becomes first Chinese woman to walk in space - Global Times
CHINA / SOCIETY
Update: Shenzhou-13 crew delivers first spacewalk; Wang Yaping becomes first Chinese woman to walk in space
Female participation integral to mankind’s space exploration efforts
By
Deng Xiaoci
, Fan Wei and
Huang Lanlan
Published: Nov 07, 2021 07:18 PM Updated: Nov 08, 2021 01:56 AM
Wang Yaping becomes first Chinese woman to walk in space Infographic: GT
Shenzhou-13 commander, veteran Zhai Zhigang conducts a six-hour spacewalk on Sunday. Photos: CMSEO
By 1:16 am Monday, spacewalking Shenzhou-13 members Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping had safely returned to China's Tianhe space station core module. Their spacewalk lasted for about 6.5 hours and the two completed all planned tasks.
Ye Guangfu, the third member of the crew, played an important supporting role in the process.
The CMSA said that their spacewalk, the first of the Shenzhou-13 mission and the third of its kind during the country's space station building period, has further verified the performance of China's home-developed spacesuit, the ability of the astronauts to work with the robotic arm and the reliability and safety of the supporting equipment.
According to the CMSA, the Shenzhou-13 crew will carry out another one or two spacewalks.
As many Chinese celebrate the first snow of the winter season on Earth, the heroes of the Shenzhou-13 crew are setting new national milestones in space, with mission commander and the country's first spacewalker Zhai Zhigang and his fellow female taikonaut Wang Yaping stepping out of the node cabin of the Tianhe space station core module on Sunday evening to carry out the crew's first extravehicular activities (EVA). Wang has officially become the first Chinese woman ever to execute a spacewalk mission.
Wearing the country's new-generation Feitian spacesuits specially designed for the EVA, the two came out of the node cabin of the Tianhe core module by 8:28pm. Wang, shortly after stepping out the cabin, waved back to Earth, and said she felt great, according video by the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center that went viral on Chinese social media on Sunday night.
They first installed foot stoppers and a working platform to the robotic arm before they worked together to install a suspension device and transfer connectors to the robotic arm. The CMSA noted that the robotic arm played an important supporting role in the process.
The CMSA highlighted that the Sunday spacewalk is the first in China's history to be carried out jointly by a man and a woman.
Screen image taken at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Nov. 7, 2021 shows Chinese taikonaut Wang Yaping conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs) out of the space station core module Tianhe. Photo: Xinhua
Wang's achievement has expanded the team of global female astronauts who have done spacewalks. Before Wang, as of October 2019, a total of 15 women had participated in 42 spacewalks since 1984, when cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space.
Women's participation in EVA is an integral part of manned space, and we are witnessing history thanks to Wang's bravery, Yang Yuguang, Vice Chair of Space Transportation Committee for International Astronautical Federation, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Yang explained that as manned space exploration is all aimed at preparing for future space immigration, these efforts would be incomplete without women's participation, adding that the female body itself is an important target of study in space medicine.
Wang becoming the first Chinese woman to walk in space is therefore of great significance, he noted.
It is the 55-year-old veteran taikonaut Zhai's second spacewalk after his first during the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008, which also marked a first in the country's history. Wang also became the first Chinese woman to step in space during the Sunday EVA mission, Global Times learned from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Wang was born in 1980 in Yantai, East China's Shandong Province. The 41-year-old taikonaut was selected to be part of the crew of the Shenzhou-10 space mission in April 2013, delivering China's first televised science lecture in orbit to an audience of more than 60 million schoolchildren and teachers while onboard the Tiangong-1 space lab module.
She has been given the honorary title of "Hero Astronaut," according to the CMSA website.
Shenzhou-13 commander, veteran Zhai Zhigang conducts a six-hour spacewalk on Sunday
Huang Weifen, the head of training for the Chinese taikonauts, revealed to the Global Times before the Shenzhou-13 mission was launched on October 16 that Wang would execute at least one of the scheduled spacewalks during her stay.
Wang will also deliver another space lecture, something many netizens are looking forward to, as the last one in 2013 was a big success.
Female taikonauts have many unique advantages compared with men during long-term space stays. They have been shown to be more stable with adaptable mental states that can support long-term stays in orbit. They are also more sensitive to any problems in their surroundings. Their strong communication skills and energy also helps the crew maintain a high morale throughout the stay, Pang Zhihao, a Beijing-based space expert and retired researcher from the China Academy of Space Technology, told the Global Times.
There is little difference between men and women in terms of requirements for conducting a spacewalk, and the only thing that needs adjustment would be the spacesuit, which must be tailored to the female body to enable them to carry out their work with precision, space experts said.
The spacesuit Wang wore for the Sunday mission was sent to the space station by the Tianzhou-3 cargocraft. It is decorated with two yellow ribbons representing the yellow stars on China's national flag.
The two other spacesuits for EVAs onboard the Tianhe that had made public appearances in previous Shenzhou-12 spacewalks are mainly red and blue in color, inspired from the main colors of China's national flag and space.
Designers have optimized the pattern of this spacesuit in the lower limb area to make it more suitable for taikonauts with slimmer figures.
Ye Guangfu, the third and youngest crew member of the Shenzhou-13 mission, stayed inside the orbiting Tianhe core module to support the other two as they conducted their spacewalk on Sunday.
The Sunday event also marked the first spacewalk of the Shenzhou-13 mission and the third of its kind during the country's space station building period.
Previously, the Shenzhou-12 crew led by mission commander Nie Haisheng conducted two successful hour-long spacewalks during their three-month stay in the Tianhe core module, verifying the reliability of the craft's smart robotic arm.
Wang Yaping becomes the first Chinese woman to conduct a spacewalk. What's so different about a female taikonaut? These are the preparations carried out for her.Graphic: Yu Tianjiao/GT
Wang Yaping becomes first Chinese woman to walk in space Infographic: GT
Shenzhou-13 commander, veteran Zhai Zhigang conducts a six-hour spacewalk on Sunday. Photos: CMSEO
By 1:16 am Monday, spacewalking Shenzhou-13 members Zhai Zhigang and Wang Yaping had safely returned to China's Tianhe space station core module. Their spacewalk lasted for about 6.5 hours and the two completed all planned tasks.
Ye Guangfu, the third member of the crew, played an important supporting role in the process.
The CMSA said that their spacewalk, the first of the Shenzhou-13 mission and the third of its kind during the country's space station building period, has further verified the performance of China's home-developed spacesuit, the ability of the astronauts to work with the robotic arm and the reliability and safety of the supporting equipment.
According to the CMSA, the Shenzhou-13 crew will carry out another one or two spacewalks.
As many Chinese celebrate the first snow of the winter season on Earth, the heroes of the Shenzhou-13 crew are setting new national milestones in space, with mission commander and the country's first spacewalker Zhai Zhigang and his fellow female taikonaut Wang Yaping stepping out of the node cabin of the Tianhe space station core module on Sunday evening to carry out the crew's first extravehicular activities (EVA). Wang has officially become the first Chinese woman ever to execute a spacewalk mission.
Wearing the country's new-generation Feitian spacesuits specially designed for the EVA, the two came out of the node cabin of the Tianhe core module by 8:28pm. Wang, shortly after stepping out the cabin, waved back to Earth, and said she felt great, according video by the Beijing Aerospace Flight Control Center that went viral on Chinese social media on Sunday night.
They first installed foot stoppers and a working platform to the robotic arm before they worked together to install a suspension device and transfer connectors to the robotic arm. The CMSA noted that the robotic arm played an important supporting role in the process.
The CMSA highlighted that the Sunday spacewalk is the first in China's history to be carried out jointly by a man and a woman.
Screen image taken at Beijing Aerospace Control Center on Nov. 7, 2021 shows Chinese taikonaut Wang Yaping conducting extravehicular activities (EVAs) out of the space station core module Tianhe. Photo: Xinhua
Wang's achievement has expanded the team of global female astronauts who have done spacewalks. Before Wang, as of October 2019, a total of 15 women had participated in 42 spacewalks since 1984, when cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya became the first woman to walk in space.
Women's participation in EVA is an integral part of manned space, and we are witnessing history thanks to Wang's bravery, Yang Yuguang, Vice Chair of Space Transportation Committee for International Astronautical Federation, told the Global Times on Sunday.
Yang explained that as manned space exploration is all aimed at preparing for future space immigration, these efforts would be incomplete without women's participation, adding that the female body itself is an important target of study in space medicine.
Wang becoming the first Chinese woman to walk in space is therefore of great significance, he noted.
It is the 55-year-old veteran taikonaut Zhai's second spacewalk after his first during the Shenzhou-7 mission in 2008, which also marked a first in the country's history. Wang also became the first Chinese woman to step in space during the Sunday EVA mission, Global Times learned from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Wang was born in 1980 in Yantai, East China's Shandong Province. The 41-year-old taikonaut was selected to be part of the crew of the Shenzhou-10 space mission in April 2013, delivering China's first televised science lecture in orbit to an audience of more than 60 million schoolchildren and teachers while onboard the Tiangong-1 space lab module.
She has been given the honorary title of "Hero Astronaut," according to the CMSA website.
Shenzhou-13 commander, veteran Zhai Zhigang conducts a six-hour spacewalk on Sunday
Huang Weifen, the head of training for the Chinese taikonauts, revealed to the Global Times before the Shenzhou-13 mission was launched on October 16 that Wang would execute at least one of the scheduled spacewalks during her stay.
Wang will also deliver another space lecture, something many netizens are looking forward to, as the last one in 2013 was a big success.
Female taikonauts have many unique advantages compared with men during long-term space stays. They have been shown to be more stable with adaptable mental states that can support long-term stays in orbit. They are also more sensitive to any problems in their surroundings. Their strong communication skills and energy also helps the crew maintain a high morale throughout the stay, Pang Zhihao, a Beijing-based space expert and retired researcher from the China Academy of Space Technology, told the Global Times.
There is little difference between men and women in terms of requirements for conducting a spacewalk, and the only thing that needs adjustment would be the spacesuit, which must be tailored to the female body to enable them to carry out their work with precision, space experts said.
The spacesuit Wang wore for the Sunday mission was sent to the space station by the Tianzhou-3 cargocraft. It is decorated with two yellow ribbons representing the yellow stars on China's national flag.
The two other spacesuits for EVAs onboard the Tianhe that had made public appearances in previous Shenzhou-12 spacewalks are mainly red and blue in color, inspired from the main colors of China's national flag and space.
Designers have optimized the pattern of this spacesuit in the lower limb area to make it more suitable for taikonauts with slimmer figures.
Ye Guangfu, the third and youngest crew member of the Shenzhou-13 mission, stayed inside the orbiting Tianhe core module to support the other two as they conducted their spacewalk on Sunday.
The Sunday event also marked the first spacewalk of the Shenzhou-13 mission and the third of its kind during the country's space station building period.
Previously, the Shenzhou-12 crew led by mission commander Nie Haisheng conducted two successful hour-long spacewalks during their three-month stay in the Tianhe core module, verifying the reliability of the craft's smart robotic arm.
Wang Yaping becomes the first Chinese woman to conduct a spacewalk. What's so different about a female taikonaut? These are the preparations carried out for her.Graphic: Yu Tianjiao/GT
Beijing faces high risk of COVID-19 infection as four COVID-19 patients, 10 silent coronavirus carriers found
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Horowitz: Omicron: Mother Nature’s universal booster - TheBlaze
Blaze Media /
Op-ed
Horowitz: Omicron: Mother Nature’s universal booster
Daniel Horowitz
December 28, 2021
Vertigo3d/Getty Images
Like Blaze News? Get the news that matters most delivered directly to your inbox.
In the ultimate irony, those who get more boosters appear more at risk to get the new variant of coronavirus. At the same time, God appears to be offering natural boosters by making this variant a mild illness that doesn’t cause lung inflammation or blood clotting, and new evidence suggests that it might offer protection against more serious strains of the virus. So why aren’t the public health “experts” taking “yes” for an answer and ending the failed vaccines and panic-induced mandates? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Bizarrely, numerous states were quick to partially suspend the monoclonal antibodies based on a rumor that they no longer worked against Omicron. At the same time, they are doubling down on the ineffective injections that not only fail to work, but actually appear to make people more likely to contract the virus.
In Maryland, for example, one day after the governor contracted COVID (after getting three shots), then treated himself with the monoclonals, the Maryland Department of Health announced that it was pausing federal allocations of the monoclonal antibody treatments because they “may not be effective against the new Omicron variant.” At the same time, they urged people to get the shots that failed the governor. Well, if the antibodies no longer work in the monoclonals, which until now were working better than the vaccines, then the vaccines most certainly don’t work.
Don't miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.
Last week, the Indian Express reported that 33 of the 34 people hospitalized for Omicron in Delhi’s Lok Nayak hospital were fully vaccinated. This data is very revealing because India still has a relatively low vaccination rate compared to the U.S. and Europe. Thankfully, none of them needed oxygenation and it was unclear why they were admitted, but to the extent the COVID fascists want to create undue panic over Omicron, it’s not being driven by the unvaccinated.
The U.K’s Office of National Statistics already found in a survey that the vaccinated are exponentially more likely to test positive for Omicron, and now Danish data seems to indicate the same for some age groups.
Not really a scoop anymore:\n\nConfirmed Covid case incidence per 100,000 in Denmark is higher among the vaccinated young adults than the unvaccinated over the last 7 days.pic.twitter.com/kNnm3PQlwN
— Covid19Crusher (@Covid19Crusher) 1640692655
According to the U.K.’s latest Vaccine Surveillance report, which factors in infection rates for all variants together, the vaccine effectiveness is down to negative 75% for 18- to 29-year-olds, negative 98% for 30- to 39-year-olds, and negative 131% for 40- to 49-year-olds. The vaccine effectiveness was in positive territory only for those over 70 years old – but still well under 50% for most – likely because Omicron is infecting mainly the younger people.
Ironically, while the powers that be continue to push the failed vaccines, a lot of local officials are tacitly admitting they don’t work by going back to the original failed mask mandates. Let’s put aside the fact that these masks absolutely do not work ...
Two weeks into the mask mandate, cases in New York City are up an astounding 542%, and 863% since vaccine passports started\n\nHow many more times do experts and politicians need to fail spectacularly before people realize they have absolutely no idea what they\u2019re doing?pic.twitter.com/X6qk2iWIvf
— IM (@IM) 1640631763
Well, it\u2019s official \u2014 San Francisco, one of the most heavily vaccinated areas on earth, with mask mandates & vaccine passports, has set a new high in cases\n\nSo sure, nothing that The Experts\u2122 say to do is working at all, but at least they\u2019re never going to admit they were wrongpic.twitter.com/EwRl8BU1t9
— IM (@IM) 1640544175
However, they are obfuscating the truth from the public that while nothing seems to work against Omicron, the variant itself is very mild and will give people immunity on the cheap.
The decoupling between cases and fatalities from Omicron is unmistakable. South Africa was the original epicenter of the Omicron outbreak, and for the first time since the beginning of the pandemic, the case fatality rate has dropped to near zero.
The 'Cron Effectpic.twitter.com/ZoCR9HxMSh
— Phil Kerpen (@Phil Kerpen) 1640651025
Now look at the decoupling of hospitalizations from cases in Denmark.
Denmark (population: 6 million) ends a month of growing Omicron exposure with 51 hospitalisations 'with'.pic.twitter.com/X2gDNXJ27k
— Covid19Crusher (@Covid19Crusher) 1640620735
And here is a similar presentation from London:
Why London is going to win the epic Omicron battle of England.\n\nhttps://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/covid-19-hospital-activity/\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/HoM7bE36gW
— Covid19Crusher (@Covid19Crusher) 1640555120
Which is why you should be suspicious of any news about hospitals being flooded with patients. It’s true that in some places in the U.S., they are still dealing with the lag effect from the seasonal virulence of Delta’s outbreak and possibly some residual percolation of that much more severe strain. But you will not see large rises in hospitalizations from Omicron because, as a study from the University of Hong Kong suggests, Omicron is fundamentally an upper respiratory infection and rarely replicates in the lungs. A new preprint study from the Soto Lab in Japan also found in hamsters that the spike protein from Omicron has a much weaker fusion to the cells than the one in Delta, thereby making it “less infectious and pathogenic.”
However, because Omicron stays in the nasal pharynx, it spreads as rapidly as a cold. Thus, if we are going to count every last case of the cold with mass testing, can you guess how many people in the hospital at any given time might be incidentally infected? The U.K. Telegraph reports, “Hospitals are reporting high numbers of ‘incidental Covid’ patients who are admitted for unrelated reasons, an NHS chief has said, warning hospitalization data should be treated with caution.” The Miami Herald reports that at Jackson Health, “60% were diagnosed after being admitted for another reason, according to the hospital system’s internal tracking report."
Thus, if anything, to the extent we still have problems in the U.S., it’s precisely because Delta hasn’t been fully flushed out by Omicron yet. Otherwise almost nobody would get seriously ill with coronavirus. For states and cities to have relaxed restrictions during Delta and then use Omicron as pretext to bring them back is scientifically backward. Then again, the imposition of these mandates to begin with was always voodoo for any respiratory virus.
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So, is Omicron too good to be true? If it is so mild that even those with prior SARS-CoV-2 infection can get it, then does infection with this variant convey immunity against stronger strains of the virus in the future? Sigallab in South Africa conducted a study and found that those infected with Omicron experienced a 4.4-fold enhancement of neutralization against Delta over a person without any infection. If these results hold, it will mean that the masses of the world could achieve herd immunity with much less pain than from previous variants or possibly future, more virulent variants.
The fact that global and local governments are using the exact wrong variant to promote vaccines and masks – which never worked for more serious, less transmissible strains – against an unstoppable yet mild variant demonstrates that this has been and will always be about social control, not source control.
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At least 53 dead, 54 injured after bus carrying migrants crashes in south Mexico - National | Globalnews.ca
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At least 53 dead, 54 injured after bus carrying migrants crashes in south Mexico
By Manuel De La Cruz And Edgar H. Clemente The Associated Press
Posted December 9, 2021 10:36 pm
Updated December 10, 2021 8:44 am
An injured migrant woman is moved by rescue personnel from the site of an accident near Tuxtla Gutierrez, Chiapas state, Mexico, Dec. 9, 2021. Mexican authorities say at least 49 people were killed and dozens more injured when the truck carrying the migrants rolled over on the highway in southern Mexico. (AP Photo)
Rescue workers rushing to a highway accident found a horrific scene of death and injury after a freight truck jammed with as many as 200 migrants tipped over and crashed into the base of a steel pedestrian bridge in southern Mexico.
The migrants inside the cargo trailer were flipped, tossed and crushed into a pile that mingled the living and the dead.
By late Thursday, the death toll stood at 53, and authorities said at least 54 people had been injured. It was one of the worst single-day death tolls for migrants in Mexico since the 2010 massacre of 72 migrants by the Zetas drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas.
Volunteer rescuers hauled bodies off the pile by their arms and legs, while some migrants scrambled and limped to extract themselves from the twisted steel sheets of the collapsed container.
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One young man, pinned in a heap of unmoving bodies, wriggled to free the lower half of his frame from the weight of the dead piled atop him, his face wrenched into a grimace of life extracting itself from the clutches of death.
Nearby, a man blinked his eyes, unable to move as he lay on the shoulder of the road. Next to him was a fellow migrant, stouter and older, whose eyes no longer needed shading – they stared, startled and lifeless, unblinking, into the setting sun.
At the Vatican, Pope Francis, who visited Chiapas in 2015 and has made the plight of migrants a hallmark of his papacy, sent a telegram of condolences Friday to the archbishop of Tuxtla Gutierrez. In the note, he offered prayers for the victims, their families and for the injured.
While the Mexican government is trying to appease the United States by stopping caravans of walking migrants and allowing the reinstatement of the “Remain in Mexico” policy, it hasn’t been able to stop the flood of migrants stuffed hundreds at a time into freight trucks operated by smugglers who charge thousands of dollars to take them to the U.S. border – trips that all too often lead them only to their deaths.
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The most severely injured, many streaming blood, were carried by their arms and legs to plastic sheets set on the road. The walking wounded were led, stunned and uncomprehending, to the same sheets. Ambulances, cars and pickup trucks were dragooned into service, ferrying the injured to hospitals.
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Later, the dead were laid in rows of white sheets, side by side, on the highway.
Rescue workers who first arrived said that even more migrants had been aboard the truck when it crashed and had fled for fear of being detained by immigration agents. One paramedic said some of those who hurried into surrounding neighborhoods were bloodied or bruised, but still limped away in their desperation to escape.
About 200 migrants may have been packed into the truck, said Guatemala’s top human rights official, Jordan Rodas. While shocking, that number is not unusual for migrant smuggling operations in Mexico, and the sheer weight of the load – combined with speed and a nearby curve – may have been enough to throw the truck off balance, authorities said.
Luis Manuel Moreno, head of the Chiapas state civil defense office, said about 21 of the injured had serious wounds and were taken to local hospitals. The federal Attorney General’s Office said three were critically injured in the crash on a highway leading from the Guatemalan border toward the Chiapas state capital.
Read more: 6 people taken to hospital after vehicle crashes into TTC bus in North York
Sitting on the pavement beside the overturned trailer, survivor Celso Pacheco of Guatemala said the truck felt like it was speeding and then seemed to lose control under the weight of the migrants inside.
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Pacheco said there were migrants mostly from Guatemala and Honduras aboard and estimated there were eight to 10 young children. He said he was trying to reach the United States, but now expected to be deported to Guatemala.
Marco Antonio Sanchez, director of the Chiapas Firefighter Institute, said ambulances raced victims to three hospitals, carrying three to four injured each. When there weren’t enough ambulances they loaded them into pickup trucks, he said.
Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei wrote on Twitter: “I deeply regret the tragedy in Chiapas state, and I express my solidarity for the victims’ families, to whom we will offer all the necessary consular assistance, including repatriation.”
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The truck had originally been a closed freight module of the kind used to transport perishable goods. The container was smashed open by the force of the impact. It was unclear if the driver survived.
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Those who spoke to survivors said the migrants told of boarding the truck in Mexico, near the border with Guatemala, and of paying between $2,500 and $3,500 to be transported to Mexico’s central state of Puebla. Once there, they would presumably have contracted with another set of migrant smugglers to take them to the U.S. border.
In recent months, Mexican authorities have tried to block migrants from walking in large groups toward the U.S. border, but the clandestine and illicit flow of migrant smuggling has continued.
In October, in one of the largest busts in recent memory, authorities in the northern border state of Tamaulipas found 652 mainly Central American migrants jammed into a convoy of six cargo trucks heading toward the U.S. border.
Irineo Mujica, an activist who is leading a march of about 400 migrants who have been walking for almost one-and-a-half months across southern Mexico, blamed Thursday’s disaster on Mexico cracking down on migrant caravans.
Read more: 57 injured after tour bus bound for Niagara Falls crashes on New York Thruway
Mujica and his group had almost reached the outskirts of Mexico City, after weeks of dealing with National Guard officers who tried to block the march. Mujica said the group would stop and offer prayers for the dead migrants.
“These policies that kill us, that murder us, is what leads to this type of tragedy,” Mujica said.
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In fact, they are two very different groups. Caravans generally attract migrants who don’t have the thousands of dollars needed to pay migrant smugglers.
Migrants involved in serious accidents are often allowed to stay in Mexico at least temporarily because they are considered witnesses to and victims of a crime, and Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said it would offer humanitarian visas to the survivors.
The agency also said the Mexican government would help identify the dead and cover funeral costs or repatriation of their remains.
Mass deaths of migrants are something that President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has been desperate to avoid, even as his administration has accepted requests from the U.S. government to stem the flow of migrants moving north.
“It is very painful,” he wrote on his Twitter account about the crash.
© 2021 The Canadian Press
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How Lies on Social Media Are Inflaming the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict - The New York Times
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Lies on Social Media Inflame Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Misinformation has flourished on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook and other social media about the violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
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The Al Shrouq building in central Gaza, which hosts offices for media outlets and companies, was destroyed during Israeli airstrikes on Wednesday. Hosam Salem for The New York Times
By Sheera Frenkel
Published May 14, 2021 Updated May 18, 2021
Leer en español
In a 28-second video, which was posted to Twitter this week by a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip appeared to launch rocket attacks at Israelis from densely populated civilian areas.
At least that is what Mr. Netanyahu’s spokesman, Ofir Gendelman, said the video portrayed. But his tweet with the footage, which was shared hundreds of times as the conflict between Palestinians and Israelis escalated, was not from Gaza. It was not even from this week.
Instead, the video that he shared, which can be found on many YouTube channels and other video-hosting sites, was from 2018. And according to captions on older versions of the video, it showed militants firing rockets not from Gaza but from Syria or Libya.
The video was just one piece of misinformation that has circulated on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media this week about the rising violence between Israelis and Palestinians, as Israeli military ground forces attacked Gaza early on Friday. The false information has included videos, photos and clips of text purported to be from government officials in the region, with posts baselessly claiming early this week that Israeli soldiers had invaded Gaza, or that Palestinian mobs were about to rampage through sleepy Israeli suburbs.
The lies have been amplified as they have been shared thousands of times on Twitter and Facebook, spreading to WhatsApp and Telegram groups that have thousands of members, according to an analysis by The New York Times. The effect of the misinformation is potentially deadly, disinformation experts said, inflaming tensions between Israelis and Palestinians when suspicions and distrust have already run high.
“A lot of it is rumor and broken telephone, but it is being shared right now because people are desperate to share information about the unfolding situation,” said Arieh Kovler, a political analyst and independent researcher in Jerusalem who studies misinformation. “What makes it more confusing is that it is a mix of false claims and genuine stuff, which is being attributed to the wrong place or the wrong time.”
Twitter and Facebook, which owns Instagram and WhatsApp, did not respond to requests for comment. Christina LoNigro, a spokeswoman for WhatsApp, said the company had put limits on how many times people could forward a message as a way of clamping down on misinformation.
TikTok said in a statement: “Our teams have been working swiftly to remove misinformation, attempts to incite violence and other content that violates our Community Guidelines, and will continue to do so.”
“Arabs are knocking on doors,” read one misleading message that was posted to WhatsApp groups and Telegram groups this week.
The Times found several pieces of misinformation that spread across Israeli and Palestinian neighborhood and activist WhatsApp groups this week. One, which appeared as a block of Hebrew text or an audio file, contained a warning that Palestinian mobs were preparing to descend on Israeli citizens.
“Palestinians are coming, parents protect your children,” read the message, which pointed specifically to several suburban areas north of Tel Aviv. Thousands of people were in one of the Telegram groups where the post was shared; the post then appeared in several WhatsApp groups, which had dozens to hundreds of members.
Israeli police did not respond to a request for comment. There were no reports of violence in the areas mentioned in the message.
In another post early this week, which was written in Arabic and sent to a WhatsApp group with over 200 members, warnings flashed that Israeli soldiers were set to invade the Gaza Strip.
“The invasion is coming,” read the text, which urged people to pray for their families.
Arabic and Hebrew-language news sources also appeared to amplify some misinformation. Several Israeli news outlets recently discussed a video that showed a family walking to a funeral with a wrapped body, only to drop the body when a police siren sounded. The video was cited by the news organizations as evidence that Palestinian families were holding fake funerals and exaggerating the number of people killed in the conflict.
In fact, the video appeared on YouTube over a year ago and may have shown a Jordanian family holding a fake funeral, according to a caption left on the original video.
Clips of another video showing religious Jews tearing their clothing as a sign of devotion also circulated on Arabic-language news sites this week. The clips were cited as evidence that Jews were faking their own injuries in clashes in Jerusalem.
That was false. The video had been uploaded to WhatsApp and Facebook several times earlier this year, according to the Times analysis.
Damage in the city of Ashkelon on Wednesday resulting from a missile from Gaza. Dan Balilty for The New York Times
There is a long history of misinformation being shared among Israeli and Palestinian groups, with false claims and conspiracies spiking during moments of heightened violence in the region.
In recent years, Facebook has removed several disinformation campaigns by Iran aimed at stoking tensions among Israelis and Palestinians. Twitter also took down a network of fake accounts in 2019 that was used to smear opponents of Mr. Netanyahu.
The grainy video that Mr. Gendelman shared on Twitter on Wednesday, which purportedly showed Palestinian militants launching rocket attacks at Israelis, was removed on Thursday after Twitter labeled it “misleading content.” Mr. Gendelman’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
Mr. Gendelman appears to have mischaracterized the contents of other videos as well. On Tuesday, he posted a video on Twitter showing three adult men being instructed to lie down on the floor, with their bodies being arranged by a crowd nearby. Mr. Gendelman said the video showed Palestinians staging bodies for a photo opportunity.
Mr. Kovler, who traced the video back to its source, said the video had been posted in March to TikTok. Its accompanying text said the footage showed people practicing for a bomb drill.
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Gabby Petito update - Brian Laundrie traffic stop cops made 'several unintentional mistakes' before vlogger's murder
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Gabby Petito update – Brian Laundrie traffic stop cops made ‘several unintentional mistakes’ before vlogger’s murder
Brittney Donovan
18:58 ET, Jan 12 2022
Updated: 21:59 ET, Jan 12 2022
Brittney Donovan
Invalid Date,
OFFICERS who handled a traffic stop involving Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie made "several unintentional mistakes," a new report reveals.
A review of the August 12 traffic stop found officers "failed to cite Ms Petito for domestic violence," which led to other mistakes by the officers, according to the report.
2
The investigation came amid criticism of the officers who responded to the August 12 call Credit: Getty Images
2
Brian Laundrie was the 'victim' in the incident and officers didn't enforce the law, the review found Credit: AFP
The 100-page document details the Moab City Police Department's handling of a dispute between Brian Laundrie and Gabby Petito in Utah, weeks before she was murdered in Wyoming.
The investigation by an outside agency came after a formal complaint was filed with the police department amid a slew of criticism against the officers who responded to the call, claiming they treated Gabby as the abuser, rather than the victim.
While revealing that Gabby should've been cited for domestic violence, the City of Moab Utah wrote in the report: "The City acknowledges that this finding may raise questions, and the issue is examined extensively in the investigative report."
BRIAN NAMED 'THE VICTIM'
The months-long investigation by Price City Police Department Captain Brandon Ratcliffe found there was probable cause to arrest Gabby during the traffic stop, and that Brian Laundrie was the victim in the incident.
Police were asked to respond to a situation involving Laundrie and Gabby by a man who called 911 to report that he'd seen a man "hitting and slapping" a girl before getting into a van and driving away.
The report says when officers told Gabby that witnesses reported Brian had hit her, she said “to be honest, I definitely hit him first.”
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"As it relates to the primary duty of law enforcement while responding to a domestic violence call, the officers protected the victim by separating Brian from Gabby; however, I do not find that they enforced the law," the report says.
The review of the case pointed to concerns about the officers' handling of injuries to Gabby, who said Brian reacted by grabbing her arm, “so I wouldn’t slap him."
She also told officers Brian “ grabbed my face I guess ” while demonstrating the action, and said she could feel a cut on her left cheek that burned when touched.
When asked why there wasn't any follow-up with Brian regarding grabbing Gabby's face, Officer Eric Pratt reportedly said he "thought it had been taken care of" and that they "should have talked to Brian more about that."
He went on to say that Officer Daniel Robbins spent the majority of time with Brian and that Pratt "shouldn't make these assumptions but I assumed that he addressed it."
Officer Pratt said he and Officer Robbins were the only on-duty patrol officers at the time.
The report said according to a survey in 2019, the population of Moab was 5,000 with 3million visitors.
“Some of these calls require more than that and this was one of those calls where I wish we had more time," Officer Pratt was quoted as saying in the report.
"I wish I hadn’t been called away. I wish I didn’t feel like I had to rush at all.”
PROBATION RECOMMENDED
The report pointed out several concerns with the officers' written reports about the incident, saying, "As with Officer Pratt’s report, Officer Robbins’ report should include the who, what, when, where, how, and why, as that information could play a role in determining the predominant aggressor.
"There are many details not documented in his report as well as details documented that appear to be speculation or just flat out inaccurate."
The review also found that the officers never obtained a statement from the original 911 caller during the investigation.
Officer Pratt said contacting the 911 caller would have been the next thing he did, or he would have had Officer Robbins do it, had he not been called away for a more urgent call.
It was recommended that both officers be placed on probation or have it extended.
Additional suggestions included a review of the department's field training, more training on report writing, and an update to applicable policy that would require photographs of injuries of all involved in such an incident.
EXCHANGES WITH POLICE
The report included some conversations Gabby and Laundrie had with officers on the day of the traffic stop.
One complaint that led to the investigation reads: "An officer appears to carefully and deliberately “coach” Gabby Petito to answer questions regarding intent in a manner that would allow the officer to avoid issuing her a citation or arrest."
The officer was said to have told Gabby that he had a question for her and "how" she answered would determine what happened next.
"Think very hard before you answer the question," he reportedly told her.
He was quoted in the report as saying: "I do recall telling her to think about it because it’s important and I think that’s a fair thing to tell somebody.”
The officer then said, "I was afraid that she was going to say something that was going to make her go to jail. I didn’t want her to go to jail but I would have taken her to jail if she had said the other thing.
"And I don’t consider giving someone fair warning to think about their answer, because it’s an important question, to be coaching.”
A summary of the report concluded by saying there are many "what-ifs" that have been presented as part of the investigation.
"Would Gabby be alive today if this case was handled differently? That is an impossible question to answer despite it being the answer many people want to know," it says.
"Nobody knows and nobody will ever know the answer to that question. My job is to provide information into the details of this investigation and if it was handled appropriately."
The investigator added in the conclusion of the report that he did not believe mistakes were made intentionally.
"The officers did not know what they were doing was wrong at the time and did not make the decision to benefit themselves in any way," the report said.
"They both believed at the time they were making the right decision based on the totality of the circumstances that were presented."
POLICE DEPARTMENT'S RESPONSE
The Sun contacted the Moab City Police Department for comment and the city pointed to the cover of the report, which includes its response to the investigative review.
"Based on the report’s findings, the City of Moab believes our officers showed kindness, respect and empathy in their handling of this incident," the statement read.
It also detailed some further recommendations for the police department, including additional training for domestic violence investigations and legal training to ensure officers understand state law, among other steps.
While the police department told The Sun it would not be making any additional comments about the report, the acting police chief addressed the traffic stop in October.
Moab Assistant Police Chief Braydon Palmer told CBS affiliate KUTV that the department was taking steps to improve following complaints over how it handled body camera footage tied to the incident.
Officer Robbins’ body camera video was released on September 16 while Officer Pratt’s video was released two weeks later, on September 30, KUTV reported.
Meanwhile, Laundrie's parents are fighting in court to access his estate, which would include $20,000 in his bank account and the notebook some think holds the secrets of Gabby Petito's murder.
According to family attorney Steven Bertolino, once the FBI closes the case on Gabby's murder and Brian's death by suicide, "retained property will be returned to its owner."
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Gabby Petito police bodycam video showed 'so many signs of an abusive relationship', domestic violence charity boss says
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What Is the ‘Global Minimum Tax’ Rate in Biden's Plan?
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What Is the ‘Global Minimum Tax’ Rate in Biden's Plan?
April 09, 2021 3:04 AM
Rob Garver
FILE - US $100 bills are seen in this picture illustration taken in Seoul, Feb. 7, 2011.
The Biden administration this week released an outline of its proposed changes to U.S. corporate tax policies, called the “Made in America” tax plan.
It includes a proposal to establish a global minimum tax rate on businesses, potentially bringing the U.S. fully on board with an effort that has so far been led primarily by international organizations of wealthy countries, including the G-20 and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Here are six things you should know about a global minimum tax rate:
What is a global minimum tax rate and how many countries subscribe to one?
A global minimum tax establishes a system under which a company from a specific country will pay at least a certain percentage of its profits in taxes, regardless of where in the world those profits are being earned.
In a country that imposes a global minimum tax rate, a domestic company that moves some of its operations to a low-tax jurisdiction overseas would have to pay its home country’s government the difference between that minimum rate and whatever the firm paid on its overseas earnings.
For example, if a country with a global minimum rate of 15% is home to a company that earned profits overseas that were taxed at 5%, it would be entitled to bring the company into compliance with the minimum tax by charging it an additional 10%.
Some countries, the U.S. included, already try to capture some of the tax revenue they lose when companies shift their profits offshore. But many experts believe that only a concerted effort will make a real difference.
In its announcement on Wednesday, the administration said, “Although countries have strong incentives to work together to counter tax competition, they will not stop the race to the bottom unless enough large economies adopt a minimum tax on foreign earnings.”
What would such a system counteract?
The goal of a global minimum tax is to end what Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen referred to in a speech this week as “a 30-year race to the bottom on corporate tax rates.”
Over the past decades, a number of countries including Ireland and Switzerland have enacted tax policies specifically aimed at attracting multinational business investment by lowering corporate tax rates. This, in turn, has pushed other countries to lower their rates as well, as a means of remaining competitive.
Responding to the incentives created by these laws, many multinational corporations have moved their assets, particularly their ownership of intellectual property, to countries offering them low- or even no-tax treatment of the income those assets produce.
How has the current situation hurt the U.S. and other industrialized countries?
According to the OECD, countries around the world lose out on an estimated $100 billion per year in tax revenue through these “base erosion and profit shifting” maneuvers, known by the acronym BEPS. This, Yellen said, has a negative impact on the very competitiveness tax-writing authorities are trying to protect.
“Competitiveness is about more than how U.S.-headquartered companies fare against other companies in global merger and acquisition bids,” Yellen said. “It is about making sure that governments have stable tax systems that raise sufficient revenue to invest in essential public goods and respond to crises, and that all citizens fairly share the burden of financing government.”
What would be the practical effect?
Thornton Matheson, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center in Washington, said that if the world’s largest countries were able to come to an agreement to impose a global minimum, “it would be a major trend reversal from what we've seen over the last few decades of countries cutting their corporate income taxes and switching from worldwide to territorial design.”
However, she said, there are many details that need to be worked out, including an appropriate level -- or at least a range -- for a country’s minimum tax.
The Biden administration is advocating an increase in the domestic corporate income tax, collected on revenue after expenses have been deducted, to 28% from 21%. The administration has suggested that the global minimum be set at 21%. Both of those rates are much higher than minimum rates being considered by the OECD.
“I don't think that most other major capital exporters are going to go for a 21% country by country tax,” Matheson said. “That seems kind of stringent.”
How have business groups reacted?
Groups representing U.S. corporate interests have been predictably unhappy with the idea of a global minimum tax, especially given the potential for a rise in domestic tax rates under the Biden administration.
Business Roundtable President & CEO Joshua Bolten said his group’s members “welcome the administration’s focus on ensuring the international tax system creates a more level playing field for globally engaged U.S. companies, generating economic growth and opportunity for American workers.”
However, he said, they would demand that the U.S. make “secure agreement” from other countries participating in the plan “on a global minimum tax that they will agree to implement on their own companies. And any U.S. minimum tax should be aligned with that agreed upon global level.”
What are the prospects for a deal in June?
OECD officials are holding out hope for an agreement on a global minimum tax as early as June, though some economists question how robust such a deal is likely to be.
Daniel Bunn, vice president for global projects at the Tax Foundation in Washington, warned against any expectation that establishing a global minimum tax will put an end to countries fighting to give themselves a better chance at attracting global capital.
“People talk about ending tax competition, but whether you're competing over tax or something else, competition between countries for mobile resources of capital and labor, those things will continue,” he said.
“And if you take tax policy off the table, then you could just end up with a system of countries offering just direct subsidies for business investment.”
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Fatal Surfside Condo Collapse Occurred Due to Construction of High-Rise Next Door: Lawsuit
News
Fatal Surfside Condo Collapse Occurred Due to Construction of High-Rise Next Door: Lawsuit
By Katie Wermus On 11/17/21 at 12:33 PM EST
Everything We Know So Far About The Surfside Building Collapse Near Miami: Updates
News Lawsuit Florida Death Surfside building collapse
The construction of a luxury building next to Champlain Towers in Surfside, Florida, triggered the collapse that killed 98 people in June, according to a new lawsuit, the Associated Press reported.
The suit was filed late Tuesday on behalf of Champlin Towers South victims and family members. It claims that work done on the building next door damaged and destabilized the building that already needed major structural repair.
Champlin Towers, the lawsuit claims, "was an older building in need of routine repairs and maintenance, but it was not until excavation and construction began on the luxury high-rise condominium project next door" that the building became unsafe.
Champlin Towers was in the middle of its 40-year structural review when collapsed without warning early in the morning on June 24. There are now multiple federal and state investigations looking into the collapse and lawsuits from victims, families and condo owners.
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The lawsuit claimed that between 2016 and 2019, vibrations caused by excavation, pile-driving and other construction work at Eighty Seven Park weakened the shaky structure. Groundwater was also funneled from the new building to the Champlain Towers property basement after developers bought a small road separating the two.
"The collapse was entirely preventable," the lawsuit says.
The lawsuit does not cite a specific amount for damages but could run into the hundreds of millions, according to an attorney involved in the case.
For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.
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A new lawsuit contends that construction of a luxury building next door triggered the collapse of an already-fragile Florida condominium that killed 98 people in June. The lawsuit was filed on November 16, 2021, on behalf of Champlain Towers South victims and family members. Above, search and rescue teams look for survivors at the Champlain Towers South residential condo on June 29, 2021, in Surfside, Florida. Al Diaz/Miami Herald/AP Photo
The nine defendants in the lawsuit include developers of Eighty Seven Park, an engineering firm, the Champlain Towers South condo association and a Miami law firm.
The defendants denied that construction of Eighty Seven Park was responsible for the building collapse. The 18-story building is located in Miami Beach, immediately south of the Champlain Towers site in Surfside.
"As numerous media reports have documented, Champlain Towers South was improperly designed, poorly constructed, significantly underfunded and inadequately maintained and repaired," said attorney David B. Weinstein, who represents 8701 Collins Development LLC.
"We expect a full review of the facts—and the ongoing investigation by NIST—will affirm our position," Weinstein said in an email.
This latest 169-page complaint is a potential class action that could represent all victims and their families. It was filed as part of an existing case in Miami-Dade County Circuit Court that also involves the planned sale of the Champlain Towers property to benefit victims.
The lead investigating agency is the National Institute for Standards and Technology, which recently estimated its probe could take as long as two years.
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The Texas Heartbeat Act Is Saving 100 Babies' Lives Every Single Day
Breaking Emails Surface More Evidence Hillary Clinton Paid For Anti-Trump Disinformation Operation Breaking
Abortion
The Texas Heartbeat Act Is Saving 100 Babies’ Lives Every Single Day
By: Rebecca Parma
September 28, 2021
5 min read
Right now, more than 100 babies are being saved from abortion every day in Texas. The Texas Heartbeat Act is currently enforceable, even as the abortion industry and Biden administration attempt to thwart it. There has been much legal back-and-forth and misrepresentation of this life-saving law, particularly on the unique way in which it is enforced. Let’s cut through that confusion.
The Texas Heartbeat Act prohibits elective abortion after the preborn child’s heartbeat is detected. Those who commit an abortion after this biological marker in the child’s development, as well as those who knowingly aid and abet in that illegal abortion, can be sued. The lynchpin that has allowed the law to take effect is that the state is not allowed to enforce the law; rather, it is the responsibility of private individuals to hold the abortion industry accountable for following the law.
So far in Texas, we are seeing the abortion industry comply with the new law. Eighty-five percent of abortions that previously would have been occurring in our state are now illegal. More than 100 babies per day are being given a chance at life. There have not been any credible assertions of violation. This means that the unique threat of private lawsuits under this law is successfully saving babies.
Civil penalties are the most effective in pro-life laws because the abortion industry is profit-driven. The industry profits off killing preborn children and does not want to lose money. So it complies with pro-life laws (even as it fights them in the courts). That is why the Texas Heartbeat Act uses civil remedies — because it incentivizes compliance from the abortion industry.
Not Vigilantism
Despite the assertion by pro-abortion advocates and media, this is not vigilantism, and the civil remedies are not a bounty. The threat of a lawsuit and paying out at least $10,000 for a violation is the consequence set up under this law for engaging in an illegal activity, namely, performing an abortion after the baby has a heartbeat.
Penalties function to deter illegal activity and to encourage compliance. Vigilantism implies lawlessness, and filing a lawsuit is not lawless. If a person believes an illegal abortion has been committed, she can bring a suit under the law, and a judge will evaluate the evidence and proceed from there.
The same holds for those who aid or abet in an illegal abortion. Rideshare platforms have ranted about this part of enforcement. However, Texas law already had a definition of aiding and abetting long before the Texas Heartbeat Act, and judges are used to applying this standard in other criminal activities.
For a driver with a ridesharing platform to be sued under the aiding and abetting provisions of the Texas Heartbeat Act, he would have to know where he’s taking the pregnant woman, how far along in the pregnancy she is (is she past the point at which the baby’s heartbeat is detectable?), and whether she’s entering that abortion facility to obtain an abortion. This is the kind of high legal standard a judge would use in determining aiding and abetting of an illegal activity.
No Frivolous Lawsuits
The same goes for the fear of “frivolous lawsuits.” There is already a legal standard under which judges consider and dismiss frivolous lawsuits that existed long before this law. Even if you don’t trust the pro-life activist who can bring the lawsuit, trust our legal system and the judges who are used to handling these situations every day, and are equipped through legal and evidentiary standards to do so.
The ability of any individual to bring a lawsuit under the Texas Heartbeat Act is a type of private enforcement that is already used in other areas of law (such as Medicaid fraud), including to a limited degree in other pro-life law. The Heartbeat Act merely extends this approach.
Besides, most pro-lifers who would bring a lawsuit under the Texas Heartbeat Act are not interested in monetary compensation — they are interested in preborn lives being spared from a violent and unjust death. That is why the law is clear that a pregnant woman cannot be sued under the law, because the purpose is to hold those who profit off the deaths of preborn children accountable: the abortion industry.
But why try this unique enforcement mechanism in the first place? Because the pro-life movement is tired of district attorneys refusing to enforce pro-life laws and activist federal judges holding pro-life policies up in court for years on end, if not indefinitely. It is time to try a new approach. And that new approach is working.
Texas is the first state to actually see a heartbeat law take effect — the Texas Heartbeat Act is the strongest pro-life law since Roe v. Wade. The anti-life mob is trying to cancel the Texas Heartbeat Act, but they have not been successful. So instead they are misrepresenting the law and constantly nitpicking and finding new objections.
But the most important aspect of the law is this: Thousands of tiny Texans are being spared from the violence of death by abortion because of the way the Texas Heartbeat Act is enforced. No wonder those who promote abortion are so up in arms over its ingenuity.
Rebecca Parma is the senior legislative associate at Texas Right to Life in Austin, Texas.
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Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal: Liberal media fumes over verdict | Fox News
Media
Published November 19, 2021 5:33pm EST
Kyle Rittenhouse acquittal: Liberal media fumes over verdict
One CNN contributor claimed the jury's verdict was a 'stark reminder of inequity'
By Joseph A. Wulfsohn | Fox News
00:01 00:00
MSNBC guest shoots down anchor's idea of federal Rittenhouse charges
MSNBC legal analyst Paul Butler pours cold water on notion of a federal prosecution of Kyle Rittennhouse, who was acquitted on all counts Friday in his closely watched homicide trial.
NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles!
Members of the liberal media were unable to comprehend the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, who a jury found was not guilty of all five charges against him.
"In this country, you can even kill white people and get away with it if those white people are fighting for Black lives. This is the legacy of 1619," New York Times Magazine's Nikole Hannah-Jones reacted .
KYLE RITTENHOUSE FOUND NOT GUILTY ON ALL COUNTS IN KENOSHA TRIAL
CNN contributor Ana Navarro felt compelled to tie the Rittenhouse verdict to unrelated cases as a "stark reminder of inequity."
"Rittenhouse killed two men w/an AR-15. Found not guilty. Tamir Rice was shot by police for having a toy gun. Christopher Belter raped 4 girls. Given no jail time. Two men were exonerated after serving decades for [Malcolm] X murder they did not commit," Navarro tweeted.
Kyle Rittenhouse hugs one of his attorneys, Corey Chirafisi, after he is found not guilty on all counts at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Friday, Nov. 19, 2021. The jury came back with its verdict afer close to 3 1/2 days of deliberation. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool) (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool)
Washington Post correspondent Philip Bump provided "analysis" in a piece titled, "Rittenhouse was acquitted, not validated."
"Juries are part of the American system of justice, not its entirety…. Arriving at justice depends on the whole system, the prosecutors, the judge, the defense," Bump wrote. "We should remember, then, that acquittals are not moral judgments. If a jury says that the government failed to meet its burden of proof, this is an assessment of the government as much as the accused."
PROGRESSIVES, DEMOCRATS ERUPT OVER KYLE RITTENHOUSE ACQUITTAL: ‘THIS IS DISGUSTING’
He later wrote, "Rittenhouse killed two people and the state was unable to convince a jury that he bore criminal responsibility for doing so… The problem here is not the jury. The problem is one that predates Aug. 25 of last year: a willingness to leverage violence for political ends and to rationalize political violence."
A CNN guest credited the acquittal to the "infantilization" of Rittenhouse because of his young age and suggested White privilege was also a factor in the outcome.
The Daily Beast downplayed Rittenhouse's self-defense argument, writing "He was found not guilty of all charges despite video evidence showing he killed people."
NBC News anchor Lester Holt suggested Rittenhouse was able to "provoke" a violent situation and then successfully claim self-defense in the court of law.
"The prosecution had made the argument is that you can't provoke something and then claim it was self-defense. Maybe you can. Is that what this says?" Holt asked.
NBC legal analyst Tali Farhadian Weinstein responded by telling Holt that the jury "read provocation very narrowly."
Weinstein also slammed the "really dangerous combination of liberal self-defense laws" and "the accessibility of guns."
MSNBC, which was banned from the courtroom after it was accused of having one of its journalists following the jury's bus, blasted the headline on its homepage that read, "Kyle Rittenhouse trial was designed to protect white conservatives who kill."
RITTENHOUSE JUDGE BANS MSNBC FROM COURTROOM AFTER PERSON ACCUSED OF TRAILING JURY BUS
"The case had the makings of an acquittal before the trial even began," ReidOut blog writer Ja'han Jones wrote. "The outcome seemed clear even before an almost exclusively white jury pool was selected, even before Judge Bruce Schroeder created an uproar by ruling that the slain protesters could be referred to as 'rioters' and ‘looters’ but not ‘victims,’ even before Schroeder refused to punish Rittenhouse for what prosecutors said amounted to a violation of his bond conditions. Rittenhouse is a white teen who abides by white rules, and white people empathetic to those rules seemed poised to insulate him from repercussions."
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MSNBC host Joy Reid declared, "the 13th juror was the judge."
Other MSNBC personalities were already suggesting that the Rittenhouse case should be brought on a federal level.
Rittenhouse was facing the five charges after he fatally shot two people and injured a third person during the second night of civil unrest in Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020. His attorneys argued that the then-17-year-old was acting in self-defense after being attacked from behind when he shot Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, as well as deceased Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26 in the riots following the police shooting of a 29-year-old Black man, Jacob Blake.
Fox News' Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.
Joseph A. Wulfsohn is a media reporter for Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to [email protected] and on Twitter: @JosephWulfsohn.
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Trouble in Paradise: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Sour on Each Other
Trouble in Paradise: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Sour on Each Other
12,603
AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Paul Bois
14 Nov 2021 2,838
5:44
The relationship between President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris has shown signs of fracture, with CNN now reporting that the two have grown increasingly at odds.
“Worn out by what they see as entrenched dysfunction and lack of focus, key West Wing aides have largely thrown up their hands at Vice President Kamala Harris and her staff — deciding there simply isn’t time to deal with them right now,” CNN began its lengthy report on Sunday.
With multiple polls putting Kamala Harris’s approval rating even lower than Joe Biden’s dismal 37.8 percent while rumors swirl that the president may not seek reelection in 2024, Democrats are scrambling to find the future leader of the party. Inside the White House, reports indicate that Team Harris has grown increasingly frustrated with Team Biden for essentially sidelining her despite her status as the first female vice president of color.
“Many in the vice president’s circle fume that she’s not being adequately prepared or positioned, and instead is being sidelined,” noted CNN. “The vice president herself has told several confidants she feels constrained in what she’s able to do politically.”
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks as U.S. President Joe Biden looks on in the Rose Garden of the White House on July 26, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Kamala Harris and her team have since been walking a tightrope, fearing that if she appears too ambitious, then Team Biden will suspect disloyalty.
“Harris’ staff has repeatedly failed her and left her exposed, and family members have often had an informal say within her office,” CNN said insiders told them. “Even some who have been asked for advice lament Harris’ overly cautious tendencies and staff problems, which have been a feature of every office she’s held.”
Insiders have speculated that Biden modeled his relationship with the office of the vice president after his former boss, President Obama, relegating Harris to a more ceremonial role rather than a historic one in which she actively plays a role in carrying out his agenda. Insiders, however, believe that Joe Biden did not adequately calibrate his experience as vice president “to someone with far different qualifications and skills.”
Even occasions in which it appeared that Kamala Harris played a greater role in the Biden administration, such as during the Afghanistan withdrawal, insiders say she expressed dismay in private over her lack of involvement.
“Harris has also complained to confidants about not being a greater part of the President’s approach to the Afghanistan withdrawal — despite telling CNN at the time she was the last one in the room when he made the decision — leaving her without more to draw on when she defended him publicly,” the outlet noted.
An anonymous Democratic Party donor lamented that President Biden has failed to put Kamala Harris in a position to lead, setting her up for failure.
“Kamala Harris is a leader but is not being put in positions to lead. That doesn’t make sense. We need to be thinking long term, and we need to be doing what’s best for the party,” said the donor. “You should be putting her in positions to succeed, as opposed to putting weights on her. If you did give her the ability to step up and help her lead, it would strengthen you and strengthen the party.”
Joe Biden (with Kamala Harris) Accepts the Nomination for the Democratic Party’s Ticket for President of the United States – Wilmington, DE – August 20, 2020
Beyond the sidelining, insiders also feel that the Biden administration has not done enough to curtail partisan attacks on her from the conservatives. One former Harris aide even suggested race may be a factor, considering that the White House jumped at the opportunity to defend Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg when it was revealed that he went on three months paternity leave during the supply-chain crisis.
“It’s hard to miss the specific energy that the White House brings to defend a White man, knowing that Kamala Harris has spent almost a year taking a lot of the hits that the West Wing didn’t want to take themselves,” said the former aide.
Insiders said that the Biden administration believes it can only help heal Kamala Harris of so many of her self-inflicted wounds, such as when she “didn’t push back on a student who accused Israel of ‘ethnic genocide.'”
Going forward, the tensions will likely only deepen as Kamala Harris continues to find her footing. With Joe Biden’s steadily declining approval rating, his closes aides will have no choice but to focus on keeping the president’s agenda afloat, fearing that the Democrats could suffer a crushing defeat in the 2022 midterms.
Hours after the CNN report on Sunday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki immediately leaped to defend Kamala Harris, praising her for a variety of unimportant tasks, such as “expanding broadband.”
“For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country—from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband,” tweeted Psaki.
For anyone who needs to hear it. @VP is not only a vital partner to @POTUS but a bold leader who has taken on key, important challenges facing the country—from voting rights to addressing root causes of migration to expanding broadband.
— Jen Psaki (@PressSec) November 15, 2021
In a statement to CNN, Psaki hailed Harris as “an incredibly important partner” of the president with a supportive team around her. “I will say that the vice president is an incredibly important partner to the President of the United States. She has a challenging job, a hard job, and she has a great supportive team of people around her. But other than that, I’m not going to have any more comments on those reports,” said Psaki.
Sabrina Singh, deputy press secretary to the vice president, also told CNN in a statement that Kamala Harris will continue to focus on supporting President Biden’s agenda.
“The Vice President and her office are focused on the Biden-Harris Administration’s agenda to build an economy from the middle out and the bottom up, not the top down, to making sure racial equity is at the core of everything the Administration does, to combatting the existential threat of climate change, and to continue protecting the American people from the Covid-19 pandemic,” Singh said.
1boogyman1 • 5 months ago
This is what happens when identity politics wins out over competency.
Dorthy1726 • 5 months ago
This is what happened when Dems. cheated, and, stole the Election from Trump.
I Agree Let’s go Brandon(Rich) • 5 months ago
Kamala checks all the boxes - first mentally retarded black female Vice President
Dorthy1726 • 5 months ago
She certainly wasn't picked for her qualifications as a strong, intelligent leader. Nor was Joe.
Attila the Hun • 5 months ago
Peter principle in action.
John (magnum) • 5 months ago
Trouble in Paradise: Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Sour on Each Other
A pair of commies ain't getting along !
Okay Groomer • 5 months ago
A pair of puppets not getting along.... with their marxist handlers.
omygod • 5 months ago
Joeys puppets get more kickbacks then Heels-Up puppets.
Winston Smith • 5 months ago
Everything we see through the lens of the MSM is contrived kabuki theater. The fact that CNN of all places releases a report on Kamala that is unfavorable reeks of fraudulent propaganda and manipulation. The Party that stole the 2020 election with hardcore fraud in broad daylight is not too incompetent to fake and fudge the bogus polling to prop up Kamala and ol Joe.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Kamala steps down and is replaced by Hillary and then Biden is removed somehow (medical exam and 25th Amendment). And then we are left with President Hillary Clinton.
VoteOutRinos • 5 months ago
They stole the election in the dark of night when they sent every poll watcher home and turned off the machines in 6 states at exactly the same time. When the machines went back up the totals were drastically different. Truck loads of illegal ballots. The fraud couldn't scream any louder than it has.
Beachbum17 • 5 months ago
Automatic impeachment under the Republican house and senate coming in 13 months. Then could have the first Husband and wife to be impeached.
VoteOutRinos • 5 months ago
Just like Doug said, "it's hard being first." Can't wait for the day we take these fraudulent incompetents out and return to America First!
CornyWebb • 5 months ago
After Trump is installed as Speaker of the House ;)
mystery woman • 5 months ago
Biden will not finish his first term. Kamala is definitely toast. As far as being replaced by Hillary, not happening. The real winner will be Trump.
Ben Alexander • 5 months ago
Better yet, replaced by another incompetent black female, Mike Obama.
VoteOutRinos • 5 months ago
She's the worst racist of them all.
Warrior • 5 months ago
OMG!
tomasoso58 • 5 months ago
very astute. that was rumored as the plan-demic/faux-election at the outset. The medical tyrants/technocrats could be THAT notorious & devious to bring that to fruition....to these kommies in charge, it's never about the people, it's about the "party".
And for ALL the rinos recently signing off on O'Fidens social infrastructure fail (which a failed Nola mayor will oversee??)
Lets Go Mitch & lets go Brandon............
omygod • 5 months ago
🤮🤮🤮🤮
Media_Bladders • 5 months ago
They were getting along great until Slow Joe referred to her as "one heck of a broad."
VoteOutRinos • 5 months ago
She deserves every bit of this. She is incompetent, a divisive racist, incapable and ineffectual.
mystery woman • 5 months ago
Incompetent, irrelevant and immaterial.
Don • 5 months ago
Didn't Stalin off Lenin?
David Brent • 5 months ago
That would imply that there is any level at all where she is competent. I don't think that exists. Well, aside from her "career advancement" technique....
Snowman • 5 months ago
According to Hunter Biden who experts in this activity she's not so great may have been at one time but she's not built that way anymore. FKH FJB - Lets go Brandon!
Commie Slayer • 5 months ago
Was that "on her knees in willie Browns office?
tomasoso58 • 5 months ago
she did not pass hunters' audition or did not give the pipe back
fjb
David Brent • 5 months ago
Bingo!
Deplorable, Virulent (FJB) • 5 months ago
She has seen a lot of Peter.
TheOldOne • 5 months ago
Seems all in the Brandon Administration were picked for the woke leftists boxes they checked… all completely incompetent, incapable and dangerously stupid.
Raymond_in_DC • 5 months ago
Indeed, look at “Mayor” Pete, who couldn’t fix the potholes but “likes trains”, so he became Transportation Secretary. Or Richard/Rachel Levine, who took his mother out of a nursing home but directed others there during the Covid crisis. He’s now Under-secretary at HHS. Or Defense Secretary Austin who reportedly holds more meetings on “diversity” than on readiness. The list is quite a long one.
TheOldOne • 5 months ago
and the Energy Secretary that laughed when asked about gas prices
Paulpilot • 5 months ago
But fully Marxist!
Anthony Dibuono • 5 months ago
Are there any Americans in crap his pants administration?
David Brent • 5 months ago
Her own party for her kicked out of the primaries due to her abysmal approval rating.
GimmeABreak • 5 months ago
she complains she isn't given opportunities, but she's already checked two boxes for the EEOC: Black and Female.
-
Natural leaders lead, regardless of whether the given the opportunity or not.
Anthony Dibuono • 5 months ago
And one of them is a blatant lie Kummala is not black
lawrencel • 5 months ago
WE don't need a vice president to lead. We need a vice president to be tactful, discrete and follow the leader. Just maybe there is no leader for her to follow.
Starwise • 5 months ago
They are both "puppets" whose strings are pulled to do the "dance" for their Democrat-Marxist puppet masters.
RISE LIBERTY • 5 months ago
Neither of them were "picked". At least not legitimately.
Okay Groomer • 5 months ago
Puppets are like that.
ACitizenofUSA • 5 months ago
they were both chosen because of that exactally. pick the two most gulliable people and put them in the WH. and let them think they are actually president and vice president. when all they are just the puppets.
Andrea Silver • 5 months ago
They were picked bc they are both crooks.
infosifter • 5 months ago
perfect match made for fake election result
MaxAmoeba • 5 months ago
Nope...not a Lesbian or a tranny.
Hans Ruopp • 5 months ago
No, their first and foremost qualification was to be good puppets.
CoastRanger • 5 months ago
Her mother is Indian, and her father is Jamaican. Tell a Jamaican he's black, and you better duck.
Raul TW • 5 months ago
Jamaicans came over from Africa as slaves. So yeah they are definitely black. It is a fact.
Justaguy • 5 months ago
But they intermingled with their overseers. The lighter your skintone the more acceptable you are in society, (Jamaican). Read "Outliers " the author spells it out nicely.
lawrencel • 5 months ago
She needs more ancestors to cover all the bases. By the way, what color do Jamaican's prefer?
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Derecho, rare tornadoes strike Upper Midwest amid wind storm - The Washington Post
Capital Weather Gang
Historic wind storm slams central U.S., unleashes rare December tornadoes
Weather Service reports record numbers of hurricane-force wind gusts and 19 tornadoes, plus dust storms and fires.
By Jason Samenow
,
Ian Livingston
and
Jeff Halverson
December 15, 2021|Updated December 15, 2021 at 10:51 p.m. EST
Tornadoes and high winds hit central U.S.
Iowa and Minnesota saw their first December tornadoes while high winds slammed Colorado, with some gusts reaching 107mph, on Dec. 15. (Video: The Washington Post)
Article
Half of the Lower 48 endured a historic and dangerous weather event Wednesday as an extremely powerful storm system swept through the middle of the country unleashing damaging winds and, in some areas, tornadoes, dust storms and out-of-control fires.
Winds of 70 to 100-plus mph sheared off roofs, overturned vehicles, toppled trees and caused hundreds of thousands of power outages while contributing to hazardous ground and air travel. From New Mexico to Michigan, more than 36 million people were under high-wind warnings. In Colorado, several locations clocked gusts over 100 mph.
Unprecedented Midwest wind storm caps 2021’s siege of extreme weather
Due to a fast-moving complex of violent storms, known as derecho, the National Weather Service logged at least 55 reports of hurricane-force wind gusts (75-plus mph), the most in a single day on record (since 2004). Winds gusted to 74 mph in both Des Moines and Omaha.
Today (12/15) has set the record for the most number of hurricane force (75+ mph) thunderstorm wind gusts in a day (55, and counting) since 2004. The previous record was from August 10, 2020 with 53. pic.twitter.com/bqULyJJEw5
— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) December 16, 2021
As the derecho tore through the Upper Midwest, western and central Iowa and, possibly, Minnesota saw their first December tornadoes on record, among 19 reported in three states.
Active high wind warnings and advisories on Wednesday. (National Weather Service)
Weather alerts of different types affected about 100 million Americans.
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“The Central U.S. has never seen a December storm like this,” tweeted Bill Karins, a meteorologist for MSNBC. “Multi-hazard, life-threatening weather today.”
Amid the high winds, blinding dust storms swelled over parts of southeast Colorado and western Kansas, while wildfires erupted in Kansas and the Texas and Oklahoma panhandles.
All of this occurred amid record-setting warmth in the central states, for the third time this month, helping to fuel the intensity of the extreme weather. Both Iowa and Wisconsin saw their warmest December weather on record Wednesday afternoon.
A warming world could add more fuel to tornadoes, scientists say
Storm developments during Wednesday
Late Wednesday evening, the derecho, with a history of tornadoes and damaging wind gusts, was barrelling through western Wisconsin and eastern Iowa near the border with Ilinois, with multiple severe thunderstorm warnings in effect. The complex of storms was roaring east-northeast at 60-70 mph and predicted to slowly weaken overnight.
The Weather Service reported a “confirmed tornado" over Plainview, Minn., northeast of Rochester, at 8:09 p.m. local time, which would have been the first on record in Minnesota during the month of December. Plainview clocked a wind gust of 85 mph around that time. However, the Weather Service subsequently tweeted it was not confirmed as it surveys storm damage before officially verifying twisters.
As the storms swept through the Plains and Midwest (sometimes at speeds of 85 as high as 110 mph ), 19 tornadoes were reported along with 407 instances of severe winds, with many gusts of 60 to 95 mph. There were multiple reports of downed trees, sheared off roofs, overturned vehicles and additional structural damage. Lincoln, Neb. clocked a gust of 93 mph as the storm passed. Kansas City recorded a 67 mph gust.
Several tornadoes were reported in western and central Iowa, where they’ve never been reported previously in December. More than 30 tornado warnings were issued in Iowa; prior to Wednesday, only two had ever previously been issued during the month. Minnesota and South Dakota also saw their first tornado warnings during December.
Tornado watches were issued in Minnesota and Wisconsin for the first time on record in December.
West of the cold front igniting the storms, temperatures crashed and blizzard conditions briefly developed in west central Kansas.
Over 450,000 customers lost power in Kansas, Iowa, Missouri, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin, according to PowerOutage.US.
In Kansas, Russell gusted to 100 mph, Garden City and Dodge City to 84 mph, Goodland to 81 mph and Colby to 68 mph. The gust in Dodge City was its highest on record.
Satellite imagery detected multiple fires in Kansas and the Weather Service warning of a “ life-threatening blaze ” in Russell County. Fires also erupted in parts of the Southern Plains, including a blaze in Guymon, Okla. in the panhandle region, where some residents were told to evacuate. A second blaze, in the Texas Panhandle, threatened the area around Skellytown.
In Colorado, winds eased after peak gusts reached 107 mph in Lamar, 105 mph in Broomfield, 100 mph at the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs and 91 mph near Boulder Wednesday morning. Just northwest of Denver, a gust was clocked to 84 mph. Numerous gusts topped 70 mph in the state.
The high winds caused air travel disruption at Denver International Airport with 629 delays and 162 cancellations reported as of Wednesday evening.
Several parked aircraft were damaged by high winds at Sante Fe Regional Airport on Wednesday morning. A radio tower was toppled in Taos, N.M.
Dust storms broke out in southeast Colorado and western Kansas, where a “wall of dust” was seen.
Iowa notched its highest December temperature on record. Des Moines reached its all-time December record, hitting 74 degrees. Dew points, an indicator of moisture and humidity, rocketed to record levels in the state. High temperatures and dew points fuel severe thunderstorms.
Wisconsin hit its highest December temperature on record, with Boscobel hitting 72 degrees.
Temperatures neared or surpassed record highs from Texas to Michigan. December monthly record highs were beaten or tied in Madison, Omaha, Kansas City and La Crosse, Wisc., in addition to the numerous locations in Iowa.
Storm visuals from social media
Tornado sirens wail while a tornadic storm moves over (southeast of Sioux City, IA)… with snow still on the ground. A rain wrapped tornado was moving past that direction and you can see the damage it did to a building and another tornado took down powerlines. #IAWX pic.twitter.com/A5BWPiCzoF
— Brian Emfinger (@brianemfinger) December 16, 2021
#Nebraska storm damage https://t.co/Ghtiz0tefy
— Bill Karins (@BillKarins) December 15, 2021
HOLY COW!!
Here’s a look right outside our station in #LNK. It was hard to even see a few feet in front of you. We heard reports of 93 MPH wind gusts at the Lincoln airport.
Please everyone STAY SAFE! 💨 @Channel8ABC pic.twitter.com/fwrzlgTE3w
— Macy Meyer (@MacyMeyerKLKN) December 15, 2021
Smoke and dust from the fire near my parents house on the NW side of Guymon, OK! 70-80 winds and no rain in months, this is a very scary situation! #okfire #okweather pic.twitter.com/T9i6VrNahD
— Trevor Powers (@TheCoachPowers) December 15, 2021
This was the scene in Amarillo, Texas on Wednesday as winds gusted up to 70 mph 💨😮 Credit: Ryan White @spann @StormHour pic.twitter.com/32jhlsXpXP
— Greg Pollak (@GregPollak) December 15, 2021
"DUST BOWL 2021" This video from Main Street in Elkhart, Kan. is just one example of the severe conditions wind and dust are creating across Kansas. https://t.co/RaVNioniQB #kwch12 #storm12 #kswx pic.twitter.com/n2QJdzX0RJ
— KWCH Eyewitness News (@KWCH12) December 15, 2021
My parents just sent me this. Pueblo West, CO #cowx pic.twitter.com/6pym8fYMA7
— Kevin Velazquez (@kvcreativetv) December 15, 2021
I'm setting in my office with no power. This is what it looks like outside. Remind me of why I spend so much time in Southeastern Colorado. pic.twitter.com/Bdi84VqiGo
— Donsteerman (@donsteerman) December 15, 2021
Front arrives in Boulder, CO #cowx #boulder #nwsboulder #Weather pic.twitter.com/mKIZ5DpM6Y
— The G List (@list_g_the) December 15, 2021
The wind storm
Ripping at the ridge tops in the Rockies on Wednesday morning, winds were predicted to quickly ramp up into the day farther to the east into the Plains. Gusts of 30 to 40 mph across the southern high Plains in the morning were expected to increase to midday gusts of 60 to 80 mph across southeast Colorado, portions of the Front Range and into adjacent areas.
Through the midday hours, winds sustained near or above 50 mph were forecast for Boulder and on the west side of Denver. Gusts in Boulder were anticipated to reach 80 to 100 mph and over 100 mph in higher elevations.
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Further south, in Pueblo, maximum winds were forecast to be about 10 mph lower. Forecasters called for wind gusts of 70 to 80 mph across much of the southern High Plains.
By late afternoon and early evening, the strongest winds were to move through Kansas and Nebraska, with widespread gusts over 60 mph. That wind core was then to translate to Iowa and other parts of the Midwest by late evening, followed by some weakening of the winds, but with many gusts of 55 mph toward the western Great Lakes.
Peak gusts were forecast to top 60 mph in almost all of Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa and parts of New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
The severe thunderstorm and tornado threat
The Weather Service declared a level 4 out of 5 risk for severe storms in northern Iowa and Minnesota. It had never previously issued a risk forecast at that level in this area during December.
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The level 4 out of 5 risk was the second in recent days, following Friday night’s historic tornado outbreak in the Mid-South.
“Widespread severe wind gusts of 60-75 mph along with at least a few tornadoes are likely from late afternoon through this evening across the Mid-Missouri Valley to the Upper Mississippi Valley,” the Storm Prediction Center wrote. “Embedded gusts of 80-100 mph and a nocturnal strong tornado or two are also possible, particularly across western to northern Iowa and southeast Minnesota.”
The record-breaking tornadoes that swept the United States, by the numbers
Cities in zones of elevated risk included Minneapolis, Des Moines, Rochester, Mason City and Cedar Rapids.
Good Lord. This is just eerie for mid December in Iowa.
Please prepare for foul weather after 4pm- frankly I wouldn't be going out later today if I didn't have to. These storms will be intense. pic.twitter.com/1Qz7BPXrhn
— Brandon Lawrence (@brandonlaw_wx) December 15, 2021
The threat of significant tornadoes included a 10 percent probability that one or more may be strong to violent.
The severe weather risk was unusually far north and west for this time of year. “The threat appears to be unprecedented for this region this late,” the Storm Prediction Center wrote.
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In fact, the region at risk had seen no tornado activity in the modern record during December. In all of the winter months (December through February), only one tornado had occurred in Wednesday’s zone of highest risk.
Meteorologist Matthew Cappucci explains how, when and where tornadoes form, and how climate change could be affecting these devastating weather events. (Video: Joshua Carroll/The Washington Post, Photo: Matthew Cappucci/The Washington Post)
The fire threat
The combination of the high winds and unusually dry conditions in the Southern and Central Plains meant an exceptionally high fire threat. Any blazes that erupted could be difficult or impossible to contain, forecasters warned.
The Weather Service issued its first “extremely critical” fire outlook for the area in December.
“Very dangerous wildfire-spread conditions” are expected, the Storm Prediction Center wrote. The threat was forecast to be greatest between late morning and midafternoon Wednesday.
Dangerous critical to extreme fire weather conditions are expected today from parts of eastern CO/NM into the OK/TX Panhandles, KS and southern NE. Sustained winds 30-40 mph (gusts to 60 mph) will cause rapid fire spread should ignitions occur. Avoid outdoor burning. pic.twitter.com/y3ocoaObOc
— NWS Storm Prediction Center (@NWSSPC) December 15, 2021
The zone of greatest concern was from northeast New Mexico to southern Nebraska, including the northern Panhandle of Texas, the Oklahoma Panhandle and western Kansas.
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In addition to the fire threat, dust storms were predicted, restricting visibility.
Cold, heat, fires, hurricanes and tornadoes: The year in weather disasters
The warmth
Ahead of the windy storm, exceptionally warm air was expected to result in dozens of record highs from Texas to Michigan, by large margins in some cases.
Temperatures in the upper 70s were predicted in Dallas and Oklahoma City, with mid-70s around Kansas City. Temperatures in the 70s were forecast to surge into Iowa, with mid-60s in Chicago.
Some spots in the vicinity of Iowa could top the records by 15 to 20 degrees, forecasters said. In Des Moines, which was expected to hit 70, the previous record of 59 had already been surpassed at 6 a.m. Parts of Iowa were predicted to have temperatures 30 to 40 degrees above normal.
As the third round of record warmth in the eastern half of the nation, it would only add to a historically warm December in many areas. Human-caused climate change is increasing the intensity and likelihood of such warm weather.
The meteorological setup for this storm
The forecast surface map (below) showed an intense cyclone or zone of low pressure positioned across the Four Corners region of Minnesota-Iowa-South Dakota-Nebraska early Wednesday evening. The storm was predicted to intensify rapidly through the day.
The thin, curved, black lines are isobars (lines of constant pressure), and in this storm, were gradually becoming very crowded together with time — meaning an intensifying pressure gradient. That was expected to drive exceptionally powerful, widespread winds feeding into the parent storm.
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The “business zone” of this cyclone was the “warm sector” or region between the warm and cold fronts. Here, a low-level air mass of anomalously warm and humid air was surging northward from the Gulf of Mexico. This plume of buoyant air was forecast to be uncharacteristically unstable for mid-December and so far north, and was expected to provide the fuel for intense thunderstorms during the evening hours.
An elevated swath of warm and dry air over the upper Plains was predicted to add to the mix, rendering the air mass in parts of the warm sector quite volatile by enhancing the instability.
A key component to the severe setup was extremely strong low- and mid-level airstreams feeding into the deepening cyclone, in such a way that those winds veer or turn clockwise with altitude. This type of wind shear was conducive to rotating, solitary thunderstorms called supercells.
In the upper atmosphere, an unusually potent upper-level disturbance (shown above) was forecast to approach the Iowa-Minnesota region early in the evening. The spreading apart or “fanning” of winds (as noted in the figure) was particularly conducive to concentrating a pocket of strong upward motion over the region. The intense wind shear and strong dynamics associated with the storm system was forecast by models to create not only supercells but also bow-echo-like complexes with embedded tornadoes and downbursts.
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NASA refuses to rename James Webb Space Telescope : NPR
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Shadowed by controversy, NASA won't rename its new space telescope
September 30, 2021 12:15 AM ET
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NASA's new telescope bears the name of James Webb (center), an influential figure who was appointed by President John F. Kennedy to lead the space agency during the '60s. But some astronomers say discrimination against gay and lesbian government employees during his tenure should preclude him from having a telescope named in his honor.
PhotoQuest/Getty Images
NASA does not plan to rename its new $10 billion technological marvel, the James Webb Space Telescope, despite concerns about it being named after former NASA administrator James Webb, who went along with government discrimination against gay and lesbian employees in the 1950s and 1960s.
The space agency tells NPR it has investigated the matter and decided to keep the telescope's name as is, ahead of the long-awaited launch in December.
"We have found no evidence at this time that warrants changing the name of the James Webb Space Telescope," says NASA administrator Bill Nelson.
The powerful telescope, often viewed as the successor to Hubble, will be able to see light from the earliest galaxies in the universe and analyze the atmospheres of planets orbiting distant stars, searching for gases in the air that might indicate the presence of life.
But some people, while thrilled about the scientific promise of this telescope, have taken issue with naming it after Webb, who ran the agency during the key years when it was working to put astronauts on the moon.
Space
NASA's Got A New, Big Telescope. It Could Find Hints Of Life On Far-Flung Planets
Controversy erupts
Earlier this year, over 1,200 people, mostly astronomers or astronomy enthusiasts — including scholars who want to use the new telescope for their own research — signed a petition urging NASA to rename the telescope, saying that Webb seems to have been complicit in the purge of homosexual people from government jobs during his time in public service, including when he served in a high-level position in the U.S. State Department.
They cite evidence such as the interrogation of NASA employee Clifford Norton, who was fired in 1963 while Webb was directing the agency. "The historical record is already clear: under Webb's leadership, queer people were persecuted," the letter says.
"At best, Webb's record is complicated," says Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, a cosmologist at the University of New Hampshire who co-authored an article calling for the telescope to be renamed. "And at worst, we're basically just sending this incredible instrument into the sky with the name of a homophobe on it, in my opinion."
She notes that Norton was arrested for gay activity, interrogated by the police, and then picked up by NASA's head of security and questioned at the agency.
"I haven't seen evidence that Webb knew about this incident," she says. "But I think we have two options here: Either he was a wildly incompetent administrator and didn't know that his head of security was interrogating employees in NASA facilities, or he knew exactly what was going on and he was in some sense party to overseeing the interrogation of someone for being gay."
In response to the controversy, NASA opened an investigation "to examine Webb's role in government," but the agency has offered no other details about how that review was conducted or who evaluated its findings — other than mentioning that historians were involved.
"We've done as much as we can do at this point and have exhausted our research efforts," senior science communications officer Karen Fox told NPR in an email on Wednesday. "Those efforts have not uncovered evidence warranting a name change."
The lack of transparency is all the more troubling to Prescod-Weinstein.
"I have to tell you that I'm concerned that they have chosen not to be public about this," she says.
As a Black, queer person, she says, she wishes the agency would explain its reasoning, especially given the facts that have already been openly discussed.
"I'm basically a NASA fan girl," says Prescod-Weinstein, who adds that she is a member of multiple NASA collaborations and was in a NASA postdoctoral program. "And so this is particularly hard for me, to feel like I'm being gaslit by the agency that I have spent my career looking up to, and that I have committed parts of my career to."
How Webb ended up on a telescope
Space telescopes typically get named after famous scientists. The Hubble Space Telescope honors American astronomer Edwin Hubble. The Spitzer Space Telescope was named after American astronomer and theoretical physicist Lyman Spitzer Jr. The Chandra X-ray Observatory is named after the late Indian-American Nobel laureate Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.
The decision to name this telescope after Webb was made by a different NASA administrator, Sean O'Keefe, who is now at Syracuse University. Like Webb, O'Keefe didn't have a background in science before coming to NASA, but rather he had one in professional management and administration.
He says in his field, Webb was a towering figure, who helped establish the National Academy of Public Administration and was a thought leader in developing the best ways of bringing people from diverse fields together to pursue ambitious goals.
When O'Keefe took over the top job at NASA, he says, everyone was referring to an exciting new space telescope that was in development as the "Next Generation Space Telescope."
"That's about as illuminating and exciting as, you know, whatever," says O'Keefe, who previously served as secretary of the Navy, a role that involves deciding on the name of ships.
He decided, after casual conversations with others at NASA, to name the new telescope after Webb. "There was no appointed group of commissioners to come up with a name," says O'Keefe, who said everyone he spoke with seemed to like the idea.
One astronaut told O'Keefe that NASA probably wouldn't have continued to exist if not for the way that Webb established the agency. And when the telescope's new name was announced, in 2002, The New York Times noted that astronomers didn't seem to care. They were mostly glad that the project had the support and attention of the agency's top officials.
Science
NASA Is Launching A New Telescope That Could Offer Some Cosmic Eye Candy
History revisited
In 2015, however, sex and relationship advice columnist Dan Savage wrote an article titled, "Should NASA Name A Telescope After a Dead Guy Who Persecuted Gay People in the 1950s?" Since then, there's been online debate about Webb in blogs and Twitter that has increased in the past year, as astronomers and historians have weighed in and the December launch date draws near.
"It's unpleasant to think that NASA's awesome new telescope, whose exciting capabilities underpin so many current and future careers, is named for someone who helped enact a campaign that ruined so many peoples' lives," wrote Lucianne Walkowicz, an astronomer based at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago.
To O'Keefe, all of this controversy came out of the blue. But he understands the concern.
"This is an important matter of history, to understand how it is we could possibly have tolerated the purging of talented professionals on the basis of their personal preferences," says O'Keefe. "That's just so objectionable. No question about it, and I applaud the effort to surface the visibility and awareness of it."
At the same time, he hasn't seen anything that convinces him that Webb was directly involved in demanding a purge of gay government officials or carrying it out. "To then suggest he'd be held accountable for that activity when there's no evidence to even hint at that — it is an injustice," says O'Keefe.
John Logsdon, a historian with George Washington University who knew Webb when he led the agency, says the NASA manager was a consummate Washington insider and "a product of the value system of his time."
"I don't think he took any particular actions that were unacceptable at the time," says Logsdon. "But in this new 'woke' world, they probably wouldn't be acceptable."
Prescod-Weinstein, meanwhile, believes that names of major scientific instruments like this one should convey the very best of what humanity can be.
For her personally, all of this brings up "the fight that I have had to have to be OK with myself as a queer person. And I don't think that that should be associated with the incredible thing that is the cosmos."
Out-Of-This-World Views Of Space Are Possible With NASA's New Multi-Billion Dollar Telescope
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Is it fair for Laurel Hubbard to compete against women? | The Spectator
Laurel Hubbard (Getty images)
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Today, the conversation about transgender rights and the interests of women turns to sport. At the Olympic Games, Laurel Hubbard of New Zealand, will compete in the +87kg women’s weightlifting.
Hubbard, as you surely know, was born male and grew up to become a competitive weightlifter. At the age of 33, the athlete then transitioned and became a trans woman. And because the International Olympic Committee effectively signs up to the mantra of trans rights – 'Trans women are women' – Hubbard can duly compete in the women’s contest in Tokyo.
To a lot of people, the prospect of a male-born weightlifter competing with biological women calls to mind a line from George Orwell:
'One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.'*
Sport might well be the aspect of the trans debate that sparks the greatest public engagement with the issue. I write about this stuff a lot, because I think it’s important for several reasons, but I’m under no illusions about its place in the public priority list. Most people don’t know much about the sex and gender question, and don’t really have strong feelings on it either. Politically, this is a marginal issue for the majority of UK voters.
Some of that is because the instances where trans rights and women’s interests collide are often not ones that interest the wider public. Prisons policy is a good example. It’s clear, and confirmed by a recent court judgement, that policies meant to promote the interests of trans women inmates impose a cost on female inmates.
But most voters don’t care what goes on in prisons, so the conflict of rights involved in 'trans women are women' passes them by.
If anything is going to change that, it will be sport. Partly because people care about sport, and partly because sport makes things very visible and easy to understand. 'Trans women are women' sounds blandly innocuous to many people, who can happily repeat it thinking they’re just being kind and tolerant, and without reflecting on the implications of that assertion. Then Laurel Hubbard appears on the screen, and the true meaning of 'trans women are women' starts to become apparent.
Is it fair for male-born people to compete in sporting events against female-born people?
Is it fair for male-born people to compete in sporting events against female-born people? The question arouses strong feelings: a lot of people have very clear views about sport and fairness. The idea of fair competition in sport, of playing the game honestly and fairly, are wired into many cultures, not least Britain’s.
So some people will look at Hubbard competing against biological women and conclude that this cannot be fair. They argue that the simple facts of male biology mean that a person who has gone through male puberty will, on average, be stronger and faster than a person who has gone through female puberty.
Most readers are, I expect, familiar with the arguments against allowing trans women such as Laurel Hubbard to compete in women’s events, so I won’t rehearse them here.
I’m more interested in the case for inclusion, in the points made by people who think that Hubbard and other trans women should be in women’s sport. Because I think a close look at the evidence and arguments here reveals something interesting, and familiar.
Here, I’m greatly assisted by a long and largely balanced BBC analysis of Hubbard’s appearance in Tokyo and the issues it raises.
That piece cites experts who say the evidence is not so clear. Because gender transition, in its current form, is a relatively recent phenomenon, it is argued, we simply don’t have enough good evidence on the physical implications of hormone-suppressant therapy.
Joanna Harper of Loughborough University has investigated that question and advised the IOC. Harper told the BBC:
'We don't know for certain whether transgender women are pound for pound stronger than cis gender women. That's something that hasn't been determined yet. It's possible, but it's not clear.'
That was echoed by James Barrett, lead clinician at the Gender Identity Clinic based at London’s Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust and Senior Lecturer at the Imperial College of Science and Medicine. Barrett is part of an ongoing IOC-backed study observing more than 40 male athletes going through gender transition, to gather evidence on the physical impact of that change.
Barrett tells the BBC that right now, the evidence isn’t available to answer clearly that question about the fairness of trans women in female sports:
'We're waiting for the data to come in. People are making the assumption that being trans women athletes confers advantage. It isn't obvious that it does.'
In effect, these scientists are saying: be careful about your instinctive, 'it’s bleeding obvious' gut reaction to the sight of Laurel Hubbard competing against biological women in the Olympics. It’s not as simple as you might think.
Personally, I am instinctively sympathetic to this sort of point. I spend some of my working life telling people 'it’s more complicated than that', so when highly qualified academics tell me a scientific question is uncertain and complex, I’m happy to listen.
But that uncertainty about the science around trans women in sport raises questions of its own. And here things start to feel very familiar to someone who has considered questions of sex and gender in law and policy.
Go back to the Hubbard question: is it fair for a male-born athlete to compete against people born female?
Let us accept the point made by Harper and Barrett: we can’t yet conclude that trans women, as a category, are faster and stronger than biological females. So by inference, we can’t yet answer the Hubbard question. We need more evidence.
Yet even in the absence of that evidence, Hubbard is competing against female athletes in the Olympic Games.
What can we conclude from that? Let’s consider this situation in the most general terms. Here is a complex and contested issue involving two groups of people: male-born trans women, and biological women. A decision must be made about whether to grant something to the first group which could have a negative impact on the second group. The evidence on which that decision might be based is contested and unclear. The decision is taken to accommodate the male-born group, despite the possibility that this will be harmful to the female-born group.
Is it fair for trans women such as Laurel Hubbard to compete against biological women? I won’t bother to give my answer. Instead I will say that the decision to allow such a thing to happen is entirely consistent with other applications of a 'trans women are women' approach to questions of policy and practice, where time after time, the interests of male-born people are assigned greater importance than the interests of female-born people.
*(For fans of internet wisdom, that line is probably why a lot of people, wrongly, think Orwell said: 'Some ideas are so stupid that only intellectuals believe them.')
Written by James Kirkup
James Kirkup is director of the Social Market Foundation and a former political editor of the Scotsman and the Daily Telegraph.
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Why sexism is still a problem at the most ‘gender-equal’ Olympics | Olympics News | Al Jazeera
BREAKING Ukraine says will try to establish Mariupol humanitarian corridor on Monday
News|Olympics
Why sexism is still a problem at the most ‘gender-equal’ Olympics
Sexualisation, policing of testosterone levels and underrepresentation of women in top sports jobs are just some of the issues.
Runners compete in a heat of the 4 x 400m mixed relay at the 2020 Summer Olympics, on Friday, July 30, 2021, in Tokyo [Charlie Riedel/ AP]
By Zaheena Rasheed
Tokyo 2020 is being billed as the “ first gender-equal Olympic Games ever”.
With nearly the same number of male and female athletes, and a sporting schedule that gives equal visibility for men and women’s events during primetime hours, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) says it took deliberate action to make sure this year’s Games constitute a “landmark in gender equality”, both on and off the field of play.
But analysts say the rhetoric and the reality are “miles apart”.
From sexualisation and policing of testosterone levels to women having to fight to bring their breastfed children to the pandemic-restricted Games, analysts say discrimination remains rife.
“This idea of equal numbers can actually conceal the fact that there’s still so much more to be done,” says Michelle O’Shea, senior lecturer at the School of Business at Western Sydney University in Australia. “Yes, we’ve got women on the pitch and in the arena. But their experiences are still very concerning.”
Tokyo Olympics — The Essentials | Start Here
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Much of this has to do with a history of women’s exclusion in sport.
When the first modern Olympics was held in 1896 in Athens, Greece, women were deliberately barred from taking part.
At the time, the founder of the IOC, Baron Pierre de Coubertin, argued an Olympics with women would be “impractical, uninteresting, unaesthetic and indecent”. The Games, he said, were created for “the solemn and periodic exaltation of male athleticism” with “female applause as a reward”.
“Straight away, you can see the kind of exclusion that women were up against as part of the Olympic movement,” says Jordan Matthews, senior lecturer in Sport Development at the University of Chichester, United Kingdom. “If they were allowed in at all, it was to applaud the male athletes who were actually taking part.”
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But women fought back, he says.
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Under pressure from athletes such as French rower Alice Milliat who even launched a separate Olympics for women, the IOC began including more and more female events. Still, for years, women were “confined to more aesthetic events” or “even play and dance routines” such as swimming, figure skating and fencing.
“The idea around this was that it was more suitable to female biology and less threatening to dominant images of femininity around the time,” says Matthews. “Women weren’t expected to run too far because they might sweat and we don’t want them sweating. They might not throw things as far because we don’t want them to damage their internal organs.”
Over time, the IOC did cede ground to women athletes – albeit reluctantly.
It was only in 2012 that the global sporting body allowed women to compete in all sports on the Olympic programme and it was only in 2014 that it committed to gender parity at the Games.
This year, women make up 48.8 percent of the 11,000 Olympians, up from 45.6 percent in 2016 and 44.2 percent in 2012.
Misugu Okamoto of Japan competes in the women’s park skateboarding finals at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Wednesday, August 4, 2021, in Tokyo, Japan [Ben Curtis/ AP]
Carissa Moore, of the United States, competes during the gold medal heat in the women’s surfing competition at the 2020 Summer Olympics at Tsurigasaki beach in Ichinomiya, Japan, on July 27, 2021 [File: Francisco Seco/ AP]
Altogether, they are competing in more than 300 events, including in some that were previously only open to males, such as the 1,500m freestyle. They are also taking part in all of the new sports added to the Games, including skateboarding and surfing, and are also competing alongside men in several mixed-gender races, including in athletics, swimming and triathlon.
Still, events such as the Olympic decathlon – where the world’s greatest athlete is crowned – continue to exclude women. The 50km race walk also bars women, with the IOC and World Athletics saying the women’s event currently lacks the depth and quality to justify Olympic status.
In Gymnastics, meanwhile, male and female events continue to differ, notes Josie Jones, the diversity and inclusion manager at Women in Sport, with men competing in events that “show strength” like pommel horse and rings and women competing in events “where balance and artistic skill are on show” like beam and floor.
“The women’s floor events are also set to music a bit more like a dance, again a big focus on the aesthetics,” she says. “I find this perplexing. Yes, men are on average substantially bigger and stronger than women, but I find it hard to believe that women couldn’t ‘pommel’ well and men couldn’t keep a rhythm.”
“Surely we are stereotyping here?” she adds.
‘Questionable science’
Such sexist ideals also plague the IOC’s regulations on testosterone.
Set by World Athletics, the rules say female athletes who are intersex or have differences in sex development need to artificially reduce their testosterone levels to below 5 nanomoles per litre if they want to take part in the middle-distance running events of 400m to 1,500m.
This has resulted in the disqualification of several women, primarily from the global South.
Gabrielle Thomas, right, of the United States, leads Christine Mboma, of Namibia, in their heat of the women’s 200m at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Monday, August 2, 2021, in Tokyo [Petr David Josek/ AP]
Two Namibian runners – Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi – were pulled from the 400m race, despite being considered medal contenders. South Africa’s Caster Semenya, Burundi’s Francine Niyonsaba and Kenya’s Margaret Wambui were also barred from competing in the 800m race – the three had swept the event in the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, with Semenya winning the gold, and Niyonsaba and Wambu taking the silver and bronze, respectively.
Cara Ocobock, assistant professor of anthropology at the University of Notre Dame in the United States, says the testosterone rules are “problematic”, “sexist” and “based on questionable science”.
They imply testosterone, a primarily male hormone, is “the all-powerful secret sauce of athletic performance”, she says. “And that’s just not true. There are so many other variables – including genetics, hormones, training and nutrition, and even just how the athlete feels on the morning of an event.”
She notes that only three of the 11 running events analysed by World Athletics showed a significant relationship between performances and testosterone, and says that other events that did show a significant relationship – like the hammer throw and pole vault – are not even covered by the regulations.
“We are just not at a point of having good solid data to understand what might be going on,” she says. “And I fall on the side of inclusion until we actually have the science to really inform decision making.”
‘Trailblazing’
The hurdles for women do not end with qualification.
This year, some women had to fight to bring their breastfed children with them as the IOC had barred families from the Olympic Village. It only relented when stars such as Canadian basketballer Kim Gaucher took to social media to complain that she was being forced to choose between “being a breastfeeding mum or an Olympic athlete”.
Then, there is also the issue of sexualisation.
The Representation Project, a US-based gender justice group, says its analysis of prime-time media coverage of the first week of Tokyo 2020 found female athletes are about 10 times more likely to be visually objectified with a camera angle than male athletes.
It also found that two-thirds of female athletes wore revealing outfits compared with half of male athletes.
“Imagine being that female athlete and trying to perform, knowing that hundreds of millions of people are watching you and feeling uncomfortable in what you’re wearing,” says Lucy Piggott, a postdoctoral fellow at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “It’s something that male athletes rarely have to think about.”
Pauline Schaefer-Betz, of Germany, performs her floor exercise routine during the women’s artistic gymnastic qualifications at the 2020 Summer Olympics, in Tokyo [File: Gregory Bull/ AP]
That’s why, she says, “it is so trailblazing” that the German women’s gymnastics team decided to wear full body suits instead of bikini-cut leotards at the Olympics and that the Norwegian beach handball team braved a fine and decided to wear shorts instead of the required bikini bottoms at the recent European Beach Handball Championships.
None of this is surprising, Piggott says, given the low numbers of women in top sports jobs.
Only a third of the IOC’s executive board is women, while the number is even lower for other Olympic and Paralympic sports bodies.
Research Piggott conducted with Matthews of the University of Chichester found that women make up just 22 percent of executive boards in international sporting organisations and only seven percent of president or chair roles.
Meanwhile, only 10 percent of accredited coaches at the Summer and Winter Olympics over the past decade have been women.
“In terms of equal gender representation for athletes at the Olympics, there’s been huge progress made,” she says. “But we still have a long ways to go.”
Source: Al Jazeera
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After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?' : NPR
Special Series
The War On Drugs: 50 Years Later
After 50 Years Of The War On Drugs, 'What Good Is It Doing For Us?'
June 17, 2021 5:00 AM ET
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Brian Mann
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During the War on Drugs, the Brownsville neighborhood in New York City saw some of the highest rates of incarceration in the U.S., as Black and Hispanic men were sent to prison for lengthy prison sentences, often for low-level, nonviolent drug crimes.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
When Aaron Hinton walked through the housing project in Brownsville on a recent summer afternoon, he voiced love and pride for this tightknit, but troubled working-class neighborhood in New York City where he grew up.
He pointed to a community garden, the lush plots of vegetables and flowers tended by volunteers, and to the library where he has led after-school programs for kids.
But he also expressed deep rage and sorrow over the scars left by the nation's 50-year-long War on Drugs. "What good is it doing for us?" Hinton asked.
Revisiting Two Cities At The Front Line Of The War On Drugs
As the United States' harsh approach to drug use and addiction hits the half-century milestone, this question is being asked by a growing number of lawmakers, public health experts and community leaders.
In many parts of the U.S., some of the most severe policies implemented during the drug war are being scaled back or scrapped altogether.
Hinton, a 37-year-old community organizer and activist, said the reckoning is long overdue. He described watching Black men like himself get caught up in drugs year after year and swept into the nation's burgeoning prison system.
"They're spending so much money on these prisons to keep kids locked up," Hinton said, shaking his head. "They don't even spend a fraction of that money sending them to college or some kind of school."
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Aaron Hinton, a 37-year-old veteran activist and community organizer, said it's clear Brownsville needed help coping with the cocaine, heroin and other drug-related crime that took root here in the 1970s and 1980s. His own family was devastated by addiction.
Brian Mann
Hinton has lived his whole life under the drug war. He said Brownsville needed help coping with cocaine, heroin and drug-related crime that took root here in the 1970s and 1980s.
His own family was scarred by addiction.
"I've known my mom to be a drug user my whole entire life," Hinton said. "She chose to run the streets and left me with my great-grandmother."
Four years ago, his mom overdosed and died after taking prescription painkillers, part of the opioid epidemic that has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans.
Hinton said her death sealed his belief that tough drug war policies and aggressive police tactics would never make his family or his community safer.
The nation pivots (slowly) as evidence mounts against the drug war
During months of interviews for this project, NPR found a growing consensus across the political spectrum — including among some in law enforcement — that the drug war simply didn't work.
"We have been involved in the failed War on Drugs for so very long," said retired Maj. Neill Franklin, a veteran with the Baltimore City Police and the Maryland State Police who led drug task forces for years.
He now believes the response to drugs should be handled by doctors and therapists, not cops and prison guards. "It does not belong in our wheelhouse," Franklin said during a press conference this week.
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Aaron Hinton has lived his whole life under the drug war. He has watched many Black men like himself get caught up in drugs year after year, swept into the nation's criminal justice system.
Brian Mann/NPR
Some prosecutors have also condemned the drug war model, describing it as ineffective and racially biased.
"Over the last 50 years, we've unfortunately seen the 'War on Drugs' be used as an excuse to declare war on people of color, on poor Americans and so many other marginalized groups," said New York Attorney General Letitia James in a statement sent to NPR.
On Tuesday, two House Democrats introduced legislation that would decriminalize all drugs in the U.S., shifting the national response to a public health model. The measure appears to have zero chance of passage.
But in much of the country, disillusionment with the drug war has already led to repeal of some of the most punitive policies, including mandatory lengthy prison sentences for nonviolent drug users.
In recent years, voters and politicians in 17 states — including red-leaning Alaska and Montana — and the District of Columbia have backed the legalization of recreational marijuana, the most popular illicit drug, a trend that once seemed impossible.
Last November, Oregon became the first state to decriminalize small quantities of all drugs, including heroin and methamphetamines.
Many critics say the course correction is too modest and too slow.
"The war on drugs was an absolute miscalculation of human behavior," said Kassandra Frederique, who heads the Drug Policy Alliance, a national group that advocates for total drug decriminalization.
She said the criminal justice model failed to address the underlying need for jobs, health care and safe housing that spur addiction.
Indeed, much of the drug war's architecture remains intact. Federal spending on drugs — much of it devoted to interdiction — is expected to top $37 billion this year.
The Coronavirus Crisis
Drug Overdose Deaths Spiked To 88,000 During The Pandemic, White House Says
The U.S. still incarcerates more people than any other nation, with nearly half of the inmates in federal prison held on drug charges.
But the nation has seen a significant decline in state and federal inmate populations, down by a quarter from the peak of 1.6 million in 2009 to roughly 1.2 million last year.
There has also been substantial growth in public funding for health care and treatment for people who use drugs, due in large part to passage of the Affordable Care Act.
"The best outcomes come when you treat the substance use disorder [as a medical condition] as opposed to criminalizing that person and putting them in jail or prison," said Dr. Nora Volkow, who has been head of the National Institute of Drug Abuse since 2003.
Volkow said data shows clearly that the decision half a century ago to punish Americans who struggle with addiction was "devastating ... not just to them but actually to their families."
From a bipartisan War on Drugs to Black Lives Matter
Wounds left by the drug war go far beyond the roughly 20.3 million people who have a substance use disorder.
The campaign — which by some estimates cost more than $1 trillion — also exacerbated racial divisions and infringed on civil liberties in ways that transformed American society.
Frederique, with the Drug Policy Alliance, said the Black Lives Matter movement was inspired in part by cases that revealed a dangerous attitude toward drugs among police.
In Derek Chauvin's murder trial, the former officer's defense claimed aggressive police tactics were justified because of small amounts of fentanyl in George Floyd's body. Critics described the argument as an attempt to "weaponize" Floyd's substance use disorder and jurors found Chauvin guilty.
Breonna Taylor, meanwhile, was shot and killed by police in her home during a drug raid. She wasn't a suspect in the case.
"We need to end the drug war not just for our loved ones that are struggling with addiction, but we need to remove the excuse that that is why law enforcement gets to invade our space ... or kill us," Frederique said.
The United States has waged aggressive campaigns against substance use before, most notably during alcohol Prohibition in the 1920s and 1930s.
The modern drug war began with a symbolic address to the nation by President Richard Nixon on June 17, 1971.
Speaking from the White House, Nixon declared the federal government would now treat drug addiction as "public enemy No. 1," suggesting substance use might be vanquished once and for all.
"In order to fight and defeat this enemy," Nixon said, "it is necessary to wage a new all-out offensive."
President Nixon Declares Drug Abuse "Public Enemy Number One"
Watch on
President Richard Nixon's speech on June 17, 1971, marked the symbolic start of the modern drug war. In the decades that followed Democrats and Republicans embraced ever-tougher laws penalizing people with addiction.
Richard Nixon Foundation YouTube
Studies show from the outset drug laws were implemented with a stark racial bias, leading to unprecedented levels of mass incarceration for Black and brown men.
As recently as 2018, Black men were nearly six times more likely than white men to be locked up in state or federal correctional facilities, according to the U.S. Justice Department.
Researchers have long concluded the pattern has far-reaching impacts on Black families, making it harder to find employment and housing, while also preventing many people of color with drug records from voting.
In a 1994 interview published in Harper's Magazine, Nixon adviser John Ehrlichman suggested racial animus was among the motives shaping the drug war.
"We knew we couldn't make it illegal to be either against the [Vietnam] War or Black," Ehrlichman said. "But by getting the public to associate the hippies with marijuana and Blacks with heroin, and then criminalizing both heavily, we could disrupt those communities."
Despite those concerns, Democrats and Republicans partnered on the drug war decade after decade, approving ever-more-severe laws, creating new state and federal bureaucracies to interdict drugs, and funding new armies of police and federal agents.
At times, the fight on America's streets resembled an actual war, especially in poor communities and communities of color.
Police units carried out drug raids with military-style hardware that included body armor, assault weapons and tanks equipped with battering rams.
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President Richard Nixon explaining aspects of the special message sent to the Congress on June 17, 1971, asking for an extra $155 million for a new program to combat the use of drugs. He labeled drug abuse "a national emergency."
Harvey Georges/AP
"What we need is another D-Day, not another Vietnam, not another limited war fought on the cheap," declared then-Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., in 1989.
Biden, who chaired the influential Senate Judiciary Committee, later co-authored the controversial 1994 crime bill that helped fund a vast new complex of state and federal prisons, which remains the largest in the world.
On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden stopped short of repudiating his past drug policy ideas but said he now believes no American should be incarcerated for addiction. He also endorsed national decriminalization of marijuana.
While few policy experts believe the drug war will come to a conclusive end any time soon, the end of bipartisan backing for punitive drug laws is a significant development.
More drugs bring more deaths and more doubts
Adding to pressure for change is the fact that despite a half-century of interdiction, America's streets are flooded with more potent and dangerous drugs than ever before — primarily methamphetamines and the synthetic opioid fentanyl.
"Back in the day, when we would see 5, 10 kilograms of meth, that would make you a hero if you made a seizure like that," said Matthew Donahue, the head of operations at the Drug Enforcement Administration.
National
As U.S. Corporations Face Reckoning Over Prescription Opioids, CEOs Keep Cashing In
"Now it's common for us to see 100-, 200- and 300-kilogram seizures of meth," he added. "It doesn't make a dent to the price."
Efforts to disrupt illegal drug supplies suffered yet another major blow last year after Mexican officials repudiated drug war tactics and began blocking most interdiction efforts south of the U.S.-Mexico border.
"It's a national health threat, it's a national safety threat," Donahue told NPR.
Last year, drug overdoses hit a devastating new record of 90,000 deaths, according to preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The drug war failed to stop the opioid epidemic
Critics say the effectiveness of the drug war model has been called into question for another reason: the nation's prescription opioid epidemic.
Beginning in the late 1990s, some of the nation's largest drug companies and pharmacy chains invested heavily in the opioid business.
State and federal regulators and law enforcement failed to intervene as communities were flooded with legally manufactured painkillers, including Oxycontin.
"They were utterly failing to take into account diversion," said West Virginia Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, who sued the DEA for not curbing opioid production quotas sooner.
"It's as close to a criminal act as you can find," Morrisey said.
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Courtney Hessler, a reporter for The (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch in West Virgina, has covered the opioid epidemic. As a child she wound up in foster care after her mother became addicted to opioids. "You know there's thousands of children that grew up the way that I did. These people want answers," Hessler told NPR.
Brian Mann/NPR
One of the epicenters of the prescription opioid epidemic was Huntington, a small city in West Virginia along the Ohio River hit hard by the loss of factory and coal jobs.
"It was pretty bad. Eighty-one million opioid pills over an eight-year period came into this area," said Courtney Hessler, a reporter with The (Huntington) Herald-Dispatch.
Public health officials say 1 in 10 residents in the area still battle addiction. Hessler herself wound up in foster care after her mother struggled with opioids.
In recent months, she has reported on a landmark opioid trial that will test who — if anyone — will be held accountable for drug policies that failed to keep families and communities safe.
"I think it's important. You know there's thousands of children that grew up the way that I did," Hessler said. "These people want answers."
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A needle disposal box at the Cabell-Huntington Health Department sits in the front parking lot in 2019 in Huntington, W.Va. The city is experiencing a surge in HIV cases related to intravenous drug use following a recent opioid crisis in the state.
Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post via Getty Images
During dozens of interviews, community leaders told NPR that places like Huntington, W.Va., and Brownsville, N.Y., will recover from the drug war and rebuild.
They predicted many parts of the country will accelerate the shift toward a public health model for addiction: treating drug users more often like patients with a chronic illness and less often as criminals.
But ending wars is hard and stigma surrounding drug use, heightened by a half-century of punitive policies, remains deeply entrenched. Aaron Hinton, the activist in Brownsville, said it may take decades to unwind the harm done to his neighborhood.
"It's one step forward, two steps back," Hinton said. "But I remain hopeful. Why? Because what else am I going to do?"
opioid epidemic
drug war
public health
war on drugs
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How Queen Elizabeth's Funeral Will Be Different Than Prince Phillip's
How Queen Elizabeth's Funeral Will Be Different Than Prince Phillip's
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
By Camila Barbeito/Updated: April 28, 2021 2:23 pm EDT
Queen Elizabeth II laid her husband Prince Philip to rest on April 17 in an intimate ceremony at St. George's Chapel in Windsor Castle (via CNN ). Married for 73 years, the two fell fast for each other as teenagers, had a very-royal wedding in 1947 at Westminster Abbey, and welcomed four children together (via Metro ). A beautiful life well-lived, both Elizabeth and Philip planned every step of their life together — and that includes their eventual funerals. As The Telegraph reports, Prince Philip planned his funeral 18 years in advance with "military precision," while Elizabeth's future funeral is set to be quite different from her husband's.
According to The Telegraph, Prince Philip "left nothing to chance" when it came to his funeral, planning every step of the ceremony almost two decades prior. Per the outlet, Philip outlined how his coffin would be lowered into Windsor Castle's Royal Vault, while the naval call Action Stations would ring out — a touching moment, indeed.
The prince also planned for his body to be transported in a custom-built Land Rover Defender TD5 130, fine-tuned since 2003 (via The Telegraph). In charge of every detail, Philip decided to have the vehicle repainted military green to pay homage to his time with the Armed Forces (via Royal ). However, Elizabeth is less likely to be able to put such personal touches on her own eventual funeral. Here's how her service will likely differ from Prince Philip's.
Prince Philip planned every detail of his funeral decades in advance
Chris Jackson/Getty Images
With every detail accounted for, Prince Philip even chose the regalia displayed at the chapel the day of his funeral, including aspects of his Danish and Greek background (via The Telegraph ). He also chose the music sung by the choir, including "Eternal Father, Strong to Save," a classic seafarers' song also played at his uncle Earl Mountbatten's funeral (via Express ). A true naval theme throughout, the prince requested Royal Navy pipers and more than 700 military personnel to participate.
With the Action Stations performed by the Buglers of the Royal Marines, plus his Royal Air Force wings and Field Marshal's baton put on full display, it is clear Philip's funeral was all about his military connections, particularly his time fighting in the Royal Navy during World War II (via The Telegraph). Philip also requested that his German family members be included and his coffin be covered with his sword and naval cap, clearly put his life's passions first in the planning of his funeral. Even through pandemic restrictions, Queen Elizabeth II was able to sign off on most of his requests, although she had to make "difficult decisions" regarding the guest list to keep within the 30-person limit (via People ).
On the other hand, the queen's future funeral will be more about the state, with the codename "London Bridge" given to her passing (via The Guardian ). And yes, it is exactly as meticulously planned and detailed as you could expect for the queen — even more than Philip's.
Queen Elizabeth II's funeral will be world's apart from Prince Philip's
Sean Gallup/Getty Images
According to Town and Country, the queen's death is referred to as "Operation London Bridge," and has been planned since the 1960s with several yearly meetings to cement every detail. Per The Guardian, the days after her death will be "10 days of sorrow and spectacle," culminating in her funeral on the 10th day. While Prince Philip was able to make his funeral personal, the queen's service will be more about her beloved country, and crucially include Prince Charles' succession.
According to The Guardian, after the queen's death, both houses of parliament will be recalled, people will leave work, and the following nine days will include a diplomatic assembly, ritual processions, and even a tour by the new king. If Queen Elizabeth II dies abroad, the Royal Flight jet will rush over with the coffin — in fact, a "first call coffin" is ready at all times. If she dies in her summer home of Balmoral, she will lie in Edinburgh until being taken aboard the Royal Train all across the country as crowds wait for her to pass.
No matter where the queen dies, she will eventually return to the throne room in Buckingham Palace until her funeral. As she is placed next to an altar, her successor will be sworn in as king the day after her death in the Accession Council. Afterwards, officials will begin setting up the funeral and 10,000 invitations for guests will be sent out.
Here's what we know about Queen Elizabeth II's funeral plans
Wpa Pool/Getty Images
Queen Elizabeth II's funeral was planned by Lieutenant-Colonel Anthony Mather, not herself, and will be a precise, detail-oriented affair to commemorate her service. As flags fly at half-mast and bells across the country ring, her first-born son, Prince Charles, will become king, and preparations for the funeral — scheduled for nine days later — will begin. The queen is set to be taken from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where she will lie for four days ahead of the funeral. This procession will involve thousands of people and a military parade, which may even include her corgis (via The Guardian ).
Ahead of the funeral, half a million mourners will come from all over the country to pay their respects, and the RAF, Army and Royal Navy will all take part. On the day of the queen's future funeral, most people will take the day off work, and the stock market will not open. Queen Elizabeth II will be taken to the Abbey in the morning, where her official funeral will be held, and 2,000 guests will wait for her inside.
The queen's coffin will be placed by pallbearers on the same gun carriage used for her father King George VI's funeral (and other past monarchs), and will have an archbishop and prayers. The procession will then go on to Windsor Castle, where the royal household will wait for her, and she will finally be buried in the Royal Vault. At that time, Prince Philip's casket will be relocated so he can rest peacefully next to his beloved wife, the queen, for all eternity.
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Elon Musk-WFP Twitter 'feud' raises accountability questions | Devex
Inside Development
Philanthropy
Elon Musk-WFP Twitter 'feud' raises accountability questions
By Stephanie Beasley, Shabtai Gold // 03 November 2021
Agriculture & Rural Development
Funding
Humanitarian Aid
Private Sector
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Billionaire Elon Musk being interviewed at a conference. Photo by: Marla Aufmuth / TED Conference / CC BY-NC
United Nations World Food Programme Executive Director David Beasley said Tuesday that he walked away from a Twitter exchange with billionaire Elon Musk — which centered on how the wealthy could help end world hunger — feeling optimistic that Musk’s attention to the issue could be a “game changer” for efforts to provide food stability for millions of people around the world.
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Still, several experts on philanthropy and global development said they are scratching their heads following the unusually public “callout” and questioned whether it will actually lead to productive conversations or giving from billionaires like Musk. The spat has also raised questions on how to engage wealthy potential donors in the age of social media, how humanitarian agencies arrive at their figures, and about accountability between donors and organizations.
The exchange between Beasley and Musk unfolded like this: Last month, Beasley congratulated Musk on Twitter after he surpassed Jeff Bezos as the world’s richest man. In the same tweet, Beasley challenged Musk to save 42 million people from famine, which Beasley said could be accomplished with $6.6 billion.
“It does not make a lot of sense to compare the wealth of a few billionaires ... with the recurrent needs to deal with hunger and/or famine.”
— David Laborde, senior research fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute
It’s not completely clear from where Beasley got those figures, and WFP declined several requests for comment by Devex. But Beasley, a former United States Republican politician turned outspoken advocate for ending world hunger, has tweeted similar challenges to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson as part of an ongoing campaign to bring more attention to global hunger and WFP’s work.
Musk responded with his own tweet Sunday requesting that Beasley publicly detail how $6 billion would “solve world hunger” and pledged to “sell Tesla stock right now and do it” if he was swayed by the answer. He specified that the solution “must be open source accounting” available to the public.
Beasley has since requested a private meeting with Musk. And during a CNN interview Tuesday, he said he was excited about Musk’s willingness to dialogue.
“This is fantastic news because Elon’s a very, very smart guy,” Beasley said on CNN. “And for him to even enter into this conversation is a game changer because, simply put, we can answer his questions. We can put forward the plan that’s clear.”
Beasley said that he would show that plan, including cost accounting and public transparency, to Musk and provide answers to “any and everything that he would ask.” However, he did not provide that information during the interview or on Twitter.
WFP has cited the 42 million figure for global hunger in an Oct. 29 press release, where it listed Ethiopia, Madagascar, South Sudan, and Yemen as among the countries where “548,000 people currently face famine-like conditions” as climate change intersects with conflict. A recently published annual analysis of hunger levels also found that the “toxic cocktail” of the COVID-19 pandemic, the climate crisis, and severe and protracted violent conflicts were leading to the reversal of progress on eliminating hunger.
Still, some food policy experts raised concerns about Beasley’s approach to publicly engaging billionaires on the complicated and nuanced issue of global hunger.
Beasley and Musk seemed to be “talking past each other” in that exchange, in the sense that there is a difference between food relief and hunger relief aid, said Roger Thurow, a senior fellow for global food and agriculture at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
He noted that while the WFP deals with the immediate world hunger needs, the agency also sees itself as having a long-term role in the battle to end hunger overall, and “put themselves out of business.” But WFP must be open about how it is coming up with its calculations if it wants to get more buy-in on ending global hunger, Thurow said.
“Let’s open all this up so we can really take this transparent look at the costs of ending hunger,” he said. “I’m figuring the WFP, when challenged on these points, should be able to say here’s a breakdown of the $6 billion, and here’s what we will be doing with your money.”
He also cautioned that the WFP was risking its public perception, depending on how it handled the current events.
The flawed premise of the “Twitter feud” between Beasley and Musk also may inhibit the potential for a productive dialogue, said David Laborde, a senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
“On one hand, it does not make a lot of sense to compare the wealth of a few billionaires that are mainly a ‘stock’ and a value of their portfolio with the recurrent needs to deal with hunger and/or famine (a ‘flow’),” he said in an email exchange with Devex. “That’s 101 economics, let’s try to compare things comparable and not mix up things just for the sake of a headline.”
Laborde also said that hunger was difficult to track with just metrics. The two key indicators for the assessment of hunger and food security under Sustainable Development Goal 2 — which aims to end hunger — are the prevalence of undernourishment and the food insecurity scale, Laborde said. Yet, he explained, when the WFP talks about hunger, it focuses more on famine and people in acute food insecurity, which is a concept monitored by the Integrated Security Food Security Phase Classification.
And coming up with accurate numbers is just one part of the issue with assessing global hunger, Laborde said. There also must be an assessment of how much it costs to fix the problem and there are various estimates about how much public and private aid money is needed, he said, noting that costs can vary by location and the frequency of needs.
The WFP estimate focuses on what would be needed this year in emergency spending for 42 million people but not the “real structural agenda to tackle most of the problems faced by the 800-ish million impacted by chronic hunger,” Laborde wrote.
He further voiced concerns about Beasley’s approach, saying that while income inequality across and within countries was a major societal issue and a driver of insecurity, there were opportunities to call for the mobilization of resources without falling into “billionaire bashing.”
Philanthropy experts had a somewhat different take. The Center for Effective Philanthropy President Phil Buchanan said that regardless of whether Beasley overstated the global hunger needs, putting public pressure on the wealthy to work with organizations to address global issues could be beneficial when they engaged with it seriously instead of “trolling,” as he believes Musk did.
“I mean, there’s no doubt that the money could go a long way to doing something significant about hunger, and I don’t really know why you’d want to sort of troll someone on Twitter about it who’s asking you to step up, as opposed to engaging in a serious and thoughtful conversation about how you could actually make a difference,” he said.
Buchanan also said that he expected to see more public pressure exerted on billionaires, many of whom have seen their wealth increase during the pandemic. That kind of pressure is healthy and more helpful than other criticisms of billionaire philanthropy that question the motives of philanthropists, he added.
There are many billionaires who are committed to doing good, and disparaging their motivation isn’t healthy, Buchanan said. They need to be encouraged to step up, he added.
But is Elon Musk one of those motivated billionaires?
Perhaps not, according to Benjamin Soskis, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute ’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy.
“Musk has decided to adopt a more public-facing persona — one in which his penchant for trolling converges with his relatively new identity as a public philanthropist,” he said.
What's changed in global philanthropy, and what more is needed?
The COVID-19 pandemic fast-tracked needed changes in philanthropy, experts told Devex during an event hosted Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly, where they also highlighted the need for further change.
Musk established the Musk Foundation in 2002 but has continued to face criticism for not giving away more of his wealth. He signed the Giving Pledge in 2012 and promised to donate at least half of his fortune to charity during his lifetime or upon his death. He recently announced he would fund a $100 million contest to develop carbon capture technology and commit millions more to other philanthropic interests.
Soskis said he believes Musk “saw an opening” when he read a headline based on Beasley’s comments that said Musk could “ solve world hunger ” with just 2% of his wealth, and “instead of doing what another philanthropist might have done, which is ignore it, he took obvious pleasure in pushing back and finding a weakness.” Beasley later said that the headline didn’t accurately capture his comments.
However, Soskis said, while he didn’t believe that Musk was in any way passionate about accountability, his engagement with WFP could ultimately be helpful for elevating conversations between donors and organizations about transparency and accountability on assessing costs and how money is spent.
This is an era where take-charge funders like Musk are more likely to go over the heads of their press teams and respond directly to funding requests, Soskis said.
Soskis also said that now that Musk has “won” the public debate, “I would not be surprised if he eventually makes a gift.”
Update, Nov. 3, 2021: T his story has been updated to clarify an initial media headline about Elon Musk’s purported ability to “solve world hunger” with just 2% of his wealth. Further comments from David Beasley about his statements related to Musk have also been included.
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How Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen got her documents - The Washington Post
Facebook under fire
Frances Haugen took thousands of Facebook documents: This is how she did it
The company’s documents were available on its internal social network, which resembles the Facebook used by billions
By Reed Albergotti
October 26, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. EDT
Listen to article
9 min
(Washington Post illustration; Matt McClain/The Washington Post ; Facebook screenshots; iStock)
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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen left her job at the company earlier this year with thousands of pages of documents referencing a litany of societal harms.
Haugen didn’t have to rummage through filing cabinets or secretly make Xerox copies, like the famous whistleblowers of the past. In fact, the way Haugen obtained the documents is similar to the way billions of people around the world use Facebook every day. She simply browsed the company’s internal social network and took photos with her phone, according to her legal team.
The documents help illustrate the role the company played in helping fuel the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the power wielded by CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the ripple effect of the social media network on countries around the world. The Washington Post is part of a consortium of news organizations that has reviewed the disclosures made to the Securities and Exchange Commission and provided to Congress in redacted form by Haugen’s legal counsel.
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Frances Haugen took thousands of Facebook documents: This is how she did it
For nearly a month, Haugen has made headlines for her decision to blow the whistle on Facebook, testifying in front of Congress, appearing on “60 Minutes” and on the cover of Time Magazine. Her revelations have created a firestorm. And Facebook is reportedly considering a name change.
Here’s what you need to know.
questions
Who is Frances Haugen?
Haugen is a 37-year-old computer science and Harvard Business School graduate who has had a successful career as a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and employee. She co-founded a popular dating app called Hinge, and then worked at some of the best known companies in tech, including Google and Pinterest.
Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen is greeted by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) before testifying at a Senate subcommittee hearing Oct. 5. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)
She took a job at Facebook in 2019, a couple of years after the Cambridge Analytica scandal, hoping she could help change the company from within, The Post has reported. Earlier this year, she leaked confidential documents to the Wall Street Journal, which published a series of revelatory articles that showed a disparity between the company’s internal research and its public statements on the societal impact of its products. Haugen has filed a whistleblower complaint with the SEC. Should the agency bring a civil enforcement action, Haugen, under the Dodd-Frank Act, could receive between 10 and 30 percent of any fines or judgments Facebook is forced to pay.
Top moments from Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's Senate testimony
How did Haugen take the documents?
Haugen, working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic, accessed the documents from the company’s internal social network and took pictures of them.
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That’s right, Facebook employees use a version of Facebook as a work tool. Called Workplace, it is almost identical to the public version of Facebook. The social media organization also sells Workplace as a tool to outside companies. It’s a competitor to Slack, another corporate communication tool.
Internal Facebook posts often contain confidential information. Documents reviewed by The Washington Post show Facebook employees commenting on internal documents the same way everyone else comments on their friends’ baby photos. Rather than download the documents or take screenshots, which would have been more likely to arouse suspicion, she apparently took photos with her phone.
Why would she want to take documents in the first place?
Haugen, according to her friend Leslie Fine, felt that her work to identify and rectify the social network’s problems wasn’t going anywhere. Rather than just quit, she decided to gather documents and release them publicly, hoping that public pressure would force Facebook to change.
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She said on “60 Minutes” that she wanted to show that Facebook cares about profits more than public safety. One of Facebook’s mottos is that it doesn’t “ build services to make money .” Rather, it makes money “to build better services.”
Whistleblower Frances Haugen: Facebook puts ‘profits before people’
Did everyone at Facebook have access to these documents?
According to Haugen’s legal team, most, if not all, of the documents Haugen took were available to a large swath of Facebook employees. Haugen worked on the civic integrity team, responsible for misinformation. However, even if she were not on that team, she probably would have had access to the same documents, according to her legal team. According to one former Facebook employee, the company has begun to limit document access.
Why did Facebook allow such easy access to its documents?
Facebook, from its early days as a raucous Silicon Valley start-up, has had a culture of openness, at least within the boundaries of its sprawling corporate campuses. Facebook CEO and co-founder Mark Zuckerberg made a decision to trust his employees with corporate secrets, a two-way pact that allowed employees to offer input in weekly companywide Q & As, but also came with severe penalties for anyone who betrayed that trust, according to former Facebook employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private matters. “The reality is, we have an open culture,” Zuckerberg said on a conference call with analysts Monday.
This radical transparency isn’t common at every tech company. Most similar to Facebook is Google, based just down the road, which saw many of its executives and employees move to Facebook roughly a decade ago.
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This strategy has a few benefits. It allows input from employees across the organization — not just in their individual groups. It helps people move around the company into different roles, which keeps employees interested in work and allows them to find the roles that best suit them. The transparency also makes employees feel like they’re truly part of the company, not just a meaningless cog in the machine. With the privilege of knowing sensitive information at Facebook came the threat that if any employee was caught leaking, they’d be fired.
“Since earlier this year, we have been talking about the right model of information sharing for the company, balancing openness with sharing relevant information and maintaining focus. This is a work in progress and we are committed to an open culture for the company," said Facebook spokeswoman Dani Lever.
What about Google?
Google has its own internal search engine called Moma. Google employees can enter search criteria into Moma and they’ll see a list of results that look similar to the results of a Google search. But instead of ads for auto insurance and links to Wikipedia, they see the titles of corporate documents, some of which are secret or attorney-client privilege.
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Up until a couple of years ago, the company did not prohibit making their Google docs (yes, that’s what all Google employees use) accessible to all employees at the company, according to current and former employees. That meant nearly anyone at Google could, with minimal effort, read about the company’s secretive plans and even offer input, in the form of comments, to employees working on them.
That openness has faded, say current and former Google employees who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had signed nondisclosure agreements. While confidential documents still appear in Moma search results, it’s far less likely that they will allow access by all employees at the company. That change came after a wave of employee revolt at the company, following allegations of sexual misconduct at the executive level.
Google declined to comment.
Are all tech companies so open with their internal documents?
No. Take Apple, for example. Most employees there are kept completely in the dark about what’s going on around them. It operates on a model more akin to the way the government handles national secrets, keeping the information hidden from all except those with the proper security clearances. Many Apple employees keep their work secret even from their spouses.
That harks back to an earlier time, when Apple was surprising customers and software developers with new hardware products like the iPod, iMac and iPhone. The late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was a great showman who would unveil the company’s new products onstage with his cult of personality. Those powerful performances would have been impossible if everyone knew what was coming.
Apple employs a powerful “global security” team, staffed by former law enforcement officials, whose job it is to curtail leaks. Apple even threatens its employees with jail time (presumably under criminal statutes that protect trade secrets), should they leak about product updates.
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The secrecy, though, has an added benefit. It’s less likely that an Apple employee would abscond with a trove of documents as vast as the one Haugen took from Facebook.
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
Was it legal for Haugen to take these documents and provide them to journalists, lawmakers and regulators?
Haugen’s attorneys say it was. While it’s always possible Facebook will challenge that assertion, there are several federal whistleblower laws that give employees of private companies the ability to reveal information about their employer if it’s in the process of uncovering some wrongdoing, according to legal experts. The best known of those laws is the federal False Claims Act, which was passed to stop government contractors from ripping off taxpayers. Under the law, whistleblowers can file lawsuits on behalf of the government and collect a reward of up to 30 percent of what the government recovers.
The SEC whistleblower law was passed as part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a response to the 2008 financial crisis. Under the law, whistleblowers could get up to 30 percent of whatever the wrongdoer is forced to pay. The SEC doesn’t disclose the details of its whistleblower cases, but it announces the dollar amounts that whistleblowers receive. In September, an unnamed SEC whistleblower received $110 million for their efforts.
5 of the most famous federal whistleblowers
Whistleblower protections supersede nondisclosure agreements, effectively allowing employees to pass along information companies might consider “confidential,” so long as the information they’re sharing is pertinent to their allegations and is related in a legal way.
Will this cause more whistleblowers at tech companies to come forward?
We don’t know. Haugen’s legal team says it has received inquiries from other potential whistleblowers, and another filed an anonymous SEC complaint last week, which was first reported in The Washington Post. The nature of whistleblowing is that it is confidential, at least in the beginning. If tech employees are rushing to whistleblower lawyers, hoping for big payouts, it’s all happening in secret at this point.
Read the series: Facebook under fire
The Facebook Papers are a set of internal documents that were provided to Congress in redacted form by Frances Haugen’s legal counsel. The redacted versions were reviewed by a consortium of news organizations, including The Washington Post.
The trove of documents show how Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has, at times, contradicted, downplayed or failed to disclose company findings on the impact of its products and platforms.
The documents also provided new details of the social media platform’s role in fomenting the storming of the U.S. Capitol. An investigation by ProPublica and The Washington Post found that Facebook groups swelled with at least 650,000 posts attacking the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory between Election Day and Jan. 6.
Facebook engineers gave extra value to emoji reactions, including ‘angry,’ pushing more emotional and provocative content into users’ news feeds.
Read more from The Post’s investigation:
Key takeaways from the Facebook Papers
Frances Haugen took thousands of Facebook documents. This is how she did it.
How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India
How Facebook shapes your feed
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SpaceX's Inspiration4 all-civilian spaceflight: When to watch and what to know | Space
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SpaceX's Inspiration4 all-civilian spaceflight: Here's what to know
By Elizabeth Howell published September 15, 2021
The five-hour launch window opens Wednesday (Sept. 15) at 8:02 p.m. EDT.
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Launch time and webcasts
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SpaceX 's first all-civilian mission successfully launched into orbit on Sept. 15 carrying a message of diversity during the third billionaire-led flight to launch in 2021. You can see a launch replay above and the full webcast here.
The mission, called Inspiration4, includes four private citizens who will fly on a Crew Dragon spacecraft for an Earth-orbiting mission. The crew spent three days in orbit and returned to Earth on Sept. 18.
Billionaire Jared Issacman, founder of Shift4 Payments, purchased the flight as part of an effort to raise millions for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. He is joined by Haley Arceneaux, Sian Proctor and Chris Sembroski.
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Live updates: SpaceX's Inspiration4 private all-civilian orbital mission
Gallery: SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission in photos
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Inspiration4 is the third spaceflight by a billionaire in 2021. The other two — both suborbital missions — were the flight of Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson and company employees aboard the Unity 22 mission on July 11, and the flight of Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos and three other passengers (including noted aviator Wally Funk) flew aboard a New Shepard spacecraft on July 20.
Like these other two flights, Inspiration4 is largely made up of civilians with no professional space experience, although the crew has undergone basic training to get a sense of what to expect. But this time, the crew will spend three days orbiting the Earth, as opposed to the brief suborbital flights of Bezos and Branson. Learn more about the flight below.
What time did SpaceX launch Inspiration4?
Countdown: Inspiration4 Mission to Space Live Launch | Netflix
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Inspiration4 lifted off at the start of a five-hour launch window that opened on Wednesday, Sept. 15, at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 Sept. 16 GMT). A backup launch window was available on Sept. 16 at 8:05 p.m. EDT (0005 Sept. 17 GMT), but ultimately not needed.
SpaceX offered a live launch webcast starting at 3:45 p.m. EDT (1945 GMT) and covering the final four hours before liftoff. You can watch a replay webcast live here, as well as at the top of this page and the Space.com homepage courtesy of SpaceX.
Netflix also hosted a special "Countdown to Launch" event hosted by astronauts and celebrities. You can see a replay of that webcast on Netflix's YouTube page.
The Inspiration4 crew pose with their Crew Dragon spacecraft. (Image credit: Inspiration4)
"Teams selected the five-hour launch window based upon weather forecasts for the launch site, along the ascent corridor, and possible landing locations off the coasts of Florida for a safe return of the crew and splashdown a few days later," Inspiration4 mission officials wrote in an update posted Sept. 12.
Typically, launch times are subject to things such as space traffic and the weather at both the launching site and any emergency sites nearby. Like other Crew Dragon launches, Inspiration4 will go to space aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. But while other Crew Dragons have flown to the International Space Station, the Inspiration4 mission will not rendezvous with another spacecraft on this orbital mission.
In the end, weather conditions were pristine for launch, increasing from a 70% chance of good weather to 90% by launch time.
Where did SpaceX launch Inspiration4 from?
The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon that will launch the private orbital spaceflight dubbed Inspiration4, as seen during launch preparations. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The launch took place from NASA's historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Sept. 14. SpaceX leases Launch Complex 39A from NASA and has modified the pad for Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches.
Pad 39A's most famous launch was the Apollo 11 debut moon-landing effort of July 1969, but it also was used throughout the Apollo and space shuttle programs for crewed missions. The space shuttle program retired in 2011, and SpaceX signed a 20-year lease for the pad in April 2014.
Spectators wishing to view the launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex had to purchase tickets online in advance. For a list of other good places nearby to watch future launches for free, check out NASA's launch viewing tips here.
Who is SpaceX flying on Inspiration4?
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Each of the four crewmembers of Inspiration4 was selected to represent one of the "pillars" of support for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital: leadership, hope, generosity and prosperity.
The four crew members of Inspiration4 are:
Jared Isaacman ("Leadership"), 37, Shift4 Payments founder and CEO. Isaacman also has roughly 6,000 hours accumulated as a private pilot. Isaacman had a lifelong dream of going to space and in media interviews, said he wanted to do so while donating other seats to deserving people. He will serve as the flight's commander.
Hayley Arceneaux ("Hope"), 29, a St. Jude physician's assistant and childhood bone cancer survivor from Louisiana (who was also treated at St. Jude as a child). She was selected to represent the charity for which Isaacman plans to raise money. She will be the first person to fly in space with a prosthetic limb. Isaacman personally invited Arcenaux to join the mission as its chief medical officer.
Chris Sembroski ("Generosity"), 42, a data engineer for Lockheed Martin from North Carolina. Sembroski is a long-time space enthusiast with amateur experience as an astronomer and a rocketeer. He is a former camp counselor at Space Camp and like many astronauts, is a veteran of the United States Air Force. Sembroski is the winner of a sweepstakes held by Isaacman to raise money for St. Jude. He will serve as a mission specialist.
Sian Proctor ("Prosperity"), 51, a geoscientist and science communication specialist who has participated in four space analog missions. Proctor was chosen as the winner of the Shift4Shop competition from Isaacman, which asked entrants to set up an e-commerce site and record a video about their business. Proctor's "Space2Inspire" shop offered postcards and prints of her AfronautSpace art, to spark conversations about women of color in the space industry. Proctor will be the first person from Guam to fly in space, and she will serve as the mission pilot.
What is the main Inspiration4 mission for SpaceX?
The four civilian astronauts of SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission pose for a group portrait during a dress rehearsal of their planned launch from NASA's Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39A on Sept. 15, 2021. (Image credit: SpaceX)
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The mission has a dual goal of inspiring and of conducting science in orbit. The Inspiration4 website notes that the spacecraft's path above Earth will cross over about 90 percent of the world's population. Additionally, the crew plan to engage in experiments "designed to expand our knowledge of the universe", with a goal to allocate the "maximum possible mass" to research above what the crew needs to live and survive in space. The science is meant to address projects "that are otherwise unable to overcome the high barriers of traditional space-based research," the website adds.
Related:
Investigators from the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH) at Baylor College of Medicine and investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine will "collect environmental and biomedical data and biological samples from Inspiration4’s four crew members before, during, and after this historic spaceflight," the release notes.
The experiments are wide-ranging, covering everything from studying the genome, to balance, blood, organs, behavior and much more. The participating scientists also pledge to make all biomedical data open to the public in a repository, for research purposes.
What is SpaceX's mission timeline for Inspiration4?
This SpaceX graphic shows the orbital altitude for the private all-civilian Inspiration4 mission, which will fly higher than the International Space Station and Hubble Space Telescope. (Image credit: SpaceX)
The launch time of Sept. 15 opens at 8:02 p.m. EDT (0002 GMT Sept. 16) and will last for five hours, according to Inspiration4 mission updates.
The splashdown is scheduled three days after the launch, and as with previous Crew Dragon flights, the spacecraft will splash down off the coast of Florida so that the crew and science samples can be swiftly and easily returned to the NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Below is a timeline for the launch and landing of the Falcon 9 rocket, from SpaceX:
T +/- HR/MIN/SEC
Mission event
-00:45:00
SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for propellant load
-00:42:00
Crew access arm retracts
-00:37:00
Dragon's launch escape system is armed
-00:35:00
RP-1 (rocket grade kerosene) loading begins
-00:35:00
1st stage LOX (liquid oxygen) loading begins
-00:16:00
2nd stage LOX loading begins
-00:07:00
Falcon 9 begins engine chill prior to launch
-00:05:00
Dragon transitions to internal power
-00:01:00
Command flight computer to begin final prelaunch checks
-00:01:00
Propellant tank pressurization to flight pressure begins
-00:00:45
SpaceX Launch Director verifies go for launch
-00:00:03
Engine controller commands engine ignition sequence to start
00:00:00
Falcon 9 liftoff
+00:01:02
Max Q (moment of peak mechanical stress on the rocket)
+00:02:37
1st stage main engine cutoff (MECO)
+00:02:40
1st and 2nd stages separate
+00:02:41
2nd stage engine starts
+00:07:30
1st stage entry burn
+00:08:51
2nd stage engine cutoff (SECO-1)
+00:09:04
1st stage landing burn
+00:09:31
1st stage landing
+00:12:09
Dragon separates from 2nd stage
+00:13:02
Dragon nosecone open sequence begins
What is SpaceX's Dragon cupola for Inspiration4
In this artist's visualization, you can see SpaceX's Crew Dragon spacecraft modified with a cupola observation window for the upcoming Inspiration4 mission. (Image credit: SpaceX)
Since SpaceX's Inspiration4 mission is not going to the International Space Station, it does not need the docking port that typically sits at the nose of the space capsule. In its place, SpaceX has installed a huge glass dome, or cupola, to serve as a stunning window on the Earth below.
SpaceX first unveiled the cupola in March with the Inspiration4 crew trying it out in recent weeks. The cupola is "probably most 'in space' you could possibly feel by being in a glass dome," SpaceX founder Musk wrote on Twitter during the announcement.
Isaacman called the glass cupola an "engineering marvel" when it was announced earlier this year.
By coincidence (or perhaps design) the cupola is near SpaceX's toilet on Crew Dragon, so Inspiration4 astronauts may get spectacular views while using the bathroom .
"It's not a ton of privacy. But you do have this kind of privacy curtain that cuts across the top of the spacecraft, so you can kind of separate yourself from everyone else," billionaire tech entrepreneur Isaacman, who is financing (and commanding) the mission, told Insider in July. "And that also happens to be where the glass cupola is. So, you know, when people do inevitably have to use the bathroom, they're going to have one hell of a view."
Editor's note: This page was updated Sept. 15 with additional details.
Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: [email protected].
Elizabeth Howell
Contributing Writer
Elizabeth Howell, Ph.D., is a contributing writer for Space.com since 2012. As a proud Trekkie and Canadian, she tackles topics like spaceflight, diversity, science fiction, astronomy and gaming to help others explore the universe. Elizabeth's on-site reporting includes two human spaceflight launches from Kazakhstan, and embedded reporting from a simulated Mars mission in Utah. She holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Space Studies from the University of North Dakota, and a Bachelor of Journalism from Canada's Carleton University. Her latest book, NASA Leadership Moments, is co-written with astronaut Dave Williams. Elizabeth first got interested in space after watching the movie Apollo 13 in 1996, and still wants to be an astronaut someday.
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FDA authorizes Merck's at-home antiviral COVID-19 pill | Daily Mail Online
FDA authorizes Merck's at-home antiviral COVID-19 pill - a day after giving Pfizer's oral drug the go-ahead
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized Merck's antiviral pill for COVID-19
It comes a day after it issued emergency authorization for Pfizer's Paxlovid
Merck's drug, molnupiravir was shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by around 30% in a clinical trial of high-risk individuals
The FDA authorized the oral drug for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid in adults who are at risk for severe disease
By Reuters and Dailymail.com Reporter and Betsy Ladyzhets For Dailymail.Com
Published: 09:30 EDT, 23 December 2021 | Updated: 12:10 EDT, 23 December 2021
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized Merck's antiviral pill for COVID-19, after giving the go-ahead to a similar treatment from Pfizer Inc. a day earlier.
Merck's drug, molnupiravir, developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, was shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by around 30% in a clinical trial of high-risk individuals early in the course of the illness.
The agency authorized the oral drug for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid in adults who are at risk for severe disease. It will also carry a warning against use during pregnancy, and women of childbearing age should use birth control during treatment.
On Wednesday, US health regulators issued emergency authorization for Pfizer's Paxlovid, a pill that is available by prescription only and should be initiated as soon as possible after diagnosis of Covid and within five days of symptom onset.
The long-awaited milestone comes as U.S. cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all rising and health officials warn of a tsunami of new infections from the Omicron variant that could overwhelm hospitals.
However, the requirement for a Covid diagnosis prior to receiving either pill is a concern for some experts, who worry it may be unrealistic for patients to get tested and obtain a prescription within the first five days of their infection.
US experts have warned that the virus could infect 140 million people between January and March - 60 percent of all Americans.
America is currently averaging 148,384 daily cases, a 23 percent increase from two weeks ago, and Omicron cases have increased by 19 percent day-over-day to about 2,084.
On Wednesday, the US recorded a staggering 238,378 new daily infections, and 2,024 new deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, the US has recorded 51.5 million cases of Covid and 812,069 deaths.
The Omicron variant now accounts for 73 percent of new cases in the US and pushes Europe to the brink of fresh lockdowns. In hard-hit states like New York, the variant is estimated to account for more than 90 percent of cases. So far, it has been confirmed in 2,756 cases and accounts for at least one death in a man in Texas.
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Merck's drug, molnupiravir, developed with Ridgeback Biotherapeutics, was shown to reduce hospitalizations and deaths by around 30% in a clinical trial of high-risk individuals early in the course of the illness. The agency authorized the oral drug for the treatment of mild-to-moderate Covid in adults who are at risk for severe disease. It will also carry a warning against use during pregnancy, and women of childbearing age should use birth control during treatment
Pfizer's antiviral drug cuts the risk of hospitalization and death by 90% while Merck's pill reduces the risk by 30%
Pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Merck have both developed antiviral, oral drugs that reduce the risk of severe Covid symptoms.
As oral pills, these drugs are much easier for patients to take compared to existing Covid drugs that require patients to receive treatment at a medical center.
Pfizer’s treatment, Paxlovid, is a combination of two drugs: one stops the coronavirus from replicating in the body while the other helps the first drug remain in the body for a long period of time.
In clinical trials, Pfizer’s drug reduced the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk Covid patients by 90 percent.
Merck’s drug, molnupiravir, only reduced these risks by 30 percent.
Molnupiravir also prevents the coronavirus from replicating in the body, but it uses a different biological mechanism from Paxlovid.
Both pills are expected to be effective against Omicron because they don’t target the coronavirus’ spike protein, the part of this variant that’s most different from other strains.
Merck’s drug is more risky for women of childbearing age, particularly those who are pregnant.
The FDA’s label for this drug says that women should use birth control during treatment and for a few days after.
In addition, some scientists are concerned that Merck’s drug could cause mutations human fetuses and even spur more virulent strains of the coronavirus - because it works by inserting errors into the virus’ genetic code.
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Known as molnupiravir, the Merck drug will carry a warning against use during pregnancy. Women of childbearing age should use birth control during treatment and for a few days after while men should use birth control for at least three months after their final dose, the FDA said.
The restrictions were expected after an FDA advisory panel only narrowly endorsed the drug last month, warning that its use would have to be strictly tailored to patients who can benefit the most.
The Pfizer pill works differently and doesn't carry the same risks. Additionally, Pfizer's drug was roughly three times more effective in testing, reducing hospitalization and death by nearly 90% among high-risk patients, compared with 30% for Merck's.
Some experts question whether there will be much of a role for the Merck drug in the U.S.
'To the extent that there's an ample supply of Pfizer's pill, I think it won't be used,' said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic, referring to the Merck drug. 'There would be no reason, given it has less efficacy and a higher risk of side effects.'
Antiviral pills, including Merck's, are expected to be effective against omicron because they don´t target the spike protein where most of the variant´s worrisome mutations reside.
The FDA based its decision on results showing nearly 7% of patients taking the drug ended up in the hospital and one died at the end of 30 days. That compared with 10% of patients hospitalized who were taking the placebo and nine deaths.
Federal officials have agreed to purchase enough of the drug to treat 3.1 million people.
The U.S. will pay about $700 for each course of Merck's drug, which requires patients to take four pills twice a day for five days. A review by Harvard University and King´s College London estimated it costs about $18 to make each 40-pill course of treatment.
Merck's drug inserts tiny errors into the coronavirus' genetic code to slow its reproduction. That genetic effect has raised concerns that the drug could cause mutations in human fetuses and even spur more virulent strains of the virus. But FDA scientists said the variant risk is largely theoretical because people take the drug for such a short period of time.
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The FDA said on Wednesday that the Pfizer drug is 'the first treatment for Covid that is in the form of a pill that is taken orally — a major step forward in the fight against this global pandemic.'
'The authorization of the Merck and Pfizer drugs provides a new tool to combat Covid at a crucial time in the pandemic as new variants emerge and promises to make antiviral treatment more accessible to patients who are at high risk for progression to severe Covid.'
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On Wednesday, the US recorded a staggering 238,378 new daily infections. Since the start of the pandemic, the US has seen more than 51.5 million Covid cases
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On Wednesday, the US recorded 2,024 new deaths. Since the start of the pandemic, the US has recorded 812,069 deaths
Pfizer's drug, Paxlovid, is a faster, cheaper way to treat early Covid infections, though initial supplies will be extremely limited. All of the previously authorized drugs against the disease require an IV or an injection.
Although Merck's antiviral pill has now been given approval, Pfizer's drug is all but certain to be the preferred option because of its mild side effects and superior effectiveness, including a nearly 90 percent reduction in hospitalizations and deaths among patients most likely to get severe disease.
'The efficacy is high, the side effects are low and it's oral. It checks all the boxes,' said Dr. Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic. 'You´re looking at a 90 percent decreased risk of hospitalization and death in a high-risk group - that´s stunning.'
The Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer's drug for adults and children ages 12 and older with a positive Covid test and early symptoms who face the highest risks of hospitalization.
That includes older people and those with conditions like obesity and heart disease. Children eligible for the drug must weigh at least 88 pounds.
The pills from both Pfizer and Merck are expected to be effective against omicron because they don´t target the spike protein where most of the variant´s worrisome mutations reside.
Pfizer currently has 180,000 treatment courses available worldwide, with roughly 60,000 to 70,000 allocated to the U.S. Federal health officials are expected to ration early shipments to the hardest hit parts of the country. Pfizer said the small supply is due to the manufacturing time - currently about nine months. The company says it can halve production time next year.
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More than 72% of Americans have had at least one dose of a Covid vaccine
The U.S. government has agreed to purchase enough Paxlovid to treat 10 million people. Pfizer says it's on track to produce 80 million courses globally next year, under contracts with the U.K., Australia and other nations.
Health experts agree that vaccination remains the best way to protect against Covid. But with roughly 40 million American adults still unvaccinated, effective drugs will be critical to blunting the current and future waves of infection.
The U.S. is now reporting more than 140,000 new infections daily and federal officials warn that the omicron variant could send case counts soaring. Omicron has already whipped across the country to become the dominant strain, federal officials confirmed earlier this week.
Against that backdrop, experts warn that Paxlovid's initial impact could be limited.
For more than a year, biotech-engineered antibody drugs have been the go-to treatments for Covid. But they are expensive, hard to produce and require an injection or infusion, typically given at a hospital or clinic. Also, laboratory testing suggests the two leading antibody drugs used in the U.S. aren't effective against Omicron.
Pfizer's pill comes with its own challenges.
Patients will need a positive Covid test to get a prescription. And Paxlovid has only proven effective if given within five days of symptoms appearing.
With testing supplies stretched, experts worry it may be unrealistic for patients to self-diagnose, get tested, see a physician and pick up a prescription within that narrow window.
'If you go outside that window of time I fully expect the effectiveness of this drug is going to fall,' said Andrew Pekosz, a Johns Hopkins University virologist.
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U.S. health regulators on Wednesday authorized the first pill against Covid, a Pfizer drug that Americans will be able to take at home. A day later, the FDA authorized Merck's antiviral drug which has shown to reduce hospitalizations by 30%
The U.S. is currently facing a dire Covid testing shortage. Americans hoping to buy rapid tests can only purchase a couple of kits at a time from major retailers - if they can find a test at all.
Meanwhile, people seeking to get PCR tests - which require processing in a lab - are facing longer wait times to get their results.
National lab network Quest Diagnostics reports a typical turnaround of one to two days on its website, but notes: 'Due to the current surge in demand for Covid PCR testing, it is possible that some customers may experience longer than normal turnaround times for non-COVID tests.'
By the time some patients receive their test results, they may be outside the window for optimal performance of Pfizer or Merck's antiviral drugs.
In addition, many people who are at highest risk for severe Covid symptoms - such as those who have chronic illnesses and those in marginalized communities - may have limited access to doctors who could prescribe the pills.
The FDA based its decision on company results from a 2,250-patient trial that showed the pill cut hospitalizations and deaths by 89 percent when given to people with mild-to-moderate Covid within three days of symptoms.
Less than 1 percent of patients taking the drug were hospitalized and none died at the end of the 30-day study period, compared with 6.5 percent of patients hospitalized in the group getting a dummy pill, which included nine deaths.
Pfizer´s drug is part of a decades-old family of antiviral drugs known as protease inhibitors, which revolutionized the treatment of HIV and hepatitis C. The drugs block a key enzyme which viruses need to multiply in the human body.
The U.S. will pay about $500 for each course of Pfizer's treatment, which consists of three pills taken twice a day for five days. Two of the pills are Paxlovid and the third is a different antiviral that helps boost levels of the main drug in the body.
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L.A. fugitive gets 17 years in prison in COVID fraud - Los Angeles Times
California
Husband and wife fugitives who helped run $18-million COVID relief fraud ring get years in prison
FBI agents carrying assault rifles were captured on a home security camera as they came up the driveway of the Tarzana estate of Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian to execute a search warrant in November 2020.
(U.S. District Court)
By Michael Finnegan Staff Writer
Nov. 16, 2021 5 AM PT
When convicted Tarzana swindlers Richard Ayvazyan and Marietta Terabelian sliced off their electronic monitoring bracelets and vanished in August, the couple left a note for the three teenage children they abandoned.
“We will be together again one day,” they wrote. “This is not a goodbye but a brief break from each other.”
Perhaps not so brief.
Ayvazyan, 43, was sentenced in absentia on Monday to 17 years in prison for leading a fraud ring that stole $18 million in a lurid scam to secure emergency pandemic loans that were supposed to go to small businesses upended by lockdowns. Terabelian, 37, was sentenced to six years. Their whereabouts are unknown.
The couple’s visibly distraught children watched from a courtroom bench as U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson described the crimes of their parents and six accomplices as “horrific and calculated and callous,” saying it deprived legitimate businesses of relief they needed to survive the economic devastation of 2020.
The group created scores of fictitious San Fernando Valley businesses, attaching fake payrolls and forged tax returns to many of their 151 loan applications. To open bank accounts for the sham businesses, they used the names of people who were dead or whose identities were stolen.
Wilson singled out Ayvazyan as the scheme’s architect, calling him an “endemic cold-hearted fraudster” with no regard for the law.
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“If given the opportunity, he would concoct another fraud, because the way he spoke of this fraud indicates that that is his way of life,” the judge said, citing text messages from Ayvazyan’s phone.
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The judge also voiced concern that this kind of “flagrant” fraud could deter lawmakers from approving bailouts during future catastrophes for “fear of being ripped off as they were here.”
Ayvazyan, Terabelian and two relatives were convicted in June of bank fraud, conspiracy to launder money and related crimes. Four other co-conspirators pleaded guilty on the eve of trial.
Prosecutors had sought 29 years in prison for Ayvazyan, describing him in court papers as “the most culpable participant in a horrendous fraud.”
Richard Ayvazyan, the fugitive who led a conspiracy to secure $18 million in fraudulent pandemic relief loans, exits a federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles during his trial in June.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
That would have been the longest prison term in the nation so far for anyone sentenced in a federal pandemic loan fraud case, according to Ashwin J. Ram, Ayvazyan’s attorney.
Ram argued that Ayvazyan deserved a sentence of no more than six years. His absence, Ram said, made it hard to show the judge that he was a family man, churchgoer and legitimate businessman.
“We weren’t able to provide the full picture on who Richard Ayvazyan is,” Ram said.
Ram had told the court that Ayvazyan’s family suspects that he and his wife were abducted, questioning whether they wrote the typewritten note to their kids. Prosecutors, who believe the couple fled to dodge prison, say there is no evidence to back that up.
Wilson opened Monday’s hearing by expressing skepticism about the abduction theory. The government, he said, had recently blocked an emergency application for passports for the couple’s three children to travel to Armenia. The apparent attempt to get the children out of the country suggested their parents were “not going to willingly appear” in court, Wilson said.
The FBI has offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to the couple’s capture. Authorities believe they fled Aug. 29 from the $3.25-million house in Tarzana that they bought last year with some of the loan money they stole.
A few days after they took flight, prosecutors say, Ayvazyan and Terabelian were caught on video entering the Encino house where Ayvazyan’s mother lives, but they left before they could be arrested.
Terabelian’s attorney, Ryan Fraser, urged Wilson to be lenient on her because she was not an “essential player” in the fraud and money laundering.
“You have her at most trying to help her husband not get caught,” he said.
When the FBI raided the family’s home in November 2020, prosecutors say, Terabelian was seen tossing a bag containing more than $450,000 in cash into the bushes in their backyard.
Children and the family dog exit the Ayvazyan home in Tarzana when the FBI raided the house in November 2020.
(U.S. District Court)
Prosecutors asked Wilson to sentence Terabelian to 21 years and 10 months in prison.
“She clearly understood the scope of the conspiracy,” Assistant U.S. Atty. Catherine Ahn told Wilson.
Wilson said he believed Terabelian “knew what was going on, and she clearly had some role in carrying it out.”
“She is a partner not only in marriage, but a partner in crime,” he said.
Marietta Terabelian, right, was convicted of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other crimes. Her sister, Gohar Abelian, left, was not accused of wrongdoing.
(Gary Coronado / Los Angeles Times)
Wilson ordered both Terabelian and Ayvazyan to pay a $50,000 fine, but said he was not ready to decide on the government’s request for more than $16 million in restitution.
Ayvazyan’s brother, Artur, 41, was sentenced Monday to five years in prison for his role in the fraud and money laundering. He was the only defendant to testify at the trial in June, but Wilson said he believed he lied on the witness stand.
“Essentially, he perjured himself in my view,” Wilson said.
Artur Ayvazyan had sought to cast blame on his wife, Tamara Dadyan, who pleaded guilty to three felonies in the loan fraud and named her husband and his brother as two of her co-conspirators. Dadyan is seeking to withdraw her guilty plea because of what she says was bad advice from the attorney who urged her to accept prosecutors’ demands in the plea deal.
At the trial, Artur Ayvazyan said it was “most likely my wife” who put photos of fake IDs on his phone, which FBI agents seized in a raid of the couple’s Encino house. The judge did not believe him.
“His story of how the fake identities got on his phone seemed totally implausible to me,” Wilson said.
Artur Ayvazyan, who has been out on bail, was arrested Nov. 4 on suspicion of rape, according to the LAPD. But Wilson said neither the rape case nor his brother’s disappearance could legally be a factor in his decision on whether to grant prosecutors’ request to order his prison sentence to start immediately. Wilson ordered him to report to prison the first week of January.
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Michael Finnegan
Michael Finnegan is a Los Angeles Times reporter covering federal courts and law enforcement. He previously covered state and national politics, including the 2020 presidential campaign.
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