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Left-wing Chicago mayor gets testy after being called out for haircut when it's banned for everybody else: 'I'm the public face of this city'

Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said late last month that the growing coronavirus outbreak "is deadly serious. And we have to take it seriously, all of us." "I personally been concerned about what I've seen in our parks, people playing basketball," she added during her news conference. "And what I've seen along our lakefront, way too many people gathering like it's just another day. This is not just another day." To that end, city officials warned that social distancing violators could be fined $500 and then could be arrested. Do as I say, not as I do We've seen left-wing elected officials getting quite perturbed over citizens failing to recognize their newfound power, resulting in actions and tones that seem to be coming from exasperated parents as opposed to governors and mayors. Well, add Lightfoot's name to the list — and she's appearing to invoke the famously parental maxim "do as I say, not as I do" to boot. See, one of Illinois' social distancing stipulations, like other states operating in this way, is that nonessential businesses are supposed to be shut down. Among them are barber shops and hair salons, WBBM-TV reported. But Lightfoot got a haircut over the weekend — and defended doing so. "I am practicing social distancing," she said Monday, the station noted. "The woman who cut my hair had a mask and gloves on. So ... I'm practicing what I'm preaching ... we are trying to do everything we can to emphasize the messages around social distancing, washing your hands, staying at home. But as [an] elected official and the public face of the city, I need to make sure that I am out there and visible through this crisis." WBBM's report included an image of Cashmere Neal's Facebook post thanking Lightfoot for letting her cut her hair Sunday — and as opposed to a safe social distance of six feet, it appears the pair are standing just inches apart: Image source: WBBM-TV video screenshot A tad testy, aren't we? The Chicago Tribune reported that when Lightfoot was asked a follow-up question about the issue — that included a reference to a public service announcement in which she says "getting your roots done is not essential" — the mayor became "visibly annoyed." "I'm the public face of this city. I'm on national media, and I'm out in the public eye," Lightfoot added, according to the paper. "I'm a person who, I take my personal hygiene very seriously. As I said, I felt like I needed to have a haircut. I'm not able to do that myself, so I got a haircut. You want to talk more about that?" Fallout Socialist Alderman Carlos Ramirez-Rosa — a frequent Lightfoot critic — blasted the mayor's explanation for the haircut, the Tribune said. "She is under no obligation to look good on national TV. She is under no obligation to book national interviews. But she is under an obligation to follow and promote social distancing in order to save lives," Ramirez-Rosa tweeted. "This is a bad example for our city." Others ripped Lightfoot as well: Here's the report from WBBM: (H/T: BizPac Review)

Marion Police investigating shooting

MARION (WSIL) -- Marion Police are investigating a shooting that injured one person. Officers were called to the area of West Gent Street and South Holland Street around 8:45 p.m. Monday for multiple reports of shots fired. When officers arrived, they found Brandon Davis, 23, of St. Louis, with a gunshot wound to the back of his head. Davis was flown to Barnes-Jewish Hospital for treatment of what authorities describe as non-life threatening injuries. Police say no arrests have been made. Anyone with information about the shooting is asked to call the Marion Police Department at (618) 993-2124.

COVID-19 could kill between 1,200 and 9,000 by end of month, Quebec public health officials warn

Public health experts with the Quebec government are projecting between 1,200 and 9,000 people could die of COVID-19 by the end of the month, although they also believe the current trajectory for mortalities is toward the lower end of that range. The forecasting models were released Tuesday amid public pressure on political leaders, both in Canada and abroad, to be transparent about why drastic isolation and physical-distancing measures are necessary. Quebec outlined two scenarios about what could happen by April 30. One is optimistic: it projects 29,212 confirmed cases, with as many as 1,404 people in hospital at once and 1,263 deaths. The other scenario is pessimistic: 59,845 confirmed cases, with as many as 3,208 people hospitalized at one time and 8,860 deaths. In this scenario, Quebec would not have enough beds in intensive care units to treat the more severe cases. In both scenarios. Quebec health officials project COVID-19 cases will peak on April 18 So far, 150 deaths in Quebec have been attributed to COVID-19, slightly higher than what is projected by the optimistic forecast. There are now 583 people in hospital, slightly lower than the optimistic forecast. (Helene Simard/CBC) Quick action spared Quebec the worst, adviser says Richard Massé, a senior public health adviser to the government who presented the projections, said because the government took swift action at the outset of the crisis, the real figures are unlikely to approach the worst-case scenario. Most countries around the world have taken broadly similar physical-distancing measures, he said. Quebec, though, moved to put them in place soon after the first cases were detected. Quebec's public health authorities predict between 1,263 and 8,830 people could die of complications from the novel coronavirus in Quebec before the end of April. (Radio-Canada) "When there is a delay in implementing measures, the situation is painful," said Massé, using Italy as an example. "We had the vision and capacity to act sooner here." Legault was not present for the release of the projections, but in his daily briefing earlier Tuesday, the premier suggested he wanted Quebecers to interpret the numbers with stoicism. "I don't want people to be alarmed by the pessimistic scenario," he said. "Obviously, when you see the number of deaths projected, that can appear worrying." Horacio Arruda, the province's top public health official, also said earlier today that Quebec is "closer to the optimistic scenario than the pessimistic one." Arruda said April will be a critical month for determining whether that remains true. Quebec compared to European countries Public health officials in Quebec had been reluctant to release projections, citing the huge amount of uncertainty involved in the calculations. Premier François Legault, however, insisted they be made public. What was released, in the end, was a simple projection based on what happened in European countries with similar health-care systems after they surpassed 10 cases. (Helene Simard/CBC) The pessimistic scenarios were drawn from the experience of Italy and Spain. More than 17,000 and 13,000 people have died in those two countries, respectively. Germany and Portugal served as models for the optimistic scenario. The value of the projections, said Massé, is in giving the government an indication of how many hospital beds and, critically, intensive care beds, will be needed when the greatest number of people are ill with COVID-19. Some medical professionals were disappointed Quebec didn't provide a more sophisticated model that included estimates of asymptomatic transmission or the virus's presence in the general population. Cécile Tremblay, an infectious disease specialist at the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal, said the projections nevertheless demonstrate that Quebec is still more than a week away from hitting its peak number of new cases. "That should give us pause in terms of those people who want to relax the precautions. We're still in the in the midst of this epidemic, and we're not yet there in terms of thinking of the plateauing and eventually, coming down," Tremblay said. Over the weekend, Legault extended the closure of non-essential business in the province until May 4. Massé said it is still too early to determine whether that is a realistic date by which the government might begin relaxing physical-distancing measures. "We have to move forward carefully," he said. "We're looking at how and when to do it so that we protect people and make sure the curve doesn't increase again."

I Let Him Choke Me While He Fuck’s My Mouth

I Let Him Choke Me While He Fuck’s My Mouth

Digital Trade Rules for the 21st Century

By pushing for new rules, grounded in a commitment to nondiscrimination and the free flow of goods and services, the United States is well positioned to replicate the type of indispensable leadership it showed in the creation of the rules-based trading system in the late 1940s, and to create a new frontier for commerce in the 21st century.

How do I make payments? - Manitoba Student Aid

COVID-19 Repayment Updates When did the Government of Manitoba suspend payments on student loans? In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government of Manitoba suspended automatic payments on provincial (Manitoba) student loans from April 1, 2020 – September 30, 2020. When is repayment of my student loans going to resume? The Government of Manitoba intends to resume repayment of Manitoba student loans on October 1st, 2020. Check with National Student Loan Service Centre (NSLSC) to confirm when your repayment on your federal (Canada) student loan will resume. Can I still make payments during the repayment pause period (between March 1, 2020 and September 30, 2020)? Yes, you can continue to make manual payments during the pause period through online or telephone payments, or by cheque. However, all Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) payments will continue to be suspended until September 30, 2020. Will my Pre-Authorized Debit (PAD) payments resume after the repayment pause period? Yes, effective October 1, 2020, PAD payments are expected to resume as per your agreed upon payment schedule prior to March 31, 2020. If you opted for monthly PAD payments, your new payment schedule will continue If you opted to make online payments (rather than have PAD payments), you will continue to be responsible to make your required minimum monthly payment each month. Please speak with a Loans Services Representative to make changes to your existing payment plan and schedule, or to update your banking information. If I am returning to full-time post secondary education, but not applying for another student loan, do I still need to submit a Confirmation of Return to School form? If you are enrolled in full-time studies, are not applying for additional student financial support, and your loan is/will be entering into repayment, you must submit a Confirmation of Return to School form ( 521 KB) to Manitoba Student Aid in order for your loan to be placed back into non-repayment status. If you have a federal student loan, you will need to submit a Schedule 2 form to the National Student Loans Service Centre. What if my school is not open to me to get the Confirmation of Return to School (CRS) form signed, what can I do? If you are unable to obtain a CRS form from your educational institution in-person, MSA will accept a completed Confirmation of Return to School form ( 521 KB) by email from your school. Completed forms can be emailed to: msaloans@gov.mb.ca. CRS forms are available on our website on the forms page. If you are not able to reach a representative of your school to complete the form, Manitoba Student Aid will accept an official record of enrolment from your school that clearly indicates: Your name School and program of study Course load percentage or number of registered courses per term Program Start date Program End date If I am struggling financially and not able to repay my student loans when repayment resumes (October 1, 2020), what can I do? Please contact Manitoba Student Aid to discuss debt management options with a Loans Services Representative. Manitoba Student Aid will be resuming the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) in October 2020, and RAP applications will be available on our website in September. When can I submit a Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP) application? Applications will be available on our website in September, with the RAP term beginning effective October 1, 2020. Applications must include the required proof of income in order to be processed. Manitoba Student Aid will accept copies of bank statements, Employment Insurance (EI) printouts, and other forms to verify proof of income as long as the document clearly shows: borrower’s name, account number, and gross income. Do I have to declare my Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) or Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB) payments on my RAP application? All clients who are applying to the Repayment Assistance Plan are required to provide proof of income for the time period specified on the application. Canada Emergency Response Benefit, Canada Emergency Student Benefit and other forms of COVID-related financial support are considered taxable income and must be declared on the application. Manitoba Student Aid will accept copies of bank statements, Employment Insurance (EI) printouts, and other forms to verify proof of income as long as the document clearly shows: borrower’s name, account number, and gross income.

Klobuchar Pushes Vote-by-Mail so Voters Aren't ‘Disenfranchised’ in November

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) is promoting legislation that would change voting methods for November’s election, including a nationwide vote-by-mail option. Wisconsin’s election is underway despite its statewide stay-at-home order and an executive order issue by Gov. Tony Evers (D) that effectively moved in-person voting to June 9. His order was immediately challenged and overturned by Wisconsin’s Supreme Court, prompting a response from Klobuchar. “This is why I lead the bill so voters are not disenfranchised in November,” the former presidential hopeful said: This is why I lead the bill so voters are not disenfranchised in November. https://t.co/KoOdTpsTdS — Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) April 7, 2020 Klobuchar announced The Natural Disaster and Emergency Ballot Act of 2020 (NDEBA) last month alongside Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), which would expand early in-person voting and extend “no-excuse absentee vote-by-mail” to all states. The bill would specifically “ensure that voters in all states have 20 days of early in-person voting and no-excuse absentee vote-by-mail and ensure states begin processing votes cast during early voting or by mail 14 days before Election Day to avoid delays in counting votes on Election Day,” per the release. “Americans are facing unprecedented disruptions to their daily lives and we need to make sure that in the midst of this pandemic, Americans don’t also lose their ability to vote,” Klobuchar said in a statement, attributing the introduction of the bill to the confusion associated with Ohio’s primary, which officials ultimately postponed. She continued: The confusion regarding Ohio’s primary only underscores the need for federal legislation. Some states have announced that they will postpone their primary elections, and many election officials have expressed concern regarding how this public health emergency will affect upcoming elections. We must take critical steps to ensure that states have the resources they need to implement early in-person voting and no-excuse absentee vote-by-mail programs. As Congress prepares to provide states with medical and economic relief, we should also act swiftly to pass my legislation to ensure that every American has a safe way to participate in our democracy during a national emergency. The release touts the NDEBA as a “commonsense solution” not just for 2020 but “future elections,” adding to the mounting suspicions of the GOP, which believes Democrats are trying to use the national crisis to advance their broader agenda of changing voting laws and methods, whether through the next coronavirus relief bill or separate legislation. “Our Democratic friends want the federal government to take over elections, but historically those have been handled at the state level,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) said, according to Politico. “States should run state’s elections,” Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO) stated. “Washington D.C. should not run the state’s elections. So if a state determines that’s the way it wants to go, a state should make that decision.” Klobuchar’s push comes as the GOP gears up for what could be a contentious battle over the next relief bill, as several Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have indicated that they intend to fight for vote-by-mail in the next phase of relief.

FuseFX and Montreal-Based Folks VFX Form Strategic Partnership

FuseFX, the visual effects studio behind “American Horror Story: 1984,” “Deadwood: The Movie” and “The Outsider,” has formed a partnership with Folks VFX. The news comes in the wake of FuseFX adding a fourth location in Atlanta in February. The combined companies employ nearly 600 artists at seven locations across North America and South America. Founders Sébastien Bergeron, Philippe Thibault and Matt Belbin, along with executive producer Amélie Poitras, will continue to lead Folks VFX, which will still operate under the Folks brand. “Folks VFX is the perfect complement to the current makeup of FuseFX and vice versa,” said FuseFX founder and CEO Dave Altenau. “Sébastien, Amélie, Philippe and Matt have established a great culture and company, and are very aligned with our philosophies at FuseFX. We are so excited to partner with the team at Folks and be able to offer a broader range of skill sets, locations, rebates and service to our studio clients. Folks has been doing high-quality work for years and has a great reputation in the market. With recent work on such high-profile projects as ‘The Umbrella Academy,’ ‘See’ and ‘Zombieland II,’ they have established themselves as an elite provider of visual effects in the market.” “As demand for VFX services grows worldwide, this partnership serves as a key step in FuseFX’s strategy to broaden its global footprint, offer its services across more locations, and take on more tentpole projects,” Altenau continued. Folks VFX co-founder and president Bergeron added, “We’re very pleased to be joining together with FuseFX. Not only do we share common DNA with our approach to visual effects work, but also our combined goal is to offer VFX services wherever clients want services offered. We know this partnership is the right next step for us in achieving that shared vision.”

Trump Overturns Presidential Limo While Touting Effectiveness Of PCP To Treat Coronavirus

WASHINGTON—Screaming about how great the drug works while beating on his chest, Donald Trump reportedly overturned a presidential limousine Tuesday while touting the effectiveness of PCP in treating coronavirus. “Don’t listen to all the bulllshit—this stuff right here will make you fucking invincible against Covid!” said the commander in chief, who had angel dust all over his face and was covered in scratch marks as he ripped off all his clothes, dashed across the National Mall, and dived headfirst into the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool after dozens of Secret Service agents failed to restrain him. “I’ve been awake for 172 hours, let’s try to see that fucking virus try to get me now! Grah! Why even worry about the virus? The real thing you gotta worry about is these scorpions crawling around inside your skull!” At press time, Dr. Anthony Fauci respectfully pushed back against the president’s claims, saying that there had been no trial evidence indicating that phencyclidine was an effective means of treating Covid-19. Advertisement

Islamic State Aims for Comeback Amid Virus-Expedited U.S. Withdrawal

AIN AL-ASAD AIRBASE, Iraq—Inside an operational command room at Ain al-Asad air base, which is lined with maps of past missions against the Islamic State, three American radio operators stand at their desks. In past months, they provided intelligence and helped coordinate their Iraqi counterparts’ operations against Islamic State cells within large swaths of the Iraqi desert in Anbar province. But since U.S. drones killed Iranian military commander Qassem Suleimani and his ally Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in early January, there has been a pause as the withdrawing Americans focus on protecting their own troops. Now the area the Americans are surveying has shrunk down to a fraction of its previous size, leaving large portions of the desert unmonitored. Lt. Col. Tim Garland, a U.S. officer who works directly in anti-Islamic State operations from Ain al-Asad, told Foreign Policy that if they had once surveyed an area the size of Texas, now they were looking at a sliver of that the size of Dallas. And the Islamic State, which has been on the back foot for years now, is eager to move back into this vacuum, aided by the coronavirus-expedited withdrawal of U.S. and allied troops in support of the Iraqi military. So is Iran, which controls substantial numbers of Iraqi militias and is dominant in the Shiite-led national government. The outcome, many Iraqis now worry, may be that their country becomes a new battleground between the Sunni Islamic State and Shiite Iran. In the latest issue of its propaganda magazine, Al-Naba, the Islamic State urged its members to step up their attacks on “crusader nations” while they are distracted by the coronavirus. “Fear of this contagion has affected them more than the contagion itself,” the publication said, adding that Western nations will not want to deploy their troops abroad in the midst of the pandemic. “The last thing they want is to send more of their soldiers to regions in which this disease is likely to spread or to have to mass their security forces and soldiers at home when they’re working to minimize mass gatherings and contacts between people of all professions,” Al-Naba said. In Iraq, this prediction is already beginning to play out as several coalition members, including France and Britain, have withdrawn their troops from Iraq and halted their training programs to protect their soldiers from the spread of COVID-19. This comes at the same time as tensions between the United States and Iran continue to ratchet up in the wake of a series of tit-for-tat attacks between the United States and Iran-linked factions. On April 1, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted that he had “information” that Iran was planning an attack on U.S. troops and that it would “pay a very heavy price, indeed,” if it attacked. Sadam al-Obeidi commands a faction in one of the Iraqi militias guarding a small village called Baghdadi, a few miles away from Ain al-Asad. He and his men worry that without the coalition’s support, the Islamic State, or ISIS, will be able to creep back. “ISIS is still active in the desert. … If there is no one monitoring it, it will be able to revive itself.” “ISIS is still active in the desert. … If there is no one monitoring it, it will be able to revive itself,” Obeidi said. The information gathered by the Americans would normally be coordinated with their Iraqi counterparts, who would then coordinate with local actors like the tribal militias. Obeidi said he used to go on missions to root out the Islamic State at least twice a month, raiding the group’s supply depots and capturing the occasional fighter, but that since the pause, he has not been on a single sortie. “Since the political events [the Suleimani killing], we just protect our residents. We haven’t gone out to the desert,” said Obeidi, adding that without U.S. equipment and backing neither the tribal militias nor the Iraqi armed forces would be capable of suppressing the terrorist organization. “The tribal power in Baghdadi is small—from 2014 to today, we have 150 fighters. Is that enough to guard the entire desert? You can’t. But the American forces have the capabilities and the planes,” he said. Garland told Foreign Policy that even without U.S. guidance he was confident that Iraqi forces had been trained sufficiently to address any potential security gaps, “The ISF [Iraqi security forces] has maintained the pressure. They have maintained their operations. They have not missed the beat in Anbar,” Garland said. “Honestly the Americans … don’t have a brain. They are here to end Iran, but they gave us to Iran.” But the situation inside Ain al-Asad spoke to a different reality. Operations have somewhat resumed but are scaled back as U.S. troops withdraw from several bases in Iraq. The security gap is compounded by the fragility of the Iraqi armed forces, which remain weak and riven by sectarian infighting. Ordinary Iraqis fear the worst. Saif al-Din, an elderly man with a large family, lives in a small cottage a few miles away from Ain al-Asad. His sons both work in anti-Islamic State operations: one with the local police and one with the tribal militia. Living on the rural outskirts, he faces a more immediate threat of Islamic State attacks than most. But it’s not the Islamic State that scares him. It’s the potential advance of the Iran-backed militias—something he holds American actions accountable for. “Honestly the Americans … don’t have a brain,” Din said. “They are here to end Iran, but they gave us to Iran. They are the ones who brought Iran and put them above us,” he said in reference to America’s role in installing many of the politicians who currently hold sway in the national government after the 2003 invasion. Iran, despite being preoccupied with its own terrible coronavirus outbreak, is not giving up its interests in Iraq. Last week, after U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reportedly pushed to destroy the Iran-linked militia Kataib Hezbollah, which the United States has repeatedly blamed for rocket attacks on U.S. interests in Iraq, Iranian Maj. Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri warned that any “ill will against our country’s security” would elicit “our fiercest reactions.” U.S. action against Iran within Iraq has also sparked outrage among Iraqi politicians, who voted this year on a recommendation to expel U.S. troops. A U.S. escalation means that U.S. resources will continue to be focused on Iran tensions, while the fight against the Islamic State gets pushed to the side. This deprives the Iraqi armed forces of key security capabilities provided by the coalition, while Iran-backed groups will continue to divide the country, fomenting the type of chaotic environment where the Islamic State thrives. Iran-linked militias that were loyal to Muhandis have promised revenge for the January strike, and U.S. targets are regularly harried with rocket attacks. Iran-linked militias that were loyal to Muhandis have promised revenge for the January strike, and U.S. targets are regularly harried with rocket attacks, which in mid-March resulted in the deaths of two U.S. and one British service members. A retaliatory U.S. strike on Kataib Hezbollah targets killed an Iraqi civilian and revived pressure for a U.S. withdrawal. The United States still has around 5,000 troops stationed in Iraq, divided among a number of Iraqi bases on the invitation of the Iraqi government to support and aid the fight against the Islamic State. But in recent weeks, the Americans have indeed drawn back, consolidating their soldiers onto fewer bases, with U.S. Defense Department officials indicating that they hope to reduce the U.S. troop presence in Iraq by half. This would leave Iraq’s security forces without the capabilities to fully root out and quell the remnants of the Islamic State. It’s an army that has been trained for door-to-door, house-to-house operations, but that’s not the way the Islamic State functions anymore. Since its defeat in 2017, Islamic State remnants work out of isolated areas in the desert and the Hamrin Mountains. “The situation is different. You don’t have an organized army in front of you—we are fighting gangs. We are fighting people who are hiding while wearing civilian clothing,” said Brig. Gen. Yahya Rasool, a spokesman for the Iraqi Defense Ministry. “Iraqi forces are fighting an ISIS insurgency that has abandoned the semi-conventional warfare that the organization had at its height and that is now a much harder target, operating as small guerrilla units in rugged terrain in the country’s rural periphery or attempting to work clandestinely to infiltrate populated areas,” said Sam Heller, a senior analyst at the International Crisis Group. “It’s an enemy that requires a relatively advanced set of technical enablers that the coalition is able to provide.” Chief among these enablers are air support and intelligence gathering, both of which are primarily provided by the United States. Rasool pointed to the same capabilities while talking about the need for a partnership with the coalition. “The cooperation with the international coalition, especially when it comes to reconnaissance, air support, and intelligence information—that is very important,” he said. “If you don’t have modern planes, then you cannot have a strong army.” The coalition uses its technical capabilities to help coordinate and advise missions with the Iraqi Army and local tribal militias that were mobilized in 2014 to fight the Islamic State. True, the group is a shadow of its former self, and a U.S. withdrawal will not transform that right away. “If the coalition forces left right now, it would be a couple of years before they came back, but they would come back. That’s the lesson of 2011 through 2014,” said Michael Knights, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. But huge security gaps remain that might allow a reconstituted Islamic State to flourish. The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 resulted in the dismantling of the Iraqi military formed under Saddam Hussein, and the piecemeal force that was trained in the following years never was able to achieve the cohesiveness of the original institution. Today, the Iraqi armed forces broadly divide into four factions: the Counter Terrorism Service, the Army, the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), and the Kurdish peshmergas. Since the defeat of the Islamic State, the PMF, a loose umbrella organization of paramilitary groups that includes several powerful Iran-backed militias, has semi-integrated into the armed forces as Iran has bolstered its influence over Iraq. “By September last year, before the protests began, the militias were completely dominant—by that I mean they could tell any Iraqi security force commander to do whatever they liked,” Knights said. Among these groups are militias such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq, Kataib Hezbollah, and the Badr Organization, which operate far-reaching networks of trade and influence that they enforce with unchecked violence. The proliferation of these armed factions, combined with both the fragmentation of the Iraqi security forces and the coalition’s withdrawal, is reminiscent of 2011—the first time U.S. troops withdrew from Iraq. “The Islamic State was at its lowest ebb in 2011, and after U.S. forces left at the end of 2011, it began an unbroken recovery until it took over Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city and a third of the country,” Knights said. And if the United States escalates its battles with Iran, it could lead to Iraqi politicians attempting to achieve its complete expulsion from the country. This would mean America would no longer check these groups—something that civilians living near Ain al-Asad are keenly aware of. Among them is Din, the older man who lives near the air base and sees the U.S. military presence as an expedient counterweight, making it difficult for Iran to fully dominate the country. “They [Iran-backed militias] could come, and they could kill us … so we don’t want the Americans to leave,” he said. Among Sunnis, popular support for the Islamic State largely disappeared after the scope of their atrocities became clear. Din and his sons took up arms to fight the Islamic State and were injured defending their town against the group. At the same time, popular resentment of Iran-linked actors is growing. And that suggests the same sense of marginalization that led segments of society, especially among Sunnis, to support the Islamic State in the first place.

Nakon sladoleda na štapiću, stigao nam je i Lino Lada Quattro s okusima ovog prefinog namaza

Većini nam je poznat sladoled Lino Lada Duo na štapiću koji je Ledo predstavio u listopadu prošle godine Vrlo brzo nakon toga ovaj sladoled je proglašen najboljim na svijetu prema International Ice Cream Consortiumu Sada je okus prefine Lino Lade predstavljem u obiteljskom pakiranju Ledo Quatrro sladoleda Mnogi od nas su bili oduševljeni kad smo, krajem prošle godine, otkrili da je namaz Lino Lada Duo pretvoren u sladoled na štapiću. Obložen mekanom čokoladom koja se topi u ustima i istog je okusa kao i tamni odnosno čokoladni namaz Lino Lade. Ispod njega se krije također mekani preljev od bijele čokolade (identičan bijelom dijelu Lino Lade) dok je u sredini klasična kombinacija sladoleda od čokolade i vanilije. Teško smo mu mogli odoljeti, a i struka ga je prepoznala pa je tako proglašen najboljim na svijetu. PR Ove dane koje provodimo u kućama uljepšala je vijest da je u dućane stigao novi sladoled i to obiteljsko pakiranje poznatije i kao Ledo Quattro sladoled - Lino Lada. Kao što mu i sam naziv govori, ovaj sladoled je napravljen od četiri dijela - Lino Lada duo, Lino lada nugat, Lino lada kokos. Svaki dio je preliven čokoladom ili mlijekom te posut lješnjacima. PR Cijena ovog sladoleda je 42,99 kuna što je nešto skuplje od klasičnih pakiranja, no ovi okusi vrijede svake kune. U sladoledu su ukomponirani omiljeni namazi koji zajedno mogu stvoriti samo čaroliju u ustima. Iskoristi priliku kada odeš u trgovinu i počasti se ovim novim okusom, uvjereni smo kako će te oduševiti.

Delivery List – Portland Food Map

Do you have some details you’d like to pass on about an upcoming business or development in the Portland food scene? Then please fill out our Contact Form, we’d love to hear all about it.

Trump’s new press secretary has a history of birtherism and wildly inaccurate coronavirus takes

As someone who has gone on cable news a lot to share pro-Trump takes that get attention for the wrong reasons, Kayleigh McEnany, formerly a spokesperson for the Trump 2020 campaign, should be a natural as President Trump’s next press secretary. News that McEnany is to become Trump’s fourth press secretary was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. She will replace Stephanie Grisham, who finishes her nine-month stint in the role without ever having held a press briefing but with many Fox News appearances under her belt. That didn’t happen by accident: Trump reportedly wants his press secretaries to primarily serve as cable news surrogates for him. But the timing of McEnany joining the White House has brought recent comments she’s made about the coronavirus under renewed criticism. “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here” Like many other people in the orbit of the president, including Trump himself, McEnany spent much of the period between January and March downplaying the coronavirus — including as late as March 11, the same day the NBA suspended play after a player tested positive for the virus, becoming one of more than 1,200 people who had tested positive in the US at that point. At that time, Trump was still planning to hold political rallies even though National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci had already recommended large gatherings not be held, saying during congressional testimony that “anything that has large crowds is something that would give a risk to spread.” During an interview on Fox Business in which host Stuart Varney grilled McEnany about the wisdom of proceeding with rallies despite Fauci’s advice, McEnany suggested that the president — who once claimed windmills cause cancer — knew better than one of the nation’s top public health experts. “The president is the best authority on this issue,” she said. Here's Trump's new press secretary on March 11 saying that the campaign was still planning to hold rallies, even as she is repeatedly told that other campaigns are not and Fauci in effect advised against it. McEnany's response: "The president is the best authority on this issue" pic.twitter.com/c6tPHAZGM1 — John Whitehouse (@existentialfish) April 7, 2020 But even more egregious in hindsight were comments McEnany made on Trish Regan’s Fox Business show on February 25. (Regan lost her show two weeks later following a rant where she dismissed the growing pandemic as a “coronavirus impeachment scam.”) “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here,” McEnany said, adding, “Isn’t it refreshing when contrasting [the Trump administration’s public health efforts] with the awful presidency of President Obama.” On the same day Larry Kudlow said coronavirus was “contained” on Feb. 25th, Trump’s campaign spox made an even more bold claim. “We will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here..and isn't it refreshing when contrasting it with the awful presidency of President Obama." pic.twitter.com/O0DDH3Rvkw — andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) April 4, 2020 The clip of McEnany saying “we will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here” was recently posted to Twitter by CNN editor Andrew Kaczynski. McEnany responded with a mix of deflection, Trump praise, and attacks on the press — a combination the president seems to be a big fan of. When McEnany made those comments on February 25, the US had fewer than 20 non-cruise-ship-related coronavirus cases. Sadly, in hindsight, they stand out as egregiously inaccurate. Since then, hundreds of thousands of Americans have been infected, and more than 12,200 have died. Trump expects his press secretaries to be blindly loyal. Getting things wrong seems to be no problem as long as it advances Trump’s interests. When she starts at the White House, McEnany will be far from the only Trump administration official who has gone viral due to inaccurate statements about the coronavirus. As I detailed last week, 10 million unemployment claims ago, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross claimed the coronavirus “will help to accelerate the return of jobs to North America.” In late February, White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the coronavirus was “contained” and urged investors to “buy the dip” just ahead of the Dow dropping precipitously. On March 6, White House senior counselor Kellyanne Conway indignantly told reporters at the White House that the coronavirus was being “contained.” But McEnany surpasses all three officials in her longstanding commitment to boosting Trump’s message of the day. Her history of shilling for Trump goes all the way to 2012, when she amplified the racist conspiracy theories about then-President Obama’s birth certificate that Trump rode to political prominence. #GuessBidensNextGaffe "we're still vigorously pursuing any and all leads on Obama's birth certificate" — Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) August 15, 2012 How I Met Your Brother -- Never mind, forgot he's still in that hut in Kenya. #ObamaTVShows — Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) August 30, 2012 In October 2016, McEnany also went to extreme lengths to defend Trump following the release of the Access Hollywood hot mic recording in which he can be heard bragging about groping women, arguing that Trump’s comment about how “when you’re a star, they let you do it” is actually evidence he sought consent before touching them. She’s also defended everything from Trump’s false claim about Obama founding ISIS to his refusal to divest from his business interests upon taking office. These defenses of the president have been widely ridiculed outside the MAGA echo chamber. But as Sean Spicer taught us on the very first day of Trump’s presidency when he trumpeted blatant lies about the size of Trump’s inaugural crowd size, the job of being Trump’s press secretary is all about being willing to say whatever the boss thinks is necessary to win the moment. And in that respect, McEnany has already demonstrated she’s up to the task. Support Vox’s explanatory journalism Every day at Vox, we aim to answer your most important questions and provide you, and our audience around the world, with information that has the power to save lives. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower you through understanding. Vox’s work is reaching more people than ever, but our distinctive brand of explanatory journalism takes resources — particularly during a pandemic and an economic downturn. Your financial contribution will not constitute a donation, but it will enable our staff to continue to offer free articles, videos, and podcasts at the quality and volume that this moment requires. Please consider making a contribution to Vox today.

Cute Blowjob from Schoolgirl - POV Amateur Teen Reislin

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The San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall.

Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Golden light This is the San Francisco City Hall shown illuminated with Golden light, because this building use to have a Gold or copper plated dome. In this post is images of Greco-Roman and Gothic Architecture, all of which is a Moorish or a Tartarian mode of craftsmanship. Most of these capitol buildings use to have gold or copper plated domes to conduct the atmospheric electricity that these Tartarian building us to harness. Yes, the Old World had free-energy and every modern convenience that we have today as far as technology goes, before the great comet of 1811-1812, destroyed the Old World Order that was ruled by Blackamoors: https://www.facebook.com/Americaisthetrueoldworld/posts/2618724021525215. Aerial View of the San Francisco Bey city Hall Aerial View of the San Francisco Bey city Hall. In this post is images of Greco-Roman and Gothic Architecture, all of which is a Moorish or a Tartarian mode of craftsmanship. Most of these capitol buildings use to have gold or copper plated domes to conduct the atmospheric electricity that these Tartarian building us to harness. Yes, the Old World had free-energy and every modern convenience that we have today as far as technology goes, before the great comet of 1811-1812, destroyed the Old World Order that was ruled by Blackamoors: https://www.facebook.com/Americaisthetrueoldworld/posts/2618724021525215. Aerial view of the San Francisco Bey city hall Aerial view of the San Francisco Bey city Hall. All of these Domed Capitols buildings and Cathedrals are all reflections of Mount Meru (the blue Cross & shield), aka, the Arctic North pole/Pole Star and its 4 cardinal points or 4 land masses. The North Star is the first star and the highest star that created the Zodiac wheel (the constellations) and all life on this planet. 1900's image of the San Francisco Bey City Hall This is a early 1900's image of the San Francisco Bey City Hall, which wasn't allegedly built until April 5, 1913. It looks already built and the interesting thing though is where are all of the people? Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. This is one of the ceiling views of the San Francisco Bey City Hall. Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall Interior of the San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall San Francisco Bay (Bey) city Hall The San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. In this post is images of Greco-Roman and Gothic Architecture, all of which is a Moorish or a Tartarian mode of craftsmanship. Most of these capitol buildings use to have gold or copper plated domes to conduct the atmospheric electricity that these Tartarian building us to harness. Yes, the Old World had free-energy and every modern convenience that we have today as far as technology goes, before the great comet of 1811-1812, destroyed the Old World Order that was ruled by Blackamoors: https://www.facebook.com/Americaisthetrueoldworld/posts/2618724021525215. Dome top of San Francisco Bey City Hall The San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. In this post is images of Greco-Roman and Gothic Architecture, all of which is a Moorish or a Tartarian mode of craftsmanship. Most of these capitol buildings use to have gold or copper plated domes to conduct the atmospheric electricity that these Tartarian building us to harness. Yes, the Old World had free-energy and every modern convenience that we have today as far as technology goes, before the great comet of 1811-1812, destroyed the Old World Order that was ruled by Blackamoors: https://www.facebook.com/Americaisthetrueoldworld/posts/2618724021525215. The San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall The San Francisco Bay (Bey) City Hall. In this post is images of Greco-Roman and Gothic Architecture, all of which is a Moorish or a Tartarian mode of craftsmanship. Most of these capitol buildings use to have gold or copper plated domes to conduct the atmospheric electricity that these Tartarian building us to harness. Yes, the Old World had free-energy and every modern convenience that we have today as far as technology goes, before the great comet of 1811-1812, destroyed the Old World Order that was ruled by Blackamoors: https://www.facebook.com/Americaisthetrueoldworld/posts/2618724021525215. 1901 image of San Francisco Bey City Hall This is a 1901 image of San Francisco Bey City Hall. The strange thing is that this Building wasn't allegedly built until April 5, 1913, according to Google sources. This means that this building is from a prior advanced civilization of people called Muurs/Moors (Tartiarians), because Europeans did not build this Greco-Roman building in 1913; and the Cherokees who were Muurs built all of the Greco-Roman Architecture in the Americas, because the Cherokee were the First Romans. Yes, all roads lead to Rome, Georgia. Greetings friends, today’s post deals with the San (Saint) Francisco (France) Bay (Bey) City Hall, which was allegedly built on April 5, 1913. This one was a little bit more difficult to decode than the previous mud-flood buildings that we have done, because they went out of their way to claim this building as one of their own. I even found construction images on this one. All of which are fake, because embedded in this blog post is a youTube video by Jon Levi, called San Francisco Reset, which proves that San Francisco was a mud flood city, meaning that the masonry was free, because it was already built. This means that all European Freemasons had to do was dig out all of the Free-masonry (Tartartians buildings) that was left behind from the mud flood and turn on the lights. I didn’t need the YouTube video I shared to prove this point, because I found a 1901 image of the San Francisco Bey City Hall already built, when it wasn’t allegedly built until April 5, 1913, according to Google sources (see 1901 image). This evidence is very significance, because it wasn’t built in 1913, when it’s earlier images of the City Hall already completed in 1901. This is a major body bag for the Hijack. Greco-Roman Architecture is a Moorish/Tartarian mode of craftsmanship. Yes, the Cherokee (Cherry tree) where the real Greco-Romans (Greeks and Romans) and they built all of the Greco-Roman Architecture in the Americas: https://www.facebook.com/Americaisthetrueoldworld/posts/2578185658912385. In this post is images of the San Francisco Bey City Hall, which displays Greco-Roman and Gothic Architecture. Greco-Roman architecture is a Moorish or a Tartarian mode of craftsmanship. Most of these capitol buildings use to have gold or copper plated domes to conduct the atmospheric electricity that these Tartarian building us to harness. Yes, the Old World had free energy and every modern convenience that we have today as far as technology goes, before the great comet of 1811-1812, destroyed the Old World Order that was ruled by Blackamoors: https://www.facebook.com/Americaisthetrueoldworld/posts/2618724021525215. Please read my previous blog post, “Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome was in Old World America,” because the information all ties in: https://www.americaistheoldworld.com/ancient-greece-and-ancient-rome-was-in-old-world-america/. Also, any town or city that is name Bay, which is just code for Bey, is a strong indication that the city or Town was established and ran by Blackamoors. Share this: Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Reddit WhatsApp Skype Telegram Pocket Print Like this: Like Loading...

SurveyMonkey Powered Online Survey

Users in the digital age are flooded with an overwhelming amount of tasks and data, and keeping track can be very time-consuming and unorganized. The purpose of this survey is to find commonly used digital data types, how they are processed and what users associate with them. The anonymous results of this survey will be used to create a personal data management system in VR that enables users to efficiently organize their data in 3D space.

Couples Quiz: Do You Really Know Your Partner?

Before getting to the couples quiz, let’s talk a bit about relationships in general. Being in a relationship is just amazing. Not only are people who continue to create more love in their lives happier overall, but they’re also more capable of creating opportunities, money, and fun. After all, when you have someone you love by your side, nothing can get in your way! Believe it or not, but even fighting can be healthy when you’re in a couple. Conflict is inevitable in any relationship, and that’s due to the fact that no two human beings process life in the same way. Instead of viewing arguing as a bad thing, consider it an opportunity to know your partner even better. That brings us to the question; how well do you know your partner? How much do you care about the little details in your relationship? And most importantly, can you prove that you know everything about your partner through this couples quiz? Not all relationships are equal, and the more you know about your partner, the stronger your bond would be. If you want to know whether you’re in a good place in your relationship, all you have to do is take this couples quiz! This couples quiz is designed to know whether your love is based on things you know about each other or not, and to help you have a good time if you’re feeling bored, of course! Without further ado, let’s jump right to the couples quiz!

Coronavirus isolation is creating new couples

‘We missed our moment’ Mathilde Laluque, 31, Paris, France Wedding dress maker Matilde Laluque and her 29-year-old boyfriend had enjoyed a romantic six weeks exploring Parisian galleries and restaurants after meeting on Tinder in mid-January. But the couple opted to navigate the French capital’s lockdown while living apart. Unable to work, freelancer Laluque moved into her parents’ house on the outskirts of the city to avoid being stuck in her tiny studio apartment, while her partner remained with his flatmates and continued his job in finance. “We were a bit naive thinking it would only last two weeks,” says Laluque. “We thought there might still be some way of visiting each other but that’s not the case. If my mum were to drive me into Paris, we’d get arrested.” They’ve managed to maintain their relationship thanks to “a great amount of lovely conversations” on the phone. However, Laluque says she wishes they’d taken the gamble of trying out cohabiting and says she can understand why other new couples decided to rush into things. “I still hope we can move in together one day, but the crisis has affected my finances and that will affect our options in the future now.” Covid-19 crisis love: What the experts say While the global Covid-19 pandemic is unique, it’s not unusual for new couples to form or stick together in crisis situations, explains Matt Lundquist, a relationship psychotherapist based in New York. “In moments of fear and panic, we grab onto the safest, most-available-for-intimacy person around us,” he says, adding that he observed a similar phenomenon after the 9/11 terror attacks in the US. For those already in flourishing new relationships, cohabitation under these circumstances may heighten emotions and increase their connection, he argues. Others, however, may be “in denial” about their true feelings, having settled for “someone they knew under normal circumstances they shouldn't have gone on a fourth date with”. But Lundquist believes shacking up with an unsuitable long-term partner isn’t necessarily a bad thing in the current climate. “I think for many, isolation is pretty terrifying... so everybody needs to do what they need to do to get through this,” he says. “A lot of therapists are needing to contradict what under normal circumstances would be good advice like avoiding getting into a relationship too quickly or dating somebody who perhaps follows an old unhealthy pattern, and instead make concessions to help people find as much safety as they can to survive.”

Why India's Muslim truckers and aid workers fighting Covid-19 face attacks

Insight The incidents come in light of an intense campaign of anti-Muslim hatred, in which India's Muslim minority has been blamed for deliberately 'spreading' the coronavirus in the country. The Indian government reported a surge in coronavirus cases last week and the identified hotspot was a building housing a Muslim missionary group called the Tablighi Jamaat in New Delhi, the capital city. For India's mainstream media and right-wing parties, the outbreak offered an opportunity to demonise the country's Muslim minority. Twitter soon exploded with a vile hashtag 'coronajihad,' insinuating that the upsurge in Covid-19 positives was a Muslim conspiracy against majority-Hindu India. The impact of such a hostile campaign is now squandering the emergency measures the country is taking to battle the spread of the virus. Reports about angry mobs attacking Muslim truckers, health professionals and emergency rescue workers, who are playing an essential role from transporting supplies to examining people suspected of contracting the virus, are emerging from different parts of the country. In Arunachal Pradesh state, an official at the government-run Food and Civil Supply department wrote a letter to the police saying several Muslim truckers, who unloaded rice at a Koloriang district, were beaten up by a group of men on Saturday. As their trucks were also vandalised in the attack, they left their vehicles behind and fled to Assam, the letter said. The incident drew criticism from various civil society groups and a handful of Muslim politicians, including Assaduddin Owaisi, who took to Twitter in condemnation. Lies about Muslims & Covid19 is dangerous. An unplanned lockdown resulted in mass hunger, but Media’s focused on a fictional enemy. The mob took its cue. The truckers were doing an essential job, they needed additional security. Instead they got violence https://t.co/Q4Pz1bBSvD — Asaduddin Owaisi (@asadowaisi) April 6, 2020 According to Indian journalist Sudipto Mondal, the attack was allegedly carried out by the members of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Suspected RSS terrorists attacked a volunteer in Bangalore for delivering rations and food to migrant labourers and Muslim ghettos near Mahadevpura a few hours ago Victim rushed to Bowring hospital Said to be critical — Sudipto Mondal (@mondalsudipto) April 6, 2020 In another incident, aid workers were targeted for being Muslim in Bangalore, India's IT hub. First a Hindu mob stopped and asked them for ID cards. Learning the aid workers were from Muslim faith, they accused them of 'spreading' the Covid-19, a politically-motivated impression circulated by Indian news TV channels. Then the public beating followed. State sponsored hindutva goons must be stopped from terrorizing Muslims in India. It is high time international community take notice of continuous human rights violations against Muslims in India.@amnesty @UNHumanRights https://t.co/JJUg7b1mzn — Wasim Muhammad (@Maharaj4) April 7, 2020 The climate of hatred against Muslims has impacted fruit and vegetable vendors as well. Many Hindu-majority neighbourhoods have closed neighbourhood gates to keep Muslim business vendors out and make them exclusively accessible for Hindu vendors. These Islamophobics ask Muslim fruit vendor in Uttrakhand to shut his shop- because (Muslims) are responsible for the Coronavirus in India. Hindu vendors will not be touched, they are advised to ensure no Muslim should open his shop in the area. Thanks to Godi media! pic.twitter.com/4N4KgtcrUH — Salman Nizami (@SalmanNizami_) April 7, 2020 For the past few days, newspapers, TV news channels and WhatsApp were used as the main mediums to spread deeply malicious content against Indian Muslims. Some newspapers published an old video of a bearded fruit vendor, who was purportedly sucking his thumb standing behind his cart. This was spun as a fresh video and the vendor was accused of deliberately licking his thumb to infect the fruit cart with coronavirus so the buyers would contract the disease. The Newslaundry, a Delhi based media watchdog, negated the news as fake, saying the video was shot in February, weeks before the first case of coronavirus was reported in India. Similarly, old random videos from different parts of India or the outside world in which people were shown spitting in public were presented as evidence of Muslims spreading the virus. Source: TRTWorld and agencies

Бронированный гелендваген от брабус

Бронированный гелендваген от Brabus — уникальная модель Mercedes-Benz G-Class, которая теперь носит имя Invicto. Именно это поднимает тюнинг-ателье на новый уровень. Основанная в 1977 году как высокопроизводительная тюнинг-компания, специализирующаяся на автомобилях Mercedes-Benz, Brabus отправляется на неизведанные территории, создавая Invicto, первый в мире бронированный автомобиль, сертифицированный для класса сопротивления VR6Plus. Это означает что снаряды с железным сердечником 7,62 х 39 мм(АК-74), выпущенные с десяти метров, будут остановлены бронёй, также граната брошенная под днище машины не навредит ей. Установлены и шины, которые не боятся прокола. Invicto может выглядеть как автомобиль, созданный специально для боевиков, но он настолько реален, насколько это возможно. Все элементы закреплены бесшовным способом, а стыки перекрыты несколькими слоями. Вместо стандартного приваривания бронепластин к кузову, в Invicto разработали отдельную оболочку, которая вставляется в корпус, а затем уже конструируется сам автомобиль. Такая ячейка Inviocto Shelter и обеспечивает баллистическую защиту. Поэтому в Invicto VR6Plus нет стыков, поскольку материал либо перекрывается, либо выполнен в виде лабиринта, что исключает любую уязвимость. Для дальнейшей защиты от нападений винтовки, рамка ветрового стекла создается с помощью 3D-принтера. Усиленный корпус и стекло получились весом примерно в одну тонну, поэтому автомобилю нужны были большие, более мощные тормоза с дисками 401 миллиметра и шестипоршневыми суппортами спереди и 380 дисками и четырехпоршневыми суппортами сзади. Остановитесь когда потребуется. Передний и задний мосты также были адаптированы для поддержки новой массы автомобиля, а колеса имеют более высокую грузоподъемность. Инженеры также установили специально разработанные колесные подвески. Все будущие бронированные машины, которые выйдут из мастерских Brabus, будут иметь обозначение Invicto. Серийное производство броневиков планируется начать в первой половине этого года. Бронированный гелендваген получил два варианта — Luxury и Mission. В оснащение версии Luxury входит 4,0-литровый турбодвигатель V8 мощностью 800 л.с. и спортивный обвес. А в версию Mission лебедка на переднем бампере и дополнительное освещение на крыше. Три с половиной тонны до сотни разгоняются за 8,2 секунды. А максимальная скорость — 210 км/ч. Гелентваген уже производится, но пока не доступен для заказа. Это будет не серийный автомобиль, а машина которую делают только под заказ. Цена автомобиля пока что не разглашается. Но учитывая что Mercedes G63 AMG Brabus стоит от трёхста тысяч долларов. Invicto точно не будет стоит дешевле. Что вы думаете о бронированном Гелендвагене от брабус , уважаемый читатель? Напиши свое мнение в комментариях и обязательно подпишитесь на инстаграм xmotor.com.ua для постоянного освещения новостей.

You did not get COVID-19 in the fall of 2019.

On Tuesday, KSBW, a news station in Monterey, California, aired a story about California’s potential “herd immunity” to the novel coronavirus. The piece opens by discussing a new study from Stanford Medicine in which researchers are conducting blood tests that detect antibodies, which can show whether an individual has or previously had COVID-19. The reporter then goes on to cite Victor Davis Hanson, a Stanford-affiliated source who advances the theory that COVID-19 might have actually begun spreading in California in fall 2019. “[Stanford’s] data could help to prove COVID-19 arrived undetected in California much earlier than previously thought,” KSBW reported. The piece has spread widely. An accompanying web story posted to the TV station’s website has been shared more than 58,300 times, and has also been picked up by SFGate. The theory is appealing to some, particularly those who had respiratory illnesses in late 2019 that they now believe could’ve been COVID-19. In their minds, that might mean they have some immunity to the virus—and if a large portion of Americans have some immunity, we can begin our move out of lockdown. But that theory has no scientific basis, and it spreads dangerous misinformation. Let’s start with the facts. I reached out to Stanford Medicine to try to understand the goals of its antibody test, and how it relates to Hanson’s fall 2019 theory. The short answer on the latter is that it doesn’t. “Our research does not suggest that the virus was here that early,” says Lisa Kim of Stanford’s media relations team. Neither does anyone else’s, it appears. “There is zero probability [SARS-CoV-2] was circulating in fall 2019,” tweeted Trevor Bedford, a computational biologist at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center who has been tracking SARS-CoV-2’s genetic code as it has spread. Allison Black, a genomic epidemiologist working in Bedford’s lab, says this is apparent from researchers’ data. As the virus spreads, it also mutates, much like the way words change in a game of Telephone. By sequencing the virus’s genome from different individual samples, researchers can track strains of the coronavirus back to its origins. They have been continually updating their findings on Nextstrain. (In case you’re wondering, the strains have nothing to do with severity of illness. They’re simply a way to track the virus’s mutations over time.) Richard Neher, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Basel in Switzerland, told the Scientist that Nextstrain researchers’ work has tracked the virus back to a single source “somewhere between mid-November and early December,” which then spread in China. The earliest cases in the U.S. appeared in January 2020, according to Nextstrain’s sequencing work. Washington state, where the first known COVID-19 case in the U.S. was identified, has at least six strains. A similar analysis of California’s coronavirus cases—which has yet to be peer-reviewed—identified at least eight strains in the state, suggesting transmission from Washington state, New York, Europe, and China. If genomics isn’t your thing, consider this: If the virus had arrived earlier, we would have known. Humans have no natural immunity to this new virus, which is why it’s spreading quickly, infecting millions and killing tens of thousands. That’s evident in what’s going on in New York right now, says Black. “If it had arrived in fall of 2019, and we were all living our lives as normal, we would’ve had New York back in fall of 2019,” she says. There’s no reason why this virus would have spread undetected for months before wreaking the havoc it has. So what’s really behind this theory? It might be worth considering the source. KSBW’s piece begins by mentioning Stanford Medicine’s research, then quotes Victor Davis Hanson, a Stanford-affiliated source; the piece reads as if Hanson is one of these aforementioned Stanford Medicine researchers. But Hanson is a military historian, not a doctor or scientist; he is affiliated with Stanford’s Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank.* (I reached out to Hanson for comment, but he has not responded; we will update this article if he does.) The piece makes no effort to clarify what the Hoover Institution is, and it delves into Hanson’s “theory” as a prelude to a brief explanation of Stanford Medicine’s study. Hanson’s recent work, published in National Review, suggests he is eager to reopen the American economy. It would be quite convenient, then, to claim that the virus has already torn through the U.S. and granted us immunity. (In that article, Hanson also claims that “much of the virus modeling is nearly worthless” and refers to it as “science,” in scare quotes.) Hanson also (incorrectly) suggests that the virus’s spread in California came from “Chinese nationals” visiting California. Looking more closely at his recent work reveals a potential political motive for that claim; in a recent op-ed for Fox News, he argues that we already have too many Chinese nationals visiting, studying, or collaborating in the U.S., and that post-coronavirus America should “wake up” and make changes. While it’s certainly possible that some cases of transmission came from Chinese nationals, current genomic analyses show that there are several cases of Americans who traveled to China and brought it back with them. Limiting Chinese nationals’ access to the U.S. wouldn’t have prevented those transmissions, or the cases that entered the U.S. via other countries, like Italy. What’s more, the data show that community spread and coast-to-coast transmission within the U.S. are responsible for much of the spread. The trope of the Chinese as disease harbingers has been used to justify anti-Chinese travel bans and dehumanization for centuries, and the coronavirus lends a new opportunity to revive those arguments. While Hanson may have advanced this unscientific claim, he didn’t do it alone. Thousands of people have shared the article and casually questioned whether the illness they had last fall or winter might have actually been due to the coronavirus. (Black says her friends, too, have brought up this theory around her, and she shuts it down quickly: “I’ll say, ‘Were you in China in December?’ Otherwise, absolutely not.”) The idea that we might have unknowingly been infected months ago and now have immunity is comforting, and when we see an article that might confirm that hope, we share it. Confirmation bias has driven the sharing of other dubious science as well, though sometimes it works to reinforce fear rather than offer hope. A Medium piece asserting that people exercising outdoors could be spreading the coronavirus went viral Wednesday, shared by many who were already paranoid about being outside near runners or cyclists. Vice dug into its origins, and it turned out to have been written by an entrepreneur and based on very flimsy research. With the news changing rapidly, it’s difficult to keep track of what’s legitimate, but when in doubt, look at who’s making sweeping claims and ask how they know (or don’t know) what they claim. For more on the impact of the coronavirus, listen to this week’s episode of Slate Money. Correction, April 10, 2020: This piece originally misidentified Stanford’s Hoover Institution as the Hoover Institute. Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

The Threat from the Tablighi Jamaat

It is time India recognised the danger in the Islamic group's ideology, its disregard for national borders and the jihadists it spawns THE GREATEST GLOBAL health catastrophe of our time has helped shine a spotlight on the role of religious evangelists and other fundamentalists in spreading the China-originating Covid-19 disease. In a number of countries, from the US and Israel to Iran and Indonesia, religious zealots—whether Christian, Jewish, Shia or Sunni—have resisted adhering to government stay-at-home orders. In some cases, their disobedience has led to spiralling Covid-19 infection rates. In Israel, for example, Ultra-Orthodox Jews account for 12 per cent of the country’s total population but as much as 60 per cent of its Covid-19 cases in major hospitals, compelling the government to start policing Ultra-Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods in order to protect the wider population. But no group has played a greater role in spreading the deadly coronavirus far and wide than the Tablighi Jamaat (‘Proselytising Society’), a transnational missionary movement of the Deobandi branch of Sunni Islam that boasts more than 80 million members across the world, including in Europe and North America. It was founded in 1927 near New Delhi in Mewat, Haryana, by a prominent Deobandi cleric, Maulana Muhammad Ilyas Kandhlawi. Some commentators, not familiar with its ideology or larger goals, have presented in benign light the puritanical Tablighi Jamaat, with its wandering bands of preachers. In truth, the Tablighi Jamaat represents a fusion of religious obscurantism, missionary zeal and an enduring commitment to global jihad—a toxic cocktail that holds long-term implications for international security and for modern democracies. Basically, the Tablighi Jamaat shuns the modern world and urges its followers to replicate the life of Muhammad and work towards creating a rule of Islam on earth. Its revivalist and regressive ideology is espoused by radical preachers and Islamist televangelists, such as Junaid Jamshed and Tariq Jamil, both Pakistanis. The Tablighi Jamaat claims to be apolitical, but its ultimate goal—triumph in global jihad—underscores its very political mission. To be clear, the Tablighi Jamaat itself is not a hotbed of terrorism, despite some individual acts of terror by its associates. However, the ideological indoctrination it imparts to the largely illiterate and semiliterate youths it enlists helps to create recruits for militant and terrorist outfits. It has long served as a recruiting ground for terrorist groups, ranging from Al Qaeda and the Taliban to two of its spinoffs—the Harakat ul-Mujahideen and the Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami. The Harakat ul-Jihad-i-Islami has proved a security challenge for India in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) and in states like Gujarat where it has taken over mosques from moderate Muslims and installed radical clerics. A bigger challenge has been posed by the other offshoot, the Harakat ul-Mujahideen, an internationally designated terrorist organisation. Founded by the Tablighi Jamaat’s Pakistan branch, the Harakat ul-Mujahideen, as the UN has put it, “was responsible for the hijacking of an Indian airliner on December 24, 1999, which resulted in the release of Masood Azhar”. Azhar was not the only terrorist released from Indian jails to meet the demands of the hijackers of the IC-814 flight. The pandemic has shown how the Tablighi Jamaat’s religious obscurantism, fanaticism, delusions of divine protection and open disdain for science can endanger public health and the larger social good Share this on In an ignominious episode unparalleled in modern history, then Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh flew to Taliban-held Kandahar to hand-deliver Azhar and two other terrorists: Omar Sheikh, a purported financier of 9/11, whose subsequent conviction for journalist Daniel Pearl’s 2002 murder was recently overturned by a Pakistani court; and Mushtaq Zargar, who went on to form the Al-Umar terror group. Azhar, for his part, established the Jaish-e-Mohammed, a front organisation of Pakistan’s rogue Inter-Services Intelligence agency. Just the way India’s terrorists-for-Rubaiya Sayeed swap in 1989 aided Pakistan’s “politico-military decision”, as Benazir Bhutto put it, “to start low-intensity operations” in J&K, the Kandahar cave-in led to a qualitative escalation in crossborder terrorism. The Tablighi Jamaat came under intense scrutiny in the US after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. “We have a significant presence of Tablighi Jamaat in the United States,” the deputy chief of the FBI’s international terrorism section said in 2003. “And we have found that Al Qaeda used them for recruiting now and in the past.” Alex Alexiev, the late American counterterrorism expert of Bulgarian origin, described the Tablighi Jamaat in an essay as ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’. The hardcore jihadists the Tablighi Jamaat spawns in its ranks are later recruited by terrorist organisations as replacements for slain warriors. From Morocco and France to Indonesia and the Philippines, intelligence agencies and prosecutors have viewed the Tablighi Jamaat training as a stepping stone to membership in terrorist outfits. French intelligence officers, for example, called the Tablighi Jamaat the “antechamber” of violent extremism, according to a 2002 report in Le Monde. The current pandemic, for its part, has shown how the Tablighi Jamaat’s religious obscurantism, fanaticism, blinkered delusions of divine protection and open disdain for science can endanger public health and the larger social good. A prominent Tablighi Jamaat leader in Pakistan, Mufti Taqi Usmani, who is also a leading expert in sharia finance, claimed on national television that the Prophet, by coming in the dream of a Tablighi Jamaat activist, revealed “the cure for the coronavirus”, which was the recitation of certain Quranic verses. Amid the raging pandemic, the Tablighi Jamaat held ijtemas (or congregations) in several countries even after Saudi Arabia suspended the Umrah pilgrimage, Iran shut the holiest Shia sites and multiple Islamic nations closed mosques, including Jordan, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Lebanon. Saudi Arabia, after closing off the holy cities of Mecca and Medina to foreigners, has asked the more than a million Muslims planning to perform the hajj from late July to indefinitely delay their trips, raising the possibility that the pilgrimage could be cancelled for the first time in more than 200 years. For the Tablighi Jamaat, however, the fast-spreading coronavirus was no deterrent to staging ijtemas in several countries. Calling off any ijtema —which is an annual three-day Tablighi Jamaat congregation to help instil a sense of brotherhood and a commitment to jihad among its members—would have amounted to repudiating Allah’s directive, according to Tablighi Jamaat clerics. The Tablighi Jamaat’s New Delhi-based chief, Maulana Muhammad Saad Kandhlawi, pushed innocent Tablighis into the jaws of the new disease by talking about the “healing power” of the “markaz”—the mosque-cum-dormitory complex that serves as the organisation’s headquarters. Saad, the great-grandson of the Tablighi Jamaat’s founder, told his followers that, in any event, the “best death” for any devout Muslim was in the markaz. Saad’s sermons that “Allah will protect us” were redolent of how Shia clerics earlier turned the holy city of Qom into Iran’s Covid-19 epicentre. Indeed, Iran’s outbreak of the disease began in Qom, which is visited by some 20 million pilgrims every year and where the 1979 Islamic revolution started. The ayatollahs who run the seminaries in Qom openly discounted the coronavirus risks. Mohammad Saeedi, the head of Qom’s famous Fatima Masumeh shrine, released a video message calling on pilgrims to keep coming. “We consider this holy shrine to be a place of healing. That means people should come here to heal from spiritual and physical diseases,” said Saeedi, who is also the representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader in Qom. The Tablighi Jamaat’s ijtemas amid the pandemic unleashed the largest known viral vector in the Sunni world, spreading the disease in communities stretching from Southeast Asia to West Africa. The February 27th-March 1st ijtema of 16,000 activists at the Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur helped spread the disease to six Southeast Asian countries: Brunei, Cambodia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Nearly two-thirds of coronavirus cases in Malaysia last month were linked to that ijtema. The Tablighi Jamaat will not find it easy to repair the damage to its reputation. Long after the current pandemic is over, it will be remembered for the deaths and suffering that its ijtemas caused in many communities in the Sunni world. The ijtemas became rapid multipliers of the coronavirus Share this on The Kuala Lumpur gathering was followed by a much larger international ijtema at the Tablighi Jamaat’s Pakistan headquarters at Raiwind, in suburban Lahore. A quarter of a million participants congregated in Raiwind on March 11th-12th before authorities privately persuaded the organisers to end the ijtema and disperse. But hundreds of participants contracted Covid-19. Within days, they spread the disease far and wide, not just within Pakistan, but also elsewhere—from Kyrgyzstan to Nigeria. After Raiwind came the New Delhi ijtema from March 13th, although the province of Delhi (which includes New Delhi) had already declared Covid-19 an epidemic and prohibited all large events, besides shutting all schools, colleges and movie theatres. While a large throng packed New Delhi’s Markaz Nizamuddin, Indonesia—in a last-minute decision—banned an ijtema in South Sulawesi just as it was about to begin on March 18th with nearly 8,800 participants. The Tablighi Jamaat initially resisted the Indonesian order but then complied by asking its activists to leave. Despite knowing all this, including how the Kuala Lumpur ijtema helped spread Covid-19 across Southeast Asia, Indian federal and state authorities allowed the New Delhi ijtema to proceed. Maharashtra, in contrast, acted wisely by cancelling permission for an ijtema in Vasai. The New Delhi congregation stretched for 18 days until the final 2,346 holdouts were evacuated from Markaz Nizamuddin on April 1st. Permitting this congregation has proved costly for India, including undermining the nationwide lockdown that has been in force since March 25th to combat Covid-19. Nearly a third of India’s total number of Covid-19 cases has been linked to that gathering. Many contracted the coronavirus at the congregation, which they then spread to families and communities across India after returning home. Such has been the adverse fallout from the ijtema that the national lockdown is likely to be extended beyond April 14th. The fact that many participants from other Islamic countries at the New Delhi ijtema misused tourist visas for missionary activity has also cast an unflattering light on Indian security agencies. Initial investigations suggest that some of the foreign attendees, including preachers from Indonesia and Malaysia, brought the coronavirus to the gathering. Today, with prayer failing to keep the disease away, Markaz Nizamuddin—which Saad portrays as the most sacred place after Mecca and Medina—has been shut after being disinfected by the authorities. Saad, for his part, initially went into hiding to escape police investigations. Looking ahead, the Tablighi Jamaat will not find it easy to repair the damage to its reputation. Long after the current pandemic is over, it will be remembered for the deaths and suffering that its ijtemas caused in many communities in the Sunni world. The ijtemas became rapid multipliers of the coronavirus. The rancour over the Tablighi Jamaat’s pandemic-related role could, in fact, exacerbate the factional infighting that has increasingly racked the organisation in recent years. The infighting largely centres on the leadership issue, with the more radical Tablighi Jamaat factions in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Britain challenging Saad’s headship. The infighting has triggered even violent clashes between rival groups, resulting in multiple deaths. Such violence has been recurrent in Bangladesh, which hosts the Tablighi Jamaat’s Bishwa Ijtema (Global Congregation), supposedly the second-largest annual gathering of Sunni Muslims after the hajj. Bishwa Ijtema is held usually in January along the river Turag in Tongi, just outside Dhaka. The Tablighi Jamaat in Bangladesh, however, has split into two groups, with the more militant, anti-Saad faction supported by radical clerics and the hardline Islamist outfit Hefazat-e-Islam. This faction, by staging a violent demonstration, forced Saad last year to return to New Delhi without joining the Bishwa Ijtema. At present, Saad’s followers are not allowed into the Tablighi Jamaat’s Bangladesh headquarters—the Kakrail Mosque in Dhaka. In Pakistan, the longstanding military-mullah alliance, which has facilitated the military generals’ use of terrorist proxies against India and Afghanistan, looks askance at the Tablighi Jamaat’s global headquarters in New Delhi. Control over Islamist and terror groups is central to the generals’ power at home and their regional strategy. Not surprisingly, the generals have encouraged the Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan to be independent of the New Delhi group. The Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan maintains close ties with the generals, at whose behest it allows state-sponsored terrorist groups to enlist some of its best students for military training. Such transfer of students usually takes place at the Tablighi Jamaat centre in Raiwind, where the organisation’s star recruits receive four months of special missionary training. The generals’ backing, however, has not protected the Tablighi Jamaat in Pakistan from attacks by jihadist groups that are outside the control of the military establishment. Several prominent Deobandi/Tablighi Jamaat clerics have been assassinated, including by the Pakistani Taliban—the Pakistan military’s nemesis. From Morocco and France to Indonesia and the Philippines, intelligence agencies and prosecutors have viewed the Tablighi Jamaat training as a stepping stone to membership in terrorist outfits. French intelligence officers called the Tablighi Jamaat the ‘antechamber’ of violent extremism Share this on Maintaining state control over clerics is also the reason Saudi Arabia does not allow the Tablighi Jamaat to operate in the kingdom. A transnational Islamist movement headquartered in a non-Muslim country runs counter to the Saudi policy of keeping the religious establishment on a tight leash and using it to bankroll fundamentalist groups elsewhere. Against this background, India’s indulgent act in letting the Tablighi Jamaat hold its ijtema in New Delhi, despite pandemic-related state curbs, has stuck out like a sore thumb. National Security Advisor Ajit Doval’s widely publicised meeting with Saad in the early hours of March 29th, to get the holdouts in Markaz Nizamuddin to leave, could weaken Saad’s hand in the factional infighting. More fundamentally, it is past time for India to recognise the threat from the Tablighi Jamaat’s regressive ideology. That ideology is antithetical to secularism and democracy, including religious tolerance and separation of church and state. The Tablighi Jamaat, by not recognising national borders, also challenges the nation-state system. No counterterrorism strategy can ignore the intersection between religious fundamentalism and violent extremism that this movement symbolises. Terrorist groups draw sustenance from the Tablighi Jamaat’s ideology of Islamic revivalism. These groups also enlist some of those that the Tablighi Jamaat trains. In a limited number of cases, Tablighi Jamaat associates have directly committed acts of terrorism, including convicted Westerners such as ‘shoe bomber’ Richard Reid, ‘American Taliban’ John Walker Lindh, ‘dirty bomber’ José Padilla and ‘Brooklyn Bridge bomber’ Lyman Harris. The manner the Tablighi Jamaat’s obscurantism and obduracy contributed to the spread of Covid-19 is just the latest reminder of the group’s threat to national and international security.

Disney is remaking its classic 1973 Robin Hood film as a CGI Disney Plus exclusive

Following The Lion King, Mulan, and Aladdin, to name a few, Disney’s 1973 classic animated film Robin Hood is the latest movie to get a live-action remake. This one, however, is going straight to Disney Plus. Much like The Lion King, the new version of Robin Hood will “feature the characters as anthropomorphic, this time in a live-action/CG hybrid format,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. The movie will also be a musical. The original version famously portrayed the noble thief of Sherwood Forest as a fox, while his gang of merry men were illustrated as other animals. Little John was a black bear, the Sheriff of Nottingham was a wolf, Friar Tuck was a badger, and perhaps most memorably, Prince John was a thumb-sucking, jewel-encrusted crown-wearing lion. Carlos López Estrada, best known for directing 2018’s Blindspotting, will take on the Robin Hood remake. Kari Granlund, who wrote Disney’s recent Lady and the Tramp remake, is on board to pen the script. It’s unclear when Disney is looking to start the project, but production around the world has shut down as people social distance to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Robin Hood isn’t the first movie to be made a Disney Plus exclusive, but it is a sign of how Disney is thinking about its films. The Lady and the Tramp also became a Disney Plus-only title when the service launched in November 2019. Titles that aren’t going to generate an impressive return on investment in theaters (The Lion King and Aladdin both surpassed $1 billion at the global box office) make more sense as streaming exclusives. This builds up Disney’s streaming library and gives subscribers a reason to continue shelling out for the service. The company is already looking at ways to streamline movies to Disney Plus. Artemis Fowl, originally set to have a theatrical release, will now debut on Disney Plus as a streaming exclusive. Executive chairman and former CEO Bob Iger told Barrons that more movies could become Disney Plus exclusives. Disney recently announced that it has surpassed 50 million paid subscribers, thanks to launches in the UK, India, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria, and Switzerland. Although Disney Plus did delay the launch of its service in France due to government concern that it would put too much strain on bandwidth, the app is now available there, too.

Coronavirus in New York: A paramedic's diary

Image copyright Anthony Almojera Image caption Anthony Almojera: "You can have a busy day sometimes, but never this" As a senior paramedic in New York City, Anthony Almojera is used to being close to death. But nothing in his 17-year career could have prepared him for the outbreak of coronavirus. The state has now had more diagnosed cases of the virus than any single country. It has the grim distinction of being at the forefront of a global health crisis. Anthony is now working 16-hour days to try to save people across the city, while supporting colleagues who fear for their lives and their families. Anthony, a lieutenant paramedic and vice president of the Fire Department of New York's Emergency Medical Services officers' union, talked the BBC's Alice Cuddy through what happened last Sunday - what he calls the toughest day of his career. I got a pretty good night's sleep considering all the calls going on the day before. A solid five hours. I get up and listen to the news in the shower. More Covid-19 but the world still seems intact. I have to get ready to be at work in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, at 06:00 for a 16-hour shift. I put on my uniform, grab my radio and start the process of decontaminating my equipment. We have to wipe down all the radios, keys, trucks, bags and the rest of the gear. This virus can stay alive on everything. Nothing is safe - even your co-workers. In wars you see the bullet, you know who your enemy is. This is a war with an invisible bullet - everyone you come into contact with is a bullet who could get you. I log on that morning at 06:02. I'm able to go get a bite to eat at the bagel shop. I start to hear the radio get busy around 07:00. We have already had more than 1,500 calls since midnight. I get called for the assignment - a cardiac arrest. As a lieutenant I go with the medic and emergency medical technician crews to help treat patients and provide resources as needed. These days there aren't many resources as most days there are well over 6,500 calls. New York City has the busiest emergency medical services (EMS) system in the world - with about 4,000 calls a day on average. Sometimes you get a spike like with a heatwave or a hurricane, but the busiest day before this was 9/11. That day, we had 6,400 calls but that wasn't 6,400 patients - either you made it out or you didn't. This is 9/11 call volume with patients every day. We noticed the spike in cases around March 20. By the 22nd it was like a bomb. When we saw this spike, the system wasn't set up for it. We were like: 'How are we going to do this with the resources we have?' It was just a case of 'let's get going'. Right now, about 20% of the EMS workforce is out sick. We have a lot of members who've contracted Covid-19, we have members who are in the ICU - I have two of them who are on ventilators - and we have over 700 people who are being monitored with the symptoms. We arrive at the house and I put on my mask, gown and gloves. We find a man. His family says he has had a fever and cough for five days. We start CPR and I watch the medics pass a tube down his throat to breathe for him and the IV gets started. We work on him for about 30 minutes before we pronounce him dead. I make sure the crews are OK and get back in my truck - decontaminating everything first. I hit the button to go available. Twenty minutes later, I get another cardiac arrest. Same symptoms, same procedures, same results. This virus attacks the lungs: you can't get enough oxygen into your system, then other systems start to shut down and then organ failure. We hit the button, get another one. Hit the button after that, get another one. There's only one patient we've seen so far who I feel wasn't Covid-19 and that's because it was a suicide. Imagine: I was there and my brain felt relief. This person's dead and it's a suicide. I felt relief that it was a regular job. It is now around 11:00 and I've done about six cardiac arrests. In normal times, a medic gets two or three in a week, maybe. You can have a busy day sometimes, but never this. Never this. The seventh call gets to me. We walk in and there's a woman on the floor. I see this woman doing CPR on her mother. She tells me she stopped breathing and had "the symptoms". We go to work to try and save her. As the medics are doing their thing I walk over to the daughter and she tells me how it all went down. She says her mum has been sick for the last few days. They couldn't get a test but think she had "it". I ask "are you the only family here?" She says yes but you guys were here on Thursday and worked on my dad. He had the symptoms as well. He passed away. She looks numb. I go back into the other room and hope that the medic will tell me there are signs of life. She looks up and I know the look after 17 years. The medic's eyes say no. So now I have to tell the daughter that both her parents are dead in a matter of three days. Her dad's not even buried yet. So this woman is going to have a double funeral, if she's lucky enough to get a funeral, because funerals aren't happening right now. After that call I go outside and the cool air is what I need. We sit for a minute to try and recoup but we all feel it. Funny, we don't discuss it much. Medics tend to do that. We have to get ready for the next one. We hit the button. We get another one and so on and so on. It's about 18:00 and I just finished my tenth one. It's an Asian family who cannot believe their uncle has died. I see in their eyes they can't believe it. They keep imploring me to do something, to take him to the hospital, and I tell them we couldn't, even if we wanted to. The hospitals are not working on anyone who has no signs of life. They keep saying "you have to save him, you have to save him". The son asks why we can't just start his heart again. The hard thing about wearing the mask is it covers half my face. All he's hearing are the words. If I'm able to show my face it lets the patient's family see the emotion behind it. Now all they see is my eyes and my eyes are in terror because I don't know if I can convince this kid that there's nothing more we can do. Image copyright Anthony Almojera Image caption Anthony and his team: "The things we see are sometimes difficult to shake" I'm on this call with the medics who were with me at the house with the daughter who lost both parents. They come outside and see me sitting on the stoop. I've had to tell 10 families we couldn't do any more. I am beside myself with feelings of bewilderment. I've never had to do a day like this in my career. I'm emotionally drained. The things we see are sometimes difficult to shake. And with this, people are going to be different afterwards. There's no way that the majority of EMS workers are going to come out of this happy-go-lucky. Maybe some of them will have these moments of clarity and appreciate the flowers and the sunrise, but for a lot of us, when we close our eyes, we're going to see this. The medics see me and come over and sit next to me. They both put their arms around me and we support each other. It was their fifth arrest that day. All of us know what we are feeling. We just feel it together for a bit. We sit and then hit the button. It's 21:30 - half an hour to the end of my tour. Another arrest. Same symptoms - fever and cough for days. We work on him until I have to go and tell my twelfth family that I'm sorry we can't do any more. I've never been so drained and I go back to get ready to go home. I'm single and have no kids. This is the only time in my life that I've ever been happy that I'm single because I don't bring it home. But so many people are worried about this. I signed up for a job where I can get sick and die. Members' families signed up knowing that their loved one could get sick and die on this job, but they did not sign up for the loved one to bring it home to them. Right now I have guys who sleep in their car because they do not want to bring it home to their families. The stress that members have that weighs heavily on me is their worry that if they die on the job their families won't be taken care of. I'm 16 years in therapy, I'm a practising Buddhist and I meditate, but even I'm having trouble disconnecting now. The emotional drain that happens on days like this stays with you because you know you're going to have to go to work tomorrow for another 16 hours and you're going to get it again. Medics survive a career in this because we always have hope that OK, we didn't save this one but the next one we will save. We are pretty good at saving people's lives. But with this virus the odds are against us. Hope fades fighting it. We are fighting an invisible enemy that is taking out our co-workers - and right now, hope is fleeting. This is happening all over the city. Not one of the 12 people suspected to have died of Covid-19 on Anthony's shift had been tested for coronavirus. As a result, their deaths were not included in the official coronavirus death toll in New York last Sunday, which stood at 594.

Fruit and vegetable plants 'nonessential' under governor's order

An extended "stay at home" order by Governor Gretchen Whitmer bans selling fruit and vegetable plants. Workers at greenhouses and nurseries say that makes no sense. The governor wants people to restrict their trips from home to getting the essentials such as fuel and food. Retail garden centers have been ordered to close temporarily. Callie Gafner works at a small garden center. She says banning fruit and vegetable plants does not help limit the spread of COVID-19. “If you’re growing them yourself, you're reducing the contact between people because you're not going anywhere. You're going out in your own garden and picking them up rather than going into the store and coming into contact with how many people?” Gafner explained. She says garden centers can do "no contact" sales following guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). “[I] Just want us to be able to do curbside pickup and help our local customers to be able to do their own gardening and put the money back in the local economy,” Gafner said. She adds, at a time when so many people are troubled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many find gardening relieves stress and is productive as well. Farmers markets are also barred from selling seedlings for fruits and vegetables. “Currently there is a ban on all plant sales at the market. So, that is a big portion of our May market and so we might have to limit particular vendors at that time,” said Rori Jean Trench, Executive Director of the Fulton Street Market in Grand Rapids in an appearance on Michigan Radio’s Stateside program with April Baer. In a news release, the Michigan Farm Bureau indicated that its president, Carl Bednarski, sent a formal request to Governor Whitmer to “ask for a reconsideration of retail garden centers to be included as essential infrastructure workers.” A Farm Bureau horticulture specialist says the industry has an estimated retail value of up to $700 million and more than 9,000 employees. Want to support reporting like this? Consider making a gift to Michigan Radio today.

Philly Police Drag Man From Bus for Not Wearing a Face Mask

The mask mandate has been rescinded, but more incidents like this are likely if authorities continue to improvise public health policies. Photo: Screencap/Twitter The below video, shared on social media on Friday, shows multiple police officers in Philadelphia forcibly removing a man from a public bus for enforcing what was — apparently as a result of this incident — an exceptionally short-lived mandate requiring riders to wear face masks: do riders know that they might be pulled off a SEPTA bus by 10 cops for not having a mask? pic.twitter.com/NnHXJC02E8 — Philly Transit Riders Union (@phillyTRU) April 10, 2020 Under a new coronavirus-prompted policy, which went into effect Thursday under the name “Lifeline Service Schedule,” the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority announced service cuts and said it was “now asking all riders to wear masks or other facial coverings, consistent with new CDC guidelines, to protect both riders and operators.” This was apparently not a request, however, as riders soon began reporting instances of people not being allowed on public transit vehicles if they weren’t wearing a mask: Due to death of SEPTA employees, SEPTA cut out half their stops. I had to walk to 69th St. Its like an armed camp in there. You cannot get in the terminal without a mask on. I used a T-shirt to be able to catch the train today pic.twitter.com/kZckyjCbwv — Mark (@mkrull1) April 9, 2020 throwing off riders for not having masks. Are masks a requirement for riders? this dude's not wearing one pic.twitter.com/2IXtnI5dkO — Philly Transit Riders Union (@phillyTRU) April 10, 2020 In a statement to WHYY on Friday, a SEPTA spokesperson confirmed that masks were indeed a requirement for customers, emphasizing that the agency was looking to avoid arresting anyone for violating the policy, and that “the covering can be as simple as a shirt, bandana or anything else someone can grab at home before they head out.” WHYY also reports that transit police were informed of the mandate on Wednesday in an emailed directive from the SEPTA police chief. It’s not clear if or how well this mandate was actually communicated to riders, however, or how widely it was enforced — or if it was even legal. After the video of the rider’s violent ejection went viral, SEPTA officials said the policy was being reviewed and police said they were investigating the incident. SEPTA later rescinded the policy. According to CBSN Philly, SEPTA operators briefly had the right to refuse service to customers who weren’t wearing masks, which is reportedly what happened on Friday: During Friday’s press conference, Philadelphia Managing Director Brian Abernathy says the bus driver initially asked the man to get off the bus since he wasn’t wearing a mask. The bus driver then pulled over and called police after the man refused to leave. “Police were not responding to the social distancing complaint, police were responding to the fact the person was asked to leave the bus and refused,” Abernathy said. But as seen in the video, the passenger was not arrested or fined afterward, and as CBSN notes, “some sort of official boarded the bus telling everyone without a mask, that they had to exit or that police would physically remove them. That one man didn’t get off and that’s why he was physically removed.” Wouldn't it be quicker, more humane, and safer for the cops to give this man a mask? — Deb is to be found at home 🌉 (@DKinnard) April 10, 2020 The Philly Transit Riders Union, which called attention to the incident on Friday, released a statement detailing SEPTA’s failures and highlighting a far easier way to have dealt with the situation. “If riding public transit requires a face mask,” the organization said, “then SEPTA must provide masks to transit workers and riders”: On Thursday, SEPTA “urged” riders to wear face masks, despite masks still being listed as a prohibited item on other parts of SEPTA’s website. At some point later in the day, masks apparently became a “condition for riding transit,” although a rider would only know this if they asked SEPTA directly on Twitter. Bus operators received a conflicting message that transit riders did not have to wear a mask. Under normal conditions, conflicting messages from SEPTA management might only cost riders their time– missed birthdays, graduations, job interviews, doctor’s appointments. During the COVID-19 pandemic, an interaction with an armed police officer could cost a Philly transit rider their life. On Tuesday, the agency confirmed that three Philadelphia transit workers had been killed by COVID-19, and as of Friday, at least 100 SEPTA employees had tested positive for the coronavirus. While it hasn’t been hit anywhere near as hard as the MTA has in New York City, SEPTA has still been rocked by the virus and seen ridership plummet. The agency has also been accused of putting “profit over people” by Transport Workers Union Local 234 president Willie Brown, who has said SEPTA was too slow to enact policies to protect its workforce. The now widely seen incident in Philadelphia obviously comes at a particularly tense time throughout the country, as authorities and the public navigate brand new legal and social norms amid efforts to confront and contain the coronavirus. The risk of contagion is one problem; the risk of violence and intolerance caused by fear or misunderstanding of contagion is another. And while wearing face masks in public may be what the CDC finally came around to recommending, that doesn’t mean everyone is going to find and wear one, or is going to feel safer if they do: I don’t feel safe wearing a handkerchief or something else that isn’t CLEARLY a protective mask covering my face to the store because I am a Black man living in this world. I want to stay alive but I also want to stay alive. — Aaron Thomas (@Aaron_TheThomas) April 4, 2020 “This (wearing a homemade mask) seems like a reasonable response unless you just sort of take American society out of it. When you can’t do that, you’re basically telling people to look dangerous given racial stereotypes that are out there,” Trevon Logan, an economics professor at Ohio State University, recently explained to CNN. “This is in the larger context of black men fitting the description of a suspect who has a hood on, who has a face covering on. It looks like almost every criminal sketch of any garden-variety black suspect.” Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, public mask-wearing is undoubtedly going to become far more widespread in America, even if or when the threat of COVID-19 has passed. In the meantime, state, local, and federal authorities still seem to be designing their public-health policies on the fly, leaving lots of room for screwups, confusion, and overreach or abuse. Friday’s incident in Philadelphia is unlikely to be the last of its kind.

WHO Chief Scientist Soumya Swaminathan interview: Data is key to control coronavirus pandemic

Lockdowns alone can’t be effective unless combined with other health measures, says the WHO Chief Scientist. Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at the World Health Organisation, tells The Hindu in an interview that the fight against COVID-19 is likely to be long-term, and lockdowns alone cannot be effective unless combined with other public health measures. Dr. Swaminathan, who has worked in research on tuberculosis and HIV for 30 years, was previously Secretary to the Government of India for Health Research and Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) from 2015 to 2017. Edited excerpts: What do we know so far about how SARS-CoV-2 is spreading around the world? Is there evidence to suggest a variance in its virulence in different countries? Viral evolution and transmission dynamics can be studied by analysing genetic sequence data. We first got the viral sequences from China through the GISAID platform, which was set up 10 years ago for influenza sequence sharing, and since then, many countries have provided sequence data as it became available. There are over 4,500 viral sequences currently deposited, with around 10 Indian strains in this database. What we see is, that over time, there is some variability in the strains. That is to be expected, as all viruses develop mutations as they transmit from person to person. What is not being observed so far is any mutation on any of the important sites of the virus, such as the spike protein or in the RNA polymerase or protease enzymes, which are relevant for drug targeting and vaccines. Those sites have not shown any major mutation, so we believe whatever strategies are now being used to develop both therapeutics or vaccines are not threatened by any changes we are observing in the virus. In other words, there are minor mutations that occur as viruses evolve. We can also use sequence data to track movement of the epidemic. For example, in Washington State, when they found a number of cases in a nursing home, they were able to go back and look at the strains of the first case in the state which was a traveller from China, and they found there was a match. So they could deduce that the infection had come from China in early January, and had been circulating silently. The genetic sequencing helps us track the epidemiology and how it’s spreading in the community, and in between countries. By tracking, we can see if there are changes significant enough to alter the virulence. We are only three months in so it’s early to say, but it is really important that we keep tracking it. This is especially important for vaccines. For example for the flu, every year you have to pick the strains for the vaccine, which is a completely different scenario than having a stable virus for which you can develop a universal vaccine that will be effective. What does the evidence tell us about the effectiveness of lockdowns as a strategy? The WHO has laid out quite clearly that physical distancing, of which one extreme form is a lockdown, does help dramatically reduce interactions people have with each other and brings down the transmission of the virus in the population. What they saw in China [after locking down] was transmissions within households were still going on, so they then took an additional step that was basically testing everyone with symptoms, and taking those who were positive to a separate facility where they could be kept and treated, and the exposed persons to a separate quarantine facility. In other words, moving from house quarantine to facility quarantine. We need to think about this in terms of the logic for doing that, which is if you are living in a crowded setting, chances are you are more likely to transmit to others. Other public health interventions that are shown to be effective like handwashing, disinfecting surfaces, covering the face and mouth when coughing, and usage of masks need to be all implemented together, to be effective. We also need to remember that we are going to be facing this infection for a long time, and will need to think of sustainable strategies, as we exit lockdowns eventually. People will need to change behaviour — continue to follow physical distancing, isolate if sick, improve personal hygiene, while the public health system will need to detect, isolate, treat and track cases. We have been hearing different recommendations in different countries on facemasks. Should everyone wear a mask? It is clear that anybody who has symptoms should be wearing a mask. There have been many studies done in the case of influenza, where people with symptoms who wore masks and washed hands significantly reduced spread to household contacts. There is no doubt about that. There is also no doubt that healthcare workers need to wear masks and proper Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) as they are the ones likely to see a lot of infectious patients. When we are talking about the general population, the logic there is if you don’t show symptoms but you still have the infection, you can still be spreading it. That is the logic for everybody wearing a mask. Asymptomatic people spreading infection is not the bulk of transmission and whatever studies we have seen till now suggest it is not more than 10 to 15 %. Of course, we can argue even that is important and you want to reduce that. Another school of thought is you don’t stigmatise anyone if everyone wears a mask. People should remember that wearing masks does not protect the wearer of the mask, but protects others. If you speak forcefully or sneeze, the droplets won’t travel as far because the mask will keep it in. There is no evidence that ordinary surgical or cloth masks will protect the wearer from getting an infection. There have been studies that show people wearing masks end up touching their face more, which is another thing to keep in mind while advocating mask use. Also, people should not become complacent just because they are wearing a mask. The WHO put out an update on masks and indicated that it is for countries to develop their own public policies, based on the current state of knowledge. We encourage the collection of data so that other countries can learn from the experience of one. The caveat is that you have to do the other things as well, such as hand washing. Wearing masks does not protect the wearer. You are wearing masks to protect others, so it’s more of a social good. Lockdowns impose high collateral economic costs, which are harder for some countries to bear. There is also the risk of an increase in deaths from other causes because of making it harder to access medical resources. What’s your view on how countries can approach this trade-off? I don’t think there is a clear answer and different countries have used different approaches. The economic and human cost of lockdowns need to be minimised, by ensuring that essential needs of citizens are met. One thing to remember is a lockdown alone cannot be effective, unless it is combined with standard public health measures. Most important is knowing where the virus is and tracking various sources of data to find it. The success of China was based on a lockdown plus all those other measures. Going house to house looking for cases, isolating them and treating them, and following contacts. Stepping up diagnosis and surveillance. Constantly updating people and informing them about the logic and need for drastic actions. Not just India, but every country is facing a shortage of diagnostic kits. What are the other measures that can be used to track disease? Number of admissions of pneumonia and influenza like illness, how many people with fever are seeking care, deaths occurring at home and in the hospital, PMJAY claims etc. In New York city, influenza like illnesses, which normally start falling in early March, after the winter peak, started rising instead this year. Real-time tracking of epidemiological data and analysis of the various health information platforms that exist can help provide clues as to where the epidemic is going. These data will also answer other questions, like whether you are seeing trends in collateral effects, deaths due to heart attacks or strokes going up, how we are dealing with other infections diseases that are not going to go away, such as tuberculosis. For example, in the U.S. we have seen one company that has digital thermometers that can track temperatures and aggregates all the data, which maps how fever is distributed across the U.S. You can then see where the next hotspot is likely to be. Perhaps we can consider using the Aarogya Setu app [which lets users know if there are COVID-19 cases in locations close to them] for other applications, such as tracking fever or access to care. If you have symptoms, you should be able to find out the nearest testing centre, which should be kept away from hospitals, so you can get tested and get the results. The penetration of mobile phones is so high in India we can think of using it to track symptoms, while avoiding any kind of social stigma, which you may get from the traditional way of putting notices on people’s homes. We can think of getting people to sign on voluntarily to this kind of app, while being transparent about how the data is used. People are making enormous sacrifices. Community involvement and participation, understanding, and cooperation with what the government is doing is needed to achieve the end result. We also need to be sensitive to the needs of the poor and vulnerable, and ensure that their food and other basic necessities are met. Police and enforcement authorities need to be sympathetic while being firm, and good communication about dos and dont's is important. Should India be testing more broadly? Data is key to the control of this pandemic. As we go ahead, we need to expand the number of people who are being tested — the more, the better. The fact is, because of shortage of testing kits, we cannot simply test everybody, even if we wanted to. One way is looking at sentinel surveillance where you test a proportion of people with influenza like illness (ILI) or Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI), which the ICMR is already doing. If we can keep up that kind of sentinel surveillance even if you cannot test every pneumonia patient in the country, we can know the state of the outbreak. Serological testing is also beginning to be used in many countries, from which you can get an idea of the extent of the population exposed and also the geographic spread of the virus. With a nationwide serological survey on a sample of people from every district, making sure you have age and other considerations, we can have a map of the spread across India. We know there are cases in 250 plus districts but we don’t know if 400 other districts are clear. Serological testing will tell us that, and it can be repeated periodically to give us an idea of how the outbreak is evolving. A lot of people have talked about herd immunity, the idea that a large proportion of the population will develop antibodies after natural infection. I have seen one study come out, and a few more are coming out, that tell us even in a highly prevalent district in Germany, the prevalence of antibodies was 15%. In less affected areas, that will be 5% or less. So, a majority of the population is still susceptible and not immune. Ultimately, only a vaccine can provide enough herd immunity to protect the entire population. Is there any evidence to suggest Hydroxychloroquine, which some countries are prescribing as effective treatment, should be included in the treatment protocol? What we at the WHO did right from the beginning was start tracking therapeutics. We developed a database from various sources and had an expert committee that looked at prioritising which drugs were promising, based on either in vitro (laboratory) data that showed a drug had some activity against the virus, or data from other coronaviruses such as MERS or SARS. Some that have been tried so far are Chloroquin, Lopinavir plus Ritonavir, Remdesivir, and interferon-beta as an adjunct, which was tried for MERS. Monoclonal antibodies proved very effective in Ebola, and some companies are developing monoclonal antibodies against COVID-19. The Solidarity trial launched 10 days ago is comparing Hydroxychloroquine, Remdesivir and Lopinavir/Ritonavir with and without interferon-beta. The goal is to include more treatments as they come through and collaborate closely with groups around the world as they develop new therapies. The approaches are to find an antiviral drug, monoclonal antibody treatment or an adjunct therapy that helps modulate the body's response to the virus. There is currently no drug with proven efficacy against COVID-19. Some are being used on a compassionate-use basis, and not based on scientific evidence. But in the coming weeks, we will have results from clinical trials which should inform us. Some countries, such as India and China, have recommended traditional medicines or Ayurveda as effective immunity-boosting treatments. Is there evidence to suggest this can help against COVID-19? Traditional therapies need to be subject to the same standard and undergo rigorous trials. In China, clinical trials have been registered for some traditional medicines. In India, a committee has been set up to look at potential Ayurvedic medicines, and it’s a good thing. It could be used potentially in early disease to prevent progression, or in prevention of infection, but that needs to be subjected to the same kind of rigorous clinical trials and evidence. The same standards should be applied to traditional and allopathic treatments. It’s one thing to say these treatments can boost your immunity, but it’s quite different from saying you will be protected against a specific virus. Many traditional practitioners are saying this will boost your immunity, and that’s fine. But messaging about these medicines being specifically effective against COVID-19 needs to be demonstrated through studies. At this point we should have a very open mind and encourage research that explores all types of treatments. But this should be in properly designed and properly conducted research studies.

A deepfake pioneer says 'perfectly real' manipulated videos are just 6 months away

Deepfake artist Hao Li, who created a Putin deepfake for at MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference, told CNBC on Friday that "perfectly real" manipulated videos are just six to 12 months away. Li had previously said that he expected "virtually undetectable" deepfakes to be "a few years" away. When asked for clarification on his timeline, Li told CNBC that recent developments, including the emergence of the wildly popular Chinese app Zao, had led him to "recalibrate" his timeline. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. A deepfake pioneer said in an interview with CNBC on Friday that "perfectly real" digitally manipulated videos are just six to 12 months away from being accessible to everyday people. "It's still very easy you can tell from the naked eye most of the deepfakes," Hao Li, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Southern California, said on CNBC's Power Lunch. "But there also are examples that are really, really convincing." He continued: "Soon, it's going to get to the point where there is no way that we can actually detect [deepfakes] anymore, so we have to look at other types of solutions." Li created a deepfake of Russian president Vladimir Putin, which was showcased at an MIT tech conference this week. Li said that the video was intended to show the current state of deepfake technology, which is developing more rapidly than he expected. He told the MIT Technology Review at that time that "perfect and virtually undetectable" deepfakes were "a few years" away. When CNBC asked for clarification on his timeline in an email after his interview this week, Li said that recent developments, including the emergence of the wildly popular Chinese app Zao, had led him to "recalibrate" his timeline. Read more: Viral Chinese deepfake app Zao lets people superimpose their faces onto celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio and it is terrifyingly convincing "In some ways, we already know how to do it," he said in an email to CNBC. "[It's] only a matter of training with more data and implementing it." The advancements in artificial intelligence are enabling deepfakes to become more believable, and it's now more difficult to decipher real videos from doctored ones. This has raised alarm bells about spreading misinformation, especially as we head into the 2020 presidential election.

Things That Turbo Pascal is Smaller Than

Things That Turbo Pascal is Smaller Than Turbo Pascal 3 for MS-DOS was released in September 1986. Being version 3, there were lesser releases prior to it and flashier ones after, but 3 was a solid representation of the Turbo Pascal experience: a full Pascal compiler, including extensions that it made it practical for commercial use, tightly integrated with an editor. And the whole thing was lightning fast, orders of magnitude faster at building projects than Microsoft's compilers. The entire Turbo Pascal 3.02 executable--the compiler and IDE--was 39,731 bytes. How does that stack up in 2011 terms? Here are some things that Turbo Pascal is smaller than, as of October 30, 2011: The minified version of jquery 1.6 (90,518 bytes). The yahoo.com home page (219,583 bytes). The image of the white iPhone 4S at apple.com (190,157 bytes). zlib.h in the Mac OS X Lion SDK (80,504 bytes). The touch command under OS X Lion (44,016 bytes). Various vim quick reference cards as PDFs. (This one is 47,508 bytes.) The compiled code for the Erlang R14B02 parser ( erl_parse.beam , 286,324 bytes). The Wikipedia page for C++ (214,251 bytes). (If you liked this, you might like A Personal History of Compilation Speed.) permalink October 30, 2011 previously

National Guard, Active-Duty Troops Are Assisting with Body Removals in NYC

About 170 National Guard troops and 49 active-duty soldiers have taken on the grim task of assisting New York City with the removal of the growing number of bodies of those who die alone during the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to Guard officials. "They've been involved in, and continue to be involved, unfortunately, in mortuary affairs," Air Force Gen. Joseph Lengyel, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said at a Pentagon briefing Wednesday. He was referring to the troops assisting the city's Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) in the removal of "unattended" deceased. "There is a capacity in the National Guard to deal with it," he said, as troops back up the overwhelmed ME's office by going into apartments and homes where someone has died without family or a doctor in attendance. Lengyel said Maj. Gen. Ray Shields, adjutant general of the New York National Guard, told him that "on a normal, non-COVID sort of a day" about 25 bodies need to be removed from homes. Related: More Than 25,000 Former Soldiers Have Now Volunteered to Return to Duty "Those numbers are up significantly, and 150 people a day are needing to be taken" to the ME's office for examination of the cause of death, Lengyel said. The brunt of the task has been assigned to 32 members of the Fast Search and Recovery Team (FSRT) of the Air National Guard's 107th Attack Wing, based at Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, said Eric Durr, director of public affairs for the New York National Guard. The FSRT, trained to assist in natural disasters and the recovery of personnel in chemical or biological attacks, has been assigned to assist the ME's office; they are backed up by another 140 regular Guard personnel now on duty in the city, Durr said. In addition, 49 active-duty soldiers from the Army's 54th Quartermaster Company have been assigned to assist with mortuary affairs in the city, he added. There is little sign that demand for National Guard assistance at the ME's office, which normally has a capacity of about 900 bodies in its morgue facilities, will taper off soon. To deal with the overflow, the office has sent refrigerator trucks to local hospitals for temporary storage of the deceased. At a news conference Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he is "cautiously optimistic" that the upward curve of new coronavirus cases in the state and city is flattening. "The bad news is that we continue to lose a tremendous number of lives," he said. Wednesday was the worst day in the state for coronavirus deaths, with 799 reported. That was up from 777 Thursday, the vast majority of them in New York City, Cuomo said. New York's OCME prepared a plan in 2008 for dealing with an influenza pandemic, but the spread of COVID-19 appears to have gone beyond anything that could have been foreseen. "The concept for managing deaths due to a [pandemic influenza] event is simple: The OCME will recover, process, and hold decedents from residential and healthcare facility locations until private sector entities are able to manage final disposition," according to the 2008 plan. But local funeral homes have been unable to handle the volume. "The goal of this OCME response strategy is to honor life by respectfully managing one's death," the plan states. -- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com. Read more: Army's Seattle Field Hospital Closes After 3 Days, Without Treating a Single Patient

Critics Say Trump Is Using National Stockpile as ‘Ventilator Slush Fund’ for Republican Lawmakers

For the second time this week, President Donald Trump granted a vulnerable Republican lawmaker’s request to provide their state with ventilators, leading critics to attribute political motivations to the president’s allocation of scarce life-saving medical resources. Arizona’s Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on Friday declared that the state had secured 100 ventilators from the federal government’s Strategic National Stockpile to help the state respond to an expected spike in COVID-19 coronavirus cases. In announcing the acquisition of the lifesaving equipment, Gov. Ducey specifically thanked President Trump for providing the machines and thanks Sen. Martha McSally (R-Ariz.) for lobbying the president on the issue. “Huge news for Arizona! I spoke with [President Trump] on Wednesday afternoon to request additional ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile,” McSally wrote. “Today, POTUS delivers with 100 ventilators headed to AZ. Thank you to President Trump and [Vice President Mike Pence] for hearing our call.” Huge news for Arizona! I spoke with @realDonaldTrump on Wednesday afternoon to request additional ventilators from the Strategic National Stockpile. Today, POTUS delivers with 100 ventilators headed to AZ. Thank you to President Trump and @VP for hearing our call. https://t.co/A7gA8yiGvZ — Martha McSally (@SenMcSallyAZ) April 10, 2020 As previously reported by Law&Crime this week, the Trump administration also stopped Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis from privately purchasing 500 ventilators, claiming them for the National Stockpile. Trump then announced on Wednesday that he was sending Colorado 100 of the ventilators, but in doing so, the president made it clear that he was doing so at the request of Republican Sen. Cory Gardner. Both Colorado and Arizona are considered swing states in the upcoming 2020 election and Sens. McSally and Gardner are both in toss-up elections that hold the Senate majority in the balance. Trump critics on the left were quick to point out that the president, who has clamored for praise regarding his response to the virus on many occasions, appeared to be strategically doling out the National Stockpile’s equipment to states where Republican lawmakers could use a political boost. President of the Center for American Progress Neera Tanden called Trump’s conduct an example of “gutter politics.” “In these tough times, I’m going to send a donation to Mark Kelly because the idea that Trump is using life-saving ventilators to boost the prospects of vulnerable Republican senators is the gutter politics we need to end this November,” Tanden commented. MSNBC analyst and former director of the Justice Department’s public affairs office Matthew Miller went as far as to say that Trump was using the National Stockpile as a “ventilator slush fund.” “So the national stockpile has essentially been turned into a ventilator slush fund for Trump to bestow on GOP Senators up for re-election,” Miller wrote. “Unless you think Trump would also do this for [Democratic Senator from Alabama] Doug Jones.” So the national stockpile has essentially been turned into a ventilator slush fund for Trump to bestow on GOP Senators up for re-election. Unless you think Trump would also do this for Doug Jones. https://t.co/sRrM6VbTXd — Matthew Miller (@matthewamiller) April 10, 2020 Former Obama administration attorney Eric Columbus, and attorney and NBC News legal analyst Katie Phang also derided the president. When “the campaign is on life support” becomes literal. https://t.co/Pv6BkBVZyN — Eric Columbus (@EricColumbus) April 11, 2020 So if you suck up to Trump, then you get ventilators?… https://t.co/WlSNqCtfRA — Katie Phang (@KatiePhang) April 11, 2020 [Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images] Have a tip we should know? [email protected]

UPDATED*: Supplies headed to provinces in need | Fournitures destinées aux provinces dans le besoin

Some parts of this page will not display. JavaScript is not available in this browser or may be turned off. Alberta can safely send N95 masks, procedural masks, gloves, goggles and ventilators to these provinces, while maintaining supply for Alberta’s health care system. “Albertans should be very proud that we are able to extend a helping hand to our Canadian brothers and sisters in this time of need. It is because of Albertans’ efforts to isolate and the incredible job being done by frontline health-care workers that we are in a position to support others during this crisis. We want all of our country to know that in both good times and bad, Alberta is there for Canada.” Jason Kenney, Premier of Alberta In Canada, Quebec, Ontario and British Columbia are the provinces that have been most impacted by COVID-19. Quebec currently has more than 11,670 cases and 241 deaths, Ontario has more than 6,640 cases and 253 deaths, and British Columbia has more than 1,400 cases and 55 deaths. Ontario will receive: 250,000 N95 masks 2.5 million procedural masks 15 million gloves 87,000 goggles 50 ventilators Quebec will receive: 250,000 N95 masks 2 million procedural masks 15 million gloves British Columbia will receive: 250,000 N95 masks Alberta will begin shipping these items next week, and is willing to provide more supplies to other provinces as the need arises and as supplies arrive in our province. Recent COVID-19 modeling projections indicate the most probable scenario for Alberta is the virus will reach its peak mid-May. An estimated 820 people could require hospitalization during the peak period, with more than a quarter requiring critical care. Based on that modeling, with current supply stockpiles and more shipments on the way, Alberta will retain enough of each of the PPE items to maintain an adequate supply of each. “Our team of Alberta health experts is very confident in our modelling data and our expected need for PPE and ventilators. I assure all Albertans that we have ample supply. We are in a position both to keep Albertans safe and to help ensure Canadian health care systems from coast to coast are equipped to take on the challenges ahead.” Tyler Shandro, Minister of Health It is expected the ventilators will remain in Ontario until the peak of the COVID-19 outbreak has passed. Alberta is currently in the process of doubling its ventilator supply by the end of April to ensure the health care system has the capacity to support provincial response. To find out more about Alberta’s COVID-19 modelling, PPE and ventilator supply, visit alberta.ca/COVID19. Alberta has a comprehensive response to COVID-19 including measures to enhance social distancing, screening and testing. Financial supports are helping Alberta families and businesses. Related information COVID-19 info for Albertans Multimedia Watch the news conference *Editor's note: Updated to correct an error in pervious version. L'Alberta enverra des fournitures en Colombie-Britannique, en Ontario et au Québec pour aider à répondre à une demande importante dans ces provinces en matière d'équipements de protection individuelle (EPI) et de ventilateurs. L'Alberta peut envoyer, en toute confiance, à ces provinces, des masques N95, des masques de procédures, des gants, des lunettes et des ventilateurs, tout en maintenant l'approvisionnement du système de soins de santé de l'Alberta. « Les Albertains ont raison d'être très fiers que nous puissions tendre une main à nos frères et sœurs canadiens en ces temps difficiles. C'est grâce aux efforts d'isolement des Albertains et l'incroyable travail accompli par les travailleurs de santé de première ligne que nous sommes en mesure de soutenir les autres pendant cette crise. Nous voulons que tout le pays sache que dans les bons et mauvais temps, l'Alberta est là pour le Canada. » Jason Kenney, premier ministre de l'Alberta Au Canada, les provinces qui ont été les plus touchées par COVID-19 sont le Québec, l'Ontario et la Colombie-Britannique. Le Québec compte actuellement plus de 11 670 cas et 241 décès, l'Ontario compte plus de 6 640 cas et 253 décès, et la Colombie-Britannique, plus de 1 400 cas et 55 décès. L'Ontario recevra : 250 000 masques N95 2,5 millions de masques de procédure 15 millions de gants 87 000 lunettes de protection 50 ventilateurs Le Québec recevra : 250 000 masques N95 2 millions de masques de procédure 15 millions de gants La Colombie-Britannique recevra : 250 000 masques N95 L'Alberta commencera à expédier ces articles la semaine prochaine, et est disposée à fournir davantage de fournitures aux autres provinces en fonction des besoins et selon l'arrivée des fournitures dans notre province. D’après les récentes projections de la modélisation de la COVID-19, le scénario le plus probable est que le virus atteindra son point culminant en Alberta à la mi-mai. On estime que 820 personnes pourraient devoir être hospitalisées pendant la période de pointe, dont plus d'un quart nécessiteront des soins intensifs. D’après cette modélisation, avec les réserves actuelles et les expéditions à recevoir, l'Alberta aura suffisamment d’articles d'EPI pour maintenir un approvisionnement adéquat de chaque article. « Notre équipe d'experts en santé de l'Alberta est très confiante dans nos données de modélisation et dans nos besoins en matière d'EPI et de ventilateurs. J'assure à tous les Albertains et les Albertaines que nous avons les provisions nécessaires. Nous sommes en mesure d'assurer la sécurité des Albertains et des Albertaines et de contribuer à ce que les systèmes de soins de santé canadiens, d'un océan à l'autre, soient équipés pour relever les défis à venir. » Tyler Shandro, ministre de la Santé On s'attend à ce que les ventilateurs restent en Ontario jusqu'à ce que le point culminant de l'épidémie de COVID-19 soit passé. L'Alberta est actuellement en train de doubler nombre de ventilateurs d'ici la fin avril afin d'assurer que le système de soins de santé a la capacité de soutenir les besoins dans la province. Pour en savoir plus sur la modélisation COVID-19 de l'Alberta, les EPI et l'approvisionnement en ventilateurs, visitez alberta.ca/COVID19 (disponible en anglais). L'Alberta a mis en place une réponse globale à la COVID-19, y compris des mesures visant à améliorer la distanciation sociale, le dépistage et les tests. Des soutiens financiers aidant les familles et les entreprises de l'Alberta. Renseignements connexes

How The Coronavirus Killed The Shale Industry

April 11, 2020 How The Coronavirus Killed The Shale Industry The answer to the question OPEC++ or a dead shale industry? is in. The shale oil industry will die. I may come back in the future but that will be years from now. The coronavirus pandemic has cut oil demand from 100 million barrels per day to some 75 Mbpd. Oil prices have fallen from $60 per barrel to $20/bl. On Thursday OPEC+, the original oil producer cartel plus Russia, agreed formally to cut output by 10 million barrels per day. The real promised cuts would have been smaller. But the agreement depended on the commitment of all OPEC members. Mexico did not agree to a cut. The country has hedged nearly all its oil exports: Mexico, the world’s 12th-largest producer of oil, has hedged much of its 2020 output — that is, agreed ahead of time to a set price, reportedly about $49 a barrel. That practically eradicates any incentive Mexico might have to go along with production cuts this year. At $1.3 billion the hedge was expensive for Mexico. But it guarantees that its budget for this year is fully covered. Mexico also redirected parts of its export to its own refineries to produce gasoline which it would otherwise have imported. OPEC+ had also expected that other producers, the U.S., Canada, Brazil, would agree to cut their production by 5 Mbpd. Together with the 10 Mbpd from OPEC+ that would have helped to keep the oil price from sinking further. Yesterday a meeting of the G-20 countries was held to discuss the issue. None of them commited to hard cuts or quotas. Canada denied Russian assertions that it would cut 1 Mbpd. The U.S. rejected cutting more than what was already shut in for a lack of market. There will be no OPEC++. Yesterday Trump talked again with Putin. He was told that there is no deal without Mexico and the other American producers committing to one. Trump then promised to somehow make up for Mexico: By Friday afternoon, Trump was suggesting the U.S. falloff was sufficient to cover Mexico’s burden, as well — apparently without any sort of presidential order or quotas imposed by Washington. It is questionable that OPEC+ will accept Trump's assertion as being equal to an official cut of Mexico's output. There is then no deal. While the OPEC countries will claim to stick to their official quotas to avoid U.S. pressure everyone will cheat and try to sell as much as possible. Russia, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries may still cut some production. But the reason for that will not be Thursday's OPEC+ deal but a lack of demand and no room left to store surplus oil. It means that the price of oil will move below $20/bl until demand comes back from its current 75 Mbpd to above 90 Mbpd. That can only happen when the coronavirus pandemic has ebbed, when the quarantines have ended and air traffic resumes at a sufficient rate. That point will probably come two years from now. But the effects of the global depression the pandemic will cause will take even longer to heal. When demand finally comes back to previous levels a rise in oil prices will still be much delayed because all storage is now full and must be sold off before more crude production can go back online. U.S. shale oil was marginally profitable above $45/bl. That price is out of reach for the next to three to five years. That is much longer than the shale oil companies will be able to finance themselves. U.S. banks, which have loaned billions to those companies, are already getting ready to seize their assets. The banks will lose most of the $100+ billion they invested in shale companies. Canada's expensive oil sand production is also unsustainable under the current prices. The oil industries in North America had been free riding on the previous OPEC+ deals which limited production in countries which can produce at much lower costs. The artificially upheld prices have broken down and there is no way that they will come back any time soon. This is a catastrophe for the labor market in the U.S. oil patch. Especially as the job losses will come on top of those in other services and industries. It is also catastrophic for those Persian Gulf countries that depend on oil sales to finance their budgets. Iraq will be hit very hard and the lack of money may cause it to fall apart. The Saudi 'royals' will no longer be able to finance the welfare state that has held down any serious challenges to their ruling. Alternative energy producer may also become a casualty of lower oil prices as they are no longer competitive. With low gasoline prices electric cars will lose their advantage of cheap electricity. Trump had argued for a disengagement of the U.S. from the Middle East as the U.S. had achieved independence from foreign energy. With the shale oil industry on its death bed the U.S. will again have to import oil from the Middle East. While Trump's disengagement was never fully carried out the new situation may lead him to change his strategy. Posted by b on April 11, 2020 at 18:36 UTC | Permalink Comments next page »

'A great time to read a good book:' Ron Chamblin keeping his Bookmine rolling

KEEPING CLOSE – FROM A DISTANCE Since March 13, city event venues, stores, restaurants, malls, entertainment centers, churches and businesses shut down and laid off workers or sent them home to telecommute to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The Daily Record will report how local small business owners are dealing with the imposed social isolation. One of the takeaways from the COVID-19 “shelter in place” mandatory lifestyle is that it’s a great time to read a good book. That’s keeping the cash register ringing at Chamblin Bookmine at 4551 Roosevelt Blvd. It’s temporarily closed to customers who want to browse the stacks, so Ron Chamblin and a small staff are operating a virtual bookstore. Downtown at 215 N. Laura St., Chamblin’s Uptown bookstore and cafe is closed. “We’re sequestered at Roosevelt. We were selling out the door with curbside pickup, but we stopped that when the shelter in place started. We had to close Downtown,” Chamblin said. He temporarily sent home about 18 members of his 23-person staff. Orders are taken online, through the store’s Facebook page and by telephone, then shipped or hand-delivered, sometimes by Chamblin on his motorcycle. Ron Chamblin is doing some local deliveries on his Harley-Davidson motorcycle. “We’re doing 20% to 50% of our normal sales, but the overhead is low, other than payroll, and my electricity bill is lower,” Chamblin said. He’s working with his lenders for short-term extensions on his loans and said he’ll probably have to dip into savings to pay the bills. Chamblin started the new, used and rare book business in 1976 in a 1,300-square-foot storefront on Herschel Street. He moved into the 15,000-square-foot Bookmine near Ortega in 1991. In 2006, Chamblin bought a two-story, 12,000-square-foot building Downtown on Laura Street near Hemming Park. Two years later, he opened Chamblin’s Uptown bookstore and cafe. Chamblin has an 85,000-square-foot warehouse where he stores extra inventory and also purchased the three-story building next door to Uptown. He wants to convert the three-story building into apartments and a restaurant, but put those plans on hold. The owner of Northeast Florida’s largest independent bookselling operation is optimistic that business will rebound after the pandemic shutdown is lifted. “I think in about a month people will begin to think about reopening,” Chamblin said.

10-Year-Old Seeks to Empower Other Kids During COVID-19 Pandemic

Like many kids who are stuck at home during the COVID-19 pandemic, ten-year-old Sydney was beginning to feel hopeless. But, instead of letting the feeling overtake her, she and her mom took action. Sydney knew that she had information that would make a difference if she got it out to other kids her age. So, the pair set out to produce videos giving out valuable information. From their living room they wrote, recorded, and animated Kids Coping with COVID-19 using Story Maker, an educational software that her mom, Melissa Dilling, uses in her classroom at Eisenhower Middle School in Everett, WA. After covering what kids can do for fun and how to arrange playdates, the series covered a unique way that school students can help the hospitals around them. RELATED: New Jersey Teens Take Matters into Their Own Hands to Help First Responders and Small Businesses Amidst COVID-19 Crisis In the latest episode, Sydney empowers kids by suggesting that students e-mail their teachers or their schools to ask if there is any PPE (personal protective equipment) lying unused in science labs that the school can donate. Surplus PPE that a school might have in their science labs include gloves and goggles. In Sydney’s words, “It never hurts to ask!” MORE: Maryland Teens Go On Grocery Store Runs for Seniors and Vulnerable Neighbors They suggest using a website, donateppe.org, for donating the supplies. She hopes that when kids see her series on YouTube they feel like they can actually make a difference in their community—and the world—by following safety guidelines and seeking to help where they can. (WATCH the video below…) SHARE the Idea With Other Schools and Students on Social Media…

More Pseudoscience for COVID-19

Shares Fear is a protective response but it can also breed irrationality and therefore become counterproductive. Fear is also a blunt evolutionary tool that does not work well in complex situations that require nuance and calculation. We are seeing this play out in many forms throughout the world in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has brought into focus the very thing we discuss the most at SBM – the relationship between scientific evidence and delivering the best medical possible care. The cooler, more professional heads have been saying from the beginning – there is good reason for concern, but not panic. Let’s take steps that are evidence-based and prudent based on our best predictions about what is likely to happen, but there is no need to lose our heads. The actual response around the world has been variable. We are seeing pretty much every possible response and outcome. As is often the case with any time of instability and fear, pseudoscience oozes out of the gutter to exploit the situation, or perhaps out of sincere but misplaced hope. The biggest pseudoscience is the denial of epidemiology itself, and by extension of experts and the very notion of expertise. One form this took (and still does) was a denial of the pandemic or its seriousness. One common tactic of denial was to falsely compare COVID-19 to the flu. This is not the flu. The mortality rate, while still unknown, is at least two orders of magnitude greater than the flu and perhaps more. The 2018-2019 season flu caused 35.5 million cases and 34,000 deaths in the US, with a mortality rate of around 0.01%. Currently COVID-19 in the US has caused 374,329 cases and 12,064 deaths. The mortality rate of COVID-19 is hard to say, because those are not all completed cases. If you look at all completed cases worldwide the mortality rate is currently 21%. But this is unlikely to be accurate, partly because there are many cases unreported and many people who are asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic who are not being counted. At the same time, early reporting in NYC shows an increase in deaths at home (not tested and therefore not counted) which would mean the number of deaths from COVID-19 may be underestimated by as much as 40%. So the mortality rate is somewhere between 2 and 3 orders of magnitude greater than the flu, and this is a very contagious disease. By now everyone should know the goal of physical distancing is to flatten the curve, to limit the pulse of cases that threaten to overwhelm our hospitals and ICUs (which is already happening in places like NYC). At the other end of the spectrum are those offering false or premature treatments for COVID-19. We have already discussed TCM, chiropractic, and false naturopathic claims. These are pure pseudosciences exploiting the crisis. But also there are semi-legitimate potential treatments that are simply untested or not adequately tested, most famously hydroxychloroquine which David has discussed twice now. This is an already-approved drug with potential serious side effects and very preliminary and contradictory early testing. This is also a great case to illustrate exactly why we recommend a science-based approach. The probability that hydroxychloroquine will turn out to be an effective treatment for COVID-19 is not zero as there is some encouraging pre-clinical data. But the probability, based just on pre-clinical data, is extremely low. Most treatments that look encouraging don’t pan out, for a variety of reasons. It is perhaps more likely that this drug will cause more deaths and harm from side effects and other unintended consequences (like depriving people who actually need the drug) than it will help with the pandemic. At this point all we can say is that rigorous clinical trials are needed. But this requires patience, and that is in short supply during a crisis. There are also some other pure pseudosciences rearing their heads. I was waiting for homeopathy to make an appearance, and it has, in Cuba. The Cuban government is dispensing a homeopathic potion for primary prevention of COVID-19. The product is PrevengHo-Vir, which seems to have come into existence just recently, and is produced by a Cuban pharmaceutical company. Homeopathy is nothing but magic water, with effectively zero probability of working. Offering this as a preventive treatment for COVID-19 is malfeasance. What this will accomplish is giving official backing to witchcraft, and also has the potential to create a false sense of security among those treated. Perhaps they will loosen their physical distancing because they believe they are protected. This is a well-documented backfire effect. The Cuban government, in turn, justifies their position by citing the inclusion by the World Health Organization of homeopathy in its list of recognized traditional treatments. This is exactly what we warned about at the time – giving false legitimacy to pseudoscience. Meanwhile the FDA and FTC are trying to do their job by issuing strongly worded warning letters (yeah, I know) to 7 companies selling pseudoscience for COVID-19: The FDA and FTC jointly issued warning letters to Vital Silver, Quinessence Aromatherapy Ltd., Xephyr, LLC doing business as N-Ergetics, GuruNanda, LLC, Vivify Holistic Clinic, Herbal Amy LLC, and The Jim Bakker Show. The products cited in these warning letters are teas, essential oils, tinctures and colloidal silver. Colloidal silver is old-school snake oil we have debunked years ago. Do not use it. Essential oils have also been addressed here several times in the past. At the very least, I hope the pandemic serves to focus attention on the need for science and expertise and the risks of relying on snake-oil, hype, and magic. This is an opportunity to see all this play out in real time around the world, and we have the ability to gather the numbers and see the results. Also, the effects of the pandemic are fairly rapid – rapid enough that even non-experts can draw the line of causation. Rely on pseudoscience at your own peril.

Coronavirus: A warning of more Covid-19 deaths as New Zealand marks a three-week low in new cases

New Zealand has reached a new low for coronavirus cases under lockdown, and recorded no further deaths after three were reported over the Easter weekend. Director-General of health Dr Ashley Bloomfield, at a Sunday press conference, said the fewer new cases were encouraging, but warned there may still be more deaths from a group of rest home residents afflicted by Covid-19. There were 18 cases of coronavirus to report from Saturday, a number fewer than any daily total since March 22, three weeks ago. Of these, 14 tested positive for the virus and 4 were probable cases. JOHN KIRK-ANDERSON/STUFF Residents of the Rosewood rest home who have coronavirus have been moved to Burwood Hospital in Christchurch. "New Zealanders should take heart in that, our efforts are paying dividends," Bloomfield said. READ MORE: * Coronavirus: Full coverage * Coronavirus: Covid-19 testing mix-up at rest home leads to 'unnecessary anguish' * Coronavirus: Elderly woman second to die of Covid-19 in NZ * Coronavirus: Auckland school, Bluff wedding remain NZ's largest Covid-19 clusters * Coronavirus: Church member going door to door breaks Covid-19 lockdown New Zealand now had 1330 cases total. More people recovered from the virus then were confirmed as having it, the 49 recoveries bringing the total to survive it to 471. HAGEN HOPKINS/STUFF Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield gives a coronavirus update. There were 14 people in hospitals around the country, and five people in intensive care beds. One was in a critical condition. Bloomfield said the residents of Rosewood Rest Home who contracted the virus would continue to have their care managed at Burwood Hospital, but would not be included in the tally of hospitalisations. Two elderly patients from this virus cluster have died in recent days, a woman in her 90s and a man in his 70s. "We may well see further deaths over the coming days, I'll just be honest with you about that," Bloomfield said about the Rosewood residents. The significant clusters of the virus at aged-care facilities, two in Christchurch and one in Waikato, was a concern. Bloomfield said he had written to all of the district health boards asking that staff "systematically" inspect each aged-care facility, to assess their protocols to prevent spreading infection and the amount of protective equipment in stock. "We want to be really sure the settings are water-tight to be able to protect staff and residents .. What we have found with the clusters that have broken out, there were some deficiencies in the actual procedures." He could not provide an example of the deficiencies found. Aged Care Association chief executive Simon Wallace had called for all rest home staff and new arrivals at rest homes to be tested, describing the two Rosewood deaths as a "tragedy waiting to happen". Bloomfield said he would not direct routine Covid-19 testing of rest home residents and staff, but testing was encouraged for symptomatic rest home residents, and new residents were required to be isolated for 14 days in case they have the virus. Broader testing of asymptomatic residents at rest homes at the centre of virus clusters could occur, he said, but that was a decision for regional medical officers of health. But he was encouraging more liberal use of Covid-19 testing in certain areas. Bloomfield said he had sent text messages to the chief executive of the Whanganui DHB, asking that more testing be done as the region had a lower testing rate than others. There might be more regions and groups that require greater testing. Bloomfield said he was yet to see advice from the ministry's epidemiological experts on this. There were 2421 tests processed on Saturday, a reduction on previous days due to the quieter Easter weekend. Bloomfield confirmed there were 13 New Zealanders returning from a cruise ship that docked in Uruguay and was afflicted by the virus. They would be tested for Covid-19 and placed into quarantine.

South Florida doctor detained in front of his home by Miami police sergeant

MIAMI – A South Florida doctor is speaking out after he says a City of Miami police officer detained him, in front of his house, on his way to help the homeless. The incident was captured on surveillance video. “I’m a physician currently working at University of Miami hospital,” said Armen Henderson, M.D. Henderson is on the frontlines in the fight against COVID-19. He also works with community organizers, meeting Miami's vulnerable homeless population where they are, on the streets. “They would spread the virus faster than any other,” said Henderson. “We felt like particular attention should be paid to them as well.” Friday afternoon, he was unloading tents from his van outside his home, preparing to go to Downtown Miami. "We were going to hand (them) out to homeless people," he said. That's when he said a Miami police sergeant approaching him, asking him if he was littering. “I turn around and finish whatever I am doing so I could get to the people by 12 o’clock,” Henderson explained. “He says I am going to need to see your ID to prove that you live here and I am like sir, I am just trying to do this, why are you bothering me?” The video shows the sergeant place Henderson in handcuffs. Then the doctor said he screamed his wife’s name. As their young children, ages one and five, wait inside, his wife emerges with identification to prove they live there. "We see how these things escalate and turn out for the worse, especially for people who look like me," he said. As he reflects on the situation, he also approaches it from a physician's lens; concerned that the officer wasn’t wearing a mask: “Specially in a pandemic, everyone should wear masks,” Henderson said. “You should keep your distance between people, especially and limit your interactions. I was taking tents out of my car, why was that even a reason to stop and talk to me? “It is because of those reasons the number of cases were going up. Why was he so ready to approach me without a mask on regardless or not if I was littering?” Miami police said it has launched an internal affairs investigation into the incident. “The City of Miami Police Department does not condone or accept profiling of any kind,” said Miami Police Chief Jorge Colina. “We have had a litany of complaints related to illegal dumping. There is a cargo van that’s parked in front of that home where there appears to be trash that’s being off-loaded; that is the genesis of the stop. Now, what happens after, all that needs to be investigated and will be investigated.”

Punjab Cop's Hand Chopped, 2 Injured In Attack By Group Defying Lockdown

A team of policemen in Punjab was attacked this morning amid lockdown. Highlights The incident took place at a vegetable market in Patiala this morning Injured officer hospitalized, doctors are operating on him Three persons involved in the attack arrested: Top Officers A police officer's hand was chopped off and two other officers were injured when a group of people attacked them at a vegetable market in Punjab's Patiala district this morning. The police said they were attacked when they were trying to ensure the lockdown was in place. Punjab - where thousands of people staying abroad returned after the outbreak started - has extended the lockdown till May 1. The officer whose hand was chopped off -- Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police Harjeet Singh -- went through a surgery that lasted nearly eight hours. Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh tweeted the surgery to "repair the severed wrist of ASI Harjeet Singh" was successful. Punjab police chief Dinkar Gupta told NDTV that a vehicle carrying Nihangs - a religious sect - had "crashed through several barricades on the periphery of the vegetable market" around 6 am. When the police team stopped them and demanded to see their curfew passes, the lockdown violators attacked the police party, he said. After the attackers fled to the Nihang Gurdwara Saheb, the police went there with reinforcements, which included personnel from the Special Operations Group and asked the attackers to surrender. "After a two-hour stand-off, a team of mediators headed by the local sarpanch, entered the gurdwara. After another half an hour the perpetrators surrendered. They came out carrying swords and knives. The police also recovered gas cylinders which could have been used as explosives," Mr Gupta told NDTV. Top officers said 11 persons involved in the attack have been arrested. Early this morning, Mr Gupta tweeted about the injured officer. I have spoken to Director PGI who has deputed top Plastic surgeons of PGI for surgery, which just started. The Nihang group will be arrested and further action taken soon. — DGP Punjab Police (@DGPPunjabPolice) April 12, 2020 On Friday, announcing the lockdown extension, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said most of the new cases reported were those of secondary transmission. There were indications of his state "moving into" the community transmission stage of the outbreak, he added. Community transmission is the stage 3 of the virus transmission, when it becomes impossible to trace the source, due to which there is a surge in infections. The Centre, however, says the transmission in India has not reached that stage and it is still possible to identify, isolate and treat the source. The state has seen 158 cases of the highly infectious disease. The figure includes five people who have recovered and 11 who are dead.

Coronavirus Outbreak: Five ISKCON devotees in UK dead, 16 others tested positive; more cases likely from 1,000-person gathering before lockdown

Five of the at least 21 International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) devotees in the United Kingdom’s Greater London area, who were hospitalised after exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus, passed away on Tuesday Five of the at least 21 International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) devotees in the United Kingdom’s Greater London area, who were hospitalised after exhibiting symptoms of coronavirus, passed away on Tuesday. One of the deceased is Rameshvara Das, an elderly disciple of Bhakti Charu Swami, while the names of others who passed away were not released by their families, an ISKCON News report said. The Print, however, reported that one of the devotees undergoing treatment is Dhananjaya Das, one of the first to join ISKCON in the UK. The UK unit of ISKCON has over 15,000 members. It has been alleged that the virus spread among the devotees when 1,000 of them gathered for the funeral of another devotee on 12 March. Praghosa Das, the chair of ISKCON's Governing Body Commission of UK, said that no restrictions were in place in the United Kingdom at the time and on 15 March, when a memorial meet was held. He added that all ISKCON temples were shut on 16 March, a week before Johnson announced a lockdown. “In hindsight, I think we would all agree now that it shouldn’t have gone ahead. But it’s easy to be wise after the event. We didn’t know then what we know now,” Praghosa said. He admitted that while 21 confirmed cases from the religious collective have been reported so far, it is suspected that over 100 devotees could be possibly infected in the UK. “Please do not be harsh on the devotees in the UK yatra. They didn’t deliberately do something they shouldn’t have done. They thought they were following everything they had to follow. So please wish them the best, pray for them,” he added. The UK has reported 6,519 coronavirus deaths up till Wednesday and the number of confirmed cases stands at 55,242. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was recently shifted to intensive care after the symptoms he was exhibiting showed no signs of improvement. Prince Charles was also tested positive for COVID-19. The infections within UK’s ISKCON community is similar to the Tablighi Jamaat event held in Delhi’s Nizamuddin, which was attended by around 1,800 people. At least 1,445 people who attended the meet were tested positive for coronavirus.

Coronavirus on Easter: Florida church fills the pews with photos

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Pews at Good Shepherd Catholic Church appear to be full Easter weekend. Members of the congregation emailed photos to the staff who printed each image and taped it to the back of a seat. As of Saturday morning, roughly 700 members of the church were represented in photographs. Some were family photos with parents and their children, others were portraits of individuals. As the coronavirus pandemic rages on during this holiday, the priests wanted a way to have people feel as if they are present during each of the three Easter homilies. "An empty church is no fun," Father Michael Foley said. "Social distancing is necessary, but you'll appreciate the people who come every week." States restrict Easter gatherings: Some churches and lawmakers push back. Coronavirus and Easter:7 tips for making the most of the holiday while in quarantine On a normal Easter weekend, there would be almost 2,000 attendees over the course of the three services. “They hunger to be spiritually present as Easter is celebrated,” Father “Raj” Arockiaraj Kunipaku Selvaraj said. Good Shepherd implemented drive-thru confessionals. Confessions take place Monday-Friday from 5-6 p.m. and Monday-Saturday from 10-11 a.m. The priests position themselves 6 feet away from the curb as drivers pull up to confess their sins. Like other churches throughout the nation, faith leaders continue to find new ways to connect with their congregation during a time of social distancing. Good Shepherd had not performed a livestream service until the order for groups no larger than 10 was announced. This was uncharted territory for the staff, but alongside the three priests, they all felt it was important to continue a time of fellowship and worship. "The words 'you are missed' can’t describe how our priests actually feel when they look out into the church and do not see your faces," the church wrote on Facebook.

There's no church, but it's still Easter and Christians are celebrating

(CNN) This Easter Sunday, the Rev. Tim Kesicki, the head of the Jesuit order in North America, will officiate a Mass around his family's dining room table. The service will include just Kesicki, his sister and parents at their home in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But it won't necessarily be a quiet Mass. "During the homily, it is not uncommon for my mom to offer comments," Kesicki said, laughing. "It's very welcome, of course." Kesicki, who lives in Washington, DC, has celebrated Mass with his family before, a perk of being an ordained Catholic priest. But for many Christians, Easter this year will be dramatically different: a home-bound, shelter-in-place holy day. No Easter parades, no egg hunts at church, no church at all. As there's been all Lent, there's a solemness in the air. It doesn't escape many Christians that they're celebrating Jesus' resurrection at a time of rampant sickness and death. More than 1.5 million people around the world have been infected by the novel coronavirus, and over 100,000 have died, according Johns Hopkins University. The collateral damage can seem nearly as stunning. More than 16 million Americans were out of jobs in just the last three weeks. The pandemic has emptied St. Peter's Square of pilgrims, silenced the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and shuttered the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, the site of the first Easter two millennia ago. Sanctuaries across the world, normally filled with Easter lilies and families wearing spring pastels and holiday hats, sit vacant this Sunday. The Very Rev. Dean Randy Hollerith at an empty Washington National Cathedral Government officials, including Vice President Mike Pence, have urged Americans not to attend services larger than 10 people. Outside of few loud outliers, most Christians seem to be complying, according to polls. "There have certainly been lots of examples when religious people have looked askance at certain kinds of science," said Elaine Ecklund, a sociologist at Rice University. "But this is not one of those times." So instead of packed churches this Sunday, there will be livestreams. Lots of livestreams. "We are all televangelists now," joked Ed Stetzer, an evangelical expert on church growth and a pastor at The Moody Church in Chicago. Some pastors, such as televangelist Joel Osteen, have planned elaborate affairs with celebrities like Mariah Carey and Tyler Perry. But most Easter services this year will be more bare: just a preacher, a near-empty church and an online congregation. Staying home is an act of worship Bishop Michael Curry, head of the Episcopal Church, will be in two places at once this Sunday. Thousands of Episcopalians and other Christians will see him deliver his Easter sermon from the pulpit of Washington National Cathedral at 11 a.m. He pretaped the sermon on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Curry himself will be sitting in his living room in Raleigh, North Carolina. The effervescent preacher, who stole the ceremony at Prince Harry and Megan Markle's wedding two years ago, may not even watch his own Easter sermon. "I have never watched myself preach," Curry said light-heartedly. "Maybe it's humility, but I avoid that." Instead, the presiding bishop will pull out his iPad and watch another church's service this Sunday. It will be the first time in living memory he won't be in church on Easter Sunday, Curry said. He'll miss it, but said he sees a larger purpose at work. "To love your neighbor is to love God. And one of the most loving things we can do this Sunday is not gather in a public assembly so that nobody else gets sick. It is an act of worship." With his grown children out of the house, Curry said his Easter will be smaller this year, with the feast his wife prepares pared down to a meal for two. A Christian wearing a facemask amid concerns over the spread of COVID-19. Taking Communion into her own hands In Arlington, Virginia, Episcopalian Diana Butler Bass will take church into her own home. After watching an Easter service online, the Christian scholar and writer will gather her family around the kitchen table on Sunday evening, consecrate crackers and wine, and celebrate Holy Communion. In the Episcopal Church only clergy can consecrate the bread and wine, often only when the church community is gathered. But this Easter, Butler Bass said, she will throw out the rulebook. "This is a time of spiritual emergency, and the people of God can fully take up all of these spiritual practices to thrive and feel the comforting presence of God." In the early, perilous days of Christianity, the church survived by such means, Butler Bass said. "I'm quite sure other Christians have made the same decision over other centuries." Pastor Greg Locke of Global Vision Bible Church in Mount Juliet, Tennessee, holds services in the church parking lot. The real crisis When Stetzer delivers his Easter sermon at Chicago's Moody Church, the sanctuary will be eerily quiet. Easter is known as the "Superbowl of outreach," the evangelical leader said. Sanctuaries are filled with Christians who attend on Easter and Christmas, providing a rare chance for pastors to preach to the not-wholly converted. But Stetzer said pastors who focus only on what's lost this year, including the financial hit many are taking, are missing the point. "This is not a crisis of pastors having to livestream church," Stetzer told evangelical pastors during a Facebook live talk this week. "This is a crisis of sickness and death in our communities." Hearing no amens In Memphis, Bishop Milton R. Hawkins has had a few weeks to practice preaching to an online congregation. His Deliverance Church of God in Christ has been closed since early March. Hawkins, who has been preaching for 32 years, admits that elements of preaching online took time to learn. Sermons in his church are usually interactive affairs, with the congregation adding punctuation, from soft amens to shouts of joy. But with just a singer and a cameraperson in the church this Sunday, the amens will be few and far between, the bishop said. "I preach to the audience as if the house is full," said Hawkins. "It's the same message, whether or not you get applause from the congregation." An employee of cake shop prepares chocolate Easter bunnies with masks in Greece. The mother of invention Despite the objections of some conservatives, Catholic bishops across the country have canceled Easter services and closed their churches this year. In California, the lack of access to Mass felt like a spiritual hardship to Mary Ioannidis, especially since she is seven months pregnant. Finding a Mass online required foraging through multiple online platforms to find service times and livestreams. So Ioannidis and her brother, Rick Minno, who also works in tech, put their heads together with Michael Bayer, director of evangelization and adult formation at a parish in Chicago, and created WithYourSpirit.org , an online database of more than 350 livestreamed Masses from across the country. Already, the site has connected 10,000 Catholics with more than 1,500 live Masses, Ioannidis said. "Necessity is the mother of invention, Ioannadis said, "For two thousand years they church has not needed to provide that connection electronically. You almost always had access to a priest through a local parish. But now we find ourselves in a time when face-to-face gatherings are no longer responsible." On Easter, the 29-year-old said she'll watch the Easter Mass at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City from across the country in Palo Alto. Then Ioannidis and her family will gather for a family trivia game. On Google hangout, of course.

Kim Kallstrom | In my own words

Hey, remember me? It’s Kim Kallstrom but you might know me as the guy with the broken back. It’s OK, I can laugh about it now! Because my time at Arsenal was very special for me and even though it was very short, I see it as a couple of months of great fun. It’s a time that really made my career a little better, a little funnier and it’s given me some great stories to tell. I met some great people, worked for a great coach and got to play for an incredible club. So let’s start this story with how it all began, and when I found out I was signing for Arsenal. Mathieu Flamini was suspended for a couple of games I think, there were some injuries as well, and I was in Abu Dhabi with my Spartak Moscow team-mates. I was on a bus on the way to a stadium for a training game, and my agent called me. "Do you want to go on loan to the Premier League?" "No, not really," I said. "It would be fun to play in the Premier League, but I'm not so interested in the loan." I have a family and at the time, everyone was settled in Moscow. We were very happy there and loved living in Russia. "Are you sure?" he asks. "Yeah, I'm sure. I'm going to stay until the summer and then we'll see what happens." Then, about 10 minutes later, he calls me again. "Kim, are you sure you don't want to go? They're really eager to sign you on loan." "Nah, tell them I don't want to go. I want to stay here." Then, one hour later he phones back again - and I was starting to get a bit annoyed! "You sure you don't want to go?" "Please, stop calling me. I don't want to go." "It's Arsenal." "OK, I can go!" There were a couple of clubs in the Premier League that could have been in for me and I didn't think it was going to be a top club like Arsenal. I changed my mind there and then, called my wife, told her we're going to live in London for a couple of months and then that was that. For us, it was an experience and we knew we weren't going to stay there, so we just made the best out of the couple of months to enjoy the city and the club. Because we were on a training camp in Abu Dhabi, I only had one suitcase. We were supposed to fly back to Moscow the day after I think. It wasn't really clear whether I was going or not, the transfer window was closing and of course there's the time difference, too. I hopped on a plane just after midnight, didn't even say goodbye to my team-mates because they were all sleeping. It happened really, really quickly after that - well, once I'd got through the medical! Lots of people think they know about this injury but let me explain it properly. We were training on the beach - this is so embarrassing - and it was a proper training session too, not just one for fun. I say it was a beach, it was more like concrete. Anyway, we had a game there and I fell badly on a small rock. I hit my back and had some pain. Obviously we were due to go back to Moscow the day after so we didn't do any medical check-up there because it wasn't too bad at the time. We informed Arsenal straight away that I had a problem with my back and that I had no idea what it was, so they just told me to come along anyway. It was a bit of a blur because the deal had to be done quickly. I came to London, we had the medical and we found out there were some problems but we arranged the deal anyway. I thought the transfer would've been off because I was injured but we worked out a deal between the clubs that said I could stay. It was really the last few minutes of the transfer window so either they signed me with a bad back, or they didn't sign anyone because there wasn't any time left. That's why they took a chance on me and in the end it worked out quite well. I had signed for a few teams in my career but it was definitely a different approach going into the dressing room as a January loan signing. Everyone there knew I was only there as a back-up option because they were lacking bodies so to speak. Outside of football, you don't have a permanent residence, I just treated it like an adventure. There were a lot of French players there and obviously the boss, lots of people around the club who could speak French too. I speak French because of my time at Lyon so that helped. I'd made my name in France, so that made it easier because they recognised me - and Nicklas Bendtner was there so I could speak Swedish and Danish with him. It made it a bit easier to adapt fast. There were also a couple of players who were injured at the same time as me. Aaron Ramsey was one of them. In one way it was good to have that experience with an injury because you're at the training ground a lot more and you meet all the people around the club. When the players left, I stayed after training to make sure I had a good rehab. I was surrounded by Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, these guys who were so skilful. It was nice to see them every day at work. People are so professional. I played alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic for a long time and he's a real pro, but then I came here and I saw how professional Mikel Arteta is... wow. He is so committed to the game and so engaged with it as well, I learned a lot just from watching him. Like I said, I was always there late in the afternoon because I'd made my career out of working hard. I'm a product of hard work and I would always stay after everyone else, so sometimes the boss would come in and we'd speak about French football. That was a nice experience. I look back on those moments fondly because when I reflect on it now, I never really felt like an Arsenal player. I remember the FA Cup celebrations and feeling like a real outsider looking inside. I was a part of it, sure, but not really. That semi-final... I'd been in the squad for almost all the games before, so I expected to be in the squad because of injuries. When you're in the squad, anything can happen, and then the boss put me on late into extra-time. I actually had a half-chance when Giroud gave me a nice little flick and I had a shot which was either wide or over - either way, it went far and I'm not even sure the ball's landed yet! Obviously the game goes to penalties so in the huddle at the end of extra-time, the boss comes over and talks to me in French. "Do you take penalties?" "Yeah, of course I do." "OK, you'll take the second one." At the time, I didn't know how significant that game was because for me, Arsenal was a club that collected trophies all the time. I had the Invincibles and the Freddie Ljungberg era in my head, so I didn't understand that there had been so much time since the last trophy. The pressure to win one was very big, so obviously all the coaches felt that but I had no knowledge of it at the time. I was just in the right place at the right time because I think they missed their first or second penalty and it's much easier to take one after your opponent misses. But what I'll always remember is walking up to that ball from the halfway line. "This is strange," I was thinking to myself. "This is so weird!" People always ask me why I was smiling on the walk - apparently nobody smiles when they take that walk - but you have to understand, I was not meant to take that penalty for Arsenal at Wembley Stadium. But I did. I scored. We won. That penalty changed the experience for me massively. I came here, was injured and didn't play a lot. Sure, that's part of the game, but then when you score the penalty at least you've participated in some way. It was an important trophy for the club, so it was great fun for me. I'd say in terms of career highlights, that penalty is right up there. Mostly because of the size of the club, but also because it was such a weird moment. It's so different from all the others where I've won a title or won the championship in France because you fight for 11 months to lift the trophy. I see the fans who joke on the internet about my time here, but I think it's quite fun. There are a lot of players who have done a lot more for Arsenal than me but then at the same time there are a lot of players who have done a lot less, in a lot more time! Here, I walked in, hit the penalty, we won a trophy and then I walked out again. Who'd have thought it, the guy with the broken back? Kim Kallstrom

South Africa says police caught in liquor sales after coronavirus alcohol ban

JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa, which banned the sale of all alcohol and cigarettes under a coronavirus lockdown that triggered a wave of lootings of liquor shops, said on Sunday it had caught police officers who were complicit in illegal alcohol sales. South Africa’s police minister Bheki Cele says a ban on all sales of alcohol has helped lower crime during a coronavirus lockdown. But with liquor stores shut, the country has seen a growing black market for alcohol and a wave of attacks on shuttered shops. In a statement, the police ministry said there had been at least 16 reported instances of burglary and the looting of liquor stores in the Western Cape, home to the city of Cape Town. Cele “has in the meantime noted with concern the alleged involvement of police members in some of the liquor related crimes,” it continued. Two police warrant officers had been arrested after being caught buying alcohol, allegedly for resale, on Thursday, alongside a store manager and cashier. Two further members of the police in another province were caught on Friday escorting three light pick-up trucks loaded with alcohol, the statement said. Those who undermine the effort to stem the spread of the coronavirus would be found and dealt with decisively, the statement said.

Dømt spritbilist kører i østjysk landsby uden kørekort - men undgår straf

Der er trafikbump og hajtænder i det nybyggede villakvarter. Alligevel er vejen usikker. For ifølge de lokale kører en dømt spritbilist dagligt rundt i kvarteret uden kørekort. - Vi har små børn, der løber og leger ude på vejen. Hvis han kommer kørende i beruset tilstand, og hans reaktionsevne er væk, jamen så ender det jo med, at han kører børnene ned, siger Jesper Gormsen, som er far til to børn. Han og naboerne har gentagne gange forsøgt at få bilisten - en 60-årig mand - til at lade bilen stå. Men ifølge Jesper Gormsen er han uden for pædagogisk rækkevidde. Det er meget, meget samfundskadeligt, hvis du afslører det fif der, for så kan alle bare begynde at køre spirituskørsel. Henrik D, dømt for spirituskørsel - Han er enten beruset, når han kommer, eller også bliver han det i løbet af dagen. Han har to kasser bajere stående i bagagerummet, som han drikker med sine venner på en nedlagt gård i kvarteret, siger Jesper Gormsen. Når han så forlader villakvarteret, kører han i bil ad en cykelsti i stedet for at bruge vejen. Flere politikere vil nu have indført strengere straffe for at køre i bil uden kørekort. Dansk Folkeparti foreslår blandt andet straksdomme på 20 dages fængsel ved gentagne tilfælde, og justitsminister Nick Hækkerup (S) mener, at det skal koste dyrt at køre i bil i frakendelsestiden: - Før var det bøde første gang. Nu bliver det fængsel, sagde Nick Hækkerup i går. Sidste år blev bilister dømt 5527 gange for at køre bil i frakendelsestiden, og aktindsigter i retsbøger viser også, at flere af de værste vanvidsbilister for længst har fået frakendt deres kørekort. Men det stopper dem tilsyneladende ikke. Bruger opsigtsvækkende metode Ifølge de lokale kører den 60-årige spritbilist rundt i villakvarteret på trods af stribevis af alvorlige overtrædelser af færdselsloven - og uden et gyldigt kørekort. Og en domsudskrift fra byretten i Aarhus viser, at de lokale har ret. I maj sidste år blev han dømt for intet mindre end 22 færdselsforseelser. Heriblandt fem tilfælde af spirituskørsel - en dom, han dog har anket til landsretten. Det mest opsigtsvækkende ved dommen var dog, at den 60-årige mand faktisk blev frikendt i tre forhold, hvor politiet mente han havde kørt spirituskørsel. I de tre tilfælde var han blevet stoppet af politiet med en promille i blodet på henholdsvis 1,16, 1,70 og 1,09. Men alligevel blev han pure frikendt, fordi han benyttede en helt særlig metode. Når betjentene stoppede ham, skyndte han sig nemlig at låse bildørene. Herefter tog han en slurk af en flaske snaps, han havde liggende i bilen. Først når betjentene havde set, at han sad og drak af flasken, låste han dørene op. I retten mente dommeren ikke, at anklagemyndigheden i de tre tilfælde kunne bevise, at den 60-årige også havde drukket spiritus, før han kørte bil - men kun at han havde drukket, efter han var blevet stoppet af politiet. Så sørger jeg altid for at have drukket af snapsflasken for en sikkerheds skyld. Henrik D, dømt for spirituskørsel Men kan det virkelig passe, at den 60-årige mand bare kører rundt, selvom han for længst har fået frakendt kørekortet? Det ville TV 2 gerne undersøge. Vi satte os til at vente foran en gård, hvor vi vidste, han opholdt sig. 00:10 Video: TV 2 Luk video Efter en times ventetid udenfor gården kom den 60-årige mand kørende i en sølvgrå Honda Civic. Vi kørte efter bilen, som stoppede på en parkeringsplads cirka en kilometer væk. Da vi opsøgte føreren af bilen, bekræftede han, at han var den 60-årige mand Henrik D. Samme mand, som de lokale i villakvarteret ofte havde set køre bil i spirituspåvirket tilstand, og som ifølge byretten i Aarhus er blevet dømt mindst tre gange for spirituskørsel. Vi ville gerne spørge ham, hvorfor han blev ved med at køre bil. Men det var et kortfattet svar, vi fik: - Det gider jeg ikke snakke om det dér, sagde Henrik D. og kørte væk. Vi ringede herefter til Henrik D., og nu ville han gerne tale med os. I telefonen hævdede han, at han uretmæssigt var blevet fradømt sit kørekort, og at han faktisk aldrig havde kørt spirituskørsel. Men i dommen fra byretten i maj 2019 fremgår det, at han også blev dømt for spirituskørsel i 2008 og 2012. Men dommene er ifølge Henrik D. ikke korrekte, og derfor betragter han sig selv som uskyldig. Men hvis han er uskyldig, hvorfor har han så i flere tilfælde drukket af en flaske snaps, når han er blevet stoppet af politiet? - Jeg drikker altid, når jeg bliver stoppet af politiet. Så sørger jeg altid for at have drukket af snapsflasken for en sikkerheds skyld. For så er der drukket efter kørslen, og så er der ingen sag. Men det skal du altså ikke afsløre på landsdækkende TV, det gider jeg ikke at have. Henrik D. forklarede, at hans dom fra 2012 er årsagen til, at han bruger metoden. Han mener nemlig, at han blev uretmæssigt dømt, fordi hans promille dengang kun var på 0,6. Derfor drikker han, for at politiets måling af hans promille ikke kan bruges i retten. - Du skal ikke afsløre det fif på landsdækkende TV! Hvorfor vil du ikke have, at andre, som kører med spiritus i blodet, kender det her trick? - Det er meget, meget samfundsskadeligt, hvis du afslører det fif der, for så kan alle bare begynde at køre spirituskørsel. Det ville være katastrofalt, hvis du breder det ud på landsdækkende tv. Jeg drikker ikke mere, end hvad man må. Et par øl for eksempel. Ikke mere end det. Hvis du har drukket et par øl, hvorfor lader du så ikke bare bilen stå? - Det er fordi jeg har et arbejde, der skal passes. Du kan jo bare vente med at drikke, til du er færdig med at arbejde? - Ja, men virkeligheden er mere nuanceret. Det er så enkelt, når du fremstiller det på den måde. Så forklar mig nuancerne. - Nej, det vil jeg ikke. Det er der ingen grund til. Du skal bare lade være med at afsløre det fif, sagde Henrik D. Justitsministeren skal på banen På baggrund af sagen vil flere retsordførere nu have justitsministeren til at redegøre for, hvordan der bedst muligt kan sættes ind overfor bilister, som benytter sig af metoden. - Jeg er vred og forarget, når jeg hører, at nogen kan finde på at drikke alkohol i bilen for at skjule, at de har drukket, før de satte sig bag rattet. På alle mulige måder må man fuldstændig tage afstand fra sådan en opførsel i det danske samfund, siger Peter Skaarup fra Dansk Folkeparti. Han vil have justitsministeren til at redegøre for, hvordan man kan lave en ordning, så det ikke er muligt for spritbilister at skjule deres spirituskørsel. Også SF's retsordfører Karina Lorentzen Dehnhardt vil have ministeren på banen: - Det giver sig selv, at man ikke skal kunne omgås lovgivningen. Det hører ikke sammen at drikke alkohol i biler. Jeg vil tage det op med justitsministeren. Læs også Præsten bestemmer antallet af deltagere til bisættelser Justitsminister Nick Hækkerup (S) vil dog ikke umiddelbart gå ind i sagen - i hvert fald ikke før landsretten har taget stilling til dommen fra byretten i Aarhus, som Henrik D. ankede i maj sidste år. - Landets love skal overholdes og udformes på en måde, så de så vidt muligt ikke kan omgås. Bliver de omgået, er det klart, at vi skal overveje, hvad vi kan gøre for at undgå det. Men sagen om spirituskørsel, som I fortæller om, er anket til landsretten, så jeg synes, at vi skal afvente landsrettens dom, siger Nick Hækkerup. Var involveret i færdselsuheld ifølge vidner Inden vi afslutter telefonsamtalen med Henrik D., forsøger vi at få hans holdning til, at de lokale er bekymrede for deres sikkerhed, når han bliver ved med at køre bil. - Jeg kan fortælle dig, at jeg har kørt over to millioner kilometer siden jeg fik kørekort i 1978, og så vidt har jeg aldrig været involveret i et færdselsuheld, hævdede Henrik D. Men ifølge Østjyllands Politi blev en motionscyklist kørt ned uden for Henrik D's gård 16. juli sidste år. Føreren af bilen - en nu 60-årig mand - kørte i en sølvgrå Honda Civic med samme registreringsnummer som den sølvgrå Honda Civic, som TV 2 filmede Henrik D. køre i. Læs også Sami spritter skoler af til genåbning: - Der skal desinficeres dagligt Føreren havde ikke noget kørekort ifølge Østjyllands Politi. Føreren stak af fra gerningsstedet og blev senere fundet på en gård, der ifølge tinglysningen tilhører Henrik D. Flere vidner har overfor TV 2 desuden udpeget Henrik D. som gerningsmanden til uheldet. Et uheld han i dag benægter har fundet sted. Du siger altså, at borgerne herude lyver, at retssystemet lyver. Har du nogensinde overvejet, om det kan være dig der er galt på den? - Nej. Det har jeg ikke, afslutter Henrik D. Jesper Gormsen er bekymret for sine børns helbred, når de leger på vejen. Foto: Simon Steensen / TV 2 Luk video For at beskytte cyklister og fodgængere har de lokale anbragt store kampesten for enden af cykelstien, som Henrik D. ofte har kørt ad. - Jamen, det er fuldstændig vanvittigt, siger Jesper Gormsen og fortsætter: - Vi kan kun opfordre ham til at lade være, og når vi ser ham, så ringer vi til politiet. Men de har jo ikke altid ressourcer til at køre herud, så han kan gøre, hvad der passer ham.

Amid pandemic, Christians celebrate an Easter like no other

A man prays while attending an Easter service at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Many churches are adapting their services as Christians around the world are celebrating Easter at a distance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) A man prays while attending an Easter service at Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, Sunday, April 12, 2020. Many churches are adapting their services as Christians around the world are celebrating Easter at a distance due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) NEW YORK (AP) — Christians celebrated Easter Sunday isolated in their homes by the coronavirus while pastors preached the faith’s joyous news of Christ’s resurrection to empty pews. St. Peter’s Square was barricaded to keep out crowds, while one Florida church drew a large turnout for a drive-in service in a parking lot. Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, released from the hospital after a week of treatment for COVID-19, paid an emotional tribute to the country’s National Health Service, saying its doctors and nurses had saved his life “no question.” He especially thanked two nurses who stood by his bedside for 48 hours “when things could have gone either way.” ADVERTISEMENT The strangeness of this Easter was evident at the Vatican. St. Peter’s Square, where tens of thousands would normally gather to hear Pope Francis, was empty. Francis celebrated Easter Mass inside the largely vacant basilica, calling for global solidarity to confront the “epochal challenge” of the pandemic and urging political leaders to give hope and opportunity to people who’ve lost jobs. Worldwide, families who normally would attend church in their Easter best and later enjoy festive group meals stayed home. Police checkpoints in Europe and outside closed churches elsewhere left the faithful watching services online or on TV. Some U.S. pastors went ahead with in-person services despite state or local bans on large gatherings. At the Happy Gospel Church in Bradenton, Florida, about 100 cars carrying 250 people gathered in the parking lot to hear Pastor Bill Bailey’s Easter sermon. Some sat in lawn chairs or on tailgates, but families stayed at least 6 feet apart; those in their cars occasionally honked to convey agreement with Bailey’s remarks. In Louisiana, a pastor who is facing misdemeanor charges for holding services despite a ban on gatherings, said people from every state and all but one continent attended his Easter service Sunday morning. “My hope is not in a vaccine for a virus, but all my hope is in Jesus,” Rev. Tony Spell said during the service shown online at Life Tabernacle Church in the city of Central. Worshipers could be heard clapping, singing and responding “Amen” during the service, though it was not clear how many attended. President Donald Trump had said he planned to watch an online service led by the Rev. Robert Jeffress of the Southern Baptist megachurch First Baptist Dallas, although the White House wouldn’t confirm whether he did. The pastor, a staunch ally of the president, mentioned Trump in his remarks. ADVERTISEMENT “We are going to get through this crisis with your continued strong leadership and the power of God,” Jeffress said. In their own Easter message, Trump and his wife, Melania, paid tribute to the medical professionals, first responders and other essential workers striving to combat the pandemic. Back on March 24, at a Fox News virtual town hall, Trump had broached the possibility that the U.S. could emerge from widespread lockdowns by this weekend. “I would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be great to have all of the churches full?” Trump said in a subsequent interview. “You’ll have packed churches all over our country.” Instead, most churches were empty, including St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, which is the epicenter of the pandemic in the U.S. Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who led a televised Mass, said he was pleased congregants could have a virtual celebration. “We miss you though,” he added. “We’d rather you be here physically.” In the morning, members of churches from across New York sang “Christ the Lord is Risen Today” from balconies and windows. “Even if you didn’t hear everyone, God heard everyone,” said Kathy Keller, of Reedemer Presbyterian Church, who helped organize the event online. In Europe, countries used roadblocks, fines and other tactics to keep people from traveling over an Easter weekend with beautiful spring weather. The Italian government said weekend police patrols resulted in more than 12,500 people being sanctioned and 150 facing criminal charges of violating lockdown measures. On the hopeful side, officials said Italy recorded the lowest number of new coronavirus dead in three weeks, with 431 people dying in the past day to bring its total to over 19,800. As hard-hit countries like Italy and Spain see reduced daily virus infections and deaths, economic pressures are mounting to loosen the tight restrictions on daily life. Southern Europe and the United States, whose death toll of over 22,000 is now the world’s highest, have been the recent focal points of the pandemic. But coronavirus hot spots have been shifting, with new concerns rising in Japan, Turkey and Britain, where the death toll passed 10,000. Uncertainties loomed about the months ahead, with a top European Union official suggesting people hold off on making any summer vacation plans. Some European nations started tentative moves to ease their shutdowns. Spain, which on Sunday reported its lowest daily growth in infections in three weeks, will allow workers in some nonessential industries to return to factories and construction sites Monday. For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. But for others, especially older people and the infirm, it can cause severe symptoms and become fatal. More than 1.8 million infections have been reported and over 114,000 people have died worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University. The U.S. has the most confirmed cases, over 555,000. The numbers likely don’t show the full toll, due to limited testing, uneven counting of the dead and some governments playing down the extent of outbreaks. In Britain, Johnson thanked those who treated him at St. Thomas’ Hospital and praised the entire National Health Service, which he called the “beating heart of this country.” His week in the hospital included three nights in the intensive care unit, where he received oxygen but was not put on a ventilator. “I can’t thank them enough. I owe them my life,” Johnson said in his statement. His office said he will continue his recovery at his country home. In the United States, about half the deaths are in the New York metropolitan area, but hospitalizations are slowing in the state and other indicators suggest that lockdowns and social distancing are “flattening the curve” of infections. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said the economy in parts of the country could gradually reopen as early as next month. While he said there’s no light switch that will be clicked to turn everything back, he told CNN’s “State of the Union” that “rolling reentry” will be required based on the status of the pandemic in various parts of the country. New York state Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced that 758 people died in the state Saturday, the sixth day in a row the toll topped 700. More than 9,300 people have died in New York. ___ Winfield reported from Rome. Associated Press journalists around the world contributed. ___ Follow AP coverage of the pandemic at http://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak.

Extreme lockdown was an immediate response, it’s now clear that the cure is worse than the disease, says Congress Data and Technology cell chief

The under-privileged are bearing the brunt of this — ostracisation, lack of hospital care, loss of wages, homelessness, hunger etc., says Praveen Chakravarty Praveen Chakravarty, political economist and head of the Data and Technology cell of the Congress party, says India should evolve a strategy of functioning with the idea of coronavirus around for a long time. Excerpts from an email interview: It’s certain now that the lockdown would be extended by another two weeks but the Centre may allow some economic activity. Reports suggest that the government may partially open up the least affected areas. How do you see this move? We have to wait and see what the government is going to do exactly. As of now, there are reports indicating that the current form of extreme lockdown will be extended until April 30. If the government is also simultaneously thinking about a gradual “unlock” process, it is welcome. As the Chief Scientist of the WHO, Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, has said in an interview to The Hindu today, the disease is going to be with us for a long time and we need to start planning for life with the virus and cannot be in a lockdown and wait for the virus to be eliminated completely, which will take a long time. You’ve have talked about a ‘targeted lockdown’ instead of a complete nation-wide lockdown. But Congress-ruled Punjab was the second State to extend the lockdown on Friday. Is there a divide within the Congress? A lockdown in itself cannot be a strategy. It has to be accompanied by measures such as what the State of Rajasthan undertook in Bhilwara. The Bhilwara model is the model for the nation to emulate. Even after 21 days, the Prime Minister and the Union government have not laid out a strategy for the nation to emerge out of this extreme lockdown. So, in the absence of that, it is only natural and wise that State governments will prefer to extend the lockdown and deal with the crisis locally which they seem to be doing very well now. Are you totally opposed to the current form of lockdown? The current form of extreme lockdown was an immediate response to an unknown crisis and hence understandable. But it is clear now that the cure is worse than the disease. We run the risk of losing as many if not more lives due to the lockdown. It is not a “rupees vs lives” but a “lives vs lives” issue. The under-privileged are bearing the brunt of this — ostracisation, lack of hospital care, loss of wages, homelessness, hunger etc. This extreme lockdown seems to be a case of the privileged transferring their epidemic risk to the under-privileged The Centre says if there was no nation-wide lockdown, by now India would have seen more than 8 lakh cases. So, a complete lockdown acted as a circuit breaker. This is plain rubbish. Anyone who understands basic data and statistics will tell you that it makes no sense to do a linear extrapolation of an early trend to predict a counterfactual. This is like, claiming in cricket, that after a team gets 10 runs in the first over, the team will score 500 runs in 50 overs. As we test more, we will report more cases. Based on trends from global and Indian data on COVID-19, it now seems clear that the virus is very contagious but not as fatal as some of the initial wild estimates of epidemiologists predicted. Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi too talked of a ‘nuanced approach’ that takes an India-specific approach. What exactly is it? It is clear that Mr. Gandhi has been studying and researching on COVID-19 a lot. He was among the first to warn the nation about it. He wrote a letter to the PM arguing for a nuanced approach to a lockdown keeping India’s unique realities in mind. Given India’s vast informal, daily wage labour force, a high density of people living in one room houses, large urban rural divide and a much younger population than the developed countries, he is arguing for a more balanced & humane approach than the current extreme and absolute lockdown. Both former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and you have argued for a economic package of ₹5-6 lakh crore. With the Economy under a total shutdown now, is it even possible for the Centre to generate this kind of additional resources? Of course, it is entirely possible. In my piece in The Hindu, I had even detailed where to find the money. The money can be found from a combination of rationalised expenditure, higher borrowing and printing of more money. It is absolutely imperative that the package consists of a “rescue” for the affected workforce. But it is important to remember this is NOT a demand crisis but a supply crisis. So, sustaining MSMEs and other commercial activity is critical. Other economists such as Arvind Subramanian have argued for a ₹10 lakh crore package.

Bill Belichick could look to fill Patriots' kicking void ... with a Vinatieri?

Cliff Avril tells Richard Jefferson what it was like when the Seahawks lost to the Patriots in the Super Bowl. (2:32) Quick-hit thoughts and notes around the New England Patriots and NFL: 1. Vinatieri among kickers for Patriots to scout: Bill Belichick will turn 68 on Thursday, and while he adopts a "Younger Next Year" approach, he also has been reminded of his football longevity on parts of the scouting trail. Consider this unique story: Belichick's team has a notable vacancy at kicker, and one of the rookies for him to assess before this year's NFL draft is South Dakota State's Chase Vinatieri. Does the last name ring a bell? Chase Vinatieri was in the stands when his uncle, Adam Vinatieri, also a South Dakota State alum, coolly delivered game-winning field goals for Belichick's Patriots teams in Super Bowls XXXVI and XXXVIII to kick-start a two-decade dynastic run of success. The nephew also was present when the Patriots hung on to win Super Bowl XXXIX. 2020 NFL draft coverage • All 255 picks » | Biggest takeaways » • Bowen's favorites » | Pick analysis » • Experts on Round 1 » | Home setups » • Full class rankings from Scouts Inc. » More NFL draft coverage » "There are bits and pieces I do kind of remember -- being at the [team] hotel, conversing with him before and after the games. I do remember how much of a celebration it was for him and our family," the 23-year-old Vinatieri said in an interview with ESPN.com. "Now, I just go back and rewatch the YouTube videos of his kicks. "Just recently, they were on TV, so as my family sat down and hung out, we rewatched those Super Bowls. It's different now, being older, where I can understand what happened and how high-stakes they were." Chase, the son of Adam's oldest brother, Chad, is now back home in South Dakota after spending two months working with Mike McCabe of One On One Kicking in Birmingham, Alabama. The Patriots are familiar with McCabe from his pre-draft work with Ryan Allen, whom the Patriots signed after the 2013 draft; he served as New England's full-time punter from 2013 to 2018. Like other prospects, Vinatieri had his pro day canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic, so now he waits to see what will unfold during the draft (April 23-25). This year's kicker class -- which the Patriots are evaluating with the same urgency as they did in 2006, when they replaced Adam Vinatieri with fourth-round pick Stephen Gostkowski -- is headlined by Georgia's Rodrigo Blankenship, Georgia Southern's Tyler Bass and UCLA's JJ Molson. ESPN analyst Todd McShay ranks Chase Vinatieri fifth. "From watching the draft the last few years, maybe one, two or three kickers get drafted, and so realistically, it's more likely I'll be an undrafted free agent," said Vinatieri, who ranks third in SDSU history in field goals made (47) and points scored (374). "I'm definitely OK if that's what it is. I'm just looking for a team to give me an opportunity." That was the same mindset his uncle took in the mid-1990s, when he went from South Dakota State to the World League, before hooking on with the Bill Parcells-coached Patriots at the start of a Hall of Fame-worthy career. Chase, like Adam, wears jersey No. 4. At 6-foot-2 and 215 pounds, Chase said he prides himself on being a football player, and not just a kicker. Belichick is sure to smile at that thought. After all, that's exactly how he used to describe Adam Vinatieri. Bill Belichick celebrated a lot of big kicks with Adam Vinatieri in New England. Now Vinatieri's nephew, Chase, is among Belichick's options to fill the Patriots' void at kicker. AP Photo/Mike Groll 2. Stidham's commitment to his craft: Patriots players who have been allowed to report to Gillette Stadium per NFL rules during the coronavirus pandemic, to specifically receive treatment from medical/athletic training staff, have made note of the presence of second-year quarterback Jarrett Stidham, among a small handful of others. Ultimately, Stidham's on-field performance will determine whether he is elevated to the top spot on the depth chart, and no one wants to put more pressure than necessary on the 2019 fourth-round pick; but one thing some teammates have already come to respect from Stidham is his year-round commitment to his craft. 3. Prospects who fit the Patriots profile: Part of the fun of NFL draft season is playing the role of amateur scout, getting to know the background of some of the prospects, and then making the connection of how they would fit for the Patriots. Here are a few who stand out to me at what I view as the top positions of need. Quarterback: James Morgan (Florida International) -- Graduating magna cum laude with a prelaw degree is a reflection of his intelligence. He was a two-year captain, and he is built to last with some intriguing traits to mold. Wide receiver: James Proche (SMU) -- Production through the roof, lining up at multiple spots in a passing offense, with added value as a returner. He also was a team captain. Tight end: Cole Kmet (Notre Dame) and Adam Trautman (Dayton) -- Two of the highest-rated players in a year when the tight end crop isn't considered deep, they both have some solid physical traits and off-field intangibles. On a related note, Trautman also had been recruited by Harvard, which has a solid recent NFL track record at the position (for example, Cameron Brate, Ben Braunecker, Anthony Firkser). Center/guard: Matt Hennessy (Temple) -- He could have played at Harvard or Yale. Hennessy is smart, and he was a team captain. His quickness would fit well in the Patriots' zone-blocking scheme. Edge: D.J. Wonnum (South Carolina) -- He was a three-year captain with uncommon length who blocked two kicks. One can almost see Belichick smiling as he envisions an immediate role on the field goal rush unit. Linebacker: Logan Wilson (Wyoming) -- With high-end production and durability, and a projection as a core special-teamer from Day 1, put Wilson on the radar. Furthermore, his makeup and playing style (plenty of coverage responsibilities) could nicely complement bigger/more rugged linebackers Dont'a Hightower and Ja'Whaun Bentley. play 1:59 Brady broke Katie Nolan's mom's heart Highly Quarantined discusses whether Tom Brady's Players' Tribune article make things better or worse for Patriots fans. 4. Follow-up on Brady's interview: There was plenty to digest from Tom Brady's two-hour interview on Wednesday with "The Howard Stern Show" on SiriusXM, much of which has been well-dissected at this point. Brady's acknowledgment of marriage strain a few years ago, and how he was motivated to resolve it, was especially human and soul-bearing. One of the questions many would ask Patriots beat reporters over the years is, "What is Brady really like?" and that part of the interview spoke volumes to me. 5. More on the Brady-Belichick dynamic: Brady shared in the interview with Stern that he didn't care for the debate over what his career would be without Belichick, and vice versa. That provided a springboard for ESPN Stats & Information to dive into some numbers, across the NFL, of longtime QB/coach combinations and how they fared when split. Including the playoffs, Belichick and Brady had a winning percentage of .769. Belichick's winning percentage in his career without Brady (including the playoffs) is .462. Here are some other notable coach/QB combinations for which there were drastic differences: Bill Walsh/Joe Montana (.680) -- Walsh with others: .427 (119 games without Montana) Chuck Noll/Terry Bradshaw (.684) -- Noll with others: .468 (189 games) Marv Levy/Jim Kelly (.643) -- Levy with others: .434 (106 games) Tony Dungy/Peyton Manning (.736) -- Dungy with others: .549 (102 games) Tom Landry/Roger Staubach (.733) -- Landry with others: .549 (323 games) Pete Carroll/Russell Wilson (.688) -- Carroll with others: .485 (101 games) Dan Reeves/John Elway (.627) -- Reeves with others: .473 (223 games) 6. Parker sheds light on potential Patriots staff shift: University of Rhode Island wide receiver Aaron Parker, who projects as a late-round pick, shared insight on how Belichick might be moving some pieces around on his offensive coaching staff. In an interview with Yianni Kourakis of WPRI in Providence, Parker discussed FaceTiming with Patriots assistant coach Mick Lombardi, who inquired on how he was training before they broke down film. Lombardi was the Patriots' assistant quarterbacks coach last season, but a move to receivers (alongside Troy Brown) could make the most sense to fill the void created by Joe Judge's departure to become the New York Giants' head coach. That would likely mean newly hired Jedd Fisch (with a notable history of working with young quarterbacks) and Josh McDaniels team up to work with Stidham, veteran Brian Hoyer and a soon-to-be-added third signal-caller. 7. Did You Know? Only two NFL players have been traded three times since January 2017: wide receiver Brandin Cooks and defensive end Michael Bennett; and the Patriots were involved with both. The Patriots drafted kicker Stephen Gostkowski in 2006 to replace Adam Vinatieri. Mike Reiss/ESPN 8. Gostkowski pays homage to Vinatieri: Former Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski was a guest on the Patriots Talk podcast on NBC Sports Boston last week, and it was fitting that he conducted the interview from his home with an Adam Vinatieri Indianapolis Colts jersey behind him. Gostkowski and Vinatieri swapped jerseys after a Patriots-Colts game a few years ago. When Gostkowski was drafted in the 2006 fourth round to replace the legendary Vinatieri, who had surprisingly departed to Indianapolis as a free agent, it was such a big deal that the Boston Globe devoted its often-anticipated football season-preview section to the kicking game. That was unprecedented. As a staff writer for the Globe at the time, I earned the assignment to travel to Gostkowski's hometown of Madison, Mississippi, to learn more about him. Fourteen years later, he leaves as the franchise's all-time leading scorer. 9. A time for top new tandems to emerge: Brady targeted Julian Edelman 156 times last season, which was the most of any quarterback/receiver combination, according to ESPN's Stats & Information research, followed by Philip Rivers/Keenan Allen (150) and Deshaun Watson/DeAndre Hopkins (148). This means that 2020 will be a season for new top tandems to emerge, as those combinations are no longer on the same team. 10. Patriots Hall of Fame committee meets on Monday: It's time to begin narrowing the candidates for induction to the Patriots Hall of Fame, with the 28-member committee scheduled to meet virtually on Monday afternoon. Every former Patriots player or head coach who has been retired for at least four years is eligible for consideration, with a fan vote ultimately deciding the one inductee each year. Linebacker Mike Vrabel (2001-08) has been a finalist each of the past four years, while defensive lineman Richard Seymour (2001-08) has been so the past three. One point that resonates for me: Seymour has been a Pro Football Hall of Fame finalist the past two years, and if he can make that list, it's overdue for him to earn his spot in the Patriots' Hall.

Life is Made of Unfair Coin Flips

It’s time we did a non-pandemic related newsletter issue. So this week we’ll do something more fun. Today we’re going to talk about an interesting journal article that came out two weeks ago, which presents a big idea: formally defining individuality, on a biological level, in terms of information. (Thank you very much to Ethan Buchman for the recommendation.) The information theory of individuality | Krakauer, Bertschinger, Olbrich, Flack & Ay,Theory in Biosciences(2020) I really enjoyed reading this paper, and I hope you enjoy this summary and walkthrough. The paper itself is quite easy to read, the math isn’t bad at all, and I encourage you to read it yourself if you’re interested. Along the way, we’ll have a little math lesson of our own. And by the end of it, you’ll know what I mean by the cryptic title: “Life is made of unfair coin flips.” See this Twitter thread, from one of the authors, for an introduction: For some background, there are two large and related open-ended questions in biology which we’ve debated for a long time, and that we should review first. First, there’s the problem of emergence. If you start from biology, it’s pretty easy to work your way backwards by reducing biology into its component parts – you’ll find chemistry and physics as its underlying components, with nothing unaccounted for. But it’s hard to go the other way. Life is a complicated, adaptive, messy thing. If you start with physics and chemistry, it’s hard to identify what exactly is the thing in here that gives rise to life. We say that life is an “emergent” phenomenon, which lets us dodge the question of “emerges through what, exactly?” The second question, which you’ll notice is really the same as the first question just from another angle, is that we have a hard time defining what exactly is an individual. At what point does a collection of molecules comprise an “individual” of some sort? Can we pin it down with a rule that’s defined in terms of the component parts, rather than the behaviour of the emergent product? This has proven to be hard to do. We’ve uneasily settled on three consensus criteria for biological individuality. First, individuals consume energy and use it to persist and increase in relative frequency. Second, individuals adapt to their environments. Third, the component parts that make up an individual have tightly coordinated relationships with each other. All of these should seem pretty sensible. But they aren’t 100% satisfying. They’re proxy observations that don’t yield any deep connection to the underlying chemistry and physics. (Furthermore, they throw up all of these edge cases: a worker ant can’t reproduce; does that mean it’s not an individual? What about viruses?) Can we do better? This paper presents a really satisfying idea: the fundamental essence of individuality, and the units in which individuality ought to be measured, is information. You’re dealing with an individual if you’re dealing with “the same thing” between today and tomorrow, and where that sameness isn’t just passive inertia, but is actively propagated. Individuals maximally propagate information from their past to their future. This propagation is measurable, at least in theory. Therefore, individuality ought to also be measurable. There are a few nice properties here. This definition of individuality is continuous and measurable, so it embraces the idea that some entities or processes might have more individuality than others. It’s also agnostic to any level of biological organization or abstraction, and furthermore, allows for the concept of nested individuality – the bacteria in our stomachs can possess some level of individuality while still being part the system of us, with its own individuality. What’s best about this definition is that not only is it rigorously true from first principles, it also establishes a crystal clear link between biology and its reductionist components of chemistry and physics. Information is the link between these two things. That may not feel obvious to some people, so we’re going to go through another important concept you’ve probably heard before but might not totally feel comfortable: entropy. Entropy You were probably introduced to entropy in high school or college chemistry, either in terms of Gibbs Free Energy, or Boltzmann’s kinetic theory of gasses. They’re two ways of looking at the same thing: “disorder.” Disorder is a fundamental property of the universe. The second law of thermodynamics, which is one of those ironclad laws of the world, stipulates that total entropy in the universe is always increasing. All living organisms have to continually burn calories and do work to overcome disorder. Even reactions that appear to create order (like an ice cube freezing) can only happen if there’s a corresponding release of heat to the outside world, creating on balance an increase in disorder. At a molecular and particle level, the total number of possible “microstates” for any given macrostate (say, water at 5 degrees Celsius) is a manifestation of this disorder: more disorder means more potential states. One way to visualize entropy is to imagine an ice crystal in the moment before versus after it melts. In its frozen state, water droplets are fixed in a lattice pattern, where there are empty spaces next to water molecules that are predictably unoccupied. Upon the instant that it melts, those water particles can now occupy either of those positions. The water has become more disordered. It’s also possible that you’ve learned about the concept of entropy somewhere else: if you’re an electrical engineer or CS major, you’ve probably learned information theory at some point. Information theory (which we talked about a few weeks ago, in the context of antifragility) is about transmitting information through a noisy channel from a source to a destination. If you remember, information (which we measured in bits) meant the amount of uncertainty there is to resolve, and it often went by another name: entropy. This isn’t a coincidence. Both Shannon’s entropy, which is talking about information, and Boltzmann’s entropy, which is talking about thermodynamics, are the same thing. They are a measurement of disorder. If you go back to our melting ice crystal example: at the moment our ice melts, the amount of uncertainty in the position of the water molecules increases by one bit per molecule. The information entropy of the water molecule position and the thermodynamic entropy of the melting process are one and the same. Astonishingly, if you do the math on the melting ice cube as a thermodynamic process versus as a communicated message about water molecule position, you get the same answer. I dunno about you but I think this is pretty cool. Shannon’s definition of entropy turned out to be a lot more powerful than Boltzmann’s, because it’s so general. “Communication over a noisy channel”, if you generalize it, is the challenge of getting a State to propagate faithfully from A to B, which isn’t just place to place; it’s also over time, or from one process to another. Information Theory could be talking about Alice on one end of the phone and Bob on the other end; or it could also mean the sender is your parents, the recipient is you, and the message is the DNA that you inherit from them. Or the sender could be you twenty years ago, the recipient is you today, and the message is that arrangement of neurons and synapses in your brain that have somehow retained every single word of the song No Scrubs by TLC, even though you haven’t heard that song in years. So what does it mean for individuals and organisms to propagate information from their past to their future? Math! The simplest thought experiment for understanding entropy is a coin flip. When you flip a fair coin, there’s one bit of entropy in the flip – it could be heads or tails; equal probability. When the flip is revealed to be tails, you resolve one bit of information. Now imagine that instead of a fair coin, it’s an unfair coin that you know will land on tails every time. If there’s no surprise when it lands tails, then there are zero bits of entropy in the flip. There’s no uncertainty to resolve. What about a slightly unfair coin? There’ll be somewhere between zero bits (minimum amount of uncertainty) and one bit (maximum amount of uncertainty.) The fairness of the coin tells you how “disorder-ful” the coin is. It’s worth actually going through the math of an information theory problem in order to really wrap your head around what it means to make a process lower entropy, or “less disorder-ful”. You have the right to skip this next part if you want, but I promise you it’s not scary! It’s elegant and approachable. Here is Shannon’s equation: The total amount of entropy in a State H(S) is equal to the sum of: -The probability of each possible microstate occurring (that’s P(si)); (e.g. “heads” and “tails” are each microstates) Times -The number of yes/no questions you’d have to ask, on average, to deduce that particular microstate out of all possible states. That’s the log base 2 part. If you think about this, it’s not scary. Imagine you’re playing a game of twenty questions, and you’re trying to guess out of 8 equal weighted possibilities. If you go about it methodically, it’ll take you 3 guesses: 2 to the 3rd power. -Log base 2 of 1/8th equals 3. In our fair coin example, it’s trivial: for each side, the probability is .5, and it’d take you one yes/no question to figure it out. So the total amount of entropy is .5 times 1 (heads) + .5 times 1 (tails), or one bit. Which you knew. Let’s do a slightly harder one. In our melting ice example, let’s say our ice crystal has twelve possible states, and that they’re equally likely. On average, if you were playing the question game, it would take you 3.58 yes/no questions to correctly guess 1 out of 12. (-Log base 2 of 1/12 is 3.58.) So how “disorderful” is the ice cube? In this case, the math is still easy: it’s 3.58 * 1/12th, times twelve possibilities. So, 3.58 bits of entropy. Now let’s change it up a bit. Now we have a new ice cube, still with 12 states, where there are two especially likely states (50% more likely than most!) and two unlikely states (50% as likely). So let’s add it up: Two states have probability of .125, or 1/8th, which implies on average, it’ll take 3 yes/no questions to figure it out Eight states have probability .08333 – on average, 3.58 yes/no questions, same as before Two states have probability .041666 – on average, 4.58 yes/no questions (lower probability means more questions!) Let’s add that up: 2 * (.125*3) + 8 * (.0833*3.58) + 2 * (.04166*4.58) = 3.51 bits. Now, notice that this number is a little bit smaller! This is important. Our second ice cube is a little bit more like an unfair coin than the first ice cube was. It’s a little bit more predictable, because some microstates are more likely than others. Lower entropy means some microstates are more likely than others, for some predictable reason. You might be wondering why Log base 2: why is entropy restricted to uncertainty between two, and only two, choices? Shannon’s paper cleverly resolved this by arguing, look, any uncertainty between more than two choices can be further broken down, like a decision tree, until at some point we get to choices that are sufficiently small that we stop caring past this point. This is called “coarse graining”. It’ll matter in a second. Okay, we’re done the math part. You can come back now. Mutual Information and the Individual . So how do individuals reduce entropy? If you are an individual, or an organism, or some other ordered process, your goal is to get disorder under control – and then keep it that way. The last concept to walk through is a concept called mutual information. Mutual information is important whenever the receiver of a message has the opportunity to acquire information from somewhere else. If the receiver of a message already knows something about the message ahead of time, then the message will be less surprising to them. (Imagine guessing the top card of a shuffled deck, versus guessing that top card if you already know that all of the spades have been shuffled to the top. It pays to reduce entropy in advance.) Mutual information is really important whenever we deal with the question if information propagating from one place to another, or one time to another. If my knowledge about something (like TLC lyrics) stays perfectly consistent as years go by, then we might say there’s total mutual information between the state of me then versus now. On the other hand, lyrics that I’ve totally forgotten mean a mutual information between then and now of zero. In a more serious vein, a biological organism does something similar with with respect to every cell, every enzyme, and every metabolic process that it’s made of. Let’s take an enzyme as an example. A biological enzyme, which catalyzes a chemical reaction in one particular direction, is a bit like an unfair coin. If an enzyme drives a chemical reaction forward in a consistent and predictable way, that’s like a sophisticated version of an unfair coin. It resolves uncertainty about something. Same with DNA and RNA, which pass information forward that reduce uncertainty about a downstream cascade of chemical reactions poised to take place. All of the biological stuff you’re made of exists in order to decrease entropy, and then pass that condition forward in time. A simple single-celled organism, even a really stripped-down one, exists in order to pass information forward, in the form of unfair coins. When a process appears to be doing work to actively perpetuate the amount of information that it’s transmitting forward in time, and furthermore, if it’s seeking to maximize that information passed forward, then you’re probably dealing with something we should consider to be an individual. In the paper, the authors go through all of the various permutations of Individuals perpetuating mutual information into the future: both internal information, and information that exists with respect to the environment. In all of these cases, whether it’s reproduction, adaptation, or internal self-regulation and metabolism, individuality is a matter of temporal uncertainty reduction. With this new definition, it extends smoothly and easily out of physics and chemistry. As the authors put it: What is fundamental in our view is the idea that information can be propagated forward through time [by individuals], meaning that uncertainty is reduced over time. In this way, and returning to our opening remarks…, we suggest individuality is a natural extension of the ideas of Boltzmann and Von Neumann, and as such has foundations in statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, which consider the conditions required for persistently ordered states. So finally, we can answer: how do organisms pass mutual information forward – either information about themselves, or information about their environments, colony-level information, or all of the above? Here’s where we get back to that concept of “coarse graining”: there are certain units of information that are sufficiently “chunked” together, like DNA nucleotides that comprise a genetic code, that they place lower bound on how finely resolved a piece of information must be in order for its fidelity to be maintained. When our DNA is passed forward across cell division or across generations, that information is coarse-grained into A, T, C and Gs. Coarse graining allows us to pass mutual information forward, from time today to time tomorrow. We pass that information forward in the form of countless little pieces of unfair coins, like enzymes and nucleotides that make up our metabolic processes and genetic codes, all of which make sure that the uncertainty we’re resolving today is the same as the uncertainty we’re resolving tomorrow. Life is made of unfair coin flips, which we propagate forward into the future, in order to make sure our future selves have the same advantage over entropy as we do. I think that’s pretty neat. Hopefully you enjoyed this and learned something from it! If you did, I encourage you again to read the original paper. Like this post? Get it in your inbox every week with Two Truths and a Take, my weekly newsletter enjoyed by thousands.

Guiliani slams WHO, China for coronavirus response

Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani Rudy GiulianiGrand jury adds additional counts against Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and and Igor Fruman Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates Giuliani criticizes NYC leadership: 'They're killing this city' MORE, who also serves as President Trump Donald John TrumpObama calls on Senate not to fill Ginsburg's vacancy until after election Planned Parenthood: 'The fate of our rights' depends on Ginsburg replacement Progressive group to spend M in ad campaign on Supreme Court vacancy MORE's personal lawyer on Sunday took a swipe at China and the World Health Organization (WHO) over their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. “[China's] failure to communicate clearly with WHO is a crime of international proportions," the former New York mayor said on John Catsimatidis’s radio show. "And WHO fixing it for China is disgraceful." The WHO declared the coronavirus a global pandemic in early March. The novel virus originated in Wuhan, China, and spread rapidly in the area at the beginning of the 2020 New Year before the outbreak reached other countries. ADVERTISEMENT Giuliani continued, adding: “There is a lot to be looked into with China… I don’t know if this was in someway deliberate or it was an accident. I don’t believe any part of their story. I think they’re hiding the number of deaths right now.” The comments from the former New York City mayor come as skepticism has grown about the "authentic" number of positive coronavirus cases in China. The New York Times reported earlier this month that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been warning the Trump administration since February that the country has been underreporting the number of COVID-19 cases. China currently has over 83,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to Johns Hopkins University. But Giuliani isn't the first person to criticize the WHO's handling of the pandemic. On Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamSenate Republicans face tough decision on replacing Ginsburg Democratic senator calls for eliminating filibuster, expanding Supreme Court if GOP fills vacancy What Senate Republicans have said about election-year Supreme Court vacancies MORE (R-S.C.) vowed to cut funding from the WHO in Congress's next appropriations bill. "I’m not going to support funding the WHO under its current leadership," Graham said. "They’ve been deceptive, they’ve been slow, and they’ve been Chinese apologists. I don’t think they’re a good investment under the current leadership for the United States, and until they change their behavior and get new leadership, I think it’s in America’s best interest to withhold funding because they have failed miserably when it comes to the coronavirus." ADVERTISEMENT The U.S. is the world's largest contributor to the WHO. President Trump's fiscal budget for 2021 proposes cutting funding to the organization from $122 million to about $58 million. On Friday, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Andrew CuomoNew York City bus driver knocked out by passenger he told to wear a mask 44 percent of high earners have considered leaving New York City: poll Media's anti-Trump coronavirus spin has real consequences MORE (D) questioned the organization for what he claimed was a lack of warning signs about the impending pandemic. “The president has asked this question, and I think he’s right," Cuomo said. "The president’s answer is the World Health Organization should’ve been blowing the whistle.” The coronavirus has sickened 1.7 million people across the globe, and killed over 108,000 people as of Saturday evening. John Catsimatidis is an investor in The Hill.

UK could have Europe's worst coronavirus death rate, says adviser

The UK could end up with the worst coronavirus death rate in Europe, one of the government’s leading scientific advisers has said. Prof Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust and a pandemics expert on the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said the figures of almost 1,000 daily hospital deaths showed the UK was in a similar situation to other European countries that had been badly affected. Just hours before the news that the number of hospital deaths had hit 10,612 as of 5pm on Saturday, Farrar told BBC One’s The Andrew Marr Show: “Numbers in the UK have continued to go up. I do hope that we are coming close to the numbers reducing. But yes, the UK is likely to be certainly one of the worst, if not the worst affected country in Europe.” He held up Germany as an example of a country with a lower death rate that had “very early on introduced testing on a scale that was remarkable and continued to do that and isolate individuals and look after those who got very sick”. “By isolating those that were positive it meant they weren’t able to infect other people,” he said. There were undoubtedly lessons to learn from that, he added. With the UK considering ways to end its lockdown, Farrar said testing in the community had been a way for Germany to buy time to deal with the crisis. It had given it an additional six to eight weeks to ensure health systems were up to capacity, he said. On the same programme, Alok Sharma, the business secretary, avoided the question of whether the UK was at risk of having the worst death rate in Europe. On Friday, its daily hospital death toll was 980, higher than either Italy or Spain before their curves started to flatten. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Prof Jeremy Farrar: ‘The UK is likely to be certainly one of the worst, if not the worst affected country in Europe.’ Photograph: James Drew Turner/The Guardian France has recorded a daily death toll of more than 1,000, but unlike the UK, it has been including mortality in care homes in its daily figures. Sharma said it was a global pandemic and that different countries were at different stages in the spread of the disease. He insisted that the measures the UK had taken were on course to slow the trend of number of deaths and the advice to stay at home was aimed at flattening the curve. Later, Matt Hancock, the health secretary, did not dispute Farrar’s analysis, but said the government was advised by many different experts and that the future spread of the virus was “unknowable”. He said it underlined the importance of the government’s advice to stay at home during Easter. A disputed recent study from world-leading disease data analysts projected that the UK would become the country worst hit by the coronavirus pandemic in Europe. The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) in Seattle predicted 66,000 UK deaths from Covid-19 by August, but this was revised down to 37,000 later because of the recent slowing in the increase of the death rate. The 66,000 figure had been rejected by scientists whose modelling of the probable shape of the UK epidemic is relied on by the government. Prof Neil Ferguson of Imperial College London said the IHME figures on “healthcare demand” – including hospital bed use and deaths – were twice as high as they should be. In March, the Imperial College London team said the number of deaths could reach 260,000 in the UK with no restrictions on movement, but they hoped to get this down to 20,000 with the lockdown strategy. • This article was amended on 12 April 2020 to include reference to the IHME’s prediction for UK deaths from Covid-19 being revised down from 66,000 to 37,000.

Good news on coronavirus makes it harder for Trump to hold the line

(CNN) President Donald Trump urged Americans eight days ago to brace for the "toughest week" of the coronavirus pandemic -- but for Trump himself, the week ahead may well be tougher. That's because, even as the death toll keeps rising, so have signs that social distancing restrictions have begun tempering the crisis . Good news makes it harder to hold the line on those restrictions as the outcome of America's war against coronavirus remains uncertain. That paradox has produced intense cross-pressures inside the White House. Business interests, economic advisers and Republican conservatives seek an end to the shutdown that has halted normal life and thrown 16 million Americans out of work ; public health authorities warn that moving prematurely risks a second tsunami of infection with escalating loss of life and deeper economic damage. "Now is no time to back off," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government's top infectious disease specialist, told CNN on Friday . "Now is the time to actually put your foot on the accelerator, because we're going in the right direction." The lessons of the Great Depression The scale of the crisis and the complex demands it places on the nation recall the predicament President Franklin D. Roosevelt confronted when he came into office in early 1933, during the Great Depression. He framed a challenge to America's psyche as well as its economy, asserting "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." "We must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline," Roosevelt declared in his first inaugural address. "Because without such discipline no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective." "That's the crucial governance question we're facing," said Donald Kettl, a scholar at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. "The problem we have now is fear based on uncertainty." Governed himself by impulsivity, Trump has not shown the resolve to meet the moment. He waffled earlier about ending social distancing by Easter before yielding to Fauci by extending federal guidelines through April 30. Now, with one leading epidemiological model projecting fewer deaths than before, Trump is wavering again with talk of a "big bang" economic restart next month. But that model assumes social distancing restrictions continue through the end of May. Easing up early could have lethal consequences. In the meantime, Trump has turned daily coronavirus briefings into his personal political stage more than a venue for communicating evidence to help Americans cope with their doubts. In a pandemic involving a new infection for which the entire world lacks immunity, assessing the costs and benefits of loosening restrictions requires a continuous recalibration of risk. Governors of both parties have filled the void in their states. At the pandemic's epicenter, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York this week emphasized discipline even as he conveyed improving news about hospitalizations and deaths. "The trajectory is the trajectory we create by our actions," Cuomo said on Friday. Other states like Maryland that have acted aggressively sit behind New York on the case-growth curve and haven't hit their crisis peaks yet. Mark McClellan, who ran the Food and Drug Administration under President George W. Bush, has joined Trump's former FDA chief Scott Gottlieb in a group of health policy professionals helping Congress and the administration identify national objectives necessary for safely resuming social and economic activities. He holds out hope that Americans have grown alarmed enough to remain patient behind an approach centered not on any specific date but rather achievement of testing and treatment benchmarks. "People are still pretty nervous," says McClellan, who now directs a Duke University health policy center. "People are also going to remember just how bad things got." Deep divisions about when to return to old routines A CNN poll last week showed most want to hold the line . Fully 80% fear the worst of the outbreak lies ahead; 60% express discomfort with resuming regular routines if current White House guidelines expire on April 30. Yet underlying those figures lies a sharp partisan divide. More than twice as many Republicans (53%) say they could comfortably resume their regular routines as Democrats (23%). Republican impatience, amplified by conservative media outlets , creates a feedback loop inhibiting the consistent national response the White House coronavirus task force calls necessary to roll back the threat. GOP elected officials, business executives and religious figures eager for church services cast coronavirus restrictions as unnecessarily "draconian," as Attorney General William Barr put it last week. By demurring so far on naming May 1 as the pivot point, Trump acknowledges the potential for backfire. Vice President Mike Pence has said that "we're going to follow the data." Trump followed the data two weeks ago in declining to lift federal guidelines by Easter. Turning back intra-party pressure for larger national interests will be harder now, as improvement raises hopes, than when conditions were deteriorating. "What people need is a clear message that's the same no matter where they are," Kettl says. "That is a leadership challenge that begins at the top."

Pope Francis celebrates joy of Easter amid sorrow of coronavirus pandemic

Vatican City — Pope Francis and Christians around the world marked a solitary Easter Sunday, forced to celebrate the most joyful day in the liturgical calendar amid the sorrowful reminders of the devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. Families who normally would attend morning Mass in their Easter best and later join friends for celebratory lunches hunkered down at home. Police checkpoints and closed churches around the globe forced the faithful to watch Easter services online or on TV. A few lucky Romans participated from their balconies overlooking Santa Emerenziana church in the northern Trieste neighborhood, where the priest celebrated a rooftop open-air Mass. Get Breaking News Delivered to Your Inbox At the Vatican, Francis processed into a largely empty St. Peter's Basilica for Mass, celebrated before a handful of token faithful sitting one per pew and with the choir's "Kyrie" hymn echoing off the bare marble floors. Few faithful attends Pope Francis' Easter Sunday Mass inside an empty St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican on Sunday, April 12, 2020. Andreas Solaro / AP Normally, St. Peter's Square would be awash in fresh flowers for Easter, with tulips and orchids decorating the piazza's promenade in a riot of color to underscore Easter's message of life and rebirth following Christ's crucifixion. This year, however, the cobblestoned piazza was bare. Police barricades ringed the square, blocking the tens of thousands who would normally flock to hear the pope's Mass and noontime "Urbi et Orbi" speech and blessing "to the city and the world." Francis instead celebrated Mass inside the basilica, decorated with only a few potted palms and white hydrangeas. Rather than appearing on the basilica loggia to impart his blessing, Francis was to speak in front of the tomb of St. Peter, underscoring the solitude confronting all of humanity amid lockdown orders and quarantines to prevent further contagion. It was a scene repeated around the world, with churches either closed or, for the few still open for Mass, forcing the faithful to practice social distancing. In South Korea, where one outbreak was tied to a church sect, services were largely held online. A small number of masked faithful attended service at Seoul's Yoido Full Gospel Church, one of the biggest churches in South Korea. They were seated notably apart from each other, and choir members sang hymns from behind masks. At Jerusalem's Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified and entombed, Archbishop Pierbattista Pizzaballa urged the faithful to not be discouraged. "Despite the sign of death and fear that we are seeing everywhere all over the world, we have to look at the good all those that are giving their lives for the others," he said. Only a handful of clergy were on hand for the Mass, and the streets of the Old City surrounding the church were empty of pilgrims and vendors. "The message of Easter is that life, despite all, will prevail," said Pizzaballa, the top Roman Catholic cleric in the Holy Land. Italian Carabinieri stand by a cross by an empty St. Peter's Square in homage to Pope Francis while the pope celebrated an Easter Mass inside an empty St. Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican on Sunday, April 12, 2020. Andrew Medichini / AP The Church of England shuttered its churches, prompting the Anglican archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, to celebrate Easter Sunday service from his kitchen in London. The spiritual leader of 85 million Anglicans worldwide, Welby delivered his sermon in full robes behind a makeshift altar on his dining room table. "Welcome to the kitchen of our home on Easter Day," he said. "Once this epidemic is conquered here and elsewhere, we cannot be content to go back to what was before as if all was normal." In New Zealand, Catholic bishops wrote a special pastoral letter to worshipers stuck at home, acknowledging the stresses and uncertainties of this Easter like no other but urging the faithful to take comfort in time with family. "This time has proved to be a reflective time enabling us to refocus or revision ourselves and how we live," the letter said. In Lebanon, home to the largest percentage of Christians in the Arab world, Cardinal Bechara Rai urged the faithful to abide by lockdown measures, which have been imposed as Lebanon endures its worst economic and financial crisis in decades. "We are praying so that Lebanese officials work together in the spirit of collaboration to revive Lebanon economically, financially and socially," Rai said in an almost empty church in Bkerki, northeast of Beirut, the seat of the Maronite Church he heads. The church would normally be packed with people marking Easter, including the president, prime minister and parliament speaker. For Orthodox Christians, this Sunday marked the start of Holy Week, with Palm Sunday services held in similarly barren churches. Pope Tawadros II, the spiritual leader of Egypt's Coptic Orthodox Christians, celebrated in a largely empty Monastery of Saint Pishoy, in a desert valley west of the capital of Cairo. The church made the prayers available on its official Facebook page. The Coptic Orthodox Church, one the world's oldest Christian communities, had decided earlier this month to suspend Easter prayers and celebrations at churches and monasteries to contain the spread of the virus.

How New Zealand’s National Psyche Explains its Radical Approach to COVID-19

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern On February the 28th, New Zealand confirmed its first coronavirus case. The second case was confirmed on the 4th of March. By the 21st of March there were just 52 confirmed cases. Yet on this day, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s third female Prime Minister, announced the introduction of a four-level alert system for the virus. Each level pertained to a different level of risk, corresponding to different rules and regulations governing social and commercial interactions. New Zealand began not at level 1, but at level 2, and immediately forbade mass gatherings of more than 500 people and imposed a raft of intensive restrictions on movement, both internationally and nationwide. By the 25th of March, just four days after the alert system was first introduced, New Zealand declared level 4, thereby enforcing the anglophone world’s most restrictive measures to contain the virus. All New Zealanders in non-essential work were instructed to stay home, all educational facilities were closed, all businesses were closed except for essential services, the border was closed to all but New Zealand citizens, and the already isolated country came to enforce the kind of restrictions that have only ever been seen elsewhere during wartime. This raft of new emergency regulations was enacted shortly after New Zealand reached a mere 200 confirmed cases. Four days afterwards, New Zealand had its first coronavirus-related death. To date, there have been four fatalities. How and why did New Zealand enact such extreme measures before many other countries had so much as lifted a finger to address the crisis? The answer, I believe, must be understood in the light of the country’s national psyche. A satellite photograph of New Zealand New Zealanders, or Kiwis as they like to call themselves, are an odd bunch. This idiosyncrasy is probably predictable for a small country of some 4.7 million people living on two of the most isolated islands on Earth. Kiwis are largely descended from Victorian-era Brits who fled the UK seeking a quiet rural lifestyle, and indigenous Maori, who settled both islands around the year 1300 from Pacific Islands in what are arguably more idyllic parts of Polynesia. More recent settlers have come from across the globe, notably from China and other Polynesian islands. But Maori and British settlers continue to call the shots on what they take as contributing to the New Zealand national psyche. To understand a country’s national psyche, it is important to look at what things the country holds dear to its heart. These things will often be historical events or achievements that are deemed to have shaped the core values of all citizens. They are the communally agreed upon reasons for patriotism. These objects of national pride colour contemporary achievements and stand as exemplars for future citizens to mirror their own action on. Despite its small size, New Zealand prides itself for having a disproportionate impact on the world stage. New Zealanders like to think that small voices matter. This is often expressed in sport, and in the pride invested in its national sports teams, such as the formidable All Blacks or the Black Caps of the cricketing world. Yet interestingly, pride is something of a dirty word in New Zealand. Most New Zealanders treat pride as a deadly sin, and they expect their sportsmen and women to be as humble and magnanimous in defeat as they are in victory. Kane Williamson, captain of the New Zealand cricket team Take the Black Caps as an example. This team is famous for, of all things, it’s politeness on the field, and for consistently setting realistic and honest expectations when facing superior foes (already we have a good analogy going!). On the website Quora, for example, one netizen asks “Why do people like the New Zealand cricket team so much?” and the answers given (all by non-New Zealanders) exhibit a common theme: “honesty”, “politeness”, “well-behaved”, “humble” and “fair” were just a few of the virtues stated in the answers. One interesting example was discussed. In a recent world cup match, the New Zealand team defeated an arguably superior India in the semifinal. The captain, Kane Williamson, was asked by a presser about his thoughts on beating a nation with more than a billion supporters: “I hope they are not too angry,” he replied, as meekly as a humble mouse. The value of humility over pride, and the emphasis on the happiness of the many over the few, are core features of the New Zealand psyche. There are a few historical episodes that New Zealanders take as exemplary here. New Zealand was the first modern nation to enact universal suffrage, in 1893, granting women the right to vote in national elections. This was 27 years ahead of the United States and 35 years ahead of the United Kingdom. What do New Zealanders make of this fact? Well, quite a lot! (Maybe too much). Of course, they see it as an example of their dedication to principles of fairness and the common good. Kate Sheppard (1905), an important figure in New Zealand’s Suffragist movement We may also look to the very foundation of the New Zealand state, and how this event continues to inform everyday New Zealanders about their national spirit. In 1840, the modern New Zealand state was founded by an agreement between Maori tribes and the UK. This agreement is called the Treaty of Waitangi. In short, the Treaty grants the crown final sovereignty over New Zealand, and in exchange, local Maori are granted the civil and property rights common to all the Queen’s subjects. Interestingly, the date of the Treaty’s signing is commemorated every year on the 6th of February. Yet, it is not really celebrated at all. The day is more usually understood as a day for reflection on the meaning of the Treaty, and as a reminder that the resolution of disputed claims arising from the Treaty’s ambiguities (as well as violations of the Treaty’s articles) remain an ongoing concern. Unlike New Zealand’s neighbour, Australia, the national day is not a day for some historically blind celebration of colonial conquest. It is, on the contrary, a day to meditate on that very conquest, on the terms of the agreement, and on the very idea of “partnership” between the Crown and indigenous Maori. The Treaty remains a focal point of much discussion, and a basic understanding of the Treaty and its implications is more or less demanded of anyone working in the public sphere. Depiction of the signing of the Treaty at Waitangi Again, there is a common theme that arises. New Zealanders understand civic life to be a communal affair, that hinges on an idea of fairness that requires agreement between communities, coordination, self-restraint, humility, and ongoing reflection. The national day is not a day for celebration, but for meditation on the very ideas of group fairness and group justice. Contrast this view of civic life with its obvious American counterpart and no more stark contrast can be imagined. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness sound like alien concerns for New Zealanders, who think about justice, fairness and individual rights in largely communitarian and utilitarian terms. It’s just this self-perceived commitment to ideals of fairness and community that have led New Zealand not just to enact such a thorough lockdown during this crisis, but more importantly, to actually go along with it. The measures faced very little criticism when put in place, and for the most part, Kiwis have continued to follow the rules, understanding that their own individual effort is not for the sake of their own health, but for the health of the wider community, particularly the elderly. The response is quintessentially New Zealandish, since it requires a humble setting aside of one’s own good, for the good of the many. There have, of course, been the occasional transgressors, but such transgressors have tended to be opportunists and overzealous teenagers, rather than protestors or libertarian proponents of inviolable rights to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness. Arguably, New Zealand remains one of the few countries in the anglosphere to have adopted a broadly neoliberal economics without adopting a corresponding neoliberal attitude to questions of personal rights and responsibilities. Social justice in New Zealand has more often taken the judicial form of defining a fair relationship between two groups: The Crown and local iwi. It has seldom taken the form of protecting individual rights from big government or other big and scary oppressors. Empty Motorways Outside Auckland, New Zealand For these reasons, collective action remains a common way to “get on and get things done”. And in this case, it is working. The country has seen a recent fall in the number of new cases of the virus and has 14 times fewer deaths than its neighbour Australia. This success can be argued to be the result of two things: firstly, the promptness and harshness of the measures imposed, but secondly (and equally importantly), the national psyche itself with its commitment to an idea of communal well-being, social coordination, and fairness. If other countries want to follow the example set by New Zealand, it may require more than adopting harsh measures. It may require adopting an entirely new belief: that the individual is an exemplar to others, and his or her actions, however minute, directly affect the well-being of the wider community. While the virus continues to charge ahead, the West must stop believing in the nonsense that “my rights end where your nose begins”. After all, no matter where your nose begins, it can still sneeze all over my face, and from quite a distance. My rights may well extend beyond where your nose begins, to around about, say, two metres from the tip of it.

Interest in Bitcoin Rising: 430,000 New Wallets Created Over The Past 90 Days

The number of Bitcoin addresses containing more than 0.01 BTC has increased substantially in the past two months. The question remains if the reason behind it is the upcoming Halving in May, the economic uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, or both. BTC Addresses Go Up The popular cryptocurrency monitoring resource, Glassnode Insights, provided a chart regarding the number of Bitcoin addresses with at least 0.01 BTC in holdings (worth approximately $69 at the time of this writing.) Slightly over 7,800,000 such addresses existed at the start of the year, as the graph indicates. The number was relatively steady in January and most of February, but then it started picking up speed. Although the price of the largest cryptocurrency experienced a violent decline in mid-March, the number of addresses reached its peak a few days ago at over 8,200,000. This represents more than 400,000 new addresses or a 5% increase in a month. Another compelling report from a few days ago also hinted that the interest in Bitcoin has been spiking up lately. The number of whales (having more than 1,000 BTC) has been surging in the past few months. Halving, COVID-19, Or Both? The data regarding the rising number of Bitcoin whales suggested that something similar occurred in 2016 – before the previous Halving. As, historically, the price of the primary digital asset has been surging in the year after the event, it seems logical to assume that this may be the main reason. The situation now, though, might be a bit different. The COVID-19 outbreak caused jolts in the financial sector, leading to significant price slumps on all markets. At the start of March, it seemed as the world is heading towards another long-awaited recession. In times of uncertainty, people tend to rely on so-called safe havens, such as gold. The virus, however, also disrupted the physical supply of the precious metal. The lack of actual gold and the high demand led to double and even triple premiums. So if investors are unable to purchase gold because of the current circumstances, what are their options? For starters, they can start accumulating the cryptocurrency that many have previously referred to as “digital gold.” And, if so, this could ultimately mean more new Bitcoin addresses. The combination of the two is also a plausible reason. Or, maybe, it’s something entirely different. It’s worth noting that new addresses don’t necessarily mean new Bitcoin users. A person can operate more than one. Generally, holders with more significant portions prefer splitting the amounts into different addresses for security reasons. Enjoy reading? Please share: The post Interest in Bitcoin Rising: 430,000 New Wallets Created Over The Past 90 Days appeared first on CryptoPotato.

Figuring out how to brew keptinis

Mash baking in my kitchen oven I visited Vikonys in Lithuania and saw how the Lithuanians there brew keptinis. The basic idea is straightforward enough: do a normal mash, then bake the mash in a huge Lithuanian duonkepis oven to get caramel flavours by toasting the sugars in the mash. This is important idea, because it's a completely "new" type of brewing process that creates flavours you cannot make with normal techniques. My problem was that although I'd seen it done, I didn't know what temperature to bake the mash at, because I didn't dare stick my thermometer into that very hot oven. It was no use asking the brewers, because they determine the temperature by the amount of wood they burn in the oven. So how to put together a recipe that other people could use? I decided the only way to do it was to brew keptinis myself at home at different temperatures to find out what worked and didn't work. Vytautas Jančys putting the mash into an oven so hot he's wearing huge gloves and a plexiglass visor. My goal was to recreate that huge, massive earthy and caramelly flavour I remembered from the keptinis I'd tasted in Vikonys. I guess I must be the only non-Lithuanian whose first solo brew was a keptinis. Plan I did a little reading on caramelization and found that it's actually chemically very complex, to the point that it's not yet fully understood. By looking at the most common sugar types in wort and their caramelization temperatures I found I could get a tiny amount of caramelization at 110C, but for most of it I'd have to get to 160-180C. I also learned that at too high temperatures all that lovely caramel is burnt into sooty black stuff, so I wanted to avoid that. Simonas's estimate of the temperature of the duonkepis oven at 300C seemed reasonable to me, but since the temperature clearly fell during the baking it seemed reasonable to keep my electric oven a little lower. I decided to try 250C. First attempt The starting point was figuring out the batch size, because the limiting factor was our kitchen oven. Or, to be precise, our oven pans. So I took out my wife's various oven pans and computed the total volume. 9 liters. Okay, so that would be my total mash volume. I thought malts and water would fill equal amounts, meaning I could have 4.5 liters of malts and 4.5 liters of water. So I weighed 4.5 liters of malts and found that was 2.2 kilos. From that I could work out that to follow the Lithuanian recipe my batch size would be 5.6 liters with 33 grams of hops. The mash. I heated water, put the malts in a kettle and added water until I had the mash at 65C. Quite soon I realized having this in a kettle was dumb, because the temperature kept dropping. So I had to add more hot water periodically. While the mashing was going on I heated the kitchen oven to 250C, and once I had mashed for an hour I scooped the mash over into the oven pans. And now I found to my surprise that 4.5 liters of malts plus the 3.2 liters of water I had added in total filled ... 4.5 liters. So I could have doubled the batch size and still had room for everything. Ah well. A small batch size for the first try was probably a good idea anyway. The mash ready in oven pans. Then the boxes went into the oven and I settled down to watch the show. After 10 minutes the water in the boxes started boiling, so clearly the boxes had reached 100C already. I decided 250C for three hours might be a bit over the top and reduced the temperature to 180C. 25 minutes. The visible water was mostly gone, but bubbles kept popping up, so there was still boil going on. At 45 minutes it was still boiling, and the tops started going brown. A caramelly smell was coming out of the oven, so clearly I was on the right track. 65 minutes: the top was drying out and getting browner, but still boiling. Some smoke was beginning to appear. The first box dried out at 2 hours, with the other two still boiling. Colour had kept darkening the whole time. Getting pretty dark and fairly dry. At 2.5 hours only one box was still boiling and now they were really getting dark. After 3 hours the last one was still boiling when I took them out. I used my thermometer to check the center temperature and was astonished to get readings of 95-98C for all of them. 3 hours at 180C and they still haven't gone above 100C?!? What the ... The mash after baking. Poking at the mash I found there was a hard crust on top, with soft gooey caramelly stuff right underneath (promising!). The dark layer was very thin and underneath the mass of the mash was roughly as pale as when I started. Soft, gooey, caramelly stuff. Anyway, I had work to do. I used a large wooden fork to break the crust on the boxes and dump the contents into the lauter tun. Then I added hop tea and hot water. Finally I ran off about 4 liters of wort. The idea was to get 5.6 liters, but my lauter tun is quite big, so I ended up losing 1-2 liters at the bottom that I couldn't get out. An unexpected downside of the small batch size. The wort was at OG 1.072, and I pitched a dry flake of #20 Espe that I had taken from my freezer that morning. The wort was around 30C. I pitched at 1900, but by the time I went to bed there was still no activity, although foam started appearing during the night. It took roughly 24 hours for fermentation to really take off, so probably the viability of the yeast I'd taken out was not the best. 24 hours after that the beer was mostly fermented and I bottled it. The mash opened up. I waited a few days, and then it was time for the big moment: the tasting. And my keptinis tasted like ... vossaøl!??! Instantly I knew what had happened. Since the temperature had never been above 100C I had basically done a 3-hour boil and got the same flavour that the brewers in Voss get from their long wort boils. It's caramelly, sure, but not with the same depth and intensity. The reason I didn't get above 100C was so obvious I'm embarrassed I hadn't thought of it beforehand: liquid water under normal conditions never goes above 100C. If it does, it becomes steam and escapes. So as long as there was visible boiling there was still liquid water, which meant the temperature couldn't be above 100C. How was that possible at 180C for 3 hours? Well, evaporation of water actually consumes a lot of energy. A water molecule evaporates when accidental collisions with other molecules give it high enough speed to escape the liquid, but all of that kinetic energy is then lost from the liquid. Other molecules banged into the one that escaped, giving their kinetic energy to the escaping molecule so that it's knocked loose, taking all that kinetic energy with it. The sum of the kinetic energy of all the molecules is the heat of the liquid. I concluded that the reason this attempt didn't work out was that I had too much water, so that it took too long to evaporate it all, and that the temperature wasn't high enough. So I would just have to try again. Second attempt I decided this time I would mash in an insulated coolbox, which would keep the temperature better, so I wouldn't have to add so much water. And I would bake at 250C, because although that clearly was very hot, the previous attempt showed that the darkening was only on top, anyway. And I realized I could use my wife's meat thermometer to constantly measure the center temperature, so that I could see what was going on all the time. Thus prepared I tried again. This time I needed only about 2-3 liters of water to mash initially, despite having 3.3 kilos of malts (that's what was left). I ended up adding 4 liters in the end, but that still still better than last time, when I had 1.45 liters per kilo, since I now had 1.2 liters. Still, this was less of a difference than I'd hoped. Mash in the oven, with meat thermometer. Anyway, after an hour I scooped the boxes full of mash, and put them in the oven, which had been pre-heated to 250C. Then I stuck in the meat thermometer and settled down on the floor in front of the oven. It took 14 minutes before it started boiling at the edges, but at that point the center temperature was still only 59C. Interesting! So there was clearly quite a temperature gradient from the edge to the center. After 30 minutes the center temperature was still only 70C, but the mash started turning brown on top, and it also swelled up, overflowing the boxes. I put a larger pan underneath to catch the spill, so there wouldn't be so much to clean up afterwards. I also made a note for later: don't fill the boxes completely — leave some room for this swelling. After 36 minutes some burnt smell started coming off, despite the center temperature being only 75C. After 45 minutes we were at 94C and the crust on top was going darker brown. After 51 minutes the center temperature reached 100C. Now I needed to wait for the water to evaporate out so we could go above and get to the interesting caramelization temperatures. Mash after 75 minutes. So there I sat on the floor in front of the oven, watching the thermometer, waiting. And waiting. And waiting. And waiting. Three hours after I put in the mash, the center temperature was still stuck at 100C. Or actually 101, according to the thermometer. (I don't know why.) I took out the boxes, and this time the crust was black as soot. But still we hadn't gone above 100C! How on earth was I going to get this to work without burning the whole thing to cinders? The Lithuanians had gotten a beautiful brown caramelly crust. Why couldn't I? It's pretty black. Just like last time, the black crust on top turned out to be thin, with most of the mash much paler. Although it had definitely darkened a bit from where we started. The graph below shows the temperature development. Center temperature graph Again the temperature remained stuck at 100C the whole time. One interesting thing to note is that the mash went through a kind of second mashing for about 45 minutes. So fermentability should be very good, but somewhat reduced again by the caramelization. Black layer is not so thick, though. I did the hop tea, lautered the wort, and pitched the yeast, and started on the cleaning in between. That turned out to be a nightmare. The high temperatures had burned the sugars to a dark, hard substance that was very difficult to get off. The non-stick pans weren't too bad, but the older ones took hours to clean. One of them I was just barely able to clean at all, despite using so much brewer's cleaning agent that I scraped off some of the surface. Black sticky mess. And then there was the pan I'd used to catch the overspill. Sugary wort had dripped down onto this metal heated to 250C where it had boiled furiously, eventually forming bone dry and rock hard shapes looking more like congealed lava than anything edible. This stuff was so hard I seem to have unintentionally invented a new building material. The process for producing it is perhaps not cost-effective, but you do get beer as a side-effect, so ... Sugar "art". I didn't even try to clean up this pan. I told my wife I'd buy a new one and just threw it away. (I want to record my gratitude for her being understanding about this.) Eventually the beer was finished fermenting and I could taste it, gingerly. I was fully expecting to find that I had brewed undrinkable sooty water, but the beer was actually quite nice. It didn't really have the caramel flavour, but an odd, toasty, mineraly flavour. It wasn't what I'd tried to brew, but not bad at all. That was reassuring, because it helped convince me that brewing this type of beer isn't that difficult. It may be tricky to control the flavours precisely, but you do get something interesting and drinkable even if you overdo the baking. Third attempt After having gone too low and then too high without ever getting the center temperature above 100C, I had some thinking to do to figure out what was missing. In the end I decided the problem might be that the duonkepis oven has an outlet for the smoke and hot air through the chimney, while our oven is not that well ventilated by default. So perhaps a lower temperature with the fan turned on, in order to vent the humidity out? I decided to try 190C with the fan on. This time mashing and all of that went pretty quickly, since I was getting used to the drill. Into the oven it went, and: Center temperature graph for attempts two and three Still no luck getting above 100C. (And why did the thermometer show 100C this time, but 101C last time? No idea, really.) The inside of the oven was clearly quite wet the whole time. My glasses fogged up when I opened the oven, there was visible condensation on the lamp inside the oven, and visible boiling went on for the first 1.5 hours. In fact, this time it boiled so furiously it spattered the door and walls in sugary liquid. I was glad I'd put some extra large pans underneath to catch any spill, because although the swelling mash did not flow over this time, the boil was so strong that some of the wort did. Very dark brown mash with caramelized sugar on top. In fact, I seemed to be getting caramelization in this sugary, sticky layer on top of the mash. Once the top layer started turning really dark brown, I stopped, figuring it would be a bad idea to burn away any caramel I might have created. Once I broke the crust I found that I also seemed to be getting caramelization along the edges of the boxes. The cleaning was also easier this time. The boxes were sticky and gooey, but this was the kind of sugars that easily give in to hot water, and not the basalt-like black stuff from the previous attempt. So this time it was looking promising. Sticky sugary stuff And after fermentation I did indeed find that this attempt was my closest yet. There was a clear caramelly flavour, distinctly different from the caramel flavour of a vossaøl, although without the deep intensity of the original. I'm beginning to suspect that another aspect of the traditional oven may be important: the brickwork, which stores the heat for a long time. The mash boxes are placed directly on the very hot bricks, and this may also contribute to the flavour. Anecdotal reports from other brewers indicate the same. So if you have a pizza oven that may be better suited for keptinis than an ordinary electric oven. And if you do have an electric oven, a pizza stone, quarry tile, or something similar to place the boxes on may also be a good idea. However, one thing I definitely learned was that you get an interesting beer pretty much no matter what you do. Fermenting keptinis For all of these beers I ended up with a pretty high final gravity, but this could be because the #20 Espe I was using was not really as vigorous as it should have been. I'm not sure. I reused the same yeast from batch to batch, in order to get experience with that as well, which means that whatever it was that made these fermentations so sluggish may simply have been a problem with the frozen yeast I started with. Or it may have been something about keptinis wort. I simply don't know. Summing up The actual recipe can be found at the bottom of the original blog post, but I think it's useful to summarize the main things I learned: If your partner has strong feelings about the oven pans, maybe start by discussing the project with her/him. The best temperature seems to be 190C with the fan on, until the top starts heading toward black. Use small pans: the reactions you're looking for happen around the edges. Try to keep the amount of water in the mash to a minimum. Use a pizza stone/quarry tile if you can. Leave room for the mash to swell. Put something underneath the pans to catch stuff that boils over. Stop once the top starts going really dark brown. (Although you don't have to. Some keptinis has traditionally been baked totally black.) And, last but not least, don't worry too much about burning the mash. You get interesting flavours anyway.

UK virus deaths top 10,000 as leader Johnson leaves hospital

UK virus deaths top 10,000 as leader Johnson leaves hospital British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has expressed his gratitude to the staff of the National Health Service for saving his life when his experience with the coronavirus could have “gone either way.” LONDON -- British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his gratitude to the staff of the National Health Service for saving his life when his treatment for the coronavirus could have “gone either way" as the U.K. on Sunday became the fourth European country to surpass 10,000 virus-related deaths. Dressed in a suit, and looking and sounding relatively assured, Johnson said in a video posted on Twitter after his discharge from St. Thomas’ Hospital in London that it was “hard to find the words” to express his debt of gratitude to the NHS for saving his life “no question.” He listed a number of the frontline staff members who cared for him during his week-long stay at St. Thomas’ Hospital in London but singled out two nurses who stood by his bedside for 48 hours “when things could have gone either way.” The prime minister said the nurses he identified as Jenny from Invercargill on New Zealand's South Island and Luis from Portugal, near Porto, were the reason that “in the end, my body did start to get enough oxygen.” “Because for every second of the night they were watching and they were thinking and they were caring and making the interventions I needed,” he said. “So that is how I also know that across this country, 24 hours a day, for every second of every hour, there are hundreds of thousands of NHS staff who are acting with the same care and thought and precision as Jenny and Luis.” After his release from the hospital, Johnson made his way to Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat northwest of London, and on the advice of his medical team won't be returning to work immediately, his office said in statement. It’s unclear what involvement Johnson will have in this week’s anticipated extension to the nationwide lockdown the prime minister announced on March 23 in response to the worldwide virus pandemic. Johnson, 55, was the first world leader confirmed to have the virus. His COVID-19 symptoms, including a cough and a fever, at first were described as mild, and he worked from home during the first few days of self-isolation. But he was admitted to St. Thomas’ on April 5 after his condition worsened and transferred the following day to the intensive care unit, where he received oxygen but was not put onto a ventilator. Johnson spent three nights in the ICU before he was moved back to a regular hospital ward on Thursday. Johnson’s pregnant partner, Carrie Symonds, cheered the prime minister's improved health in a series of tweets, saying she “cannot thank our magnificent NHS enough.” There “were times last week that were very dark indeed," Symonds wrote. "My heart goes out to all those in similar situations, worried sick about their loved ones.” The government confirmed Sunday that the U.K. became the fourth European country after Italy, Spain and France to reach the grim milestone of 10,000 virus-related deaths. It said 737 more people who tested positive for the coronavirus had died, taking the total recorded in the U.K. to 10,612. The figure reported Sunday represented a second straight daily decline in number of deaths, although the lower figures may be due to delays related with the Easter weekend. Health Secretary Matt Hancock said this is a “somber day” for the country in its battle against this “invisible killer.” With the day-to-day death tolls in Italy and Spain on a downward slope, there were growing fears the U.K. might end up as the country with the most virus deaths in Europe. However, the pace of new confirmed cases and hospitalizations in the U.K. appears to be plateauing, a trend that officials hope will show up in fewer deaths in the near future. Wellcome Trust director Jeremy Farrar, a scientific adviser to the British government, said the U.K. was likely to be “one of the worst, if not the worst-affected country in Europe.” He told the BBC that Britain has “lessons to learn” from Germany, where much more widespread early testing for the virus and aggressive contact tracing have been accompanied by many fewer coronavirus deaths. Hancock on Sunday announced a new NHS contact tracing app that will anonymously alert users if someone they were in significant contact with in the previous few days tests positive for the virus. While Johnson convalesces, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab is handling the nation's response to the pandemic that has infected at least 1.81 million worldwide and killed more than 112,000 people. Experts say those numbers seriously understate the impact of the pandemic, due to limited testing and different ways of counting the dead. Johnson's Conservative government has come under fire for its slow response to confronting the pandemic — allowing tens of thousands to gather at the Cheltenham horse racing festival in mid-March, for example. It's also faced criticism for its slow roll out of a coronavirus testing program. In the past few days, the government also faced acute criticism over a lack of personal protective equipment for frontline hospital workers amid reports that some nurses had resorted to cutting up garbage bags to cover themselves. The Royal College of Nursing has piled more pressure on the government, urging members to refuse to treat patients as a “last resort” if adequate protections are not provided. Hancock said he did not have an update on how many NHS workers with the virus have died following the 19 he confirmed on Saturday. He said efforts to procure more PPE are“moving in the right direction .... but until everyone gets the PPE they need, then we won’t rest.” The prime minister also thanked the British people for the sacrifices they are making to get on top of the pandemic. “I want you to know that this Easter Sunday I do believe that your efforts are worth it, and are daily proving their worth,” Johnson said. “Because although we mourn every day those who are taken from us in such numbers, and though the struggle is by no means over, we are now making progress in this incredible national battle against coronavirus.” ——— Follow AP news coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Revealed: value of UK pandemic stockpile fell by 40% in six years

UK government stockpiles containing protective equipment for healthcare workers in the event of a pandemic fell in value by almost 40% over the past six years, the Guardian has found. Analysis of official financial data suggests £325m was wiped off the value of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) emergency stockpile, reducing it from £831m in 2013 under the Conservative-led coalition government to £506m by March last year. The finding is likely to raise further questions for the health secretary, Matt Hancock, who faced criticism over the weekend after urging healthcare workers not to “overuse” personal protective equipment (PPE). The revelation raises questions about why the value depreciated so quickly and how the fall related to stock-levels. According to official figures at least 19 UK healthcare workers had died after contracting coronavirus. Frontline medical staff have complained of PPE shortages, which they say are putting lives at risk. Last week, it emerged that three nurses who had been wearing bin bags due to a lack of PPE had tested positive for coronavirus. It was also confirmed that a consultant at a hospital in east London died from the virus weeks after making a plea to the prime minister for more PPE for NHS staff. Hospitals have turned to schools for donations of science goggles amid shortages of eye protection, while some NHS staff have made improvised masks out of snorkels and bought kit from hardware stores. The widespread shortages of equipment, which Hancock has blamed on problems with the distribution system, has raised questions about the UK’s levels of preparedness for a pandemic of this kind. Accounts suggest funding for “stockpiled goods” that are “held for use in national emergencies” was increased between 2008 and 2011, when pandemic preparedness was identified as a national priority for the NHS. But since 2013 the value of the stockpile has fallen. The findings are likely to renew questions about whether government stockpiles held sufficient quantities of personal protective equipment (PPE) before the Covid-19 pandemic and whether emergency preparations were affected by almost a decade of cuts and reduced public investment. On Sunday, it was revealed that one in three UK surgeons say they do not have access to enough masks, gowns and other clothing to keep them safe. Contacted by the Guardian, DHSC declined to provide a breakdown of its emergency stockpile’s contents, which will also include medicines such as antivirals and flu vaccines. However, NHS plans drawn up in 2017 state that “the bulk of” the pandemic stockpiles available to the health service consisted of PPE, including FFP3 respirator masks, gloves and aprons. The stockpiled goods have shelf lives and so require frequent replenishment. According to the DHSC’s financial accounts, between 2011 and 2019 depletions of the emergency stockpile significantly outstripped the amount spent on adding new supplies to the reserves. A spokesman for DHSC said the value of the emergency stockpile “does not relate to the volume of its contents”, adding that “through responsible procurement” officials had been “successful in maintaining its stock”. The department refused to answer the Guardian’s questions about the volume of the stockpile in 2019 compared with 2011. The spokesman said the UK was “one of the most prepared countries in the world for pandemics” and the government “continues to work around the clock to give the NHS and the wider social care sector the equipment and support they need”. The reduction in the stockpile’s value occurred at a time the government considered that a pandemic represented the most serious emergency threat likely to face the UK. The government has in recent years been concerned about the rapid worldwide spread of a novel virus to which people have no immunity. Since 2007, a series of studies and exercises to prepare the UK for an event of this kind identified the availability of PPE for health and social care workers as a cornerstone to a national response, essential to reducing transmission of a new virus. Dr Lindsey Davies, a former national director of pandemic influenza preparedness, told the Guardian that PPE shortages were modelled as far back as 2007, during a large cross-government pandemic simulation codenamed Exercise Winter Willow. “It was a live issue at the time,” she said. Davies explained that following the 2007 exercise “there was an increased momentum after that to develop a business case for stockpiling, and a lot of discussion about the right amounts and how far it was right to have a nationally funded stockpile”. In the wake of the Winter Willow exercise, and with the emergence of the swine flu pandemic two years later, the Department of Health, as it was then known, embarked on a procurement programme aimed at boosting stockpiles of medicines and PPE, according to departmental accounts and performance reports. By the end of the 2010-11 financial year, the value of the department’s stockpile stood at £830m, an 80% increase from 2008-09. In 2016, after years of delays, the government staged another nationwide pandemic drill, codenamed Exercise Cygnus. The exercise, which simulated a deadly outbreak of so-called “swan flu”, is believed to have shown that in the event of a deadly pandemic the NHS would be overwhelmed by a shortage of critical care beds and vital equipment. The government is refusing to release the official conclusions from Exercise Cygnus, which have never been made public, but there are indications in reports by local authorities who participated in the exercise that PPE supplies were an area of concern. It is not clear whether at a national level the conclusions included recommendations about emergency stockpile funding. But DHSC accounts show that in the three years after the 2016 drill, the value of the stockpile fell by more than £200m. Sir Ian Boyd, the chief scientific adviser to Defra between 2012 and 2019 , told the Guardian it was difficult to get ministers to spend money on preparing for high-impact, low-frequency events like pandemics. “Governments over the years have buried their heads, and it is harder to have those conversations with people who have a small-government view of the world,” he said. This year, as the government began to consider the threat posed by the novel coronavirus outbreak in China to the UK, PPE soon found its way on to the agenda of meetings between officials and high-level scientific and clinical advisers. Minutes of meetings suggest that as early as January the government was involved in discussions with advisers about when emergency PPE stockpiles would need to be released. During a meeting on 28 January of the government’s new and emerging respiratory virus threats group (Nervtag), attended by senior officials including England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, it was noted that if sustained community transmission of the novel virus in the UK was established, the numbers of infected patients in hospitals would rise. “This would entail deployment and use of the UK’s pandemic influenza PPE stockpiles,” a minute of the meeting states. According to minutes from early February, Nervtag went on to make a series of recommendations to the government’s emergency committee Cobra about what PPE would be required for different settings and different groups of workers. A month later, in early March, advisers discussed a potential scenario where stocks of respirator masks ran out. Additional reporting by Rob Evans

Pandemia tira rendimento a mais de um terço dos portugueses. E os que ganham menos estão a perder mais

A Worten contribui para que esta informação, essencial para o conhecimento público, seja de leitura aberta e gratuita para todos. Worten Mais de um terço (36%) dos portugueses perdeu rendimentos de trabalho devido à crise provocada pela pandemia de Covid-19 – e, em média, as pessoas que têm um salário mensal inferior a 1.000 euros estão a perder mais rendimento, proporcionalmente. Estas são as principais conclusões de um estudo feito pelo Centro de Estudos e Sondagens de Opinião (Cesop) da Universidade Católica, feito para o jornal Público e para a RTP. No inquérito feito pelo Cesop, constata-se que 3% dos trabalhadores terão recorrido ao programa de assistência à família, por terem crianças com menos de 12 anos de idade que não podem ir à escola. Essas pessoas passaram a receber 66% do ordenado, pago em partes iguais pelo Estado e pela empresa. Por outro lado, 13% terão sido colocados em layoff (passando a receber, também, 66% do salário) e 4% ficaram desempregados. O estudo revela que 43% dos que tinham um rendimento até mil euros mensais perderam rendimento, ao passo que entre aqueles que recebem entre 1.000 e 2.500 euros por mês foram 33% os que perderam dinheiro – e entre os que ganham mais de 2.500 por mês só 24% dizem ter perdido rendimento. O inquérito revela, também, que rondarão os 23% os portugueses que estão em teletrabalho. E, aqui, 46% dizem estar a produzir menos ou muito menos do que em circunstâncias normais: entre aqueles que têm filhos pequenos essa percentagem sobe para 51% mas até mesmo entre os que não têm filhos 43% dizem estar a ter uma quebra de produtividade.

Vistos gold sem revisão (para já) podem ser salvação do imobiliário

Com mais de 80% das imobiliárias paradas devido à pandemia do novo coronavírus, o atraso na revisão do regime de Autorização de Residência para Atividade de Investimento (ARI), conhecido como vistos gold, pode revelar-se uma bolha salvadora para o setor. A economia paralisada e a necessidade de garantir respostas aos efeitos da covid-19 a todo o momento levaram o governo a considerar que não deve haver alteração das regras para atribuição dos vistos gold, prevista no Orçamento do Estado 2020, até ao final do ano. Fonte oficial do Ministério dos Negócios Estrangeiros confirmou ao Dinheiro Vivo que a alteração legislativa “não é uma prioridade neste momento” e não terá efeitos até ao fim do ano. “Os vistos gold foram responsáveis pela absorção de muitas casas que estavam por vender na sequência da crise financeira global” de há dez anos e ajudaram “a salvar muitas empresas e a manter empregos”, lembra Francisco Horta e Costa, diretor geral da CBRE Portugal, sublinhando que as ARI “poderão voltar a ser fundamentais na recuperação do mercado pós-pandemia”. Os agentes do setor reclamam, por isso, a manutenção do regime que facilita o investimento estrangeiro enquanto alavanca para a recuperação. “Vamos voltar a precisar de capital estrangeiro após esta crise e precisaremos de estímulos para que essa procura não esmoreça”, assegura Horta e Costa. “Será muito importante que o governo retome as medidas de incentivo ao investimento estrangeiro, como é o caso do programa dos vistos gold”, concorda Patrícia Barão, responsável pela área residencial da JLL, sublinhando que este “foi um veículo crucial para captar investimento da Ásia, Brasil, EUA, Turquia, África do Sul e uma alavanca que já arrecadou mais de 700 milhões de euros em taxas e impostos para os cofres do Estado”. Mesmo depois do fim do ano, este poderá ser um instrumento de peso, assume também o presidente da Associação dos Profissionais e Empresas de Mediação Imobiliária (APEMIP). O governo “devia pensar duas vezes” antes de mexer neste regime. “Ninguém vai sair incólume desta crise e o país agradecia imenso que entrassem estes milhões de euros”, sublinha Luís Lima. “Portugal vai precisar do setor, como em 2012, e nós precisamos de armas para pescar.” Em março, foram atribuídos 55 vistos gold, das quais 51 por aquisição de imóveis e quatro por transferência de capital. O investimento global foi de 27,99 milhões de euros, com 25,6 milhões provenientes da compra de casas. Revisão só em 2021 Já em fevereiro, o secretário de Estado Adjunto do primeiro-ministro, Tiago Antunes, afirmara que as novas regras dos vistos gold só entrariam em vigor no início de 2021, para não perturbar negócios em curso. Mas se e quando este regime vier a ser revisto, o setor pede cautela. Para Patrícia Santos, CEO da Zome, a descentralização do investimento estrangeiro para regiões de menor densidade populacional, que o governo pretende, poderá levar “a um impacto negativo no turismo, pelo potencial que estes investidores geram na economia local e nacional”. Neste momento, “ninguém anda a oferecer negócios de vistos gold, até pelo receio de a qualquer momento o novo regime poder entrar em vigor”, diz Luís Lima. O responsável lembra ainda que os contratos que foram fechados nos últimos tempos derivam de processos longos, alguns que se prolongaram por mais de seis meses. E, na atualidade, as empresas estão fechadas. “Estamos proibidos por lei de ter as portas abertas e é irrealista pensar que se consegue fazer negócios com visitas virtuais.” No acumulado do primeiro trimestre deste ano, as ARI geraram um investimento de 120 milhões de euros, uma quebra de 38% face aos 196 milhões registados em igual período de 2019. Recorde-se que foi aprovado no âmbito do Orçamento do Estado 2020 uma proposta do PS de autorização legislativa sobre o regime das ARI. O objetivo é restringir aos territórios do interior do país e das regiões autónomas dos Açores e da Madeira os investimentos em imobiliário com vista à obtenção de um visto gold, e também aumentar o valor mínimo dos investimentos e do número de postos de trabalho a criar. A proposta visa também aliviar a pressão do mercado imobiliário em Lisboa e no Porto, terminando com a possibilidade de obtenção de um visto gold através da aquisição de imóveis nestas cidades e nas Comunidades Intermunicipais do Litoral. A autorização legislativa tem a duração do ano a que corresponde o OE 2020.

South Carolina church displaced by coronavirus moves Easter service to beat severe storms

Get all the latest news on coronavirus and more delivered daily to your inbox. Sign up here. When Pastor Matt McGarity looked out at his Clover, South Carolina, congregation, he saw a view unlike anything he’d seen before. The familiar faces of his flock were blurred behind vehicle windshields, with the exception of a few children sticking their heads out of sunroofs. Some held onto dogs while others sat listening to the Easter service in their Sunday best — on a Saturday evening. While many churches have made the decision to stream their Easter services online amid the coronavirus outbreak, Relevant Church chose to celebrate Christ’s Resurrection together, but with the proper distance. A severe weather forecast forced the church to move Sunday’s service up. CORONAVIRUS IN THE US: STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN Gloved volunteers carefully distributed prepackaged communion packets to families who drove into the YMCA parking lot. An email sent beforehand asked the congregation to remain in their vehicles, insisting bathroom facilities wouldn’t be available. Cars were spaced apart to comply with CDC guidelines and McGarity’s message was broadcast to their radios on an FM frequency. HOW TO WATCH EASTER SUNDAY SERVICES ONLINE "Maybe this is the start of a small radio ministry,” the pastor joked as he took the stage. As the worship team led the parking lot in the hymn “Jesus Paid It All,” Kendra Husband stretched her arm toward the sky through a crack in the passenger side window. Yes, the experience was a bit different, but it didn't inhibit Husband’s ability to worship. She laughed when she realized the family who typically sits behind them in church was parked behind them. “Instead of amen-ing or saying yes, we got to honk our horns, windshield wipers, hazards,” she said. CLICK HERE FOR FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE While McGarity, who also serves as a chaplain in the Navy Reserves, preached from the New Testament, cars sporadically honked in agreement. He encouraged it from his unusual pulpit. “Let me hear some noise from this parking lot,” he told his congregation. Kelly Hills said she is happy to see churches meeting the challenge of the virus and keeping congregations together. “We felt tonight like we would any Easter morning. Joyful, expectant, hopeful,” she said. CLICK HERE FOR THE FOX NEWS APP Nearly 300 people attended Relevant’s unorthodox Easter service, about 30 miles southwest of Charlotte, North Carolina.

Enemy of My Enemy? Israel Sells Missile System to UAE for Haftar’s Libyan National Army - Report

The war-torn nation of Libya, which descended into a foreign-backed civil war in 2011 after NATO warplanes helped rebels topple Muammar Gaddafi, has faced a major escalation of fighting in the past year as Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) attempts a final push to drive the Government of National Accord (GNA) out of Tripoli. The murky web of backdoor alliances, arms deals and geopolitical infighting for control of oil-rich Libya seems to have become even murkier amid reports that the United Arab Emirates has quietly purchased an advanced Israeli-made missile system for Marshal Haftar’s LNA forces. According to a report by the New Arab newspaper citing informed sources, the UAE is supplying the weapon to Haftar to counter the drones supplied to the GNA by Turkey. The sources did not provide any details on the air defence system’s characteristics, except to say that it was “advanced” and “produced by an Israeli manufacturer.” The weapons system has reportedly already been transported to Egypt, and expected to head to neighbouring eastern Libya after LNA troops are trained to operate it. Israel’s defence industry is known for the manufacture of several surface-to-air missile systems, including the transportable Arrow anti-ballistic missile system, David’s Sling, an anti-rocket and cruise missile defence system, and the Iron Dome rocket and mortar defence system. © AFP 2020 / GIL COHEN-MAGEN Israeli soldiers walk near an Israeli Irone Dome defence system (L), a surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, the MIM-104 Patriot (C), and an anti-ballistic missile the Arrow 3 (R) during Juniper Cobra's joint exercise press briefing at Hatzor Israeli Air Force Base in central Israel, on February 25, 2016. Juniper Cobra, is held every two years where Israel and the United States train their militaries together to prepare against possible ballistic missile attacks, as well as allowing the armies to learn to better work together. The arms deal is said to have been made despite the lack of formal diplomatic relations between Israel and the UAE. Israeli, UAE and LNA officials have not commented on the veracity of the New Arab’s reporting. Libya, home to the largest oil reserves on the African continent, has received military equipment from suppliers around the globe as world powers seek to shore up either the LNA or the GNA as the two compete for control of the country. In January, Turkey took the unprecedented step of sending troops to support the GNA amid the LNA’s ongoing Tripoli offensive, deploying boots on the ground to complement the arms deliveries sent earlier. The two sides have since engaged in drone warfare, air battles, and ground-based operations. In mid-March, the LNA claimed that the GNA were building a “base on the border with Tunisia” to which they could escape if they lost their capital. The LNA has claimed to have already taken control of 95 percent of the country, a claim which the GNA has disputed. Last week, the UN condemned the cutting off of water supplies to Tripoli, expressing concerns for the city’s two million residents, as the LNA reported sending a large number of reinforcements to the city to make one ‘final push’ to clear the city of GNA forces and their allies. Once one of the wealthiest, most developed and stable countries in Africa, Libya collapsed into a failed state in 2011, after militants backed by NATO airstrikes toppled and summarily executed longtime Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The Mediterranean nation has since turned into a haven for militants, terrorist groups and human smugglers smuggling people from across Africa into Europe. In 2011, Gaddafi warned former British Prime Minister Tony Blair that sleeper cell terrorists would take control of Libya and try to stage attacks against Europe if he were toppled.

'Cases are in quarantine': SC lawyer writes to CJI, suggests how courts can run during lockdown

NEW DELHI: Closing courts for long due to the coronavirus pandemic is a "self-destructive idea", senior advocate Rakesh Dwivedi has said in a letter to the Chief Justice of India and Supreme Court judges and also suggested how courts can function respecting social-distancing norms. He suggested that all courts can sit with 25 cases and no client should be allowed in the court."Closing courts for long is a self-destructive idea. Courts are sentinels of fundamental rights. There are backlogs. Vital interests of the people are involved and the cases are in quarantine. Video conferencing is like putting the court in ICU on oxygen. So how do we go about to restore a slightly better functioning," the lawyer wrote to CJI Justice S A Bobde on Saturday.He has suggested that judges and lawyers wear masks as well as gloves and as judges sit on the dais, they are separated from lawyers by a good distance. They themselves can sit five feet apart, he suggested."All courts sit with 25 cases each. On hearing days 5 cases and 5 final disposals. Employees can be divided into two groups, each working for a week. They can be tested beorefhand and sanitized. Very few employees should approach the judges. Preferably not more than 2. Cases should be further divided hourly basis. 5 cases per hour. So lawyers in court are few."For Every case only 2 seniors with one junior should be allowed entry. No client should be allowed in court. Lawyers must leave court once their case is over. Their clerk too. Filing can be by internet only. No intern should be allowed. In my view with suitable changes this scheme can work with safety," he wrote adding that all lawyers chamber, canteens and library may remain closed.Dwivedi said that keeping the Supreme Court closed or in conference mode for long may not be in national interest."With little functioning of the court the checks and balances is absent. Amidst the pandemic war the Apex court must remain Awake to the maximum extent possible," he said in his letter sent through the Supreme Court Registrar.The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Saturday had appealed to the CJI and his companion judges to declare cancellation of summer vacation and treat it as working period of the apex court in the larger interest of the litigants and interest of Justice in view of ongoing nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of coronavirus.The lawyers' body said that now that the first phase of lockdown is drawing to an end on April 14, 2020, and there is a strong possibility of similar or varying restrictions continuing thereafter, it believes that it is time for the Chief Justice of India and the companion Judges to take further proactive measures.

Covid-19: Union HRD minister launches e-portal 'Yukti'

NEW DELHI: Union human resource development minister Ramesh Pokhriyal "Nishank" on Sunday launched a web-portal ' YUKTI ' - Young India Combating COVID with Knowledge, Technology and Innovation."YUKTI is a portal to monitor and record the efforts and initiatives of MHRD which have been taken in the wake of coronavirus outbreak. The portal intends to cover the different dimensions of COVID-19 challenges in a very holistic and comprehensive way," said Pokhriyal.Speaking on the occasion, the Union HRD Minister said, "At present, our primary aim is to keep our academic community healthy, both physically and mentally, and to enable a continuous high-quality learning environment for learners. The portal is an effort of the MHRD to achieve this goal in these difficult times.""The portal will include the various initiatives and efforts of the institutions in academics, research especially related to COVID, social initiatives by institutions and the measures taken for the betterment of the total wellbeing of the students," he added.The portal will also allow various institutions to share their strategies for various challenges posed by COVID-19 and other future initiatives, he said.The minister also said that the portal will establish a two-way communication channel between the MHRD and the institutions so that the Ministry can provide the necessary support system to the institutions."We are confident that this portal will help in critical issues related to student promotion policies, placements related challenges and physical and mental well-being of students in these challenging times," he added.

Hardeep Puri demands 'exemplary punishment' for Nihangs who chopped off cop's hand

NEW DELHI: Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri demanded an “exemplary punishment” for the members of a Sikh sect who chopped off a policeman's hand with a sword and injured two others on being asked to show curfew passes in Patiala on Sunday.Condemning the inhuman attack, the Union housing and urban affairs minister said “such criminals and anarchists” should be brought to justice at the earliest.The Nihangs severed a hand of an assistant sub-inspector and injured two of the policeman's colleagues after their vehicle was stopped outside a vegetable market and they were asked for curfew passes."The inhuman attack on policemen in Patiala needs to be condemned in the strongest of terms. Such criminals & anarchists should be brought to justice at the earliest. They deserve exemplary punishment. I pray for speedy recovery of the injured policemen," Puri tweeted.Hours after the incident, police arrested seven men, including five of the attackers, from a gurdwara in Balbera village in Patiala district Punjab Director General of Police Dinkar Gupta described the incident as “unfortunate”."In an unfortunate incident today morning, a group of Nihangs injured a few police officers and a mandi board official at sabzi mandi, Patiala. ASI Harjeet Singh whose hand got cut-off has reached PGI Chandigarh," Gupta tweeted.

UAE ready to fly stranded Indians if they test negative for coronavirus: Envoy

DUBAI: The UAE has offered to fly stranded Indians and citizens of other countries, who wish to be repatriated, if they test negative for COVID-19 , the country's envoy to India told a Gulf daily.The UAE's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MOFAIC) had sent out a “note verbale” in this regard to all the embassies in the UAE, including the Indian mission, during the past couple of weeks, the country's Ambassador to India Ahmed Abdul Rahman Al Banna told Gulf News over phone on Saturday.“We have sent the note verbale and all the embassies have been informed including the Indian embassy in the UAE and even the Ministry of External Affairs in India,” Al Banna was quoted as saying by the daily.He said the UAE has offered to test those who want to be evacuated.“We are assuring everybody that we have the best of the facilities, the best of the testing centres and we have tested more than 500,000 people,” he said.“We are assuring them also of our cooperation to fly those who got stranded in the UAE for some reasons. Some got stuck because of the lockdown and closure of airports in India. Some were visiting the UAE.”“We are offering our system and making sure that they are good (to fly) by doing all the tests and transport them according to the request of their own government,” he said.The envoy said those who test positive for COVID-19 will remain in the UAE. “They will be treated in our home facilities,” he added.The Kerala High Court on Saturday sought the central government's response to a petition seeking a direction to bring back Indians stranded in the UAE in view of the coronavirus outbreak in the gulf nation.Considering the plea by Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre (KMCC) in Dubai, the court directed the Centre to file an affidavit on the steps taken by it to ensure the safety of Indians living there and bring back those stuck in the Gulf countries.In its plea, KMCC, the organisation for non-resident Indians from Kerala, sought directions to the Ministries of External Affairs and Civil Aviation to provide exemptions in the international air travel ban to bring back those Indians stranded in the UAE.

Priti Patel’s non-apology over PPE served its purpose – making you feel responsible for the government’s failings

After an anticipated return to the political mainstage after weeks of maintaining a low profile, it didn’t take long for Priti Patel, the home secretary, to find herself at the centre of controversy once again. At the Downing Street news conference on Saturday, after reports of the highest daily hospital death toll in Europe, she said: “I am sorry if people feel there have been failings.” This was in response to issues regarding the lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) for NHS staff, after 19 NHS workers were confirmed to have died with coronavirus. Make no mistake, this is not an apology. Far from it. In fact, it is more akin to a microaggression, where the intended person is made to feel that it must be their fault for feeling offended, hurt or upset. Microaggressions also make people feel that they must be imagining things, or even overreacting (similar to gaslighting, which itself is a form of microagression). It apportions responsibility to the intended. Here, Patel uses this language to transfer any accountability from the government for their failings in protecting NHS workers on the front line by providing sufficient protection and side-stepping any scrutiny over coronavirus. Microaggressions are a commonly used strategy to demean individuals belonging to a particular community. This kind of behaviour might seem inconsequential, but such microaggressions – communicated via verbal or nonverbal messages – are targeted at people based on their membership of a marginalised group. In this way, they demean and devalue them, “othering” them, highlighting their inferior status and marginalising them even further. The act of microaggression is intended to make the other person feel less valued – Patel’s qualified apology has the same effect. Most of the NHS workers that have died from the virus are from the Bame community, including the first 10 doctors, as well as the fact that a third of those in intensive care are from Bame backgrounds. Such figures indicate how little the current government values minority ethnic communities. Such lack of compassion, and what can only be kindly termed as a veiled incivility, causes confusion, stress and anxiety. Individually, this statement might seem benign, but cumulatively, I believe they act like sort of low-grade microtraumas, with their associated stress and anxiety. They make the target individual or group doubt themselves, their instincts and their understanding of the situation, feeling confused and at the same time, completely dismissed and shocked. Those who would like to point out that Patel is herself from an Asian background would do well to remember her actions and words on racial intolerance. She defended Boris Johnson over accusations of racism, despite his comments that Muslim women in burqas looked like “letterboxes” and evidence that Islamophobia rose by 375 per cent in the week after his comments. Her points-based stance on immigration, targeting “low-skilled” and “low-grade” workers, and her insistence on pushing the immigration agenda through even as migrants prove to be among the most significant key workers has clearly shown that she subscribes to the ideologies that tend to work in the favour of discriminatory agendas, despite her skin colour. This is also the same Patel who claimed that there was no racism in Britain when Meghan Markle faced abuse from many sectors of the media and general population. High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Show all 18 1 /18 High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Najaf, Iraq A man holds a pocket watch at noon, at an almost empty market near the Imam Ali shrine Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Bangkok, Thailand Wat Phra Si Rattana Satsadaram (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha, part of The Grand Palace) Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Prague, Czech Republic An empty street leading to the historic Old Town Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Washington DC, US Lawn stretching towards the Capitol, home of Congress Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Jerusalem's Old City A watch showing the time in front of Damascus Gate Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world London, UK The Houses of Parliament seen from Westminster Bridge Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Wuhan, China Empty lanes in the city that saw the first outbreak of disease Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Havana, Cuba The Malecon road and esplanade winds along the city's seafront Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Cairo, Egypt A little busier than elsewhere: midday traffic in Tahrir Square Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Berlin, Germany The Brandenburg Gate, the only surviving city gate in the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Caracas, Venezuela Bolivar Avenue, opened in 1949 and the site of many demonstrations and rallies Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Moscow, Russia Spasskaya Tower (left) on the eastern wall of the Kremlin, and St Basil's Cathedral Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Istanbul,Turkey The harbourside Eminonu district is usually buzzing with activity Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New Delhi, India Rajpath, a ceremonial boulevard that runs through the capital Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Amman, Jordan The Roman amphitheatre that dates back to the 2nd century AD Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world New York City, US The main concourse of Grand Central station in Manhattan Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Kiev, Ukraine Maidan Nezalezhnosti, the site of many political protests since the end of the Soviet era Reuters High noon in a coronavirus-stricken world Accra, Ghana The odd walker out in the midday sun on Ring Road Central Reuters Yes, we can choose to ignore what looks like a seemingly minor comment, but research for my book Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias shows that such statements are dangerous and have a long-term impact on the mental health, as well as the morale of a community. Such actions can consume cognitive resources and lead to an increase in stress hormones. This is equivalent to being bullied, which wouldn’t be the first time that Patel has been accused of something like that. This weekend, she has once again shown how damaging these microaggressions can be. By sending the signal that these “failings” have been exaggerated in our minds, the needs of those who are struggling the most risk being downplayed or ignored entirely.

Åtta av tio överlever intensivvården för coronaviruset

Region Stockholm har fortfarande lediga platser i intensivvården. Och i takt med att fler patienter skrivs in skrivs nu också fler och fler patienter ut. – Vi närmar oss lite grann den platåfas man talar om. Det finns en liten avmattning – den kan vara temporär, det är för tidigt att säga – men det ser lite bättre ut, säger David Konrad, överläkare på IVA Karolinska universitetssjukhuset, till SVT. Omkring åtta av tio patienter som intensivvårdats med covid-19 överlever, enligt SVT. Ett bättre resultat än väntat, säger David Konrad. – Det är mycket positivt, vi hade befarat en mycket värre situation än så. Så det ser väldigt bra ut, men man ska inte dra slutsatser för tidigt. Vi är nöjda och glada att det ser ut så här just nu, men vi måste vara lite försiktiga med att ropa hej för tidigt. Nu vårdas 127 coronapatienter på Karolinska universitetssjukhusens intensivvårdsmottagningar. 177 intensivvårdsplatser finns tillgängliga, men sjukhusen är redo att gå upp till 216 om det skulle behövas, uppger SVT. Just nu intensivvårdas 220 patienter i region Stockholm och det finns totalt sett över 320 intensivvårdsplatser öppna i länet, meddelar region Stockholms presstjänst.

What To Do With an Injured or Orphaned Bird

Ways to Help What To Do With an Injured or Orphaned Bird Guidelines on what to do if you encounter injured, sick, or orphaned birds. Few things are more heartbreaking than encountering an injured, sick, or orphaned bird (adult or chick) or other wild animal. It is in our human nature to want to help, but how do we make sure we do more good than harm? Follow these important guidelines. Sign up here to stay up-to-date with Audubon this nesting season. Injured Birds Adult songbirds can become injured and sick for a multitude of reasons. The most common reasons include getting attacked by house cats, being hit by cars, window strikes, bacterial and viral illnesses contracted at bird feeders, and many more. Characteristics of adult songbird in need: On the ground not moving Does not fly away when approached Easily picked up Extremely fluffed up feathers Eyes closed, squinted, crusty, weepy, swollen, bleeding Evidence of blood or wounds Obvious injured limb (dangling leg, drooping/hanging wing, wings not symmetrical) Tries to fly but can’t If you find an injured bird, carefully put it in a cardboard box with a lid or a towel over the top, and place in a cool, safe place. Birds go into shock very easily when injured, and often die from the shock. If a bird has hit a window and is still alive, it may just need a little time to regain its senses, then may be able to fly away. Do not try to force feed or give water to the bird. Take the bird outside and open the box every fifteen minutues to see if it is able to fly away. If it is still staying put after a few hours, you can try to find a local wildlife rehabilitator. Click here to locate a Wildlife Rehabilitator by county. The Wildlife International website also has a directory of rehabilitators worldwide that may have other facilities listed for your region. Orphaned Chicks Young songbirds are often “bird-napped” by well-intending people who have mistaken a normal situation for something being wrong. No one can raise a baby bird as well as the bird’s parents, so we do NOT want chicks to be taken away from their parents unless they are sick, injured, or truly orphaned. ​ If you have found an orphaned bird, the first step is to determine if it is really orphaned. HATCHLINGS & NESTLINGS Hatchlings and nestlings are very young birds that need to remain in the nest to survive. Hatchlings are either featherless, have thin down, or have early stages of feather growth. Their eyes are closed for at least the first week or so after they hatch (varies with species). They are not able to make their own body heat and need to be kept warm by the mother bird. Nestlings have the start of feathers over their bodies, often being fully feathered by 2 weeks of age (varies with species). They have the beginnings of flight feathers on their wings. They are more mobile in the nest but are not yet able to stand, hop, or walk. Sometimes older nestlings may fall out of the nest when they are wiggling around inside or beginning to perch. If a hatchling or nestling is found on the ground, a licensed Wildlife Rehabilitator should be contacted. While you wait for further instruction, you can create a makeshift nest for the baby bird in a small Tupperware container or a similar round dish, completely lined with layers of toilet paper that prevent the baby from touching the container itself. FLEDGLINGS Tree Swallows. Photo: Lynn Cleveland/Audubon Photography Awards When many young birds first fledge and leave the nest, they may still have a little down with short tail and wing feathers. Fledglings, however, are often NOT in need of human's help when found on the ground. Did you know that many songbird species learn how to fly from the ground? They have left the nest and are able to sit upright, perch, and can hop or even flutter in short bursts. The baby appears to be alone on the ground, but the parent birds remain nearby in the trees and come down regularly to feed the baby, anywhere from several times an hour to every 1 or 2 hours. The baby will often hide itself in the grass or by low bushes for protection. This situation is completely normal for many songbirds and there is likely no need to interfere. Characteristics of healthy fledglings:

Glamour Brown-haired Wifey Dasha Wiggling Her Spectacular Rigid Butt At The Digicam

Glamour Brown-haired Wifey Dasha Wiggling Her Spectacular Rigid Butt At The Digicam Glamour brown-haired wifey Dasha wiggling her spectacular rigid butt at the digicam

UK donates £200m to bolster developing nations’ coronavirus response

The UK has pledged £200m aid to help developing nations in their fight against coronavirus. Bolstering vulnerable countries’ public health defences will also help to prevent a “second wave” from reaching Britain, the Department for International Development (Dfid) said. It brings the UK’s total donations in the bid to counter the pandemic to £774m – making it one of the world’s largest donors. Some £130m will go to UN agencies, including the World Health Organisation, while the Red Cross will receive £50m to help war-torn and hard-to-reach areas. A final £20m will go to NGOs and UK organisations such as Oxford University, where researchers believe there is an 80 per cent chance their new vaccine could be ready for widespread use by September. The pandemic has now claimed at least 100,000 lives worldwide, with more than 1.6 million people having now tested positive for Covid-19 across 210 countries. The UK’s death toll is nearing 10,000 – the fifth highest of any country in the world, with one government adviser warning Britain is likely to overtake Italy to become Europe's worst-hit country. “Coronavirus does not respect country borders so our ability to protect the British public will only be effective if we strengthen the healthcare systems of vulnerable developing countries too,” said international development secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan​. “Our new UK aid support will help stop the virus from infecting millions of people in the poorest countries, meaning we can end this global pandemic sooner and prevent future waves of infection coming to the UK. The cash will help areas with weak health systems such as war-ravaged Yemen, which reported its first case on Friday as the Saudi-led coalition finally announced a temporary ceasefire in the five-year conflict. Half of the country’s hospitals are not functioning, while two thirds of the population are on the verge of famine. Money will also go to Bangladesh, which is hosting 850,000 Rohingya refugees in crowded camps, Dfid said. Loading.... It will fund the installation of new hand-washing stations and isolation and treatment centres in refugee camps, and increase access to clean water for those living in areas of armed conflict, the BBC reported. “The United Kingdom’s generous contribution is a strong statement that this is a global threat that demands a global response,” said WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. “We are all in this together, which means protecting health around the world will help to protect the health of people in the UK.” Britain’s support for the WHO is in stark contrast with the view of Donald Trump, who has criticised its handling of the pandemic. He warned he plans to take “action” next week, indicating he could cut off funding for the UN agency amid reports his aides are looking at ways to punish the body by creating a rival global health institution.

How the ICO market has changed from 2016 to 2020, or dying ICO • CCnews24

In today’s article, we will look at how the market for cryptocurrencies and especially ICO coins has changed and shaped from 2016 to the present. How the ICO market has changed from 2016 to 2020, or dying ICO In today’s article, we will look at how the market for cryptocurrencies and especially ICO coins has changed and shaped from 2016 to the present. What Is An ICO? An initial coin offering (ICO) or initial currency offering is one of the financing methods for start-up cryptocurrency companies. Many times it is a form of crowdfunding where investments are canpossible for both the private and public sectors. ICO can also be called startup projects looking for capital before the project started, the ICO market made it very easy to get investment from ordinary people and companies could avoid the complicated regulations and controls that accompany financing from banks and licensed financial companies. However, this method of raising the capital of ICO companies has, in many cases, had a loss-making result for investors, which continues to this day, and many of these companies have never brought a real product into real use. Take a look at how ICO coins offers have evolved over the years 2016-2020 As you can see ICO products have experienced a big boom and in 2017-2018 there was a lot of investors interest in them. Most of these companies were formed in time when BTC and cryptocurrencies were experiencing great fame and prices reached their historical highs. What is sad most of these ICOs ultimately did not even have a real product and arose only from a speculative perspective when they saw a growing community interested in this kind of investment. For these reasons, many regulations and even bans on products ICOs have emerged in lot of countries. Looking at the year 2018 when was the largest ICO coin offer, we can see a value of $ 7673.97 M, currently in 2020 it’s $ 4.07 M this is an incredible 99.94696% drop in supply. This statistic, offered by the token-economy, yields only one result, and this is a gradually moribund dying market with new ICO offers. Finally, the cryptocurrencies market has at least cleared itself of the often very attractive investment opportunities that ultimately had fatal consequences for investors. If you are still looking for the right investment, we definitely recommend a security token offering (STO). A security token offering (STO)/Tokenized IPO is a type of public offering in which tokenized digital securities, known as security tokens, are sold in cryptocurrency exchanges. Tokens can be used to trade real financial assets such as equities and fixed income, and use a blockchain virtual ledger system to store and validate token transactions./wiki Due to tokens being classified as securities, STOs are more susceptible to regulation and thus represent a more secure investment alternative than ICOs, which have been subject to numerous fraudulent schemes. 1,014 Views 0 Share to: LinkedIn Facebook Messenger Twitter Reddit WhatsApp Publication author offline 23 hours Matey Salt 3 Comments: 0 Publics: 208 Registration: 04-02-2020

Barcelona launch Lionel Messi support campaign after tax fraud prison sentence

Barcelona has come under fire over a social media campaign in support of Lionel Messi and his father Jorge after the Argentine pair were sentenced to prison terms this week over tax fraud. The campaign, under the hashtag #WeAreAllLeoMessi, asks Barcelona fans to "express their sympathy for the greatest footballer in the world by voicing their unconditional support on social networks." Messi, 29, has played his entire club career for Barcelona. "We want Leo to know that he is not alone," the club said on its website. "All members, supporters clubs, fans, athletes, media and everyone else are invited to participate." Loading Club president Josep Maria Bartomeu also tweeted: "Leo, those who attack you are attacking Barca and its history. We'll defend you to the end. Together forever!" A Barcelona city court sentenced Messi and his father on Wednesday to prison terms of 21 months after they were found guilty of three counts of tax fraud, although it is unlikely they will spend time behind bars. Like many Twitter campaigns, however, #WeAreAllLeoMessi has been hijacked, with many infuriated by the idea of supporting a "tax cheat". Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Loading Spanish law is such that any sentence under two years for a non-violent crime rarely requires a defendant without previous convictions to serve jail time and a spokeswoman for the court confirmed Messi was unlikely to be imprisoned. Lionel Messi (R) and his father Jorge Horacio Messi were sentenced to 21-month prison terms for three counts of tax fraud. ( Reuters:Alberto Estevez ) It is the second campaign in support of Messi in the last two weeks. Argentines have called on him to reverse his retirement from international football, a decision he took after his country's loss on penalties to Chile in the Copa America Centenario final in the United States on June 26. It was the fourth final in a major international tournamentand third as Argentina captain that Messi has been on the losing side, including the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Reuters/ABC

Looking For Market Inefficiencies: WR Return On Investment

No matter which type of fantasy owner profile you fit into, you're looking for market inefficiencies as we all are. Why pay an extra-high price for something that ultimately will yield the same results as something similarly good going at a steep discount? That question has no reasonable answer. The question you might be asking yourself, though, is the one regarding how and where to find market inefficiencies to take advantage of? That's the trick. We can look at correlations between different stats, try to find what goes cheap yet is still productive, etc. One way of measuring how good our draft was in terms of price/production, that is, value or what we come to call Return On Investment (ROI), is to just take two data points in consideration: ADP (where we draft players) and season-end rank (where the player ends the year ranked at in fantasy points). Just using those two values we can easily calculate how valuable our picks were. The concept of ROI got me thinking about how one year's values relate to the next one, and how they impact future ADPs in fantasy football. That's why I tried to explore the relation and arrive at some conclusions trying to find out if there is anything to exploit there. Love the strategy of season-long fantasy sports? Live for the short term gratification of DFS? Try Weekly Fantasy Sports on OwnersBox - a new weekly DFS platform. Sign up today for a FREE $50 Deposit Match Return On Investment Values When it comes to ROI, I keep things as simple as I can. I just take a player's ADP entering the season and divide it by his season-end final ranking among all players in the league. That's because every player is available in drafts and therefore every player should be taken into consideration for the ranking. Any player with an ROI at or over 1.0 yielded a positive value and therefore turned into a valuable play for his fantasy owner. Any player with an ROI under 1.0 finished the year in a position lower than that in which he was drafted. Although there is virtually no limit in how large (positively or negatively) an ROI mark can be, we can assume the lowest value is 0.001 (ADP 1, rank over 500) and the largest 500 (ADP 500, rank 1). For this research, though, I'm using a dataset containing every wide receiver season from 2000 to 2018 (1,380 in total), with ROIs ranging from 0.02 to 24.83. It only includes players from which I know their ADP in years N and N+1, and their ROI marks for years N and N+1 too. This is how ADP and ROI correlate in the same season N. The correlation is almost nonexistent with an R-Squared value of 0.001. It makes sense, considering at the point of drafting we don't really know whether a player will be good or not. We make our best guesses and are mostly right when it comes to ADP and final rank (the R-Squared there goes up to 0.30), but the relationship between draft position and ROI is totally random. Year-to-Year ROI Stability If the relation between ADP and ROI is barely existent--if at all--the relationship of ROI marks from one year to the next one should be expected to be absolutely random too... ...and that is precisely the case. The R-Squared value here drops even more down to 0.0009. Don't give this relation even a split of a second of your free time, as you'd be basically throwing it away. My first takeaway from this was that, if ROI isn't predictable at all, it must be related to the fact that a player exceeding his level in year N would translate into a higher ADP (meaning a more expensive draft position) in year N+1, thus lowering his potential ROI no matter what (the more expensive the player, the lower his ROI becomes). I had no real knowledge of the correctness of that thought, but I had the data to try and back it up. Year-to-Year ROI to ADP Correlation What I wanted to test was a pretty simple idea: If a player exceeds his value in year N, we can assume he will become more expensive in year N+1 and therefore he would be less valuable in terms of potential ROI. Think of Tyler Boyd. He entered the 2018 season with an ADP of 258.7, yet he finished ranked as the 51st-best player that year and the WR17. Obviously, his ADP in 2019 went all the way up to 63.2, almost 200 spots more expensive! No wonder his ROI in 2018 was an incredible 5.07 but it dropped to just 1.17 (still valuable) in 2019. This is how the relationship between the season-end rank in year N and the ADP in year N+1 has gone through the last couple of decades. There is, in fact, a positive correlation up to an R-Squared value of 0.06 between both variables. The better a wide receiver has done in year N, the more expensive he was the following season. With all we know by now, we should expect a similar relationship to exist between the ROI in year N and the ADP in year N+1. We should assume a player beating his expected value would be drafted higher the next year. Absolutely correct. The correlation here is positive again, yet it doubles the strength of the last one with an R-Squared value of 0.14 this time. This means one thing: Fantasy owners focus more heavily on final raw results rather than the value returned by the players given the paid price. While that is nothing unreasonable (we're bumping up the prices and paying more for the best performers), it is not the best way to tackle the market. It is an inefficiency. It's a good strategy, but it is not the smartest one nor the one benefitting us the most. That's why there is still a window there to go grab the best possible values that are not yet inflated. What History Tells Of Changes In ADP And ROI Since the 2000 season, and looking only at wide receiver player-seasons from players whom we know their year-to-year changes in ADP, Rank, and ROI, this is how the numbers look: 176 players became more expensive while improving their ROI (acceptable investment) players became (acceptable investment) 416 players became more expensive while lowering their ROI (worst investment) players became (worst investment) 274 players became cheaper while lowering their ROI (acceptable investment) players became (acceptable investment) 435 players became cheaper while improving their ROI (best investment) In percentages, we can say that 34.5% of players remained in the balance, 31.9% became worse plays from year N to year N+1, and 33.6% became better plays. Those are three very evenly split numbers, but if we add together the first and the last ones we get to 68.1% of players at least retaining their ROI values from one season to the next one. What we should try to identify are the commonalities among those in the remaining group of players in order to try and avoid them. I tried to find some similar numbers and traits repeating themselves in their profiles to get to a sound conclusion. Avoiding ROI-Fallers The 31.9% of players becoming worse plays from year N to year N+1, that is, more expensive in terms of ADP while providing worst ROI-marks at the end of the season, make for 416 players in my data set ranging from 2000 to 2018. There is a boatload of data to unpack there, so let's go step by step. The majority of players were at or under 25 years of age . . Virtually "every" player came from playing a full 16-game season , with the rest mostly at 15 games played. , with the rest mostly at 15 games played. The vast majority of players logged between 85 and 155 targets , peaking at the 85-100 and 120-135 clips. , peaking at the and clips. Most of the players logged between 50 and 85 receptions . . The greatest number of players fell in between 635 and 1405 receiving yards by the end of the season. by the end of the season. Most players scored between four and eight touchdowns . . The peak on PPG was in the 10-to-13 clip, with most players finishing the year averaging between 11 and 17. Here are the players from 2018 that would have fit that profile at the year's end, and how they did in 2019. Only two of those players (Amari Cooper and Chris Godwin) improved their ROIs from 2018 to 2019, and only Godwin in more than 0.85 points finishing 2019 with a really great 3.07 ROI. Cooper's 0.94 didn't even reach the minimally acceptable return of 1.0, and only Kenny Golladay's 1.61 and Adam Humphries' 1.03 were on the "positive" side of things. As we already know, playing for the highest ROI doesn't mean getting the best players. Cooper finished the 2019 season as the 36th-best player overall but his owners paid an average ADP of 34 for him. Golladay was 34th on the season, only two spots over Cooper, but his cost was of just ADP 55, almost two rounds cheaper and therefore much more valuable. Finding ROI-Risers The same process can be followed to try to identify traits present in all of the historical ROI-Risers in order to find what has repeated over the years in their profiles to take advantage of it going forward. This is how all of the players in the data set that became cheaper but better ROI-values are distributed in different stats. And some of the shared similarities: The majority of players were at or under 24 years of age, or older than 26. Virtually "every" player came from playing a full 16-game season , with the rest mostly at 15 games played. , with the rest mostly at 15 games played. The vast majority of players logged between 30 and 115 targets . . Most of the players logged between 20 and 60 receptions . . The greatest number of players fell in between 435 and 875 receiving yards by the end of the season. by the end of the season. Most players scored between zero and one touchdowns, and the great majority fewer than six. The peak on PPG was in the 9-to-10 clip, with most players finishing the year averaging between eight and 12. Here are the players from 2018 that would have fit that profile at the year's end, and how they did in 2019. I found nine players fitting the profile. Of them, two (Michael Crabtree and Antonio Callaway) could be left out as they retired at the start of the season (Crabtree) or were under suspension and were released soon enough as to not be considered fantasy-relevant at any point (Callaway). Focusing on the other seven players, only Donte Moncrief had a notable drop in ROI from 2018 to 2019 (1.39 to 0.29) and thus a very disappointing season. Tyrell Williams' ROI dropped from 1.37 to 1.29 but he still remained a valuable player. Every other of the highlighted/found wide receivers improved their ROIs with Courtland Sutton and Demaryius Thomas having the biggest bumps at 0.59 (Sutton went from 1.25 to 1.84, and Thomas from 0.54 to 1.13). Every player except Moncrief and Thomas finished 2019 ranked lower than they did in 2018, and even with that Thomas still improved his ROI, making him a reasonable bet in fantasy leagues. Potentially Great ROI Plays for the 2020 Season Now that we have identified stats that fit the model for both good and bad "next-year ROIs", we can try and apply it to the current season trying to take advantage of our knowledge to build the best possible roster in 2020. Here are some 2019 players that fit the profile of the average ROI-Riser. I'm going to confess and let you know that I'm very excited about what the spreadsheet spit out: Even in an absolute run-heavy offense such as the Niners, Deebo Samuel had a great season and should only get better next year, so go buy high on him no matter what. Diontae Johnson's debut was great even under a bunch of replacement-level players manning Pittsburgh's QB position, which bodes well for him and his potential sophomore breakout. In the same environment as Johnson, James Washington turned out to be the second-best receiver of the Steelers and after having an ADP of 45 in 2019 you can expect it to go down this year giving you a great chance of extracting great value from him considering his low price. Chris Conley's first season playing under Gardner Minshew was great, with the wide receiver logging the highest AYA of players targeted at least 75 times by the rookie-quarterback last season. Both Randall Cobb and Mohamed Sanu are a couple of veterans who will probably drop in ADP after finishing the year out of the top-100 players of the 2019 season. Even with that, both returned ROIs of 1.97 and 1.18, being widely undervalued in almost every league. Here are the actual ADP values of the aforementioned players in best-ball leagues as of this writing. None of them is currently going off the board earlier than at 70th spot (Deebo Samuel) and even that amounts to almost six full rounds of picks. The value to extract from any of those players is really high and given their historical comps the odds are all of them have more than valuable seasons in 2020.

Coronavirus: UK could be 'worst affected country in Europe'

The UK could end up being the "worst affected country in Europe" from coronavirus, according to an infectious diseases expert and government adviser. Sir Jeremy Farrar, who is a member of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), admitted the UK could outstrip the death rate seen in other badly-hit countries such as Italy and Spain. On Friday, it was announced that another 980 people had died in UK hospitals with COVID-19 - a higher number in a single day than any experienced by Italy or Spain. SAGE play a key role in advising the government on its coronavirus response and will be providing evidence to ministers this week as they review the current lockdown measures. Despite expressing hope the UK was coming close to a point when the number of new coronavirus infections was beginning to reduce, Sir Jeremy admitted the country's death rate could exceed that of other European countries. Advertisement "The UK is likely to be certainly one of the worst, if not the worst affected country in Europe," he told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show. 'Exit strategy will be trial and error' Sir Jeremy is director of the Wellcome Trust, which helped found the global Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovation (CEPI), that is leading efforts to find a COVID-19 vaccine. He suggested a vaccine might be available this autumn but, until one is available, it was "probably inevitable" that "second and third waves" of coronavirus would occur. "It is my view that treatment and vaccines are our only true exit strategy from this," Sir Jeremy said. SAGE is made up of various different groups of scientists who feed their data into the body in efforts to provide coordinated scientific advice to ministers. Sky News analysis of the number of coronavirus deaths in Italy, Spain and France suggests the UK is so far experiencing less deaths per 100,000 people than those other countries. Asked about Sir Jeremy's remarks later on Sunday at the daily Downing Street coronavirus briefing Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: "I think that sort of comment merely reinforces the importance of the central message which is that people should stay at home because that protects the NHS and saves lives. "The future of this virus is unknowable as yet because it depends on the behaviour of millions of people and the Great British public. "The good news is that so far we have managed to start to see a flattening of the curve because people are following the social distancing measures by and large." :: Listen to the Sophy Ridge on Sunday podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker Business Secretary Alok Sharma earlier stressed that "different countries have different cycles" in the spread of coronavirus, as he was challenged about the government's initial response to the outbreak on Sky News' Sophy Ridge on Sunday show. Asked why 70,000 people had been allowed to attend the Cheltenham Festival on 13 March - the same day Italy reported the deaths of 200 more people with coronavirus - Mr Sharma said: "We have followed, Sophy, the scientific and medical advice and we continue to do that." However, he suggested the advice being given to ministers had changed as the "situation has evolved". Mr Sharma reiterated the government would need to wait until it was certain the peak of the outbreak in the UK had been passed until they could consider ending the lockdown measures. 'It's up to govt to fix the PPE shortage' Newly-elected Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer repeated his call for the government to set out it's exit strategy from the lockdown. "We all know the vaccine, which is the end exit strategy, is probably 12 months away," he told Sophy Ridge on Sunday. "The question is what happens in that intervening 12 months. "I'm pushing the government on this because we need to plan for it, we can't just arrive at it without a plan." :: Listen to the All Out Politics podcast on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Spreaker Former Bank of England governor Lord Mervyn King told the programme that the government should be "very clear about the difficulty of an exit strategy". "I don't think it's sensible just to tell us all to stay indoors, I think the government can rely on the common sense of people," he said. He said an exit strategy would be a "process of trial and error" - suggesting that some social distancing measures could be retained while other lockdown measures are eased. Enna Park, South Korea's ambassador to the UK, said her country would remain "vigilant" despite appearing to have been successful in flattening the curve of new coronavirus infections. She said: "The main lesson we learned is testing is very important." Revealing South Korea has so far conducted 500,000 coronavirus tests, Mrs Park added: "Our strategy was test, trace and treat." As of Saturday morning, the UK had conducted less than 335,000 coronavirus tests, with the government under pressure to increase the number of daily tests.

From Skyhawk to Hornet: video features Interview with Gil Rud, the last A-4 Flight Leader of the Blue Angels who led the team’s transition to the F/A-18

Gil Rud served as the last A-4 Skyhawk Flight Leader of the Blue Angels in 1986 and then led the team’s transition to the F/A-18 Hornet, where he served an additional two years as Boss. The interesting video in this post features an interview with Gil Rud, the U.S. Naval Aviator who served as the last A-4 Skyhawk Flight Leader of the Blue Angels in 1986 and then led the team’s transition to the F/A-18 Hornet, where he served an additional two years as Boss. According to the video description, Rud first joined the Navy in 1967 and received his Wings of Gold one year later, where he was initially assigned to the A-4 Skyhawks and deployed to the Mediterranean. Upon returning from his initial cruise, he transitioned to the A-7 Corsair II and deployed to Vietnam aboard the USS Oriskany in May of 1971. Following his first combat deployment, Rud served as the Junior CAG LSO for the first cruise of the F-14A Tomcat and the first West Coast Cruise of the S-3A Viking. He would qualify to fly the F-14 prior to leaving for the cruise in order to do the job more effectively. In April of 1975, he participated in Operation Frequent Wind, flying top cover for H-46 and CH-53 rescue helicopters during the evacuation of the embassy in Saigon. Rud eventually became the XO/CO of VA-192, the World Famous Golden Dragons, where he finished as the Top Tailhooker in the Air Wing for the entire Westpac Cruise aboard the USS Ranger. While serving as Head of Junior Officer Detailing in Arlington, Virginia, Rud applied for the position of Flight Leader and Commanding Officer of the Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels. Three months later he would be awarded the position. Photo credit: U.S. Navy

Klimahysterikere i chok over almindelig sund fornuft fra Dronning Margrethe d. II: Vi bør ikke ‘panikke’

Klimahysterikere i chok over almindelig sund fornuft fra Dronning Margrethe d. II: Vi bør ikke ‘panikke’ Når radikale klimatosser indtager mainstream, bliver almindelig sund fornuft betragtet som farlig uvidenskabelig polemik. Havde hun sagt det modsatte var hun blevet hyldet, men nu er hun pludselig (for) politisk. Her lidt fra et længere interview med Dronning Margrethe d. II i Langfredagsudgaven af Politiken – Dronningen giver sit bud på eftermælet om 100 år: ‘Så kom der en dame. Og så blev det sådan’ (kræver login). ‘Jamen, at mennesker spiller en rolle i klimaforandringer, det er der nok ingen tvivl om. Men om de er skabte – direkte – det er jeg ikke ganske overbevist om. Altså, jeg mener, at der er forandringer i klimaet, og det kan da være, at menneskelig aktivitet har spillet en rolle’, siger dronningen.” ‘Jeg synes, at nogle steder lyder det, som om der var. Panikken rører ikke mig særlig meget, men det ligger ikke til mig at panikke særlig meget heller, tror jeg. Men det er også lidt, fordi når man nu har været omkring her i små 80 år og desuden har interesseret sig for historie og ikke mindst forhistorie, så har man nogle ret lange perspektiver. Og så ved man, at ting forandrer sig. Man ved også, at klimaet har forandret sig og forandrer sig hele tiden ‘, siger dronningen. ‘Altså’, indleder hun. ‘Jeg synes måske nok… det er ganske givet meget væsentligt og vigtigt at være opmærksom på. Men at panikke er en meget dårlig måde at tage fat på problemer på. Det går ikke. Det skal man ikke ‘. (Lindehoved Stendysse ved Helnæs fyr, 4. april 2020) Klimahysteriske reaktioner “Er 250 millioner klimaflygtninge ikke en katastrofe? Hvad med fødevaremanglen? Det ekstreme vejr, der slår millioner ihjel? Hvad med manglen på rent vand, der vil have katastrofale følger for milliarder af mennesker? Det er en fantastisk uvidenskabelig og uheldig udmelding fra Hendes Majestæt Dronningen, et syn på klimaet som hører fortiden til. … at regenten blander sig i den politiske debat….” (Løsgænger Sikandar Siddique, 11. april 2020) “Vi har brug for at lave mange grønne forandringer af vores samfund, og jeg er bange for, at dronningens udtalelser igen kan give liv til den bevægelse, der ikke synes, det haster. … Det er meget frustrerende, at dronningen bruger sin mærkedag til at puste liv i en gammel myte, der betvivler, om klimaforandringerne er direkte menneskeskabte.” (Enhedslistens Mai Villadsen, 11. april 2020) “… hun rammer noget skævt i tonen. Og hvis der der noget, som videnskaben længe har fortalt os, så er det, at vi skal handle og forandre. … jeg betragter det her som en smutter.” (Radikale Sofie Carsten Nielsen, 11. april 2020) “Hun plejer at være helt straight, når det handler om ikke at udtale sig politisk, så hun bryder i den grad med sit eget adelsmærke. Det er meget uklogt… Det er jo som en trumpsk stupiditet at sige sådan noget. … hun har jo netop brugt tiden fra 1972, da hun blev indsat som dronning, til nu til at være upolitisk. Og jeg har faktisk lidt ondt at hende, fordi hun falder helt uden for rollen nu. Jeg forstår slet ikke, at det her kunne ske. … Mette Frederiksen er nødt til at tale med dronningen under fire øjne og lade hende forstå, at det her ikke kan gentage sig” (Kongehus-ekspert Søren Jakobsen, 11. april 2020)

Coronavirus: The Archbishop of Canterbury on his virtual Easter sermon

The traditional Easter Sunday services will have a very different feel this year, as churches observe the rules on social distancing. The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, told the BBC's Andrew Marr about delivering a sermon directly from his kitchen.

Philadelphia transit authority changes mask policy after viral video of man being dragged off bus

Philadelphia's transit authority has revoked a policy barring passengers from using its services without a face covering, after video surfaced showing police forcibly removing a person from a public bus. The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transit Authority (SEPTA) last week issued a memo urging customers to wear a cloth face covering when using the bus line as part of an effort to protect passengers and employees from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. SEPTA said that the policy was based on guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In wake of the incident, SEPTA said that the "policy will no longer be enforced," according to reports. ADVERTISEMENT "While SEPTA urges riders to cover their faces, those who refuse will not be barred entry to the system," SEPTA said. A video surfaced on social media last week showing a group of Philadelphia police officers dragging a man who wasn't wearing a mask off a city bus. The video, which went viral and prompted backlash online, showed four officers pulling the passenger off the bus as he repeatedly cursed. Police physically drag a man off of a bus in Philadelphia for allegedly not complying with a mandate that riders must wear masks. SEPTA has since issued a statement saying it will no longer make face coverings mandatory on public transit. https://t.co/hAP28CsGGk pic.twitter.com/O67qlCOzjr — ABC News (@ABC) April 11, 2020 The man, who has not been identified, was not arrested or cited following the incident, ABC News reported. SEPTA and the Philadelphia Police Department are reportedly investigating the matter. The Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement that officers arrived at the scene after a report that a SEPTA passenger had repeatedly refused a bus driver's request to leave. "PPD Officers arrived on location, and after being made aware of the driver's request, also ordered the male to leave the bus several times," Philadelphia police said. "The male again refused, at which point he was physically removed by the officers."

Blockchain Games See Surge During the Pandemic — Can the Tech Handle It?

As more people self-isolate due to the coronavirus pandemic, gaming platforms all over the world have seen a spike in traffic. One report notes that cell network company Verizon claimed that online gaming platforms have seen a 75% increase in traffic with an overall 20% spike in streaming across the web. Despite the fact that the boost in traffic on online gaming platforms is as a result of the unfortunate pandemic, blockchain games have not been left out. A recent report shows Microsoft Azure, a service that allows developers to operate blockchain networks for applications such as Xbox, registering record-high levels of latency on its network for the first time as a result of quarantined gamers straining the Xbox app. Although most industry watchers will admit that blockchain gaming is the future, the jury is still out on whether that future can be sustainable. Other platforms that have seen increased traffic Apart from Xbox, other non-mainstream gaming platforms have also been gaining new users. War Riders, a blockchain game where players get to build and crash cars in a Mad Max-like experience, is said to have received upward of 70% in new users with an increase in the average time spent in the game. According to Sebastien Borget, the co-founder and COO of TSB Gaming — a San Francisco-based startup that is behind a blockchain game called The Sandbox — Cryptovoxels, which is a Sim City-like gaming experience on a blockchain, has also seen an increased number of users recently. In Borget’s observations, the decentralized virtual worlds of games such as CryptoVoxels, Decentraland and Somnium have seen “an influx of new users who are meeting and socializing in the metaverse, organizing their own events, meet-ups or even festivals.” He added: “I think this is great and hosting events and providing activities to do for gamers inside the metaverse is the right way to go.” Borget also mentioned that The Sandbox decentralized gaming platform “completely sold out its virtual land presale, generating 3,400 ETH in just five hours on March 31.” Other gaming platforms that have had a successful run so far include Cryptowars announcing its v2 launch and Skyweaver launching Season 0, among others. What’s driving interest in blockchain gaming? Edward Smith, the co-founder and lead developer at Neblio, a blockchain as a service company, believes that: “Gaming and entertainment will be some of the biggest winners of the crisis our world is facing today, including blockchain-based gaming.” According to Smith: “We will start to see more and more blockchain integration into esports as time goes on. The two industries share many of the same users, as gamers are some of the most passionate blockchain users.” There is a general consensus among most industry watchers that interest toward blockchain-based games will grow as more developers lean more toward play-to-earn gaming models — as has been the case with popular blockchain games like Gods Unchained and CryptoKitties. Borget also agrees that what’s driving more interest is the fact that “blockchain games have been pushing further on the play-to-earn side, offering an appealing alternative to make some money while having fun and playing.” Borget also pointed out Axie Infinity as one of the games in the blockchain gaming space that has benefited from “a growing active community who are sharing tips on how to make money with crypto gaming.” Apart from an opportunity to earn extra income, another factor that is pushing gamers toward blockchain games is the freedom and autonomy that comes with decentralization. While the gaming industry offers blockchain technology a user-friendly avenue for mass adoption, in turn, the technology can contribute through its open-source, transparent and decentralized nature to the gaming world. A decentralized and autonomous alternative — but is it ready? Last year, a decentralized digital card-based game, Gods Unchained, generated significant revenue on the backdrop of the Hong Kong protests after standing up for a gamer who spoke against the actions of the Chinese government. With a promise to give gamers freedom through true ownership and autonomy over their collectibles and winnings, the Heartstone-based game saw a spike in traffic, becoming one of the most popular blockchain games of 2019. With some arguing that online censorship is on the rise, especially among centralized applications, more gamers are looking toward blockchain games to provide a much-needed reprieve. For years, blockchain developers have been waiting for mass adoption. Even though Bitcoin (BTC) has been in the limelight over the years, it is nowhere close to mass adoption. Therefore, to match the increasing demand and appetite for entertainment among mainstream gamers, especially during quarantine, blockchain gaming platforms are being forced to adapt. Blockchain games have been gaining traction and acceptance, however, scalability and capacity are still issues for most blockchain networks. While scalability is less of a problem for private blockchains, gaming platforms that want to support massively multiplayer online games will have to increase the capacity to manage and store large volumes of data. The strain is already being felt by companies, such as Microsoft, Azure that provide blockchain as a service. The curious case of Azure In a recent United States Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Microsoft Azure, a platform that allows users to deploy a blockchain network on a cloud without having to invest in hardware infrastructure, reported a decline in its typical network capacity as a result of quarantined gamers putting a strain on its cloud platform. In a statement, the company admitted that “deployments for some compute resource types” had dropped after “receiving significant demand” for its services in some regions including northern Europe, western Europe, the south of the United Kingdom and southern Brazil, to mention a few. Since Microsoft’s Xbox application is among the clients Microsoft Azure serves, the increased number of quarantined Xbox gamers is said to have strained the Azure Blockchain network. However, Mike Brusov, the co-founder and CEO of Cindicator, a fintech company offering predictive analysis for crypto investors, begged to disagree: “Capacity is probably not the main problem for blockchain gaming. Azure is Microsoft’s cloud and a rival to both Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. So, the increased strain Xbox Live was putting on Azure is probably due to its 65 million gamers spending more time playing, and is not necessarily related to blockchain.” On the other hand, Carlos Roldan, the founder and CEO of Satoshi’s Games, a blockchain gaming platform, painted a different picture when asked about blockchain technology’s capability to handle mass adoption: “There is no blockchain gaming platform, whose infrastructure is distributed or on-chain, that will kick off in a very attractive spectrum to supply the massive demand that is currently going on due to the current scalability issues happening with on-chain gaming infrastructure.” He added that some games based on the Lightning Network have still been ”able to supply the current demand despite the low demand on the Bitcoin’s network.” Preparing for mass adoption amid a global pandemic As the world continues to fight the coronavirus pandemic, placing more people in quarantine, industry watchers like Brusov, Roldan and Smith expect growth in the in-game token economy, as more gamers use blockchain games to earn extra income. Responding to a question about how blockchain games can best prepare for increased mass adoption during this pandemic, Roldan said: “In order to scale up and board traditional gamers into blockchain gaming, the onboarding process must be minimal and frictionless.” He pointed out that “any blockchain game that accomplishes a minimum of skill-based gameplay can achieve” mass adoption, adding: “Currently, we see a high volume of blockchain games with around 80% blockchain integration and around 20% (fun) gameplay. This only supplies the demand for gamers within the blockchain users, which is a small niche.” According to Brusov, gaming companies could “use tokens for managing access and rewarding gamers” as a way to attract more gamers during this period of a global pandemic. Meanwhile, Borget maintained that a natural way of increasing mass adoption is through the adoption of competitive and collaborative gaming that will push blockchain-based games to be played the "way video games are played: built and shared across communities.” It’s time for blockchain games to evolve Apart from experimenting with different consensus protocols, blockchain gaming platforms can begin to think beyond offering NFT based games and start to delve into interactive and engaging games on the blockchain. As pointed out by industry participants like Roldan, this can be achieved on an off-chain LN. Related: NFT Floodgates Open With Impressive Lineup of Blockchain Games in 2020 It is also important for game developers to think outside the box and come up with games that are as engaging as traditional games. Furthermore, instead of building blockchain games from scratch, game developers can build on top of preexisting networks like Microsoft Azure or Neblio that provide highly scalable, general-purpose blockchains capable of handling mass adoption.

Restored Crypto YouTuber Describes Channel Ban Experience

After YouTube terminated, and subsequently restored, his Crypto Crow channel, Jason Appleton explained the whirlwind of events for which Youtube has still provided no explanation. “This situation was crushing honestly,” Appleton told Cointelegraph in an April 10 email. “An emotional roller coaster.” A quick turn of events The past several months have yielded numerous high profile crypto YouTube account bans, strikes, and subsequent restorations. Appleton saw his YouTube channel closed on April 8, and then subsequently restored on April 9, he shared in tweets on those days. “No explanation has been given,” Appleton told Cointelegraph. "I will say though that they had both flagged videos, even the one with a rejected appeal, back online and all community strikes removed within about 24 hours which I’m grateful for.” A tough experience Appleton explained the Crypto Crow YouTube channel as the successful result of his departure from his previous career in mortgages. “All of your work over 3 years wiped without any explanation or specific cause,” he said regarding the account’s termination. “Though I will say, I understand YouTube’s situation,” he said, pointing out the platform’s burden of catching adverse content, and all that comes with that task. “It’s just a system easily abused now and it’s being used as such,” he said, adding: “I would gladly pay a monthly premium as a content provider to have someone at YouTube I could call directly if ever there is another problem so as to ease the frustration and concern of not knowing whether your career is over out of thin air and get things resolved. That is the biggest challenge.” YouTube’s available support contacts say they do not hold the ability to fix the situation, Appleton explained. “It’s a growing pain for them and I’m sure it’s difficult to appease both sides.” Just one month ago, programmer Ivan on Tech and price analyst The Moon also faced difficulties with their channels on the platform.

Söderklassikern Café String går i graven

Söderklassikern Café String går i graven Alex Tekle och hans familj har drivit Café String de senaste nio åren. Men nu är det stopp. Publicerad Sedan 1992 har 50-talsfiket Café String vid Nytorget varit ett vardagsrum för många stockholmare. Men vid månadens slut går den älskade Södermalmsklassikern i graven. – Vi har krigat för att få vara kvar i tre år. Jag har nog inte riktigt fattat att det är över än, säger Alex Tekle. ANNONS ANNONS Långt innan området söder om Folkungagatan blev ett tillhåll för hippa stockholmare och SOFO i folkmun öppnade Café String sina dörrar på Nytorgsgatan 38. Det var tidigt 90-tal, möblerna 50- och 60-tal, akustiken katastrofal. Tre decennier senare är det klassiska fiket sig likt. – Många som varit här någon gång blir glada när de återvänder och ser att allt är som det brukar, säger Alex Tekle vars familj har drivit stället de senaste nio åren. Han skruvar på sig, vänder och vrider på orden när han berättar att de nu måste lämna verksamheten vid månadsskiftet. – Jag vet inte var jag ska börja någonstans. Det är mycket känslor, säger han. Tvist med fastighetsägaren Den korta förklaringen är att de inte lyckats komma överens med fastighetsägaren om villkoren för hyreskontraktet. Redan 2017 lades stället ut till försäljning på Blocket där mäklaren konstaterade att hörnlokalen passade ”utmärkt till andra restaurang- och cafékedjor som vill etablera sig på ett utomordentligt bra läge på Nytorget”. ANNONS – Det har varit många turer fram och tillbaka. Vi hoppades att det skulle gå att komma överens. Men för två veckor sedan kom det slutliga beskedet att fastighetsägarna hade hittat nya hyresgäster. – Vi har krigat för att få vara kvar i tre år. Jag har nog inte riktigt fattat att det är över än, säger Alex Tekle. Kommer att vara saknat För en vecka sedan berättade han för sina stamgäster hur det låg till och möttes av ett enormt engagemang. – För många är stället mer än bara ett fik, de är här varje dag. Det här är som vårt gemensamma vardagsrum. Men nu finns det ingen återvändo. Café String stänger i slutet av april. Därefter flyttar ett nytt koncept in i lokalerna. Och för Alex Tekle är framtiden än så länge oviss. – Kanske öppnar man något nytt kafé någonstans. Men jag tror inte jag kan tänka på det förrän det här sjunkit in, säger han.

I Got a Pandemic Puppy, and You Can Too

Obviously I get it. When you imagine untold weeks of pacing the same home and seeing and talking with the same limited number of people, or even just your own reflection, the idea of a cute, cuddly companion—one you can pet, take walks with, and talk to (with the added benefit of them not talking back)—is suddenly incredibly appealing. And the truth is, having a puppy helps. Having something to focus on other than my own anxiety and fear is nice. With a puppy, our household is forced into a new routine—the type of schedule and consistency that experts say is crucial during turbulent times. We have to wake up to take Barry for an early walk (okay, my husband has to wake up to take Barry for an early walk); we have to make sure Barry gets outside to exercise; we must ensure that he eats meals at regular intervals. Plus, he’s adorable. Barry helps us see joy in the little things, like when he first successfully made it down the stairs by himself, nervously squealing the entire time. “Research supports that being around our dog makes us feel good,” says Phyllis Erdman, a psychology professor at Washington State University. Our collective pandemic-puppy moment isn’t necessarily good for the dogs, though. Erdman worries about what she calls the “Christmas-puppy scenario.” “People have time now and want to hug up on their animals,” she explains. “When this is over, people who have adopted these animals might find they don’t have time for them, or they ignore them.” And for some, a prolonged economic downturn caused by the coronavirus could make having a pet financially untenable, forcing them to make hard choices about whether they can sufficiently care for an animal in the long term. There’s also the question of just how much emotional support scared and anxious humans should expect their pets to be able to give them. Erdman notes that some animals that have been rescued from bad situations, or that have been in shelters for a long time, might have their own anxiety or emotional trauma, and layering the owner’s on top of that could be unhealthy for everybody. Still, everyone I spoke with underscored that, as long as new owners act intentionally and with long-term planning in mind, the prolonged stretch of time at home might provide a unique chance for owners to bond with new pets. (Hi, Barry.) This difficult period may mean that people become more attached and attuned to their pets than if they were seeing their animals for only a few hours a day, which may help get them through the hurdles of pet ownership with slightly less frustration. My experience so far suggests that there’s probably something to that idea. While housebreaking was hard, and it certainly isn’t ideal when Barry decides to bark for more attention while I attempt to have a series of Zoom meetings, our puppy is making us unreasonably happy. During a lengthy period of sadness and uncertainty, it has been cathartic to laugh at the random things Barry has decided to be afraid of—black plastic bags, parked bicycles, large trucks, the back alley, and stacks of cardboard boxes, to name just a few. And our walks provide a sense of purpose and structure. Having a new puppy has also helped us forge stronger connections with our friends and family—giving us all something to DM, call, FaceTime, and text about other than illness and angst. Barry has given us the invaluable gifts of levity and joy during this extraordinarily miserable crisis. I’m not really sure how we’ll repay him, but we’ve got lots of time, right here at home, to figure it out.

I was diagnosed with autism as an adult. Social distancing, anxiety and terror are very familiar

In my forthcoming memoir, “I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was This Lousy Anxiety Disorder,” I say that my life is best viewed as a cautionary tale. Now that I’m attempting to promote it, I’d like to add another deterrent example to the mix: Do not release a book in the middle of pandemic. It’s terrible for business, art and mental health. Interviews and events dry up. You mourn the lost opportunities to celebrate and sell your book and then feel wretchedly guilty for worrying about something so trivial at a time when so many human lives are on the line. I am loath to try to excavate a silver lining or teachable moment out of a global crisis, but in my earnest moments I do wonder if there is a chance to forge new human connections between different people buried deep in this tragedy and trauma. People who have taken socialization and belonging for granted are suddenly seeking alternate ways to connect with other people, from leaving notes to previously anonymous neighbours in their windows, to group video catchups with friends, to seeking out writing from perspectives they’ve never considered before. At a time when everyone’s world feels confusing, potentially dangerous, and isolated, maybe there’s a unique potential to cultivate new understanding and acceptance for autistic people. That inability to process all of the conflicting information and the subsequent anxiety and terror we’re all feeling now? The desperate desire to do the right thing, but not being able to figure out what that is? The overwhelming longing to be a part of a world that’s completely inaccessible to us? That’s how many autistic people have always felt. The stakes are vastly different, but as someone who has now experienced both, I can confirm that the fear, the loneliness, and the pain are eerily similar. Sarah Kurchak, a Toronto writer, was diagnosed with autism at age 27. Her memoir tackles issues from autism parenting culture to love, sex and stereotypes. This chapter is titled: STEP TEN: Discover that GI Joe lied and knowing is not always half the battle. … When my assessor confirmed that I was autistic, my immediate thought was, Now that we know, we can fix it. When my therapist explained that he didn’t believe in fixing autism, and starting laying out what we could focus on in our sessions instead, I thought, Even better. I’ll therapy and healthy coping mechanism my heart out (and medicate if necessary) and still be me but without all of the depression and anxiety! It turns out there is no such clear path between A and B when A equals “twenty-seven years of confusion, overloaded senses, trauma and maladjustments recently uncovered as the result of a crisis.” I had an aptitude for the introspection and self-awareness part of my therapy, but my ability to apply any of what I was discovering or better understanding to my life was sub-optimal. My therapist started to hear a lot of variations of “logically I know that , but …” Like “logically I know that anyone who would reject me for being myself isn’t worth my time or effort, but I can’t stop desperately trying to court their approval because I am so afraid of being attacked and/ or alone again.” And “logically I know that I will not find any valuable information about self-improvement from gossip boards and that the act of lurking on them is increasing my anxiety and decimating what’s left of my fragile self-esteem, but every time I try to stop, I get anxious that I’m missing valuable information about self-improvement and I’ll become an even more loathsome piece of garbage.” In the weeks and months that followed my diagnosis, I was able to start identifying the many, many things that I had been doing to obscure my autistic nature. I was surprised to discover just how many hacks I’d developed. And a little shocked when my therapist informed me that they weren’t perfectly common behaviours that everyone does all the time. I logically, but-ed my way through any substantial efforts to alter these habits, too, but I figured talking about them was almost as good. If I couldn’t improve the quality of my life, I could at least improve the quality of all of those dreadful “but you don’t look autistic” conversations I was getting stuck in. My ideal script for these engagements looked something this: Person and Me: (Engaging in pleasant conversation that leads to a place where I feel it would be appropriate and comfortable to say that I’m autistic.) Me: I’m autistic. Person: Really? You don’t look autistic. Me: I’ve been looking at your eyebrows to make it look like I’m actually looking into your eyes this whole time. (Leaving out the part where there’s a good chance that my gaze probably drifted to their teeth at some point, probably got stuck there, and then I had to worry about how I had become fixated on yet another person’s mouth when I try so hard to avoid this particular habit of mine. And worry about whether they’ve noticed that I am staring at their mouth, all while trying to keep up with the conversation and all of my other tricks.) I’ve been tapping my right foot against the floor, because I’ve managed to turn most of my repetitive movement patterns into things that non-autistic people also do and are therefore seen as normal expressions of energy/excitement/boredom/nerves. I’ve probably been playing with my hair for the same reason. The tone of my voice is modelled after my mom’s, although I’ve probably picked up some other subconscious influences from all of the TV shows and movies I watched to try to augment my middlingly developed social skills. The way I talk with my hands is 100 per cent my mom. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... I have no idea if they’re helpful. I don’t think my gestures are in any way connected to what I’m actually saying. But she talks with her hands and people love her, so I started doing it and now it just kind of happens. The structure and content of this conversation were probably culled from similar sources. I have at least four different tracks running through my brain while we’re talking. One is trying to make sure my fake eye contact makes me look attentive but not creepy. (Omitting the track dedicated to the teeth thing.) One is following our conversation, and trying to process what you’re saying and come up with thematically relevant responses in return. One is making sure that I’m not monopolizing the conversation and that I’m asking you an appropriate number of appropriate questions in return. One is trying to keep me from saying something weird. It’s probably failing. On top of all that, I’m trying to tune out all of the background noise — including, but not limited to: cars, other conversations, breathing, chewing, possible music being pumped out of a speaker somewhere and buzzing lights — in order to hear what you’re saying. There’s a lot I’m probably leaving out. I’ll probably realize this at around four a.m. when I’m not sleeping and kick myself, and then not sleep some more because I’m worried that I have failed to successfully illustrate how autistic I am and how hard I have worked to now get to the point where I have to prove that I am all of the things I am trying to spare you from. Person: That sounds hard. Me: It can be challenging! (Exits to nearest public washroom that doesn’t smell too much of industrial cleaner or lack thereof and isn’t overrun by constantly howling high-tech hand driers to hang out in a stall and breathe and/or cry into my hands for a while. Or go home to half-consciously stare at a screen, fail to nap and have a good fetal position moment. Or some other amenable time out to allow for recovery from the interaction.) When I could manage to get it out of my brain and mouth, this rambling awareness campaign had a decent success rate. Covering most of my script over a coffee with one friend led to a relationship heart-to-heart. “Sometimes when we’re talking, you start looking elsewhere. I thought maybe you were getting bored,” she said. “I do that because I’m comfortable with you!” I replied. “And because I get really into what we’re talking about and I can follow it better if I’m not worried about eye contact.” We’ve been great ever since. Other times doing the work described in the script left me too sapped to say it. I had a rough go reviewing films at TIFF 2016 for one of the websites I write for. One of my best friends called me with a medium-level problem on opening night. I was only a third of my way into my first assignment and rapidly approaching my deadline, but I didn’t know how to tell her that. So I let her talk it out, did the best I could to provide that valuable advice I used to give, cried out of deadline panic and an inability to compartmentalize my friend’s emotions, underslept, filed my imperfect review at the last minute and never recovered from that deficit for the rest of the festival. From then on, everything was too loud. The emotions I was watching onscreen were overwhelming me. I couldn’t navigate crowds or articulate my thoughts. While taking a break at a nearby pub between screenings, I found out that my aunt’s dog had died and openly wept into my salad because I felt so terrible for her. At the closing brunch, I got chatting with an acquaintance of an acquaintance — and fellow long-term TIFF-goer — about how we both felt more drained this year than usual. I mentioned that I was struggling with some my autism-related issues more than I had in festivals past. “You’re autistic?” she said, not unkindly. “I never would have known!” I had the script. I also had a collection of mental and written notes I’d been keeping throughout the festival with the idea of eventually turning the experience into an essay on the amount of work that goes into not looking autistic. But all that came out in the moment was “Oh. OK.” Excerpted from “I Overcame My Autism and All I Got Was this Lousy Anxiety Disorder,” by Sarah Kurchak© 2020. Douglas & McIntyre. Excerpted with permission of the publisher

OSINT Investigation: Cerberus and the INPS

On 1 April 2020, the Italian National Institute for Social Security (INPS) experienced an unexpected outage on its website, leaving many Italians distressed and confused. This is due to the fact that the Italian government has offered a rescue package of €600 to assist with those experiencing hardship during lockdown, during the coronavirus pandemic. However, with the website being offline those who need help are temporarily unable to get it. Suddenly, a tweet from the infamous Anonymous Italy (@Anon_ITA) led some to believe that the site was taken down due to a distributed denial of service (DDoS) attack from the activist group. Once the translation is made, however, it becomes clear that the site was taken down via the IT administrators' own means, not because of a DDoS attack, Anonymous Italy admits. As of 6 April 2020 the site was still down, DDay Italy then investigated the true meaning behind its outage and found that because the site was placed behind the Akamai content delivery network (CDN), which cached part of the requests, those who viewed data were not reaching the INPS server, but were viewing a copy that the CDN had saved to speed up the response to requests. This misconfiguration meant the INPS site administrators had to bring the whole website offline and correct the issue. The INPS itself then suddenly produces an alert which warns Italians that a malware campaign has started targeting those seeking the INPS. Vast amounts of SMS messages were reportedly circulating, inviting victims to click on the link to update your COVID19 application, which instead would be a malicious trojanised application, called Cerberus. With the site down, another typosquatting domain appeared, capitalising on the fact the INPS site was still down. The site (inps-informa[.]online) was created on 4 April 2020, a few days after INPS went down. Further investigation into the site led researchers to find a malicious APK file called ‘COVID-19.apk’ hosted on there for victims to unwittingly download and install. Although, in doing so, the victims have connected their devices to the attackers command and control (C&C) server for exfiltration of their stolen credentials. As a banking Trojan, one can expect that Cerberus aims for any banking credentials, payment details, and other personally identifiable information for attackers to defraud victims. By downloading and installing the fake app, users click to enable invasive permissions such as control over bluetooth, calling, internet access. Cerberus is also able to read contacts, messages, call logs, audio messages, phone state, storage states, network state, saved accounts, master boot record, battery state, and control over the screen. ESET’s in-house Android malware expert, Lukas Stefanko, also recently showcased that Cerberus version 2 is on the way. The malware developers posted on a Russian hacking forum that Cerberus version 1 currently has over 1,000,000 malicious installs and has been a huge success for the threat actors, largely benefitting off the coronavirus pandemic. Analysis: Cerberus is a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) platform, which means that any aspiring cybercriminal can contact the Cerberus developers and pay for access to the malware. It comes with a builder and a control panel and cybercriminals who have access to the MaaS can choose from a range of fake apps to masquerade as. It is up to the customers how best to deliver these malicious APK files in any way they choose, this typically includes water holing, SMiShing, and phishing. This makes Cerberus a dangerous and evolving threat that is operated not by a small group, but hundreds, if not thousands, of threat actors. It will be very difficult for law enforcement to even get close to tracking down those responsible. As the coronavirus persists, governments and enterprises have to remain vigilant for DDoS attacks and for the sign of any typosquatting domains looking to impersonate the site that has been taken down, especially if it is for an extended period of time, like the INPS site (which is still down at the time of writing). I would also like to give thanks to my good friend, Salvatore, who helped me with this OSINT investigation and what the zeitgeist in Italy was surrounding this issue. Indicators of Compromise (IOC): URL https://inps-informa.online/download/COVID-19.apk Domain inps-informa.online MD5 a64c66eb1c445d6402cd1044dcd31ee7 SHA-1 b680c3b498a31f3655efaf8ad720f26c7a91a19e SHA-256 59cb2987a1c909e5c57a02e3a271324a9ca972d4d1a6632060eb5b908e41f9e7 MD5 897cada9b6146db02aab177c6028f69d SHA-1 a2b4d27acf974f7858580a6125e60df0e9da2cea SHA-256 d810f95ceaab3844bfe0aa656c62483006aa7b0fd20d59a9a1f4a689502096d0

Religião e Poder: a Ascensão de um Projeto de “Nação Evangélica” no Brasil?

É possível falar em projeto de poder evangélico no Brasil? A combinação de três elementos – expansão demográfica de pessoas que se identificam com a fé evangélica (hoje representando, aproximadamente, um terço da população), crescente politização de temas sobre costumes e a ampliação de lideranças evangélicas com mandato eletivo – suscitou questionamentos sobre em que medida estaríamos diante de uma suposta “evangelização” da política nacional. De fato, o início deste novo ciclo político, com a chegada de Jair Bolsonaro ao poder, foi marcado por transformações significativas – algumas radicais, outras nem tanto – na relação básica entre Estado, religião e sociedade. No momento em que escrevo este artigo, temos seis ministros declaradamente evangélicos – alguns dos quais já disseram que tomam decisões públicas guiados pela Bíblia. A bancada evangélica, que realiza cultos semanais na Câmara dos Deputados, conta com quase uma centena de deputados e senadores atuantes. O próprio presidente, ainda que não se declare evangélico, frequenta eventos em diversas igrejas e adotou um chavão bíblico na sua luta contra a imprensa, citando João 8:32: “e conhecereis a verdade e a verdade vos libertará”. Ainda assim, falta muito para o Brasil se tornar uma “nação evangélica”. Do ponto de vista de políticas públicas, os efeitos da ascensão política de grupos pentecostais e neopentecostais são gradativos, muitas vezes dispersos e nem sempre eficientes. Isso se deve a alguns fatores: primeiro, não é possível tratar os evangélicos como um grupo homogêneo em termos de crenças, interesses ou atitudes. A pluralidade protestante no Brasil se manifesta tanto no plano teológico e eclesiástico (denominações tradicionais, pentecostais e neopentecostais) quanto em outras clivagens, sejam elas regionais, de renda ou de ideologia. Segundo, é necessário distinguir entre lideranças evangélicas e seus seguidores. A filiação a uma igreja não necessariamente se traduz em votos em pastores locais ou na adesão a pautas conservadoras específicas. Estudo realizado por Esther Solano, Pablo Ortellado e Marcio Moretto, junto aos participantes da Marcha para Jesus de São Paulo, em 2017, mostra que parte expressiva dos evangélicos rejeita o envolvimento político de suas lideranças, não se identifica com a classe política e pregam a tolerância à diversidade nas escolas[1]. Em outras palavras, a influência de líderes religiosos sobre os “crentes”, como os próprios evangélicos se denominam, é parcial e assimétrica. Terceiro, os evangélicos representam somente um grupo – heterogêneo, frise-se – dentro de uma constelação de forças políticas que sustenta o governo Bolsonaro. Eles não necessariamente se identificam com outros grupos, como as Forças Armadas, os “lavajatistas” anticorrupção, os ideólogos influenciados por Olavo de Carvalho, os ruralistas ou os liberais econômicos. Há afinidades pontuais em certos temas, mas divergências e choques em tantos outros. Controvérsias em torno da mudança da embaixada brasileira para Israel ou demandas pela isenção da tarifa elétrica para igrejas, por exemplo, colocou evangélicos em rota de colisão com a equipe econômica do governo. A ideia deste artigo é mapear, em linhas muito gerais, o que chamo de “projeto de poder” evangélico no Brasil. Consideradas as ressalvas acima, farei referência a um projeto (neo)pentecostal, entendendo que são as denominações ligadas ao pentecostalismo e ao neopentecostalismo que se incumbiram, majoritariamente, da busca por ocupação de espaços de poder, dentro e fora do Estado. Esse projeto se organiza em torno de certos fundamentos teológicos, de atores específicos e de pautas abrangentes, temas que serão abordados nas seções a seguir[2]. Os fundamentos do projeto de poder (neo)pentecostal Em linhas gerais, o projeto de poder (neo)pentecostal se sustenta sobre dois pilares: a teologia da prosperidade e a teologia do domínio. Apesar de terem origens tão antigas quanto o próprio protestantismo, ambas as teologias ganharam força nos Estados Unidos do pós-segunda guerra e foram rapidamente exportadas para outros cantos do mundo. A fusão desses movimentos, conhecida como neopentecostalismo ou “terceira onda pentecostal”, popularizou-se a partir das décadas de 1970 e 1980. Suas principais características são o abandono dos traços sectários e ascéticos do pentecostalismo e a busca de adaptação às transformações sociais, sobretudo relativas aos valores, interesses e práticas da sociedade de consumo. A teologia da prosperidade defende que a fé cristã é recompensada com bênçãos materiais, como bem-estar, saúde e boa situação financeira. Do ponto de vista da amplitude da religião, a ênfase na dimensão econômica da fé possui duas implicações importantes: em primeiro lugar, a religião alcança e se enraíza entre os estratos mais pobres da população, a quem ela estende uma vasta rede de proteção social e oferece, além de promessas de abundância, soluções mágicas, curas físicas e espirituais e resolução de problemas familiares ou afetivos. Em segundo lugar, a tradução de fé em prosperidade permite uma justificativa espiritual para o avanço das condições de vida de uma classe média emergente que traz, nesse processo, novas demandas em termos culturais, educacionais e econômicos. Há também ganhos materiais para as próprias igrejas, que passam a ofertar serviços religiosos variados em troca de retorno, notadamente em forma de dízimo ou doações para as obras eclesiais. Esse envolvimento financeiro entre o fiel e sua igreja é estimulado a partir da ideia de que a graça divina é fruto do sacrifício. Sendo assim, muitos veem e estimulam as grandes contribuições como demonstração inquebrantável da fé. Paradoxalmente, a pobreza é colocada como a ausência de fé – e deve ser combatida com sacrifícios financeiros ainda maiores. Essa dinâmica é crucial para a sobrevivência e a longevidade do empreendimento (neo)pentecostal. A teologia do domínio, por sua vez, pressupõe que Deus e o diabo se encontram em conflito permanente, tanto no plano espiritual quanto no terreno, sobre o controle do mundo. A tarefa do cristão, nesse contexto, seria não somente a obediência aos mandamentos bíblicos, mas também a guerra incansável contra demônios que se manifestam na cultura e nas artes, na educação, na imprensa, nos negócios, na política, na família e na própria religião. Conhecida como a visão profética das sete montanhas (ou sete montes), essa doutrina – enunciada, entre outros, pelo pastor Johnny Enlow – ensina que o Reino de Deus será erguido quando os cristãos ocuparem espaços em todas essas dimensões da sociedade. O governo é somente um dos espaços a serem ocupados, mas essencial para viabilizar a conquista dos demais. Nos Estados Unidos, o “dominionismo”, utilizado muitas vezes com conotações negativas, refere-se a uma suposta agenda da direita fundamentalista cristã que envolveria o soerguimento de uma nação cristã, supremacista e estritamente baseada nas leis da Bíblia a partir da captura das instituições democráticas. Aqui, uma versão mais branda dessa teologia, bastante difundida entre denominações neopentecostais, sugere que a ocupação de espaços deve ser feita por evangelização, pela política representativa e, por vezes, pela violência (vide Mateus 11:12). Alguns anos atrás, vídeos e fotos de marchas de um grupo de evangelização da Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Iurd) causaram polêmica. Chamados “Gladiadores do Altar”, os jovens pareciam preparar-se para a guerra santa. Ainda que a própria igreja tenha buscado diminuir a relevância dos “gladiadores”, alegando tratar-se de mera missão evangelizadora, algumas de suas páginas nas redes socais sugerem que eles propagavam discurso de ódio contra homossexuais e contra outras religiões, sobretudo as de matriz africana, como o candomblé e a umbanda. Os desdobramentos dessa radicalização violenta são visíveis, haja vista o aumento de denúncias contra grupos – muitas vezes ligados ao tráfico – que invadem e destroem centros, terreiros e igrejas ao redor do país. Os agentes do projeto de poder (neo)pentecostal Esse projeto de poder organiza-se em torno de diversos atores, que desempenham funções sociais, econômicas e políticas variadas. No centro dessa articulação estão as igrejas. Do lado pentecostal, as Assembleias de Deus (ADs) possuem a maior força, seja graças ao número de fieis (12,3 milhões pelos números do IBGE, de 2010; 22,5 milhões pelas estimativas da própria Assembleia, de 2009), seja por algumas de suas lideranças midiáticas. Dentre as neopentecostais, destaca-se a Igreja Universal do Reino de Deus (Iurd), liderada pelo bispo Edir Macedo. Fundada em 1977 e estimando mais de 8 milhões de fiéis (dados de 2012; censo de 2010 indica 1,8 milhão), a Universal não é somente a maior denominação da “terceira onda”, como também foi considerada a quinta instituição mais prestigiosa entre os brasileiros, em pesquisa Datafolha de 2015 – ficando atrás da imprensa, das redes sociais, da Igreja Católica e das Forças Armadas. Uma das características mais importantes do movimento pentecostal é sua fragmentação. As ADs, por exemplo, estão divididas entre a Convenção Geral das Assembleias de Deus no Brasil (fundada em 1930 e liderada pelo pastor José Wellington Costa Júnior) e as mais recentes Convenção Nacional das Assembleias de Deus no Brasil (também conhecida como Ministério da Madureira, fundada em 1958 e presidida pelo bispo Samuel Ferreira) e Convenção da Assembleia de Deus no Brasil (fundada em 2017, sob o comando do pastor Samuel Câmara). Além delas, atua de maneira independente o ministério Vitória em Cristo, do pastor e televangelista Silas Malafaia. Na raiz dessas clivagens estão divergências teológicas, eclesiásticas e, principalmente, políticas: Samuel Câmara, hoje, exerce grande influência entre os assembleianos da região Norte do país, a única em que o número de evangélicos supera o de católicos. A família Ferreira, representada pelo patriarca (e bispo primaz) Manoel e seus filhos, Samuel e Abner, está à frente do Ministério da Madureira, com grande força no Rio e em São Paulo. O eixo RJ-SP também é campo de batalha entre lideranças da Convenção Geral e do Vitória em Cristo. O mesmo ocorre com as igrejas neopentecostais. Dos rachas da Universal, nasceram a Igreja Internacional da Graça de Deus, fundada em 1980 pelo cunhado de Macedo, o missionário R.R. Soares (com mais de 1 milhão de fiéis em 2014) e a Igreja Mundial do Poder de Deus, criada em 1998 pelo apóstolo Valdemiro Santiago (com quase 800 mil fiéis em 2017). Além delas, também se destacam a Igreja Apostólica Renascer em Cristo, inaugurada pelo apóstolo Estevam Hernandes em 1986 e idealizadora da Marcha para Jesus no Brasil; a Igreja Sara Nossa Terra, criada pelo bispo Robson Rodovalho em 1992 e reconhecida como uma das comunidades neopentecostais brasileiras com maior alcance global. Ambas alegam ter mais de um milhão de seguidores. A disputa pelo mercado da fé fez com que cada uma dessas igrejas, sobretudo as neopentecostais, erguessem expressivas estruturas empresariais e midiáticas. Da administração financeira ao recrutamento e formação de novos pastores, a gestão eclesiástica possui nível de profissionalismo comparável ao de multinacionais. Os resultados, em termos de rentabilidade, são eloquentes: impulsionada por doações, a arrecadação das igrejas praticamente dobrou entre 2006 e 2013, segundo dados da Receita Federal. As lideranças, naturalmente, foram grandes beneficiárias da prosperidade dos negócios. Em matéria de 2013, a Forbes compilou estimativas sobre o patrimônio dos principais líderes evangélicos brasileiros: Macedo (950 milhões de dólares), Santiago (220 milhões), Malafaia (150 milhões), R.R. Soares (125 milhões) e Hernandes (65 milhões). Como consequência da fortuna, estilos de vida muitas vezes opulentos e frequentes desentendimentos com a justiça e a Receita. Macedo, assim como Hernandes e sua esposa, a bispa Sônia, já foram presos e ainda sofrem processos no Brasil e nos Estados Unidos. Outra característica visível da expansão das igrejas (neo)pentecostais é a diversificação de atividades. Além da expansão dos templos dentro do país e além-fronteiras, muitas dessas comunidades possuem redes de televisão e rádio (ou espaço cativo em canais abertos), jornais, editoras e gravadoras gospel, que fidelizam um público religioso em franca ascensão. Nesse sentido, a Universal é exemplar: controla, hoje, a segunda maior emissora aberta do país, a Record (parte do quarto maior conglomerado midiático do país, o Grupo Record), além de possuir um canal religioso, a TV Universal; publica a Folha Universal, com tiragem semanal superior a 2 milhões, além de jornais em Portugal e na África do Sul; esta à frente da gigante radiofônica Rede Aleluia, com afiliadas em todo o país; comanda a Line Records, que já lançou ou produziu grandes nomes da música cristã contemporânea. Por fim, existem crescentes interações entre a fé evangélica, o crime organizado e o tráfico de drogas. Esse fenômeno está relacionado, sobretudo, à força das igrejas na periferia de grandes centros urbanos, como Rio ou São Paulo, assim como à sua entrada no sistema carcerário. Deve-se ressaltar que nenhuma denominação aprova ou referenda a relação entre seus seguidores, o tráfico e o crime. Ainda assim, existem afinidades eletivas entre o mundo do tráfico e as duas principais teologias neopentecostais – a prosperidade e o domínio – que se manifestam, entre outras coisas, na formação de milícias evangélicas contra minorias religiosas em regiões periféricas. Evangélicos e política É na política, contudo, que o projeto de poder dos grupos evangélicos se realiza. Ainda que o envolvimento de pentecostais na disputa partidária seja antigo e remonte à década de 1960 – quando a denominação pentecostal O Brasil para Cristo, fundada pelo pastor Manoel de Mello e Silva, elegeu um deputado federal e um estadual –, foi no contexto da redemocratização que as igrejas buscaram ocupar espaços legislativos. Abandonando o isolamento político que marcou a evolução do protestantismo no Brasil, lideranças evangélicas passaram a se guiar pelo lema “irmão vota em irmão” e colocaram em marcha alguns pressupostos da teologia do domínio. A Assembleia de Deus foi pioneira nesse processo. Desde as eleições constituintes de 1986, ano em que lideraram a criação da Frente Parlamentar Evangélica (FPE), os assembleianos estabelecem estratégias para o lançamento de candidaturas oficiais em todos os estados. Mais tarde, a Universal aprimorou métodos de seleção de candidatos a partir de processos verticais e centralizados na cúpula da igreja, baseando-se em recenseamento e critérios geográficos. Embora ambas tenham seus próprios partidos – o Partido Social Cristão (PSC) é ligado às ADs, ao passo que o Republicanos (antigo Partido Republicano Brasileiro, PRB) é comandado por líderes da Iurd, como o bispo licenciado Marcos Pereira) –, as igrejas se beneficiam da fragmentação partidária e do voto proporcional de lista aberta para amplificar sua capilaridade regional. Tradicionalmente, lideranças políticas evangélicas concentraram-se em partidos do chamado “centrão”, hoje representados por legendas como Partido Progressista (PP), Democratas, Partido Social Democrático (PSD), Partido da República (PR), além dos próprios PRB e PSC. Foi dali que conseguiram exercer grande influência sobre o governo Lula. Estabelecendo uma relação de coexistência com forças de esquerda, muitos grupos evangélicos amealharam cargos, concessões de rádio e TV, passaportes diplomáticos e, sempre que possível, contiveram o avanço de pautas progressistas. No governo Dilma, o relacionamento entre a presidente e evangélicos se esgarçou rapidamente, abrindo espaço para a considerável adesão dessas lideranças ao processo de impeachment, em 2016 (sob a batuta do assembleiano Eduardo Cunha), e ao governo Michel Temer. A despeito da crescente força legislativa dos evangélicos, observada na expansão de sua bancada no Congresso, faltava-lhes um candidato majoritário com viabilidade eleitoral. Muitos acreditaram que Marina Silva, convertida à Assembleia de Deus em 1996, desempenharia esse papel nos pleitos de 2010 e 2014. No entanto, a trajetória política da ex-senadora e ex-ministra acreana, intimamente ligada ao Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) e às causas ambientais, bem como sua hesitação diante de temas controversos como aborto e união homoafetiva, expuseram a fragilidade da adesão evangélica à sua candidatura. Nas eleições de 2018, o ex-capitão Jair Bolsonaro corporificou essa expectativa de muitos evangélicos. Outrora mero parlamentar corporativista e de declarações grosseiras, passou a militar por pautas cristãs no contexto da crescente polarização política da última década. Com esposa e alguns de seus filhos frequentadores da Igreja Batista, o católico Bolsonaro, aos poucos, acercou-se de lideranças evangélicas. Foi Silas Malafaia quem celebrou seu terceiro casamento, com Michelle, em 2013. No ano seguinte, tentou, com apoio do deputado Marco Feliciano (PSC-SP), assumir a Comissão de Direitos Humanos e Minorias da Câmara. Em 2016, filiou-se ao PSC e, em seu primeiro grande evento na nova legenda, viajou com os filhos para Israel e foi batizado pelo pastor Everaldo Pereira nas águas do rio Jordão. Até poucos dias da eleição de 2018, o mais cotado para ser vice na chapa de Bolsonaro era seu amigo, pastor e ex-senador Magno Malta (PR-ES). Não surpreende, portanto, que muitos evangélicos tenham se encantado com a retórica de Jair Bolsonaro, em sua trajetória rumo à presidência da República. “Deus acima de tudo! Não tem essa historinha de Estado laico não. O Estado é cristão e a minoria que for contra, que se mude. As minorias têm que se curvar para as maiorias”, disse o então pré-candidato a uma plateia de apoiadores em Campina Grande (PB), em fevereiro de 2017. Um ano mais tarde, Bolsonaro traria a expressão máxima do projeto nacionalista cristão em seu slogan de campanha: “Brasil acima de tudo, Deus acima de todos”. Estima-se que dois terços dos votos evangélicos no segundo turno de 2018 tenham ido para Bolsonaro. Isso os coloca como um dos principais grupos responsáveis pela eleição do novo presidente. Não obstante, deve-se chamar atenção ao fato de que uma parcela expressiva da população evangélica rejeitou ou não aderiu ao projeto bolsonarista, o que reforça as premissas enunciadas na introdução deste artigo. No limite, a convergência programática no plano das elites políticas não se traduz necessariamente em voto ou em apoio. As pautas do projeto de poder (neo)pentecostal É inegável, por outro lado, que a vitória de Bolsonaro também tenha sido o triunfo de diversas lideranças evangélicas – quase todas elas presentes na tribuna presidencial nas comemorações do último 7 de setembro. Uma vez de posse do poder político, elas buscam o passo definitivo de seu projeto, no plano das ideias (e das leis): politizar os temas caros à sua fé, sobretudo no campo dos costumes. A intenção é travar, em pé de igualdade política, uma “guerra cultural” contra as forças progressistas e secularistas – que, segundo eles, dominaram a cultura e as artes por décadas e foram responsáveis não só pelo colapso moral do país, mas também pela própria marginalização social dos evangélicos. A “crentefobia”, tema que vem ganhando certo destaque na imprensa, somente poderia ser combatida por meio do resgate das raízes cristãs do país. Daí a força do projeto nacionalista cristão encampada pelo novo governo. Ainda que a indissociabilidade entre fé e patriotismo toque os corações de muitos outros cristãos, entre católicos e espíritas, a mensagem é particularmente forte entre comunidades e lideranças evangélicas, que veem em Bolsonaro não somente a concretização de pautas específicas, mas também do reconhecimento de sua ascensão política e social. Um dos exemplos mais eloquentes dessa deferência foi dado em julho de 2019, quando o presidente prometeu que um de seus indicados para o Supremo Tribunal Federal seria “terrivelmente evangélico”. Dessa forma, ao contrário de outros governos, que abriram espaço para políticos evangélicos como forma de compor coalizões (vide os casos de Marcelo Crivella, George Hilton e Marcos Pereira, ministros de Dilma e Temer ligados à Iurd), a nomeação de diversos evangélicos para a Esplanada reveste-se de grande simbolismo. São eles Onyx Lorenzoni (ex-chefe da Casa Civil e atual ministro da Cidadania), o general Luiz Eduardo Ramos (Secretaria de Governo), Marcelo Álvaro Antônio (Turismo), André Luiz Mendonça (Advocacia-Geral da União), Abraham Weintraub (Educação) e Damares Alves (Mulher, Família e Direitos Humanos). Os dois últimos estão na vanguarda da chamada guerra cultural. Na mesma linha do que se transformou o nacionalismo cristão norte-americano[3], os guerreiros culturais tupiniquins vêm buscando usar as alavancas do Estado para promover transformações na legislação e em políticas públicas sobre temas como aborto, união homoafetiva, “ideologia de gênero” e abstinência sexual – ou seja, pretendem exercer maior controle sobre os corpos, sobretudo femininos. Além disso, buscam realocar recursos públicos das artes, da cultura e do entretenimento em favor de grupos religiosos e temáticas cristãs. Mas, a disputa interna por poder, seja entre igrejas ou entre evangélicos e grupos fundamentalistas católicos, geralmente associados ao “olavismo”, assim como as complexas dinâmicas legislativas, fazem com que o avanço dessas pautas de costumes seja muito lento – e nada garante que elas serão levadas a cabo num futuro próximo.

CNN’s Acosta Tries To Bait Trump With “Happy Talk”, Gets Owned

Advertisement CNN’s Acosta Tries To Bait Trump With “Happy Talk”, Gets Owned. Last week, CNN’s jim Acosta faces so many backlash interrupting Dr. Birx during Coronavirus briefings just to score a point on President Trump. He also tried to take Dr Fauci’s words out of context just to spite Trump but was humiliated. CNN Acosta and the President have always been on each other’s throats, not long ago President Trump humilated him on live tv in a brutal manner, calling the establishment he works for “FAKE NEWS”. On friday, President Trump clashed with CNN’s Jim Acosta once again for suggesting his coronavirus briefings were “happy talk.” Advertisement “This is not happy talk. Maybe it is happy talk for you,” president Trump fired back “It is not happy talk for me. We’re talking about the greatest economy in the world, one day I have to close it off. And we did the right thing because maybe it would have been two million people died.” The President added “This is sad talk. … These are the saddest news conferences that I have ever had. I don’t like doing them. You know why? Because I am talking about death.” CNN’s Acosta Tries To Bait Trump With “Happy Talk”, Gets Owned Advertisement RECOMMENDED FOR YOU: Nancy Pelosi Causes Blockade For Small Businesses KINDLY LIKE AND SHARE THIS ARTICLE TO SUPPORT BREAKING WIDE... Have your say in the comment section below Advertisement please Share this: Twitter Facebook Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn WhatsApp

Abe seeking 70% cut in commuter traffic in Tokyo, urban centers : The Asahi Shimbun

Commuters at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo on the morning of April 8, the day after the government issued a state of emergency to fight the spread of the new coronavirus (Rei Kishitsu) Prime Minister Shinzo Abe will issue another public appeal to halt novel coronavirus infections, asking for commuter numbers to fall by at least 70 percent in prefectures under a state of emergency. He also wants the prefectures not covered by the state of emergency to ask their residents to refrain from going to night clubs and similar facilities involving staff waiting on customers. The central government on April 7 issued the monthlong state of emergency for Tokyo and six prefectures. Residents in these areas have been asked to stay at home and avoid entertainment and other venues with large numbers of people. To flatten the curve of coronavirus infections, the government has asked the public to reduce possible human contact by 70 to 80 percent. Abe said at a government task force meeting on April 11 that “the number of commuters had not dropped sufficiently yet.” He called for more cooperation from the state of emergency-designated areas, saying office workers should be able to work from home, in principle. For those who must come to their office, Abe said, “The number of such workers needs to be cut by at least 70 percent.” The prime minister said this guidance should be applied to all businesses, regardless of size, and he instructed government ministries and agencies to ask companies under their jurisdiction to comply. Abe did not elaborate on the legal basis for making the additional request, what constitutes an “office” and the grounds for his reduction target of “at least 70 percent.” But Yasutoshi Nishimura, the economic revitalization minister who is in charge of containing the coronavirus outbreak, told reporters on April 11 that the request will be made to businesses capable of carrying out such efforts, as opposed to shops and public health care facilities that cannot reduce their worker numbers in providing proper services. In its revised basic policy concerning the health crisis, the government said commuting to work would be exempt from its request for people to refrain from going out. However, the policy also stated that contact between people should be curtailed through such measures as reducing commuter numbers by 40 percent and using work-from-home systems. The industry ministry has already announced a subsidy program for small and midsize businesses to introduce equipment so that their employees can work from home. But the ministry will begin accepting applications for the program only from June. The government task force meeting also decided to request prefectures that are not under the state of emergency to ask residents to curtail their nightlife activities. There have also been concerns that people from the emergency prefectures are fleeing to areas not covered under the declaration. “The traffic of people should not be directed toward prefectures from those that have been placed under the state of emergency,” Abe said. Data released from the Cabinet Secretariat showed the traffic of people in major cities in the seven prefectures has decreased since they were put under the state of emergency The reduction was more than 40 percent in Yokohama and the Umeda district of Osaka as of the evening of April 10. But the drop was only 7.7 percent in the Urawa district of Saitama and 15.2 percent in the Sannomiya district in Kobe.

Pm Kisan Samman Nidhi List Download जन सूचना पोर्टल से,किसान लिस्ट

Hello Friends, How Are You. इस साइट पर आपको देश में चल रही है सभी सरकारी योजनाओं के बारे में जानकारी दी जाती हैं, केन्‍द्र सरकार द्वारा चलाई गई योजना और राज्‍य सरकार द्वारा चलाई गई योजनाओं, लेटेस्‍ट न्‍यूज, क‍िसानों को लेकर सरकारी योजनाऐं व अन्‍य प्रकार की सभी योजनाओं की जानकारी आप इस साइट के द्वारा आसानी से प्राप्‍त कर सकते हों। दोस्‍तों यह कोई सरकारी व‍िभाग की साइट नहीं है ना ही इसका क‍िसी मंत्रालय से कोई सम्‍बन्‍ध है, यह साइट तो एक आम आदमी द्वारा चलाई जा रही है जो क‍ि सरकार द्वारा चलाई गई योजनाओं के बारे में द‍िलचस्‍पी रखता हैं। हमारा बस यही उदेश्‍य रहता है क‍ि आप तक सभी योजनाओं की जानकारी पहुंच जाये और आपका लाभ हो। हमारा उदेश्‍य क‍िसी के द‍िल को ठेस पहुंचाना नहीं हैं। धन्‍यवाद!

Bucks County fitness business padlocked after failing to comply with shut down order

WASHINGTON, D.C. >> Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg died Friday evening, Sept. 18 surrounded by her family at her home in Washington, D.C., due to complications of metastatic pancreas cancer. She was 87 years old.

Calls to scrap new Powerhouse Museum after Arts Minister resigns

The Bereijklian government has been urged to abandon the new Parramatta Powerhouse Museum following the departure of the project's leading advocate, the former Arts Minister Don Harwin. Opponents doubled down on their criticism of the $1 billion relocation project with the arts sector calling on the NSW Premier to instead give urgent priority to immediate heart-starter measures to revive the state's cultural life. An artist's impression of the design for the new Powerhouse Museum in Parramatta. NSW is alone among Australia's major states yet to have specifically redressed the financial impacts to theatres, museums, galleries and arts workers during the pandemic. A decision by NSW Treasury is thought to be imminent. From inside State Cabinet and his position on the Expenditure Review Committee, Mr Harwin had been a passionate champion of the arts, according to Museum of Contemporary Arts chairman Simon Mordant.

Meet The Designer Of NASA’s Next Generation Space Diaper

Space suits are notoriously heavy, cumbersome, and uncomfortable. To make matters worse, many upcoming manned space missions will force astronauts to stay in these suits for days at a time. And one of the simplest biological realities is also one of the biggest problems: What do astronauts do when they gotta go? Designing an in-suit space toilet is complicated when it comes to space, where human excrement is unconstrained by the rules of gravity. It can also be dangerous; waste that isn’t properly dealt with can be life-threatening to astronauts caught in an emergency. Right now, astronauts use diapers (a rather low-tech solution for billion-dollar space missions), but NASA knew there had to be a better way. Enter the Space Poop Competition, announced in October 2016. The open competition asked entrants to conceive of a design that could handle urination, menstruation, and defecation for an astronaut cooped up in a suit for six days. All in all, about 20,000 people from around the world answered the call, submitting more than 5,000 ideas to help astronauts poop. And this week, the agency announced the three winning designs. The $15,000 first prize went to Thatcher Cardon, a family physician and in-flight surgeon for the U.S. Air Force based at the Laughlin Air Force Base in El Rio, Texas. “It seems like everybody has been interested in the problem peripherally,” Cardon says. “Even in medical school we studied it a little bit. But I never imagined that I’d be this involved.” He envisioned his design while lying on his couch, and prototyped it with help from his family, sourcing materials from craft stores, thrift shops, and hardware stores. To get his ideas across, he hacked together prototypes using everyday materials, like tubes, hoses, plastic bottles, and springs. Cardon’s design does something novel: It removes the waste from the space suit completely. It’s an airlock hatch, located on the crotch of the space suit along with what he calls an “introducer” system–an easy way to insert objects into the suit that can handle waste elimination. That includes an inflatable bedpan, a pee cup connected to a suction bag, a more traditional diaper, and a hygiene wand for whatever’s left over. Unsurprisingly, the system was inspired by Cardon’s medical experience. Minimally invasive procedures–like laparoscopy or arthroscopy–enable surgeons to remove a patient’s spleen through a small hole, or change a heart value through a catheter in the leg, he says. So instead of thinking about storing poop, the airlock gives astronauts a way to remove it entirely. Cardon’s inflatable bedpan, for instance, collapses around the feces, which can then be removed through the airlock. This kind of valve hasn’t been used in a space suit before, and Cardon thinks that it’ll have broader applications beyond just human waste. “You can do all sorts of things that haven’t been imagined yet through that airlock,” he says. “When we start spending a lot of time in space suits, we probably want to have access to other parts of our body as well.” “When we start spending a lot of time in space suits, we probably want to have access to other parts of our body as well,” Cardon says. Second prize went to a three-person team that calls itself the Space Poop Unification of Doctors (SPUDs), composed of environmental engineer Stacey Louie, dentist and artist Katherine Kin, and doctor Jose Gonzales. Their solution uses air to push waste away from the body, and then store it in the suit. Third prize, called SWIMSuit—Zero Gravity Underwear, is a form-fitting garment that looks like something you might wear surfing. Created by product designer Hugo Shelley, it uses a catheter and a system that compresses and sanitizes feces.

I Voted in Person in Wisconsin, And I'm Afraid it Will Get Me Sick With COVID-19

I didn’t want to vote on Tuesday, not like that. I’m afraid my decision to attend the polls in Wisconsin will get me sick, but I’m also afraid of what it would’ve meant to skip voting. This country is in the midst of a pandemic, and my state held elections regardless. It chose to prioritize politics over public health and safety, confirming what we’ve known all along: Wisconsin does not care about Milwaukee. With an estimated population of 592,025, Milwaukee went from 180 polling locations to five. With an estimated population of 258,054 residents, Madison, the capital of Wisconsin, had 66 open polling locations. It is undeniable that people in different parts of Wisconsin had different levels of access to voting yesterday. This is how disenfranchisement works. Up to 50,000 people were expected to vote in Milwaukee yesterday — about 10,000 at each of the remaining polling locations —but the final number was just under 19,000, a sign of how depressed the turnout was. And still, thousands of people have not received their absentee ballots. The United States Supreme Court then decided that Wisconsin wouldn’t be able to extend absentee voting. As a young child, my immigrant parents instilled in me a sense of the privilege of citizenship. For them, I saw how citizenship guaranteed access to our democracy and a promise of opportunity. I remember helping my parents study for the citizenship test when I was in the sixth grade, and learned about the density of the U.S. federal government. My family and I immigrated to the United States almost 20 years ago, with a leg of our journey after leaving Eritrea to spend time in Italy, where my mother had spent most of her years undocumented. Many of our family members around the world are refugees, asylum seekers, or undocumented immigrants, so we have firsthand experience with the privilege of citizenship and what it means not to have it. As an East African immigrant, my father made sure that my sisters and I knew we were not only privileged to be in this country, but also to be citizens and have rights. He’d go on and on about the sacrifices Black Americans made so African immigrants like us could have an education and go to the grocery store and pump gas and vote — things Black people could not do just a generation ago. Needless to say, we do not take voting lightly, because we knew the history of the fight for the Black vote in this country. I have voted in every local, state, and federal election since I turned 18. The first time I voted, I walked in with my parents, absolutely beaming that I could share the moment with them. Not voting feels like a slap in the face to my immigrant family and the battle we endured coming to this country. Black people in this country fought for the right to vote, for elections to be fair and free; I fear this election was neither. All the same, I cannot ignore the fear and anxiety associated with the coronavirus outbreak and the possible exposure by going to my polling site. And a part of that anxiety is rooted in the racial disparities in who is getting hit by the virus. As of Thursday afternoon, Milwaukee County’s coronavirus dashboard showed 1,500 positive cases in the county and 67 deaths. Figures show nearly twice as many Black residents have tested positive for the virus as white people. As of last Friday, ProPublica reported that Black residents made up 81% of Milwaukee’s coronavirus-related deaths; we are only 26% of Milwaukee County’s population. Overall, Wisconsin is less than 7% Black, according to the most recent Census data, and half of the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases are in Milwaukee County, which has the largest population of Black people in the state. Figures are fluid, but as of Thursday afternoon, data indicates that, of the 115 confirmed deaths in Wisconsin, at least 68 have been in Milwaukee County.

Hyde Park Landlord Forces Tenants Who Need Rent Relief To Sign Nondisclosure Agreements

HYDE PARK — Tenants with Mac Properties who have lost income due to the coronavirus pandemic must sign a confidentiality agreement before they can negotiate a payment plan. Discussions and documents about payment plans and all other lease changes “shall not be disclosed to any third party for any reason whatsoever,” according to an agreement distributed to tenants looking to modify their lease. An exception is made for “a court of competent jurisdiction,” which may receive such information “for purposes of enforcement.” Tenants must also agree not to “disparage” Mac Properties in any way. Mac Properties does not want residents to expect any “particular deal” based off what other Mac tenants have received, director of community development Peter Cassel said. “Each [agreement] is structured to the individual,” Cassel said. “Having an expectation of what other people have been able to structure … is not helpful to solving each individual’s issues.” Tenants must sign a non-disclosure agreement before negotiating “so people know what our expectations of them are throughout this process,” Cassel said. “We’ve put it all on the table up front; there’s nothing hidden,” he said. Cassel would not share the number of tenants who have signed the confidentiality agreement. Besides negotiating a payment plan, tenants may transfer to a cheaper apartment without penalty or pursue “a path to lease termination,” Mac officials said in a March 30 letter. Last week, Cassel noted that Cook County has paused eviction enforcement, but did not definitively say whether residents unable to pay any rent would be allowed to remain in their home. “Residents who have … stayed employed and have some financial stability, we hope and expect they will continue to pay rent as they agreed,” he said. It’s “laughable” that Mac Properties is claiming transparency while issuing an NDA to tenants seeking to negotiate, Mac Tenants United organizer Zak Witus said. The agreement is “a cynical, anti-union tactic,” Witus said. “Our expectation is that they will deal with us as a union, they will treat all of us fairly and they won’t try to divide us.” Fifty tenants with the organization have withheld rent payments for the month of April, according to Witus. The NDA could have “a chilling effect” on tenants’ rights under the city’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Ordinance, said Mark Swartz, executive director of the nonprofit Lawyers’ Committee for Better Housing. There’s no value to the tenant in keeping negotiations confidential, he said. In reading the agreement, “a reasonable person would say, ‘I can’t talk to an attorney about this; I can’t talk to other tenants or think about organizing with other tenants,'” Swartz said. Beyond that, the clause about not disparaging Mac Properties is “so broad,” it could stop tenants from complaining about future concerns “unrelated to this particular negotiation” like garbage removal or pests, he said. City code grants tenants the right to “complain or testify in good faith about their tenancy” without retaliation. This is not the first time a landlord has required tenants to sign NDAs before negotiating, Swartz said, but it is not common practice in his experience. Mac’s NDA is “certainly a poor business practice when in this moment, we need to be encouraging people to meet, talk frankly and work things out so that we don’t have an epidemic of homelessness and vacant properties,” Swartz said. “This just isn’t the way to do it.” View the form given to tenants here: COVID-19 Hardship Request_SD-678126_Sample 04.06.20 by Block Club Chicago on Scribd Block Club Chicago’s coronavirus coverage is free for all readers. Block Club is an independent, 501(c)(3), journalist-run newsroom. Subscribe to Block Club Chicago. Every dime we make funds reporting from Chicago’s neighborhoods. Already subscribe? Click here to support Block Club with a tax-deductible donation.

Goodies star Brooke-Taylor dies with coronavirus

Comedian Tim Brooke-Taylor has died at the age of 79 with coronavirus, his agent has confirmed to the BBC. The entertainer, best known as one third of the popular 1970s show The Goodies, and I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue, died on Sunday. Goodies co-star Bill Oddie called him a "true visual comic and a great friend". The third member of the trio, Graeme Garden, said he was "terribly saddened by the loss of a dear colleague and close friend of over 50 years". "He was a funny, sociable, generous man who was a delight to work with. Audiences found him not only hilarious but also adorable." Oddie recalled some of the Goodies' sketches in his tribute tweet, adding: "No-one could wear silly costumes or do dangerous stunts like Tim. I know it hurt cos he used to cry a lot. Sorry Timbo." Brooke-Taylor's career spanned more than six decades and his comedic roots lay in the Cambridge Footlights Club, which he joined in 1960. Membership of the Footlights brought him into contact with both Garden and Oddie as well as future Monty Python stars John Cleese and Graham Chapman. Cleese paid tribute by saying: "Tim was one of my very oldest friends, and one that I used to love performing with. He did 'frightened' better than anyone...". And another member of Monty Python, Eric Idle, revealed that his career was started in 1963 when he was auditioned by Brooke-Taylor for an annual comedy revue. Brooke-Taylor started his own broadcasting career on BBC radio, before forming The Goodies with Garden and Oddie and later becoming a long-standing panellist on Radio 4's I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue. A host of comedians have paid tribute to Brooke-Taylor on social media. Comedian Jack Dee, the current host of I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue, said: "It has come as devastating news to hear that Tim has succumbed to this dreadful virus - especially when we all thought he was recovering. "Tim was a delightful man and never anything but great company. It has always been one of the great joys of my career to work with someone who was part of the comedy landscape of my childhood." One of his biggest contributions to British comedy was co-writing and performing the famous Four Yorkshiremen sketch with John Cleese, Chapman and Marty Feldman, originally for the ITV comedy programme At Last The 1948 Show! The sketch later became a popular fixture of Monty Python's live shows, and was generally performed by Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones and Michael Palin. Image caption Bill Oddie, Graeme Garden and Tim Brooke-Taylor had a Top 40 hit with the Funky Gibbon As part of The Goodies, he also enjoyed an unlikely pop career. At a time when novelty comedy songs regularly made the charts, the trio achieved five Top 40 hits, the biggest of them 1975's The Funky Gibbon - which they memorably performed on Top of the Pops. The trio found international fame with The Goodies, becoming household names in Australia and New Zealand, with shows attracting millions of TV viewers. In 2011, Brooke-Taylor was appointed an OBE for his services to entertainment, joining Oddie and Garden in having the same honour.

During COVID-19, what kind of superhero are you?

As 2020 continues to unfold, the lyrics from the late songwriter Bill Withers’ classic “Lean on Me” feel truer now more than ever: “If there is a load you have to bear that you can’t carry, I’m right up the road, I’ll share your load, if you just call me.” It has been inspiring to see so many people stepping up to lend a helping hand. Canadians have a hard time sitting on the sidelines during a crisis and have chosen to contribute to the coalition of those willing and able to band together in an effort to hold things together. We are seeing an increase in non-transactional giving. As those who have felt helpless and powerless take what power they do have and help others. Each person seeing problems they know they can help with, and then working to build solutions. These unlikely alliances strengthen each day as we collectively learn from the mistakes we made yesterday and prepare for the challenges tomorrow will bring. Who bears the brunt of the weight of our community needs? And as we organize in these online spaces, how inclusive are they? Who is given a seat at the virtual table? There are the nurses and health-care professionals serving on the front lines facing unprecedented stress levels, bus drivers working to provide safe public transit to their fellow essential workers, social workers inundated with unique cases as everyone experiences this crisis differently, and grocery store workers and those valiantly running food banks to ensure no one goes hungry. We are seeing teachers going above and beyond to make sure no child is left behind as our education systems temporarily transform in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Children and their parents are pivoting to adjust to home learning and working from home. Government, community organizations, and faith institutions alike are quickly building formal and informal networks aimed to triage food, shelter, and financial support to those on the margins. There are manufacturers across industries retooling their plants to build medical equipment, tech leaders catalyzing innovative workarounds to the new challenges we find ourselves in on a daily basis, and employers truly taking the time to support the well being and mental health of their workforce. And as we see an influx in incidences of domestic violence, women’s organizations are working around the clock to support families and provide housing solutions to keep Canadians safe. In the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.” For each of the issues Canadians are facing today, there are long-term injustices and factors at play. I think of the families that sacrificed greatly to support their loved ones in the pursuit of higher education, and the pressure those students carry to succeed even under these uncertain circumstances. Student leaders are making herculean efforts to ensure students, especially those already stretched beyond their limits, are being thoughtfully considered as COVID-19 relief supports are being deployed. It is important that we enable students to create and contribute meaningfully to the evolving needs of our society. They should be empowered and celebrated for their contributions. Beyond the recently expanded Canada Summer Jobs Program, it’s time we understand the precarious living situations many endure during full-time studies, and revamp the systems of support we wrap around students. It takes a village to support a young person in pursuit of a dream, and it takes a village still to catch that person and help them pivot as their dream is deferred. This long weekend, as families check in with each other using old and new digital tools to connect, we each have an individual responsibility to combat disinformation, provide support where we can, and guide our family members and friends through the available public resources for which they qualify. Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Especially at this time when many families grieve losses while missing the physical connection with loved ones that traditionally carried them through their grief. The truth is — we are all heroes to someone. Each doing what we can, with what we have, while we are able. What kind of superhero are you?

Coronavirus: UAE reviewing labour relations with countries not responding to evacuation requests

Some countries have refused to receive their citizens after they said they wanted to return to their home country. The Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation (MoHRE) has announced that it is studying measures to take with regards to current labour relations with partner countries. A ministry official said that MoHRE is looking into revising current partnerships concerning labour relations with nations refusing to cooperate with evacuation measures undertaken by the UAE to repatriate private sector expatriates who wish to return home. The official noted that the ministry's move comes after a number of countries did not respond to requests by their nationals to return home following the Covid-19 developments. The official stated that the options currently being studied include the halting of any memoranda of understanding between the ministry and the concerned authorities of non-cooperative countries, as well as the introduction of restrictions or quotas for future recruitment. The source stressed the urgency of partner countries assuming their responsibilities towards their nationals working in the UAE who wish to return to their home countries. The official noted the recent humanitarian initiative launched by the ministry in cooperation with the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the General Civil Aviation Authority, and the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority to enable residents working in the private sector to return to their home countries as a precautionary measure to curb the spread of the coronavirus pandemic.

Netflix

Coming Soon The Minions of Midas A businessman (Luis Tosar) is blackmailed: If he fails to pay a large sum of money, random people will be killed. Inspired by Jack London's short story. Agent King Elvis trades in his jumpsuit for a jetpack when he joins a secret government spy program to help battle the dark forces that threaten the country. The Witcher: Blood Origin In an elven world 1,200 years before Geralt of Rivia, the worlds of monsters, men and elves merge to become one — and the very first Witcher arises. Yasuke He came from Africa and fought alongside a mighty feudal lord in brutal 16th century Japan. They called him the Black Samurai, and he became a legend. Q-Force A handsome secret agent and his team of LGBTQ superspies embark on extraordinary adventures. Òlòtūré In Lagos, a journalist goes undercover as a prostitute to expose human trafficking. What she finds is a world of exploited women and ruthless violence. KINGS OF AMERICA

How Antibody Tests Can Inform Public Policies To Mitigate Coronavirus Pandemic

How Antibody Tests Can Inform Public Policies To Mitigate Coronavirus Pandemic Stanford is testing for coronavirus antibodies so they can determine who has been exposed and who could potentially go back to school or work. NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks to Dr. Jay Bhattacharya. LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST: The only way we'll truly get a hold of this pandemic and come out the other side is through science - ultimately with a vaccine, but in the meantime through testing. There are tests that determine if someone who is sick has COVID-19 by taking nasal swabs, but also important is something called antibody or serological tests. And one of the places that's doing that is Stanford University. Joining us now is Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, professor of medicine at Stanford University, who is part of this study. Good morning. JAY BHATTACHARYA: Good morning. GARCIA-NAVARRO: I read about long lines of cars with people showing up to give blood samples for this surveillance study that you just conducted. In all, volunteers collected blood from, I think, around 3,000 people. What were you looking for? BHATTACHARYA: Yeah. It was actually amazing the community response. The main thing we're aiming for is to find out what fraction of the population in Santa Clara County have had a history of exposure and infection with COVID-19. The tests that people use to identify active infection just checks to see if the virus is there. But once you've cleared it, which is true for most people, actually, they won't have the virus in them. What they will instead have is antibodies to the virus, and that's what we're looking for - antibodies to the virus that provides evidence that there was previous infection or - and sometimes also current infection. GARCIA-NAVARRO: So how can this information be used? BHATTACHARYA: So all of the models that project forward for what the epidemic is going to look like require an understanding of how many people have been infected - not just how many people have been infected and identified with an active infection, but the total number of people, including people who've recovered. If you don't know that, you don't know how far along the epidemic you are. You can't project forward. So it's really useful for that kind of purpose to project where the epidemic is actually headed. The other thing it's really useful for is understanding the death rate. To date, most people that have been trying to calculate death rate have tried to guess how many people have been infected. We don't know how many people total have actually been infected. GARCIA-NAVARRO: And that's because, of course, a lot of people are asymptomatic. So you could be walking around and feeling fine, and yet you are actually infected with the coronavirus. BHATTACHARYA: Exactly. Exactly. It's - there's that. And there's also people who - you know, they have relatively mild illness. They think it's a cold, and they don't show up. We'll miss them unless you do a study like the one we're doing, where we can look for antibody evidence in the population. GARCIA-NAVARRO: Practically speaking, one of the reasons that this is, of course, really interesting to governments in particular is because that - this may mean that if a person has already had the virus, those people could then go back to work or potentially back to school. So if you could test them and see if they had immunity, then maybe you could give them a pass to be able to reengage in their lives. BHATTACHARYA: Yeah. People have been talking about those kinds of things. I think there's still an active debate about - in the scientific community about the extent of immunity you get from the antibodies. I believe there's some, but the - how long-lasting they are. There's also questions about, is it the right thing to do to have these as, like - you have to be antibody-positive before you can go to work. It seems like it would be a difficult thing to implement. I don't think a policy that relies on testing positive for the antibody and allow you to go back to work is likely to be feasible, and it would also create incentives for people to try to go get infected. I'm not sure I favor such a policy. But I think the... GARCIA-NAVARRO: Yeah, the idea of, like, COVID parties like chickenpox parties is terrifying. BHATTACHARYA: That whole - that's - I think that's - I think that could happen. GARCIA-NAVARRO: I'd like to talk about the death rate. You spoke about the fact that you believed the death rate might be much lower than what had been originally predicted. We have north of 500,000 confirmed cases in the United States, the most of any country in the world. We've now surpassed Italy in the number of deaths. What do you think these serological tests may show us about the death rate, and how can that help inform us here? BHATTACHARYA: Yeah. I mean, I think what we're - the problem is there's no vaccine, right? So even if the death rate's 0.1% or lower, that still means a lot of people may die from it, and that's something we have to take very, very seriously. We also - I think also have to take seriously the fact on the other side of that - is the economic shutdown will have consequences for health and mortality around the world. It's hard to overstress this. When the world is poorer, more people will die. There'll be shorter lives and unhealthier lives not just in the United States, but around the world. The Great Recession produced, famously, a phenomenon of decreases in life expectancy in the United States for the first time since World War II. A very large-scale economic collapse - that produces bad health outcomes. That, I think, is firmly established fact. How extensively those deaths are going to be, those loss of health is going to be and how far around the world - that's something I think is going to need some very, very careful attention and thinking because if we continue the shutdown for - you know, I've seen people argue that we should continue the shutdown until there's a vaccine. Say that lasts a year. Well, a year of global depression will have an enormous consequence on people around the world. I mean, there are poor countries where people are on the brink of starvation just in normal good times. So I think trying to understand what the right policy is involves understanding the deaths on both sides of this. That's where I am. I want to understand those better so we can make better policy 'cause right now, all of the focus has been on the deaths on COVID. But once we understand that, I think we need to see what the actual trade-offs between the deaths on one side of the policy and the other side and then make an informed choice on the basis of that. GARCIA-NAVARRO: That's Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a professor with Stanford Health Policy. Thank you very much. BHATTACHARYA: Thank you. My pleasure, Lulu. Copyright © 2020 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

U.S. Success Puts Focus on Swiss Failures in FIFA Corruption Case

Days after the U.S. Department of Justice unveiled more details in a case that has shined a light on decades-long corruption at the heart of soccer, the Swiss authorities have confirmed that they plan to drop one of two cases against Sepp Blatter, a former president of FIFA, the global governing body of soccer. Blatter had been suspected of improper business conduct and, possibly, embezzlement, according to the Swiss authorities, and he and FIFA were being scrutinized for the awarding of World Cup broadcast rights in the Caribbean in 2005. The setback was another blow to the credibility of the Swiss prosecution of officials in the world’s most popular sport. The inquiry in Switzerland began in September 2015, four months after a Justice Department indictment outlined corruption schemes that implicated some of soccer’s most senior leaders, businessmen and companies at the time. While the United States has since successfully prosecuted many of them, the Swiss have failed in their attempts to match their American counterparts in the pursuit of convictions and indictments. Switzerland’s attorney general’s office confirmed the case had been dropped six days after the latest U.S. charges were made public on April 6.