Coronavirus: From bats to pangolins, how do viruses reach us?

Pangolins may be the latest link in the coronavirus outbreak, but as with SARS and MERS, bats are the most likely original source of the deadly virus. Scientists believe bats' unique genetic quirks make them ideal hosts.





As the deadly coronavirus sweeps across the globe, killing hundreds, halting cruise ships and prompting border closures, scientists race to find out exactly how the outbreak began.

Now, a new study out of China suggests that endangered pangolins — a scaly anteater — are the most likely link between the coronavirus, bats and humans.


While initial speculation pointed to seafood, snakes and another bat-borne coronavirus from Yunnan province in southwestern China, researchers from the South China Agricultural University have found that a genetic sequence of the virus from pangolins is 99% identical to the coronavirus currently infecting some 31,000 people. That means, before reaching humans, the virus was likely passed from bats to the pangolin, the most illegally traded animal in the world.

Read more: Coronavirus, cold or flu? How to tell the difference

At least 630 people have now died from the fast-moving coronavirus, known as 2019-nCoV, which was first detected in December 2019 at a live animal market in Wuhan, China.

What is it about bats?

It isn't the first time the world has witnessed an outbreak of a bat-borne virus. Ebola is thought to have originated in bats, as well as two other types of coronavirus — SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) which emerged in Asia in 2003 after moving from bats to civets to humans, and MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome), which has infected around 2,500 people since 2012 after being transferred from camels.

This isn't necessarily surprising considering the great size and spread of the bat population, says Yan Xiang, a professor of virology at the University of Texas. Bats are the second most common mammal after rodents, making up nearly 20% of all species of mammals — there are more than 1,300 species of bat and some can live up to 40 years.

Read more: Corona-phobia: Like SARS, coronavirus fear feeds racism

But experts believe it's the bats' unique immune system that allows it to harbor so many viruses.



Bats are a common source of viruses: Ebola, SARS, MERS, and Nipah can all be traced back to them

While Xiang says scientists "don't yet have a complete picture" of this system, he points to two key elements of the mammal's immune response, called "innate immunity" — their high body temperatures and higher levels of interferon, which signals the activation of an antiviral state.

Bats are the only mammal with the ability to fly, which increases their body temperature and metabolic rate, and puts their bodies into a constant state of "fever." Some scientists believe that bats have suppressed their immune systems to cope, which allows them to tolerate more viruses.

Intermediate species

Although the coronavirus is thought to have originated in bats, this doesn't mean it was directly passed from bats to humans. Coronaviruses are zoonotic viral diseases, meaning they are passed from animals to humans, and while in the animal, the virus goes through a series of genetic mutations that allows it to infect and multiply inside humans.


Pangolins are the most illegally traded animal in the world, and used in traditional Chinese medicine

Xiang is "convinced" of the link between the coronavirus and pangolins, as suggested by the latest study from the South China Agricultural University researchers, who studied more than 1,000 samples from wild animals.

Although this study is yet to be released, Xiang says the evidence for its claims "already exists" in a paper from October 2019, which published genome sequences of sick pangolins smuggled from Malaysia to China, finding evidence of coronaviruses.

This latest novel coronavirus could likely be "a hybrid of two very similar coronaviruses as suggested in a recent paper," Xiang says.

"The virus was probably unable to infect humans directly through bats, so it had to go through an intermediate animal to further mutate in order to infect humans," Xiang told DW. The intermediate animal that facilitated the hybrid of the two viruses, Xiang says, is "most probably the pangolin," but emphasized that, at this stage, this link was speculative and would need to be confirmed by further studies.

Humans defense mechanisms keep us safe — mostly

While the devastation of such outbreaks is difficult to predict, Stuart Neil, head of virology at King's College London, says "in the grand scheme of things," events like this "don't happen very often."

"We're probably exposed to these viruses from other species much more often than we get transfers of new viruses from animals and these sustained epidemics," he told DW.

The reason for that, Neil says, is "due to our intrinsic defensive mechanisms." There is no such thing as an inherently deadly virus, he points out, because what may be harmless to one species, as shown by the numerous coronaviruses that circulate in bats, may be deadly to another.

"It's entirely dependent on the defense mechanisms of the host species and whether they can live in harmony with a virus or not."

Such epidemics are becoming more likely, though, as humans increasingly encroach on the habitats of wild animals, he warns, saying that "humans are exposed to these viruses because of how they behave and interact with animals."


CORONAVIRUS: TIMELINE OF THE DEADLY VIRUS IN CHINA AND WORLDWIDE
Pneumonia-like virus hits Wuhan

On December 31, 2019, China notifies the World Health Organization of a string of respiratory infections in the city of Wuhan, home to some 11 million people. The root virus is unknown and disease experts around the world begin working to identify it. The strain is traced to a seafood market in the city, which is quickly shut down. Some 40 people are initially reported to be infected.


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TOR, Psiphon, Signal and Co.: How to move unrecognized on the internet

Dictatorships and online services collect all kinds of data. Many users have no access at all to the free network. Here are a few tips on how to navigate the internet safely and anonymously and how to avoid censorship.


How do I become visible to others on the internet?

Basically, all internet traffic is visible to everyone who has access to the servers through which it flows — just as a postcard can be read by any mail carrier.

A lot of data can reveal your identity. First, there is the IP address of your computer. But nowadays, users are also often recognized by other data from their computers: unique properties of browser plugins, screen resolution, window size, language, time. Very precise user fingerprints can be created that make someone recognizable to a web server to 98%, even without an IP address.

If a regime blocks certain websites, how can I still access them?

In the past, only static proxies were used. Often, it was just simple IP addresses that forwarded internet traffic. This worked as long as the censors didn't notice or know the proxies. In the meantime, however, many states have begun to block all proxies they disapprove of.

Proxies can also be used to conceal from the operators of websites where a visit is coming from. For this, you can take the detour via Anonymouse or a variety of similar anonymization services.

How do I build a tunnel?

Virtual private networks (VPN) are somewhat more complex. To do make use of them, you set up an encrypted tunnel connection to a server, for example in another country. No one can look into the tunnel. With VPNs, companies do things like establish a secure connection between their employees and the internal company network.

The tunnel can also be used to access the free internet from a censored area. But censorship authorities can see that it is a VPN connection and who operates it. Today, censorship regimes have become much more attentive and block static proxies relatively quickly. Moreover, proxies do not offer anonymity. VPN networks are also often forbidden. So you have to come up with something new, such as the TOR network.

What is TOR?

TOR means "The Onion Router." It's built like an onion — in layers. TOR helps to hide your identity. You are not directly connected to the server from which you want to retrieve information by the shortest route. Instead, Tor connects you using detours: so-called TOR nodes.

Each of these TOR nodes lays its own encryption layer over the browser behavior so that the other Tor nodes can't read it, either. This makes surfing very secure.

Can I access all web pages with the TOR browser?

There are special TOR websites with so-called onion services. Deutsche Welle also provides such a service.

These services are very secure. However, you can also access all other normal websites with the TOR browser. At that moment, you leave the TOR network and anonymity is somewhat limited, but the operator of the website that you are visiting cannot recognize either your IP address or any unique features of your browser, because TOR suppresses this information.

The countries with the most secure servers

So you can't tell who I am, but you can tell what I'm doing?

A censor can recognize what the internet traffic basically looks like, but can't necessarily glean any information from it. That's why TOR has evolved.

To circumvent censorship, TOR has developed so-called "pluggable transports." These make internet traffic appear completely different than it really is. For example, if someone surfs websites, it may look like a video conference, normal email traffic or something else. It also changes back and forth all the time. This makes it more difficult for censors to follow the surfing process.

Can censorship authorities outwit pluggable transports?

If the censorship authorities suspect that they are seeing TOR traffic veiled by a pluggable transport, they may send their own traffic to see how the server responds.

If the traffic is disguised as a video conference, they can see whether the server is also responding like a video conference server. Because the server then responds differently, however, the regime will probably disconnect you.

How do I get into the TOR network from a country with censorship?

People who live in countries where the internet is censored need "bridges." These lead to the known entry nodes to the Tor network, which are usually blocked by the regimes.

Every TOR user can provide a bridge, making their own machine a virtual entry point. So as many people as possible who live in countries with free internet should do this, because then people in countries with censored internet have many different possibilities for getting into the TOR network.


What do I do as a layperson if I want to use TOR?

It's very simple: On the website of the TOR project, the current Firefox-based TOR browser for each operating system is available for download. The browser can then be used like a normal browser. The only difference is that the user is anonymous.

What do I have to consider if I live in a censored country?

It is important to make the correct settings in the TOR browser if you want to avoid censorship. Unfortunately, the settings are somewhat hard to find in the Firefox browser. There is a special TOR area in the settings. During the TOR installation, the browser asks once if you are in a censored country. If you confirm this, the pluggable transport is loaded automatically.

The pluggable transports can also be downloaded in the existing TOR browser settings. The bridges are also loaded; the TOR browser searches for current bridges itself. The settings for automatically receiving new bridges are located where you also set the pluggable transports: If the first bridge doesn't work, the browser takes the second bridge, and so on.

Secure alternatives to Google & Co.

As a user in a free country, how can I support people in censored countries?

If you live in a non-censored country, TOR will ask you if you want to provide a bridge. It is possible that internet speed will suffer a little., but with today's fast internet connections, that's probably not such an issue anymore.

Read more: A safer internet and the stupid things we do online

To provide a large number of bridges, there is the project 'Snowflake.' How does it work?

Snowflake is a project where all users with normal Chrome or Firefox browsers can provide bridges. You don't need a TOR yourself.

The inventors hope that as many users as possible will provide such bridges. The project is called Snowflake because the bridge exists only as long as someone is surfing. Then the snowflake melts away and is no longer recognizable.

Do I have to accept restrictions when surfing with TOR?

You have to accept that there is less comfort. In the default setting, for example, Javascript is suppressed and cookies are not saved. This means that the browser does not store any passwords and does not fill out any forms in advance.

There are also websites or entire infrastructure operators who do not want any traffic from the TOR network because they fear that it could be dangerous or dubious. But now, even the internet giants are realizing that TOR traffic is not evil per se.

How great is the danger that I, as a TOR user, will be caught by the regime?

Traffic to the bridge may be identified. Normally, the traffic is simply stalled and blocked. But there is a danger that the authorities will continue to investigate the user.

What is the difference between the darknet and TOR?

The darknet uses the TOR protocol. But not everyone who uses TOR is part of the darknet. Facebook, The New York Times, the BBC and Deutsche Welle also use TOR.

So TOR is not a place for illegal activities, but a protocol for anonymizing those who have a legitimate interest in it.

There are other tools to circumvent censorship, such as Psiphon. What is that?

Psiphon is a commercial provider from Canada that has been working with media like Deutsche Welle for a long time and has created a product for the needs of the free media.

Psiphon offers apps and computer programs in which different censorship avoidance mechanisms are tried out one after the other. Different servers, proxy servers, VPN technologies and so on are used.

If you use Psiphon via Deutsche Welle, you will see the DW website and can then use any other website on the free internet, too.

How do I get to Psiphon as a user?

Psiphon helps DW to provide the download source for the program or app. They lie in the cloud, as the censorship regimes cannot afford to block the big cloud services because the collateral damage would be too great. If you want to use Psiphon, you should contact Deutsche Welle directly at dw-w@psiphon3.com.

Read more: Fighting censorship online: 'It's an ongoing race'

Are there also secure messaging services?

Many people use instant messaging services such as WhatsApp, Facebook's messenger service. But this service, for example, has fallen into disrepute because it reads the phone books of its users and it is not clear where the data ends up. More secure is a free app called Signal.

DNA data storage

With it, you can not only chat securely but also make phone calls. And there is a desktop application for the computer. In contrast to other services, the source code for Signal is open, meaning that IT security experts can check that it is really secure.

Are there search engines that respect privacy?

Yes, they do exist — search engines that unlike Google or Bing do not collect, store and process the IP addresses of their users. Then there is also no annoying, personal advertising. These search engines are called DuckDuckGo or Startpage.

What are add-ons for the browser?

Those include other tools to make browsing safer. These include add-ons that block cookies, trackers or scripts such as Java. Examples are uBlock Origin or the Privacy Badger. They are installed via the browser settings.



WHY IT SEEMS LIKE EVERYONE'S BEING HACKED
CCTV surveillance cameras hacked in DC

Two people were arrested in Britain on Saturday after allegedly attempting to hack the Washington DC CCTV surveillance camera system just days before President Donald Trump's inauguration. US media said 123 out of almost 200 cameras throughout the city were disabled by ransomware software. Officials feared a bigger attack may have been planned for the day of Trump's swearing in.

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Expedition Humboldt

Happy birthday, Humboldt!

Alexander von Humboldt was a true polymath: a scientist, thought leader, cosmopolitan, explorer and adventurer who left his mark all over the world. Especially in South America, the German universal scientist is still popular, esteemed and omnipresent today.

Many animals and plants, glaciers, the Humboldt Current, mountains and numerous cities all over the world were named after him. Even an area on the moon, the Catena Humboldt crater, carries his name.

The visionary would have turned 250 years old on September 14 — a reason to celebrate! With our Expedition Humboldt we want to show you what an extraordinary man Alexander von Humboldt was.

Join us on a journey of discovery and follow in Humboldt's footsteps. The website will be updated regularly with new stories and adventures from our Humboldt reporters.

Post-Brexit UK passports to be produced by French-Dutch company in Poland
The UK's new navy blue passport will be a decidedly European affair. The idea of a return to a blue passport was used by the "Leave" campaign.

The UK will roll out new "iconic" blue passports for a post-Brexit Britain in March — but they will be produced in Poland by a French-Dutch company.

The announcement that the company Gemalto had won the contract to produce the passports caused controversy in 2018. The UK government said the final stages of manufacturing will take place in the UK to "ensure no personal data leaves the country."

Current UK passport-holders will be able to retain their burgundy EU-style passports until expiration date, but any new documents issued from March will be navy blue, as they were between 1921 and 1988.


Home Secretary Priti Patel made the new passport announcement

'Entwined with national identity'

"By returning to the iconic blue and gold design, the British passport will once again be entwined with our national identity and I cannot wait to travel on one," British Home Secretary Priti Patel said on Saturday, not addressing the fact that the passport will be produced in the bloc the UK just left.

The £260-million ($335 million, €309 million) contract was given to foreign firm Gemalto in a blind tender process by former Prime Minister Theresa May. At the time, the move prompted many critics from all sides of the Brexit issue to call the move ironic.

Then a pro-Brexit campaigner, Patel seemingly agreed, saying at the time that putting the job in the hands of firms across the English Channel was "a national humiliation."

Pro-"Remain" campaigner of Eloise Todd, of the Best for Britain movement, said at the time "the irony is unreal."

The words "European Union" were already removed from new British passports in 2019, ahead of the Brexit process being completed.

PRINTED IN THE EU FOR BRITISH USE ONLY  ROFLMAO

Twitter suspends Bloomberg supporters for 'spam' ahead of Nevada caucus

REPUBLICAN IN Democrat DISGUISE presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg has had 70 Twitter accounts linked to his supporters suspended for spam-like posts. On Saturday, Nevada goes to the polls, with all eyes on front-runner Bernie Sanders.



Social media platform Twitter said on Friday it was suspending 70 accounts of supporters of billionaire Democrat presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg's for "spam-like" behavior.

The suspension came days after the Wall Street Journal revealed that Bloomberg had hired 500 people to regularly post messages on social media supporting him.

Mike Bloomberg also said Friday he would release three women from confidentiality agreements that bar them from speaking about sexual harassment or discrimination lawsuits filed against them.

The former mayor of New York has faced days of intense scrutiny over the treatment of women in his company Bloomberg LP, and faced pressure from rival candidate Elizabeth Warren to release women from the so-called non-disclosure agreements.


Michael Bloomberg, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden

Sanders front-runner in Nevada

The announcement comes one day ahead of the Nevada Democrat caucuses, the third state-wide poll of the candidates. Bloomberg has yet to win support from a single delegate.

After performing well in Iowa and New Hampshire, all eyes are set on progressive Senator Bernie Sanders. Vermont's Sanders condemned Russian attempts to help his presidential campaign on Friday.

Moderate Pete Buttigieg has so far vied with Sanders for first place, but Amy Klobuchar, former Vice-President Joe Biden and Warren all remain strong contenders.
Watch video Bloomberg Steps into Tough Debate

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW's editors send out a selection of the day's hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

ed/aw (AP, AFP)

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How the internet fosters far-right radicalization

Researchers still know relatively little about far-right lone wolf terrorists. But many, it seems, become radicalized online.



We now know that Tobias R., the man behind Wednesday's bloody terror attack in Hanau, western Germany, disseminated racist online videos. These, and his so-called manifesto, echo some of the far-right conspiracy theories circulating on the web today. He is evidently one of the many individuals to have been radicalized online.

A 2019 analysis by Germany's domestic intelligence agency states that it struggles to keep track of extremist lone wolves. Many of them, it claims, are radicalized not by engaging with known far-right groups, but on their own. Last summer, the agency subsequently launched a task force to monitor extremist behavior on social media to counter the threat of online radicalization.


Online radicalization can lead to deadly attacks, such as the one in the German town of Hanau.

Far-right scene highly active online

The Berlin-based Amadeu Antonio Foundation, which works to counter far-right extremism, also believes that individuals can easily become radicalized via the internet. Miro Dittrich, who oversaw a two-year study of extremist social media content, says there is "a network of online content that appeals to different target groups that lures them into an alternative (extremist) world."

Read more: Germany announces plans to combat far-right extremism and online hate speech

He says since the birth of the internet, far-right activists had learned, though "trial and error," to frame and curate content to appeal to radicals. Dittrich says these activists have been quick to experiment with and adopt new online platforms, as well as to generate income, for instance though YouTube ads, donation drives and crowdfunding campaigns. He argues that increasingly, social media users are networking and communicating with each other on "dark social," which is difficult to monitor.

Watch video Hanau: 'We can't talk about lone wolves anymore'

Messenger apps and social media can aid radicalization

There are numerous factors, according to the Amadeu Antonio Foundation study, that increase the risk of online radicalization. One of them is YouTube's autoplay algorithm, which, although it has been adjusted somewhat, still tends to promote divisive content.

Another is the ability to create a group chats with 200,000 individuals on the Telegram messenger service. WhatsApp, by contrast, limits such chats to 256 people at most. The Telegram app also allows user to find other, nearby users. Both features can provide a big platform to spread extremist content.

Read more: Germany and right-wing extremism: The new dimension of terror

The study also reports that extremists on Instagram have begun spreading their ideology by linking them to popular hashtags. The Identitarian Movement in particular, it states, has started disseminating far-right extremist content though seemingly innocuous pictures of parties and sports events. Moreover, extremists have begun creating their very own online platforms which effectively shut out anyone who does not share their worldview. This echo chamber, the study finds, emboldens them in their thinking. Many of those who gather on these platforms, the study says, consider themselves modern-day crusaders, who must save the "Western world."

Watch video How social media lures in users Toxic narratives

The study reports that toxic narratives, such as the one claiming Germans are being displaced by foreigners, can and do spread with ease online. As users come across more dubious online content that confirms such narratives, they feel increasingly under threat and become open to radical solutions.

Read more: Protect our kids online, German parents demand

The study reports that far-right milieus in different countries are using the internet to connect with each other. On well-known extremist platforms, English is the lingua franca. And far-right terrorists, it states, learn and drawn inspiration from each other, thereby motivating others to commit similar crimes.

Ever since Anders Brevik's 2011 terror attack, it has become common for right-wing extremist terrorists to leave behind a manifesto. And since the 2019 Christchurch attacks, many extremists have livestreamed their crimes. The study reports that by broadcasting their acts, such terrorists seek to attract media and online attention. And while they appeared "like lone wolves," they are in reality connected to a broad network of like-minded radicals.

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IRAQ PULSE

Protests bring to life a new generation in Iraq

Lujain Elbaldawi February 21, 2020


ARTICLE SUMMARY
Iraqis under the age of 18 have been participating in protests at higher rates than before.

REUTERS/Wissm al-Okili
A boy is seen near burning tires during a curfew, two days after the nationwide anti-government protests turned violent, in Baghdad, Iraq, Oct. 3, 2019.

Parliamentary speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi expressed full support for protesters’ demands Feb. 17, meeting with a 13-year-old protester whose nickname, Hamid Daghethoum, translates to "pressuring them," as in, pressuring the government. Hamid is known for posting videos of himself on social media, reciting poetry that voices the demands of Nasiriyah's protesters. He posted a video challenging Halbusi to meet with him if he supported the protests.

Hamid is not the only youthful Iraqi who is active in the protests taking place in the squares of Iraqi cities throughout the country.

The current protests are different from ones in years past due to a large number of youths under the age of 18, and many even under the age of 13, calling for the restoration of an Iraqi national identity, something the country has lacked for decades given successive crises, wars and the US occupation, in addition to sectarianism.

Iraqi youths under the age of 18 have been killed, kidnapped and detained while participating in protests. Al-Monitor learned from medical sources that no less than 50 out of the 600 protesters killed in the protests were under the age of 18. These are violations of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, of which Iraq is a signatory. It states, “The child shall have the right to freedom of expression,” and provides for “the rights of the child to freedom of association and to freedom of peaceful assembly." It adds, “No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference” and that “the child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”


Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/iraq-nasiriyah-protests-identity.html#ixzz6EhKbyMZ2

JORDAN PULSE

Jordan stands firm against Trump deal despite risks to ties


Osama Al Sharif February 20, 2020




ARTICLE SUMMARY
There are growing concerns that Jordan’s defiance toward the US peace plan for the Middle East could affect its strategic ties with the United States.

REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, June 25, 2018.

Now that Jordan has made its position clear on President Donald Trump’s plan for peace in the Middle East, will Jordan pay a price for its stand?

Since the unveiling of the plan, without explicitly commenting on it, King Abdullah has continued to reiterate his long-standing position on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and achieving peace between Arab states and Israel. That position, which is based on the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002 and UN resolutions, calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state along the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital as well as a just resolution of the Palestine refugee issue.

Jordan has been active in promoting a common stance in the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference in meetings this month. Both have rejected the plan. Amman has also taken the lead in opposing Trump’s 2017 unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s united capital as well as the US administration’s attempt to defund UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for the welfare of Palestinian refugees.

The last time Trump’s son-in-law and special adviser Jared Kushner was in Amman was last August to meet the Jordanian king. Sources told Al-Monitor that the king rebuffed Kushner’s approach and repeated Jordan’s policy of backing the classical two-state solution as the only way forward.

But now there are growing concerns that Jordan’s defiance could affect its strategic ties with the United States. Trump’s plan mentions the kingdom’s special role with regard to Al-Aqsa Mosque, but leaves the door open to the possibility of allowing non-Muslims to pray there — a bone of contention between the current Israeli government and Amman. The last time the two sides had re-committed themselves to preserving the status quo at Haram al-Sharif/the Temple Mount was in 2015 through mediation by Secretary of State John Kerry.

One senior Jordanian source told Al-Monitor that Jordan has two immediate concerns: Jordan’s custodianship of Muslim and Christian holy sites in East Jerusalem and the fate of Palestine refugees. With more than 2 million, Jordan is the world's largest host of Palestinian refugees. The Trump plan limits the right of return to a future Palestinian state and opens the door for settlement in host or third countries, anathema for Jordan as it threatens its demographic balance and gives credence to Israeli far-right claims that Jordan is a de facto Palestinian state.

For a third weekend, on Feb. 14, thousands of Jordanians continued their protest against Trump’s so-called "deal of the century." They also called for the abrogation of the natural gas deal between Jordan and Israel. But a number of parties have raised concerns over how the Trump administration might respond.

Former deputy prime minister and vice president for studies at the Carnegie Middle East Center Marwan Muasher said that the US plan seems to ignore Jordan’s traditional role as an interlocutor. He told Carnegie on Jan. 31, “The Trump administration is effectively treating Jordan as collateral damage.” He added, “Jordan cannot commit political suicide by accepting a plan that falls far short of meeting the minimal needs of the Palestinians and Jordan, regardless of any threats or incentives. This is an existential issue for the country.”

Political commentator Fahd al-Khitan, who is close to government circles, wrote in Al-Ghad Feb. 10 that senior officials are concerned that the US administration might suspend aid to Jordan to force it to embrace the Trump plan. “The unpredictability of the White House is a cause of concern,” he said. But he added that such a step is highly unlikely since Jordan continues to support US mediation efforts and remains committed to its peace treaty with Israel. Khitan added that Jordan is an important partner in the fight against terrorism and continues to have close security and intelligence coordination with the United States.

On Feb. 12, pro-government Al-Mamlaka TV reported that the Trump administration has allocated $1.3 billion in its proposed 2021 budget as aid to the kingdom. This year’s budget includes $1.274 billion in aid.

But while Jordanians have focused on the political aspect of the plan, little attention has been given to the economic incentives that the kingdom could receive if the plan is implemented. Former Minister of State for Economic Affairs Yusuf Mansour looked into the plan's offerings to Jordan. In a study published Feb. 13 by Arab Renaissance for Democracy and Development, he wrote that the plan proposes 15 projects worth $7.367 billion over 10 years.

Mansour concluded that most of these projects are understudied and unclear in terms of funding. Most are not a priority for Jordan, but meet Israel’s security needs and would end up adding to the kingdom's foreign debt with little direct benefit. The projects include improving transportation, building the first and second phases of the Red Sea-Dead Sea canal, supporting solar energy production and improving railway services.

Mansour added that financing for the projects would come at the expense of other projects already in the pipeline. The most negative outcome, he concluded, would be to add to the kingdom’s public debt burden, now standing at more than $42 billion, by another $2.9 billion.

Osama Al Sharif is a veteran journalist and political commentator based in Amman who specializes in Middle East issues. He can be reached at alsharif.osama@gmail.com. On Twitter: @plato010



Read more: https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2020/02/jordan-reject-trump-peace-plan-price-us-relations.html#ixzz6EhJUZGFt

Greta Thunberg scathing about politicians as thousands join Hamburg climate protest

The Swedish activist has returned to the German city almost exactly a year since her first visit. She told the audience she failed to understand how politicians could still "behave as though everything were fine."

Greta Thunberg gave a rousing speech to several thousand people as part of a climate protest in Hamburg on Friday.

Thunberg said that she did not understand how politicians could look their children in the eyes as they were stealing their future.

"The decision-makers are still behaving as though everything were fine and science is still being ignored," the Swedish activist told 20,000 protesters, according to police estimates. Organizers estimated 60,000 people.

"This is 2020, and we need to see real action now."

"If enough people get involved in making change happen, change can happen," the 17-year-old added.

The event took place on the eve of a regional election and was attended by numerous politicians, as well as thousands of schoolchildren, students and activists in the St. Pauli district of the northern German city.

Thunberg (center) with a placard reading "school strike for the climate" 

(in Swedish Skolstrejk för klimatet) during the 'Fridays for future' protest in St. Pauli, Hamburg

Hamburg pays its respect to Hanau victims

The occasion began with a minute's silence for the victims of the shooting spree in the city of Hanau earlier this week. "We are sad, we are angry," said Yavuz Feroglu of the Kurdish umbrella organization Nav-Dem.

A performance from German hip hop group Fettes Brot preceded the Swede's speech.

The participants, who demanded better climate policies, displayed posters and banners with messages such as "We will strike until you take action" and "The earth is on fire."

Bats: Secrets of the flying mammal

Bats usually conjure images of bloodsucking and disease, but there's a lot more to these creatures of the night. From incredible immune systems to age defiance and pollination, bats are as fascinating as they are spooky.

Not just rare cave-dwellers

From the Australian bush to Mexico's Pacific coast—hanging in trees, perched high up on mountains, hidden in caves, rock crevices, and rooftops—bats are the most widely distributed mammal on Earth, inhabiting every continent except Antarctica. Making up about 20% of all mammals, these nocturnal creatures are the second most common mammal after rodents, and the only one capable of sustained flight



Leaf-dwelling, fig-eating, marshmallow puffs
Safely snuggled in the crease of a heliconia plant, these Honduran white bats have carefully cut the vein of this leaf to make it fall into a tent shape. One of only five types of white bats out of 1,400 species and only 4-5cm long, they're sometimes called the "marshmallow puff" of the bat family. As if that isn't cute enough, these tiny bats are frugivorous, surviving almost entirely on figs.


Sucks to be us
Although they've long been considered sinister creatures in many parts of the world, only three species of bat actually drink blood. They use their sharp teeth to shear away hair on the skin of their prey before making a small incision to lap up blood. Sleeping cattle and horses are their usual victims, but they have been known to feed on people, and can cause nasty infections and disease.

    Blind as a bat?

There's a very good reason for bats' beady eyes and comically large ears: echolation. Most bats have very poor eyesight and rely on sonar to find food in the dark. They generate extremely high-pitched sounds in their throat and project them forward. The bats' huge ears detect echoes from those sounds bouncing off the surroundings, enabling them to map their surroundings with great precision.

Without bats, we wouldn't have avocados, mangos or bananas

Bats have incredible ecological importance, not least because of their role in pollination. More than 500 plant species depend on bats to pollinate their flowers, including banana, avocado, mango and agave plants. Some bats, like the tube-lipped nectar bat of Eduador, the Mexican banana bat and the long-nosed bat (pictured), are equipped with extraordinarily long tongues for this exact reason.

DIE FLEDERMAUS TWO STEP

A water bat dancing on the water's surface
Invincible, just about
Although bats only have one pup a year, most of them outlive many other mammals. Some species' lifespans are 30 years, while the oldest bat on record lived to 41. They also don't age. Well, not really. Some scientific studies think the reason for their longevity is due to their unique ability to prevent and repair age-induced cellular damage, protecting them against cancer.

Perfect disease hosts

Bats are natural hosts for numerous viruses, including the Marburg, Nipah and Hendra viruses, as well as Ebola and the SARS, MERS and NCOV-19 coronaviruses. Scientists say their unique immune systems allow them to carry diseases lethal to other species, while their high body temperature and high levels of interferon—a substance that actives the antiviral state—are thought to keep them healthy.