Women's football faces 'almost existential threat', report says 

AFP/File / Tobias SCHWARZLyon beat Barcelona in the final of last season's women's Champions League. The women's game faces an "almost existential threat" because of the coronavirus crisis, a new report has said

The coronavirus pandemic presents "an almost existential threat" to women's football, according to a report by global players' union FIFPro published Thursday.

Female players the world over, like their male counterparts, have been forced to stop playing with countries going into lockdown to try to halt the spread of the virus, which has claimed more than 134,000 lives according to an AFP tally.

Much attention has been given to the economic impact on the far richer men's game of the suspension, but FIFPro warns that women's football -- despite recent growth -- is particularly vulnerable, with less established professional leagues, lower salaries and less investment meaning "the fragility of the women's football eco-system is exposed by the current situation".

FIFPro has called for "special measures" to safeguard the women's game as it says its growth "is now at risk of receding. Without having secured solid structural foundations for long-term sustainability, some women's leagues and clubs are releasing players, cutting contracts and closing down."

Leagues across Europe are currently playing a waiting game to see if they will be able to complete their suspended seasons.

In England, the Women's Super League -- including some of the continent's wealthiest clubs -- have been hoping to finish their campaign by the end of August, but it depends on lockdown measures being eased.

According to French players' union the UNFP, only a third of female players in France wish to restart the season, with the rest insisting health matters should remain the priority.

Former Ballon d'Or winner Ada Hegerberg, who plays for leading French and European side Lyon, admitted in an interview with AFP last week that "everything is uncertain" for women's football.

"If you see how the biggest men's clubs are struggling, you can only imagine how this is going to affect women's teams," she warned.

FIFPro's report highlights the vulnerability of female players, with just 18 percent having professional contracts as recognised by world governing body FIFA in 2017. Over 60 percent of paid players took home less than $600 a month.

"We have to protect players as people and as workers and avoid mass unemployment and recession," the report concludes.

"The women's football industry will require innovation and intervention from across the private sector and public sectors, from policymakers and governing bodies, to broadcasting companies and sponsors."

Robots ride to rescue as delivery risks rise  

AFP / NICHOLAS KAMMKimmo Kartano uses his smartphone to open a food delivery robot from the Broad Branch Market grocery store as Audra Grant looks on in front of their house in the Chevy Chase neighborhood of Washington, DC

What looks like a rolling picnic cooler stops at the crosswalk, waits for a car to pass and then navigates its way at a leisurely pace down the sidewalk in suburban Washington.

Three blocks away, Jake Williams and his three-year-old daughter Emilia wait for the delivery robot and take out bags with pizza, fresh fruit and a loaf of French bread from the nearby Broad Branch Market.

"We can't go into the shops now," says Williams, among those locked down due to the virus pandemic. "And it's fun for her."

The Starship delivery robots have seen surging demand in dozens of cities around the world, with consumers staying home and virus risks growing for both shoppers and delivery workers.

Starship began working with the Broad Branch in early April, when the corner store was forced to close to shoppers because it was too small to ensure proper social distancing.

AFP / NICHOLAS KAMMA Starship delivery robot leaves the Broad Branch Market grocery store in Washington, DC, on its way to a home customer

Store owner Tracy Stannard said a fleet of up to 10 robots each day, managed by Starship, helps the market meet demands in the neighborhood. The store handles 60 to 70 deliveries daily, half by robot.

"Some people request the robot, they don't even care about the groceries," Stannard said. "It's cute to see them roaming the neighborhood and it makes people happy."

Robot deliveries from Starship and a handful of other companies meet only a tiny fraction of food deliveries, but highlight a need in a time of social distancing and pandemic fears.

The jump in demand comes as consumers see a trip to the grocery store as a perilous adventure, and retail employees are scrambling to keep safe.

More than 40 grocery store employees in the US have died from the virus, according to a Washington Post tally. And delivery workers around the US have staged protests to press safety demands.

- Expanding demand -

AFP/File / Chris DELMASA Postmates delivery robot is seen on its route to deliver food to customers in Los Angeles on March 24

San Francisco-based Starship Technologies, created by two Skype founders, is gearing up to operate in other areas around Washington and recently launched with retailers in Tempe, Arizona, and in cities in Britain and California.

The rolling devices operate autonomously at a speed of around six kilometers (four miles) per hour and can carry about three bags of goods.

"The demand for contactless delivery has expanded exponentially in recent weeks," said Ryan Tuohy, vice president of Starship.

"Our robots are doing autonomous deliveries in five countries and we're grateful that our robots can make life a little bit easier for everyone."

A handful of other companies also has been stepping up.

Courtesy of Nuro/AFP/File / Nathan LINDSTROMNuro's R2 self-driving vehicle has been making food deliveries in the Houston area in partnership with Kroger

Silicon Valley startup Nuro recently began delivering groceries in the Houston area in partnership with grocery giant Kroger with its R2 autonomous robot, which travels on streets at speeds up to 40 kilometers (25 miles) per hour and can transport some 190 kilos (400 pounds).

Nuro is moving to expand its service and has received approval in California to operate on public roads.

"We did not foresee our service helping to keep Americans safe from contagion. But the COVID-19 pandemic has expedited the public need for contactless delivery services," Nuro's David Estrada said in a blog post.

"Times like these reinforce the need for autonomous delivery services like Nuro, and how they can benefit communities."

Delivery robots from Postmates, a delivery startup, have also been seen on the streets in California. And similar autonomous robots are being tested by Amazon.

- Above the fray? -

AFP/File / Ruth McDowallA drone operated by California startup Zipline preapres for delivery of medical supplies in Ghana in 2019. The company sees an opprortunity to offer similar services in the US as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

Drone delivery is another area where interest is growing due to the pandemic.

Wing, the drone startup created by Google parent Alphabet, has seen a jump in demand in its pilot projects in rural southwestern Virginia -- where it delivers non-prescription medicines and other items from the Walgreens chain -- and in Australia and Finland, a company spokesman said.

"While we recognize that this service will be a small relief during this time, we hope it means one less trip to the store for items our customers may need, and provides an efficient way for local businesses to reach their customers in a time when limiting human-to-human contact is important." Wing CEO James Ryan Burgess said.

Amazon and others have continued testing drone deliveries, but these systems are subject to regulatory barriers which have prevented deployment.

Zipline, a California startup which has been delivering medical supplies by drone in Africa, has indicated it wants offer similar services in the US once it gets regulatory approval.

"Zipline is helping other countries mount their national response efforts to #COVID19," the company said in a tweet. "As an American company in a time of crisis, we want to help our country as well."

SEE https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/search?q=ROBOTS

BRITS LOVE THEIR NHS




WWII veteran, 99, raises £12 mln for UK health workers

MAYTRIX GROUP/AFP/File /

Moore originally planned to raise £1,000 for a National Health Service charity

A 99-year-old British World War II veteran on Thursday completed 100 laps of his garden in a fundraising challenge for healthcare staff that has captured the heart of the nation, raising more than £12 million ($15 million, 13.8 million euros).

"Incredible and now words fail me," said Tom Moore, a captain who served in India, after finishing the laps of his 25-metre (82-foot) garden with the help of his walking frame.

Moore initially set himself the goal of raising £1,000 for a National Health Service charity in time for his 100th birthday at the end of the month, after receiving treatment for a broken hip and cancer.
But his efforts -- a rare bit of good news during the global coronavirus pandemic that has killed almost 13,000 people in Britain alone -- have made him a star in his own country and abroad.

"Thank you all for your amazing support. It has been a memorable experience. Thank you so much," he wrote on Twitter.

The final lap of his garden in Bedfordshire, south England, was met with a guard of honour from the Yorkshire Regiment and broadcast live on British TV.

"I'm surrounded by the right kind of people," Moore told the BBC. "I'm feeling fine, I hope you are all feeling fine too."

Previously he has spoken of his admiration for medical staff.

"In the last war it was soldiers in uniform on the front line. This time our army are the doctors and nurses (in) uniforms," he told ITV's Good Morning Britain earlier this week.

"We will survive this."

- 'Inspiration' -

Health Secretary Matt Hancock called Moore "an inspiration to us all"

"This is an awful crisis, but there are some little shafts of light," he told BBC television.

"Captain Tom, he served his country in the past, and he's serving his country now, both by raising that money for the NHS... but also cheering us all up.

"We all need a bit of cheering up sometimes."

More than 645,000 people have contributed funds, with the rate of donations causing the JustGiving page to temporarily crash.

His efforts have been lauded around the world.

"Captain Moore, we are truly impressed on this side of the pond. I think you're remarkable, what you've done is an inspiration," said US TV star Judge Judy in a video message.

"Congratulations on your fantastic success," added Dutch violinist and conductor Andre Rieu. "I invite you and your whole family to one of my concerts."

England cricket icon Ben Stokes said the funds raised "for the real heroes today is simply sensational".

"I hope I'm moving just as well as you at 50, never mind 100," he joked.

The veteran has also received online support from former Manchester United and Arsenal football captains Rio Ferdinand and Tony Adams and Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes.

SAY IT AIN'T SO 

Anti-Corbyn Labour officials worked to lose general election to oust leader, leaked dossier finds

Call for investigation into ‘possible misuse of funds’ by senior officials on party’s right wing

BLAIRITE, ZIONIST CONSPIRACY TO OUST CORBYN TURNS OUT TO BE TRUE

Jon Stone Policy Correspondent THE INDEPENDENT APRIL 14, 2020

Labour party officials opposed to Jeremy Corbyn worked to lose the 2017 general election in the hope that a bad result would trigger a leadership contest to oust him, a dossier drawn up by the party suggests.

A huge cache of leaked WhatsApp messages and emails show senior officials from the party’s right wing, who worked at its HQ, became despondent as Labour climbed in the polls during the election campaign despite their efforts.

The unreleased report, which The Independent has seen in full, was drawn up in the last days of Mr Corbyn’s leadership and concerns the conduct of certain officials, including some who were investigating cases of antisemitism in the party. Labour has confirmed the document is a genuine draft, though it is not clear who it was commissioned or written by.

The 860-page document claims that “an abnormal intensity of factional opposition to the party leader” had “inhibited the proper functioning of the Labour Party bureaucracy” and contributed to “a litany of mistakes” in dealing with antisemitism, which it admits was a serious problem in the party.

But the Campaign Against Antisemitism said the document was a “desperate last-ditch attempt to deflect and discredit allegations” and amounted to “an attempt to imagine a vast anti-Corbyn conspiracy”.

Left-wingers in the party called for new leader Sir Keir Starmer to launch an investigation into the behaviour detailed in the report, including “the possible misuse of funds” by officials.

Tactics by anti-Corbyn staff evidenced in the report include channelling resources to candidates associated with the right wing of the party, refusing to share information with the leader’s office, and “coming into the office and doing nothing for a few months” during the election campaign.

The report says hostile staff created a chat so they could pretend to work while actually speaking to each other, with one participant stating that “tap tap tapping away will make us look v busy”.

An election night chat log shows that 45 minutes after the exit poll revealed that Labour had overturned the Conservative majority, one senior official said the result was the “opposite to what I had been working towards for the last couple of years”, describing themselves and their allies as “silent and grey-faced” and in need of counselling.

Another said: “We have to be upbeat and not show it,” while a third told the group that “everyone needs to smile”, describing the result as “awful”. Another very senior party official said it was going to be “a long night”.

The senior officials keenly watched polls during the election campaign and hoped that the party that employed them would fare badly. When one YouGov poll showed the party up during the campaign, one said: “I actually felt quite sick when I saw that YouGov poll last night.”

Another official argued that the polling bounce for the party was actually “great”, stating: “I shall tell you why, it is a peak, and the polling was done after the Manchester [terror] attack, so with a bit of luck this speech will show a clear polling decline and we shall all be able to point to how disgusting they truly are.”

The report also details large volumes of abusive discussion by senior officials about colleagues and activists from the party’s left wing. In one exchange a senior official said a young activist had “mental health issues”, to which another official chimed in: “I hope [name of activist redacted] dies in a fire.” A third said: “That’s a very bad wish [name redacted]. But if he does I wouldn’t piss on him to put him out.” The second official then adds: “Wish there was a petrol can emoji.”

The party’s resources – paid for by party members – were often utilised to further the interests of one faction and in some cases were used to undermine the party’s objectives interLeaked Labour internal report

Some senior staff also joked about “hanging and burning” Jeremy Corbyn, and suggested that another staff member who cheered a speech by the party leader “should be shot”.

In another exchange, one senior official laments that political advisers working for members of the shadow cabinet “have stopped wearing bras” and that there are “nipples out at the PADs [political advisers] meeting and not a single tie”. The official then names the adviser and describes her outfit, before suggesting that a male MP only “speaks highly” of the adviser because of her appearance.

One exchange shows a senior official described another from the left of the party as “pube head”. In another, months later, they called her a “smelly cow” and comment that she “had the exact same clothes on yesterday”.

Party staff around the unit were also documented regularly describing people, including colleagues they regarded as not sufficiently opposed to the leadership, as “trots” – short for Trotskyites, or disciples of Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky. Chat logs show that some colleagues who denounced “trots” themselves were in turn themselves privately regarded as “trots” by other staffers for being seen as insufficiently critical.

During the 2015 and 2016 leadership contests a large number of staffers at Labour HQ appear to have worked to exclude those they regarded as “trots” from voting in the election – believing that they would vote for Jeremy Corbyn.

The report says staffers trawled social media to find reasons to exclude voters from the contest, work which was referred to on numerous occasions by staff as variations of “trot busting”, “bashing trots” and “trot spotting”. One staffer described themselves as being “trot smasher in chief”, while another said during the 2015 leadership election that the “priority right now is trot hunting”. In 2015 two officials discussed the fact that they were “playing trot or not” while “the real work is piling up”. A senior official described this work as “saving the Labour party”.

Senior officials from the right of the party spoke of their opposition to policy positions adopted by the party under both Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, but also that of his predecessor Ed Miliband. In one 2015 exchange, a member of staff said: “Brace yourself. [Shadow chancellor John] McDonnell just called for corporation tax to go up.” Another replied: “You’re kidding me. I can’t quite believe it.”

Commenting after this portion of the report was posted on social media, former shadow health secretary and leadership candidate Andy Burnham said: “Seems right to me. Always felt like the party machine opposed my pro-public NHS and social care policies between 2010 and 2015. Not sure I had even-handed treatment from them in either the 2010 or 2015 leadership elections.”

In one 2015 WhatsApp conversation, one senior official expressed the opinion that despite being “s***”, Tory MP Iain Duncan Smith was “better than most of our shadow cabinet” – at a time early in Mr Corbyn’s leadership when the Labour front bench contained MPs from a relatively broad cross-section of the party.

The report claims that “The party’s resources – paid for by party members – were often utilised to further the interests of one faction and in some cases were used to undermine the party’s objectives.” Ahead of the 2017 election officials spoke of channelling resources to candidates critical of the leadership, with one telling colleagues “we need to try and throw cash” at the seat of then-deputy leader Tom Watson, a persistent Corbyn critic. It is claimed that officials operated a “secret key seats team” based in Labour’s London region office in Ergon House, “from where a parallel general election campaign was run to support MPs associated with the right wing of the party”.

Officials appeared to try and hide some of their activities, with the same person stating during a different exchange: “We need to stop digital campaign budgets going to [a named left-wing senior staff member] for approval, he can’t see what we are doing with digital spend”.

We have to be upbeat and not show it 
Senior Labour official on morning after party’s unexpectedly good result

In 2017 senior officials in the party discussed making preparations for another leadership election, hoping that one might be triggered by the party losing the Copeland and Stoke-on-Trent Central by-elections. Chat logs show one said “if we lose these elections we could have another leadership election. We should set up at some stage a discrete WG [working group] to go over rules, timetable scenarios and staff servicing the process. Just so we’re prepared”. A very senior official approved the process, dubbing it “Operation Cupcake” and suggesting that Tom Watson could be interim leader. The leadership election would have been the party’s third in three years.

Sky News, which first reported the existence of the dossier, reports that Labour party lawyers have decided against sending it to the Equality and Human Rights Commission, which is currently holding an investigation into antisemitism in the party. It is understood that the report may have been drawn up to help the party understand how its own disciplinary processes operated in recent years and not intended for submission to the EHRC.

Labour was put under investigation by the EHRC after the body received a number of complaints about the party’s response to complaints about antisemitism. The party has moved to expel members accused of anti-Jewish racism, but has been accused by critics of not doing so fast enough or making the wrong decisions in some cases. Critics of Mr Corbyn say his politics, and particularly his support for Palestinian liberation, has attracted antisemities to the party – though the Home Affairs Select Committee found “no reliable, empirical evidence to support the notion that there is a higher prevalence of antisemitic attitudes within the Labour Party than any other political party”.

The parliamentary committee however warned at the time that the leadership’s lack of action “risks lending force to allegations that elements of the Labour movement are institutionally antisemitic”. The EHRC, which launched its investigation in May 2019, is investigating whether the party has broken equality law, whether it has taken steps to improve its processes after internal reviews, and whether it has “responded to complaints of unlawful acts in a lawful, efficient and effective manner”.



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A statement from Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, argued that the material should be submitted to the investigation, but said: “In the dying days of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, the Labour Party appears to have invested in a desperate last-ditch attempt to deflect and discredit allegations of antisemitism. Rather than properly dealing with cases of antisemitism and the culture of anti-Jewish racism that prevailed during Mr Corbyn’s tenure, the Party has instead busied itself trawling through 10,000 of its own officials’ emails and WhatsApp messages in an attempt to image a vast anti-Corbyn conspiracy and to continue its efforts to smear whistleblowers.

“It is a disgrace that the 450,000-word report, which itself claims to ‘prove the scale’ of antisemitism in the Party and serves an exhibit of the Party’s failure to address the crisis, is being kept secret. Sir Keir Starmer has the report and should ensure that it is immediately provided to us and the Equality and Human Rights Commission, so that it can be considered as part of the Commission’s statutory investigation in which we are the complainant.”

Labour MP Charlotte Nichols said that “this document should be published in full” and that “Jewish members have a right to know what has happened and to see the evidence”.

Labour shadow minister Alex Sobel said: “To read the messages and emails that our own staff conspired to undermine our candidates and starve those in marginal seats of resources is a disgrace.

“To further read how complaints of antisemitism, Islamophobia, sexual harassment and other complaints were mismanaged due to a toxic internal culture highlights why the EHRC were right to investigate and vindicates the complainants.”

He criticised the leaker of the report for exposing a “huge amount of sensitive personal information” and said that the party’s culture needed to be “yanked out by its roots”.

Momentum, a group which organises on the left wing of the Labour party, called for a full inquiry into the report, including “the possible misuse of funds”.

“Labour came so close in the 2017 general election. Winning 40% of the popular vote, we were less than 2,500 votes away from forming a government. Had we pulled together, we could have won. A Labour government could have revived crucial public services, built a more resilient economy, and saved lives by giving our NHS the resources it needs,” Momentum national coordinating group member John Taylor said.

“Instead, leaked WhatsApp messages suggest that party headquarters undermined Labour’s chances in 2017 and were disappointed when the Tories lost their majority. For the activists who gave everything working for a Labour government, and for those whose lives depend on Labour winning power, we can never let this happen again.

Protests against Labour antisemitism
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“Our party can build a better future. But to do this we need an open, hard-working, professional party committed to winning a Labour government. That’s why we’re calling for Keir Starmer to announce a full inquiry into the report, including into the possible misuse of funds. Those responsible must be held to account, and anyone found to have worked against a Labour victory must never again be allowed to hold a senior party position.”

Matt Wrack, general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union (FBU), which is affiliated with the Labour party, called for disciplinary action to be launched against the officials named in the report.

“This is clear evidence of what many party members knew all along – that whilst Jeremy Corbyn was trying to deliver a Labour government, senior Labour officials were conducting a vicious sabotage campaign against him,” he said.


“This abuse – which included repeated attempts to weaken Jeremy Corbyn’s position – was taking place at the very same time that Labour activists were knocking on doors day and night to try and deliver a Labour government. Particular shame should be felt by those who were planning to oust Jeremy Corbyn less than four months after he had won a second leadership election.

“This consistent pattern of corrosive behaviour prioritised damaging the left of the party over both winning elections and dealing swiftly with complaints of antisemitism and other forms of racism – it cannot be allowed to fester any longer in the Labour Party. Keir Starmer has said he wants a united party. He should therefore use his new mandate to urgently address this issue, including taking disciplinary action, as appropriate.

“These people should never again be in senior positions in the Labour Party. Without this internal wrecking, the hung parliament in 2017 could have instead been a Labour government – those involved should wear that for the rest of their professional lives.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “The party has submitted extensive information to the EHRC and responded to questions and requests for further information, none of which included this document.”

‘A bad time to be alive’: Mass extinction 444 million years ago linked to loss of oxygen in Earth’s oceans
 VIDEO
‘By expanding our thinking of how oceans behaved in the past, we could gain some insights into oceans today,’ says scientist at Stanford University

Peter Stubley THE INDEPENDENT APRIL 15, 2020

The first major mass extinction in Earth’s history was linked to a severe and prolonged lack of oxygen in the oceans, according to a new study which could help scientists understand modern climate change.

Some 85 per cent of all species perished during the Late Ordovician die-off about 444 million years ago – a time when the vast majority of life was marine-based and most of our present day continents formed a single land mass, Pangaea.

A first wave of extinctions was caused by global cooling. When that ice age ended, sea levels rose and oxygen levels plummeted, resulting in a deficiency of oxygen, or anoxia.

In a new study, researchers at Stanford University found evidence that these anoxic conditions lasted for more than three million years – significantly longer than similar extinction events.

“For most ocean life, it was indeed a really bad time to be alive,” said co-author Erik Sperling, an assistant professor of geological sciences at Stanford University.

On the brink of extinction; 

25 of our closest relatives
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The study, published in Nature Communications, examined the geological record on the boundary between the Hirnantian and Rhuddanian ages in an attempt to bolster the theory.

A new model was created by Richard George Stockey, a graduate student at Stanford Earth, to incorporate previously published metal isotope data as well as new data from samples of black shale from the Murzuq Basin in Libya.

Taking into account 31 different variables, including the amounts of uranium and molybdenum that settle on the sea floor, it concluded that severe and prolonged ocean anoxia must have occurred across large volumes of Earth’s oceans.

“We can confidently say a long and profound global anoxic event is linked to the second pulse of mass extinction in the Late Ordovician,” said Mr Sperling.

The researchers said the findings have relevance for today given that global climate change is contributing to declining oxygen levels in the open ocean and coastal waters.

One-third of plant and animal species ‘could be extinct in 50 years’

Last December, another study found that the overall level of oxygen in the oceans has dropped by roughly 2 per cent, while the number of known hypoxic “dead zones” has skyrocketed from 45 known sites in the 1960s to at least 700 areas today, some encompassing thousands of square miles.

“We actually have a big problem modelling oxygenation in the modern ocean,” Mr Sperling said. “And by expanding our thinking of how oceans have behaved in the past, we could gain some insights into the oceans today.”

Mr Stockey, whose research was supported by the Alfred P Sloan Foundation, National Science Foundation, Packard Foundation and Nasa, added: “There is no way that low oxygen conditions are not going to have a severe effect on diversity.”

Lack of oxygen in the oceans may also have played a part in the Devonian mass extinction 375 million years ago.

The most famous mass extinction is the Cretaceous-Paleogene event that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs some 65 million years ago as a result of an asteroid strike that acidified the planet’s oceans.

RADICAL FOOD FETISHISM VS CAPITALIST FOOD FADDISM

Related video: Burger King’s vegetarian ‘Impossible Whopper’ burger cooked on same grill as meat

Burger King’s not so vegan whopper shows what happens when we believe big corporate shares our values

Like Marks and Spencer’s LGBT+ sandwich, or Pepsi’s watered-down version of Black Lives Matter, these businesses have little interest in changing society, only the profit they can milk out of it

Chas Newkey-Burden THE INDEPENDENT APRIL, 15, 2020

Burger King is not a friend of the vegans. It may seem like that’s stating the bleeding obvious but you’d be surprised how many plant-munchers think that animal-slaughtering restaurant chains are our allies.

The fast-food giant is on the naughty step today: the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned it from showing ads that wrongly implied that its Rebel Whopper, which contains egg and is cooked alongside meat, is vegan.

The ASA ruled that the promotion’s “green colour palette,” and its timing to coincide with the annual Veganuary cash-in, gave the impression that the product was suitable for vegans.



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How coronavirus has changed the way I shop for my vegan diet

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Some vegan meals contain more salt than seven McDonald’s hamburgers

The ads had a “Vegetarian Butcher” logo and, on Twitter, the company described the product as “plant-based”.

This isn’t the first time a big corporate brand has fooled vegans. When restaurant chains launch a "plant-based" product, a lot of vegans believe that if we buy enough of them, we will have “shown the demand” and animal slaughter will simply magically end.

But this is a fairy tale: vegan talk of “ethical capitalism” is as oxymoronic as meat-eaters’ claims of “humane slaughter”.

Burger King bosses in the US admit that their Impossible Whopper isn’t changing eating habits of existing customers – it’s just bringing in new ones. “We’re not seeing guests swap the original Whopper for the Impossible Whopper. We’re seeing that it’s attracting new guests,” revealed CEO José Cil. In other words, meat-eaters continue to buy beef burgers and still account for practically all of Burger King’s profits. It’s just that vegans have recently joined the party.

Some vegans argue that plant-based imitations of meat will turn more people vegan. And in a few cases they might – but they won’t keep them vegan. For that, people need to make the selfless philosophical shift that animals are not ours to exploit and abuse. Having their taste buds tickled won’t change their hearts.


From McDonalds’ to KFC, all the fast-food giants have launched their own "vegan" gimmicks, each of which arguably prop up their animal-slaughtering operations. The bosses are probably laughing all the way to the bank.

And, as they laugh, the owners of small, independent, vegan businesses weep. They can’t begin to compete with the marketing budgets of these huge chains, so they watch broken-hearted as vegans queue up to hand their money to animal killers.


OF COURSE THAT OTHER ARM OF CAPITALISM, BOOK PUBLISHERS

EVEN DIY, IS STILL CAPITALISM EVEN IF IT IS ETHICAL OR GREEN
12 best vegan cookbooks
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It’s sad that so many vegans are proud to hand over their money to big companies, yet slow to support animal sanctuaries.


It’s easy to feel flattered by big chains when they announce a vegan menu but we need to decide whether we are vegan for the animals or vegan for the consumerism. As the Unoffensive Animal group put it: "We're not here to make the vegan food aisles bigger, this is about animal liberation."

Corporates have little interest in the changing values of our society, only the profit they can milk out of it. Marks & Spencer didn’t launch its LGBT+ sandwich to advance gay rights. When Pepsi used the imagery of the Black Lives Matter protests, it wasn’t aiming to overturn systemic racism.

These stunts are all just about fooling more people into parting with their cash. For vegans, it should be very simple: cow-killers are not friends of animals, so they aren’t friends of ours.  

TO BE HONEST;

WE DON'T EAT FOOD BECAUSE IT IS GOOD FOR US OR ETHICALLY SOURCED

 WE EAT FOOD TO MAKE A MORAL JUDGEMENT ON SOCIETY

Coronavirus: Republican congressman says Covid-19 death toll ‘the lesser of two evils’ compared with economic turmoil

RIGHT TO LIFE EXCEPT IF YOU ARE A VICTIM OF THE CORONAVIRUS
Trey Hollingsworth said policymakers should ‘put on their big-boy or big-girl pants’

Andrew Naughtie THE INDEPENDENT APRIL 15,2020

A Republican congressman from Indiana has told an interviewer that opening up the American economy in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic would be “the lesser of two evils”.

Trey Hollingsworth, who has represented the state’s ninth congressional district since 2017, was asked by WIBC radio host Tony Katz whether the federal government’s response to the pandemic was the right one — specifically its instruction to Americans that staying at home is necessary to stop the virus in his tracks.

His response was that the government’s focus on saving American lives was misguided, given the harm that social distancing measures are doing to the economy.

“It is always the American government’s position to say, in the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss of life, of American lives, we have to always choose the latter. And this is what I push back on, by these people who say ‘science should govern all of this’.

“Certainly science is telling us where this disease will progress, and how it will progress over time. Certainly the social scientists are telling us about the economic disaster that is occurring, down 20 per cent this quarter alone our GDP is expected to be.

“It is policymakers’ decision to put on our big-boy or big-girl pants and say: ‘this is the lesser of two evils, and it is not zero evil, but it is the lesser of these evils and we intend to move forward in that direction. That is our responsibility, and to abdicate that is to insult the Americans that voted us into office.’”

Mr Hollingsworth is not alone in arguing that the economy should come first. Texas lieutenant governor Dan Patrick said earlier in the pandemic that American senior citizens should accept the likelihood that some of them would die in order to allow the economy to re-open and preserve “the America that all America loves” for their children and grandchildren.

The coronavirus pandemic and the drastic measures to halt it have indeed hit the US’s economy hard, with unemployment exploding and GDP expected to shrink dramatically in the next quarter. However, many have argued that that number will look far worse than it is in reality thanks to the US government’s reporting methods

Donald Trump has repeatedly said that he intends to lift the shutdown as soon as possible, though his original plan to do so by Easter fell by the wayside after experts warned that doing so could cost tens or hundreds of thousands of lives. He apparently now wants it lifted on 1 May.

Meanwhile, several states — including California and New York — are co-ordinating regional plans to start lifting their own social distancing measures. However, they intend to do so cautiously. While New York governor Andrew Cuomo recently declared that “the worst is over” if New Yorkers “continue to be smart”, he also said that “you can turn those numbers on two or three days of reckless behaviour”.

Elsewhere in his interview, Mr Hollingsworth accused China of “hiding the virus” to an extent that led to “hugely deleterious consequences for Hoosiers here at home” — and called for punitive action.

“You first figure out how to solve the problem that stands before us — how do we get Americans back to work, how do we get people back engaged in their lives again — and then secondarily you find out who’s responsible for that and you go after who’s responsible for that.”

He did not specify what “going after them” would entail.

25,000 AMERICANS DEAD FROM COVID-19 ON TRUMPS WATCH

THE INDEPENDENT APRIL 15,2020 TOON OF THE DAY

YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS UP 

Kellyanne Conway thinks the 19 in Covid-19 means there have been 18 others (there haven't)

Sanjana Varghese in news THE INDEPENDENT APRIL 16, 2020

Kellyanne Conway –​ one of the most, shall we say, "unique" figures in Trump's team –​ went on CNN earlier this week to talk about the US government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Trump had said earlier in the week that he would be pulling funding from the WHO after criticising the organisation as "China-centric".

During her appearance, Conway (the famous inventor of "alternative facts") said that as this strain of coronavirus is Covid-19, there were 18 strains before. She said, “This is Covid-19, not Covid-1 folks, and so you would think the people in charge of the World Health Organization, facts and figures, would be on top of that."

On social media, users were quick to point out that Conway was wrong and misguided. The "19" in Covid-19 stands for the year it was discovered – another Twitter user also pointed out that the V, I, D stand for virus and infectious disease.

Some users emphasised that Conway was right about the importance of facts, particularly the ones she didn’t want to talk about – such as the Trump administration’s late action on Covid-19.

Other users asked whether this was a mistake Conway made all the time. One even suggested that she might be getting Covid-19 confused with a film franchise.

Trevor Noah, the host of the Daily Show, suggested in a segment that Trump asks Kellyanne Conway to “say dumb things on purpose so that he looks smart in comparison.” He also asked, “Does Kellyanne Conway also think that they’re called Blink-182 because the first 181 Blinks were taken?””

Other Twitter users asked whether Conway knew that she was wrong, but was trying to shift the focus from the Trump administration and make WHO look bad. 

 

Fox News anchor says ‘Conservatives’ heads would have exploded’ if Obama claimed ‘total’ authority

‘The bottom line is that the president can really influence these governors and work with them’

Fox News anchor Bret Baier has labelled conservatives as hypocritical for their response to president Donald Trump’s claims of total authority, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

During his daily coronavirus briefing on Monday, Mr Trump claimed that he has total control over when states will ease social distancing measures.

“When somebody is the president of the United States, the authority is total. And that’s the way it’s got to be. It’s total,” he said.

On Tuesday, Mr Trump backtracked: “I’m not putting any pressure on the governors,” he said, before adding that “we’ll open it (the country) in beautiful little pieces.”

During Fox News’ The Daily Briefing on Tuesday, Mr Baier claimed that conservatives were being hypocritical, by not criticising Mr Trump’s remarks more strongly.

“I think that there’s hypocrisy here in that, one, if President Obama had said those words that you heard from President Trump, that the authority is total with the presidency, conservatives’ heads would’ve exploded across the board,” he said.

“A week ago there was a lot of coverage saying why isn’t there a national stay-at-home order in place, why isn’t there? why don’t they do this,” Mr Baier added.

“But now, it’s ‘no he cant open up’.”

Mr Baier believes that Mr Trump’s comments have a big effect nationwide, and told viewers that “the bottom line is that the president can really influence these governors and work with them.”

He added that “as far as the top-down order, by the Constitution, you can’t do that. So it’s working with these governors to open it up in a rolling kind of open is what I imagine would happen.”

The president announced on Wednesday that the US will be suspending its funding of the World Health Organisation (WHO), so that they can review their response to the coronavirus outbreak.

“The reality is the WHO failed to obtain, vet and share information in a timely fashion,” Mr Trump said. “The WHO failed in its basic duty and must be held accountable.”

According to a tracking project hosted by Johns Hopkins University, the US has upwards of 609,685 people have tested positive for coronavirus. The death toll has reached at least 26,059.