WALL ST. AIN'T MAIN STREET

Global trade plumbs lowest level since 2007 
WTO cautions rebound might take longer than expected.

The Volkswagen factory in Zwickau, Germany | Jens Schlueter/Getty Images

By GIORGIO LEALI
8/19/20,

Trade in goods hit the lowest level since 2007 in the second quarter of 2020 and a V-shaped rebound "may prove overly optimistic," the World Trade Organisation said on Wednesday.

During the second quarter of the year, global trade in goods registered a "historic fall" and touched the levels of the 2008 financial crisis. Wednesday's figure "was the lowest on record in data going back to 2007," the WTO said.

A "goods trade barometer" published by the WTO takes into account recent trends in order to draw a real-time trajectory of global trade. Wednesday's reading was 84.5 on a scale where 100 corresponds to a trade growth in line with medium-term trends. Automotive goods and air freight were the worst-hit.

Wednesday's data are consistent with a previous WTO forecast that merchandise trade would have fallen by 18.5 percent in the second quarter, the organization said.

The WTO also noted the first signs of a recovery next year but cautioned the rebound might take longer than expected.

"The heavy economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests that the projections for a strong, V-shaped trade rebound in 2021 may prove overly optimistic," the WTO said, adding that "an L-shaped recovery is a real prospect."

Tasmanian tiger discovery: What we got wrong about Australia’s famous extinct thylacine

Isabelle LaneJournalist@isabellelane

The thylacine, better known as the Tasmanian tiger, is a tragic and enigmatic creature in Australia’s history, having been hunted to extinction nearly a century ago.

The last thylacine died in captivity in 1936, but the public fascination with the long lost species has remained alive.

Researchers have continued to mine the past for clues about the thylacine, which was one of Australia’s largest apex predators to survive into the modern era.

Now scientists from Monash University have discovered the marsupial (mammal with a pouch) would have looked quite different to what was previously thought.

The last thylacine died in 1936. Photo: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery

The research shows that the Tasmanian tiger was much less intimidating than its name suggests, and was the size of a small dog rather than a wolf.

Using advances in 3D analysis, the study by Monash University’s Biomedicine Discovery Institute and School of Biological Sciences, showed that the thylacine weighed around half what was previously thought, clocking in at about 17 kilograms on average.

The researchers combined traditional measurement techniques with advanced 3D scanning and volumetric methods, and the largest database of museum specimens that spans 6 countries and incorporates 93 individual thylacines.

Previously, thylacines were most commonly estimated to weigh about 29.5 kilograms, and the findings “substantially revise how we understand its biology and role in Australian ecosystems”, the researchers said.

Once thought to behave more like wolves – hunting in packs for prey larger than themselves – the new findings instead suggests that thylacines preyed on much smaller animals.Thylacine mesh models. Image: Douglass Rovinsky

“Rewriting the thylacine as a smaller animal changes the way we look at its position in the Australian ecosystem – because what a predator can (and needs to) eat is very much dependent on just how big they are,” lead researcher Dogulass Rovinsky said.
Many of the 19th century newspaper reports just might have been ‘tall tales’ – told to make the thylacine seem bigger, more impressive … and more dangerous!”

The researchers established that there were strong differences in the average male and female body size, with the male mean of 19.7 kilograms and female mean of 13.7 kilograms. The mixed-sex population mean of 16.7 kilograms is then well below the 21 kilogram threshold for predators likely to take large prey.

Despite extinction in the 1930s and film footage, the species is a true enigma, with almost no direct observations supporting an understanding of their behaviour and biology.

“We wish we could watch just how the thylacine hunted, and what sort of prey it could take – this is our closest look yet at an essential ingredient of the predator’s behaviour, how big it really was,” research supervisor Associate Professor Alistair Evans said.
Could the Tasmanian tiger come back from extinction?

In an incredible feat of science, the extinct thylacine’s entire genetic blueprint, or genome, was sequenced in 2017 by an international team of researchers led by scientists from the University of Melbourne.

It is one of the most detailed blueprints ever recorded for an extinct species, with researchers able to obtain the genome from the preserved specimen of a 106-year-old pouch-held young animal

A thylacine at Tasmania’s Beaumaris Zoo circa 1930s. Photo: National Museum Australia

The research team used cutting-edge techniques to extract DNA and sequence the genome of this juvenile thylacine.

“Our hope is that there is a lot the thylacine can tell us about the genetic basis of extinction to help other species,” Project leader Associate Professor Andrew Pask said.

“As this genome is one of the most complete for an extinct species, it is technically the first step to ‘bringing the thylacine back’, but we are still a long way off that possibility.”

Trump calls for Goodyear boycott after alleged employee MAGA hat ban

‘Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!’, president tweets

HE HATE'S WOMEN IN POWER

Louise Hall

President Donald Trump has urged Americans not to purchase tyres from Goodyear Tyre & Rubber Company company after one of their plant’s allegedly banned the wearing Make America Great Again merchandise.

The president hit out at the manufacturer after a WIBW report claimed that a plant in Kansas had put out a policy banning workers from wearing MAGA attire, among other political clothing.

“Don’t buy GOODYEAR TYRES—They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS,” Mr Trump tweeted on Wednesday. “Get better tyres for far less!”

“(This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!),” he added.

The comments came after the NBC affiliate reported an image of a Powerpoint slide directing employees what was not acceptable as part of its “zero tolerance” policy.
The image, which surfaced on social media, was allegedly taken by an anonymous employee during the Topeka company’s diversity training.

The photo appeared to show that “Black Lives Matter” and “LGBT+ pride” are “acceptable” while “Blue Lives Matter”, “All Lives Matter”, “MAGA attire”, and “political affiliated slogans” were listed as “unacceptable”.

The individual alleged that the company’s policy was discriminatory, according to WIBW.

The company has since released a lengthy statement saying that the slide “was not created or distributed by Goodyear corporate nor was it part of a diversity training class”

Goodyear maintained that it requests employees not to express support for political candidates or party’s in the workplace.

“We ask that associates refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equality issues,” they wrote.

The organisation added that it “has always wholeheartedly supported both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so.”

“We have heard from some of you that believe Goodyear is anti-police after reacting to the visual,” the company said.

They added: “nothing could be further from the truth, and we have the upmost appreciation for the vital work police do on behalf of our shared communities. This can’t be said strongly enough.”

The company’s statement did not directly address the president’s tweet, which was broadcast to his 85 million followers and has been retweeted almost 70,000 times as of Wednesday.

Goodyear’s stock declined 3.4 per cent on Wednesday morning, following the president’s message, The Hill reported.

The company did not immediately respond to The Independent’s request for further comment regarding the tweet.

When questioned on the president’s proposed boycott of a company in a ”battleground” state of Ohio ahead of the presidential election, White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway told reporters on Wednesday that she was not aware of the tweet.

She directed the reporter to ask the president about the incident himself at his next press briefing.

“I think he’s done plenty for companies in Ohio and elsewhere, far more than Joe Biden ever did,” she added.

Australia says it found no evidence to suggest a TikTok ban is necessary

By Shubham Agarwal

August 5, 2020

Australia has completed its security probe into TikTok and found no evidence of data misuse to warrant a ban. The country’s security agencies concluded that at this stage, the short-form video platform doesn’t pose any national security concerns, according to Reuters.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the country will “keep watching” the China-based app but “there’s no evidence to suggest today that that is a step that is necessary.”

“There’s nothing at this point that would suggest to us that security interests are being compromised or Australian citizens are being compromised,” Morrison told the Aspen Security Forum on Tuesday, August 4.

Morrison also warned citizens to be aware of the fact that the “line connects right back to China” and they should “exercise their own judgment about whether they should participate in those things or not.”

Australia launched an official investigation into the potential security threats posed by TikTok and several other China-based platforms such as WeChat last month. The action was taken soon after India had banned dozens of Chinese services including TikTok. However, similarly to the United States, TikTok use will remain blocked on the Australian Defense Force’s devices.

Owned by the Chinese startup, Bytedance, TikTok is in the middle of negotiating a deal with Microsoft in an attempt to escape a ban from the United States. If the sale goes through, TikTok’s operations in four countries — United States, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada — will be acquired by the Redmond, Seattle-based software giant. It remains unclear, at the moment, whether the announcement of this potential deal had any role to play in Australia’s security review.

“Microsoft will move quickly to pursue discussions with TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, in a matter of weeks, and in any event completing these discussions no later than September 15, 2020,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post on Sunday, August 2. “During this process, Microsoft looks forward to continuing dialogue with the United States government, including with the President.”

Unlike Australia, the Trump administration hasn’t explicitly commented yet on the results of its security probe into TikTok that it launched in November.

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Facebook removes nearly 800 QAnon-related groups, pages, hashtags, and ads

By Meira Gebel August 19, 2020 

Facebook took down nearly 800 groups associated with the far-right conspiracy theory group QAnon on Wednesday, as well as more than 1,500 advertisements and 100 pages tied to the group in a move to restrict “violent acts.”

In a blog post, Facebook said the action is part of a broader “Dangerous Individuals and Organizations” policy measure to remove and restrict content that has led to real-world violence. The policy will also impact militia groups and political protest organizations like Antifa.

“While we will allow people to post content that supports these movements and groups, so long as they do not otherwise violate our content policies, we will restrict their ability to organize on our platform,” the company said.

QAnon supporters believe in a widely disproven “deep state” conspiracy that President Donald Trump is working to eradicate pedophilia and Satanism throughout Washington D.C. The conspiracy theorists have recently latched onto the COVID-19 public health crisis, calling it a “bioweapon.”

QAnon theories hit the mainstream after the controversy surrounding #Pizzagate, in which a man brought a gun to a pizzeria, claiming he would find victims of child abuse. The group has also been linked to dozens of other violent incidents that stem from baseless theories shared on private Facebook groups and message boards.

Facebook took action against QAnon earlier this month, when it yanked down an influential group with more than 200,000 members, but Wednesday’s move is perhaps the social media giant’s most substantial move yet.

The company said it will limit QAnon content from appearing in its recommendations tab, reduce its content in search results, and prohibit QAnon-related accounts and groups from monetizing content, selling merchandise, fundraising, and purchasing advertising on both Facebook and Instagram. The company plans to continue to investigate just how QAnon operates on its platform, by observing “specific terminology and symbolism used by supporters to identify the language used by these groups and movements indicating violence and take action accordingly.”

In recent months, other social media sites like Twitter and TikTok have banned and disabled popular QAnon hashtags and accounts for inauthentic, coordinated behavior and for spreading disinformation.

However, do not expect QAnon to disappear quietly: Experts have called QAnon members “really good at adapting” to online ecosystems, and several QAnon supporters have won primaries for public office on platforms that represent the conspiracy theories shared within the group.

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Over half of Lebanon 'trapped in poverty' even before blast: UN
Issued on: 19/08/2020 -
Lebanese display their mostly empty refrigerators as they struggle with a steep economic crisis that has led to the collapse of the local currency and purchasing power. The UN over half the population is now "trapped in poverty" ANWAR AMRO, IBRAHIM CHALHOUB, Mahmoud ZAYYAT AFP/File

VIDEO AT THE END

Beirut (AFP)

Lebanon's economic crisis doubled poverty rates to reach more than half of its people even before this month's cataclysmic explosion at Beirut's port, a United Nations agency said Wednesday.

"Estimates reveal that more than 55 percent of the country's population is now trapped in poverty and struggling for bare necessities," the UN Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said.

That figure for May 2020 was almost double the rate of 28 percent for last year, it said.

Extreme poverty had shot up to an estimated 23 percent of the population, up from eight percent in 2019, it added.

Lebanon's economic and political crisis deepened when on August 4 a massive blast at the Beirut port killed 181 people, wounded thousands and ravaged huge areas of the capital.

The disaster came on the heels of the country's worst financial crunch in decades, which had already seen tens of thousands lose their jobs or much of their income, even as the novel coronavirus pandemic hit.

Official estimates had last put Lebanon's poverty rate at 45 percent.

UN humanitarian agency OCHA on Wednesday said tens of thousands more people had now seen their source of income vanish after the Beirut blast.

"Over 70,000 workers are estimated to have lost their jobs as a result of the explosions, with direct implications for over 12,000 households," it said.

ESCWA said Lebanon's middle class has shrunk from 57 percent of the population in 2019 to less than 40 percent this year, warning of an accelerating exodus of Lebanese citizens.

"The real challenge facing Lebanon is that this group, which represents the bulk of the country's human capital, may shun the uncertain economic opportunities in Lebanon and seek to emigrate," it said.

In past months, middle-class Lebanese frustrated with a plummeting local currency, banks trapping their dollar savings, and deteriorating public services have increasingly decided to seek better lives abroad.

In a country which has long had one of the most unequal wealth distributions in the region, the group of people deemed affluent has shrunk from 15 to five percent of the population, ESCWA said.

The economic crisis has sparked widespread popular anger against a ruling class deemed inept and corrupt by many, and protesters have clashed again with security forces since the explosion disaster.

On Friday, Lebanon starts a new two-week coronavirus lockdown after a string of record daily tallies that has brought the total number of cases to 9,758 including 107 deaths.

© 2020 AFP

Special edition: Could the Beirut blast be one tragedy too many for Lebanon

Issued on: 19/08/2020 -

MIDDLE EAST MATTERS © France 24 screengrab
By:Clovis CASALI   VIDEO AT THE END

Two weeks after massive dual explosions at the port in Beirut killed more than 170 people and destroyed a large part of the Lebanese capital, we bring you this special edition of Middle East Matters direct from Lebanon. In the devastating aftermath, the Lebanese capital is in mourning – everyone here knows someone who was affected by the blast. Our correspondents and reporters on the ground take a look at how the tragedy unfolded and consider what the future might hold for this shattered country.

When 2,700 tonnes of ammonium nitrate caught fire in the port of Beirut on August 4, locals were stunned to see a huge mushroom cloud emerge over the city's skyline and began to broadcast the images live on social networks — then the sound of explosions bellowed. Our correspondent Charbel Abboud met with some of these witnesses, who recount the very moments before and after the blast.

Teams of rescuers, first on the scene of the explosions, worked around the clock to pull out the injured and search for survivors under the rubble. For the victims’ families, the wait has been unbearable. In the last few days, some have come to the port with the slim hope of finding their loved ones alive. Our team on the ground, Nadia Massih, Abdallah Malkawi and Karim Yahiahoui, went to meet some of the families.

While aid is filtering down to those left homeless, public anger against the state continues unabated. Under pressure from the streets, the government was forced to resign, but the Lebanese are hungry for answers. How could officials have authorised the storage of 2,700 tonnes of such a dangerous substance as ammonium nitrate? In Martyrs Square in the heart of the capital, tens of thousands demonstrated to demand the removal of the entire ruling class. Among them, activist Lucien Bourjeily, a film director who took part in last year's big rallies. For Bourjeily, this disaster may be one tragedy too many for Lebanon.

Also, our correspondents head to the Karantina neighbourhood in Beirut, whose large Syrian community was among the most affected by the blast. With its inhabitants in urgent need of help, the tension inside the neighbourhood is palpable.

Finally, we look at how the Lebanese global diaspora is pitching in to send money and basic necessities to Lebanon. This report from Paris is by Jade Levin.

Programme presented by Clovis Casali.

Trump wanted to 'swap' Puerto Rico for Greenland: ex-official

#FREEPUERTORICO !VIVA!LA INDEPENDENCIA!

Issued on: 19/08/2020 -

Washington (AFP)

President Donald Trump wanted to sell Puerto Rico or swap it for Greenland because he viewed the US territory as dirty and poor, a former senior administration official said Wednesday.

Miles Taylor, who was chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, said Trump expressed those views as the government undertook support operations after two massive hurricanes ravaged the Caribbean island in 2017.

Taylor told MSNBC that just before one 2018 trip by officials, Trump, who had regularly talked about acquiring Greenland from Denmark, seriously suggested he could trade away Puerto Rico.
"He told us, not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico, could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland, because in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor," Taylor said.

The former official said he did not take Trump's remarks as a joke.

"These are Americans. We don't talk about our fellow Americans that way," Taylor added.

"And the fact that the president of the United States wanted to take a US territory of Americans and swap it for a foreign country is beyond galling."

Trump has long expressed disdain for the island of some three million people, many of whom live on the US mainland -- especially in Florida and Trump's native New York -- due to the deeply depressed economy at home.

"The president expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes," Taylor, who left DHS in 2019 and came out as a supporter of Democrat Joe Biden this week, told MSNBC.

"He is their president. He should be standing by them, not trying to sell them off to a foreign country."

In 2019 Trump canceled a visit to Denmark after Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen rejected his proposal to buy Greenland as "absurd," though at the time there was no mention of Puerto Rico as part of the suggested deal.

On Tuesday Trump dismissed Taylor on Twitter as a "former disgruntled employee" who is "said to be a 'real stiff.'"

© 2020 AFP

Beyond batteries: Scientists build methanol-powered beetle bot

BEETLEJUICE! BEETLEJUICE!

BEET.........SAY IT THREE TIMES

YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS
Issued on: 19/08/2020

A team at the University of Southern California has built an 88-milligram "RoBeetle" that runs on methanol and uses an artificial muscle system to crawl, climb, and carry loads on its back for up to two hours Xiufeng YANG Xiufeng Yang, University of Southern California/AFP

Washington (AFP)

Scientists have long envisioned building tiny robots capable of navigating environments that are inaccessible or too dangerous for humans -- but finding ways to keep them powered and moving has been impossible to achieve.

A team at the University of Southern California has now made a breakthrough, building an 88-milligram (one three hundredth of an ounce) "RoBeetle" that runs on methanol and uses an artificial muscle system to crawl, climb and carry loads on its back for up to two hours.

It is just 15 millimeters (.6 inches) in length, making it "one of the lightest and smallest autonomous robots ever created," its inventor Xiufeng Yang told AFP.

"We wanted to create a robot that has a weight and size comparable to real insects," added Yang, who was lead author of a paper describing the work in Science Robotics on Wednesday.

The problem is that most robots need motors that are themselves bulky and require electricity, which in turn makes batteries necessary.

The smallest batteries available weigh 10-20 times more than a tiger beetle, a 50 milligram insect the team used as their reference point.

To overcome this, Yang and his colleagues engineered an artificial muscle system based on liquid fuel -- in this case methanol, which stores about 10 times more energy than a battery of the same mass.

The "muscles" are made from nickel-titanium alloy wires -- also known as Nitinol -- which contracts in length when heated, unlike most metals that expand.

The wire was coated in a platinum powder that acts as a catalyst for the combustion of methanol vapor.

As the vapor from RoBeetle's fuel tank burns on the platinum powder, the wire contracts, and an array of microvalves shut to stop more combustion.

The wire then cools and expands, which once more opens the valves, and the process repeats itself until all the fuel is spent.

The expanding and contracting artificial muscles are connected to the RoBeetles' front legs through a transmission mechanism, which allows it to crawl.

The team tested their robot on a variety of flat and inclined surfaces made from materials that were both smooth, like glass, and rough, like mattress pads.

RoBeetle could carry a load of up to 2.6 times its own weight on its back and run for two hours on a full tank, said Yang.

By contrast, "the smallest battery-powered crawling robot weighs one gram and operates about 12 minutes."

In the future, microbots may be used for a variety of applications like infrastructure inspection or search-and-rescue missions after natural disasters.

They might also assist in tasks like artificial pollination or environmental monitoring.

Roboticists Ryan Truby and Shuguang Li, of MIT and Harvard respectively, wrote in an accompanying commentary that RoBeetle was "an exciting microrobotics milestone," but added there were also opportunities for improvement.

For example, the robot is limited to continuous forward motion, and taking electronics out of the equation reduces its capacity to carry out sophisticated tasks.

© 2020 AFP

Thousands evacuated as fast-moving fires spread in California

Issued on: 19/08/2020

A home burns in Vacaville, California -- the fast-moving fires in the Golden State have prompted widespread evacuations JOSH EDELSON AFP

HOME TO VACAVILLE PRISON  ORIGIN OF SLA

SYMBIONESE LIBERATION ARMY (PATTI HEARST)

Los Angeles (AFP)

Thousands of residents fled a city in northern California on Wednesday as a series of fast-moving fires spread overnight, burning dozens of homes and structures.

The fire outside Vacaville, a city of about 100,000 residents located near the state capital Sacramento, is part of a series of blazes that have scorched nearly 50,000 acres (20,200 hectares) in northern California in recent days.

"If you're asked to evacuate, please do so SAFELY," Vacaville police said on Twitter.

"Practically every single first responder unit in town is actively working to safely notify, evacuate and fight the fires, so our residents are safe."

Some residents of Vacaville heeded the evacuation orders dressed only in their pajamas as the flames surged across roadways and gas lines exploded at several residences.

Multiple people suffered burns as they ran for their lives.

Fire officials said the blaze was zero percent contained early Wednesday and threatened some 1,900 structures in the area.

One woman described fleeing the inferno with her husband, who suffered burns in his car and was forced to abandon the vehicle.

"I had all these flames on me and I lost my shoe but I made it," she told the local NBC station. "God saved me."

The group of fires -- known collectively as the LNU Lightning Complex and taking place as the state faces a torrid heat wave -- has so far destroyed dozens of buildings or structures in three counties.

Governor Gavin Newsom has declared a state of emergency to facilitate the release of emergency funds.

"We are deploying every resource available to keep communities safe as California battles fires across the state during these extreme conditions," Newsom said.

"California and its federal and local partners are working in lockstep to meet the challenge and remain vigilant in the face of continued dangerous weather conditions."

Firefighters said that in total, some 30 fires across the state had torched some 120,000 acres.

- Scorching heat -

The LNU fire -- which was sparked by a lightning storm earlier in the week in the Bay Area -- has affected Sonoma, Lake, Napa and Solano counties, parts of which are still recovering from similar devastating blazes in recent years.

The wildfires are spreading largely uncontrolled and have intensified because of the record-breaking heat.

In the past week, California's Death Valley has been experiencing historic high temperatures, with the mercury rising as high as 130 degrees Fahrenheit (54.4 degrees Celsius).

Nearly 45 million people across the western United States were under an excessive heat warning or heat advisory Wednesday.

The scorching temperatures have put a massive strain on the state's power network, with blackouts leaving some 30,000 people without service, according to Power outage.us.

Last week, brush fires near Lake Hughes, just north of Los Angeles, burned more than 10,000 acres and prompted the evacuation of 500 homes.

Wildfires have become more frequent and bigger in California in recent years, in part driven by climate change.

The deadliest fire in the state's history -- the Camp Fire -- took place in northern California in November 2018 and killed 86 people.

Also Wednesday, Washington state Governor Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency over a series of wildfires.

"Wildfires are threatening the safety and livelihoods of Washingtonians all across the state," Inslee said in a statement.

"And the COVID-19 pandemic has put additional strain on our resources, as some of our usual support is further limited due to international movement restrictions."

© 2020 AFP