23andMe COVID-19 Study Findings Published

September 9, 2020 By 23andMe under 23andMe Research

This week 23andMe scientists published findings from the first four months of our COVID-19 study using data from more than a million research participants that found both genetic and non-genetic associations for susceptibility and severity to COVID-19.

The findings will be shared with researchers around the world as part of what has become an unprecedented effort among scientists looking for new treatments for the virus. Part of 23andMe’s motivation for this study was to leverage our unique research model to quickly find insights that could be shared with others working toward treatments. 

Because the intent was to quickly make this data available, many of these findings have been shared in the months since the study began. 

Genetic Associations with COVID-19

But the publication this week also includes data strengthening an association between severe respiratory complications and a specific variant in the gene cluster in chromosome 3. This region includes several different genes (SLC6A20, LZFTL1, CCR9, CXCR6, XCR1, and FYCO1). Some play a role in the immune response to infection in the lungs. The gene SLC6A20, may play a role in the expression of the ACE2 protein which in turn could lead to greater viral uptake.

Along with this genetic association, 23andMe’s researchers found strong evidence for the role of the ABO blood group for both the severity and susceptibility to COVID-19. Our findings, which were shared previously, underscore the role of blood type in COVID-19 infections, specifically that blood type O might be protective against the virus. The significance of this association may be related to the role of blood clotting complications in cases of people with COVID-19.

Non-Genetic Associations for COVID-19

23andMe’s research also revealed many non-genetic associations that replicated other studies including the finding that Black and Latino populations have been hit much harder than white communities.

For Latinos, the higher rates of hospitalization were consistent with higher rates of infection, according to 23andMe’s data. But for Blacks, the risk of hospitalization was disproportionately high and remained that way when adjusted for socioeconomic factors as well as age, sex, and for several underlying health conditions like type 2 diabetes or hypertension.

Our data showed that Blacks were 83 percent more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 compared to European respondents after adjustment for age, sex, socioeconomic status, body mass index, and a pre-existing condition.

23andMe’s researchers also found other risk factors for hospitalization noting that men required hospitalization more often than women. The same for those who were older and poorer.

In addition, 23andMe found that certain underlying chronic health conditions like obesity and type 2 diabetes significantly increased the risk for hospitalization for COVID-19. Being overweight increased the risk for hospitalization by about 34 percent over those with normal body mass index. 

We’re All in This Together

This pandemic impacts all humanity, and as such it has fueled an unprecedented level of scientific collaboration across the globe. 23andMe and its team of scientists, researchers, and engineers chose to become part of this effort early on, engaging the 23andMe research platform to quickly recruit research participants and study this novel disease.

In less than four months more than a million 23andMe customers consented to participate, of those more than 15,000 had tested positive for COVID-19, with 1,100 of them suffering symptoms that required hospitalizations. Through their participation, and during a highly compressed timeline, our researchers were able to make new findings, replicate others, and contribute to the larger effort by other researchers who are searching for treatments. (23andMe is still recruiting individuals who have been hospitalized for COVID-19. You can find out more here.) 

We are now sharing these findings through a full-set of de-identified summary statistics that will be made available to qualified investigators. Those investigators will have to enter into an agreement with 23andMe to protect participant confidentiality. Interested investigators should visit the following: https://research.23andme.com/covid19-dataset-access/ 

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*23andMe’s COVID-19 study is made possible through the participation of more than a million of our customers who consented to answer survey questions for this research. But this study also involves the hard work of a core team of our health researchers, program/product managers, data scientists, engineers, and geneticists. Among them are: Michelle Agee, Amanda Altman, Stella Aslibekyan, Adam Auton, Jess Bielenberg, Adrian Chubb, Daniella Coker, Raffaello d’Amore, Scott Dvorak, Alison Fitch, Scott Hadly, Pooja Gandhi, Andy Kill, Trung Le, John Matthews, Jennifer McCreight, Taylor Morrow, Sungmin Park, Jeff Pollard, Anjali Shastri, Janie Shelton, Teresa Filshtein Sonmez, Jason Tan, Lindsey Tran, Cat Weldon, Chelsea Ye, Yiwen Zheng

Bob Woodward just dropped another bombshell on Trump – here are the 5 most devastating details

 September 9, 2020 By Brad Reed

Watergate reporter Bob Woodward’s new book is coming out next week — and the leaked excerpts in it contain multiple damaging bombshells for President Donald Trump.

The new book, entitled “Rage,” contains multiple revelations on a wide variety of topics ranging from the president’s handling of the novel coronavirus to his relationship with the American military to his strange affection for North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un.

Below are the five most damning details of Woodward’s new book.

1.) Trump said that he knew the novel coronavirus was five times more deadly than the seasonal flu — then admitted to playing it down in public.

Audio recordings show that Trump told Woodward in early February that COVID-19 spread through the air and was much more deadly than the flu. Despite this, he continued to downplay its significance in multiple public statements.

Just over a month after that, Trump admitted to Woodward that he deliberately downplayed the virus because he didn’t want to create a “panic.”

“I wanted to always play it down,” Trump said on March 19th, shortly after he declared a national emergency. “I still like playing it down.”

2.) Trump gushes over Kim Jong-un in lurid detail.

In the book, Trump tells Woodward that he finds the North Korean dictator to be “far beyond smart,” while also boasting that Kim “tells me everything,” including a detailed account of how he killed his own uncle.

The president also cited Kim to disparage former President Barack Obama, whom Kim reportedly described as an “assh*le.”

3.) Trump ranted about his own generals being “p*ssies.”

The president was apparently unhappy with the way that America’s military brass placed a premium on maintaining the country’s alliances with other nations, which the president said constrained his ability to cut trade deals.

“My f*cking generals are a bunch of p*ssies,” the president ranted. “They care more about their alliances than they do about trade deals.”

4.) Trump’s own former Director of National Intelligence suspected that the president may have been blackmailed by Russia.

Former DNI Dan Coats found himself puzzled by the president’s adoration of Russian President Vladimir Putin and came to believe that the only plausible explanation was some form of blackmail.

“[Coats] continued to harbor the secret belief, one that had grown rather than lessened, although unsupported by intelligence proof, that Putin had something on Trump,” Woodward wrote. “How else to explain the president’s behavior? Coats could see no other explanation.”

5.) Trump brushed off centuries worth of oppression against Black Americans by boasting about the low unemployment level before the pandemic hit.

In June, in the middle of national protests against the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Woodward asked Trump if he felt the need to understand the experience of being Black in the United States.

“No,” Trump replied. “You really drank the Kool-Aid, didn’t you? Just listen to you. Wow. No, I don’t feel that at all.”

Woodward pressed Trump about this by recounting the history of Black people in America, but the president refused to hear it and instead called Black Americans ungrateful of his supposed efforts to get them jobs.

“I’ve done a tremendous amount for the Black community,” he told Woodward. “And, honestly, I’m not feeling any love.”

 

'I Am Greta' Director Nathan Grossman on Greta Thunberg's Extraordinary Year

 9/4/2020 by Scott Roxborough

Courtesy of Tiff; ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images

The documentary follows the teenage climate change activist from her school strikes in Sweden to being named Time's Person of the Year in 2019.

Nathan Grossman had no idea what he was in for.

Back in August 2018, the Swedish documentarian heard from a friend about a teenager who had decided to stage a protest — a "school strike" — in front of the Swedish Parliament, demanding action on climate change.

"I thought it would be a three-week shoot," he recalls, "that this teenage girl, this Greta Thunberg, would be a story of a few minutes in a short, arty film about child activists."

The job turned into a full year of shooting, with Grossman struggling to keep up with Greta, as this shy, 15-year-old student with Asperger's became the global face of the climate change movement. Grossman's documentary, I Am Greta, is with her every step of the way, from that first day on the parliament steps with her homemade sign — Skolstrejk för klimatet (school strike for climate) — to her meetings with world leaders, addressing the U.N., and becoming, in 2019, Time magazine's Person of the Year.

Along the way, Grossman also depicts a rarely-seen side of the activist, how the teenage girl from Sweden deals with the stress of nonstop travel, constant public scrutiny, and the growing online vitriol of right-wing pundits. 

Grossman spoke to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of the film's world premiere at the Venice Film Festival on Sept. 4, about his amazing year with Greta, what the press has gotten wrong about the teen activist and why he thinks, despite it knocking climate change off the media agenda, the coronavirus pandemic could revitalize the environmentalist movement.

How did you first come in contact with Greta Thunberg? 

I have a friend who's a screenwriter, and he wrote to me that he knew about this school kid interested in climate change, this Greta Thunberg, who was going to stage a school strike in front of the Parliament buildings in Stockholm. It seemed interesting. I'm an environmentalist filmmaker, and I was interested in how children were reacting to the issue. On that first August morning when we started filming, I connected very quickly with Greta. We had the same take on the issues, and I was very impressed, from the beginning, by how very straightforward she was, how she was able to directly formulate and express the problems.

Did you have any idea that little school protest would turn into a global movement? 

Never. I thought it would be a three-week shoot. And that this teenage girl, this Greta Thunberg, would be a story of a few minutes in a short, arty film about child activists. She'd be one of many characters, many different child activists. If you look at the beginning of the film, you can see how we shot it, using tripods, very artsy-style, lots of headroom, static framing. Then suddenly things took off and we were in a meeting with Greta and Emmanuel Macron. 

How did your perspective on Greta change during the course of the shooting?

When I first started shooting, she was very shy — it's hard to express because a lot of how she is comes from her diagnosis, from Asperger's. She is very specific about what she wants to talk about and what she doesn't want to talk about. Initially, our conversations were very focused on environmental issues, the topics we had in common. The rest she didn't want to discuss. But as we started to get to know each other — and she got older too — she started to open up. I think you can see that in the film. 

How do you think she changed in the course of that incredible year? 

I don't think she changed her ideals. She still remains true to her ideas and her cause. But from very early on I wanted to get into her inner monolog, to understand how she sees the world. That's the perspective film has, and that perspective changes as she changes. The year wasn't just about positive hype. It was a very tough year, very heavy and very frustrating for Greta. We see how the world may be ready to hear her message but it is not ready to act on her message. It shows the frustration and pain that has been part of this year for her.

What do you think the media has gotten wrong about Greta Thunberg?

I think maybe you have gotten wrong how she's not in this for the fame, she was never in this to become Time Person of the Year. She's deeply worried about this issue of climate change. I think the media had trouble framing this kind of obsessive activism. It was hard to explain to readers sometimes. That's where I think film is better, because it gives so many dimensions. 

Once when we were shooting I asked Greta if there was anything she was worried about regarding the film, and she said "I'm a bit worried that I won't recognize myself in it." She felt sometimes she didn't recognize herself in the stories about her, that showed her as a one-dimensional icon. So I was so happy when I showed her the movie, and she said she recognized herself, that she recognized that year in her life. 

We get a glimpse of her family life in your movie, in particular her relationship with her father, which I found very touching. 

Her family's support has always been very important to her. Greta has always been very open and frank about the fact that she comes from a privileged family and that, of course, it is much easier if you come from that background to be able to make the sacrifices she talks about. But I think it's been important too, it has meant she has not been funded by anyone, she paid her own train tickets, paid her own way. On the other hand, this conspiracy theory that it's her family that's been orchestrating her, telling her what to do, the film shows how ridiculous this is. I didn't intend this at the start, but her father is almost a figure of comic relief in the film. I shot this movie from Greta's perspective — I didn't do any interviews with her father, and he doesn't get a voice-over — and from the perspective of a 15-year-old girl, your father can be a bit of a joke. But I hope that's one part of the movie that everyone can recognize in themselves: that relationship of being a teen and having a father, of wanting to do your own thing but still needing your parents.

The coronavirus pandemic has pushed the issue of climate change off the public agenda. Do you fear this film is coming out too late? 

Actually, I think the experience of this pandemic could help the climate change movement. Greta is taking the pandemic seriously. She listens to the scientists and knows we need to have medical expertise to fight this pandemic. But for a lot of people in the climate movement, the reaction to this crisis, where suddenly billions in funding came from everywhere, compared to the climate issue [which has been] been on the agenda for 40-50 years and the answer was always: "we don't have the funds – let's take another meeting," it just seems hypocritical. I think people will remember this. There will be a day when this pandemic will be over and our response will show the young people that the world had the ability to act. That when we wanted to, we had the billions to spend. And if we want to, we can spend them now on the climate. 

The film ends on a bittersweet note. Greta helped spark this movement, but we are still a long way from her goal. 

Whenever you see progress, it is bittersweet. You are happy you have come this far but there's this bitterness about how much further you need to go. The end of the movie shows that doubleness as well. What Greta has created is, in itself, not enough. It's not enough to have people marching in the streets. I think she feels she has made an impact but, not just for her but for the entire young generation, that is not enough. Every month, every year that passes without radical change, it gets worse. There is more CO2 in the air, it becomes harder for us to change course. 

What do you hope audiences take from I Am Greta?

My main goal of the movie is to get people to see the world from the perspective of Greta Thunberg. She's maybe 4 feet, 11 inches tall. I'm closer to 6 foot 3. But I scrunched down to get that perspective, to shoot the world the way she sees it. I hope people come away from the film with a deeper understanding of her as a person. And that it maybe will say to people who are a little bit different, that we need you guys, not just to speak out on climate change but on all of the aspects of this hypocritical world. If Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth was Climate Change 1.0, just getting people to realize that climate change exists, maybe this movie can be Climate Change 2.0., the one to get people to start taking action. We have to start listening to this little girl, Greta. And we should be as scared as she is.

I Am Greta premieres in the U.S. on Hulu on Nov. 13.

Meredith Corp. Weighs Split of Publishing, Local TV Business

 9/9/2020 by Alex Weprin


Ben Gabbe/Getty Images
Meredith Corp.'s Tom Harty

The company is asking shareholders to vote on a charter amendment allowing for a "tax efficient" separation of its businesses.

Meredith Corp. is proposing an amendment to its corporate charter that would allow for the company to split its national media business and its local media business, though the company is emphasizing that no such split is imminent.

The company's national media division includes its publishing unit, which produces magazine titles like People, Entertainment Weekly, Better Homes & Gardens, Travel + Leisure, and Martha Stewart Living, among many others.

Its local TV business includes 18 TV stations across 13 states, including the CBS affiliates in Atlanta, St. Louis and Phoenix, and Fox affiliates in Las Vegas and Portland, Oregon.

In a statement announcing the amendment, the Des Moines, Iowa-based company said it "is not in response to any specific conversations or events. Instead, the Company believes it is a prudent step to increase the number of options available."

Meredith Corp. added that there is no timeline for or assurance of any split, though it stressed any separation would be "tax efficient" and would preserve the rights of shareholders.

"In order to maximize the flexibility of our Board and senior management to optimize transaction structure and tax efficiency and maintain the status quo voting rights of our shareholders regardless of transaction structure should the Board and senior management determine that a transaction is in the interest of shareholders, we are seeking a clarifying amendment to our Restated Articles of Incorporation," the proposal reads.

A separation, if it comes to fruition, would continue a more than decade-long trend of media companies splitting their print/publishing and television brands. In 2013 Rupert Murdoch split his company News Corp. in two, separating its U.S. TV businesses into 21st Century Fox. In 2015, Gannett spun off its local TV business into TEGNA, while keeping its legacy TV newspaper business. Likewise, in 2014 Tribune split its local TV and newspaper business into Tribune Publishing and Tribune Media.

TV Station Giants to Benefit From Record Political Ads in 2020, Analyst Says

 9/9/2020 by Georg Szalai

Getty Images


Joe Biden on day 4 of the Democratic National Convention 2020.


Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden's record August fundraising means "both campaigns are tracking towards record fundraising and advertising spending," says Guggenheim's Curry Baker.

Election season is on track to bring in record political advertising spending, with big broadcast TV station groups, such as Nexstar, Gray and Tegna, among the key beneficiaries, according to an analyst report.

Guggenheim Securities analyst Curry Baker on Wednesday forecast "a record political cycle in 2020 with total political advertising expected to exceed $10 billion." He mentioned ad prognosticator GroupM's forecast along those lines, which compares with the $8.7 billion recorded during the 2018 mid-term elections.

Local TV stations are benefitting from this, the analyst said, writing: "We believe political spending on local TV could top $3.2 billion, a 20 percent-plus increase from 2018, the previous record cycle."

One key driver of latest momentum was Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden's record August fundraising. "Last week, the Biden campaign announced it raised $365 million during the month of August, setting a one-month record, previously held by President Obama – $193 million in September 2008)," the analyst explained. "Looking back to August 2016, Hillary Clinton raised $143 million and then-candidate Trump raised $90 million. The good news for broadcast TV is that Biden is spending heavily on traditional advertising."

For example, in early August, the Biden campaign unveiled a $280 million fall advertising blitz, including $220 million allocated for TV, which Baker said was "a record political advertising buy."

President Donald Trump's campaign at the end of July had $300 million of cash and had raised $1.1 billion, with August numbers not yet available, the Guggenheim analyst noted. "Recent reports are saying the President's campaign is looking to accelerate fundraising efforts, presumably due to Biden's huge August haul, and the President is considering spending $100 million of his own money over the next two months," he said, concluding: "Our bottom-line takeaway is that both campaigns are tracking towards record fundraising and advertising spending with two months left until the election."

Looking at competitive states for the presidential election, as well as key Senate and gubernatorial races, Baker's takeaways are two-fold: "All data to date supports a robust 2020 political cycle; and we believe the pure-play local TV stations groups (Nexstar, Gray, Tegna) are best positioned to benefit from the 2020 presidential cycle." He said Nexstar remains his top stock pick among local TV broadcasters, followed by Gray.

With Republicans controlling the Senate 53-47, but the future being in play Baker also argued that "the current state of all the races shows a dead heat for control," with six Senate contests considered a toss-up and another six being close. "The top 10 Senate races have raised $465 million (through the end of June or July), on pace to meet, and possibly exceed, $612 million from the top 10 Senate campaigns in 2018 and already ahead of the $383 million raised by top Senate campaigns in 2016," the analyst said. "We expect fierce spending, both by campaigns and third parties, on Senate seats over the [next] two months."

Baker's bullish commentary on local TV groups comes after Kagan, the media research unit of S&P Global Market Intelligence, had said in a report last week that TV station firms' political ad revenue had been "negatively impacted" by COVID-19 during the second quarter, but a "huge second half" of the year was "looming." It added: "Fresh off the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, political advertising is ramping up for U.S. TV broadcasters as limitations due to COVID-19 are expected to boost TV's take of the important revenue segment."


GEORG SZALAI

Naomi Osaka said she cried watching messages of thanks from the parents of Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery after her latest US Open win

Meredith Cash
7 hours ago THE INSIDER

Naomi Osaka has kept the spotlight on police brutality during the US Open by wearing masks bearing the names of high-profile victims of gun violence. Danielle Parhizkaran-USA TODAY Sports

Naomi Osaka has kept the spotlight on police brutality in the United States by wearing masks printed with the names of high-profile victims of gun violence during each round of this year's US Open.

So far, she's donned masks bearing the names of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery.

After her quarterfinal victory Tuesday, Osaka watched video messages of Martin's mother and Arbery's father thanking the two-time Grand Slam champion for raising awareness about violence against Black people.

Though she was smiling and composed during the broadcast, Osaka later revealed that she "cried so much" once she was off camera.

"It was really emotional," Osaka said during a post-match press conference. "At first I was a bit in shock, but now that I'm here and I took the time I'm really grateful and I'm really humbled."

Naomi Osaka has been absolutely clinical on the court during her run through the 2020 US Open, but her off-court activism has taken an emotional toll.

The 22-year-old tennis superstar has kept the spotlight on police brutality and gun violence in the United States by wearing masks printed with the names of high-profile victims during each round of the New York-based major.

Through the quarterfinals of the tournament, she's donned masks dedicated to Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Trayvon Martin, and Ahmaud Arbery.

Naomi Osaka wears a custom-made mask bearing Trayvon Martin's name. Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

After Osaka's 6-3, 6-4 quarterfinal victory over Shelby Rogers Tuesday evening, ESPN played video messages from Sybrina Fulton and Marcus Arbery — the mother of Trayvon Martin and the father of Ahmaud Arbery, respectively.


At 17 years old, Martin was shot and killed by self-proclaimed neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman while walking home from a local convenience store on February 26, 2012. Eight years later, Arbery — a 25 year old Black man — was hunted down by white vigilantes while he was jogging in his neighborhood in Glynn County, Georgia.

In short clips aired on Tuesday night's broadcast, the pair thanked the two-time Grand Slam champion for her commitment to bringing attention to their slain sons and the gun violence that continues to plague the country.

Naomi Osaka dons a mask bearing Breonna Taylor's name. AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

"I just want to say thank you to Naomi Osaka for representing Trayvon Martin on your customized mask," Fulton said. "We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Continue to do well. Continue to kick butt at the US Open. Thank you."

"Naomi, I just want to tell you thank you for the support of my family," Arbery added. "And God bless you for what you're doing."

—Ben Crump (@AttorneyCrump) September 9, 2020

Osaka smiled and kept her composure while watching the clips and reacting on camera. She commended both Fulton and Arbery for their continued strength in the wake of their familial tragedies and told the interviewer that it "means a lot" to hear from them both.

"I feel like I'm a vessel at this point in order to spread awareness," Osaka said on the broadcast. "It's not gonna dull the pain, but hopefully I can help with anything that they need."

But in a tweet sent out later in the evening, Osaka said that she became extremely emotional once they stopped filming.

"I tried to hold it in on set but after watching these back I cried so much," she wrote.

—NaomiOsaka大坂なおみ (@naomiosaka) September 9, 2020

The 2018 US Open champion — whose father is Haitian and mother is Japanese — echoed similar sentiments in her post-match press conference. She said she was "just trying really hard not to cry" while on camera and described Fulton's and Arbery's messages as "surreal" and "extremely touching."

"I feel like what I'm doing is nothing — it's a speck of what I could be doing," Osaka told reporters.

"It was really emotional. At first I was a bit in shock, but now that I'm here and I took the time I'm really grateful and I'm really humbled."
—US Open Tennis (@usopen) September 9, 2020

Osaka has said she will continue to wear the masks throughout the US Open. She'll return to Arthur Ashe Stadium Thursday to take on 28th seed Jennifer Brady for a trip to the final.

Read more:
Naomi Osaka wore a Breonna Taylor mask heading into her first-round US Open victory

Naomi Osaka wore a Black Lives Matter shirt on the court after opting to compete in her rescheduled semifinal match Friday

Naomi Osaka was 2 matches away from winning a tournament but dropped out at the last minute in protest of police violence

Naomi Osaka Wins Thanks From Black Victims’ Families For Wearing Masks With Their Names At U.S. Open

Carlie Porterfield

Forbes Staff
Business
I cover breaking news

TOPLINE 

Naomi Osaka, the tennis champion working her way through the rounds of the U.S. Open, received a heartfelt surprise Tuesday night when the parents of Travyvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery thanked her for wearing face masks with their names and those of other Black victims of violence before and after her matches in a bid to draw attention to police brutality and racism in the U.S.

Naomi Osaka wears a mask with the name of George Floyd on it on Tuesday at the U.S. Open in New York ... [+] GETTY IMAGES

KEY FACTS

Throughout the U.S. Open, Osaka has worn face masks emblazoned with the names of Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery and Trayvon Martin, Black people who died either at the hands of the police or in violent struggles with whites believed to be motivated by racism.

On Tuesday night, broadcaster ESPN showed Osaka pre-recorded messages from parents of two of the people whose names Osaka wore.Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, thanked her for representing her son and other victims on her masks, saying “we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Continue to do well, continue to kick butt at the U.S. Open.” 

“Naomi, I just want to tell you thank you for the support for my family and God bless you for what you’re doing,” Ahmaud Arbery Sr., Arbery’s father, told her. “My family really, really appreciates that.”

“It means a lot,” Osaka, who was born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, said in response to the videos. “They’re so strong. I’m not sure what I would be able to do if I was in their position. I feel like I’m a vessel at this point to spread awareness. It’s not going to dull the pain, but hopefully I can help with anything that they need.”

Later on Twitter, Osaka said she was moved to tears by the video messages—and that she prepared seven masks to wear with seven names, one for each round of the U.S. Open if she progresses to the finals.

KEY BACKGROUND

Osaka is no stranger to advocating for causes she believes in, both on and off the court. In August, she announced she would forgo the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open tournament to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin. “If I can get a conversation started in a majority white sport I consider that a step in the right direction,” Osaka said. The entire tournament later followed her lead and paused play for an entire day. “As a sport, tennis is taking a stand against racial inequality and social injustice,” the Association of Tennis Professionals Tour said in a statement.

CRUCIAL QUOTE

“I tried to hold it in on set but after watching these back I cried so much,” Osaka shared later on Twitter. “The strength and the character both of these parents have is beyond me. Love you both, thank you.”

FURTHER READING

Naomi Osaka Drops Out Of Tennis Tournament Semifinal To Protest Police Brutality (Forbes)

Naomi Osaka Is The Highest-Paid Female Athlete Ever, Topping Serena Williams (Forbes)

Naomi Osaka’s Powerful Tribute to Victims of Police Violence
By Hannah Gold THE CUT

Photo: Getty Images

Last month, Japanese tennis champion Naomi Osaka, the highest-paid female athlete in the world, effectively shut down the Women’s Tennis Association for a couple days by announcing she would strike alongside other professional sports players in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. Since then, Osaka has continued her activism for victims of police brutality on the court by wearing a series of face masks emblazoned with the names of Black men and women who have been killed by cops and armed vigilantes. Osaka brought seven masks with seven different names to the tournament, prepared to wear one for each match. So far she has worn five: Breonna Taylor, Elijah McClain, George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Trayvon Martin.

What Naomi Osaka is doing at the US Open this year is powerful. pic.twitter.com/SqMMF1qRk5— Lynn V 😷 (@lynnv378) September 7, 2020

After winning her U.S. Open quarterfinals match on Tuesday, Osaka appeared on ESPN, where she was surprised with a video message from the mother of Trayvon Martin and the father of Ahmaud Arbery. Martin was 17 when he was murdered by neighborhood-watch coordinator George Zimmerman in 2012; Arbery, 25, was jogging in his neighborhood in Brunswick, Georgia, earlier this year when two white men in a pickup truck chased him down and shot him dead. Three suspects have been charged in connection with Arbery’s murder.

Sybrina Fulton, Martin’s mother, said in the video message, “I just want to say thank you to Naomi Osaka for representing Trayvon Martin on your customized mask, and also for Ahmaud Arbery and Breonna Taylor. We thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Continue to do well. Continue to kick butt at the U.S. Open.” Marcus Arbery Sr. said in a separate message, “God bless you for what you’re doing and you supporting our family with my son. My family really, really appreciates that.”

Osaka, visibly moved upon seeing the videos, responded first by saying, “It means a lot … They’re so strong. I’m not sure what I would be able to do if I was in their position. I feel like I’m a vessel, at this point, in order to spread awareness, and it’s not going to dull the pain, but hopefully I can help with anything they need.” Later, in a news conference, Osaka reflected again on that moment, saying, “I was just trying really hard not to cry. It’s extremely touching that they would feel touched by what I’m doing.

The throne speech must blaze a bold new path — including imposing a wealth tax

September 9, 2020 

The speech from the throne is only weeks away. Moments like these — pandemics, depressions, wars — are historical turning points, often marking a time period when fundamental change toward social and economic equality become possible.

Unlike the apparently failed state south of the border that seems to be trudging toward a dystopian future, the federal government has implemented a commendable, if imperfect, plan to protect Canadians’ health and safety, support unemployed workers and help struggling businesses in this time of pandemic-induced shock.

Longer term, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has promised to rebuild the economy, address inequality and take bold action on the climate emergency. Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has written:


“Rising income inequality and a hollowed-out middle class are the dominant social and political challenge facing our generation.”

Will they follow through on these promises? Or will they appease the people who derive their power from wealth — or plutocrats, as Freeland called them in her book of the same name — and ultimately acquiesce to the parameters they set on what kind of change is acceptable?

So far there has been no mention of a wealth tax or an increase in the income tax rate for the wealthiest Canadians, the rebuilding of the badly frayed social safety net or the expansion of universal health care, notably via universal public pharmacare. Nor have there been any bold measures to decarbonize the economy that align with the government’s net-zero 2050 target.
Debt, deficit drumbeats

Corporate mouthpieces are beating the austerity drums, warning about rampant debt and deficits. The Business Council of Canada is urging the government to set clear fiscal targets and rein in spending to control the debt.

The Fitch credit rating agency — which in 2007 disastrously rated sub-prime mortgage bonds as Triple A, a contributing factor to the global financial crisis — has downgraded Canada’s credit rating due to the “deterioration of Canada’s public finances.” It’s also given a nod to Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole’s pledge to balance the budget.

As a result of government spending, the debt-to-GDP ratio is projected to rise to 50 per cent this year and next. That’s paltry compared to its rise to 130 per cent during the Second World War. No one complained then. There was a war to fight.

Bank of Canada Governor Tiff Macklem is seen during a news conference in July 2020 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

The Bank of Canada has been aggressively engaged in quantitative easing — creating money by purchasing government debt at virtually zero interest rates — to prevent an even deeper tanking of the economy.

It should continue to do so — notwithstanding the rising deficits and debt ratio — in order to rebuild a fragmented economy and social state and lead the green transition. Japan has been doing this for years, with the Bank of Japan owning the bulk of government debt.

As Nobel prize-winning economist Paul Krugman wrote earlier this year: “The only fiscal thing to fear is deficit fear itself.”

This is not to say that the government can run fiscal deficits indefinitely. Federal tax revenues have fallen as a share of GDP over the past 30 to 40 years. Corporate tax rates, as a share taxable income, are half what they were 25 years ago. They need to be rebuilt.
Income gap grows

Income and wealth inequality have risen to unprecedented levels over the past four decades. The pandemic has laid bare the consequences of this new gilded age.

In 1971, the top marginal income tax rates were as high as 80 per cent in Canada.

Tax brackets have been reduced from 17 to four. More importantly, the bulk of the wealthiest Canadians’ incomes are not from wages, but from their share holdings, which are taxed as capital gains at very low levels and only kick in when shares are sold.

Median household income in Canada has remained flat since 1982, while the average income of the richest one per cent has increased dramatically, doubling between 1982 and 2010 and widening further over the last decade.

Galen Weston Jr., right, Loblaw Companies Ltd. executive chairman, poses with and his father Galen Weston Sr., at the company’s annual general meeting in Toronto in May 2010. The Westons are among the richest families in Canada. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

According to recent estimates by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, the top one per cent of Canadian families hold 25 per cent of total family wealth.

The bottom 40 per cent of families hold basically no wealth, while the 1,000 richest families have some $325 billion in combined wealth. This contrasts with the total $3 billion combined wealth held by 12.8 million Canadian families. True to form, the five richest billionaires in Canada saw their wealth increase by nine per cent in the first three months of the pandemic.
Tax avoidance

The system has created massive opportunities for tax avoidance by the richest Canadians and large corporations. Canadian corporate assets in the leading 12 offshore tax havens reached $381 billion in 2019.

More than 90 per cent of the TSX60 have at least one subsidiary in a tax haven. The Canada Revenue Agency estimates approximately $3 billion in tax revenue is lost every year from funds that wealthy Canadians have sequestered in offshore tax havens.

The inequality gap will most definitely continue to rise over the next 10 years without a wealth or estate tax on the richest Canadians, without increasing the income and capital gains tax rate on the richest Canadians and without closing tax loopholes.
Climate emergency

In his new book, A Good War, Mobilizing Canada for the Climate Emergency, urban studies professor Seth Klein laments the new climate denialism that involves governments and industry leaders verbally accepting climate science but denying what the reality means for policy. Governments promise action but practise appeasement of corporate interests, delivering “underwhelming and contradictory policies.”

Governments have been setting and failing to meet emissions reduction targets for nearly three decades. Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions rose 20.9 per cent between 1990 and 2018.
Mark Carney is seen in this 2016 photo, when he was serving as governor of the Bank of England. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Mark Carney — formerly the Bank of Canada and Bank of England governor, and now a special envoy for climate action for the United Nations — has warned that climate is approaching a tipping point that could precipitate global financial and economic collapse, to say nothing of a planetary apocalypse. Carney is now serving as an adviser to the Trudeau government.

A recent United Nations Environment Program report estimated Canada’s emissions in 2030 would be 15 per cent above its Paris accord reduction target of 30 per cent over 2005 levels. That’s part of a growing global disconnect between rising temperature trends and commitments by governments to cut emissions.

Trudeau vowed Canada would exceed its 2030 commitment on the way to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. He promised that concrete actions, including legally binding five-year targets, would be revealed before the next UN climate summit in November.
Canadians want a wealth tax





Canada needs an ambitious social and economic plan that will hopefully present itself in the upcoming throne speech.

A recent Abacus survey found 74 per cent of Canadians believe the government should introduce a wealth tax of one to two per cent of the very rich.

It also found 72 per cent of Canadians supported a universal public pharmacare program. The Liberal government has waffled for decades on pharmacare and continues to do so, even in the face of recommendations from its own advisory panel on the need for it.

On climate, the Abacus poll found that the transition to a low-carbon economy was “extremely or very important” to 53 per cent of Canadians and “important” to another 20 per cent.

Will the public be heeded in the throne speech and the government’s subsequent fiscal update? Will there be a pledge for transformative change or will the plutocracy be appeased once again?

Tilting the scales towards change requires a broad-based, engaged movement. Canadians must mobilize

Author
  

Bruce Campbell

Adjunct professor, Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University, Canada
Disclosure statement

Bruce Campbell is affiliated with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Rideau Institute for International Affairs He is a research collaborator on the SSHRC Grant, York University, Adapting Work and Workplaces to Climate Change

Alexei Navalny poisoning: what theatrical assassination attempts reveal about Vladimir Putin’s grip on power in Russia

September 9, 2020 

Alexei Navalny remains in hospital in Germany after he was poisoned in Siberia. Anatoly Maltsev/EPA

Vladimir Putin’s intelligence and security organs have used a variety of lethal ways over the past few decades to dispatch those who oppose him or the Russian state – an increasingly difficult line to draw. These murders and attempted murders are often theatrical and laced with morbid messaging. The recent poisoning of Putin opponent Alexei Navalny with the nerve agent Novichok has again illustrated the Russian president’s willingness to sanction dramatic homicide as a tool of the state.

Putin’s prioritisation of theatrical vengeance – even at the expense of large-scale diplomatic reprisals and biting economic sanctions – reveals both the nature of his regime and his obsession with maintaining and projecting power.

Political assassination during Putin’s reign is in keeping with Soviet and Russian traditions, but the brazenness of the Navalny poisoning and its timing during the swelling Belarus protests shows both continuity and change. After Stalin’s death in 1953 the Politburo of the Communist Party, not a single person, was the embodiment of the state during the cold war. Putin has blurred and conflated such distinctions since he assumed power in 2000.
Ruthlessness

Like his Soviet forebears, Putin presides over a declining state in which power intermingles with corruption and extrajudicial murder. The attempted poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer and British spy Sergei Skripal in 2018 first introduced Novichok into the British vernacular. Fellow Russian intelligence officer and British agent Alexander Litvinenko did not survive his poisoning in 2006 with Polonium-210 in a cup of tea. His murder, according to the official British inquiry, was “probably” approved by Putin personally.

Putin’s well of ruthlessness runs deep, and he has not hidden his willingness to engage in “wet affairs” – such as murders, kidnapping or sabotage. It would be self-defeating to keep his readiness for vengeance secret: it’s a message he wants those Russians who may get grassroots political inspiration from the protests over the border in Belarus to hear.

When asked about specific killings, Putin routinely evades such questions as deftly as a talented spy evades surveillance. But when speaking in general terms, Putin has been clear. Globalsecurity.org and others quoted the Russian leader as threatening that “traitors will kick the bucket, trust me”, after Skripal was released in a spy swap in 2010.

Personal attacks on Putin are seen as existential attacks on the Russian state. Alexei Druzhinin/Sputnik/Kre/EPA

Given the melding of leader with state, Putin has increasingly characterised personal disloyalty as a threat to the Russian state. So although former intelligence turncoats are frequent targets of Putin’s vengeance, victims also include journalists and political rivals, particularly those who investigate, expose, and criticise corruption among Putin and his inner circle. Navalny’s apparently effective efforts to organise legitimate opposition through the ballot box would be intolerable for any autocrat who is unsure how to govern without complete control.
Soviet poisoning playbook

Although poisoning is arguably the most dramatic form of Russian state-sponsored murder, outspoken Putin critics have been assassinated with more pedestrian means: in politician Boris Nemtsov’s case, four bullets in the back in February 2015. Likewise, Russian investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya was shot on October 7 2006 – also Putin’s birthday – in her Moscow apartment building. Such killings could be cynically attributed to unfortunate street crime in a case of implausible denial, but Novichok leaves no room for doubt.

Read more: Novichok: how are victims surviving poisoning?

Perceived enemies of the Russian state, like the Soviet Union before it, have met their ends in a dizzying variety of gruesome ways, but why does the fascination with poison endure? There are tactical and strategic considerations. An assassin cannot expect a clean getaway after shooting a pedestrian on Waterloo Bridge in London, but a puncture wound with a ricin-tipped umbrella would suffice, as in the case of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov’s assassination by Soviet intelligence in 1978.

Today, Soviet-created Novichok has replaced ricin. It offers the assassin advantages such as stealth and time for escape. It can be administered by exposure to everyday items such as doorknobs or tea. It appears in a sleepy city like Salisbury, as in the case of Skripal, or on Navalny’s flight from Siberia.

Additionally, a poison victim suffers, often publicly, yielding strategic effects. The photographs of the pitiable Litvinenko, hairless, gaunt, suffering in his hospital bed, grimly underscored the intended message. While any thug can murder with a gun, Soviet and subsequently Russian leaders have made assassination into a dramatic art form. The use of exotic poisons shows that confrontations with power are not a battle between two people, but rather bring the full resources of the state to bear against an individual, framing the situation as hopeless and futile. Poison evokes fear that you are never safe, never out of reach.

Choppy waters

Putin is a standard-bearer, rather than a pioneer in the long history of Russian political assassination. Still, the brazenness of an unambiguous assassination attempt on a figure like Navalny, and the political circumstances in Minsk, matter. They can be interpreted as the act of a leader whose hand may be feeling unsteady on the rudder of the ship of state.

At the same time, however, recent Russian constitutional reforms have erased any line between leader and the state, and may give Putin the confidence to deal even more harshly with opponents. But this expanded power has not offered more tools to deal with, or co-opt, the most vocal opponents. Those who cannot be bribed must be intimidated. Those who cannot be intimidated must be silenced.

Read more: Belarus: what role could Russia play in Alexander Lukashenko's future?

If Putin has successfully manipulated the political process to make himself president for life, the coronavirus has been less cooperative in bending to his will. Claims of a successful COVID-19 vaccine notwithstanding, Russia’s ineffective response to the pandemic has laid bare the inadequacy of the regime. With the economic consequences of the pandemic and the oil crisis, combined with general Russian Putin fatigue, opposition to Putin is likely to expand.

Given Putin’s apparent legal impunity, his need to distract from state failures and corruption, and disconcerting Belorussian anti-authoritarian protests on his doorstep, it’s hard to imagine Putin losing his taste for the loathsome theatre of political assassination.

Authors
 

Michael S Goodman

Professor of Intelligence and International Affairs, King's College London

 

David Frey

Director Center Holocaust and Genocide Studies, United States Military Academy West Point

David Gioe

Associate Professor of History, United States Military Academy West Point


King's College London provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.