The war is over: Armenia accepts heavy concessions, Russia sends peacekeepers
By TOC On Nov 10, 2020

MOSCOW, (BM) – The leaders of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement ending the war in Nagorno-Karabakh a month after its new outbreak, which returned to Baku much of the remaining Armenian-controlled territories since 1994, learned BulgarianMilitary.com citing Dnevnik.bg.

Read more: BulgarianMilitary.com 24/7 – All about Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

This is not the final solution to the conflict, which claimed 30,000 lives at the end of the last century and an unknown number in the last month. However, with it, Armenia, which has suffered heavy losses from Azerbaijan in recent weeks, is making radical concessions that have also led to a storming of parliament and protests in Yerevan.

“I signed statements with the presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan to end the Karabakh war as of 01:00 [23:00 EET time]. The text of the already published statement is inexpressibly painful for me personally and for our people. this decision is the result of an in-depth analysis of the military situation and the assessment of people who are familiar with it in the best possible way,” Pashinyan said. “This is not a victory, but it is not a defeat if we do not admit ourselves as losers. We will never admit that we lost,” the prime minister wrote on Facebook.

“What will you say now, Pashinyan? Karabakh is ours!” said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. As a result of the agreement, which was also confirmed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Moscow has already sent nearly 2,000 peacekeepers and 470 units of military equipment to Nagorno-Karabakh.

What else does the agreement include?

Armenia and Azerbaijan stop fighting in the positions occupied in the last month.
The Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, ruled by ethnic Armenians and unrecognized by no one, will not cease to exist, but it is not specified with what legitimacy. According to Aliyev, Baku offered the possibility of autonomy, but the other side insisted on independence.

The territories conquered by Azerbaijan this year will no longer enter the territory of the NKR. Among them is the strategically and symbolically important in historical and cultural terms for both countries city Shushi / Shusha (in Armenian and Azeri), captured a few days ago.

 Stepanakert remains under Armenian control and will be connected to Armenia through the Lachin Corridor, leading from Nagorno-Karabakh, through Azerbaijan to Armenian territory.
Armenia liberates and returns to Azerbaijan all territories that are not part of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region during the Soviet era, conquered in the 90s of the last century. Armenian forces controlled vast areas around the enclave, and Azerbaijan considered one-fifth of its territory occupied.

Russian forces (1960 troops, 90 armored personnel carriers and 380 units of vehicles and special equipment) are sent to the line of contact and along the corridor between Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia (much of which was captured by Azerbaijan), connecting Armenia and Stepanakert. They remain in Nagorno-Karabakh for five years. The deadline will be extended automatically if Baku and Yerevan “do not mind”, said Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.

However, Turkey will also take part in the peacekeeping effort. The Peacekeeping Center will include teams from Ankara as Azerbaijan’s main ally. Putin said last week that he wanted Turkey to be part of the peace process without going into details.

Azerbaijani refugees will be able to return to Nagorno-Karabakh after the Azerbaijani minority left the territory in the 1990s. The process will involve the UN.

Protests

The news was met with sharp discontent in Armenia. Residents of Yerevan, protesting against the cessation of hostilities in Karabakh, broke into the building of the Armenian government, TASS reported. World agencies showed similar footage from the Armenian parliament. The Speaker of the Armenian Parliament was beaten.

Aggressive protesters break down the doors of the offices in the building. Hundreds of people gathered in Republic Square in central Yerevan, where the government building is located. The police did not use force against the protesters and tried to calm them down.

The situation in Nagorno-Karabakh escalated on September 27, active clashes are taking place in the disputed territory. Martial law was introduced in Azerbaijan and Armenia, and mobilization was announced. Both sides reported killed and wounded, including civilians. In Baku, they announced the control of several Karabakh villages and strategic heights. Yerevan also reports about the shelling of the territory of Armenia.

Nagorno-Karabakh conflict

Azerbaijan and Armenia have been in conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh since February 1988, when the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region announced its withdrawal from the Azerbaijan SSR.

During the armed conflict in 1992-1994, the Azerbaijani side lost control of Nagorno-Karabakh and the seven areas adjacent to it. Since 1992, negotiations have been conducted within the framework of the OSCE Minsk Group on a peaceful settlement of the conflict. The group is led by co-chairs – Russia, USA and France.

In 1994, Azerbaijan, Armenia and the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, through the mediation of Russia, signed the Bishkek Armistice Protocol. At the same time, military operations did not stop there, which periodically renewed. The most significant exacerbation of the conflict was the four-day war of 2016. Then hundreds of soldiers on both sides became victims.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, during a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan last year, called for a rhetoric that would go against the fundamental principles endorsed by both sides and enshrined in the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act when resolving the situation around Nagorno-Karabakh. At the same time, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry admitted that much more needs to be done to achieve a long-term political settlement.

Anger Erupts in Armenia as Country Signs “Painful” Deal with Azerbaijan
By Tasos Kokkinidis
-Nov 9, 2020

This was the scene in Yerevan after news of the agreement

Armenia, Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on Tuesday to end six weeks of fierce fighting in Nagorno-Karabakh in a deal Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan described as “unspeakably painful” in an emotional Facebook post.

Under the deal, Azerbaijan will hold on to areas of Nagorno-Karabakh that it has taken during the conflict. Armenia has also agreed to withdraw from several other adjacent areas over the next few weeks.

During a televised online address, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin said that Russian peacekeepers would be deployed to patrol frontlines. The country’s defense ministry confirmed that 1,960 personnel would be involved, state news agency Tass reports.

Turkey will also take part in the peacekeeping process, according to Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, who joined President Putin during the address.

Anger in Yerevan

Describing the decision as “unspeakably painful for me personally and for our people”, Pashinyan said the agreement followed “an in-depth analysis of the military situation” that has seen Azeri forces closing in on Stepanakert, the region’s main city.

He said the agreement was “the best possible solution to the current situation”.



The Armenian leader in Nagorno-Karabakh, Arayik Harutyunyan, said he gave his agreement “to end the war as soon as possible”.

In the Armenian capital Yerevan, a large crowd has gathered to protest against the agreement. They broke into parliament and government buildings, shouting “We will not give it up.”

Unrest, Political Crisis Hit Armenia Over Nagorno-Karabakh Losses
November 10, 2020 

By RFE/RL's Armenian Service

Protesters storm the parliamentary assembly in Yerevan on November 10 after Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian said he had signed an agreement with the leaders of Russia and Azerbaijan to end the war in Nagorno-Karabakh.

Armenia was plunged into political crisis after opposition groups called on Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian to resign and a night of unrest over a Russian-brokered agreement with Azerbaijan to end fighting over the breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh left the fate of the deal uncertain.

In chaotic scenes in the capital, hundreds of opposition supporters in the early hours of November 10 stormed the government headquarters in Yerevan and parliament, ransacking offices and smashing windows in an outburst of anger.

Parliament Speaker Ararat Mirzoyan was injured in a mob attack and hospitalized, drawing a sharp rebuke from the government.

Earlier, thousands of angry demonstrators gathered in central Yerevan after Pashinian announced he had signed a Russian-brokered agreement to end six weeks of hostilities with Azerbaijan over the ethnic Armenian separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

The backlash over the agreement came after 17 opposition parties issued a joint statement on November 9 calling for Pashinian’s resignation amid a series of military defeats suffered by Armenia-backed ethnic Armenian forces in the enclave fighting against Azerbaijan.

Among the parties that signed the statement were the main parliamentary opposition party, Prosperous Armenia, led by tycoon Gagik Tsarukian, the former ruling Republican Party of former President Serzh Sarkisian, and the Armenian Revolutionary Federation (Dashnaktsutiun).

In his comments following the night of chaos, Pashinian implied that corruption in previous governments was also to blame for the current situation.

"We must prepare for revenge. We haven’t dealt properly with the corrupt, oligarchic scoundrels, those who robbed this country, stole soldiers’ food, stole soldiers' weapons," said Pashinian, a reformist pressing an anti-corruption campaign who came to power in 2018 in the wake of mass popular protests.

"I call on citizens with dignity to be ready for us going after the rioters and their bosses, after the corrupt part of Dashnaktsutyun, after the robbers from the Republican Party, the Prosperous Armenia Party, the deserters from the Hayrenik party who left their combat positions and fled, and must be tried for desertion," he charged.

The trilateral agreement between Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Russia to end fighting comes as Azerbaijani forces have made major battlefield gains in the six-week flare up of the decades-long conflict.

SEE ALSO:
Armenia, Azerbaijan Agree To Russia-Brokered End To Nagorno-Karabakh Conflict

The agreement would see Azerbaijan keep territory in Nagorno-Karabakh and surrounding areas captured during the conflict. It also calls for Armenian forces to hand over some areas they held outside the borders of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Nagorno-Karabakh is recognized as part of Azerbaijan, but the ethnic Armenians who make up most of the population reject Azerbaijani rule.

They have been governing their own affairs, with support from Armenia, since Azerbaijan's troops were pushed out of the region in a war that ended in a cease-fire in 1994.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Armenian Service
RFE/RL's Armenian Service
RFE/RL’s Armenian Service, operating out of a bureau in Yerevan, is a leading source of trusted reporting and technical innovation, reaching outsized audiences when developments demand authoritative, up-to-the-minute news most.

Great plague of 1660s bears sad similarities to Covid pandemic

Inner-city poor suffered most while rich decamped to countryside – but numbers started falling as winter cold killed off rats

Paul Brown
Mon 9 Nov 2020

An engraving showing a street scene in London during the great plague in the 1660s. Photograph: Universal History Archive/UIG via Getty Images


The king, Charles II, imposed a lockdown to prevent people mixing, ships with infection aboard were quarantined, food deliveries were organised for the poor, trade was suspended, fairs banned and the Scottish border closed. This is 1665 as attempts were made to halt the great plague. London lost 15% of its population. Officially the capital’s death toll was 68,596 but it was probably nearer to 100,000. Other big cities suffered too, especially York.

Mapping London's great plague of 1665

The king and his courtiers decamped to the safety of Oxford. Lawyers, rich merchants and doctors fled to the countryside. What sounds horribly familiar is that it was the poor and deprived, living in cramped conditions in the inner-city suburbs, that suffered most. The servants, shoemakers and tradesmen lost their jobs. A contact with an infectious person meant 40 days in quarantine at home. A red cross was painted on the door and watchmen were employed to make sure order was enforced. At night, carts passed through the streets with cries of “bring out your dead”.

The difference is that on this day, 10 November, the number of deaths began to fall dramatically, having peaked at 7,000 a day in September. The winter cold was killing off the rats and their fleas that spread the bubonic plague. Life began to return to normal by Christmas.

Joe Biden's victory is a reality check on Facebook's power to win elections

Margi Murphy
Mon, 9 November 2020

Joe Biden delivers remarks in Delaware on November 9

On October 15, Donald Trump’s campaign paid Facebook $30,000 (£23,000) to share the message “Biden and Harris would enact UNCONSTITUTIONAL gun control measures while ANTIFA terrorizes our cities and the Radical Left calls to DEFUND the Police” to adult voters in swing states Michigan, Pennsylvania and Arizona.

The advert, which included a video of a cannon in an apparent attempt to outwit the social network's rules around using pictures glorifying guns, was just one of several in a social media campaign that cost $201m in the seven months leading up to the election, according to figures from the Wesleyan Media Project.

The political advertising tracker says the 2020 election was the most expensive in political advertising history, with an estimated $1.5bn spent between April 9 and October 25.

But if we learn anything from the competing campaigns, the biggest spender on social media will not necessarily be the winner.

Donald Trump, whose campaign staff are connoisseurs of shareable, attention grabbing memes and GIFs that flood Facebook news feeds, spent more on the social network than Biden's campaign.

The Trump campaign forked out around $201m, or 47pc of its entire advertising budget on Facebook, YouTube and Snapchat and 41pc on broadcast TV. In contrast, the Biden campaign poured $249m or 44pc of the kitty into broadcast TV, according to Weslayan. Just 29pc, or $166m of Biden's budget went on social media.

An advert showing Joe Biden with Xi Jinping

Another clear difference between the pair’s strategy was its allocation for local TV and radio.

Burned by what happened to Hillary Clinton in 2016, the Biden campaign placed targeted advertising on local TV channels which were shown in swing states and cities. It focused on the really close states like Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania, investing just a little in Ohio and Iowa and states that turned out not to be that close, like Texas.

Overall, it spent $81m, or 14pc of its advertising, on local cable and 4pc on local radio. Trump spent just 2.8pc and 0.6pc on local TV and radio, respectively.

Joe Biden's victory is a problem not only for Trump but Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg because it proves the social network is not as influential as he may like Wall Street to believe.

“I do think social media is overrated,” says Travis Ridout, a professor of government and public policy at Washington State University and director of the Wesleyan Media Project.

“I’m not yet convinced that this year or 2016 was a social media election as Biden pumped money into TV advertising in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona which were states that ended up being really close.

“While both were targeting people in those states on social media I would be hard pressed to say that TV no longer matters and social media is where it is right now, given the pattern of results”.

Despite less overall spend on social media, Biden did pay slightly more than Trump for campaigns on Google and Snapchat. This suggests that it might be Facebook in particular that has proven less effective in this election cycle, Ridout says.

This is the first Presidential election that we are able to look at how much politicians are spending on social advertising for a US election. This makes it difficult to compare it to 2016, when Trump’s use of Facebook was regarded as hugely influential.

Zuckerberg has tried to publicly downplay political advertising and last week he claimed that it takes a “relatively small cut” from the market. As of late October, Facebook had sold $2.2bn worth of political advertising since May 2018 (when it first began publishing the figures).

He and fellow Big Tech chief executives have been toeing a fine line between keeping advertisers convinced that their platforms have a huge influence on its users, while assuring governments (and regulators) that they couldn’t sway an election.

The company was caught charging the Biden campaign higher fees to place adverts in the run up to November 3. An advert shown to older voters in Arizona cost the Trump campaign $14 per 1,000 people who saw it. But a Biden advert targeting the same demographic cost $91 per 1,000 impressions, according to the Markup. Facebook says this was due to its automated bidding system.

What is interesting, is the differing ways in which each campaign used Facebook: Biden to get a message out and Trump to source more donations or sign ups to mailing lists or his app, something that could be stored for use at a later date.

“I’m not saying Facebook is useless for a campaign as some people will say Facebook is useful for raising money that you can spend on TV advertising,” Ridout says.

“Social media campaigns are often a way to get more fundraising or to get people’s email addresses and are just one part of a comprehensive media strategy but to assume that targeted advertising made the election day for a specific candidate is just going too far. We just do not have any evidence that it is the case.”

Steve Passwaiter, the vice president of consultancy Kantar’s political advertising intelligence division agrees. “It has its defined place but is social media enough on its own to win a campaign?” he says.

“That’s probably giving it too much credit.”

Apple puts iPhone supplier Pegatron on probation after labor abuse

Christian Zibreg on November 9, 2020


Apple has suspended its partnership with Pegatron, a major iPhone supplier, after finding labor violations at a student workers’ program. Pegatron will be banned from new Apple contracts until it takes action to resolve the violations of Apple’s code of conduct for suppliers.

“We are working on the corrective actions and are confident that we will complete it soon,” said a Pegatron spokeswoman, adding the company fired the manager who oversaw the student worker program. Pegatron was found to have falsified paperwork to hide that students at its Shanghai and Kunshan campuses in eastern China worked night shifts, over-time and in positions unrelated to their majors.

Debby Wu and Mark Gurman, writing for Bloomberg:

The Cupertino technology giant said it discovered several weeks ago that the Taiwanese manufacturer misclassified student workers and allowed some to work nights and overtime in violation of Apple’s Supplier Code of Conduct. Employees then ‘went to extraordinary lengths’ to cover up the violations. It’s since placed its partner on probation until corrective action is completed, the US company said in a statement.

Apple said in a statement:
Pegatron misclassified the student workers in their program and falsified paperwork to disguise violations of our Code, including allowing students to work nights and/or overtime and in some cases to perform work unrelated to their major. The individuals at Pegatron responsible for the violations went to extraordinary lengths to evade our oversight mechanisms.

Pegatron is a contract manufacturer that Apple commissions to assemble some iPhone models. Apple relies on other partners to assemble its products, including Taiwan-based Foxconn which has been the target of criticism by labor activists over the years.

Pegatron’s statement:
Upon discovery of this non-compliant activity, we immediately took the student workers off production lines and worked with our customer and third-party experts to make appropriate arrangements for them to return to their homes or schools with proper compensation alongside all necessary support and care.

This suspension won’t impact Pegatron’s work with Apple on expanding iPhone assembly outside of China because it only covers new business. As a result, however, rival Luxshare Precision Industry could become the first mainland company to assemble the iPhone in 2021.

Apple suspends business with its 2nd-largest iPhone manufacturer, Pegatron, after discovering student-labor violations in China

Kate Duffy NOV 9, 2020

Employees before their shift starts at a Pegatron Corp. factory in Shanghai. Qilai Shen

Apple said Monday it had halted business with its supplier Pegatron after discovering labor violations in a student-worker program.
Pegatron, the second-largest iPhone manufacturer, misclassified students, allowed them to work night shifts and overtime, and let them perform work "unrelated to their major," Apple said.
An Apple spokesperson said: "Apple has placed Pegatron on probation and Pegatron will not receive any new business from Apple until they complete all of the corrective actions required."
This isn't the first time Apple has faced supply-chain trouble — in September 2019, it emerged that Apple and Foxconn, its biggest supplier, broke Chinese labor laws by employing too many temporary workers.

Apple said Monday it had suspended business with its second-largest iPhone supplier, Pegatron, over labor violations in the manufacturer's student-worker program.

The tech giant said that several weeks ago, it discovered the Taiwanese manufacturer "misclassified" student workers and let them perform work "unrelated to their major" at its plant near Shanghai.

Apple said the company also allowed students to work night shifts and overtime, which violated Apple's supplier code of conduct.

The news was first reported by The New York Times.

"Apple has placed Pegatron on probation and Pegatron will not receive any new business from Apple until they complete all of the corrective actions required," an Apple spokesperson said.

Apple said Pegatron falsified paperwork to hide the labor violations. 

"The individuals at Pegatron responsible for the violations went to extraordinary lengths to evade our oversight mechanisms," the spokesperson said.

Apple found no evidence of underage or forced labor, the spokesperson added.

Pegatron has fired the executive of the student program, and students have safely returned to their homes with financial compensation, Apple said.

Pegatron did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Apple relies on companies such as Pegatron, and its larger Taiwanese rival Foxconn, to assemble its products, such as the iPhone.

Apple has run into trouble with Foxconn, too.

In September 2019, a report published by China Labor Watch found that the US tech company and Foxconn broke Chinese labor laws by employing too many temporary workers at the largest iPhone factory in Zhengzhou, China.

Undercover investigators said they discovered that 50% of the factory's workforce was made up of temporary workers, even though Chinese law caps the proportion of temporary workers at 10%.

In October, Apple unveiled its latest lineup of new phones. The iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are available to buy now, while the iPhone 12 Mini and iPhone 12 Pro Max became available for preorder on November 6 and will ship on November 13.

Trump-appointed NASA boss will leave now that Biden is President-Elect

Image source: SpaceX

By Mike Wehner @MikeWehner
November 9th, 2020 

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has revealed that he will be leaving his post now that it appears Joe Biden will be President.
Bridenstine was appointed by Trump early on in his presidency, and the NASA boss has been trying to gain funding for a return to the Moon by 2024.
Biden will need to pick a new NASA Administrator once he’s sworn in as President in January.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine was appointed by Donald Trump shortly after taking office and now that it appears Joe Biden will be the next President of the United States, Bridenstine has revealed that he will be leaving his position with the US space agency.

Not long after Bridenstine’s appointment to the post, the Trump administration issued a mandate that the space agency find a way to accelerate its Moon mission plans and send humans back to the lunar surface by 2024. In the meantime, NASA and Bridenstine have done everything in their power to make that a reality, though securing funding for the accelerated timeline has been an uphill battle. Now, it seems, Bridenstine won’t have to worry about it anymore

Speaking with Aviation Week, Bridenstine said that he is likely headed for the door now that Joe Biden is President-Elect. The decision is not, Bridenstine claims, a political one, but rather to ensure that the relationship between the administrator of NASA and the President is as close as it can be.

“The right question here is ‘What’s in the best interest of NASA as an agency, and what’s in the best interest of America’s exploration program?’ Bridenstine told the outlet in an interview on November 8th. “For that, what you need is somebody who has a close relationship with the president of the United States. You need somebody who is trusted by the administration…. including the OMB [Office of Management and Budget], the National Space Council and the National Security Council, and I think that I would not be the right person for that in a new administration.”

Bridenstine credits many of NASA’s successes over the past four years to his close relationship with the current presidential administration. That, he says, is crucial if the space agency is to continue its success in both the short and long term.

It’s certainly not unusual for individuals who were appointed by a specific president to prepare their letters of resignation when that president leaves office. This is really no different, though it may complicate things slightly as NASA is in the midst of so many different new programs, and Bridenstine has been, presumably, crucial in making those things happen.

In any case, Bridenstine says that even if the Biden administration were to ask him to stick around, he’d leave anyway. That effectively rules out any possibility that he’ll be NASA’s administrator moving forward, and the Biden administration will have another role to fill once gains the power to do so in January.

Mike Wehner has reported on technology and video games for the past decade, covering breaking news and trends in VR, wearables, smartphones, and future tech. Most recently, Mike served as Tech Editor at The Daily Dot, and has been featured in USA Today, Time.com, and countless other web and print outlets. His love of reporting is second only to his gaming addiction.

Second Cable Fails At NSF’s Arecibo Observatory In Puerto Rico
November 9, 2020 University of Central Florida

A main cable that supports the Arecibo Observatory broke Friday at 7:39 p.m. Puerto Rico time.

Unlike the auxiliary cable that failed at the same facility on Aug. 10, this main cable did not slip out of its socket. It broke and fell onto the reflector dish below, causing additional damage to the dish and other nearby cables. Both cables were connected to the same support tower. No one was hurt, and engineers are already working to determine the best way to stabilize the structure.

A safety zone has been set up around the dish out of an abundance of caution and only personnel needed to respond to the incident are allowed onsite.

Officials haven’t determined why the main cable broke, but they suspect it is related to the extra load the remaining cables have been carrying since August. A monitoring team has been closely watching all the cables and platform since then as part of the facility’s safety and temporary emergency repair plan. Observers had noted and were tracking broken wires on the main cable that failed Friday. The facility was awaiting a team of engineers this week who were expected to begin temporary emergency repairs related to the August incident.


“This is certainly not what we wanted to see, but the important thing is that no one got hurt,” said Francisco Cordova, the director of the observatory. “We have been thoughtful in our evaluation and prioritized safety in planning for repairs that were supposed to begin Tuesday. Now this. There is much uncertainty until we can stabilize the structure. It has our full attention. We are evaluating the situation with our experts and hope to have more to share soon.”

The University of Central Florida, which manages the facility under a cooperative agreement with Universidad Ana G. Méndez and Yang Enterprises Inc. for the U.S. National Science Foundation, worked overnight with the engineering firms WSP, Thornton Tomasetti and Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates Inc. to come up with a strategy to address the new break. UCF retained these firms in September in connection with the first cable. UCF also notified NSF, which owns the facility and NASA. Drones and cameras are also being used to continue to monitor the structure.



The team hopes to be able to reduce the tension in the existing cables at the tower and install steel reinforcements to temporarily alleviate some of the additional load that is being distributed among the remaining cables. Experts are being mobilized to do the work as quickly as possible. The team will attempt to expedite the arrival of two new cables that were already on order. That’s the current plan pending further evaluation, which will be taking place over the next few days.

UCF has a supplemental funding request pending with the NSF to make temporary repairs related to the original break. There is no cost estimate for the new repairs that will be needed at this time.

Since the August incident, engineers have been working to determine the cause of the initial failure and to create temporary and long-term repair plans. Because there was no obvious cause for the break, the complexities of such a large and unique structure that was built in the 1960s, and the need to prioritize safety above all else, the development of a temporary emergency repair plan has taken some time. Implementation of the first repairs was scheduled to begin this coming week. For more on work being conducted related to the first break click here.

“This is not good, but we remain committed to getting the facility back online,” Cordova said. “It’s just too important of a tool for the advancement of science.”

The Arecibo Observatory is home to one of the most powerful telescopes on the planet. Its instruments are used by scientists around the world to conduct research in the areas of atmospheric sciences, planetary sciences, radio astronomy and radar astronomy. Arecibo is also home to a team that runs the Planetary Radar Project supported by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Program in NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office through a grant awarded to UCF.

Although the facility has suspended most of its operations since the August incident, researchers continue to use data already collected by Arecibo to push ahead with their research. The facility has endured many hurricanes, tropical storms and earthquakes since it was built more than 50 years ago. Through it all, the facility has continued to contribute to significant breakthroughs in space research in the area of gravitational waves, asteroid characterization, planetary exploration and more.
 

NOT TERRORISM
Lyon Greek Orthodox Priest Was Shot by Lover’s Husband

The Greek Orthodox priest shot earlier this month in the French city of Lyon was the victim of a jealous husband rather than an Islamic terrorist, French prosecutors said on Saturday

By Tasos Kokkinidis
-Nov 9, 2020

Father Nikolaos Kakavelakis. Credit: Communauté Hellénique de Lyon/Facebook.

Nikolaos Kakavelakis, 52, was shot twice with a sawed-off shotgun outside his church on October 31, in what police feared was a copycat attack, coming as it did just three days after three people were murdered in a terror attack at a church in Nice, with one of them beheaded.

But according to prosecutors, the priest put the police on the trail of his attacker as soon as he came out of a coma on Tuesday, telling them he believed he had been shot by the “jealous husband” of one of his conquests.

A 40-year Georgian man, who the Le Parisien newspaper named as “Giorgi P,” admitted to carrying out the attack after he was arrested on Friday.

He insists, however, that he had not wanted to kill Kakavelakis, who was having an affair with his 35-year-old Russian wife, named by the newspaper as Lela K.

The priest had announced that he was resigning from the church one month earlier.

Trump’s Turkish Ally Erdogan Stays Mum on Biden Victory
By Tasos Kokkinidis
-Nov 8, 2020

Donald J. Trump participates in a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Erdogan in 2019. Credit: White House

As world leaders, including Greece’s Kyriakos Mitsotakis, rushed to congratulate Joe Biden for his victory in the 2020 Presidential elections, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, remained silent.

Erdogan, along with the leaders of Russia, Israel, Iran, Hungary, Saudi Arabia and China, offered no initial congratulations to the president-elect.

The Turkish leader, who enjoyed exceptionally warm ties to the White House under Trump, was among those who stayed mum.

The only official response from Turkey was from main opposition leader who congratulated the incoming US president and vice president on their electoral victory.

“I would like to congratulate Joe Biden for his election as the 46th President of the United States of America and Kamala Harris as Vice-President,” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), said in English on Twitter.

“I look forward to strengthening Turkish-American relations and our strategic alliance,” he added.

The close ties between Trump and Erdogan were are once again in the spotlight a few days before the presidential elections.

In two separate reports, The New York Times and Reuters highlighted the questionable relationship between the two men, as they reveal that the White House quashed an investigation into a Turkish bank suspected of violating U.S. sanctions law, and stopped the imposition of sanctions on Turkey after the country acquired a Russian missile system.

Nearly one in five Covid patients later diagnosed with mental illness – study

Analysis shows nearly twice as many diagnoses over three months among those testing positive

The people living with post-Covid psychiatric disorders
Coronavirus – latest updates
See all our coronavirus coverage

Natalie Grover Science correspondent THE GUARDIAN
Tue 10 Nov 2020 
 

A healthcare worker tends to a patient in the Covid-19 Unit at United Memorial Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Photograph: Mark Felix/AFP/Getty Images

Nearly one in five people who have had Covid-19 are diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or insomnia within three months of testing positive for the virus, according to a study that suggests action is needed to mitigate the mental health toll of the pandemic.

The analysis – conducted by researchers from the University of Oxford and NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre – also found that people with a pre-existing mental health diagnosis were 65% more likely to be diagnosed with Covid-19 than those without, even accounting for known risk factors such as age, sex, race, and underlying physical conditions.

“This finding was unexpected and needs investigation. In the meantime, having a psychiatric disorder should be added to the list of risk factors for Covid-19,” said Dr Max Taquet, an NIHR academic clinical fellow and one of the authors of the analysis.

The calculations were made on the basis of roughly 70m US health records, including more than 62,000 cases of Covid-19 that did not require a hospital stay or an emergency department visit. The incidence of any diagnosis of mental ill-health in the 14 to 90 days after a Covid-19 diagnosis was 18.1%, including 5.8% that were a first diagnosis.
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In order to examine whether the excess risk was directly associated with Covid-19, the researchers compared data with six other conditions over the same period: influenza; other respiratory tract infections; a skin infection; gallstones; urinary tract stones; and the fracture of a large bone.

In the three months after Covid-19 diagnosis, 5.8% of patients had their first recorded diagnosis of psychiatric illness, compared with 2.5% to 3.4% of patients in the comparison cohorts – almost a doubling in risk, according to the paper published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry.

Paul Harrison, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Oxford, said more research was needed to establish whether a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder could be directly linked to getting coronavirus. General factors that influence physical health were not captured in the records analysed, such as socio-economic background, smoking, or use of drugs. There was also potential that the general stressful environment of the pandemic is playing a role, he noted.

Research suggests that people from poorer socio-economic backgrounds are more likely to suffer mental ill-health. Poverty also increases exposure to coronavirus, owing to factors like crowded housing and unsafe working conditions.

“Equally, it’s not at all implausible that Covid-19 might have some direct effect on your brain and your mental health. But I think that, again, remains to be positively demonstrated,” said Harrison.

A particularly concerning finding was the doubling of the diagnosis of dementia – which is typically irreversible – three months after testing positive for Covid-19, versus the other health conditions.

It may be that coming to a hospital or to see your doctor to get diagnosed with Covid-19 allows for other pre-existing conditions – such as dementia – to be diagnosed, noted Harrison.

“Having said that … it’s not at all unlikely that there may also be a brain effect of the virus in certain people that is going to cause certain more neurological symptoms and difficulties,” he said. “So, we’re particularly careful in not over-interpreting that association.”

Studies researching the impact of the virus on the brain and the central nervous system are under way, including one by scientists in the UK who have formed a partnership to explore the neurological and neuropsychiatric complications of Covid-19. In July, neurologists published details of more than 40 UK Covid-19 patients whose complications ranged from brain inflammation and delirium to nerve damage and stroke.

Only time will tell whether the incidence of psychiatric illness post-Covid-19 continue to rise or persist beyond the three-month period, the researchers added.

“It’s difficult to judge the importance of these findings … it may be unsurprising that this happens a bit more often in people with Covid-19, who may understandably have been worried that they might become seriously unwell and who will also have had to endure a period of isolation,” said David Curtis, an honorary professor at University College London and Queen Mary University of London, who was not involved in the study.

“Overall, the results reported seem broadly plausible, but I’m not sure that they have specific implications for patients or health services.”

US elections: Trump accuses Pfizer of delaying announcement on Covid vaccine to deny him a win

Donald Trump also said the US Food and Drug Administration should have approved the vaccine earlier ‘not for political purposes, but for saving lives’.

US President Donald Trump. | Mandel Ngan/ AFP

Incumbent United States President Donald Trump on Monday accused the US Food and Drug Administration and drug manufacturer Pfizer of withholding the announcement on Covid-19 vaccine ahead of the presidential elections in the country to deny him a “vaccine win”.

His comments came after Pfizer and German biotechnology company BioNTech on Monday announced that their coronavirus vaccine was more than 90% effective in phase three clinical trial

In a series of tweets, Trump claimed that the had always maintained “Pfizer and the others would only announce a vaccine after the election” and that the US Food and Drug Administration “should have announced it earlier, not for political purposes, but for saving lives.”

He also claimed that the vaccine would not have been available “for another four years”, “if Joe Biden were President”.

Trump did not give any evidence to back his claim and his comment on Biden was despite the fact that his election to the White House has been called.

Meanwhile, incumbent Vice President Mike Pence sought to take credit for the vaccine on behalf of the Trump administration, thanking a “public-private partnership”.

On the other hand, the office of President-elect Joe Biden issued a statement congratulating “the brilliant women and men” involved with the development of the vaccine. The statement, however, urged people to continue to maintain Covid-19 protocols, adding that “it will be many more months before there is widespread vaccination” in US.

The US has been registering record-high infection numbers in recent days in what is being called the “third wave” of the infection in the country. It has now become the first country to cross the grim mark of 1 crore cases.

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