Protesters besiege police station as Rochester officers suspended for PEPPER SPRAYING 9yo girl (VIDEOS)

2 Feb, 2021 Get short URL

People protest after police handcuffed and sprayed a chemical irritant at a nine-year-old girl in Rochester, New York, US, February 1, 2021 © Reuters / Lindsay DeDario

Protesters in Rochester, New York toppled a police barricade during a demonstration after footage emerged showing officers pepper spraying a handcuffed 9-year-old, stoking outrage and prompting the suspension of the cops involved.

The demonstrators staged a march on Monday to protest the excessive use of force against the young girl, who was pepper sprayed as nine officers responded to a domestic disturbance call last week, rallying outside the Rochester Police Department to demand accountability.

ALSO ON RT.COM ‘I want these officers fired!’ Outrage after police pepper-spray handcuffed NINE-YEAR-OLD girl in Rochester, New York (VIDEO)

Footage circulating online showed the march and ensuing rally, including the moment protesters overturned a metal barrier erected outside the police station, allowing them to advance to an inner fence surrounding the squad car parking lot.

Demonstrators were also seen rattling the fence around the lot, but while police reportedly told them to disperse, little was done to push back the protesters, with officers instead milling in the doorway of the police station and periodically issuing orders through a loudspeaker set up in the parking lot.

Activists passed around a megaphone to deliver brief speeches during the rally, some heard calling for the firing of the officers who sprayed the young girl, while footage from earlier in the day showed a sizable crowd taking part in the march, estimated in the hundreds by videographer Brenden Gutenschwager.

As the protest was still underway, Rochester Mayor Lovely Warren issued a statement noting that at least some of the officers involved in the 9-year-old’s pepper-spraying had been suspended, pending an internal probe. While it isn’t clear whether all nine officers present during the incident were placed on leave, those who were suspended will continue to receive full pay, according to USA Today.

Body camera footage of the encounter emerged on Monday, with the 1-minute video showing a distressed girl handcuffed in the back of a police car as officers attempt to subdue her. Through the girl’s sobs, a female officer is heard threatening to pepper spray the child if she doesn’t calm down, and proceeds to do so moments later. Police were reportedly responding to “family trouble” and a potentially stolen vehicle at the time, and claim the girl was handcuffed for her own “safety” and at the request of one of her parents.



The girl has since been released to her family, but the footage has kicked off a major bout of controversy, inflaming existing tensions between police and Rochester residents, many of whom are still up in arms over the killing of Daniel Prude. The 41-year-old African American man died last March after officers pinned him to the ground during a mental health crisis, where he eventually stopped breathing. His death has also stoked a series of protests.

After weathering hours of snowfall and below-freezing temperatures, the marchers dispersed later on Monday evening, seen leaving the police station in groups to minimize the chance of arrests on their way out.

Researchers identify foods that cause 90% of food allergies

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.

Jan 27 2021

The United States Department of Agriculture identifies a group of "big eight" foods that causes 90% of food allergies. Among these foods are wheat and peanuts.

Sachin Rustgi, a member of the Crop Science Society of America, studies how we can use breeding to develop less allergenic varieties of these foods. Rustgi recently presented his research at the virtual 2020 ASA-CSSA-SSSA Annual Meeting.

Allergic reactions caused by wheat and peanuts can be prevented by avoiding these foods, of course. "While that sounds simple, it is difficult in practice," says Rustgi.

Avoiding wheat and peanuts means losing out on healthy food options. These two foods are nutritional powerhouses.

Wheat is a great source of energy, fiber, and vitamins. Peanuts provide proteins, good fats, vitamins and minerals.

"People with food allergies can try hard to avoid the foods, but accidental exposure to an allergen is also possible," says Rustgi. Allergen exposure can lead to hospitalization, especially for people with peanut allergies.

"For others, avoiding wheat and peanuts is not easy due to geographical, cultural, or economic reasons," explains Rustgi.

Rustgi and his colleagues are using plant breeding and genetic engineering to develop less allergenic varieties of wheat and peanuts. Their goal is to increase food options for people with allergies.

For wheat, researchers focus on a group of proteins, called gluten.

The gluten in bread flour makes dough elastic. Gluten also contributes to the chewy texture of bread.

But gluten can cause an immune reaction for individuals with Celiac disease. In addition, others experience non-celiac gluten sensitivity, leading to a variety of adverse symptoms.

Researchers have been trying to breed varieties of wheat with lower gluten content. The challenge, in part, lies in the complicated nature of gluten genetics. The information needed to make gluten is embedded in the DNA in wheat cells.

But gluten isn't a single protein - it's a group of many different proteins. The instructions cells needed to make the individual gluten proteins are contained within different genes.

In wheat, these gluten genes are distributed all over a cell's DNA. Since so many portions of the DNA play a role in creating gluten, it is difficult for plant breeders to breed wheat varieties with lower gluten levels.


When we started this research, a major question was whether it would be possible to work on a characteristic controlled by so many genes."

Sachin Rustgi, Member of Crop Science Society of America

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For peanuts, the situation is similar. Peanuts contain 16 different proteins recognized as allergens.

"Not all peanut proteins are equally allergenic," says Rustgi. Four proteins trigger an allergic reaction in more than half of peanut sensitive individuals.

Like the gluten genes in wheat, the peanut allergen genes are spread throughout the peanut DNA.

"Affecting this many targets is not an easy task, even with current technology," says Rustgi.

Rustgi and the research team are testing many varieties of wheat and peanuts to find ones that are naturally less allergenic than others.

These low-allergenic varieties can be bred with crop varieties that have desirable traits, such as high yields or pest resistance. The goal is to develop low-allergenic wheat that can be grown commercially.

In addition to traditional breeding efforts, Rustgi is also using genetic engineering to reduce allergenic proteins in wheat and peanuts.

For example, a technology called CRISPR allows scientists to make very precise changes to a cell's DNA.

Rustgi is using CRISPR to target gluten genes in wheat. Recent improvements in CRISPR technology allow researchers to target many genes at once.

Genes targeted by CRISPR are changed or mutated. This means that cells can no longer 'read' these genes to make the specific proteins.

"Disrupting the gluten genes in wheat could yield wheat with significantly lower levels of gluten. A similar approach would work in peanuts," says Rustgi.

Other approaches include understanding how gluten production is regulated in wheat cells. As it turns out, one protein serves as a 'master regulator' for many gluten genes.

That's important because disrupting this master regulator could lead to reduced amounts of gluten in wheat. Targeting a single gene is much easier than trying to disrupt the several gluten genes.

"Wheat and peanuts are the major sources of proteins to many, especially those living in resource-deprived conditions," says Rustgi. "Finding affordable ways to make wheat and peanuts available for all is very important."

Developing wheat and peanuts with reduced allergen levels is a key step toward this goal.

These crops will also reduce accidental exposure to allergens. Also, they would limit the severity of reactions if exposure did happen."

Sachin Rustgi, Member of Crop Science Society of America

Source:

American Society of Agronomy

Simple soil remediation can save children from lead toxicity
Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Feb 2 2021

Simple soil remediation can substantially reduce levels of the toxic metal lead in the blood of children living in heavily contaminated areas, says a new study conducted in Bangladesh.

Lead exposure can affect every system of the human body. In children it can affect brain development, resulting in reduced intelligence. Every year, intelligence deficit and reduced productivity from lead exposure costs the world about US$1 trillion and Bangladesh US$16 billion, according to the study.

To be published in the March issue of Environmental Research, the study showed that removing contaminated soil and fallen leaves led to a 96 per cent reduction in soil concentrations of lead and a 35 per cent lowering of lead in the blood of children living in an area where lead batteries were recycled.

While the industrialized world has largely eliminated lead poisoning in children, the potent neurotoxin still lurks in one in every three children globally, said a press release by Stanford University, California, which conducted the study, along with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh, and other institutes.

Soil remediation involved scraping off 1—2centimetres of soil and leaf matter in areas close to smelting zones and 4—5centimetres within smelting zones. To ensure that sufficient soil was removed, lead concentrations in underlying soil were measured, the study says.

Stephen Luby, study co-author and professor at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, says that all 69 children who participated in the study had dangerously high blood lead levels. "With focused efforts to decontaminate the area the intervention substantially reduced their blood lead levels," he tells SciDev.Net.

After 14 months of remediation, median soil lead concentration dropped from 1,400 milligrams per kilogram to 55 milligrams per kilogram. Also, as observed in 25 children, median blood lead levels dropped from 22.6 micrograms per decilitre to 14.8micrograms per decilitre.

Jenna Forsyth, corresponding author of the study and post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University says soil remediation is a critical tool to reduce lead exposure.


Without remediation, contaminated soil would be a source of lead exposure for generations since the estimated half-life of lead in soil is estimated at around 700 years."

Jenna Forsyth, Corresponding Author

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An earlier assessment in Bangladesh found nearly 300 recycling sites with elevated soil lead concentrations with some 700,000 people across the country living within contaminated sites, said the Stanford University press release.

According to Forsyth while soil remediation of a few priority sites is affordable even in low- to middle-income countries, Bangladesh presents a particularly difficult case. "With hundreds of such sites in Bangladesh, it would be too expensive to remediate all of them," Forsyth says.

The researchers note that unsafe recycling of batteries substantially contributes to childhood lead poisoning. At least 80 per cent of global lead use is in batteries required for automobiles and backup power storage systems.

Michal Shoshan, research group leader of the Department of Chemistry in the University of Zurich, Switzerland, says the study implies that relatively low-cost approaches can dramatically reduce lead in the environment and reduce blood lead levels of children living in or near contaminated areas. "Yet, a reduction of only 35 per cent [in blood lead levels] shows that educational tools, household cleaning and soil scraping, are not enough."

Fighting lead poisoning calls for "changes in legislation, education, environmental remediation, and safe and nontoxic medications to deplete the toxic metal from the bodies of these children", Shoshan tells SciDev.Net.

Source:
SciDev.Net

Young, Black patients at higher risk of death in the first year after a heart transplant

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.Feb 2 2021

Young, Black adults are more than twice as likely to die in the first year after a heart transplant when compared to same-age, non-Black heart transplant recipients, according to new research published today in Circulation: Heart Failure, an American Heart Association journal.

Research has consistently shown that Black heart transplant recipients have a higher risk of death following heart transplantation compared to non-Black recipients. Black patients have a higher prevalence of cardiovascular disease at younger ages, and therefore, they may need heart transplants at younger ages.

Researchers hypothesized that studies focused on disparities among Black heart transplant recipients may be missing an even greater disparity – younger Black patients.

Generally, older patients are at a higher risk of having worse outcomes following a major procedure. Organ transplantation, however, is a complex operation that requires lifelong, specialized medical and surgical care. Continued access to the health care system and financial resources such as insurance may be unfairly limited in younger patients, potentially leading to worse outcomes."

Errol L. Bush, MD, Study Senior Author and Associate Professor of Surgery, and Surgical Director of the Avanced Lung Disease and Lung Transplant Program, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore

Researchers analyzed the outcomes of almost 23,000 adults (median age 56, 25% female) who had a heart transplant between Jan. 1, 2005, and Jan. 31, 2017. Patient information was obtained from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, a registry that includes data on all transplant donors, wait-listed patients and recipients in the United States.

Risks of mortality were compared between Black and non-Black transplant recipients in four different age groups (18-30 years, 31-40 years, 41-60 years, and 61-80 years).

The researchers found that when compared to other heart transplant recipients:

• Across all age groups, Black heart transplant recipients had approximately a 30% higher risk of death.
• However, when examined by age groups, the risk of death among Black heart transplant recipients was 2 times higher among recipients aged 18-30 years and 1.5 times higher among recipients aged 31-40 years.
• Among Black heart transplant recipients aged 18-30, the risk of death was primarily during the first year after transplant, with Black recipients having 2.3 times higher risk of death in this time period.

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"Our study is the first to highlight young, Black recipients as a subgroup at a higher risk of death during the first year after a heart transplant," said Hasina Maredia, M.D., first author of the study whose interest in health disparities inspired her to initiate and lead the project as a medical student at Johns Hopkins. "Our findings indicate clinical research moving forward should focus attention on young, Black recipients during this high-risk period so that longstanding racial disparities seen in heart transplant survival can be improved."

In the study, young, Black heart transplant recipients differed from young, non-Black recipients in several ways, including being more likely to have diabetes and/or high blood pressure; have a weakened heart muscle (cardiomyopathy), and be insured by Medicaid rather than a private insurer.

More serious illness and additional medical problems prior to surgery might increase the risk of death from surgical complications, and financial constraints might make it more difficult for younger recipients with limited insurance to access specialized care and take the medications needed to prevent organ rejection, according to the researchers' discussion of possible mechanisms for the disparity.

"The high risk associated with Black race is not specifically due to race itself; it is a marker of systemic racism and inequities that have resulted in significant health care disparities," said Bush and Maredia.

The American Heart Association recently published a presidential advisory that addresses structural racism as a cause of poor health and premature death from heart disease and stroke.

The advisory, titled "Call to Action: Structural Racism as a Fundamental Driver of Health Disparities," reviews the historical context, current state and potential solutions to address structural racism in the U.S. and outlines steps the association is taking to address and mitigate the root causes of health care disparities.

Source:

American Heart Association

Journal reference:

Maredia, H., et al. (2021) Better Understanding the Disparity Associated With Black Race in Heart Transplant Outcomes. Circulation: Heart Failure. doi.org/10.1161/CIRCHEARTFAILURE.119.006107.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos stepping down nearly 30 years after founding company

Will be replaced by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon's cloud business

The Associated Press · Posted: Feb 02, 2021 

Amazon's Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO nearly 30 years after founding the company. Launched in 1995 as an internet bookseller, Amazon was a pioneer of fast and free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything. 

(Cliff Owen/The Associated Press)


Amazon said Tuesday that Jeff Bezos is stepping down as CEO later this year, a role he's had since he founded the company nearly 30 years ago.

Amazon said he'll be replaced in the fall by Andy Jassy, who runs Amazon's cloud business. Bezos, 57, will then become the company's executive chairman.

Bezos, who started the company 27 years ago as an internet bookseller, said in a note to employees posted on Amazon's website, "As Exec Chair I will stay engaged in important Amazon initiatives but also have the time and energy I need to focus on the Day 1 Fund, the Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, The Washington Post, and my other passions."

He added, "I've never had more energy, and this isn't about retiring."

Launched in 1995, Amazon was a pioneer of fast and free shipping that won over millions of shoppers who used the site to buy diapers, TVs and just about anything.

Andy Jassy, seen here in October 2016, will take over as CEO of Amazon.

 (Mike Blake/Reuters)

Started online retail business but not sure what to sell

Under Bezos, Amazon also launched the first e-reader that gained mass acceptance, and its Echo listening device made voice assistants a more common sight in many living rooms.

As a child, Bezos was intrigued by computers and interested in building things, such as alarms he rigged in his parents' home. He got a degree in electrical engineering and computer science at Princeton University and then worked at several Wall Street companies.

He quit his job at D.E. Shaw to start an online retail business — though at first he wasn't sure what to sell. Bezos quickly determined that an online bookstore would resonate with consumers. He and his wife, MacKenzie, whom he met at D.E. Shaw and married in 1993, set out on a road trip to Seattle — a city chosen for its abundance of tech talent and proximity to a large book distributor in Roseburg, Ore.

While MacKenzie drove, Bezos wrote up the business plan for what would become Amazon.com. Bezos convinced his parents and some friends to invest in the idea, and Amazon began operating out of the couple's Seattle garage on July 16, 1995.

Bezos wrote up the business plan for Amazon while on a road trip with his wife at the time, MacKenzie. (Patrick McMullan via Getty Image)

Pandemic translated into big business for Amazon

Since the start of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., consumers have turned increasingly to Amazon for delivery of home staples and medical supplies. Brick-and-mortar shops closed their doors, while Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, instead recruited over 400,000 more workers and posted consecutive record profits.

With its warehouses open, Amazon had another record holiday, beating estimates for online store sales, subscription sales, third-party service sales such as warehousing and other sales to merchants on its platform.

The company reported its third-consecutive record profit on Tuesday, and quarterly sales above $100 billion US for the first time.

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Andy Jassy's Amazon Web Services (AWS), traditionally a bright spot, fell slightly short of expectations. While the cloud computing division announced deals in the quarter with ViacomCBS, the BMW Group and others, it posted revenue of $12.7 billion US, short of the $12.8 billion analysts had estimated.

A boost in revenue came from moving Amazon's marketing event Prime Day — usually in July — to October, lengthening the holiday shopping season.

Amazon is one of the last of the tech giants to have a founder as CEO. Google's co-founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, relinquished their executive positions in parent company Alphabet in 2019. Oracle's Larry Ellison stepped down as CEO in 2014.

Bill Gates was Microsoft's CEO until 2000, kept a day-to-day role at the company until 2008 and served as its chairman until 2014. Gates left the board entirely last year to focus on philanthropy.


With files from Reuters

U.S. billionaire buys SpaceX flight for 1st all-civilian space mission

Children's hospital to benefit with donors entered in draw for seat on spacecraft

The Associated Press · Posted: Feb 02, 2021

Jared Isaacman plans to take three people with him to circle the globe in a SpaceX Dragon spacecraft later this year. 

(St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/The Associated Press)

A U.S. billionaire who made a fortune in tech and fighter jets is buying an entire SpaceX flight and plans to take three "everyday" people with him to circle the globe this year.

Besides fulfilling his dream of flying in space, Jared Isaacman announced Monday that he aims to use the private trip to raise $200 million US for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., half coming from his own pocket.

A female health-care worker for St. Jude already has been selected for the mission. Anyone donating to St. Jude in February will be entered into a random drawing for seat No. 3. The fourth seat will go to a business owner who uses Shift4 Payments, Isaacman's credit-card processing company in Allentown, Pa.

"I truly want us to live in a world 50 or 100 years from now where people are jumping in their rockets like the Jetsons and there are families bouncing around on the moon with their kid in a spacesuit," Isaacman, who turns 38 next week, told The Associated Press.

"I also think if we are going to live in that world, we better conquer childhood cancer along the way."

Super Bowl ad will publicize mission

He has bought a Super Bowl ad to publicize the mission, dubbed Inspiration4 and targeted for an October launch from Florida. The other passengers aboard the SpaceX Dragon capsule — what Isaacman calls a diverse group "from everyday walks of life" — will be announced next month. SpaceX founder and chief executive Elon Musk expects the flight to last two to four days.

Isaacman's trip is the latest deal announced for private space travel — and it's No. 1 on the runway for an orbital trip.

"This is an important milestone toward enabling access to space for everyone," Musk said during a press conference Monday from SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, Calif. While expensive, these initial private flights will drive down costs over time, he noted.

Last week, a Houston company revealed the names of three businessmen, including a Canadian, who are paying $55 million US ($70 million Cdn) apiece to fly to the International Space Station next January aboard a SpaceX Dragon. And a Japanese businessman has a deal with SpaceX to fly to the moon. In the past, space tourists had to hitch rides to the space station on Russian rockets.

Isaacman would not divulge how much he's paying SpaceX, except to say that the anticipated donation to St. Jude "vastly exceeds the cost of the mission."

While a former NASA astronaut will accompany the three businessmen, Isaacman will serve as his own spacecraft commander. The appeal, he said, is learning all about SpaceX's Dragon and Falcon 9 rocket. The capsules are designed to fly autonomously, but a pilot can override the system in an emergency.

SpaceX says the crew of four will go into space from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., 'no earlier than the fourth quarter of this year.' (John Raoux/The Associated Press)

A "space geek" since kindergarten, Isaacman dropped out of high school when he was 16, got a GED certificate and started a business in his parents' basement that became the genesis for Shift4. He set a speed record flying around the world in 2009 while raising money for the Make-A-Wish program, and later established Draken International, the world's largest private fleet of fighter jets.

Isaacman's $100 million US commitment to St. Jude in Memphis is the largest-ever by a single individual and one of the largest overall.

"We're pinching ourselves every single day," said Rick Shadyac, president of St. Jude's fundraising organization.
Crew to be taken on mountain expedition

Besides SpaceX training, Isaacman intends to take his crew on a mountain expedition to mimic his most uncomfortable experience so far — tenting on the side of a mountain in bitter winter conditions.

"We're all going to get to know each other ... really well before launch," he said.

He's acutely aware of the need for things to go well.

"If something does go wrong, it will set back every other person's ambition to go and become a commercial astronaut," he told the AP over the weekend from his home in Easton, Pa.

SpaceX sets record for most spacecraft shuttled to orbit in a single mission

Isaacman said he signed with Musk's company because it's the clear leader in commercial space flight, with two astronaut flights already completed. Boeing has yet to fly astronauts to the space station for NASA. While Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin expect to start flying customers later this year, their craft will just briefly skim the surface of space.

Isaacman had put out space flight feelers for years. He travelled to Kazakhstan in 2008 to see a Russian Soyuz blast off with a tourist on board, then a few years later attended one of NASA's last space shuttle launches. SpaceX invited him to the company's second astronaut launch for NASA in November.

U.S. astronauts discuss 'humbling experience' aboard SpaceX craft

While Isaacman and wife, Monica, managed to keep his space trip hush-hush over the months, their daughters couldn't. The girls, ages 7 and 4, overheard their parents discussing the flight last year and told their teachers, who called to ask if it was true dad was an astronaut.

"My wife said, 'No, of course not, you know how these kids make things up.' But I mean the reality is my kids weren't that far off with that one."

Canadian among private space crew paying $55M US each to fly to station

The first private space station crew has been introduced a year ahead of the planned launch

The Associated Press · January 27,2021

This combination of photos provided by Axiom Space shows, from left, Larry Connor, Michael Lopez-Alegria, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe. On Jan. 26, Axiom announced they will be the first private space station crew, a year ahead of the planned launch. (AP)

The first private space station crew was introduced Tuesday: Three men, including a Canadian, who are each paying $55 million US ($70 million) to fly on a SpaceX rocket.

They'll be led by a former NASA astronaut now working for Axiom Space, the Houston company that arranged the trip for next January.

"This is the first private flight to the International Space Station. It's never been done before," said Axiom's chief executive and president Mike Suffredini, a former space station program manager for NASA.

While mission commander Michael Lopez-Alegria is well known in space circles, "the other three guys are just people who want to be able to go to space, and we're providing that opportunity," Suffredini told The Associated Press.



Axiom's first customers include Canadian financier Mark Pathy, CEO of Montreal-based Mavrik Corp.; Larry Connor, a real estate and tech entrepreneur from Dayton, Ohio; and Israeli businessman Eytan Stibbe, a close friend of Israel's first astronaut Ilan Ramon, who was killed in the space shuttle Columbia accident in 2003. 

"These guys are all very involved and doing it for ... the betterment of their communities and countries, and so we couldn't be happier with this makeup of the first crew because of their drive and their interest," Suffredini said.

Each of these first paying customers intends to perform science research in orbit, he said, along with educational outreach.

The three men will be on the first private flight to the International Space Station. (NASA)

Lopez-Alegria, a former space station resident and spacewalking leader, called the group a "collection of pioneers." 

The first crew will spend eight days at the space station, and will take one or two days to get there aboard a SpaceX Dragon capsule following liftoff from Cape Canaveral.
Space tourism becoming big business

Russia has been in the off-the-planet tourism business for years, selling rides to the International Space Station since 2001.

Other space companies like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin plan to take paying customers on up-and-down flights lasting just minutes.

These trips — much more affordable with seats going for hundreds of thousands versus millions — could kick off this year.

Virgin Galactic signs NASA deal for commercial space flights

Where does outer space begin? That's up for debate after Virgin Galactic flight

Tom Cruise was mentioned last year as a potential crew member; NASA top officials confirmed he was interested in filming a movie at the space station.

There was no word Tuesday on whether Cruise will catch the next Axiom flight. Suffredini declined to comment.
Private crew to get 15 weeks training

Each of the private astronauts had to pass medical tests and will get 15 weeks of training, according to Suffredini.

The 70-year-old Connor will become the second-oldest person to fly in space, after John Glenn's shuttle flight in 1998 at age 77. He'll also serve under Lopez-Alegria as the capsule pilot.

Axiom plans about two private missions a year to the space station. It also is working to launch its own live-in compartments to the station beginning in 2024.

This section would be detached from the station once it's retired by NASA and the international partners, and become its own private outpost.

US to restore aid to Palestinians, says State Department

Assistance was suspended by Trump administration





The US State Department on Tuesday announced its intent to restore humanitarian aid to the Palestinians after it was suspended by the administration of Donald Trump.

State Department Spokesman Ned Price said restoration of aid was in the interest of the US and “not a favour” to the Palestinians.

“The US does intend to restore aid to the Palestinian people. We are not doing that as a favour, but because it is in the interest of the United States to do so,” Mr Price said.

He argued that the suspension of aid under the previous administration had neither produced political progress nor secured concessions from the Palestinian leadership.

The Trump administration cut in 2018 nearly $200 million in economic aid to the Palestinians and suspended another $350m in funding to the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which assists hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees.

Mr Price said the newly appointed deputy assistant secretary of state for Palestine and Israel, Hady Amr, had already established contact with Palestinian and Israeli officials.

Political communications between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration came to a halt in 2018 after former president Donald Trump moved the US embassy to Jerusalem.

President Joe Biden has not called either Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu or Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas since assuming office. When asked why he has not yet communicated with the Israeli leader, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, "[Mr Biden] hasn't called every foreign leader yet."

"I expect he'll continue to have additional engagements in the weeks ahead," she added.

Mr Price also said the administration of President Joe Biden had not had any contact with Iranian officials.

He said the focus for newly appointed envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, is on contacts with “allies, partners and members of Congress.”

“[We will be] consulting with our allies, consulting with our partners, consulting with Congress, before we're reaching the point where we're going to engage directly with the Iranians and willing to entertain any sort of proposal,” Mr Price said.

The new US administration has voiced its intention to return to the nuclear deal that Mr Trump abandoned in 2018, but only if Iran showed full compliance.

"The United States would do the same thing and then use that as a platform to build a longer and stronger agreement that also addresses other areas of concern", a State Department official said last week.

Later on Tuesday, the State Department announced that Mr Blinken held a call with Swiss President Guy Parmelin. Switzerland has played the role of protector of US interests in Iran since relations were severed in 1979 and has played the role of mediator and humanitarian channel between the two countries.

“Secretary Blinken thanked President Parmelin for Switzerland’s continuing commitment as the Protecting Power for the United States in Iran,” the statement said. Bilateral relations and “their joint commitment to multilateralism, including on human rights, climate change and global health” were also discussed.


Updated: February 3, 2021

QAnon Is Jealous of Myanmar’s Military Coup

“TFW you learn that Myanmar’s military can’t come over to arrest your politicians, too.”

By David Gilbert
2.2.21


As the details of a military coup in Myanmar were still emerging on Monday morning, QAnon world was going into overdrive, linking the military takeover to its long-held belief that former President Donald Trump would lead a similar takeover in the U.S.

For QAnon supporters, the similarities were uncanny: a November election, claims of widespread fraud against the conservative party, and the courts siding with the “liberals.”

So when the military moved in, as QAnon supporters have been promised would happen in the U.S. for years, it was too much to ignore.

Almost instantly, QAnon believers drew American “elites” into the conspiracy theory, posting photos of Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi shaking hands with former President Barack Obama, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Jewish billionaire philanthropist (and a general bogeyman for most conspiracy theorists) George Soros.

A 2018 report about child trafficking in Myanmar was also boosted as somehow more evidence that this was all “part of the plan.”

One major QAnon account dredged up an old tweet from the voting machine company Smartmatic, kicking off more conspiracies about it and Dominion Voting Systems being involved in election fraud, just as they had been accused during the U.S. election — again without any evidence.

Failed Republican candidate Angela Stanton King, who has voiced support for QAnon in the past, asked why something similar wasn’t happening in America.

Jordan Sather, who is one of the biggest influencers in the QAnon community, flagged on his Telegram account comments from former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggesting they showed the coup in Myanmar was all part of the plan, and that something similar was going to happen in the U.S.

 

A poster on one of the most popular QAnon message boards even posted a version of a viral video of Myanmar woman Khing Hnin Wai dancing to “Ampun Bang Jago” while the military coup unfolds in the background.

The QAnon version, naturally, features a dancing Donald Trump:

Over on Patriots.win, a rabidly pro-Trump message board that was formerly called TheDonald.win, one user lamented the fact that Myanmar’s army could not also be used to oust President Joe Biden. 

“TFW you learn that Myanmar's military can't come over to arrest your politicians too,” Monsieur_Novembre wrote in one of the site’s most popular posts on Monday.


But not everyone was convinced by the completely baseless attempts to shoehorn Myanmar into the QAnon mythology.

Under a post showing photos of Aung San Suu Kyi meeting Obama and Soros, one user on the GreatAwakening forum commented: “[I’m] just tired of random photos with no context. Yes, we know the wealthy elites all mix together, but what is happening here, and what is the significance of it?”

Another said: “Yeah I don't get it... what are we looking at?” while another added: “Nuthin to see here....Zzzzzzzz.”

Following Trump’s defeat in November’s election, and Biden’s inauguration two weeks ago — both events QAnon followers were told would not happen — the cult has tried to find a path forward that doesn’t include Trump as president.

After a brief period of unrest within Q-world, the movement quickly got back on track by embracing aspects of the sovereign citizen movement and predicting that Trump would become president once again on March 4, the date of presidential inaugurations until 1933.

Co-opting the coup in Myanmar into part of “the plan” is simply another attempt by the influencers within the QAnon world to keep the conspiracy movement relevant and ensure their hundreds of thousands of loyal followers keep the faith.

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Surreal Dance Video Accidentally Captures Myanmar Coup As It Happened

OSINT experts agree that the video of a woman dancing while the military takes over the democratically elected government behind her, is probably real.

By Matthew Gault
2.2.21




Khing Hnin Wai just wanted to dance on a Monday morning at the Royal Lotus Roundabout in Yangon, Myanmar. As she danced in place, the road to Myanmar’s Presidential Palace and Parliament behind her, a convoy of armored vehicles rolled through a roadblock behind her. She had accidentally captured a military coup on camera.



It was a surreal image. A woman in bright yellow clothes, wearing a mask, danced over electronic music. Her routine is practiced and she moves in time with the music, an electronic horn dooting as armored vehicles appear in the scene. Khing never breaks, unaware of the coup playing out behind her.

February 1 was supposed to be the first day of a new government in Myanmar, but the military took over the government in a coup. It announced its intentions on its television station then deployed a mix of police and soldiers to secure parliament. Head of state Aung San Suu Kyi is under house arrest and the military has said it will take control for one year.

Myanmar is not a country people in the west know a lot about. Aung San’s relationship to the military is complicated, the reasons for the coup and its methods are in dispute, and no one is really sure what’s going on.


The video seemed too surreal to be true, and people on the internet began to speculate it was faked. People online speculated that the shadows in the image were wrong and Khing has filmed the whole thing on a green screen. Khing Hnin Wai described herself as a physical education teacher on her Facebook profile and has posted several videos dancing in the same spot. One of her recent posts is a roundup of the different times she’s danced there.

Aric Toler at Bellingcat, journalists who use open source investigation tools to report on war and conflict, chimed in. According to Toler, the video was real and the shadows looked strange because Khing is at the top of a set of stairs. The shadows fall off as the stairs give way.

Khing said she took the video in the morning, claiming in her Facebook post that she went out before seeing the coup announced on the morning news. She’s facing east, the shadows stretching behind her, and the sun in her eyes. You can see her squint. Satellite imagery of the roundabout shows her location at the intersection and the probable path the military convoy took as it drove past her. Online OSINT researchers agree that the video is likely real.

By all accounts, the coup was over fast. The democratically elected government put up no resistance and the military took control so quickly that many didn’t feel its shock in the moment. Associated Press photos show people doing their morning yoga routine in a nearby park.

US government labels events in Myanmar a military coup, mandating assistance cut

Civil society groups and humanitarian aid organisations will still receive aid


Police keep watch at a guesthouse where members of parliament reside in the capital Naypyidaw on February 2, 2021. AFP / STR

The US government determined on Tuesday that the events in Myanmar constitute a coup d’etat and thereby warrant a cut in US aid to the new government.

The State Department decision, announced on a call with reporters, is the first major foreign policy declaration by the Biden team on Asia since President Joe Biden took office on January 20.

“After a careful review of the facts and circumstances, we have assessed that Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of Burma's ruling party, and Win Mynt, the duly elected head of government, were deposed in a military coup on February 1,” a senior official said. Both leaders have been detained.

"A very small circle of Burma's military leaders have chosen their own interests over the will and well-being of the people,” the official added.

The determination was made after a legal and factual review of the events on the ground, in which the country's military took power after claiming the November election was fraudulent. The determination now triggers an immediate cut to US assistance to the government. But this cut will not impact aid to civil society groups in the country or to the Rohingya refugees.

Start of Myanmar coup captured in dance instructor's video

UN Security Council plans to meet amid fears for Myanmar Rohingya after coup

"The coup restrictions apply to US foreign assistance for the government of Burma, and we will continue programmes for the people of Burma that benefit them directly, including humanitarian assistance to the Rohingya and other populations in need,” the senior official said.

The US is also reviewing the possibility of placing sanctions on those responsible for the so-called coup. “We will take action against those responsible, including through a careful review of our current sanctions posture as it relates to Burma's military leaders and companies associated with them.”

Myanmar’s army chief Min Aung Hlaing, who is now in charge after the military seized power, has already been subjected to sanctions and a visa ban by the United States.

But it is unclear how much leverage the US holds by cutting foreign assistance to the government, as it makes up only a small portion of US aid to the country. A US official described it as “very little”.

Officials denied that there has been any contact between the Biden administration and the military leaders who seized power on Monday. For the time being, the US is co-ordinating with its regional allies such as Japan and India, the State Department explained.

By calling the events a coup d'etat, the Biden administration is taking a symbolic pro-democracy stance in its policy towards the region. This immediately pits it against China’s position on the developments. China shares a long border with Myanmar, has strong relations with the military and has refrained from calling it a coup.

Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin urged the country’s leaders to “properly handle their differences" and "maintain political and social stability.” When asked about China’s role in Monday’s events, the US official did not have any comment.

The US removed some of its sanctions on Myanmar following the 2010 elections that saw the country’s transition to a more democratic system. But in 2017, as a military crackdown went into effect and as the Rohingya refugee crisis intensified, some of these sanctions were reimposed.