Scientists Back Brazil Over Russian Covid Vaccine Import Ban

(ibtimes.com.au)

Scientists have backed Brazil's drug regulator's decision to stop the import of Russia's Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine on the basis that batches they tested carried a live version of a common cold-causing virus.


Top virologist Angela Rasmussen told AFP the finding "raises questions about the integrity of the manufacturing processes" and could be a safety issue for people with weaker immune systems, if the problem were found to be widespread.

Russia's Gamaleya Institute, which developed the vaccine, has denied the reports.

The issue centers around an "adenovirus vector" -- a virus that normally causes mild respiratory illness but in vaccines is genetically modified so that it cannot replicate, and edited to carry the DNA instructions for human cells to develop the spike protein of the coronavirus.

This in turn trains the human system to be prepared in case it then encounters the real coronavirus.

The Sputnik V vaccine uses two different adenovirus vectors to accomplish this task: adenovirus type 26 (Ad26) for the first shot, and adenovirus type 5 (Ad5) for the second shot.

According to a slideshow uploaded online, scientists at Anvisa, Brazil's regulator, said they tested samples of the booster shot and found it was "replication competent" -- meaning that once inside the body, the adenovirus can continue to multiply.

They added that this had likely occurred because of a manufacturing problem called "recombination," in which the modified adenovirus had gained back the genes it needed to replicate while it was being grown inside engineered human cells in a lab.

Brazilian regulators did not evaluate the first shot.

But on Monday they denied a request from several states in the northeast of the country to acquire more than 30 million doses of the Sputnik V vaccine. The federal government has additionally ordered 10 million.

A health worker prepares a dose of the AstraZeneca/Oxford Covid-19 vaccine at a temporary vaccine centre set up at City Hall in Hull, England AFP / Paul ELLIS

Rasmussen, a research scientist at Canada's Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization, described the problem as a quality control issue, rather than a problem inherent to the vaccine technology.

If batches used in the real world were tainted, then "for most people this probably won't be a big deal because adenoviruses are generally not thought of as really important human pathogens," she said.

"But in people who are immune compromised... there could be a higher rate of adverse effects because of it, including potentially serious ones."

The bigger problem, she added, was the unfortunate impact on confidence over a vaccine that a study in The Lancet journal showed was safe and more than 90 percent effective.

If people aren't sure that the vaccine they are receiving is the same that was studied in trials, then "I can imagine that some people might have their reservations about getting that vaccine at all," said Rasmussen.

Another unknown is whether the manufacturing problem that led to the adenovirus vector being able to replicate also knocks out the DNA code for the spike protein -- rendering the shot ineffective as a coronavirus vaccine.

Denis Logunov, deputy director of the Gamaleya Institute, has responded by saying, "The statements I have read in the press have nothing to do with reality," and that the adenovirus vector was not able to replicate.

But it is not the first time such an issue has occurred.

Earlier this month, Slovakia also said it had concerns over the composition of Sputnik V vaccines it had imported, saying they did not match the samples that were used in clinical studies.

In a blog post for Science Magazine, American chemist Derek Lowe wrote: "This sort of thing calls into question the entire manufacturing and quality control process, and I can see why the Brazilian regulators are concerned."

He added that the response from Sputnik V's makers was not adequate.

"Step up and act like responsible drug developers: address the issues directly, with transparency, and work to find a solution," said Lowe.

Volkswagen aims to be carbon neutral by 2050 ‘at the latest’
New initiatives include the construction of VW solar and wind farms and the usage of green energy at global factories - but not at Chinese plants

by: James Brodie
29 Apr 2021



Volkswagen has announced a series of carbon reduction initiatives, including greener production techniques for passenger vehicles, the usage of green energy at the company’s factories, and the acceleration of all-electric vehicle sales.

The brand will outline its new carbon reduction strategy at a conference being held today, called ‘Way to Zero’. Volkswagen has also said that, through its new measures, it aims to be a fully carbon-neutral car company by 2050 at the latest, with 70 per cent of its sales in Europe to be fully-electric by 2030.

New Volkswagen ID.4 2021 review

We’ve set out on the ‘Way To Zero’ and are consistently placing the environment at the focus of all our activities,” said Volkswagen Chief Executive Officer, Ralf Brandstätter.

“Our big electric offensive was just the start. We’re taking a holistic approach to decarbonisation: from production through service life to recycling.”

A key tenet of the updated carbon strategy is the increased use of green and renewable energy at the brand’s production facilities. All European Volkswagen factories are powered by renewable energy, and the marque plans to copy this worldwide, albeit with the exception of its 33 plants in China.

Volkswagen says it will identify CO2-emitting elements of its supply chain and look to reduce them. The company claims that this will become a key rationale for deciding which third-party suppliers it awards contracts to.

It will switch to more sustainable components where necessary, citing an impending move to wheels made from greener cast aluminium and tyres from low-emission production processes. Battery recycling from electric vehicles will allow up to 90 per cent of their materials to be reused.

The company has also announced that it plans to become a supplier of renewable energy for electric vehicle recharging, and is directly funding the construction of new wind and solar farms, several of which are to be constructed across Europe by 2025.

Click here to read our in-depth review of the all-electric Volkswagen ID.3...

HEY GUYS

MALE FERTILITY ‘PRECARIOUSLY CLOSE’ TO CLIMATE CHANGE EXTINCTION LIMITS

CLIMATE CHANGE DENIERS 

THAT'S YOU

The loss of fertility in males as a result of climate change, particularly in the tropics, may be a better predictor of vulnerability to extinction

By Dr Belinda van Heerwaarden, University of Melbourne


As temperatures rise across the globe, species will increasingly face environmental conditions beyond their tolerance limits, posing a major risk to biodiversity, food production and health.

Understanding how much warming that each species can withstand, which species will be most at risk and their capacity to adapt to warmer conditions is one of the biggest challenges facing biologists today

.

The buffer zone between current habitat temperatures and tolerance using male fertility is much lower than estimates using critical thermal limits in adults. Graphic: Supplied

But getting accurate predictions of species risk to climate change is not straightforward.

Some studies have used the buffer zone (or warming tolerance) between maximum habitat temperatures and the temperature at which adults stop moving or die (known as critical thermal limits) to forecast climate change risk across species from different habitats.

These studies suggest that tropical and sub-tropical species may be most at risk to climate warming because they are already experiencing maximum habitat temperatures close to those that incapacitate or kill them.

The complexities of predicting climate change effects
Read more

But whether critical thermal limits in adults are good predictors of species’ vulnerability to future climate change is not yet clear.

Emerging evidence suggests that thermal tolerance may be lower in other life-stages, and upper fertility thermal limits (that is, the temperature at which females or males become sterile) may be lower than critical thermal limits.

Although these studies hint that species may be more vulnerable than currently considered, we still do not know to what extent thermal traits are important in dictating current distributions and future vulnerability.

In our recent study, published in Nature Communications, we exposed different species of Drosophila flies to environmental conditions in the laboratory that mimicked climate change.

The loss of fertility in males occurs at temperatures much lower than lethal temperatures. Picture: Andrew Weeks/University of Melbourne

This helped us to examine whether tropical species are more vulnerable to warming and explore which measures of thermal tolerance are better at predicting extinction risk.

By following population growth and extinction, we found that tropical species indeed went extinct at temperatures lower than the widespread species. Despite living in the warm tropics, these species were no more heat tolerant than species with distributions extending much further away from the equator.

However, the loss of fertility in males - which occurs at temperatures much lower than lethal temperatures – was a better predictor of individual climate change vulnerability.
How do we protect our unique biodiversity from megafires?
Read more

Although critical thermal limits could accurately assess the geographical distribution of vulnerability (that tropical species are more vulnerable to warming), male fertility limits were much better at estimating individual extinction temperatures, suggesting that critical thermal limits may overestimate extinction risk.

Male fertility thermal limits also showed a greater association with current habitat temperatures and rainfall than critical thermal limits, revealing that male fertility may also be more important for dictating species current distributions.

So, how much closer are species to their male fertility limits than their critical thermal limits?

Some of the rainforest species we examined currently experience maximum habitat temperatures around 7 °C below their critical thermal limit or in other words, their warming tolerance is around 7 °C

.

Tropical species went extinct at temperatures lower than the widespread species. PIcture: Belinda van Heerwaarden/University of Melbourne

In contrast, some species are already experiencing average temperatures during summer months within 1 °C of their male fertility limit.

So instead of a buffer zone of 7 °C, they may only be able to handle 1°C of warming before populations crash.

Given that species – particularly tropical species – appear to be living precariously close to their male fertility thermal limits, we also explored whether evolution (genetic changes across generations) or plasticity (immediate changes under different environments) might be able to buffer temperature increases.

Tracking the climate threat to Australia's unique ecosystems
Read more

We looked for signals of genetic adaptation and plasticity by comparing critical thermal limits (the temperature at which adults stopped moving) and male fertility in the Drosophila lines exposed to simulated climate warming for up to 26 generations as well as lines kept at temperatures reflecting current temperature fluctuations in tropical Australia.

Sadly, we found no increases in male fertility or critical thermal limits in the tropical or the widespread species exposed to warming. This suggests species may have limited adaptive potential to buffer future changes.

These findings, along with other studies pointing to the heat sensitivity of male fertility in organisms beyond Drosophila, suggest that male fertility may be the chink in the armour against climate change

.

Tropical species appear to be living precariously close to their male fertility thermal limits. Picture: Andrew Weeks/University of Melbourne

The way we currently estimate climate change vulnerability could be underestimating extinction vulnerability.

Given that many species – particularly tropical species – may be much closer to their thermal limits, the 1.5 to 4 °C of warming currently projected may lead to much more biodiversity loss than most of us probably realise.

Banner: Getty Images

Leading European cultural figures call on EU to offer Scotland ‘path’ to rejoin

Brian Cox, Slavoj Žižek, and Elena Ferrante among signatories asking the EU to offer membership ahead of possible Scottish independence vote

Adam Bychawski

OPEN DEMOCRACY
29 April 2021, 6.45am

EU leaders must not allow Westminster to "bully" Scotland,

 said campaign organisers. |
Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert / Alamy Stock Photo


More than 170 prominent European academics, authors and artists have backed a campaign calling for the European Union to offer Scotland a ‘path’ to membership as pressure mounts for another independence referendum.

The letter, which is signed by figures including Scottish actor Brian Cox, Italian writer Elena Ferrante, and Slovenian philosopher Slavoj Žižek, urges EU leaders to make a “unilateral and open offer of membership” ahead of any independence vote.

Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain in the EU in the 2016 referendum by a 62-38% majority. Campaigners have called for the country to have a second independence referendum in light of the vote. In 2014, Scotland voted against becoming an independent nation in a referendum, by a 55-45% majority.

The letter, which is addressed to European leaders and signed by figures from all 27 EU member states, asks for Scotland to be offered membership prior to a second independence referendum.

“Scotland – where every region voted Remain – must not be left on its own by Europe while being subjected to bullying by the UK government,” said Anthony Barnett, writer and co-founder of openDemocracy. Barnett organised the letter together with openDemocracy main site editor Adam Ramsay. openDemocracy is not involved in the campaign or endorsed it.

The signatories said that an offer from the EU would “make it possible for any referendum to be a clear, practical and democratic choice for Scotland between two unions: the EU or the UK.”

“The usual process is for the EU to respond to a membership request only when it comes from an independent country,” write the signatories.

“Scotland deserves a different process. While it is legally part of the UK, the Scottish government cannot negotiate with the EU. But the EU can declare that, because Scotland has already long been part of the EU, should it become legally and democratically independent it need not apply as a ‘new’ accession candidate,” they add.

Elections for the Scottish Parliament take place on 6 May. The Scottish National Party (SNP) has made a second independence referendum one of its key election pledges and argues that Westminster should accept an SNP majority as a valid mandate for a second independence referendum.

The letter points to EU provisions made in the Brexit deal for extending membership to Northern Ireland in the event of a vote for Irish reunification as a precedent for unilaterally offering Scotland a route to rejoining the EU.

“The EU has demonstrated already that it can recognise the unique circumstance created by Brexit. The European Council unilaterally confirmed at its Summit of 29 April 2017 that Northern Ireland would become part of the EU immediately should it ever vote in the future to join the Republic of Ireland,” said the letter.

The SNP pledged to hold a second referendum in its manifesto at the 2019 UK general election. After the party was reelected with an increased majority, leader Nicola Sturgeon formally requested the power to hold an independence referendum.

However, prime minister Boris Johnson refused the request on the grounds that key pro-independence figures had said that the 2014 referendum was a “once in a generation opportunity”.

‘Good news for internet users’: Elon Musk’s Starlink gets approval for satellites closer to Earth


By Chris Zappone

WA TODAY, AUSTRALIA
April 28, 2021 —

Elon Musk’s Starlink may be on the path to providing faster broadband to rural customers after a US ruling overnight allowed the company to operate part of its satellite fleet at a closer orbit to Earth.

The US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) granted Starlink the rights to orbit 2814 satellites - yet to be launched - in lower orbits than originally planned.


Play video 1:48 Starlink visualisation orbiting Earth

Starlink as it appears in a visualisation of satellites orbiting Earth. (Courtesy of Saber Astronautics).

Starlink, a division of SpaceX, currently has 1300 satellites in orbit, as part of a planned network of 12,000 designed to blanket the Earth with high-speed space-based internet broadband coverage.

The new ruling will bring the 2814 satellites from a planned orbit of about 1150 kilometres to about 550 kilometres, cutting down on the delay in the broadband signal.


“It’s going to be good news for internet users (including many test users in regional Australia) as lag will be reduced,” said Professor Alan Duffy, program lead for SpaceTech Applications at Swinburne University.

In making their ruling, the FCC concluded that “the lower altitude of its satellites enables a better user experience by improving speeds and latency”.

SpaceX founder Elon Musk.CREDIT:AP

Starlink’s latency - the time required to move data from source to destination - is expected to fall by mid 2021 from about 20 to 40 milliseconds to milliseconds measured in the teens or even single digits.

That compares with 600 to 800 milliseconds for the NBN Sky Muster satellites, orbiting at a much more distant 36,000 kilometres.
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Out of space: Astronauts ‘cram’ into space station after SpaceX crew arrives on used rocket

Starlink is among a handful of newly formed companies, including OneWeb and Amazon-backed Project Kuiper, that are offering broadband distributed by satellites in low-Earth-orbit. The technology, unproven at such scale, could potentially bridge the long-standing city-rural digital divide in Australia, the US and elsewhere. Australia has an estimated 2 million people who lack internet access at home.

Satellite-based broadband is made possible by combining existing technologies together in new ways. Starlink satellites are small and sent up in large batches by SpaceX rockets, which, being re-usable, make the cost of launch dramatically cheaper.

How these networks will function fully deployed is still unknown, including what sort of interference the competing networks could create for each other over time.

To gain FCC approval Starlink had to overcome objections by OneWeb, and Musk’s space rival, Jeff Bezos, whose Project Kuiper, which is also supporting an orbital-broadband network.

The companies cited the risk of interference as a reason to deny Starlink’s request.

“It is highly likely we will experience an interference issue at some point if all these satellites get up there,” Adelaide-based satellite designer engineer Julia Mitchell said.

Ms Mitchell, at satellite-manufacturer SITAEL Australia, said there were “hundreds of constellations planned”.

“Ultimately, there has not been a low-Earth-orbit constellation that has actually been profitable and not gone bankrupt at some point.

“Many start-ups fail, so [the companies lodging complaints with the FCC] now, may not actually be the people that put satellites up to offer internet services in the end,” Ms Mitchell said.

Starlink has about 320 customers in Victoria and New South Wales testing the equipment with another 7000 paid up and waiting for their gear, according to the Better Internet for Rural, Regional and Remote Australia site.

Professor Duffy said lower Starlink orbits will benefit astronomers by putting more of them into the Earth’s shadow, which “limits their reflection of sunlight that blind our optical telescopes”.

However, he’s not convinced thousands of new satellites won’t affect radio astronomy. “The biggest danger from the orbit is that it now sits much closer to crewed operations for the International Space Station as well as China’s future efforts with their own space station.”

The prospect of collisions is a threat to the overall safety of the orbit. This month a Starlink satellite nearly collided with a satellite operated by OneWeb, a UK-government-Bharti Global-backed internet satellite service.

Jason Held, chief executive of Sydney-based Saber Astronautics, which tracks satellites in orbit, said there was no real solution to “space traffic” issues today - which leads to near misses.

“It’s all barnstorming at the moment.”

 22 tonnes of COVID-19 supplies from Russia arrive in India

Suhasini Haidar, THE HINDU

NEW DELHI, 

APRIL 29, 2021 

A plane carrying the batch of medical aid for India to help the country tackle the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is pictured at Zhukovsky Airport in Moscow Region, Russia on April 28, 2021. Photo: Russian Emergencies Ministry via Reuters   | Photo Credit: Reuters

Cargo includes ventilators, oxygen concentrators and medicines

Two planeloads of COVID-19 supplies from Russia landed here on Thursday, comprising about 22 tonnes of ventilators, oxygen concentrators and medicines, including a Russian-made version of the widely used drug Favipiravir.

Also read: U.S. COVID-19 assistance en route to New Delhi

The cargo, that came as a grant from Moscow, followed a telephone call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi late on Wednesday, in which the two leaders decided to upgrade contacts and institute a “2+2” format of talks between Foreign and Defence Ministers.

“Further development of bilateral relations of the especially privileged strategic partnership was discussed, including a schedule of contacts at various levels,” a statement issued by the Kremlin said, noting that Mr. Modi had thanked Mr. Putin for the aid, which is in “great demand” in India.

Also read: COVID-19 | France to send medical supplies to India

The Russian flights operated by Emercom included 20 oxygen production units, 75 lung ventilators, 150 medical monitors and 2,00,000 packs of medicine.

As The Hindu had reported earlier, Russia decided to cut back on a promise to deliver 3,00,000-4,00,000 injections of Remdesivir produced in Russia as part of a compulsory licence as it would violate the U.S. patent, and India now hopes to source about 4,50,000 vials directly from Remdesivir developer Gilead Sciences Inc. in the U.S.

The Russian aid is part of an international effort that now involves about 25 countries, and has meant a major policy shift for the government, which has refused to accept foreign aid for more than 17 years, as India faces an unprecedented number of Coronavirus cases, deaths and a shortage of oxygen and medicines.

Also read: Coronavirus | Oxygen, medical supplies likely from 15 countries

“Russia is closely watching the situation in India, which is becoming more and more alarming due to the Coronavirus pandemic,” said Russian Ambassador Nikolai Kudashev in a video statement, adding that Russia had appreciated India’s gesture in 2020 of making stocks of the drug HCQ available to the country.

“The only way to defeat Coronavirus is to unite and help each other,” he added.

India and Russia are also discussing how to ramp up production of Sputnik V vaccine, which is also being accepted in parts of the subcontinent like Bangladesh. Indian companies are expected to produce about 850 million doses of the vaccine annually, with production expected to begin in May.

“The leaders welcomed the registration of the Russian Sputnik V vaccine in India and noted its high efficiency and safety,” the Kremlin statement on the Modi-Putin conversation read.

The decision to begin a 2+2 format of talks between Delhi and Moscow is significant as it comes ahead of a planned visit by Mr. Putin for the annual dialogue in the second half of the year. At present, India holds annual “2+2” consultations with its Quad partners — the U.S., Australia and Japan.

RUSSIA WAS A COLD WAR ALLY WITH INDIA, WHICH WAS A MEMBER OFH TE NON ALIGNED NATIONS. THE US AND PAKISTAN WERE ALLIES DURING THAT PERIOD.

CANADA

Black man refuses bank’s apology for ‘degrading’ treatment

Duration: 02:02 

A Black man has rejected TD Bank's apology for the way staff at an Ottawa branch treated him when he tried to cash cheques for his business, which he says was ‘degrading.’ It’s an experience other Black business owners have had while banking.

CBC 4/28/2021

TD BANK IS TDAMERITRADE IN THE USA

‘It felt like they were forcing me to quit’: HBC worker files wrongful dismissal suit

On a spring day 21 years ago, Yvette Mitchell walked into Hudson’s Bay Co.'s flagship department store in downtown Toronto with a resume.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

She loved fashion and wanted to work on the third floor — the epicentre of women's designer clothing in Canada.

She was hired on the spot.

"I was so excited," Mitchell said in an interview. "I had a great interest in fashion and thought where else to go than the Bay."

Two decades later, the retail veteran said she was in shock when the company unilaterally altered the terms of her employment, changing her permanent part-time status to that of an "auxiliary associate."

Mitchell, who had been on a temporary layoff since April 2020, last month received a letter from HBC outlining the status change.

It not only meant Mitchell would go from a guaranteed 30-hour work week to an arbitrary range of zero to 27 hours a week, she would also lose her health and dental benefits, five-weeks vacation and potentially her pension entitlements going forward, she said.

"I felt like they were forcing me to quit ... to hijack my severance pay," Mitchell said. "I felt really hopeless and lost."

She took her case to a lawyer, who has filed a statement of claim in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice alleging wrongful dismissal.

She is seeking damages for her lost benefits and pension entitlements, accrued vacation pay and lost salary and commissions, it said.

It's also seeking damages for the bad faith manner of termination and punitive damages.

The claim said Mitchell was sent home last March at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic and in April was temporarily laid off due to a shortage of work amid ongoing store closures. Last month, she received a letter informing her that her position had changed.

The claim says the retailer engaged in "constructive termination," arguing that by unilaterally changing the terms of her employment during a temporary layoff, the company has not provided Mitchell with proper notice or severance pay.

The claims made in the filings have not been proven in court.

The company said in a statement that as it is an active litigation "it would be inappropriate to comment on the particulars of this case."

The Hudson’s Bay location in downtown Toronto has been either closed or under strict capacity restrictions since March 17, 2020.

But Mackenzie Irwin, an employment lawyer representing Mitchell, said it's illegal for an employer to make significant changes to an employee’s hours of work, pay or duties — even during the pandemic — unless they have consent from that person.

“What HBC is trying to do is change the terms of her employment such that they could potentially award her zero hours in any given week," said Irwin, an associate with Samfiru Tumarkin LLP in Toronto.

"It creates serious instability… and is quite palpably unfair.”

A worker has the right to treat sweeping changes to their job as a termination through constructive dismissal, and leave with an amount of severance based on their age, years of service and position, she added.

“Our firm has seen examples in the past where a company has drastically cut down a long-term employee's hours," Irwin said. "Once that individual has worked under this new arrangement long enough, they are let go from their job and offered an inadequate severance package based not on their previous qualifications, but instead their new and reduced hours of work."

A recent court decision — the first of its kind to deal with a COVID-19 layoff in Ontario — could be favourable to Mitchell's case, said employment and business lawyer Adam Savaglio.

The Ontario Superior Court decision confirmed that common law rules on layoffs override Ontario's Infectious Disease Emergency Leave legislation, he said.

"This decision where a constructive dismissal has been found as a result of a pandemic-caused layoff has swung the pendulum in favour of employees to the serious detriment of employers," said Savaglio, a partner at Scarfone Hawkins LLP.

"This has the potential to tie up the courts with more claims against businesses that haven't been generating income," he said. "It could be nuclear for businesses facing termination payouts, that are already struggling with forced closures and restrictions on business."

On Mitchell's case, Savaglio said there are some genuine issues raised in the claim, without even taking into consideration the recent court decision.

For example, he said an employer can't fundamentally change a contract without consideration or working notice to the employee, and that an individual’s time on layoff may not be considered “working notice."

Still, he said there are obligations for workers to mitigate their losses, such as attempting to find other comparable work.

Meanwhile, Mitchell said she's not alone. She said she knows of several other longtime HBC workers who have had the terms of their employment similarly altered.

In January, HBC said it was permanently laying off more than 600 workers as a result of ongoing lockdowns that have shuttered many of the retailer's stores across the country for months.

Many of those workers received a so-called working notice, which means they are expected to work until the termination date.

Employment lawyer Lior Samfiru, a partner with Samfiru Tumarkin LLP, called it "absurd" to offer working notices when stores are closed and said HBC should be providing severance pay.

For Mitchell, she said she was a loyal and dedicated employee for 21 years.

"They had a choice to package me out, to give me a severance and be done with it," she said. "Instead they've changed my position so that come September, they don't owe me anything — no benefits, no pension, not even hours."

"I've worked so hard," she said. "I just want what's fair."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 28, 2021.

Elliot Page Sits Down With Oprah And Talks About The ‘Horrible Backlash’ Facing Trans People

Corey Atad 

4/28/2021`



Elliot Page is sharing more about his coming-out journey.

© Photo: Apple TV+ Elliot Page and Oprah Winfrey

On Friday, April 30, Apple TV+ will debut a new interview with Page and Oprah Winfrey, in which the actor opens up about the issues facing the trans community.

RELATED: Elliot Page Blasts U.S. Anti-Trans Legislation As 'Upsetting, Cruel And Exhausting'

In a preview clip shared by Vanity Fair, Page talks about needing to "become comfortable" in his body before coming out publicly.

He also talks about the "horrible backlash" trans people are facing at the moment in the U.S., with many states passing anti-trans legislation.

“It felt important and selfish for myself and my own well-being, and my mental health, and also with this platform I have, the privilege that I have, and knowing the pain and the difficulties and the struggles I faced in my life, let alone what so many other people are facing," Page says. "It absolutely felt just crucial and important for me to share that.”

RELATED: Elliot Page Shares The 'Feeling Of True Excitement' About Coming Out As Trans

Page also told Vanity Fair about his decision to talk to Oprah: "It was something I needed to sit with for a moment because the backlash right now is so intense. But the rhetoric coming from anti-trans activists and anti-LGBTQ activists—it’s devastating. These bills are going to be responsible for the death of children. It is that simple. So [talking to Oprah] felt like an opportunity to use a wide-reaching platform to speak from my heart about some of my experience and the resources I’ve been able to access—whether therapy or surgery—that have allowed me to be alive, to live my life."

He added, "I don’t want it to sound like, 'Look at me.' It’s not that at all. Actually, I was really nervous. But I thought about it for a bit, and it just felt like, Okay, the GOP basically wants to destroy the lives of trans kids and stop the Equality Act. How do you not use this platform?"

Authoritarian Tech Is On the Rise | Opinion
Raphael Tsavkko Garcia 

NEWSWEEK 4/28/2021

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Life in a refugee camp is an unimaginable horror.

© PATRICIA DE MELO MOREIRA/AFP via Getty Images A man holds a mobile phone displaying the app StayAway Covid, in Lisbon on October 16, 2020.

It's the reality of thousands of people who fled war-torn countries, poverty, hunger and sometimes death. Greek refugee camps are often overpopulated, with scarce access to water, heat, food, or toilets, set up over contaminated soil. They are the closest thing to hell on Earth.

The pandemic worsened camps on several fronts. There has been a serious uptick in surveillance technologies administered to refugees since the pandemic started. Not only are refugees detained in inhumane conditions, but they are also subjected to strict surveillance inside and outside the camps, serving as guinea pigs for authoritarian technologies that are then used on the general population.

There are plans to increase and implement such invasive and often harmful tech on everyone.

From things that seem quite simple, such as forcing refugees to wear electronic ankle monitors in Canada and implementing voice recognition in Germany to discover migrants' origins, to video border surveillance in Greece and invasive uses of contact tracing technology, Big Brother is keeping tabs on refugees in camps worldwide.

Other technologies, like body heat scanners, iris scanners and social media scraping was used in refugee camps and on borders for years before the pandemic. They were prototyped then, before moving into mainstream use when the pandemic hit.

In January, I interviewed Petra Molnar, director of the International Human Rights Program at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Law. She spent time visiting refugee camps in Greece, on the island of Lesbos.

"The [Greek] government is ... basically weaponizing COVID to use it as an excuse to lock the camps down and make it impossible to do any research," she said.

Molnar said the situation was "quite bad in terms of things like access to health care, water, shelter. ... It's far from ideal. The Kara Tepe camp is windy, it gets flooded, [people have] no access to water. It's difficult to wash hands and isolate in any meaningful way."

The most invasive and harmful tech available, what Molnar called "sexy tech," was not being used within the camps. She said there are plans to use the tech eventually, which is already in use at the Greek border and in Europe.

From drones and cameras to facial recognition and voice recognition, rarely refugees are aware that their data is been collected and freely shared with other countries without their consent, with little care for their privacy and data security.

Refugees are often more concerned with survival and making it through the day than caring about how their biometric data is being collected, stored and shared.

According to Jan Theurich, a German journalist and member of the DunyaCollective who spent several months in Greece, refugees have more pressing needs, such as being able to drink potable water, not freezing to death in windy and humid camps, or not die in a fire caused by the use of smuggled electric heaters.

"This is a political catastrophe and then a humanitarian catastrophe. It's not just the pandemic, but there's a political will behind the situation creating a humanitarian catastrophe," he said.

Leaving the camps is not always the best choice as any financial support a refugee gets can run out quickly, causing them to find their own way. In the end, a lot of people decide to stay.

"It's like making a decision between getting the pest and cholera," Theurich said. One must remember that inside the camps, refugees "are the last ones to get information from the outside world. You can imagine the effect this all have on them—there's increase in self-harm behavior, domestic violence, rapes and harassment, also stabbings."

Several countries deployed surveillance measures, either to monitor compliance to social distancing and quarantine rules or to track the spread of COVID-19.

"If these measures are actually necessary and proportionate to confront the pandemic—if they are subject to public oversight and can be rolled back once the pandemic is over," then they should be implemented, said Marcus Michaelsen, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellow at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

We don't know what kind of tech is being used on us at any given moment. But we can guess, investigate and denounce governments and companies alike.

One type of tech focuses on contact tracing, with apps installed on our mobile phones to track and limit contagion.

"There are still lots of apps that pose a threat to citizens' right to privacy," said Samuel Woodhams, digital tights researcher at internet research firm Top10VPN.

At least 19 apps, with 4 million downloads combined, don't have dedicated privacy policies according to Woodhams, meaning that users cannot know for sure how their data is managed—or by whom.

Yet here we are discussing the rights of citizens. One can wonder what happens to the data of those who are running for their lives and those living in less-than-democratic countries. But the fact is that even so-called democracies have shady records when it comes to surveillance, which leads many to worry.

Contact tracing apps' location data are not precise enough to track the spreading of the virus but reveal a lot of personal information. The same is true for credit card data, facial recognition and CCTV cameras in public places.

Who collects the data and where will it all be stored? Is it sufficiently anonymized, protected against data theft and abuse out of potential economic and political interests?

The answers are generally far from what most people would expect—at least from those who have full confidence in the democratic ideals of their respective countries. In authoritarian and illiberal contexts, the pandemic accelerated the decline of internet freedoms, a trend in line with a broader crisis for democracy and shrinking civic space.

It is not to say that we don't need the means to track and prevent the spreading of diseases, or that we don't need to monitor borders and protect ourselves from terrorism and potential harm. We need better rules in place, transparency and accountability. Otherwise, the same measures used to protect us will end up harming society and create a virtual police state. We must know who is collecting our data and to what purpose. We as a society must be able to set boundaries and limits.

Otherwise, little by little, the differences between democratic states and authoritarian or illiberal ones will decrease and we will end up unwillingly giving up on our privacy—which is what is happening with refugees today, all over the world. The pandemic is being used to justify expanding sometimes draconian surveillance.

It is interesting that amid such heavy use of authoritarian tech, violation of privacy and 24 hour monitoring, some people prefer to fall for conspiracy theories about microchips in vaccines. Reality in itself is frightening enough.

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia is a Brazilian journalist based in Belgium. He holds a PhD in human rights from the University of Deusto (Spain).