PANSPERMIA
Life on Earth was started by a meteorite, new evidence suggests

Joe Pinkstone

 Apr 27 2022


There are few questions bigger than how life on Earth began, and a new study may have finally proven that our existence can be traced back to a meteorite landing on our planet billions of years ago.

Experts have long debated how Earth, just one of trillions of planets created in the universe’s 14-billion-year existence, managed to cultivate life.

A leading theory has claimed that the core materials that make up DNA were transported to Earth from space via a meteorite around 3.5 billion years ago when our planet was a fiery hellscape in its celestial infancy.

During this time it was constantly peppered by meteorites and comets due to a chaotic and formative solar system, and it is possible at least one impact brought with it the constituent parts of DNA.


NASA
A new study may finally have proven that our existence can be traced back to a meteorite landing.

But while this theory had much support, it has had one glaring weakness; until now, only two of the four main components of DNA had been found in space rocks.

However, fresh analysis of three meteorites using state-of-the-art methods has spotted evidence of all four, proving that the necessary jigsaw pieces for life are indeed found in space.

Scientists say it is possible that these basic ingredients could have been deposited on Earth by a meteorite before life began.

“[The DNA chemicals] could have been generated by photochemical reactions prevailing in the interstellar medium and later incorporated into asteroids during solar system formation,” the researchers write in their study, published in the journal Nature Communications.

123RF
A leading theory claims the core materials that make up DNA were transported to Earth from space via a meteorite around 3.5 billion years ago

“This study demonstrates that a diversity of meteoritic nucleobases could serve as building blocks of DNA and RNA on the early Earth.”

The double-helix of DNA is one of the most famous chemicals in the world and it underpins all forms of known life.

DNA is made of two strands that weave around each other like an interminable ribbon and are connected in the middle by ladder-like rungs made of two chemicals joined together.

There are four such chemicals (adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine, better identified by their initials A, T, C and G) which are known as “bases” and their arrangement makes up an individual’s genome.

Every person’s order of these four bases is unique and provides the code for personality, appearance, health and everything in between.

Previously, scientists had found evidence of guanine and adenine in meteorites, but – despite intense searching – had never spotted their complementary partners.

A team of Japanese researchers, led by Hokkaido University, obtained two samples of the Murchison meteorite which landed in Australia in 1969 and one sample from both the Murray and Tagish Lake meteorites, which landed in the US in 1950 and Canada in 2000, respectively.

They were ground into a fine powder and subjected to hypersensitive analysis capable of detecting molecules at the parts-per-trillion level.

GREG PRICE
Scientists had previously found evidence of guanine and adenine in meteorites, but despite intense searching had never spotted their complementary partners.

More than 30 chemicals were identified in total, including the four vital DNA ingredients.

“Given that extraterrestrial materials, including meteorites, were provided to the Hadean Earth at a flux much higher than that in the present day, a large number of these canonical base pairs may have also been delivered to the Earth at that time,” the researchers write.

“The accumulation of these scarce molecules has substantial geochemical challenges on Hadean Earth with an atmosphere possibly dominated by carbon dioxide and nitrogen.

“Hence, we expect that the exogenous base pairs contributed to the emergence of genetic properties for the earliest life on Earth.”

The Telegraph

READ MORE:
* As the Perseverance rover lands on Mars, there's a lot we already know about Mars from meteorites found on Earth
* Sweet science: Sugar in meteorites could have helped create life on Earth
* A kilometre-wide meteorite smashed into Greenland as recently as 12,000 years ago
* Meteorite could hold clues to solar system creation

Human Rights Watch chief to step down after three decades

Agence France-Presse
April 26, 2022

Kenneth Roth AFP

The executive director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, said Tuesday he will step down after three decades which have seen the New York-based NGO become a thorn in the side of authoritarian regimes and rights abusers across the world.

Roth, who has led the organization since 1993, will step down at the end of August, HRW said in a statement.

"Nothing can last forever," he said in a video message. "It is time to pass the baton."

He expressed "great confidence" that the HRW team would continue to effectively defend human rights. "While I am leaving Human Rights Watch, I am not leaving our cause."

Under his leadership, HRW has grown from a small-scale campaign group into a global rights organization that now employs over 500 staff across the globe.

In 1997, it shared a Nobel Peace Prize for its efforts to ban antipersonnel landmines and played a critical role in establishing the International Criminal Court.

Evidence gathered by its staff during conflicts around the world helped ensure the convictions at international tribunals of figures including former Liberian leader Charles Taylor over the war in Sierra Leone and wartime Bosnian Serb leaders Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic.

"Today, amid the horrific abuse taking place in Ukraine, an infrastructure is in place to hold perpetrators accountable," the HRW statement said.

His role brought controversy and HRW's statement acknowledged that "Roth inevitably earned many enemies."

In April 2021, HRW became the first major international rights group to accuse Israel of using policies of apartheid -- the segregation of blacks and whites in white-ruled South Africa -- against Palestinians.

Israel vehemently denied the allegation and denounced HRW's report. But in February this year a similar allegation was made by HRW's London-based counterparts at Amnesty International.

"Despite being Jewish -- and having a father who fled Nazi Germany as a 12-year-old boy -- he has been attacked for the organization's criticism of Israeli government abuses," HRW said.

In recent years, Roth had also become a bitter enemy of the Chinese authorities after repeatedly singling out Beijing over its rights violations.

China imposed sanctions against Roth personally and expelled him from Hong Kong when he travelled there to release HRW's annual World Report in January 2020, "which spotlighted Beijing's threat to the global human rights system", the organization said.

A search for a successor is now underway, it added.

© 2022 AFP

WHO KNOWS,THE SHADOW KNOWS

Don’t know where Twitter is headed: Parag Agrawal

• Chandrashekar Bhat
 
• 26 April, 2022

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal (Photo: about.twitter.com)

By: Chandrashekar Bhat

TWITTER’S India-born CEO Parag Agrawal has told its worried employees that he doesn’t know “what direction this company will go in” once the social media giant is formally taken over by billionaire Elon Musk.

The remarks by Agrawal, who took over the helm of Twitter just five months ago, came during a meeting with its employees on Monday (25) after the company said it had accepted Musk’s offer to buy it for about $44 billion (£34.6 bn).

“It’s important to acknowledge that all of you have many different feelings about what is happening,” The New York Times quoted Agrawal as saying.

The American daily said Agrawal told employees that he estimated the deal might take three to six months to complete.

“In this moment, we operate Twitter as we always have,” he said, adding that “how we run the company, the decisions we make, and the positive changes we drive — that will be on us, and under our control.”

Uncertainty now hangs over the fate of Twitter employees, who voiced concern over layoffs in the wake of the acquisition by Musk.

It is unclear how hands-on Musk plans to be at Twitter, the newspaper said.

“Among the unanswered issues are whom he might pick to lead the company and how involved he would be in running the service,” it said, adding that Agrawal is “expected to remain in charge at least until the deal closes.”

In the employee meeting, Agrawal acknowledged the uncertainty ahead.

“Once the deal closes, we don’t know what direction this company will go in,” Agarwal, 37, said.

Upon completion of the transaction, Twitter will become a privately held company.

The transaction, which has been unanimously approved by the Twitter board of directors, is expected to close in 2022, subject to stockholder and regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

As Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor announced that Tesla and SpaceX founder Musk will acquire the company, Agrawal tweeted, “Twitter has a purpose and relevance that impacts the entire world. Deeply proud of our teams and inspired by the work that has never been more important.”

In the meeting with Twitter employees, Agrawal and Taylor “nodded to the emotions of the day and how workers were most likely processing the news of a sale.”

Agrawal said compensation would remain largely the same under Musk but “he did not make the same assurances about Twitter’s policies and culture,” the newspaper said.

Agrawal told employees that their stock options would convert to cash when the deal closes. Employees would receive the same benefit packages for a year after the deal was finalised, the report said.

In response to a question about whether former president Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended from the social networking site in January 2021, would be allowed back on the platform, Agrawal said, “We constantly evolve our policies.”

Following the acquisition, Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, said, “Free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated.”

“I also want to make Twitter better than ever by enhancing the product with new features, making the algorithms open source to increase trust, defeating the spam bots, and authenticating all humans. Twitter has tremendous potential – I look forward to working with the company and the community of users to unlock it,” the Tesla CEO said.

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey (Photo by MARCO BELLO/AFP via Getty Images)

Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who had stepped down in November last year, had declared that his “trust” in Agrawal “as our CEO is bone deep”.

Dorsey had said that after almost 16 years at the company, he had decided it was finally time for him to leave and the first reason he had given for why it was the “right time” for his departure was “Parag becoming our CEO.”

“The board ran a rigorous process considering all options and unanimously appointed Parag. He’s been my choice for some time given how deeply he understands the company and its needs. Parag has been behind every critical decision that helped turn this company around. He’s curious, probing, rational, creative, demanding, self-aware, and humble. He leads with heart and soul, and is someone I learn from daily,” Dorsey had said.

Agrawal, named CEO on November 29, 2021, had said in a note posted on Twitter that he was “honoured and humbled” by his appointment and expressed gratitude to Dorsey’s “continued mentorship and your friendship.”

An IIT Bombay and Stanford alumnus, Agrawal had joined Twitter 10 years ago when there were fewer than 1,000 employees.

“While it was a decade ago, those days feel like yesterday to me. I’ve walked in your shoes, I’ve seen the ups and downs, the challenges and obstacles, the wins and the mistakes. But then and now, above all else, I see Twitter’s incredible impact, our continued progress, and the exciting opportunities ahead of us,” he had said in the post following his appointment.

Twitter CEO tells employees no layoffs planned ‘at this time’ following Elon Musk buyout

“Once the deal closes we don’t know which direction the platform will go”

By Alex Heath and Mia Sato Apr 25, 2022, 

Photo Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal didn’t have many concrete answers for staff about what will happen once Elon Musk takes over the company later this year. During a virtual all-hands call Monday, hours after the company announced it had agreed to be bought by Musk for $44 billion, Agrawal fielded questions on the future of his job, the company’s board, and possible layoffs.

Layoffs aren’t planned “at this time,” Agrawal said, according to a person who heard the remarks and who asked to remain anonymous. Agrawal also said that he’d remain as CEO until the deal’s close, but he didn’t comment about what would happen after that. The company’s board will dissolve once the deal closes, said Brett Taylor, the board’s independent chair.

“WE DON’T HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS.”

“There is indeed uncertainty about what will happen after the deal closes,” Agrawal told staff.

Since Musk’s intention to buy Twitter became public earlier this month, some Twitter employees have expressed discomfort or outright resistance to Musk’s takeover of the company. And Musk has made clear he wants to see changes on the platform, insisting his attempts to purchase it aren’t financial. Calling Twitter a “de facto town square,” Musk said last week he believes Twitter should “open source the algorithm.”

Musk has repeatedly focused on the utility of Twitter as a space for free speech, and the question of former President Donald Trump’s presence on the platform came up during the all-staff meeting today. Trump was banned from the platform in 2021, but Agrawal didn’t have a definitive answer to whether Trump would have access to his favorite social network going forward. Trump today said he wouldn’t return to Twitter even if he was welcomed back under its new owner, and that he would use his Truth Social platform instead.

“Once the deal closes we don’t know which direction the platform will go,” Agrawal told staff regarding Trump, saying it was a question that should be addressed with Musk.

The deal is expected to close later this year. Until Musk takes over, Twitter’s staff may have to wait to hear about how things will change. “We don’t have all the answers,” Agrawal said. “This is a period of uncertainty.”

Twitter CEO tells employees company is in the dark over future under Musk

Agrawal also told employees there were no plans for layoffs.

By Sheila Dang and Katie Paul

April 26, 2022

Twitter Inc Chief Executive Parag Agrawal told employees on Monday that the future of the social media firm is uncertain after the deal to be taken private under billionaire Elon Musk closes. He was speaking during a company-wide town hall meeting that was heard by Reuters.

Musk will join Twitter staff for a question-and-answer session at a later date, the company told employees.

As Agrawal listened to staff questions about Musk's plans for the company, the possibility of layoffs and the board's rationale for the deal, he deferred many questions as ones that should be asked of Musk.

Musk has said he believes Twitter should be a platform for free speech. Employees asked Agrawal whether former U.S. President Donald Trump, who was permanently suspended from Twitter last year, would be allowed to return once Musk takes over.

"Once the deal closes, we don't know which direction the platform will go," Agrawal said, referring to the question regarding Trump. "I believe when we have an opportunity to speak with Elon, it's a question we should address with him."

Agrawal also told employees there were no plans for layoffs.

Bret Taylor, chair of Twitter's board of directors, aimed to reassure employees that the agreement with Musk prioritized "operating continuity" until the deal was closed.
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"I think we feel very comfortable that (the deal) gives this team the ability to continue to make the company successful in between signing and closing the transaction," Taylor said.

© Copyright Thomson Reuters 2022. All rights reserved.

Elon Musk's twitter account is seen on a smartphone in front of the Twitter logo in this photo illustration taken, April 15, 2022. Photo: Reuters / DADO RUVIC

Twitter has long been more talk than money

2022/4/26 
© Agence France-Presse

Twitter has accepted a $44 billion bid from Elon Musk to acquire the company

New York (AFP) - Billionaire Elon Musk is capturing a social media prize with his deal to buy Twitter, which has become a global stage for companies, activists, celebrities, politicians and more.

Despite its reach and impact, the San Francisco-based one-to-many messaging platform has struggled to generate the kind of revenue seen by social media peers such as Facebook and TikTok.

Since its founding in March of 2006, Twitter has amassed 217 million daily active users, more than 80 percent of them outside the United States.

Twitter did not taste profit until the end of 2017, and the following year was its first to finish financially in the black.

Twitter reported a loss of $221 million last year.

While often associated with the giant Silicon Valley social media platforms, to the extent that co-founder and then-chief Jack Dorsey has been grilled by US legislators, it is vastly eclipsed by its peers when it comes to profit and share value.

A challenge that has vexed Twitter since its inception is how to weave in ads or other money-making tactics into the real-time flow of posts by users without ruining the experience people love on the platform.

The fleeting nature of tweets has meant that marketing messages in posts may not spend much time in the spotlight for Twitter users to see.

An added challenge is how to make sure ads, sometimes in the form of tweets promoted to the tops of feeds, do not wind up next to vitriol, misinformation or other troubling content that brands do not want to be associated with.

However, politicians, institutions and marketers have learned how to turn Twitter to their advantage with clever or controversial posts that get shared as "retweets." But while these can spark viral online conversations, they do not necessarily result in Twitter directly making money from them.
Town square?

Some have opined that Twitter, while hard to squeeze money out of, has become an internet version of the "town square," and is so important that it should almost be considered a public utility and come with free speech protections.

Twitter was the preferred method of communication during former US President Donald Trump's four years in office, as opposed to press briefings at which he would face questions from reporters.

Investors had essentially steered clear of Twitter stock, which prior to Musk's uninvited takeover bid launched three weeks ago was worth 12 percent less than it was priced when the company's shares first went public more than eight years ago.

Twitter last year introduced a "Blue" subscription tier offering exclusive content and features, and Musk has made it clear he is a fan of such models at the platform.

There is a risk though, that if Musk follows through on his vow to let people say pretty much anything they want on Twitter, moderate users will not want to pay subscriptions to be in a platform turned hostile, said Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Susannah Streeter.
Money over mindfulness?

Musk taking Twitter private will provide more room to maneuver, but will not guarantee success, according to analysts.

As a private company, Twitter will be free to make changes that might irk shareholders or take longer than they like to pay off.

Musk and his partners buying Twitter will be able to focus more intently on the financial side of the business, and not fret over issues such as diversity that might be important to shareholders at a public firm.

And despite talk of making the software running Twitter more transparent, the business side would have to disclose less to the public as a private operation.

Musk will be able to shrug off concerns about the environment, diversity or political correctness and decide "to hell with it", running Twitter the way he thinks is best, William Lee of the Milken Institute told AFP.

 

243 CRIMES AGAINST JOURNALISTS AND THE MEDIA IN UKRAINE COMMITTED BY RUSSIA IN TWO MONTHS OF WAR

24.04.2022, 

In two months of the full-scale war, russia has committed 243 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine.

This is according to the monitoring conducted by the Institute of Mass Information.

As of April 24, seven journalists were killed while carrying out their professional duty, nine were injured, and at least 15 are missing.

IMI has documented eight cases of journalists being captured and abducted by russians. In these cases, at least nine journalists were taken hostage. Most of them have already been released, but the fate of one of the journalists, Dmytro Khylyuk, who disappeared in Kyiv region, is still unknown. Colleagues had some intelligence about him being taken hostage; however, the region had already been liberated from the occupants, yet nothing is known about the journalist's whereabouts.

In addition, the fate of at least 14 journalists from Mariupol also remains unknown. IMI is currently unable to verify what happened to our colleagues, so we consider them missing.

The list of russian crimes also includes shelling, threats, harassment of journalists, shelling and seizure of TV towers, hacking attacks on Ukrainian media websites, shelling of media offices, shutting down Ukrainian broadcasting, blocking access to Ukrainian media websites in russia and the occupied Crimea. In addition, at least 106 regional media outlets were forced to cease their work due to threats from the russian occupants, seizure of offices, inability to work under temporary occupation and print newspapers, etc.

Seven journalists have been killed while carrying out their duties in Kyiv and its suburbs in the two months since russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Among them are three Ukrainian journalists and four foreign ones, five men and two women. Namely:

1. Yevhen Sakun, LIVE channel cameraman (deceased on March 1 in a russian missile strike on a TV tower in Kyiv);
2. Brent Renaud, documentarist and The Times correspondent (shot by russians on March 13 at a checkpoint in Irpin);
3. Pierre Zakrzewski, Fox News cameraman, Irish citizen (deceased on March 14 in a russian shelling attack on Horenka village, Kyiv region);
4. Oleksandra Kuvshynova, Ukrainian fixer and journalist (deceased on March 14 together with Pierre Zakrzewski in a russian shelling attack on Horenka village, Kyiv region);
5. Oksana Baulina, journalist working for the russian The Insider, Alexei Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation (deceased on March 23 under russian artillery fire in Kyiv while carrying out an editorial assignment); 
6. Maxim Levin, photo reporter, war correspondent, had worked for many international agencies and Ukrainian media (went missing on March 13, found murdered on April 1);
7. Mantas Kvedaravicius, Lithuanian filmmaker and documentarist (killed in Mariupol).

Another 14 journalists were killed as combatants or as a result of russian shelling, not while performing their journalist duties.

1. Oleksandr Lytkin, "КNК Мedia" journalist, deceased on February 13 in a shelling attack on Romanivka village by russian troops.
2. Dilerbek Shakirov, civillian journalist working for "Navkolo tebe" informational weekly, shot from an automatic rifle on February 26 in Kherson suburbs;
3. Serhiy Pushchenko, graphic artist and painter, culturologist, Honored Artist of Ukraine, National Journalist Union of Ukraine member, award-winning journalist, volunteer and ATO veteran, killed on March 2 in Vasylkiv together with his territorial defence comrades;
4. Viktor Dudar, war journalist, deceased on March 6 in a battle with russian invaders near Mykolaiv;
5. Pavlo Li, actor, "Dom" channel host, joined territorial defence forces at the beginning of the war, deceased on March 6 near Irpin while helping evacuate civillians;
6. Viktor Dedov, "Sigma" channel cameraman, killed on March 11 in Mariupol as a result of a shelling attack on a building;
7. Oleh Yakunin, Zaporizhzhia misto.zp.ua website editor, deceased on March 18 defending Ukraine from russian invaders;
8. Lilia Humyanova, journalism tutor and the head of the art department of Livoberezhny District House of Children's and Youth Creativity, killed on March 19 in a russian shelling attack on Mariupol;
9. Yurii Oliynyk, Channel 24 cameraman, deceased on March 23 in a battle near Popasna village, Luhansk region;
10. Serhiy Zaikovskyy, essayist, historian, translator, deceased on March 24 in a battle with russian invaders near Kyiv;
11. Denys Kotenko, Ministry of Veterans Affairs press office employee, deceased on March 24 in a battle with russian invaders near Kyiv;
12. Yevhen Bal, journalist, author, volunteer, died under torture at the hands of russian troops on April 2 in Mariupol;
13. Roman Nezhyborets, Chernihiv's "Dytynets" channel video engineer, killed by russian troops in April in Yahidna village near Chernihiv; 
14. Zoreslav Zamoiskyy, body with signs of violent death found on April 13 in Bucha.

At least nine journalists have been injured in the russian invaders' shelling attacks in Kyiv, Sumy, Mykolayiv, and Chernihiv regions:

1. Stefan Weichert, journalist for the Danish Esktra-Bladet (wounded on February 26 when their car came under fire in Okhtyrka, Sumy region);
2. Emil Filtenborg Mikkelsen, journalist for the Danish Esktra-Bladet (wounded on February 26 when their car came under fire in Okhtyrka, Sumy region);
3. Stuart Ramsay, correspondent for the British Sky News (wounded by russian troops' gunfire in Bucha, Kyiv region, on February 28. The channel's cameraman Richie Mockler was saved by his bulletproof vest); 
4. Guillaume Briquet, Swiss journalist (wounded in Mykolaiv region on March 6 as the car he was in came under russian gunfire. He was also robbed. The occupants could clearly see "PRESS" sign on the car);
5. Maryan Kushnir, Radio Liberty correspondent (wounded in a missile strike on March 11 near Kyiv);
6. Juan Diego Herrera Arredondo, American journalist (wounded in a russian shelling attack on March 13 in Irpin near Kyiv);
7. Benjamin Hall, journalist for the American Fox News (hospitalised with a severe wound he took on March 14 while working on a report near Kyiv);
8. Andrii Tsaplienko, journalist for "TSN.Tyzhden," 1+1 channel (received a shrapnel wound on March 24 as russians fired at a civillian convoy in Chernihiv region);
9. Oleksandr Navrotskyy, cameraman (received a severe leg wound on March 26 while filming during a "Grad" shelling attack in Kyiv region).

IMI has recorded eight cases of capturing and abduction of journalists by the russian invaders. These cases have occurred in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia (Melitopol) and Kherson (Nova Kakhovka) regions. Namely, these are the abduction of journalists and the publisher of "Melitopolski Vidomosti" newspaper and taking the father of RIA-Melitopol journalist Svitlana Zalizetska, as well as Nova Kakhovka journalists Oleh Baturyn and Oleksandr Hunko, hostage.

The russian occupants have shelled 11 TV towers in eight regions of Ukraine: Melitopol (Zaporizhzhia region), Kyiv and Vinarivka village (Kyiv region), Kharkiv (hit the TV tower twice) and the region (Izyum), Rivne, Vinnytsia, Korosten (Zhytomyr region), Lysychansk (Luhansk region), Bilopillya (Sumy region). As a result of russian air strikes, Ukrainian broadcasting has completely or partially disappeared in these regions.

In addition, the occupants have seized Ukrainian media offices and switched the broadcasting to russian channels. In particular, the russian invaders forcibly shut Kherson and Melitopol off from Ukrainian broadcasting, and mined Suspilne's building in Kherson.

IMI has also recorded numerous DDoS attacks on the websites of Ukrainian online media and NGOs covering russia's war against Ukraine. Media websites have been hacked, news reports edited, russian symbols or calls to surrender posted. Namely, the attacks were targeting the websites of Suspilne, NV, Channel 5, "Babel," Lutsk website "Konkurent," "Poltavska Khvylya" media, the website of Kherson's "Novy den" newspaper, Minfin.com.ua financial periodical, the Kherson edition MOST, TV channel websites "Espresso," "Detector Media," etc. In addition, IMI recorded phishing attacks on Ukrainian media offices and journalists.

Since the end of March, IMI has recorded threats being sent to Ukrainian media outlets and journalists via email. The threatening letters came from the russian mail.ru service, signed by various users. Journalists have been threatened with interrogation, torture, and incarceration, and were even sent rhymed threats later. Such letters have been received by the editorial offices of European Pravda, Hlavkom, Apostrof, Krym.Realii, Zaporizhzhia city website 061.ua, and a number of Volyn and Zaporizhzhia media outlets.

russian crimes against journalists and the media have been recorded in 16 regions of Ukraine. russia has committed the most crimes in Kyiv and Kyiv region (murder, wounding, disappearances, abductions, shelling of journalists and TV towers, threats, cybercrimes). Then come Zaporizhzhia and Kherson: some cities in these regions are occupied by the russian army; there have been cases of abductions, shooting on journalists, threats, cybercrimes, seizure of media offices and the shutdown of Ukrainian broadcasting. Many Ukrainian editorial offices have been with interruptions due to sirens and shelling throughout Ukraine.

CONTINUE READING 

243 crimes against journalists and the media in Ukraine committed by russia in two months of war | Institute of Mass Information (imi.org.ua)

UN Experts: US Asset Freezes Contributing to Afghan Women's Suffering


TEHRAN (FNA)- UN experts blamed the United States for making life worse for Afghan women, saying Washington's move to freeze Afghanistan's assets is contributing to the suffering of women in the war-ravaged country.

In a statement on Monday, 14 independent human rights activists held Washington responsible for making the situation worse for women in Afghanistan through blocking billions of dollars in assets belonging to the country’s central bank, presstv reported.

"While gender-based violence has been a long-standing and severe threat to women and girls, it has been exacerbated by the measures imposed by the US...," said the statement, without providing specific details.

The statement also blamed the Taliban's "widening gender-based discrimination" for deteriorating women's rights, adding that the current humanitarian crisis where 23 million are reliant on food aid is having a "disproportionate impact" on women and children.

The Joe Biden administration has frozen the assets belonging to the Afghan Central Bank since the withdrawal of its occupation forces from the country in August 2021. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank have since then suspended activities in the war-ravaged country.

Many of the US allies and Western governments have also largely suspended their financial assistance to Afghanistan since the US troop withdrawal and the Taliban takeover.

Back in February, US President Biden signed an executive order saying half of the frozen assets from Afghanistan's central bank were to be reserved for victims of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks.

Washington also claimed that the other half would be allocated for humanitarian aid to Afghans suffering from the dire situation following the Taliban's assuming of power in Afghanistan in August 2021.

Despite the intense lobbying by present rulers in Kabul, the US and its allies have refused to release the funds, paving the way for the worst humanitarian disaster.

The UN experts further called the order's provisions "overly broad", stressing that they were resulting in "over-zealous compliance with sanctions thus preventing people of Afghanistan from any access to basic humanitarian goods".

They also noted that under international human rights law, governments, including the US, have an obligation to ensure their activities do not result in rights violations.

The experts said they have already relayed their concerns and recommendations to Washington, adding that they have not yet received a reply.

Almost eight months after the US-led international coalition hastily abandoned the South Asian country, millions of Afghans are on the brink of starvation, with no food and no money.

The Taliban’s return to power came as the US was in the middle of a chaotic troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The group announced the formation of a caretaker government on September 7, but their efforts to stabilize the situation have so far been undermined by international sanctions, as banks are running out of cash and civil servants are going unpaid.

The UN has already warned that some 95 percent of Afghans do not have enough to eat and nine million are at risk from famine.

Report: Discrimination Against Muslim Americans Rose by 9% in 2021

TEHRAN (FNA)- Discrimination against Muslims in the US increased by 9% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to a report released Monday by a Muslim civil rights and advocacy group.

Officials from the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) held a press conference to release the findings of the report, titled "Still Suspect: The Impact of Structural Islamophobia”, Anadolu news agency reported.

According to the report, CAIR received 6,720 complaints nationwide last year involving a range of issues including immigration, travel discrimination, law enforcement and government overreach, hate and bias incidents, custody rights, school incidents and free speech incidents.

"This represents the highest number of cases reported to CAIR in 27 years. This milestone is alarming," said CAIR’s National Executive Director Nihad Awad at the press conference.

Awad noted that the report speaks for itself, adding "Islamophobia is structural and deep in our society”.

"Islamophobia has become mainstream in America. It made its way into the government institutions and public sphere through laws, policies, political rhetoric and other manifestations," he added.

In a breakdown, the group received 2,823 immigration and travel-related complaints, 745 workplace discrimination complaints, 553 denial of public accommodation complaints, 679 law enforcement and government overreach complaints, 308 hate and bias incidents related complaints, 278 complaints over incarceration rights, 177 complaints over school incidents, 56 anti-BDS free speech complaints and 1,101 general complaints.

The report found that there was a 55% increase in law enforcement and government overreach complaints in 2021, while there was a 28% increase in hate and bias incidents that included the forcible removal of the hijab, or Muslim headscarf, harassment, vandalism and physical assaults.

Awad believes the US government can be part of the solution in curbing Islamophobia.

"We urge today Congress to adopt legislation making federal funding for local law enforcement agencies contingent on those agencies documenting and reporting hate crimes to the FBI's national database. This would offer an incentive for local law enforcement to take the threat of Islamophobia seriously," he added.

Islamic Jihad Leader: Palestinians Creating New Equations in Confrontation with Zionist Enemy


TEHRAN (FNA)- Secretary General of the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad movement Ziad Al-Nakhala said Palestinian people are more energetic than ever before in their confrontation with the Zionist regime.

Nakhala made the remarks in a Monday conference themed “Palestine, the Central Issue of Islamic Ummah”, which was held in the Yemeni capital city of Sana'a, presstv reported.

“Our nation is faced with the Zionist regime’s onslaught, which seeks to Judaize Al-Quds and create new realities on the ground,” he stated, adding, “The Palestinian nation is creating new equations in its confrontation with the Zionist regime.”

Nakhala said the holding of this conference is another proof of Yemen's support for the Palestinian cause and that the aggressors in Yemen are approaching the Zionist regime despite the occupying entity’s Judaization moves and the destruction of the Palestinian nation's identity.

“The Zionists use military force and under the guise of international organizations exploit the compromising Arab countries that have recognized the legitimacy of this occupying regime. They also cause conflicts with the Palestinian people in order to take advantage of them,” the secretary general of the Islamic Jihad movement added.

Nakhala stated Palestinian people are facing plots by an enemy that has never ceased any efforts to dominate Al-Quds through the falsification of history and the massacre of people in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

“Despite Israeli efforts to Judaize Al-Aqsa Mosque and destroy the identity of the Palestinian people, the aggressors in Yemen are trying to get closer to the Zionist regime in any way possible,” Nakhala noted.

The Islamic Jihad’s chief underscored it is regrettable that Palestinians have been forsaken and have to fight against arrogance, Zionism and the siege imposed on them by some of their Arab brothers.

“The countdown for the Zionist regime has begun, and today it is rapidly going downhill on the domestic front and in its confrontation with the Palestinian intifadas (uprisings),” Nakhala underlined.

Palestinian officials and resistance groups have repeatedly voiced concerns over the Israeli regime’s plot to divide Al-Aqsa into Jewish and Muslim sections or set visiting times.

Israeli forces have repeatedly attacked Palestinian worshipers at the site since early April, with the onset of the holy month of Ramadan which coincided with Jewish Passover.

More than 150 Palestinian worshipers were injured when Israeli forces stormed the compound in the holy occupied city of Al-Quds’ Old City last week. The forces have kept up their violations on the flashpoint site besides cracking down on solidarity protests throughout the occupied West Bank.

The clashes in Al-Quds had sparked fears of another armed conflict similar to an 11-day war last year between Israel and Gaza-based Palestinian resistance groups, including Hamas.

Israel waged the war last May in response to Palestinian retaliation against violent raids on worshipers at Al-Aqsa Mosque and the regime’s plans to force a number of Palestinian families out of their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of East Al-Quds.

According to Gaza’s Health Ministry, 260 Palestinians were killed in the Israeli offensive, including 66 children and 40 women.

Majority of US Voters Would Consider Third Party If Faced with Trump vs Biden Rematch


TEHRAN (FNA)- A new poll by Harvard CAPS-Harris found that 58% of registered voters would consider a third party or independent candidate if faced with the prospect of choosing between Joe Biden and Donald Trump again.

Both men are extremely unpopular, with the poll also showing that a majority of Americans do not want either man to run. Sixty-three percent of respondents said they do not want Biden to seek a second term and 55% said they do not want Trump to run for president again, RIA Novosti reported.

Biden has seen his poll numbers plummet over the past year. A Gallup poll released last week showed that Biden’s 41% job approval rating is the second lowest since the 1950s for any president at this point in their term. The lowest was his predecessor, Trump.

It should come as no surprise then that voters would consider someone else with Biden and Trump at the top of the ticket, but third party candidates have not fared well in the United States since Ross Perot’s attempt in 1992.

Perot held a lead against rivals Bill Clinton and George H. W. Bush but then dropped out in the middle of the campaign season. He reentered the race in October but by then the damage had already been done and Clinton won the presidency. Perot explained his behavior by accusing the Bush campaign of blackmailing him with doctored photos of his daughter. The Bush administration denied the claim.

The Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD) excluded Perot from the 1996 debates and no third party candidate has gotten a significant share of the vote since.

This new poll is a ray of hope for third party advocates. Mark Penn, the co-director of the Harvard CAPS-Harris poll, told The Hill that he has “never seen a number this high for an independent run”. He also called it “an unprecedented opportunity for an independent candidate to run and win".

Trump has hinted that he may run again in 2024, but has said he will not make a decision until after the midterm elections. Biden was non-committal on running for reelection during the campaign but reportedly told former President Barack Obama that he will seek another term. Age will be a factor for both men, Biden is 79 and Trump is 75.

Both men are likely to win their party’s primary if they run. Thirty-seven percent of voters said they would vote for Biden in a primary, higher than any other Democratic candidate. Trump has higher support among his base, with 58% of respondents saying they would vote for him.

With those numbers, it seems possible, if not likely, that a Trump versus Biden rematch is in the cards. And with the Republican party pulling out of the CPD, there may be no better opportunity for a third party candidate to make waves in the next election.

Crypto-Trading Addiction Is the ‘Reefer Madness’ of 2022

By Aaron Brown | Bloomberg
Today

As if all that’s going on in the world wasn’t enough to worry about, Bloomberg News reports that young people are seeking mental health treatment to break all-consuming cycles of cryptocurrency trading. Those profiled complained that frantic trading in the hopes of scoring quick riches in a rapidly growing, $2 trillion asset class led them to neglect ordinary life and destroyed their peace of mind.

This calls to my mind a conversation I had years ago with Ed Thorp, the mathematics professor who invented blackjack card counting and developed or refined most of the classic quantitative hedge fund strategies used today. His books in the 1960s, Beat the Dealer and Beat the Market, inspired many people — including me — to embark on lifetime journeys using mathematics to succeed in high-stakes gambles. I asked Ed whether he worried about people who came across his books and ruined their lives in unsuccessful emulation. “No,” he replied, “I think they would have gotten in trouble without my help.”

Like it or not, life is full of high stakes gambles. We expect high-school graduates to decide whether to bet hundreds of thousands of dollars in college expenses and missed wages in the hopes of increasing lifetime earnings by tens of thousands of dollars per year. We know many of them make poor choices. And that’s just one in a long series of future risk-taking. Choosing careers, getting married, starting businesses, making investments, joining the military, cheating on taxes — all are gambles.

How do young people learn to make wise risk decisions? Lectures and book learning can help, but mostly they learn from experience. Games are good for this, both sports and games with cards, dice or other randomizing elements. To understand risk, however, the stakes must be personally meaningful and the players must really care about the outcomes. And one of the most important qualities imparted is the courage to play games with meaningful stakes in the first place.

A necessary consequence of this is some people will hurt themselves. Training accidents in the military kill twice as many people in the service as combat. It’s not unreasonable to suggest a similar ratio for gambling — twice as many people require mental health treatment or lose all their money or ruin personal relationships, gambling or day trading or speculating in crypto, as face similar problems with “responsible” risk taking. A young person who makes these mistakes can get some rehab and restart life sadder but wiser, with no permanent damage. Those making their first serious investment decisions in middle-age may not recover so easily.

Financial trading — whether screaming in a Chicago trading pit, working in the trading room of a major dealer, running a hedge fund or trading crypto on your phone — is a particularly intense form of risk taking. It has a consuming thrill that makes ordinary life away from trading seem colorless and slow. Even quantitative traders who are a level removed from individual trading decisions feel the thrill as they agonize over decisions about tweaking their models or pulling the plug.

Long experience suggests that trading at the highest level cannot be done calmly. Professional traders learn to refine raw emotions such as fear and greed into equally strong but productive psychological intensity — just as top athletes are imbued with focused wills to win, and successful people in most fields learn to harness not just their brains, but their hearts, into what they do. “Protecting” young people from learning these techniques hurts them doubly. They remain vulnerable to raw emotions that lead to poor risk decisions, and they never experience the focused passion necessary for great success. Trying to reduce the psychological stress and financial losses of young people to zero may be like eliminating any dangerous training in the military — more overall damage, at much higher stakes.

Many regulators view “gamification” of finance with suspicion, along with crypto, day trading, options for individuals and other things that make learning about risk fun. They see the harm from the people who overdo it, but not the much larger gain from a citizenry equipped to deal intelligently with life’s risks.

This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.

Aaron Brown is a former managing director and head of financial market research at AQR Capital Management. He is the author of “The Poker Face of Wall Street.” He may have a stake in the areas he writes about.


©2022 Bloomberg L.P.

The biggest mistake of the pandemic is still haunting us

Contact tracing studies showed that outdoor transmission was rare and that indoors, time spent in the same room mattered more than distance between people 

(Photo: AP)

Updated: 26 Apr 2022,

Faye Flam, Bloomberg

The World Health Organization took two years to admit Covid-19 spread through airborne particles. We’re still dealing with the fallout.

We’re now being left to choose our own risks when it comes to Covid-19, but it’s clear that many people still don’t recognize the importance of fresh air. Some super-cautious people don’t seem to realize how much danger can be mitigated by socializing outdoors or opening windows. Others seem not to understand how much risk persists indoors even when others are more than six feet away.

One big reason the public may still be so confused: the World Health Organization’s long delay in recognizing that Covid was spreading through airborne transmission. On March 28, 2020, the WHO listed on its website as a “FACT" that “Covid19 is NOT airborne." Everyone was confused back then, so being wrong was understandable — but showing that degree of confidence was not. There were credible scientists at the time saying airborne spread was happening. Worse still, it took two years to change course — a delay experts pondered in a recent article in Nature, “Why WHO Took Two Years to Say Covid is Airborne." It was a mistake that eroded public trust and confused people about how to avoid the virus.

The problem, it turns out, was not one of evidence but burden of proof. The WHO officials thought they should assume Covid-19 was not airborne until they saw proof that it was. But why not assume it was airborne and put the burden of proof on other modes of transmission?

Looking back on my own columns on the question of how Coved was transmitted, I quoted different experts back in March of 2020 about the way infected people emit viral particles in little bits of saliva, from larger “droplets" that fall within six feet or smaller aerosols that can linger in indoor air and travel larger distances. Most experts favored droplets as Covid’s primary mode of spread, but others were very concerned about airborne transmission, in which the virus contaminates stagnant indoor air and spreads despite physical distancing and loose-fitting cloth masks.

It’s clear now and should have been clear then that the WHO had put the burden of proof in the wrong place.

One simple rule about scientific burden of proof was voiced by philosopher David Hume and popularized later by Carl Sagan: Extraordinary claims need extraordinary evidence. When a revolutionary idea breaks all the rules — such as Einstein’s theory of relativity, which violated Newton’s laws — we don’t accept it without rigorous testing. Airborne transmission of Covid-19 was never an extraordinary idea, but the WHO nonetheless demanded an extraordinary level of proof.

But plenty of other diseases move through the air. Rather than insist that airborne transmission be proved beyond a shadow of a doubt, the WHO should have used an approach called abductive reasoning. That’s when scientists consider which ideas best fit all the available evidence. Darwin used it in Origin of Species to describe why his theory of natural selection fit detailed observations of living things better than creationism or other ideas. With abductive reasoning, competing ideas might fit some of the evidence — but if they can’t explain the whole body of data as well as some other idea does, they take a back seat.

By late spring of 2020, multiple lines of evidence pointed to airborne spread as responsible for at least some cases of Covid-19. Contact tracing studies showed that outdoor transmission was rare and that indoors, time spent in the same room mattered more than distance between people. Other studies showed that the disease was spreading in bursts — most people didn’t give it to anyone, but a few gave it to huge numbers through so-called superspreading events, almost always indoor gatherings. This doesn’t rule out the other modes of transmission, like droplets transmitted at close range and contaminated surfaces, but it does suggest that airborne spread was playing an important role.

Science is a bit more malleable than many people think — it’s not about facts and proof but about hypotheses, observations, inferences, evidence, theories and consensus. Thinking about burden of proof often helps in evaluating health-related claims, where “no evidence" doesn’t necessarily mean wrong, and some evidence doesn’t mean you have the whole answer.

Even the term “airborne" can be confusing if it’s not translated into practical advice about how to avoid getting infected. Now that governments in the U.S. and Europe are moving away from mandates and expecting people to behave according to our own risk tolerance, it’s more important than ever for public health authorities to clarify how best to minimize risk for those who choose to do so.


Faye Flam is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist and host of the podcast 'Follow the Science.' She has written for the Economist, the New York Times, the Washington Post, Psychology Today, Science and other publications.