Nigeria: How Female Athletes Are Driving Nigeria to Global Successes

13 AUGUST 2022

Daily Trust (Abuja)

By David Ngobua

Millions of Nigerian sports enthusiasts are presently in a joyous mood following the historic outing of Team Nigeria at the just concluded 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

Represented by 94 athletes in seven events, namely weightlifting, power-lifting, boxing, para-table tennis, athletics, boxing and table tennis, Team Nigeria produced their best ever performance in the games as they scooped an unprecedented 12 gold, 9 silver and 14 bronze for a total of 35 medals, finishing seventh out of 42 countries that participated in the games.

Apart from the fact that Nigeria emerged the best African country at the multi-sports events in which she made her debut in 1950 in Auckland with a bronze medal, Team Nigeria broke and set four Commonwealth Games records and one world record in Birmingham.

The most intriguing and fascinating thing about Team Nigeria's success story in England is that all the 12 gold medals that earned the country her enviable rating were won by female athletes in wrestling, weightlifting and athletic events.

Team Nigeria's best performance in Commonwealth Games was in 2014 in Glasgow Scotland, where the country amassed a total of 11gold, 8 silver and 14 gold medals with the female athletes led by Blessing Okagbare contributing nine gold medals.

It is, therefore, easy to understand why Nigerian sports fans are so ecstatic about the performance of the contingent to the 2022 Commonwealth Games, especially the outstanding performances of their female athletes.

The heroic deeds of the female athletes may come as a surprise to some Nigerians, but a former director-general of the defunct National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut, said he was not surprised by the feats achieved by the young women.

In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust Saturday, the former Nigerian international volleyball player said, "Personally, the superlative performances of Team Nigeria's women didn't come to me as a surprise. It has been the trend in the past 25 years. Our best performances in international competitions have been limited to the women.

"I, therefore, agree with the Minister of Women Affairs, Pauline Tallen, who said the performance of Nigerian women in Birmingham was a proof of how much women could contribute to the image and development of the country

"Now, the events are 50-50 for male and female athletes. Therefore, it is the male gender that we must revive for podium performances," Yakmut said.

However, as Nigerians continue to feast on the heart-warming performances of Team Nigeria in Birmingham, there are divergent opinions, with some attributing the success to individual brilliance of the athletes, who defied all the odds against them to win the laurels.

Considering the fact that Nigerian athletes are oftentimes starved of the necessary motivation before and during international competitions, such views can't be said to be unfounded.

Therefore, the debate as to whether or not the Federal Ministry of Sports should take credit for the good outing of Team Nigeria in Birmingham has continued unabated.

But the ministry under Sunday Dare is also convinced that it was instrumental to the 35 podium appearances of Team Nigeria in England. Of course, there are enough evidences to collaborate the claims by the ministry.

Ministry's role in the success story

Team Nigeria's performance in Birmingham can't be separated from the Adopt-An-Athlete initiative launched by the sports minister on December 2019 at the Lagos Civic Centre. This step was taken by the minister after discoveries were made that the root cause of the challenges athletes faced, which had impeded their performances at continental and global competitions, was lack of funding and scholarships.

Interestingly, substantial solutions to the above mentioned problems hitherto faced by athletes were found as soon as the initiative started in earnest.

At the moment, some home-based athletes receive as much as $10,000, paid directly into their accounts and managed solely by them. This takes care of their coaches, kits, nutrition and health insurance. And based on higher overhead, foreign-based athletes earn as much as $20,000.

To sustain this initiative, some states like Delta, Edo, Ogun, Lagos and Bayelsa, as well as corporate organisations like Fidelity Bank, Zenith Bank, UBA, Access Bank, adopted most of the athletes.

Interestingly, most of the athletes who won medals in Birmingham are among the 38 beneficiaries of the Adopt-An-Athlete initiative of the sports minister.

In addition, the ministry ensured that Team Nigeria didn't go to England for jamboree as it was the practice in the past. Thus, Nigeria went to Birmingham with only 94 athletes, who featured in only 9 sports where the country is ranked amongst the top 50 in the world. It was a deliberate decision to feature athletes in events where Nigeria also has comparative advantage.

Unlike before, reward for victorious athletes was instant, as it is said that even before most of them competed in their games, they had their allowances available.

While gold medalists received as much as $5,000, silver medalists got $3,000. Bronze medalists receive $2,000. Cash rewards were also given to the coaches. These and other available incentives, no doubt, motivated the athletes to put in their best.

Future of sports in Nigeria is with women - Ibrahim Galadima

Overwhelmed by the outstanding performances of Team Nigeria's female athletes in Birmingham, one of Nigeria's most respected sports administrators and patron of the Nigeria Olympics Committee (NOC), Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima, has concluded that the future of sports in Africa's most populous country lies with women.

Speaking exclusively to Daily Trust Saturday, the chairman of the Kano State Sports Commission said, "Every Nigerian is elated at what happened in Birmingham. It is long we had such an outstanding performance. The performance of the young women is an indication that the future of Nigerian sports is with women.

"I hope and pray that we sustain the tempo. Managing success has been one of our major problems in sports. We have to keep a close watch on the victorious athletes as we prepare for the 2024 Olympic Games in France. We have to maintain the standard we have set.

He, however, expressed dissatisfaction with Team Nigeria's preparations before the games as he also attributed much of the success story to individual efforts of the athletes.

"We didn't prepare adequately because even when it was close to the games, most of the athletes were not in closed camp. This has always been our problem. So most of what we were able to do show that there was individual brilliance and resilience on the part of the athletes.

Galadima, however, gave the Sports Ministry a pat on the back for paying more attention to athletes' motivation by instantly rewarding winners with cash prizes.

"I am also impressed with the response from the ministry in terms of giving them winning bonuses almost immediately. I think that also spurred the athletes to do better.

"It shows that the ministry is becoming aware that motivation is key to success," the former president of the then Nigeria Football Association said.

How Birmingham success can be sustained - Tijani Yusuf, Alhassan Yakmut

Meanwhile, two foremost Nigerian sports administrators, Dr Tijani Yusuf and a former director-general of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Alhassan Yakmut, in exclusive interviews with Daily Trust Saturday, called on the Ministry of Sports to sustain the momentum by taking sports development to the grassroots, where they believe more Tobi Amusans and Ese Brumes are waiting to be unearthed.

Dr Yusuf, who is a senior lecturer in the Department of Physical and Health Education, Bayero University, Kano, said the success of Team Nigeria in Birmingham was not an accidental.

He reiterated that the achievement in Birmingham was a result of hard work, scientific planning and developmental programmes that put the athletes in top shape for podium finishes.

Yusuf also commended the victorious female athletes for upstaging American and Jamaican rivals, even in events they (Americans) had dominated for decades.

The former secretary-general of the then Nigeria Football Association said, "If you look at things holistically, the women who made Nigeria proud did so in those areas that were dominated by Jamaicans and Americans.

"For instance, the 4x100m women's relay team has broken the African record and set a new one so others will have to do more in order to either equal or surpass their record in Birmingham."

The university don also said that to avoid what had become the bane of the female senior national team, the Super Falcons, there should be plans for the future, even as the country is still celebrating.

"We have to begin to prepare for the future. Talents abound in Nigeria. They are only waiting to be discovered. I want to appreciate the minister for some of his innovations in sports. He has done what Napoleon couldn't do. I congratulate him and those who made the success possible," Yusuf said.

Yakmut also lauded Team Nigeria, saying hope has been greatly rekindled by their superlative performances, especially the female athletes in Birmingham.

Furthermore, he painted a bright future for Nigeria in sports as he expressed happiness and satisfaction with the average age of the athletes.

"I think that in the history of this country, there is no better time that sports have healed it of so many problems than now. There is the problem of disunity, insecurity, poverty, inflation and so on. These are global challenges, anyway.

"The performances at the Commonwealth Games have rekindled the hope of Nigerians in their country and the younger generation.

"We should also plan to sustain the success. With the vibrant and talented youths we have, it shouldn't take us years to achieve this performance. We need good administrators, good funding, upgrading of sporting facilities, regular international exposure for the athletes and strict adherence to anti-doping regulations to thrive.

"And if you look at the average age of those who competed, it is the youngest we have ever presented. This is one area most people haven't looked at. The age bracket of our athletes is promising," he noted.

Like Yusuf, the former NSC director-general also made a passionate appeal for grassroots sports development if the success story in Birmingham is to be sustained.

"Ese Brume was discovered at a grassroots competition in Lagos when I was the Director of Grassroots Sports Development in the Federal Ministry of Sports.

"So, we have to go back to the grassroots where these talents abound. If we have sustainable programmes as some of us have always proposed, our athletes will continue to make podium appearances," he advised.

Find below a complete list of the winners and their events:

Weightlifting

Adijat Adenike Olarinoye (gold, women's 55kg)

Edidiong Joseph Umaofia (bronze, men's 67kg)

Rafiatu Folashade Lawal (gold, women's 59kg)

Slamiyat Yusuf (bronze, women's 64kg).

Taiwo Laidi (silver, women's 76kg).

Mary Taiwo Osijo (bronze, women's 87kg)

Athletics

Chioma Onyekwere (gold, women's discus throw)

Obiageri Amaechi (bronze, women's discus throw)

Favour Ofili (silver, women's 200m)

Amusan Tobi (gold, women's 100m, hurdles)

Onwuzurike Udodi Chudi, Ashe Favour Oghene Tejiri, Akintola Alaba Olukunle, Ekevwo Raymond (bronze medal, men's 4 x 100m)

Amusan Tobi, Ofili Favour, Chukwuma Rosemary, Nwokocha Nzubechi Grace, Udo Joy Gabriel Chinenye (gold, women's 4 x 100m).

Ese Brume (gold, women's long jump)

Para-athletics

Goodness Chiemere Nwachukwu (gold, women's discus throw F 42-44/61-64)

Eucharia Njideka Iyiazi (gold, women's F55 - 57, shot put)

Ugochi Constaine Alam (bronze, women's F55 - 57, shot put)

Power-lifting

Alice Folashade Oluwafemiayo (gold, women's heavyweight)

Bose Patricia Omolayo (silver, women's heavyweight)

Ikechukwu Christian Obichukwu (silver, men's heavyweight)

Innocent Nnamdi (bronze, men's lightweight)

Wrestling

Adekuoroye Odunayo (gold, women's freestyle 57kg)

Kolawole Esther (bronze, women's freestyle 62kg)

Oborodudu Blessing (gold, women's freestyle 68kg)

Genesis Mercy (gold, women's freestyle, 50kg)

Wilson Ebikewemino (silver, men's freestyle 57kg)

Hannah Reuben (silver, women's freestyle 76kg)

John Ogbonna Emmanuel (bronze, men's freestyle 74kg)

Para-table tennis

Ikpeoyi Ifechukwude Christiana (silver, women's singles classes 3-5)

Sule Nasiru (silver, men's singles classes 3-5)

Ogunkunle Isau (bronze, men's singles classes 3-5)

Obazuaye Faith (bronze, women's singles classes 6-10)

Boxing

Onyekwere Ifeanyi (bronze, men's over 92kg, super heavyweight)

Umunnake Jacinta (bronze, women's 75kg)

Ogunsemilore Cynthia (bronze, women's over 57kg-60kg, light weight)

Oshoba Elizabeth (silver, over 54kg-57kg, featherweight)

Read the original article on Daily Trust.

Enduring colonialism has made it harder to end the COVID-19 pandemic

The Conversation
12th August 2022, 



Rich countries are hoarding vaccine doses while poor countries become breeding grounds for new COVID-19 variants.

The World Health Organization's COVAX - an abbreviation for COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access - warned that "no one is safe, until everyone is safe," yet colonial attitudes are an obstacle to reining in the global pandemic.

COVID-19 has shown that global equity and inclusion are necessary to manage global crises. A major lesson from this pandemic is the need to decolonize transnational governance so that the world is better able to handle both future and current global crises and issues.

COVAX's naïve failure

COVAX has failed.

It was supposed to provide vaccinations globally and equitably as well as serve as a mechanism through which both rich and poor countries would access vaccines. More than 80 per cent of the population in rich countries is fully vaccinated, compared to less than 10 per cent of the population in poor countries.

Credible reports say that poor countries have been affected the most by the global pandemic both in terms of how deadly it has been, as well as economically.

This summer, we're seeing new pandemic waves in Europe and Asia driven by new SARS-CoV-2 variants first spotted in South Africa.

COVAX is based on lofty ideals of equity and social justice. The initiative has been necessary to moderately balance the gap between rich and poor countries that would have fared worse had it not been launched.

But COVAX has been called naïve for relying upon the good will of rich countries for funding and on their willingness to wait patiently in line for their own populations' doses.

COVAX's good intentions have had to co-exist with "might is right" politics. Rich countries made their own deals and bought large amounts of vaccine supplies before they were even available.

Vaccine nationalism turned COVAX into a broker of charity. The colonial mentality believes it's OK to cut deals with Big Pharma for vaccine doses ahead of populous poor countries, and to charitably donate to them their soon-to-expire leftovers.

Read more: COVID-19 vaccine inequity allowed Omicron to emerge

Colonial mentality

Global capitalism as we know it emerged from a colonial world order set up for exploitation of people and lands. European countries kidnapped people from Africa and enslaved them as they dispossessed Indigenous Peoples. This created the extractive economy of today.

Racial classifications and racism have remained an enduring aspect of the modern world. Colonialism produced the initial and current gap between the rich and the poor world, and racialized the latter. When the mercantilist order of the colonial day morphed into capitalism in the 1800s, the colonial mentality that simply assumes European superiority remained.

This has been the basis for the colonial upper hand of the West and the United States in the type of transnational governance that emerged after the Second World War (the United Nations and Bretton Woods organizations, including the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank). This has also been the basis for the colonial mentality of today.

COVAX was conceived during the rich World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2020. As news of the virus emerged from China, two professional white men sipped whisky and envisioned COVAX in a Swiss ski resort bar.

Seth Berkley (CEO of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, or Gavi) and Richard Hatchett (CEO of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI), heads of global vaccination networks, discussed pandemic scenarios. They knew the world would need a funding and distribution strategy for shots, so they started thinking about a global solution.

Hatchett wrote a white paper in March 2020 and those ideas were the basis for the creation of COVAX in April that year. All this sounds great, but colonial mentality ultimately prevented the success of their initiative. It stopped COVAX from emerging as the co-ordinator of sorely needed 21st-century solidarity.

Decolonizing crisis governance

People rarely hear the names of Berkley and Hatchett in the global public sphere. Berkley's Gavi is a global vaccine alliance that brings together the public and private sectors. Hatchett's CEPI describes itself as a "global partnership between public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organizations."

Today, these two global organizations - supported by the World Health Organization - are dealing with the enduring pandemic. But their transparency and accountability have been questionable.

Gavi designed COVAX without oversight and "with a small group of like-minded advisors, primarily Global North philanthropists, academics, and consultants," according to a Doctors Without Borders report. The perspectives of low- and middle-income countries, civil society organizations or regional disease control groups weren't considered in a meaningful way.

At the same time, pharmaceutical industry representatives have had a seat at the table of major decision-making discussions, and this has helped maintain the status quo of their intellectual property rights.

Read more: Peru's COVID-19 vaccine scandal shows the shady deals made with pharma companies

The world needs to move beyond myopic national self-interest. It has become apparent that in order to control the COVID-19 pandemic, equity and inclusion are urgently required.

Scientists anticipate there will be new pandemics along with climate change crises. This will hardly be the last global public-health emergency.

Out of self-interest, transnational governance needs to embrace true solidarity. World leaders must use a decolonialized imagination to face these coming global challenges.

Author: Monica Sanchez-Flores - Associate Professor of Sociology, Thompson Rivers University

LIKE A JAMES BOND MOVIE

Third Russian hypersonic missile scientist charged with treason

Robert Besser
10th August 2022

MOSCOW, Russia: A leading Russian scientist in the field of hypersonic flight, Dr. Alexander Shiplyuk, has been arrested on suspicion of treason, according to Russian state media.

Director of the Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch, Shiplyuk is the third Russian scientist this summer to be arrested for treason.

Meanwhile, the institute's scientific director, Vasily Fomin, told the Russian news agency TASS that Shiplyuk was sent to the Lefortovo pre-trial detention center in Moscow.

On 27th June, the chief researcher of the institute, Anatoly Maslov, was also arrested on suspicion of transferring state secret data related to hypersonic missiles.

According to the institute's website, Shiplyuk heads a technology lab with unique wind tunnels purpose-built for simulating hypersonic conditions.

On 30th June, another scientist, Dmitry Kolker, a researcher at the Institute of Laser Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, was arrested by the Sovetsky District Court.

Reuters reported that Kolker was detained on state treason charges for allegedly collaborating with China's security services.

Military powers in Russia, China, and the United States are working to develop hypersonic glide vehicle weapons, which are highly maneuverable and can theoretically fly at hypersonic speeds.

Russia is thought to have a hypersonic system, the Avangard, which Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed, in 2018, was "practically invulnerable" to Western air defense systems.

Domino's closes in Italy, unable to compete with local pizza

Robert Besser
13th August 2022

MILAN, Italy: Milano Today has reported that seven years after launching in the country, American pizza giant Domino's has now closed all of its stores.

The company, franchised by EPizza SpA, had failed to win over Italians, who preferred local options.

According to a document filed in a Milan court, after struggling to be profitable during two years of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, EPizza SpA filed for bankruptcy in April.

Italian food industry publication Food Service reported that the company closed all its Domino's stores on 20th July.

According to ePizza, it lost out to competition from food delivery apps, while others attributed its failure to its brazen attempt to infiltrate the motherland of pizza with American fast food.

The court filing said the Milan-based company faced "unprecedented competition" from local restaurants that started using delivery services, such as Glovo, Just Eat, and Deliveroo, during the pandemic.

In a document attached to the court filing, Domino's said that ePizza's failure last year was due to the "significantly increased level of competition in the food delivery market with both organized chains and 'mom & pop' restaurants delivering food to survive."

After COVID-19 restrictions were eased and consumers began visiting sit-down restaurants again, the company faced further troubles, the document added.

In 2015, Domino's signed a 10-year franchising agreement with ePizza, aimed at introducing a large-scale pizza delivery service to the country, which was absent at that time, the court filing stated.

Right-wing media figures upset after report shows that Inflation was at 0.0% in July

Right-wing pundits attempt to discredit Biden noting that there was zero net inflation in July

screenshots via Newsmax and Fox News

WRITTEN BY JACINA HOLLINS-BORGES

RESEARCH CONTRIBUTIONS FROM JOHN WHITEHOUSE

PUBLISHED 08/12/22 

At an August 10 White House press conference, President Joe Biden marked a report that showed that the “economy had 0% inflation in the month of July,” explaining that “while the price of some things …went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount.”

Though Biden made sure to point out that “people are still hurting,” and that “our work is far from over,” right-wing media figures have taken this chance to suggest that what the report shows is meaningless and accuse Biden of lying, intentionally misleading people, or bragging about bringing down inflation. In reality, while 0.0% inflation in July does not erase inflation in the year leading up to it, it is fair to suggest that this report may reflect a turning point.

The consumer price index slightly declined in July, leading to a market surge

News broke on August 10 that the Consumer Price Index (CPI), a measure of the average change over time in consumer prices, slowed slightly in July to 8.5%, from 9.1% in June.


Inflation cooled in July as gas prices and airfares fell, a welcome reprieve for consumers and economic policymakers but not yet a conclusive sign that price increases are turning a corner.

The Consumer Price Index climbed 8.5 percent in the year through July, compared with 9.1 percent the prior month, a bigger slowdown than economists had projected. After stripping out food and fuel costs to get a sense of underlying price pressures, prices climbed by 5.9 percent through July, matching the previous reading. [The New York Times, 8/10/22]


Markets “surged” on Wednesday following a 0.0% months increase on the Consumer Price Index. Bloomberg’s Joe Weisenthal explained that while falling gas prices was a dominant factor, “core inflation — which excludes food and energy— also came in well below expectations (0.3% sequentially versus the 0.5% median estimate of economists).”


Markets surged yesterday after we got a 0.0% reading on month-over-month headline CPI. This was below the 0.2% that was expected, and well below the 1.3% number that we saw in the previous month. Of course, headline inflation was heavily influenced by the recent plunge in gasoline prices. However, core inflation — which excludes food and energy— also came in well below expectations (0.3% sequentially versus the 0.5% median estimate of economists). [Bloomberg, 8/11/22]


CNBC: “Stocks soar, S&P 500 hits highest level in three months after key report shows slowdown in inflation.” [CNBC, 8/10/22]
President Joe Biden noted that the CPI inflation data showed 0.0% change in July

On August 10, Biden talked about the CPI data showing 0% inflation in July, saying “people are still hurting” but “we’re setting some signs that the inflation may be beginning to moderate.”


PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I want to say a word about the news that came out today relative to the economy. Actually I just want to say a number. Zero. Today, we received news that our economy had 0% inflation in the month of July. Zero percent. Here’s what that means: While the price of some things go up -- went up last month, the price of other things went down by the same amount. The result, 0% inflation last month, but people are still hurting. But zero inflation last month.

Economists look at a measure of inflation that ignores food and energy prices and they call it core inflation. That’s about the lowest amount in several year -- several months. When you couple that with last week’s booming jobs report of 528,000 jobs created last month and 3.5% unemployment, it underscores the kind of economy we’ve been building. We’re seeing a stronger labor market where jobs are booming and Americans are working. And we’re seeing some signs that inflation may be beginning to moderate. [The Guardian, 8/10/22]

Analysts say Biden is right and this may reflect a turning point

Economist and author Zachary Carter: Inflation in July was zero. In a Twitter thread, Carter explains, “Inflation in July was 0. Nobody is tricking you or conning you by stating that fact.” He continues: “It is also true that prices in July 2022 were 8.5% higher than they were in July 2021. That is because prices increased between July 2021 and June 2022. Prices stopped increasing in July 2022, which is why it is correct to say inflation was zero in July 2022.” [Twitter, 8/11/22]

Slate analyst: “It’s totally acceptable to cite the one-month change in prices if you want to convey how much inflation is speeding up or slowing down in real time.” Slate’s Jordan Weissmann, while writing that Biden is “is at risk of spiking the football early” in noting that inflation was at 0.0% for the month, notes, that “You can accuse Biden of omitting context, but he isn’t lying, making things up, or violating any kind of longstanding practice by economists and journalists.” in noting that inflation was at zero for the month. [Slate, 8/10/22]


Along with critical race theory, “wokeness,” the deep state, and other recent conservative obsessions, it appears we can now add the basic language of economics to the list of things Republicans have decided to go to war on.

Take the latest round of inflation statistics. On Wednesday morning, the U.S. got its first bit of truly good news about the rising cost of living this year. The Consumer Price Index, which has been surging in recent months, remained essentially flat in July. That was largely thanks to tumbling gas prices, which canceled out rising costs elsewhere. (Technically, the index actually declined a tiny amount, but the change rounded to zero.)

Core inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy prices, and is watched closely by economists and the markets, rose at a 3.8 percent annual rate, its lowest reading since September 2021.


Now, personally, I think the president is at risk of spiking the football early here. While today’s inflation report was certainly welcome news, the month-to-month data can be erratic and reading too much into a single report can be hazardous. (I mean, trust me.) Nonetheless, everything Biden said was strictly accurate. Overall prices did not rise in July, meaning that inflation for the month was zero.

It makes sense to cite the rate of inflation from the past 12 months when you want to talk about the cost of living versus a year before, which is what most families care about. But it’s totally acceptable to cite the one-month change in prices if you want to convey how much inflation is speeding up or slowing down in real time. I’ve often done it after particularly bad reports to highlight that prices were accelerating. You can accuse Biden of omitting context, but he isn’t lying, making things up, or violating any kind of longstanding practice by economists and journalists. [Slate, 8/10/22]

Right-wing media figures argue that the inflation report showing a net zero increase in July is meaningless because it is month-to-month and could be because demand is lowering

Fox co-anchors Bill Hemmer and Dana Perino pushed back on White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein’s statement that inflation did not increase during July. Hemmer responded, “a lot of those price reductions reflect demand, too, in the economy and the consumer.” When Bernstein pointed to gas prices lowering, Hemmer pushed back saying, “So is demand. Demand is lowering, too. That's a big reason why gasoline is dropping the way it is.” The on-screen chyron during the segment stated: “Consumer prices in July up 8.5% from a year ago.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/10/22]

Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy disingenuously said that “the way the White House calculates things, when pierces are 8.5% higher than this time last year, that 8.5 actually could equal zero.” He went on to say that calculating inflation month-to-month is “not the way most economists do it.” Conservative economic commentator Steve Moore later added, “The reason that gas prices are coming down is because people aren't traveling as much in their car because they can't afford the high price of gasoline.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 8/10/22]
Accusations that the Biden administration is ignoring prices are still high

Fox co-host Greg Gutfeld said Biden took “a premature victory,” in his “ridiculous new talking point.” Co-host Dana Perino accused the White House of saying that “wages are up so everyone should just be happy,” while co-host Jesse Watters argued Biden’s announcement was akin to him saying, “I just gave you a black eye but oh you know the swelling is going down a little bit.” [Fox News, The Five, 8/10/22]

On Fox Business, Wall Street Journal columnist Mary O’Grady said that “they are trying to take a victory lap,” and that Biden is “not acknowledging, you know, the continuing pain for consumers.” Host Elizabeth MacDonald called it a “confusing message on inflation,” pressing that “inflation is not at zero. They mean net zero. Falling gas prices dropped it below zero. But everything else is up on everything else, especially food and groceries.” [Fox News, The Evening Edit, 8/10/22]

On Newsmax, guest host John Bachman said that he’s “not sure how the president came up with the idea of zero inflation over the past month when the food and energy prices are stripped out, and even if he shifts the focus to last week's jobs report, inflation is still not zero.” [Newsmax, The Record with Greta Van Susteren, 8/10/22]

Newsmax host Rob Schmitt said that “the Biden administration [is] desperately trying to spin today’s new inflation numbers as some kind of a win.” Congressional correspondent Kilmeny Duchardt said that “it’s a classic case, Rob, of playing politics with numbers,” adding, “There was no inflation in the month of July, but that doesn’t mean that inflation is not affecting the economy.” Schmitt went on to later claim, “CNN [is] gaslighting Americans to get them to believe that this very slight decrease in the inflation rate is something to celebrate.” [Newsmax, Rob Schmitt Tonight, 8/10/22]

Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner also criticized the announcement, saying, “I guess they haven’t been to the grocery store lately.” [Fox News, The Faulkner Focus, 8/11/22]

Newsmax’s John Bachman told his viewers: “repeat the lie enough and it becomes the truth. Now, here’s the real truth: Disregard what you hear from the White House.” Bachman continued, “Inflation, true, didn't go up last month per se, but prices, as [Sen.] Ted Cruz pointed out, are still much higher than they were last year.” [Newsmax, John Bachman Now, 8/11/22]
Claims of the Biden administration lying or intentionally misleading people

On CNBC’s Squawk Box, political strategist Frank Luntz said the announcement is “cynical. It's a destruction of the meaning of words. It's Orwellian at its worst.” [CNBC, Squawk Box, 8/10/22]

On Fox Business’ Kudlow, former Raegan economic adviser Art Laffer complained that Biden “never mentioned the month before where we had 17.8% inflation in that month” and that “he’s cherry-picking his numbers.” [Fox Business, Kudlow, 8/10/22]

In a report, Doocy claimed that Biden’s inflation claim “is not true” because “prices are not up 0% since last year,” ignoring that inflation was at a net 0.0% only for the month of July. The report further put a damper on the inflation report, pressing that some “worry about the reason for the decline” in gas prices. [Fox News, The Special Report with Bret Baier, 8/10/22]

Right-wing radio host Stu Burguiere called Biden “disingenuous” and he has “ignored the main measure” of inflation. He pressed that listeners need to “realize these idiots are going to come out here and say this all day because they think you are so stupid, you just might believe it. And they know they're lying and they're going to do it anyway.” [The Blaze, The Glenn Beck Program, 8/10/22]

Newsmax host Chris Salcedo called the administration “spin doctors.” Guest Sean Spicer, former White House press secretary and the host of Spicer & Co, added that “it is unbelievable to say zero, creating the impression that inflation is zero when it still remains at a historic 40-year high, is unbelievable.” [Newsmax, The Chris Salcedo Show, 8/10/22]

Fox News host Jesse Watters: “Today, President Biden walked up to the podium and lied to you.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 8/10/22]

Fox host Brian Kilmeade said that in his announcement, Biden “ignored all the price increases from last year.” While guest hosting Tucker Carlson Tonight, Kilmeade claimed, “What Joe Biden didn't tell you is that zero inflation is only from June to July of this year, he ignored all the price increases from last year — you haven't. But hey, if inflation is zero, why do we need the Inflation Reduction Act, remember that?” [Fox News, Tucker Carlson Tonight, 8/10/22]

Fox host Laura Ingraham said, “It is Orwellian, the manipulation of language when real people are suffering.” Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow later added, “This crowd is kind of making a career out of, shall we say, cognitive dissonance or fraudulent statements.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/10/22]

Fox correspondent Kevin Corke said, “Critics said the president doesn't understand simple math or he is gaslighting the American people.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 8/11/22m]

On Fox, The Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Roberts said “Joe Biden has never let the truth get in the way of his political opinion.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends First, 8/11/22]

Fox’s Steve Doocy suggested the announcement was “lies, damn lies, and statistics,” and Kilmeade claimed Biden is “not being honest.” Co-host Ainsley Earhardt added, “They just look at the numbers and they find a number that might be appealing to them and then they run with that and they spin the story.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 8/11/22]

On Newsmax, co-host Katrina Szish argued that Biden’s announcement is “semantics at this point.” Her guest Republican strategist Erin Elmore agreed, accusing Biden of going on television to “brag and boast that he's lowered gas prices and that inflation is 0%,” while prices are still abnormally high. Szish later said, “They didn't take any responsibility for those numbers going up, but now to claim victory for those numbers sort of going down. Americans are not that stupid and also I think our memories are also not that short.” [Newsmax, Wake Up America, 8/11/22]

Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo: “This is more misinformation and disinformation.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 8/11/22]

Fox Business’ Stuart Varney: Biden “knows that's not strictly accurate. He knows inflation remains at high levels, but he doesn't want to admit that to voters three months before an election.” He went on to say, “We know we're getting worse off no matter what the president says.” [Fox Business, Varney & Co, 8/11/22]

DNA Study Finds Etruscans Originated From Steppes, Not Anatolia

By Patricia Claus
August 13, 2022

A detail from the sarcophagus known as “The sarcophagus of the Spouses,” one of the masterpieces of Etruscan art, now in the Louvre Museum. New DNA evidence shows that these peoples were not from Anatolia but from the steppes, as were the forefathers of most Europeans. Credit: ecelan/CC BY 2.5

The mystery of the origins of the Etruscan people — the center of an enigma that stretches back millennia — has recently been solved, due to the miracles of DNA testing. But in effect, the answer the scientists uncovered only prompts more questions about the advanced civilization that flourished north of Rome.

It has long been known that the Etruscans, who called themselves the Rasenna and who battled the early Romans in defending their territory, had a very advanced culture, with elaborate architecture and burials, with grave objects of exquisite artistry showing the advancement of their technology.

The physical reminders of the Etruscans, including stunning sculpture and monuments, show that they had a rich culture valuing great craftsmanship and the production of artwork. Almost all of Etruscan art shows that they had a deep understanding and knowledge of Greek culture as well. Their sophisticated political systems were also notable.

Until recently, however, huge holes in Etruscan scholarship remained, while academics tried to tease out more about how these people came to be and where they might have come from.

Their language — as recorded in inscriptions from southern Etruria, dating back to approximately 700 BC, is not believed to be an Indo-European tongue. As anyone might infer, usually language is an enormous — often the determining — factor in pinning down the origins and movement of peoples.

Although they developed and used a system of writing which employs symbols borrowed from Euboean Greek script, which originated on the Greek island of Evia, the Etruscan language still remains only partly understood.

Even ancient historians such as the Greek historian Herodotus, known as the Father of History, stated that the Etruscans had migrated into Italy from Anatolia or the Aegean, and that their culture had Greek origins.

This interpretation, however, is not favored by modern scholars; archeologists have uncovered very little evidence in support of their migration from what is now Greece. But the very unusual language of this people, whose culture was tantalizingly advanced for its time, has led many to assume that their origin was far from what is now Italy.

Much like the Basques, whose language is also not Indo-European, the origins of the Etruscans was assumed to be quite unlike those of other ethnically European peoples.

Exquisite Etruscan sarcophagus of Seianti Hanunia Tlesnasa, from 150-130 BC. British Museum. The dead woman, her name inscribed on the base of her chest, was clearly a well-to-do lady. She reclines upon a mattress and pillow, holding an open-lidded mirror in her left hand and raising her right hand to adjust her mantle. She wears a tunic (chiton) with high girdle and a bordered cloa, and her jewellery comprises a tiara, earrings, necklace, bracelets and finger-rings. The skeleton from the sarcophagus was found to belong to a woman who was about fifty years old at the time of her death. Credit: Unknown/CC BY-SA 3.0

The Etruscan language is not completely unique, belonging to what linguists now call the Tyrsenian languages — all of which are extinct. This linguistic family includes Rhaetic, which was once spoken in the Alps, and Lemnian, which originated from the Greek island of Lemnos in the Aegean Sea.

Obviously this leads anyone to believe that the languages could naturally have spread by way of seagoing peoples from the Mediterranean; but now, researchers know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Etruscans did not have such origins.

Researchers say that it is a possibility that all the Tyrsenian languages spread out from Etruria itself; this will be the basis of a great deal of further study.

The DNA for the recent study, the results of which were published in Science Advances, was was taken from twelve sites across Italy, from the skeletons of people buried over the past two thousand years. This now shows that Anatolia indeed was not only not the origin of this mysterious people, but that the Etruscans shared a great deal of DNA with individuals who lived just south of their homeland, in Rome itself.

The Etruscans actually descended from pastoralists (sheep herders) who moved into the region from the steppes during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age, from approximately 6,000 BC to 3,500 BC.

The enormous region of the steppes, in what is now Hungary, the Ukraine and Central Asia, is of course part of the area where all Indo-European languages originate. A fact which makes these new DNA results even more perplexing — and almost maddening — for linguists, since language is almost always a determinant of culture.

But of course, nothing involving human beings is simple. Wars, and natural intermixing that can occur as peoples traded and interacted with each other, may have changed the genetic imprint of the people while their original language lived on for many centuries.

According to anthropologist David Caramelli of the University of Florence in Italy, “This linguistic persistence, combined with a genetic turnover, challenges simple assumptions that genes equal languages.

This, he explained, “suggests a more complex scenario that may have involved the assimilation of early Italic speakers by the Etruscan speech community, possibly during a prolonged period of admixture over the second millennium BCE.”

The extent of the Etruscan civilization. New DNA data shows that these people had their origins in what is now Italy, not Anatolia, as previously believed by many.

 Credit: NormanEinstein – Based on a map from The National Geographic Magazine Vol.173 No.6 June 1988/ CC BY-SA 3.0

It is also possible, the researchers say, that the Etruscan civilization came from an indigenous population that had already long been settled in the area, or an autochthonous civilization.

The recent DNA study was headed by anthropologist Cosimo Posth of the University of Tübingen in Germany, who guided a large international team of researchers who wanted to dispel the mystery of the Etruscans by taking look at ancient DNA.

By collecting genetic samples from 82 people who lived from 800 BC to 1000 AD across Etruria and all of southern Italy, and comparing them to DNA from other ancient and modern peoples, they found that Etruscans did indeed share the genetic profile of their neighbors.

Gold sheets known as the “Pyrgi tablets” showing a treatise in both Etruscan and Phoenician. Etruscan Museum, Rome. Credit: Pufacz/Public Domain

These included the Latins, who lived in Rome during the very same time period — despite the two groups not only speaking very different languages but having major cultural differences as well.

Having origins in the great grasslands of the steppes, along with most other European peoples, much of their genetic profile can be attributed to sharing this ancestry — but that’s what makes their linguistic and cultural differences all that much more striking.

According to this major new scientific study, there were enormous DNA changes that took place in what is now Italy as a result of the rise of the Roman Empire, with the Etruscans showing that their genes then intermixed with that of the many slaves and soldiers who came from other lands.

Anthropologist Johannes Krause, from the Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany, says “This genetic shift clearly depicts the role of the Roman Empire in the large-scale displacement of people in a time of enhanced upward or downward socioeconomic and geographic mobility.”

Then again, as is to be expected, during the Middle Ages, after the political collapse of the Roman Empire, the genetic profile of the people living in what is now Italy changed Ince more, with northern European genes inserting themselves in the DNA profiles of individuals living across the Italian peninsula.



The researchers believe that this most likely was because of the invasion of the Lombards, who originated from Germany and Sweden, who not only conquered but subsequently went on to stay in the country from 568 to 774 AD.

However, as one would also imagine, things calmed down on the DNA front after about 1,000 AD onward, as the invasions stopped and the genetic profiles of those living in Tuscany, Lazio, and Basilicata remained more or less unchanged.

The researchers say that this is also consistent with the genetic profile of individuals living in Rome itself at the time. There will be subsequent studies using other datasets from other regions of the Roman Empire in the future.

Posth, from the University of Tubingen, says in conclusion “The Roman Empire appears to have left a long-lasting contribution to the genetic profile of southern Europeans, bridging the gap between European and eastern Mediterranean populations on the genetic map of western Eurasia.”

Astronomers watch Betelgeuse recover after colossal blast

What's making this red supergiant's millennium?

By Elisha Sauers on August 13, 2022
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An illustration depicts changes in Betelgeuse's brightness following a massive 2019 explosion observed by astronomers. Credit: NASA / ESA / Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI)

Just like the mischievous Tim Burton character of the same name, the red supergiant star Betelgeuse's head shrank.

Scientists watched the star blast its outer surface into space in 2019, an unexpected cosmic event they had never seen before in a normal star. The eruption was so catastrophic, it blew off 400 billion times as much material as the sun does routinely in ejections linked to solar flares, according to the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore.

What's more, the star got so dim, even backyard stargazers noticed. That left many people wondering if Betelgeuse [indeed pronounced "Beetlejuice"] was on the brink of an explosive stellar death.

It's not about to go supernova, experts say. But new observations from the Hubble Space Telescope are helping astronomers understand how red stars like Betelgeuse lose mass as they age — and what consequences follow such a significant eruption. Because the scale of the blowout was vastly greater than the plasma that occasionally spews from the sun's corona, scientists suspect what happened to Betelgeuse might be a different sort of phenomenon.

"We're watching stellar evolution in real time," Andrea Dupree of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said in a statement.

For Betelgeuse, one of the brightest stars in the night sky, that has meant the blown-off material cooled and formed a dust cloud. The haze is what some believe temporarily blocked light from the star, making it look fainter from Earth, according to research published in The Astrophysical Journal last week.

Referred to as the "Great Dimming," the cloud seems to have obscured the light for a year before the star returned to normal brightness.

The outburst also disrupted the star’s 400-day-long pulsing period, a cycle astronomers have measured for over two centuries. It looks as though the outer layers may be back to normal, but the inside could be jiggling like Jell-O. Or, as Dupree put it, sloshing like water in an imbalanced washing machine.

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Johnson & Johnson will stop selling talc-based baby powder around the world in 2023

By Jordan Valinsky, CNN Business
August 12, 2022


New York (CNN Business)Johnson & Johnson is abandoning talc-based baby powder next year and instead will make it with cornstarch.

Its talc-based powder, which hasn't been sold in the United States and Canada since 2020, is at the center of tens of thousands of lawsuits filed by women who have developed ovarian cancer after using regular talcum powder

Johnson & Johnson says it remains confident in the safety of the product. But, in a statement Friday, the company said it would stop selling talc-based powder around the world next year as part of a "worldwide portfolio assessment."

"We continuously evaluate and optimize our portfolio to best position the business for long-term growth," the company said in a statement. "This transition will help simplify our product offerings, deliver sustainable innovation, and meet the needs of our consumers, customers and evolving global trends."

A handful of talcum powder companies have put warning labels on their products, but Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) argued such a label would be confusing, because it stood by its product. Some scientific studies have shown that women have an increased risk of ovarian cancer with talc use in the genital area, but others do not.

Lawsuits have been filed against the company alleging that asbestos in its talcum powder causes cancer. A St. Louis jury delivered a $4.7 billion verdict against the company in 2018, saying the company was negligent and did not warn consumers about possible health risks from its baby powder.

"Our position on the safety of our cosmetic talc remains unchanged. We stand firmly behind the decades of independent scientific analysis by medical experts around the world that confirms talc-based Johnson's Baby Powder is safe, does not contain asbestos, and does not cause cancer," it said in Friday's announcement.

Artificial cornea made from pig collagen gives legally blind 20/20 vision

This cheap and safe procedure could revolutionize how we treat some forms of visual impairment.

 by Tibi Puiu
August 12, 2022
in Health & Medicine

Doctors transplanted artificial corneas made from pig collagen into the eyes of visually impaired patients, some of whom had eyesight so bad that they were legally blind. But two years following the surgery, all the patients saw dramatic improvements in vision, including three patients who now have 20/20 vision after being legally blind.

The cornea implant is made from pig skin collagen. 

Credit: Thor Balkhed/Linköping University.

The Iranian and Indian patients all suffered from an eye disease called keratoconus, a condition in which the cornea (the clear, dome-shaped front surface of your eye) thins and gradually bulges outward into a cone shape. The disease affects up to 2 out of 1,000 people and often requires surgery to remove a full-thickness portion of the malfunctioned central cornea and replace it with donor tissue. But as you might imagine, there aren’t many cornea donors around, and only 1 out of every 70 people in need of one actually receive one.

If there are no donors, that means we’ll just have to make our own corneas, researchers at Linköping University in Sweden must have thought. They dissolved pig skin tissue to extract collagen, purified it, then used it to make a hydrogel that essentially mimics the human cornea. The hydrogel was inserted into pockets of the patient’s cornea to thicken it out and reshape it to restore the cornea’s function — and it worked.

Most of the patients improved their average visual acuity to 20/58 with glasses, meaning they need to be 20 feet away to see an object that people can normally see from 58 feet away. Not the best eyesight, but still light-years ahead of what they could see. Three of the patients even gained 20/20 vision, meaning they now have the clarity or sharpness of vision of a “normal” person, after they used to be legally blind (20/200 vision).

Two years after surgery, the patients still retained these improvements. And although their corneas now technically contain foreign biological material, because collagen is a structured protein that lacks individual cells, the patient’s immune system didn’t reject the implant.

“Fourteen of 14 initially blind subjects had a final mean best-corrected vision (spectacle or contact lens) of 20/36 and restored tolerance to contact lens wear. This work demonstrates restoration of vision using an approach that is potentially equally effective, safer, simpler, and more broadly available than donor cornea transplantation,” the authors wrote in their study.

Pig skin-sourced collagen is a byproduct of the food industry, and is thus broadly available and cheap. Although eye surgery sounds complicated and risky, the operation only took about 30 minutes per patient, whereas conventional cornea transplants from human donors can take a couple of hours. Doctors aren’t sure how much the surgery would end up costing, but what they’re certain of is that it should be more affordable than donor transplants, which can cost north of $25,000 in the U.S., depending on your insurance plan.

It’s not at all clear at the moment, however, if this procedure would work for patients who have other forms of corneal disease other than keratoconus. Some patients, for instance, have corneal scarring from bacterial or viral infections. Will it work for them too? These sorts of questions may be hopefully answered in the affirmative once the researchers receive approval for new trials. At the moment, they are focused on replicating the present results in a much larger sample of 100 patients.

The new findings appeared in the journal Nature Biotechnology.

CRIMINAL CRYPTO CAPITALI$M

Tornado Cash: TORN dips after reported developer arrest

By: Benson Toti
on Aug 12, 2022

Tornado Cash token TORN price fell by more than 16% after news the Dutch police had arrested a developer.

The 29-year old held by the Dutch authorities has been identified as Alexy Pertsev.
The US Treasury sanctioned the crypto mixer earlier this week.

Tornado Cash (TORN), a decentralised crypto mixer platform built on top of Ethereum (ETH/USD) has seen its price fall significantly over the past 24 hours following the arrest of Alexey Pertsev, a developer associated with the platform.

According to data on CoinGecko, the TORN token’s price is down more than 16% in the past 24 hours to trade around $14.25 on Friday evening. The declines for the TORN/USD pair saw it touch lows of $13.00 earlier in the day, before briefly pushing higher amid a broader market upside that currently has Bitcoin (BTC/USD) above $24,200 and ETH/USD above $1,920.

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Tornado Cash developer arrested

On Friday, Dutch authorities announced the arrest of a man (later identified in a report by The Block to be Alexey), stating that he was part of the Tornado Cash team.

The Fiscal Information and Investigation Service (FIOD) said in its statement that the 29-year-old was part of a wider group being targeted for their role in the sanctioned crypto transaction privacy solution.

Noting that the arrest was made on 10 August, FIOD said the suspect was being held for his “involvement in concealing criminal financial flows and facilitating money laundering through the mixing of cryptocurrencies.”

And while FIOD’s arrest follows an investigation the agency says began in June, its timing coincides with a recent move by the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) that sanctioned the Ethereum-based crypto mixing protocol.

According to the US agency, sanctions against Tornado Cash are as a result of its use by criminals to launder cybercrime proceeds, including over $96 million and $7.8 million from the hack of Harmony Bridge and Nomad Bridge respectively.

Several within the crypto industry have condemned the arrest of the developer, with many seeing this as an unjustified action. Jake Chervinsky, head of policy at Blockchain Association tweeted about it on Thursday.

Reportedly, the Tornado Cash Discord channel and DAO website are down.