It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, September 14, 2024
WHO grants first mpox vaccine approval to ramp up response to disease in Africa
The prequalification approval came a month after the WHO's director-general declared the mpox outbreak a public health emergency of international concern.
Photo by: Moses Sawasawa / AP A health worker attends to an mpox patient, at a treatment center in Munigi, eastern Congo.
The World Health Organization said Friday it has granted its first authorization for use of a vaccine against mpox in adults, calling it an important step toward fighting the disease in Africa.
The approval of the vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic A/S means that donors like vaccines alliance Gavi and UNICEF can buy it. But supplies are limited because there's only a single manufacturer.
"This first (authorization) of a vaccine against mpox is an important step in our fight against the disease, both in the context of the current outbreaks in Africa, and in future," said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
WHO also said it was creating an "access and allocation mechanism" to try to fairly distribute mpox tests, treatments and vaccines to the countries who need them most.
The U.N. health agency approved the two-dose mpox vaccine for people aged 18 and above. WHO said that while it was not recommending the vaccine for those under 18, the shot may be used in infants, children and adolescents "in outbreak settings where the benefits of vaccination outweigh the potential risks."
WHO recommended that a single dose of the shot could be used to stretch supplies, but emphasized the need to collect more data on how effective the vaccine might be as a single shot.
The mpox vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic was previously authorized by numerous rich countries across Europe and North America during the global mpox outbreak in 2022. Millions of doses given to adults showed the vaccine helped slow the virus' spread, but there is limited evidence of how it works in children.
Officials at the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention said last month that nearly 70% of cases in Congo — the country hardest hit by mpox — are in children younger than 15, who also accounted for 85% of deaths.
Overall, WHO said over 120 countries have confirmed more than 103,000 cases of mpox since the outbreak began two years ago. Its latest tally, as of Sunday, showed that 723 people in more than a dozen countries in Africa have died of the disease.
African experts have estimated they might need about 10 million vaccines to stop the ongoing outbreaks on the continent while donor countries have promised to provide about 3.6 million vaccines. As of last week, Congo had received only about 250,000 doses.
On Thursday, the Africa CDC said 107 new deaths and 3,160 new cases had been recorded in the past week, just a week after it and WHO launched a continent-wide response plan.
Mpox belongs to the same family of viruses as smallpox but causes milder symptoms like fever, chills and body aches. People with more serious cases can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.
Copyright 2024 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Dozens of Hong Kong journalists and some of their families have been harassed, media group says
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 14, 2024
Selina Cheng, chairperson of the Hong Kong Journalists Association speaks to media in Hong Kong on July 17, 2024. (AP Photo/Kanis Leung)
HONG KONG--Dozens of Hong Kong journalists and some of their family members and associates have been harassed in recent months, a leading media professional group said Friday.
Selina Cheng, chair of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, said in a news conference that this was the largest-scale harassment of reporters in the city that they are aware of.
Cheng said her group found that people describing themselves as patriots have sent anonymous complaints to at least 15 journalists' family members, the employers of their family members, their landlords and other related organizations since June. She said the attacks appeared to be “systematic and organized" and that she was among those targeted.
Many of the letters and emails threatened the recipients that if they continued to associate with the reporters in question or their family members, they could be endangering national security, the association said.
In addition, posts on Facebook targeting at least 36 journalists called their articles inflammatory and described legitimate reporting as problematic or illegal, the group said. Violent online threats were also made against some journalists and members of the association's executive committee, it said.
“This type of intimidation and harassment, which includes sharing false and defamatory content, and death threats, damages press freedom in Hong Kong and we should not tolerate it,” Cheng said.
She said they did not find any evidence that the harassment was directly linked to the city’s authorities. Several people who were targeted have reported their cases to the police or the privacy commissioner's office, she said. But the journalists organization was concerned about potential data leaks from the government because some information used cannot be easily obtained under normal circumstances.
Hong Kong’s undersecretary for security, Michael Cheuk, rejected the group's suggestion that data could be leaked from the government but told reporters everyone in the city should be free from threats, fear and harassment. He called on affected people to report their cases to the authorities.
Police said they would handle each report according to the law. They said Hong Kong society is underpinned by the rule of law and if residents suspect they are being intimidated or harassed, they should report the case to them.
The privacy commissioner's office said it received one complaint on Friday and is handling it according to established procedures.
This wave of harassment affected 13 local and international news outlets and two journalism education institutions, the association said.
One of them, the online English news site Hong Kong Free Press, said the landlord of its director Tom Grundy and property agencies received anonymous letters containing threats of “unimaginable consequences” and “collateral damage" unless he was evicted from the property and district. Grundy reported the incident to police Saturday, though the agencies and landlord ignored the threats.
Since the introduction of a Beijing-imposed national security law in 2020, two news outlets known for critical coverage of the government, Apple Daily and Stand News, were forced to shut down after the arrest of their senior management, including Apple Daily publisher Jimmy Lai.
The Hong Kong government insists that there are no restrictions on press freedom if journalists’ reports are based on facts.
A river otter attacked a young child and mother at Bremerton Marina in Kitsap County in Washington (Pictures: Google/Getty Images)
A river otter dragged a child on a dock underwater and viciously attacked the mother who intervened in the near-drowning.
Cops responded to a ‘human-otter incident’ at the Bremerton Marina in Kitsap County shortly before 9.30am on Thursday, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW).
The mother who called for help said they were walking on a dock when the otter pulled her young child into the water for several moments.
When the child resurfaced, the mom managed to lift the victim out of the water but the otter ‘continued to attack and was subsequently bit in the arm’, stated WDFW on Friday.
River otter attacks are rare and six have been documented over the past decade in Washington state (Picture: Getty Images)
‘The river otter continued to pursue the family as they left the dock,’ the agency said.
First responders transported the child to Silverdale hospital to be treated for bites and scratches on the head, face and legs.
‘We are grateful the victim only sustained minor injuries, due to the mother’s quick actions and child’s resiliency,’ said WDFW Sgt Ken Balazs.
‘We would also like to thank the Port of Bremerton for their quick coordination and communication to their marina tenants.’
Following the animal attack, the US Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services trapped a river otter at the scene. It was taken to the Washington Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab to test for rabies and other evaluations.
Bremerton Marina is west of Seattle across Elliot Bay.
There have been six river otter attacks on humans in the state over the past decade.
River otters, or Lontra canadensis, are common in the Evergreen State in fresh, saltwater and brackish habitats. They spend most of their time in the water but can be outside of it for extended periods.
‘Although encounters with river otters are rare, they can be territorial and, like any wildlife, are inherently unpredictable,’ stated WDFW.
The child and mother escaped from the rogue otter more than a year after a Montana woman who was tubing with friends on the Jefferson River had her ear bitten off in another rare otter attack.
DON'T FUCK WITH SENIORS
China’s First Retirement Age Hike Since 1978 Triggers Discontent
China’s First Retirement Age Hike Since 1978 Triggers Discontent · Bloomberg
Bloomberg News
Fri, September 13, 2024
(Bloomberg) -- China will raise the retirement age for the first time since 1978, a move that could stem a decline in the labor force but risk angering workers already wrestling with a slowing economy.
Top lawmakers endorsed a plan to delay retirement for employees by as long as five years, Xinhua News Agency reported Friday. Men will retire at 63 instead of 60. Women will retire at 55 instead of 50 for ordinary workers, and 58 instead of 55 for those in management positions.
The change will take place over 15 years starting January, and will allow more people to work longer. This could boost productivity to address the challenges of an aging population, although it risks adding to public discontent with the economy growing at the worst pace in five quarters.
“The timeline of raising the retirement age is pretty gradual. Policymakers probably have taken into account the potential negative impact and calibrated that carefully,” said Michelle Lam, Greater China economist at Societe Generale SA.
Shares of companies providing health and elderly care jumped, with Shanghai Everjoy Health Group Co. rising by the daily limit of 10%. Chalkis Health Industry Co. and Youngy Health Co. gained more than 6%.
“People may face more health problems if the retirement age is raised. And the pressure of supporting parents may require more elderly care institutions to share the burden,” said Shen Meng, a director at Beijing-based investment bank Chanson & Co.
China’s retirement age is among the world’s lowest despite significantly increased life expectancy over the decades. A bigger tax base and delayed access to benefits will relieve the pressure on the government to fund pensions as the elderly population rapidly expands.
The hike is aimed at “adapting to the new situation of demographic development in China, and fully developing and utilizing human resources,” according to the decision by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.
The approval followed a July announcement by the ruling Communist Party that the retirement age will rise in a “voluntary, flexible manner.” Previous efforts to raise the threshold had failed in the face of public opposition.
The Friday decision has left some people fuming over working into an older age, as well as those who fear greater competition in the job market.
“Are you asking me, when I’m 60, to compete with young people for jobs?” a Weibo user said on the X-like social media platform, where the news was the top trending item and garnered more than 530 million views as of Friday afternoon.
Some also complained about employers’ discrimination against older job candidates, a problem that the government has long vowed to address.
Authorities acknowledged the potential short-term pressure on the job market at a press briefing on Friday. Li Zhong, vice minister at the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, said the gradual pace of the change should lead to a “muted” effect on youth employment.
The top legislative body also ruled that starting 2030, workers will need to contribute to their pension accounts for a longer period before they’re eligible to receive payout. This requirement will increase gradually from 15 to 20 years.
“The sustainability of the pension system may be the main consideration behind the move,” said Ding Shuang, chief economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered. “Even though the move will increase pressure for the job market, in the long term it helps mitigate the impact from declines in the working-age population.”
Lawmakers also called on officials to actively respond to the aging population, protect workers’ rights and improve elderly care. Additionally, it empowered the State Council, China’s cabinet, to adjust these measures as needed.
As China’s life expectancy has risen, delaying retirement has become more important to offset the demographic challenges from its decades-long enforcement of a one-child policy, which left a generation of single children supporting a large elderly population. Today, the average Chinese lives to 78 from 66 four decades ago.
People aged 65 and older are expected to make up 30% of the population by around 2035 from 14.2% in 2021, according to a report by state broadcaster CCTV on Tuesday. Authorities’ efforts to encourage births have so far done little to reverse the demographic shift, with birth rate falling to a record last year.
“When I was born they said there were too many. When I gave birth they said there were too few. When I wanted to work they said I was too old. And when I retire they say I’m too young,” another Weibo user said.
--With assistance from Fran Wang, Yujing Liu and Catherine Ngai.
Bloomberg Businessweek
Politicizing parenthood: ‘Childless cat ladies’ and ‘anti-family’ assertions give rise to natalism
Parenthood has become politicized this election season. As U.S. birthrates decline and more Americans choose not to start a family, some portend the collapse of the U.S. economy and society. But experts say it’s not that simple. Tina Trinh reports.
Kamala Harris appeals to swing state voters: Supports gun rights, pushes for assault weapons ban Harris in the interview cited her raw experience as a prosecutor and how it brought her intimately close to the victims of gun violence. — AFP pic
Saturday, 14 Sep 2024 11:42 AM MYT
WASHINGTON, Sept 14 — Kamala Harris appealed to moderate voters yesterday in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania, reiterating that she is a firearm owner who wants to preserve Americans’ gun rights while maintaining “reasonable” gun safety laws.
The US vice president gave her first solo sit-down interview since she became the Democratic nominee to a local news station in Philadelphia, the largest city in Pennsylvania, where analysts believe her race for the White House against Republican Donald Trump could hinge.
“We’re not taking anybody’s guns away. I support the Second Amendment (of the US Constitution) and I support reasonable gun safety laws,” Harris told ABC affiliate WPVI.
Guns rights have been a contentious issue in American politics for decades. Meanwhile Trump has riled up supporters on the campaign trail by saying Harris wants to “confiscate your guns.”
Harris in the interview cited her raw experience as a prosecutor and how it brought her intimately close to the victims of gun violence.
“I have personally prosecuted homicide cases,” she said. “I have personally looked at autopsies. I have personally seen what assault weapons do to the human body.
“And so I feel very strongly that it is consistent with the Second Amendment and your right to own a gun to also say we need an assault weapons ban. They’re literally tools of war.”
Polls show most Republicans are opposed to a ban on semi-automatic rifles, known by some as assault weapons, including popular AR-15 style rifles that have been used in many mass shootings.
But Harris said she also backs more popular policies including universal background checks on gun purchasers. “The majority of NRA members support that,” she said, referring to the powerful lobbying group, the National Rifle Association.
The 59-year-old White House hopeful surprised many during this week’s debate with Trump when she identified herself and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, as gun owners.
She reiterated that again during her 11-minute interview yesterday, while also repeating her campaign pitch of unity and a new direction for the country.
“Most Americans want a leader who brings us together as Americans, and not someone who professes to be a leader who is trying to have us point our fingers at each other,” she said, referring to Trump.
“I think people are exhausted with that to be honest.” — AFP
A Project 2025 adviser mockingly asked someone to ‘track down’ victims of abortion bans — 17,000 women responded
Derisive TikTok post received viral response from women who have suffered since end of Roe v Wade
His posts feature him sitting at a table, eating, across from the camera, presumably to mimic a date-like setting, while he makes a glib and offensive right-wing talking point, often misogynistic or racist.
In a post this week, which has 1.8 million views on TikTok, he says: “Can someone track down the women Kamala Harris says are bleeding out in parking lots because Roe v Wade was overturned?”
“Don’t hold your breath,” he adds, flippantly.
Well, he could have held his breath because the replies came in thick and fast.
The post now has more than 17,000 comments and they are almost all women sharing their stories of being turned away from emergency rooms in agony, bleeding out in parking lots, at home, in public bathrooms, and sometimes for months afterward.
Others talk about miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, losing their ability to have children, and driving across multiple states to get treatment where it was still legal — often while hemorrhaging. Most of the stories appear to involve wanted or planned pregnancies.
One of the most widely circulating responses to the clip is a video from a woman called Carmen Broesder that was shared on Instagram by the accounts “wordclown” and “agirlhasnopresident”.
Broesder’s ordeal is hard to hear but reflects the experience of many others. During her 19-day miscarriage in Idaho she was given just one dose of pain medicine, turned away from three emergency rooms, blacked out due to blood loss, could not eat because of her pain, and even developed AFib, a heart condition.
”I stopped eating so my daughter stopped eating. So I had to eat with tears running down my face cause it was actually painful to eat ‘cause I was in so much pain, everything hurt,” she recalls. “But my daughter needed to eat.”
Broesder adds: “I have to deal with these side effects for the rest of my life because of abortion laws.”
“But yeah, women are bleeding out in parking lots,” she says. “We exist.”
Kamala Harris gave a forceful defense of abortion rights during Tuesday’s presedential debate. (Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved)
During Tuesday’s debate against Trump, Harris responded to a question on abortion: “Donald Trump hand-selected three members of the United States Supreme Court with the intention that they would undo the protections of Roe v Wade. And they did exactly as they intended, and now in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans.”
Harris added: “Pregnant women who want to carry a pregnancy to term suffering from a miscarriage are being denied care in an emergency room because their health care providers are afraid, they might go to jail, and she’s bleeding out in a car in the parking lot? She didn’t want that.”
Screenshot from the video “Black Myth: Wukong – Official Final Trailer” via IGN's YouTube channel. Fair use.
“Black Myth: Wukong,” China’s first high-production budget AAA video game, which took over six years to develop, was finally released on August 20, 2024. Instantly, it conquered the game world with 10 million copies sold in three days and a revenue of USD 852 million generated in two weeks. At its peak, it reached 3 million concurrent players across PC and PlayStation platforms.
The independent action role-playing game (RPG) was developed by a medium-sized company, Science Game Company, based in Shenzhen. The game’s content is inspired by the Chinese classic “Journey to the West.” The task of the game player, in the form of a monkey called “Destined One,” is to revive Wukong or the Monkey King by recollecting six scattered relics that contain Wukong’s six senses.
Upon its release, the exquisite visual design of bosses and landscapes, as well as the mystical expression of Zen and Buddhist teachings embedded in the game’s plot, have attracted heated discussion among domestic and overseas game players.
Promoting China's soft power
While the Chinese government is known for its disagreeable attitude towards the gaming industry with policies that restrict the amount of time children can spend on video games, this time, the official tone has changed.
China’s spokeswoman Mao Ning said Wukong “showcases the attractiveness of traditional Chinese culture,” State-owned Xinhua News Agency described the game as a “phenomenal product,” and China Daily said it “acts as a bridge in cultural storytelling, introducing elements of a treasured Chinese narrative to a global audience.” Some, thereby, believe that the state agenda of promoting China’s soft power also contributes to the popularity of the Black Myth.
Reportedly, the game bases its virtual landscapes and architecture on 36 natural and architectural sites in China, among which 27 are located in Shanxi province. On social media, many China-related accounts are using the game to promote tourism:
Some China observers also raised their eyebrows as the game company issued a guideline to streamers telling them to avoid certain topics during streaming:
It is inevitable that the Chinese company must abide by Chinese law and practice self-censorship to survive. Yet, the guideline's hostility towards feminism has triggered a backlash against the sexist culture within the gaming industry.
On the other hand, in mainland China, many game players still see Science Game Company's founder and Black Myth’s creator, Feng Ji, as an idealist with a free spirit.
Confront destiny and embrace a free spirit
Feng was a game addict throughout his school years before he joined the gaming industry in 2004. Then, he became critical of the sector’s monetization model. After working in the industry for three years and in response to the Chinese government’s anti-online game addiction policy, he wrote a long blog post, “Who kills our games?” addressing the problem of attention economy of the gaming industry:
Why are developers moving away from players? The fundamental reason is that capital has alienated the original intention of the production of online games, which is regarded as a constant income-generating service business. All efforts center on “sustaining profit” and “keeping the users spending hundreds of hours.” However, the original intention [of gaming] should be “creating something interesting.”… [Developers] are cultivating a new kind of game-planning mentality, which is not centered on how to produce games that are “full of fun and keep the players happy,” but instead on how to design a successful internet trap [that can catch the players].
After working for established gaming companies, including Tencent, for 10 years, Feng founded Science Game Company with a like-minded team in 2014. In 2018, months before China’s Ministry of Education announced new regulations to limit the amount of time minors spend on online games, Feng and his team ventured into the development of an AAA game even though the company was not fully equipped to host the project.
To keep the project running, the company released an official trailer of the new games in August 2020. It went viral, and money and talent followed. Black Myth: Wukong was released for PlayStation 5 and Windows four years later. The game can be played both remotely and offline.
Given the Chinese context, Feng Ji and his team made an independent choice that led to the birth of China’s first-ever big-budget AAA game. It caters to China’s desire for soft power while circumventing policy restrictions by enabling offline playing.
Moreover, the game's plot is inspired by the classic novel Journey to the West, in which Wukong represents a rebellious spirit, though tamed by Buddhist teachings throughout the journey. Such free spirit is embedded in the game as the story starts with Wukong's refusal to accept Buddhahood after his pilgrimage. Before he is sealed in stone by Erlang, a warrior god of heaven, Wukong injects his six senses into six relics and the Destined One has to recollect the relics to revive Wukong.
Hong Kong game player Ko Lap highlighted the game’s rebellious spirit on Facebook:
I was shocked by the story plot of Black Myth Wukong!
Any creature which stands against the heavenly authority, will be regarded as yao [demonish creature] and executed by the heavenly court; if a yao submits to the heavenly court by helping the authority to suppress or kill other yao, it gains the chance to be ranked as an immortal…
Wukong is powerless to fight against the Heavenly Court, between obedience and freedom, he chooses to die at the hands of Erlang. Wukong believes that although he is dead, his free will will live on, and the person who inherits his free will is called the Destined One, i.e. the game player. To play the game, you have to collect all the scattered six senses, as the legend says that this can revive Wukong. The last of Wukong's six sense is the “Will,” which stands for Wukong’s will for freedom against the oppressive power. In fact, the Destined one himself is the 6th sense. In order to awaken the last sense, one must defeat Erlang and defeat Wukong who has lost his will, so that Wukong and the Destined One can be merged together as one… In other words, the creator wants you to inherit Wukong's “will” and live it out in reality…
Though the game company wants to limit the discussion to the players’ gaming experience and avoid political discussion with its guidelines, Wukong has been released, and nothing can prevent it from serving as an open text for all kinds of readings and interpretations. This is where the soft power of Chinese classics lies.
