Canada suspends arms exports to Turkey over Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict

A view of the wreckage after Armenian army's alleged attacks with long-range missiles, in Azerbaijan on 5 October 2020 [Resul Rehimov/Anadolu Agency]

October 6, 2020

Canada has suspended arms export permits to Turkey over concerns that it is using its technology in the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region.

“In line with Canada’s robust export control regime and due to the ongoing hostilities,” announced Foreign Affairs Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, “I have suspended the relevant export permits to Turkey, so as to allow time to further assess the situation.”


In line with 🇨🇦's robust export control regime and the ongoing investigation, I have suspended the relevant export permits to #Turkey.

🇨🇦 calls for measures to be taken immediately to stop the violence and protect civilians. pic.twitter.com/mCLmjWKq4G
— François-Philippe Champagne (FPC) 🇨🇦 (@FP_Champagne) October 5, 2020

According to CBC, Champagne was responding to calls by Armenian Canadians to halt the export of sophisticated drone technology to Turkey following reports that Ankara had deployed dozens of unmanned drones against Armenian forces.

The executive director of the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC), Sevag Belian, urged the federal government to “immediately halt all Canadian military aid to Turkey” and also called on it to condemn Azerbaijan’s actions.

Footage released late last month by Azerbaijan claiming to show its own armed drones targeting Armenian air defence units has been questioned by arms experts who believe that it is actually footage of Turkish-produced drones equipped with Canadian sensors and laser targeting-systems.

Last week a report issued by Project Ploughshares, a Canada-based arms control group, suggested that the drones used by Azerbaijan had been equipped with imaging and targeting systems developed by L3Harris Wescam, a Canadian subsidiary of US defence firm L3Harris.


Armenia/Azerbaijan fighting rages – Cartoon [Sabaaneh/MiddleEastMonitor]

“Canada’s export of WESCAM sensors to Turkey poses a substantial risk of facilitating human suffering,” explained the group, “including violations of human rights and international humanitarian law.”

Turkey supports Azerbaijan but has denied Armenia’s accusations that it has sent fighters and deployed fighter jets in the conflict. It has responded to Canada’s move with claims that Ottawa is employing double standards.

“Turkey expects Canada to follow a policy free of double standards and to act without being influenced from those opposed to Turkey,” said the foreign ministry in Ankara. “There is no explanation for blocking defence equipment exports to a NATO ally while… Canada does not see any harm in exporting arms to countries that have military involvement in the crisis in Yemen.”

Armenia uses image of gun-wielding priest as Azerbaijan declares state of war


The image of a gun-wielding priest used by Armenia on Twitter as Azerbaijan declares state of war [armenia/Twitter]

September 28, 2020

Azerbaijan yesterday declared a state of war in some of its cities and regions following attacks by Armenian forces on military and civilian sites over the weekend.

The decision was made in a meeting of Azerbaijan’s National Assembly yesterday, in which it enforced partial measures in its border regions which could temporarily restrict some rights and freedoms of Azeri citizens and foreigners due to the conflict.

It came after Armenian forces reportedly targeted Azerbaijan’s military positions and civilian areas around the Armenia-occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region, igniting border clashes that have left dozens dead on both sides.

Azeri forces have reportedly captured seven villages in the region since the clashes, but Armenia has denied that claim.

The conflict between the two sides also prompted clashes on social media, in which Armenia’s official Twitter account – handled by its Foreign Ministry – posted a picture of an Armenian priest wielding an assault rifle and holding a crucifix, with the caption “Faith & Power!”


Faith & Power! #StopAzerbaijaniAgression #StopAliyev #KarabakhNow #NKpeace #NKstrong #ArtsakhStrong #ՀԱՂԹԵԼՈՒԵՆՔ pic.twitter.com/ql9cZkpYdu
— Armenia 🇦🇲 (@armenia) September 27, 2020


Many have viewed that tweet as an effort to provoke and add a religious element to Christian-majority Armenia’s historic enmity against Muslim-majority Azerbaijan.

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry also weighed in on the renewed border clashes, pledging and assuring its support for Azerbaijan while condemning Armenia’s alleged aggression. In a statement, the ministry’s spokesman Hami Aksoy said yesterday that Armenia’s attack “is a clear violation of international law and causing civilian casualties. With these attacks, Armenia has once again shown that it’s the biggest obstacle before regional peace and stability.”

He added that “Azerbaijan will definitely use its right to self-defense in order to protect its people and territorial integrity.”

It is not only Turkey’s government that has declared its support, but also the owner of its renowned Bayraktar drone manufacturer, Selcuk Bayraktar. In a tweet today, he shared a video of Azeri forces’ drone strikes against Armenian forces, expressing his support for Azerbaijan only months after his company sold its Bayraktar TB2 drones to the South Caucasian nation.

🇦🇿 #Azerbaycan https://t.co/LmpViTgkoG
— Selçuk Bayraktar (@Selcuk) September 27, 2020

Various actors in the international community have urged for an end to the conflict between the two countries, with the European Union calling for an “immediate ceasefire”, French President Emmanuel Macron expressing his “deep concern” and calling for “an immediate end to hostilities”, and­ UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres saying he is “extremely concerned”.

Relations between the two former Soviet nations have been particularly strained since 1991, when Armenia occupied the Upper Karabakh region, known as Nagorno Karabakh, despite it being an internationally-recognised territory belonging to Azerbaijan.

The region has remained occupied by Armenia ever since, even though the occupation has been constantly urged to withdraw following four UN Security Council and two UN General Assembly resolutions.

PRIMITIVE ACCUMMULATION OF CAPITAL

Israel founders were ‘thieves’, Israeli historian says

October 6, 2020 

Israeli historian Adam Raz, 21 December 2018 [Indonesian Solidarity Against Zionism/Facebook]

Early Jewish settlers in Palestine “looted Arab property”, a new book by an Israeli historian has said, adding “authorities turned a blind eye”.

In what has been described as the “first-ever comprehensive study” by Israeli historian Adam Raz described “the extent to which Jews looted Arab property” during the Jewish gangs’ attack in 1948 on Palestinians and their homes, and explains why Ben-Gurion said “most of the Jews are thieves.”

Writing in Haaretz, Ofer Aderet’s review of Raz’s book was entitled: “Jewish soldiers and civilians looted Arab neighbors’ property en masse in ’48. The authorities turned a blind eye.”

Another senior writer at Haaretz, Gideon Levy, commented that the words “most of the Jews are thieves”, “wasn’t uttered by an antisemitic leader, a Jew hater or a neo-Nazi, but by the founder of the State of Israel, two months after it was founded.”

Levy said that the Israeli authorities “turned a blind eye and thus encouraged the looting, despite all the denunciations, the pretense and a few ridiculous trials.”

The looting served a national purpose: to quickly complete the ethnic cleansing of most of the country of its Arabs, and to see to it that 700,000 refugees would never even imagine returning to their homes

The Israeli writer added: “Even before Israel managed to destroy most of the houses, and wipe from the face of the earth more than 400 villages, came this mass looting to empty them out, so that the refugees would have no reason to return.”

Levy also said that the looters “were motivated not only by ugly greed to possess stolen property right after the war was over, property belonging in some cases to people who were their neighbors just the day before, and not only by the desire to get rich quick by looting household items and ornaments, some of them very costly…, but they served, consciously or unconsciously, the ethnic purification project that Israel has tried in vain to deny all through the years.”

“Almost everyone took part” in the looting, he added, which “was the small looting, the one that proved if only for a moment that ‘most of the Jews are thieves,’ as the founding father said. But that was mini-looting compared to the institutionalized looting of property, houses, villages and cities – the looting of the land.”

“Denial and repression” were part of the reasons why heads of Jewish community allowed the looting of Arab property in Palestine. He said: “Thirst for revenge and drunkenness with victory after the difficult war might perhaps explain, even partially, the participation of so many.”

Levy said that “the looting reflects not only momentary human weakness but is intended to serve a clear strategic goal – purifying the country of its inhabitants – words fail.”

Concluding his article, Levy said: “Anyone who believes that a solution will ever be found to the conflict without proper atonement and compensation for these acts, is living in an illusion.”

He asked Israel to “think about the feelings of the descendants, the Arabs of Israel and the Palestinian refugees, who are living with us and alongside us. They see the pictures and read these things – what crosses their minds?”

He answers: “They will never be able to see the villages of their ancestors: Israel demolished most of them, to leave not a shred,” noting that “one small stolen souvenir from the home that was lost might cause a tear to fall.”

Adding: “Just ask the Jews enraged over any stolen Jewish property.”

Over 1m Palestinians displaced, 166,000 homes demolished since formation of Israel

October 7, 2020 

Israeli excavators demolish some of constructions belonging to Palestinians for allegedly being unauthorized at Dora district in Hebron, West Bank on September 23, 2020 [Mamoun Wazwaz - Anadolu Agency]

October 7, 2020 

Israel has demolished nearly 166,000 Palestinian homes since it was established on the land of Palestine in 1948, a report by the Land Research Centre of the Arab Studies Association in occupied Jerusalem has revealed, adding that more than one million Palestinians have been displaced as a result of the occupation.

“During the first nine months of the year 2020, the occupation forces demolished 450 homes and facilities, and also pushed some Palestinians to demolish their homes with their own hands,” the centre added.

The report also highlighted that the Israeli regime had adopted the policy of limiting construction by Palestinians, forcing them to resort to building their homes without permits.

Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, during the 1967 Six Day War. It justifies the demolition of Palestinian homes by saying that they lack building permits, despite the fact that Israel very rarely issues such permits to Palestinians.

The Zionist state, meanwhile, approves the construction of thousands of residential units within illegal settlements built on occupied Palestinian land.

The centre added that Palestinians based in occupied East Jerusalem alone are in urgent need of 25,000 residential units.

Palestinians believe the true purpose of the restrictive planning regime is to empty the city of its indigenous Palestinian inhabitants.

Last month, it was reported that the number of building permits Israel granted Palestinians in the occupied territories decreased by 45 per cent in the second quarter of 2020.

The UN’s Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) noted in an April 2019 report that in East Jerusalem “a restrictive planning regime applied by Israel makes it virtually impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits.”

Thousands of Palestinian homes face demolition as Israel refuses building permits

The building permits are charged at extortionate prices and are unaffordable for most Palestinians, creating a legal loophole for Israel to annex more land and to leave Palestinians in limbo by preventing them from developing infrastructure.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also announced that he will plans to annex more areas in the occupied West Bank, in accordance with US President Donald Trump’s “deal of the century”, despite widespread criticism from the international community.

The proposal gives in to Israel’s demands while creating a Palestinian state with limited control over its own security and borders.

Israel’s widely practiced policy of home demolitions targeting entire families are acts of illegal collective punishment and come in direct violation of International Human Rights Law.

Middle East Monitor

about 3 years ago

ZERO building permits were issued by Israel in 2015 !

Israel tightens #Palestinian construction in Area C - #OccupiedPalestine

MEMO infographic by QUAD Business House

Remembering Saladin’s liberation of Jerusalem
On 2 October 1187, Ayyubid Sultan Salah Al-Din (known in the West as Saladin) liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders nearly a century after they captured the holy city from the Fatimid Caliphate

October 2, 2020 

On 2 October 1187, Ayyubid Sultan Salah Al-Din (known in the West as Saladin) liberated Jerusalem from the Crusaders nearly a century after they captured the holy city from the Fatimid Caliphate.

What: Saladin’s liberation of Jerusalem

Where: Palestine

When: 2 October 1187

The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem

With a cry of ‘Deus vult!’ – Latin for ‘God wills it’ – head of the Roman Catholic Church Pope Urban II ignited the flame for the Crusades in 1095, urging Christian Europeans to go on ‘armed pilgrimage’ to Jerusalem and reclaim the Holy Land from Muslims. An army of 100,000 undertook the mission, forming the First Crusade.

On 15 July 1099, Jerusalem, which had been recaptured by the Fatimids from the Seljuks the year before, fell to the Crusaders after a brutal siege which lasted for over a month.

Their victory laid the foundations for the establishment of the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem.

Saladin’s rise to power

At the time, Muslim forces in the Middle East and North Africa region were divided, with power struggles between and amongst the Sunni Seljuks in the Levant and the Shia Fatimids in Egypt.

Sultan Nur Al-Din Zengi, who ruled much of the Syrian province of the Seljuk Empire between 1146 and 1174, sought to unite all Muslim forces between the Euphrates in Mesopotamia and the Nile in Egypt in order to defeat the Crusaders.

Saladin, who was born in 1137 into a Kurdish Sunni military family had gone on a military expedition on behalf of Nur Al-Din to Egypt alongside his uncle Shirkuh to help the wazir (adviser) to the Fatimid Caliph Al-Adid, Shawar, to resolve internal power struggles and assert his rule. However, Shawar, the effective ruler of Egypt, soon allied with the Crusaders against Shirkuh and the Zengids.

Upon the personal request of the Caliph Al-Adid, Shirkuh came back to Egypt to fight off Crusader incursions. He later had Shawar executed and, despite being Sunni, was appointed wazir by the Shia Caliph. But Shirkuh died soon after, and Saladin was appointed wazir in his place.

Saladin consolidated his position in Egypt and, upon the Caliph’s death, became ruler of Egypt and abolished the Fatimid Caliphate.

Indeed Nur Al-Din extended his dominance across large parts of the Muslim world, but he died before he achieved his ultimate goal of liberating Jerusalem. Defeating other claimants to Nur Al-Din’s throne in Syria, Saladin was proclaimed sultan.

Saladin had spent over a decade unifying Muslim cities under Sunni rule. He established the Ayyubid dynasty and asserted his rule over Egypt, Syria, Upper Mesopotamia, the Hejaz, Yemen and much of the North African coast, finally realising Nur Al-Din’s dream.

In 1185, Saladin agreed to a truce with the Crusaders, allowing him time to deal with political problems in the Muslim world and raise a large army.

Two years later, in 1187, French Crusader Lord of Oultrejordain Raynald of Châtillon raided a Muslim caravan, violating the truce.
Saladin’s siege of Jerusalem

After unifying Muslim lands under his rule, Saladin was ready to take on the Crusaders in light of Raynald’s violation of the truce. The Kingdom of Jerusalem was, at this time, also internally divided.

On 4 July 1187, Saladin’s armies scored a great victory at the Battle of Hattin near Tiberias, the most pivotal defeat to befall the Crusaders. Crusader King Guy de Lusignan and many Crusader princes and lords, including Raynald of Châtillon, were captured. Saladin killed Raynald in fulfilment of a vow that he made following the latter’s murderous attacks against Muslims.

After the Battle of Hattin, which dealt a major blow to both the morale and military might of the Crusaders, Saladin moved against many Crusader states and conquered almost every Crusader territory in the region, clearing the path to retake Jerusalem.

The holy city had become a refuge for most of the Crusaders of the Levant, and fighters who fled previous defeats against the Muslims. They held out in defence of Jerusalem as Saladin’s forces descended on the city and besieged it.

The Muslim army bombarded the city walls using catapults and tried to storm the city several times. After a 12-day siege, on 2 October 1187, the leader of the Christian forces, Balian of Ibelin, surrendered the city.

In contrast with the bloody takeover by the Crusaders who massacred 40,000 Muslim and Jewish inhabitants upon entering Jerusalem in 1099, the handover to Muslim control was peaceful. The Crusaders were given safe passage out of the city and Christian places of worship were left intact. Arab Christian communities were allowed to stay.

After 88 years in the hands of the Crusaders, the Muslims, led by Saladin, entered Jerusalem once again.

Jehan Alfarra
j_alfarra October 2, 2020 
 | Published in: Israel, Middle East, On this day, Opinion, Palestine, Videos & Photo Stories

The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.

‘We are all Awais Al-Rawi’ Egyptians post on Twitter

October 2, 2020 at 2:22 pm | Published in: Africa, Egypt, News

Awais Al-Rawi was shot in the head by policeman in his home in Egypt, 1 October 2020 [Mostafa/Twitter]

October 2, 2020 at 2:22 pm

Social media users are comparing the shooting of Awais Al-Rawi by Egyptian police to the killing of George Floyd in the US.

On Wednesday, Awais was shot in the head in his family home in Luxor, Upper Egypt, by policeman after he objected to them insulting and abusing his father and entering the house without a warrant.

Floyd, a black American, was killed after a policeman kneeled on his neck whilst his colleagues looked on, earlier this year.

Awais’ death has also drawn comparisons with Mohamed Bouazizi, the Tunisian street vendor whose self-immolation sparked the Arab Spring.

The killing of Awais has further galvanised protesters, who have been demonstrating in Egypt’s countryside and Upper Egypt for almost two weeks now against soaring living costs and widescale house demolitions.

The demonstrations have been labelled the ‘galabiya uprising’ in reference to the traditional dress typically worn in the countryside.

READ: Egypt prepares for second Friday of rage

Social media users are posting under the Arabic hashtag, We are all Awais Al-Rawi, in reference to the We are all Khaled Saeed Facebook page, which was created to protest police torture and corruption and which went on to spark the 2011 revolution.

Khaled Saeed became an icon of victims of police brutality in 2010 after images of his battered corpse circulated on the internet.

Despite the fact that the 2011 revolutionaries asked for an end to police violence, it has got worse under the current regime.

Early in September protests broke out in Giza after a young man, Islam the Australian, died of suspected torture after objecting to a policeman insulting his mother.

READ: Egypt court sentences 6 men to death over killing policemen

Last Friday’s day of rage saw police kill 25-year-old Sami Wagdy Bashir in Al-Blida village in Giza Governorate with live ammunition.

Egyptians have today backed a call by whistleblower Mohamed Ali who asked them to take to the streets for the second Friday of rage, or for the Friday victory.

Ali asked them to fill the squares in main cities, which have so far been devoid of protests due to the large security presence, which he believes will have more of an impact.




Egypt police kill Luxor man then shoot mourners at his funeral

October 1, 2020 at 11:42 am | Published in: Africa, Egypt, News

Awais Al-Rawi [osgaweesh/Twitter]

October 1, 2020 at 11:42 am

Egyptian police killed a man in Luxor during a raid on Wednesday after he objected to police physically and verbally assaulting his elderly father and arrested his brother.

Eyewitnesses say police shot Awais Al-Rawi in the head in front of his family after troops and armoured vehicles descended on his village. This came moments after Al-Rawi stood up to an officer who had insulted and slapped his father.

A video posted under the trending Arabic hashtag, Friday we’re coming out in our millions, shows police shooting into crowds of mourners who gathered for his funeral.


الشرطة تهاجم المشيعين في جنازة شهيد #الأقصر#الشرطه_في_خدمه_الكلب pic.twitter.com/nvMRVeHoKp

— قناة الشرق (@ElsharqTV) September 30, 2020


Egyptians have been protesting since 20 September against the ruling regime after soaring prices have left people unable to eat and house demolitions have left them homeless.

The protests were called for by whistleblower Mohamed Ali, who last year ignited anti-regime protests after his allegations of corruption.

The bulk of the protests are taking place in rural areas and Upper Egypt, away from the heavy security presence in the main squares in cities, which has led to them being labelled the galabiya uprising.

Egypt: Video of a man sexually assaulting 5-year-old boy sparks outrage

Security forces have responded brutally, using tear gas, live bullets and ammunition against demonstrators.

Last Friday, on the day of rage, police killed 25-year-old Sami Wagdy Bashir in Al-Blida village in Giza Governorate with live ammunition.

Earlier this week the public prosecution announced it had released 68 children arrested since the start of the demonstrations, some who had been detained for a week.

Two of the children, Yahya Khairy Abdel Qader and Muhamad Ahmad, were Nubian boys arrested after demonstrating in Aswan.

Following their arrest, protesters gathered in front of the Interior Ministry headquarters in Aswan demanding their release.

Some 400 people have been arrested since the start of the galabiya uprising.

Most have been accused of trumped up charges typically levelled at political protesters, including joining a terror group and disseminating false news.Egypt police kill Luxor man then shoot mourners at his funeral

October 1, 2020 at 11:42 am | Published in: Africa, Egypt, News

Awais Al-Rawi [osgaweesh/Twitter]Awais Al-Rawi [osgaweesh/Twitter]

October 1, 2020 at 11:42 am

Egyptian police killed a man in Luxor during a raid on Wednesday after he objected to police physically and verbally assaulting his elderly father and arrested his brother.

Eyewitnesses say police shot Awais Al-Rawi in the head in front of his family after troops and armoured vehicles descended on his village. This came moments after Al-Rawi stood up to an officer who had insulted and slapped his father.

A video posted under the trending Arabic hashtag, Friday we’re coming out in our millions, shows police shooting into crowds of mourners who gathered for his funeral.

الشرطة تهاجم المشيعين في جنازة شهيد #الأقصر#الشرطه_في_خدمه_الكلب pic.twitter.com/nvMRVeHoKp

— قناة الشرق (@ElsharqTV) September 30, 2020

Egyptians have been protesting since 20 September against the ruling regime after soaring prices have left people unable to eat and house demolitions have left them homeless.

The protests were called for by whistleblower Mohamed Ali, who last year ignited anti-regime protests after his allegations of corruption.

The bulk of the protests are taking place in rural areas and Upper Egypt, away from the heavy security presence in the main squares in cities, which has led to them being labelled the galabiya uprising.


Security forces have responded brutally, using tear gas, live bullets and ammunition against demonstrators.


Last Friday, on the day of rage, police killed 25-year-old Sami Wagdy Bashir in Al-Blida village in Giza Governorate with live ammunition.

Earlier this week the public prosecution announced it had released 68 children arrested since the start of the demonstrations, some who had been detained for a week.


Two of the children, Yahya Khairy Abdel Qader and Muhamad Ahmad, were Nubian boys arrested after demonstrating in Aswan.

Following their arrest, protesters gathered in front of the Interior Ministry headquarters in Aswan demanding their release.

Some 400 people have been arrested since the start of the galabiya uprising.

Most have been accused of trumped up charges typically levelled at political protesters, including joining a terror group and disseminating false news.

RIP

JAMAICAN DUB PIONEER BUNNY LEE HAS DIED

The record producer and label head helped spread Jamaican music such as reggae internationally

• PATRICK HINTON
 
• 7 OCTOBER 2020

Legendary Jamaican record producer and record plugger Bunny Lee, also known as Striker Lee and real name Edward O'Sullivan Lee, has died aged 79.

Dancehall Mag reports he suffered “heart failure” at an undisclosed hospital in the Corporate Area.

Speaking to Dancehall Mag, Annette Wong-Lee, mother to four of Bunny Lee’s children, said: “The doctors said it was a respiratory failure, like a heart failure. He had gone to change his catheter at the hospital, he had a full time nurse with him, his son, Edward Junior had gone to buy food.When Edward Jr. called the nurse to check on him, she was crying, he asked her what happened, she said ‘personal problem’ and then the doctor called him to say he should ‘come now’, so immediately he knew something was wrong”

Jamaican broadcaster Clinton Lindsay said Lee had been “battling kidney problems for the past few months” when announcing his passing.

Born in Kingston in 1941, Lee first began working in the music industry as a record plugger for Duke Reid’s Treasure Isle label in 1962.

After moving into record producing, he grew into a hugely influential figure in Jamaican music and its worldwide proliferation. After setting up his Lee’s label in the mid-1960s he helped bring music by John Holt, Slim Smith, Delroy Wilson, Peter Tosh and Horace Andy to the world, spreading the sound to the UK by licensing the music to labels such as Island Records and Trojan Records.

As a friend and collaborator of King Tubby, he also helped pioneer dub music, utilising his skill as an electrical engineer and studio effects.

In 2008 Lee was awarded the Order of Distinction by the Jamaican government for his contribution to the country’s music.

A number of prominent artists and labels have paid tribute to Bunny Lee.

David Rodigan wrote on Twitter: “The Reggae world has lost another iconic figure; Bunny ‘Striker’ Lee was unquestionably one of the most charismatic and inspirational record producers in Jamaican music with a phenomenal catalogue of hits. He drove the music forward across the decades & will be sorely missed.”

Trojan Records wrote on Twitter: “Jamaican music giant, Bunny Lee, has very sadly passed away. Bunny was massively influential in shaping Jamaican music, starting as a record plugger in the 60’s, then, as a pioneering producer, from the rock steady era through to the dancehall years of the 1980’s.”

Pressure Sounds wrote on Twitter: “Very sad news for everyone at Pressure Sounds, Bunny Lee sadly passed away yesterday. A huge character and creative force in the business. He will be missed. RIP Mr Lee.”

QUACK QUACK

Trump ‘symptom-free,’ has COVID-19 antibodies after hospitalization: doc


By Ebony Bowden October 7, 2020 

White House physician Sean Conley

 WHO IS A CERTIFIED QUACK


WASHINGTON — President Trump continues to show no symptoms of COVID-19 and now appears to have antibodies for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the disease, his doctor said Wednesday.

“The president this morning says ‘I feel great!’ His physical exam and vital signs, including oxygen saturation and respiratory rate, all remain stable and in normal range,” physician to the president Dr. Sean Conley said in a memo released by the White House.

“He’s now been fever-free for more than 4 days, symptom-free for over 24 hours, and has not needed nor received any supplemental oxygen since initial hospitalization,” he added.

Conley also revealed that the president’s lab work from Monday showed “detectable levels of SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies.”

It’s unclear if antibodies make you immune to the coronavirus but they may help to ward off future occurrences of infection, according to the US Food and Drug Administration.

The president is continuing to recover in isolation in the White House residence after a three-night stay in Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.

He and the first lady tested positive for the virus on Thursday evening and more than a dozen of his associates and White House employees have now contracted COVID-19.

At a press conference before his patient’s release from the hospital on Monday, Conley told reporters he was very pleased with the commander-in-chief’s recovery, but warned he was not out of the woods yet.

Trump, 74, has been active on Twitter since returning home, telling followers he’s looking forward to returning to the campaign trail and debating Democratic nominee Joe Biden in Miami on Oct. 15.

MORE TRUMP QUACKERY

HIS SO CALLED DOCTOR IS A BONE CRUNCHER,

A CHIROPRACTOR BY ANY OTHER NAME 

 

Billionaires' wealth rises by almost 30% amid pandemic - UBS

Jeff Bezos, head of Amazon, can be seen on the fringes of the company`s novelties event. Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos tells Jamal Khashoggi`s fiancee Hatice Cengiz:Andrej Sokolow/dpa - Archivo


The wealth of the world’s billionaires has been rising during the ongoing pandemic up to a record high of $10.2trln.

According to a report from UBS, the super-rich increased their fortunes by 27.5% from April to July despite market turmoil.

In contrast to the millions of people around the world who have lost their jobs and are getting by thanks to government schemes, billionaires had mostly benefited from betting on the recovery of global stock markets.

UBS said billionaires’ wealth had hit “a new high” after it broke its previous record of $8.9trln reached at the end of 2017. The number of billionaires has also hit a new high of 2,189, up from 2,158 in 2017.

Josef Stadler, the head of UBS’s global family office said: “Billionaires did extremely well during the Covid crisis, not only [did] they ride the storm to the downside, but also gained up on the upside [as stock markets rebounded].”

Stadler said billionaires typically have “significant risk appetite” and were confident to gamble some of their considerable fortunes.

Stadler has previously warned that the yawning inequality gap between rich and poor could lead to a “strike back”.

“Wealth concentration is as high as in 1905, this is something billionaires are concerned about. The problem is the power of interest on interest – that makes big money bigger and, the question is to what extent is that sustainable and at what point will society intervene and strike back?”

 

Boeing to consolidate US 787 production in cost-saving move

UNION BUSTING BY MOVING TO RIGHT TO WORK STATE

Boeing will shift some 787 plane production from its Everett, Washington, site pictured here, to its South Carolina factory; Everett will continue to produce other Boeing planes

Boeing will consolidate manufacturing of the 787 Dreamliner plane to one plant in the US, ending production of the wide-body jet in Washington state, the company announced Thursday.

The move follows earlier announcements by Boeing that it would slash production of the jets to six per month in 2021 from 14 due to weak demand for airline travel because of the coronavirus.

The US aviation giant has not announced staffing cuts as a result of change, but made clear production for several models would continue in Washington.

The company needs to "look at every opportunity to adapt, preserve our liquidity and be more competitive in a very different commercial market," Stan Deal, head of Boeing's commercial plane division, said in an email to staff.

"To ensure we can be effective in a market that will be smaller in the near-term, and one that will have different demands from our customers long-term, we made a decision earlier this morning to consolidate 787 production in South Carolina after months of detailed and thorough study."

Boeing said it had not yet determined how the shift would affect staffing in Everett, Washington and North Charleston, South Carolina.

About 900 employees work on the 787 at the Everett site, which as a whole has 30,000 workers—although the current number is lower because some staff is working from home.

Headcount in South Carolina at the start of 2020 was 6,869, a Boeing spokeswoman said.

Boeing began manufacturing the 787 in Everett in 2007 before starting production in South Carolina in 2019. Only the South Carolina plant is equipped to build the current Dreamliner models, which are bigger than the initial versions, the company said.

"Our team in Puget Sound will continue to focus on efficiently building our 737, 747, 767 and 777 airplane families, and both sites will drive Boeing initiatives to further enhance safety, quality, and operational excellence," Deal said.

In July, Boeing reported a loss of $2.4 billion through the first half of 2020, the result of an airline industry downturn and the hit from the grounding of its 737 MAX following two deadly crashes.

The company has announced plans for additional job cuts following a 10 percent headcount reduction.

Chief Executive Dave Calhoun said in July he thinks it will be about three years before the airline industry recovers to pre-coronavirus levels.


Explore further Boeing to suspend production at Washington state complex

© 2020 AFP

Climate change could mean fewer sunny days for hot regions banking on solar power

by Morgan Kelly, Princeton University

Hot, arid regions may see greater fluctuations in sunlight as the climate changes, the researchers reported. They used satellite data and climate model outputs to evaluate the intermittency of solar radiation and the reliability of photovoltaic energy under future climate conditions. They found that arid areas (pink) were more likely to experience a decrease in average solar radiation -- and thus the reliability of solar power -- in January (top) and July (bottom). Credit: Jun Yin, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology

While solar power is a leading form of renewable energy, new research suggests that changes to regional climates brought on by global warming could make areas currently considered ideal for solar power production less viable in the future.


Princeton-based researchers recently published in the journal Nature Communications the first study to assess the day-to-day reliability of solar energy under climate change. The team used satellite data and climate models to project how sunlight reaching the ground would be affected as warmer global temperatures alter the dynamics and consistency of Earth's atmosphere.

Their study found that higher surface temperatures—and the resulting increase in the amount of moisture, aerosols and particulates in the atmosphere—may result in an overall decrease in solar radiation and an uptick in the number of cloudy days. Hot, arid regions such as the Middle East and the American Southwest—considered among the highest potential producers of solar energy—were most susceptible to greater fluctuations in sunlight, the researchers found.

"Our results could help in designing better solar power plants and optimizing storage while also avoiding the expansion of solar power capacity in areas where sunlight intermittency under future climate conditions may be too high to make solar reliable," said corresponding author Amilcare Porporato, Princeton's Thomas J. Wu '94 Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Princeton Environmental Institute (PEI). The research was supported by the Carbon Mitigation Initiative based in PEI.

"To use an academic metaphor, in terms of solar power, semiarid places are now like students who get an A nearly every day," Porporato said. "Now, climate change is disturbing the usual dynamics of the atmosphere and the regularity of the solar radiation reaching the planet's surface. We tried to quantify how much more often those A's could become B's, or even C's, as a result."

Existing research on how solar energy will fare in this irregular future has largely focused on average levels of sunlight, said first author Jun Yin, a researcher at Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology who worked on the paper at Princeton as a postdoctoral research associate with Porporato.


"The novelty of our approach was to point out that in some places there is going to be more uncertainty in day-to-day variability," Yin said. He and Porporato previously reported that climate models underestimate the cooling effect of the daily cloud cycle. They worked on the most recent paper with co-author Annalisa Molini, an associate professor of civil infrastructure and environmental engineering at Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates.

The researchers' findings were based on probabilistic calculations similar to those used to determine the risk of flooding or drought. The reduced reliability of solar energy is related to the increased variability of atmospheric moisture and aerosols in some arid regions. Higher temperatures hold more moisture and are more turbulent, which favors the formation of clouds and keeps particles in suspension longer, Porporato said.

"Then there is the issue of soils drying, which may be even more important," Porporato said. As temperatures and atmospheric turbulence increase in arid regions such as the Middle East, dry soils potentially lead to greater amounts of dust and atmospheric aerosols that would diminish solar radiation. These trends are in fact already detectable in observations from climate-observation networks, Porporato said.

For the American Southwest, the researchers' findings were less consistent. Some models showed more solar radiation and lower intermittency in the future, while others showed less solar radiation and higher intermittency. These results illustrate the challenge of trying to predict the reliability of solar energy in an uncertain future, Yin said.

"We hope that policymakers and people in the energy industry can take advantage of this information to more efficiently design and manage photovoltaic facilities," Yin said.

"Our paper helps identify efficient solutions for different locations where intermittency could occur, but at an acceptable level," he said. "A variety of technologies such as power storage, or power-operation policies such as smart curtailment, load shaping or geographical dispersion, are promising solutions."

To follow up on their work, the researchers plan to examine climate persistency—specifically, the number of consecutive sunny or cloudy days—which is important for solar power. They also are exploring how clouds could affect the effectiveness of tree planting as a climate mitigation strategy. Trees absorb not only carbon dioxide but also solar energy, which would raise surface temperatures. A resulting increase in cloud coverage could change current estimates of how effective trees would be in reducing atmospheric carbon.

The paper, "Impacts of solar intermittency on future photovoltaic reliability," was published Sept. 22 by Nature Communications.


Explore furtherClimate change impact on green energy production

More information: Jun Yin et al, Impacts of solar intermittency on future photovoltaic reliability, Nature Communications (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-020-18602-6

Journal information: Nature Communications


Provided by Princeton University

Underwater robots to autonomously dock mid-mission to recharge and transfer data

by Jared Pike, Purdue University

A yellow underwater robot (left) finds its way to a mobile docking station to recharge and upload data before continuing a task. Credit: Purdue University photo/Jared Pike

Robots can be amazing tools for search-and-rescue missions and environmental studies, but eventually they must return to a base to recharge their batteries and upload their data. That can be a challenge if your robot is an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) exploring deep ocean waters.

Now, a Purdue University team has created a mobile docking system for AUVs, enabling them to perform longer tasks without the need for human intervention.

The team also has published papers on ways to adapt this docking system for AUVs that will explore extraterrestrial lakes, such as those of Jupiter and Saturn's moons.

"My research focuses on persistent operation of robots in challenging environments," said Nina Mahmoudian, an associate professor of mechanical engineering. "And there's no more challenging environment than underwater."

Once a marine robot submerges in water, it loses the ability to transmit and receive radio signals, including GPS data. Some may use acoustic communication, but this method can be difficult and unreliable, especially for long-range transmissions. Because of this, underwater robots currently have a limited range of operation.

"Typically these robots perform a pre-planned itinerary underwater," Mahmoudian said. "Then they come to the surface and send out a signal to be retrieved. Humans have to go out, retrieve the robot, get the data, recharge the battery and then send it back out. That's very expensive, and it limits the amount of time these robots can be performing their tasks."


Play VIDEO https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-underwater-robots-autonomously-dock-mid-mission.html

A Purdue University team has created a mobile docking system for autonomous underwater vehicles, enabling them to perform longer tasks without the need for human intervention. Credit: Purdue University/Jared Pike

Mahmoudian's solution is to create a mobile docking station that underwater robots could return to on their own.

"And what if we had multiple docks, which were also mobile and autonomous?" she said. "The robots and the docks could coordinate with each other, so that they could recharge and upload their data, and then go back out to continue exploring, without the need for human intervention. We've developed the algorithms to maximize these trajectories, so we get the optimum use of these robots."

A paper on the mission planning system that Mahmoudian and her team developed has been published in IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters. The researchers validated the method by testing the system on a short mission in Lake Superior.


"What's key is that the docking station is portable," Mahmoudian said. "It can be deployed in a stationary location, but it can also be deployed on autonomous surface vehicles or even on other autonomous underwater vehicles. And it's designed to be platform-agnostic, so it can be utilized with any AUV. The hardware and software work hand-in-hand."

Mahmoudian points out that systems like this already exist in your living room. "An autonomous vacuum, like a Roomba, does its vacuum cleaning, and when it runs out of battery, it autonomously returns to its dock to get recharged," she said, "That's exactly what we are doing here, but the environment is much more challenging."

If her system can successfully function in a challenging underwater environment, then Mahmoudian sees even greater horizons for this technology.

"This system can be used anywhere," she said. "Robots on land, air or sea will be able to operate indefinitely. Search-and-rescue robots will be able to explore much wider areas. They will go into the Arctic and explore the effects of climate change. They will even go into space."


Explore further Blackout? Robots to the Rescue

More information: Bingxi Li et al, Collaborative Mission Planning for Long-Term Operation Considering Energy Limitations, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters (2020). 

DOI: 10.1109/LRA.2020.3003881

Provided by Purdue University

This 'squidbot' jets around and takes pics of coral and fish

by University of California - San Diego


Engineers at the University of California San Diego have built a squid-like robot that can swim untethered, propelling itself by generating jets of water. The robot carries its own power source inside its body. It can also carry a sensor, such as a camera, for underwater exploration.

The researchers detail their work in a recent issue of Bioinspiration and Biomimetics.

"Essentially, we recreated all the key features that squids use for high-speed swimming," said Michael T. Tolley, one of the paper's senior authors and a professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UC San Diego. "This is the first untethered robot that can generate jet pulses for rapid locomotion like the squid and can achieve these jet pulses by changing its body shape, which improves swimming efficiency."

This squid robot is made mostly from soft materials such as acrylic polymer, with a few rigid, 3-D printed and laser cut parts. Using soft robots in underwater exploration is important to protect fish and coral, which could be damaged by rigid robots. But soft robots tend to move slowly and have difficulty maneuvering.

The research team, which includes roboticists and experts in computer simulations as well as experimental fluid dynamics, turned to cephalopods as a good model to solve some of these issues. Squid, for example, can reach the fastest speeds of any aquatic invertebrates thanks to a jet propulsion mechanism.

VIDEO https://techxplore.com/news/2020-10-squidbot-jets-pics-coral-fish.html

Engineers at the University of California San Diego have built a squid-like robot that can swim untethered, propelling itself by generating jets of water. The robot carries its own power source inside its body. It can also carry a sensor, such as a camera, for underwater exploration. Credit: University of California San Diego

Their robot takes a volume of water into its body while storing elastic energy in its skin and flexible ribs. It then releases this energy by compressing its body and generates a jet of water to propel itself.

At rest, the squid robot is shaped roughly like a paper lantern, and has flexible ribs, which act like springs, along its sides. The ribs are connected to two circular plates at each end of the robot. One of them is connected to a nozzle that both takes in water and ejects it when the robot's body contracts. The other plate can carry a water-proof camera or a different type of sensor.

Engineers first tested the robot in a water testbed in the lab of Professor Geno Pawlak, in the UC San Diego Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering. Then they took it out for a swim in one of the tanks at the UC San Diego Birch Aquarium at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.


They demonstrated that the robot could steer by adjusting the direction of the nozzle. As with any underwater robot, waterproofing was a key concern for electrical components such as the battery and camera.They clocked the robot's speed at about 18 to 32 centimeters per second (roughly half a mile per hour), which is faster than most other soft robots.

"After we were able to optimize the design of the robot so that it would swim in a tank in the lab, it was especially exciting to see that the robot was able to successfully swim in a large aquarium among coral and fish, demonstrating its feasibility for real-world applications," said Caleb Christianson, who led the study as part of his Ph.D. work in Tolley's research group. He is now a senior medical devices engineering at San Diego-based Dexcom.

Researchers conducted several experiments to find the optimal size and shape for the nozzle that would propel the robot. This in turn helped them increase the robot's efficiency and its ability to maneuver and go faster. This was done mostly by simulating this kind of jet propulsion, work that was led by Professor Qiang Zhu and his team in the Department of Structural Engineering at UC San Diego. The team also learned more about how energy can be stored in the elastic component of the robot's body and skin, which is later released to generate a jet.


Explore further Transparent eel-like soft robot can swim silently underwater

More information: Caleb Michael Christianson et al, Cephalopod-inspired robot capable of cyclic jet propulsion through shape change, Bioinspiration & Biomimetics (2020). DOI: 10.1088/1748-3190/abbc72 

Journal information: Bioinspiration and Biomimetics


Provided by University of California - San Diego

Hacked hospital chain says all 250 US facilities affected

by Frank Bajak

In this March 14, 2014, file photo, a representative of GCHQ points to a screen showing all the teams progress in completing the task during a mock cyberattack scenario with teams of amateur computer experts taking part and trying to fight this simulated attack in London. Computer systems across a major hospital chain operating in the U.S. and Britain were down Monday, Sept. 28, 2020, due to what the company termed an unspecified technology "security issue." Universal Health Services Inc., which operates more than 400 hospitals and other clinical care facilities, said in a short statement p osted to its website Monday that its network was offline and doctors and nurses were resorting to "back-up processes" including paper records. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant, File)

The hospital chain Universal Health Services said Thursday that computer services at all 250 of its U.S. facilities were hobbled in last weekend's malware attack and efforts to restore hospital networks were continuing.

Doctors and nurses at affected hospitals and clinics, many already burdened with coronavirus care, have had to rely on manual record-keeping, with lab work slowed. Employees have described chaotic conditions impeding patient care.

The chain has not commented on reports it was hit by ransomware, though its description of the attack in a statement Thursday was consistent with malware variety that encrypts data into gibberish that can only be restored with software keys after ransoms are paid.

King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based UHS said its "systems were quickly disconnected and the network was shut down in order to prevent further propagation."

The company, with 90,000 employees, said electronic medical records systems were not impacted by the attack and it was making steady progress restoring and reconnecting systems. Company spokeswoman Jane Crawford said via email that all 250 U.S. facilities were affected.

UHS workers reached by The Associated Press at company facilities in Texas and Washington, D.C., earlier in the week described mad scrambles after the outage began to render care, including longer emergency room waits and anxiety over determining which patients might be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19.

BleepingComputer, an online cybersecurity news site, spoke to UHS employees who described ransomware with the characteristics of Ryuk, which has been widely linked to Russian cybercriminals and used against large enterprises.

UHS operates hospitals and clinics, many treating behavioral health and addiction problem. Its acute care hospitals are concentrated in states including California, Texas, Nevada and Florida.

Explore further Cyberattack hobbles major hospital chain's US facilities

© 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

Transportation barriers to care may increase likelihood of emergency surgical intervention

by American College of Surgeons


Transportation barriers, such as personal access to a vehicle or public transportation, disproportionally affect minority communities, according to results of a new study presented at the virtual American College of Surgeons (ACS) Clinical Congress 2020.


The study was performed by researchers at the University of Colorado at Aurora who used geographic information systems (GIS) to better understand traffic paths to hospitals offering elective and emergency surgical care throughout Denver. They tracked public transportation routes across census tracts and found areas with higher minority populations have nearly double the travel time burden to health care facilities when using public transportation.

Facilities with acute surgical capacity (emergency department, intensive care unit, and acute care surgery services) were identified within a 20-mile radius of the city center. Travel times were then estimated from the center of each census tract to the nearest facility by the shortest route. Using this method, the researchers determined travel times for individuals traveling by both car and public bus for a Monday morning appointment, weighted by percentage of the population in each census tract without vehicle access according to the American Community Survey.

For the 144 census tracts within Denver, the researchers found patients traveling by car were likely to spend approximately 12 minutes time driving to a health care facility as opposed to 33 minutes each way when traveling by public transportation. The overall drive times weighted by lack of vehicle access across the city are estimated to be 11 minutes by car and 28 minutes by bus. Additionally, census tracts with higher minority populations and higher populations without access to a personal vehicle saw approximately 3 minutes in increased travel time by bus for every 10 percent increase in the minority population.

Impact of Transportation Access on Medical Care

Barriers to health care access like race, income, and having insurance are well-documented, but structural barriers, like geography, can act in similar ways. In Denver specifically, freeway routes dividing the city and communities have shut residents off from resources to which they were previously able to walk. Prior work by the same group found that lack of health care coverage was not a significant barrier to surgical care where the majority of patients who presented emergently had some health care coverage, and many of the patients had sufficient coverage such that they had already been scheduled for elective surgical consultation, or even surgery itself.


Regardless of type of health care coverage, patients who presented emergently tended to live in areas of higher social vulnerability and were overwhelmingly non-white. Qualitative data derived from narrative data in the charts revealed that a common factor leading to emergent presentation included difficulties arranging transportation. In fact, approximately 3.6 million people in the United States forgo medical care due to transportation issues, such as lack of vehicle access, inadequate infrastructure, long distances, and lengthy travel times to reach services. As a result, procedures that could be treated in an outpatient appointment can frequently run the risk of becoming emergency situations.

Transportation patterns in areas where people don't have access to a vehicle can add 30 or more minutes to travel to an appointment. "When you factor in that people have to take additional time off from their jobs to go to an appointment to get elective care, and add in the fact that a lot of people have jobs where they don't have a lot of paid time off or the ability to take off that much time in a day, you may be looking at them having to take an entire day off to be able to make it to an elective surgical appointment. So, you're adding barrier after barrier, and these things tend to compound themselves," said study coinvestigator Catherine Velopulos, MD, MHS, FACS, a health services researcher and associate professor of surgery at the University of Colorado School of Medicine.

The findings also suggest a double effect of transportation barriers. Not only are some patients facing a greater barrier in terms of the percent of the population that has access to a private vehicle, but those same populations also have longer public transportation times per mile to acute care surgical facilities.

Using GIS to improve health care access

Census data can be used with GIS mapping to collect information about the environment, allowing local governments to identify communities with disproportionate transportation burden to acute care surgical services. By identifying where increased burden exists, cities can make structural changes to accommodate these needs.

"Place truly matters. Where you're located and where you live affects your health care outcomes," said coinvestigator Heather Carmichael, MD, a surgical resident at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "If you can identify where patients are coming from, that gives you a lot of information about the environment that they're in that can affect their health care outcomes. And location of residence may be easier to determine in a research setting than in individually collecting each of those sociodemographic variables for an individual patient."

Understanding this combined data helps communities focus on where best to place resources like outreach programs and other forms of health care navigation, like Colorado's Non-Emergent Medical Transportation services, as well as to reevaluate traditional bus routes and pick up locations to better suit the needs of the community.

"A lot of people's access to the health care system is through surgical disease," added Dr. Velopulos, "And it's important for us as surgeons to recognize that we have a duty to improve access to care all around because it makes our patients healthier and our surgical outcomes better, and it allows us to reach our patients at an earlier point in their disease."

Explore further Cost, distance from hospitals present barriers to surgical care

More information: When More is Less: Increased Time Burden and Disparity in Access to Surgical Care by Transportation Means. Scientific Forum, American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress 2020, October 3-7, 2020.

Provided by American College of Surgeons