Iran, two worlds apart: Exploring an Iranian society more divided than ever

Issued on: 05/06/2020 -

REPORTERS © FRANCE 24
By:Mayssa AWAD|Romeo LANGLOIS|James ANDRE

Every day in the Iranian capital Tehran, thousands of supporters of the most conservative branch of the Iranian regime visit mausoleums honouring Shiite martyrs or other places linked to the Islamic Revolution. But on the streets, a younger generation is scorning the country's strict rules. Young women and men alike are yearning for change and a better relationship with the West. Our reporters went to meet this optimistic Iranian youth, which is becoming emancipated and dreaming of a future of freedom, in radical contrast to the most conservative Iranians.

>> Watch our interview with Iranian activist Shaparak Shajarizadeh: 'In Iran there are no differences between fundamentalists and reformists'

Russia contains huge Arctic oil spill, ministry says

Issued on: 05/06/2020

A European Space Agency photo shows part of a satellite image captured on June 1, 2020 by the Copernicus Sentinel-2 mission of the extent of an oil spill after some 20,000 tonnes of diesel oil leaked into the Ambarnaya river within the Arctic Circle. © EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY / AFP

Russia has managed to contain a massive diesel spill into a river in the Arctic, a spokeswoman for the emergencies ministry told AFP on Friday.

"We have stopped the spread of the petroleum products," the spokeswoman for the taskforce in charge of the accident clean-up said.

"They are contained in all directions, they are not going anywhere now."

Environmentalists said the oil spill, which took place last Friday, was the worst such accident ever in the Arctic region.

The accident happened when a diesel reservoir collapsed at a power station outside the northern Siberian city of Norilsk.

It caused 15,000 tonnes of fuel to leak into a river and 6,000 tonnes into the soil, according to Russia's state environmental watchdog.

The power plant is owned by a subsidiary of Russian metals giant Norilsk Nickel.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered a state of emergency to deal with the disaster and Emergencies Minister Yevgeny Zinichev flew in to manage the clean-up operation that currently involves around 100 people.

Zinichev was set to report back to Putin later Friday.

Greenpeace: Spill compares to Exxon Valdez

Greenpeace Russia said it was the "first accident of such a scale in the Arctic" and comparable to the Exxon Valdez disaster off the coast of Alaska in 1989.

The Ambarnaya River, which is affected by the spill, feeds into Lake Pyasino, a major body of water and the source of the Pyasina River that is vitally important to the entire Taimyr peninsula.


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The clean-up operation placed oil containment booms in the Ambarnaya River to stop the diesel fuel going into the lake and was using special devices to skim off the fuel.

The emergencies ministry spokeswoman said that "we managed to stop (the spread) thanks to the booms".

The ministry said Friday it had removed more than 200 tonnes of the fuel.

The spill also polluted 180,000 square metres of land before hitting the river, regional prosecutors said.

(AFP)

Atmospheric CO2 levels hit new record high despite Covid-19 lockdowns
Issued on: 05/06/2020

Heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has hit a record high despite lower emissions during the coronavirus pandemic. AFP

The world hit another new record high for heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, despite reduced emissions because of the coronavirus pandemic, scientists announced Thursday.

Measurements of carbon dioxide, the chief human-caused greenhouse gas, averaged 417.1 parts per million at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, for the month of May, when carbon levels in the air peak, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. That's 2.4 parts per million higher than a year ago.

Even though emissions of carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels dropped by as much as 17% in April, it was a brief decline. Carbon dioxide can stay in the air for centuries, so the short-term reductions of new carbon pollution for a few months didn't have much of a big picture effect, said NOAA senior scientist Pieter Tans.

Atmospheric carbon dioxide measured at Mauna Loa Observatory reached a monthly peak exceeding 417 parts per million (ppm) in May 2020, the highest monthly total ever recorded, scientists from Scripps and @NOAA reported today. https://t.co/bMW45C29ET pic.twitter.com/rY57eA6HqO— Scripps Institution of Oceanography (@Scripps_Ocean) June 4, 2020

“It illustrates how difficult it is — what a huge job it is — to bring emissions down,” Tans said. “We are really committing the Earth to an enormous amount of warming for a very large time."

Records with direct measurements go back to 1958. And carbon dioxide levels are now nearly 100 parts per million higher than then. That's a 31% increase in 62 years.


“The rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide levels is relentless, and this means the costs of climate change to humans and the planet continue to rise relentlessly as well," said University of Michigan environment dean Jonathan Overpeck.


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Carbon levels in the air were higher in the distant past before humans, Tans said.

Carbon dioxide levels peak in May because starting in late May, growing plants suck up more of heat-trapping gas, causing carbon amounts in the air to drop, Tans said.

(AP)

The Lancet pulls study flagging hydroxychloroquine risks

The Lancet on Thursday retracted a study that raised safety fears over the use of a drug favored by President Donald Trump to treat COVID-19, after the paper's authors said they could no longer vouch for its underlying data.

It was soon followed by the withdrawal of another coronavirus paper in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) that was not linked to hydroxychloroquine but relied upon the same healthcare company's patient database.

The unfolding research scandal threatens to undermine confidence in two of the world's top medical journals in the midst of a pandemic.

But it is the retraction of The Lancet study that may supercharge what has become a highly politicized debate about hydroxychloroquine, an old malaria and rheumatoid arthritis drug now backed by many US conservatives against the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

In their paper published on May 22, the authors claimed to have retrospectively analyzed some 96,000 patient records, finding that hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, a related compound, were ineffective against COVID-19 and even increased the risk of death.

Heart arrhythmia was flagged as a particular concern.

This finding led the World Health Organization to temporarily suspend clinical trials into the medicines, though the paper soon triggered widespread concern among scientists over a lack of information about the countries and hospitals that contributed data.

Mandeep Mehra, a professor at Harvard University who led the work, along with Frank Ruschitzka of the University Hospital Zurich and Amit Patel of the University of Utah, said in a statement Thursday they had tried to launch a third-party peer review.

But Surgisphere, a little-known healthcare analytics firm based in Chicago that provided the data, refused to cooperate.

"Due to this unfortunate development, the authors request that the paper be retracted," the three said.

"We deeply apologize to you, the editors, and the journal readership for any embarrassment or inconvenience that this may have caused."

The Lancet, a British journal, offered its own statement, saying, "There are many outstanding questions about Surgisphere and the data that were allegedly included in this study."

Vascular surgeon Sapan Desai, Surgisphere's chief executive and the paper's other author, did not join the retraction and declined to comment to AFP.

Despite the finding apparently vindicating hydroxychloroquine's safety, there is not yet any proof from a randomized clinical trial (RCT) that the medicine is effective against COVID-19.

One such trial that was published Wednesday found the drug was not significantly better than a placebo in preventing the disease among people who had been recently exposed to the virus.

But scientists broadly agree that more RCTs -- considered the gold standard for clinical investigation -- are needed, and hydroxychloroquine should not be discounted yet.

Research scandal

The paper in the NEJM, meanwhile, investigated whether people who take commonly used blood pressure medicines became more or less likely to get COVID-19.

It was released on the same day as two other studies investigating the same topic, with all three finding that these medicines do not heighten susceptibility to infection, nor increase the risk of becoming seriously ill.

No questions have been raised about the integrity of the other two papers.

In their retraction statement, the NEJM paper's authors also wrote that the data was not made available to a third-party auditor.

Sci-fi author and adult model

Researchers began to closely scrutinize The Lancet paper shortly after its publication, highlighting numerous red flags ranging from the huge number of patients to the unusually complete information on their demographics.

Internet sleuthing by the Guardian revealed that Surgisphere had a scant online presence, with only a handful of staff listed on LinkedIn including a science fiction author and an adult model.

The firm was involved in yet another attention-grabbing study that found the anti-parasite drug ivermectin could be useful against COVID-19.

Though this paper had not been peer-reviewed or appeared in a journal, it caused a run on the drug in Latin America where it is widely available.

While Desai and Surgisphere have been the focus of most scrutiny, the lead author of all of these papers was Mehra, who is also the medical director at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) Heart and Vascular Center in Boston.

The lead author is considered responsible for performing due diligence on data and vouching for its integrity.

Chris Chambers, a professor of psychology at Cardiff University, added the affair "raises serious questions about the standard of editing at the Lancet and NEJM -- ostensibly two of the world's most prestigious medical journals."

(AFP)

No, The Simpsons didn’t predict the murder of George Floyd or the protests sweeping the United States

UNITED STATES / POLICE BRUTALITY - 06/05/2020

Did the TV show The Simpsons predict the protest movement that has swept the United States after the murder of George Floyd on May 25? You might mistakenly think so if you’ve come across several fakes screengrabs that have gone viral in recent days.

When there are similarities between things that have happened in the real world and various scenes from the 31 seasons of the American animated series The Simpsons, fans often interpret them as predictions. Recently, a series of fake screengrabs have gone viral, making it look as if the writers of The Simpsons predicted the Covid-19 pandemic, the death of basketball star Kobe Bryant and the meeting between President Donald Trump and Greta Thunberg.

There are also fake screengrabs circulating online that make it look like the writers of The Simpsons predicted the murder of George Floyd, a black American who was killed by a police officer and his colleagues on May 25 as well as the protests that ensued.

The arrest

Posts shared hundreds of thousands of times, especially on Twitter, claimed that an episode of The Simpsons (some posts specified it was from the 90s) included a scene eerily similar to the arrest that ended in George Floyd’s murder.
Facebook user Chirz posted in French: "Do you think Trump will survive? Because it’s not over yet #anonymus #Anonymous"

Turns out, however, that two independent cartoonists made these images in reaction to these events, not before. A reverse image search (check out how to run one yourself by clicking here) pulls up the original tweets by these two artists sharing the images for the first time. The duo often produce Simpson spoofs, to make fun of celebrities, for example, or to encourage people to respect lockdown

Vous pensez que Trump va survivre? Parce que là c’est pas gagné quoi #anonymus #Anonymous pic.twitter.com/n92kiERsL9 Chiraz ???????????? (@chichi1__) June 1, 2020


The Simpsons did it again... From the 1990's????#Anonymous pic.twitter.com/FP6GMA7eaL Minal khan ✊???? (@model_hun) June 1, 2020
Mais ces deux images ont en fait été réalisées par deux dessinateurs indépendants en réaction à l'événement - et non antérieurement. Une recherche d'images inversée (voir ici comment procéder) permet de retrouver les tweets d'origine de ces deux artistes, qui ont d’ailleurs l’habitude de publier des détournements des Simpson, par exemple pour caricaturer des célébrités ou pour inciter à respecter le confinement.

Protests

Aside from the fake screengrabs that supposedly predict Floyd’s arrest and murder, other images have also been circulating that claim to show the the writers of The Simpsons also predicted the ensuing protests and unrest.

A police station in Minneapolis was burned down during protests on May 28. But, as highlighted by fact-checkers at Snopes, the photo of a building on fire that appeared in numerous tweets has nothing to do with that event it’s actually a building near the station under construction. Moreover, the fire in the police station in Springfield, the town where The Simpsons takes place has nothing to do with protests. The scene is from episode 6 of season 11 and it makes fun of the police chief’s failure to act as the building burns behind him

The images that have been circulating of a torch-bearing mob and the darkened White House do come from The Simpsons, however. The first is from the 2007 movie while the second is from a mini episode from April 2017 marking the start to Donald Trump’s presidency.

UNITED STATES /  POLICE BRUTALITY

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS A PANDEMIC ALEXSANDRO PALOMBO

aleXsandro Palombo on Instagram: “International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women - Women protagonists of…”



https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Zf6nYhbAC/

https://www.instagram.com/p/B5SK7fsHN0-/

aleXsandro Palombo on Instagram: “International Women Day -Just because I am a Woman - Marge Simpson to represent women victims of abuse in the…”


https://www.instagram.com/p/B9cBL_nBLFm/

POPE TAKES VOW OF POVERTY SERIOUSLY

https://www.instagram.com/p/CAfU6ZPBzd9/
ALEXSANDRO PALOMBO

TODAY IS THE ANNIVERSARY OF D-DAY 

THE LONGEST DAY, D-DAY SPECIAL, 

DESPITE SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, THIS REMAINS FOR ME ONE OF THE CLASSIC WWII MOVIES BRUTAL AND HONEST FOR 1962. MY OTHER FAVORITE IS CROSS OF IRON, WHICH GIVES THE GERMAN SIDE.

The events of D-Day, told on a grand scale from both the Allied and German points of view. 1962 epic war film based on Cornelius Ryan's 1959 book The Longest Day, about the D-Day landings at Normandy on June 6, 1944, during World War II.

LIKE PRIVATE RYAN THIS TOO SHOWS THE MASS DEATH OF AMERICAN GI.'S 
AT NORMANDY, ITS NOT THAT THE YANKS WON THE WAR, AS THEY LIKE TO SAY, ITS CAUSE THEY LOST THE MOST MEN ON D-DAY WHICH SAYS SOMETHING ABOUT THEIR COMMAND ABILITY AFTER THE FAILURES OF DEIPPE AND DUNKIRK BOTH USED CANADIAN TROOPS AS SACRFICIAL LAMBS, BUT WE DON'T GO AROUND SAYING WE WON WWI OR WWII FOR THE ALLIES.

TRUMP MINI-ME
Bolsonaro threatens to quit WHO as Covid-19 kills 'a Brazilian per minute'


Issued on: 06/06/2020 

A healthcare worker at a field hospital set up to treat patients suffering from coronavirus in Guarulhos, Sao Paulo state, Brazil, on May 12, 2020. © Amanda Perobelli, Reuters
Text by:NEWS WIRES

President Jair Bolsonaro threatened on Friday to pull Brazil out of the World Health Organization after the U.N. agency warned Latin American governments about the risk of lifting lockdowns before slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus throughout the region.

A new Brazilian record for daily COVID-19 fatalities pushed the county's death toll past that of Italy late on Thursday, but Bolsonaro continues to argue for quickly lifting state isolation orders, arguing that the economic costs outweigh public health risks.

Latin America's most populous nations, Brazil and Mexico, are seeing the highest rates of new infections, though the pandemic is also gathering pace in countries such as Peru, Colombia, Chile and Bolivia.

Overall, more than 1.1 million Latin Americans have been infected. While most leaders have taken the pandemic more seriously than Bolsonaro, some politicians that backed strict lockdowns in March and April are pushing to open economies back up as hunger and poverty grow.

In an editorial running the length of newspaper Folha de S.Paulo's front page, the Brazilian daily highlighted that just 100 days had passed since Bolsonaro described the virus now "killing a Brazilian per minute" as "a little flu."


"While you were reading this, another Brazilian died from the coronavirus," the newspaper said.

Brazil's Health Ministry reported late on Thursday that confirmed cases in the country had climbed past 600,000 and 1,437 deaths had been registered within 24 hours, the third consecutive daily record.

Brazil reported another 1,005 deaths Friday night, while Mexico reported 625 additional deaths.

With more than 35,000 lives lost, the pandemic has killed more people in Brazil than anywhere outside of the United States and the United Kingdom.


https://www.instagram.com/p/B-M70F1Byix/

Asked about efforts to loosen social distancing orders in Brazil despite rising daily death rates and diagnoses, World Health Organization (WHO) spokeswoman Margaret Harris said a key criteria for lifting lockdowns was slowing transmission.

"The epidemic, the outbreak, in Latin America is deeply, deeply concerning," she told a news conference in Geneva. Among six key criteria for easing quarantines, she said, "one of them is ideally having your transmission declining."

In comments to journalists later Friday, Bolsonaro said Brazil will consider leaving the WHO unless it ceases to be a "partisan political organization."

President Donald Trump, an ideological ally of Bolsonaro, said last month that the United States would end its own relationship with the WHO, accusing it of becoming a puppet of China, where the coronavirus first emerged

Bolsonaro's dismissal of the coronavirus risks to public health and efforts to lift state quarantines have drawn criticism from across the political spectrum in Brazil, where some accuse him of using the crisis to undermine democratic institutions.

But many of those critics are divided about the safety and effectiveness of anti-government demonstrations in the middle of a pandemic, especially after one small protest was met with an overwhelming show of police force last weekend.

Alfonso Vallejos Parás, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said infections are high in Latin America as the virus was slow to gain a foothold in the region.

"It is hard to estimate when the pace of infection will come down," he said.

(REUTERS)

NBA legend Michael Jordan pledges $100 million to social justice groups

Michael Jordan said Friday he is making a record $100 million donation to groups fighting for racial equality and social justice amid a wave of protests across the United States.

The NBA legend said in a statement his Jordan Brand would distribute the money over 10 years to different organisations in a bid to stamp out "ingrained racism."

The pledge is believed to be the largest financial contribution to non-profit groups ever made by a figure from the sports world.

"It's 2020 and our family now includes anyone who aspires to our way of life," a joint statement from Jordan and his Jordan Brand said.

"Yet as much as things have changed the worst remains the same.

"Black lives matter. This isn't a controversial statement. Until the ingrained racism that allows our country's institutions to fail is completely eradicated, we will remain committed to protecting and improving the lives of Black people," the statement added.

"Today we are announcing that Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand will be donating $100 million over the next 10 years to organisations dedicated to ensuring racial equality, social justice and greater access to education."

Joint Statement from Michael Jordan & Jordan Brand regarding $100m donation. pic.twitter.com/yYXWh5eBZl— Estee Portnoy (@esteep) June 5, 2020

Jordan's donation comes after a week of unprecedented nationwide protests across the United States following the death of an unarmed black man during an arrest in Minneapolis.

Large scale demonstrations have been held in all 50 states, with protesters demanding an end to police brutality and systemic racism after George Floyd's death on May 25.

'Saddened, angry'

Jordan, regarded by many as the greatest player in NBA history with an estimated net worth of $2.1 billion, had already issued a passionate statement decrying Floyd's killing.

"I am deeply saddened, truly pained and plain angry," Jordan, 57, said last Sunday. "We have had enough."

Jordan's donation and impassioned recent statements followed criticism during his playing career over his reluctance to take a more prominent role in activist causes.

In the recent "The Last Dance" documentary, he addressed his infamous quip that he had steered clear of politics because "Republicans buy sneakers too."

Jordan said the remark had been a flippant comment made as a joke.

Michael Jordan and Jordan Brand to donate $100M over the next 10 years to causes that ensure racial equality, social justice and greater access to education. @brkicks pic.twitter.com/1dw3fZqD2j— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) June 5, 2020

Jordan added that he never saw himself as an activist athlete in the vein of former heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali.

"I do commend Muhammad Ali for standing up for what he believed in," Jordan said. "But I never thought of myself as an activist. I thought of myself as a basketball player."

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Jordan acknowledged that his apolitical stance might be viewed as selfish in some quarters.

"I wasn't a politician when I was playing my sport. I was focused on my craft," Jordan said. "Was that selfish? Probably. But that was my energy. That's where my energy was."

Jordan said he had instead sought to set an example by his achievements as an athlete.

"The way I go about my life is I set examples. If it inspires you? Great, I will continue to do that. If it doesn't? Then maybe I'm not the person you should be following."

(AFP)