SpaceX on track to become third most valuable private company in the world

SPACEX'S VALUATION CONTINUES TO SKYROCKET AFTER A NEW FUNDING ROUND SUBSTANTIALLY INCREASED THE COMPANY'S SHARE PRICE. (RICHARD ANGLE)

ByEric Ralph
Posted on July 27, 2020

SpaceX is on track to become the third most valuable private company in the world if it successfully raises a new round of funding.

First reported and confirmed by CNBC, SpaceX hopes to raise between $500 million and $1 billion via a new investment offering. The Series N round would ultimately value the company at $44 billion – second only to China’s Didi and Bytedance (known in the US for TikTok) – if SpaceX finds significant investor interest at the upgraded $270 share price. Based on the ~$3.4 billion SpaceX has raised over more than a dozen rounds in just the last several years, strong investor demand is all but guaranteed.

The confidence and interest of investors can be explained in large part by SpaceX’s spectacular success in the face of countless systemic and technological challenges, as well as its association with founder and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. Perhaps even more at odds with success than SpaceX’s near-term goals, Tesla’s meteoric rise and iron grip on the global consumer electric vehicle industry has unsurprisingly helped convince many that success is often just a matter of time for Musk’s calculated ventures.

SpaceX is in talks to raise a fresh $1 billion in funding at $270 a share, Bloomberg reports – which would raise the company’s valuation from $36 billion to $44 billion. https://t.co/uxsGe15eYk— Michael Sheetz (@thesheetztweetz) July 23, 2020

Dozens of Starlink satellites streak through the night sky in this long exposure image. (Richard Angle)

Both SpaceX’s Starship and Starlink programs are in the midst of major, capital-intensive shifts in strategy. (NASASpaceflight – Nomadd)


Like several recent fundraising rounds, SpaceX is seeking investors willing to support the company’s long-term vision in the hopes that its Starship and Starlink programs will be as disruptive and revolutionary as they aim to be. CNBC reports that SpaceX is telling prospective investors that Starlink aims to become a major player in a range of industries with a potential global market of more than $1 trillion per year. That figure is almost certainly a best-case theoretical value assuming that SpaceX has completed a vast ~40,000-satellite Starlink constellation and is able to capture almost every single prospective customer.

It’s still within the realm of possibility, though. On its own, Starlink holds the potential to become one of the largest companies in the world – public or private – if SpaceX achieves every ambitious goal it’s set itself to. In that context, there’s a chance that acquiring a stake in SpaceX at a valuation of ~$44 billion will set investors up for unprecedented returns on the order of Tesla investors buying shares for $100-200 in the early 2010s.

60 Starlink v1.0 satellites stacked and ready for launch. (SpaceX)

Of course, that investment rationale doesn’t even touch on Starship, aside from the fact that Starship will be a necessity if SpaceX is to have any chance of launching and maintaining a constellation of tens of thousands of satellites. Beyond the Starship/Super Heavy launch vehicle’s integral role in future plans for Starlink, the next-generation rocket is arguably a much thornier technical challenge than Starlink while also offering far less return-on-investment (ROI) certainty. Relative to other industries, particularly those with demand for communications services, the global demand for commercial launch services is minuscule, representing just a few billion dollars per year.

Starship SN5. (NASASpaceflight – bocachicagal)

A senior SpaceX engineer and executive believes that Starship’s first orbital launch could still happen by the end of 2020. (SpaceX)

Even if Falcon 9 – let alone Starship – dramatically cuts the cost of access to orbit, there’s no guarantee beyond basic economic theory that lowering the barrier to entry will necessarily expand the market for launches. For a radical expansion in demand, entire new space-adjacent industries will have to be created given that the vast majority of modern demand comes from space-based communications companies.

SpaceX has known that this would be the case for at least half a decade, however, and is thus intelligently positioning Starlink as a primary investor focus as far as revenue and profit are concerned. Starlink would thus help SpaceX complete the Starship launch vehicle, which is far more focused on the company’s foundational goal of making humanity a multiplanetary species by enabling the creation of a self-sustaining city on Mars. Still, Starship will need to be revolutionarily affordable, reliable, and reusable for SpaceX to ever even dream of achieving that founding goal.

In the process of tackling those technical challenges, Starship could very well expand the global space industry by one or several magnitudes, but it will remain a major wildcard up until the day it does.

Check out Teslarati’s newsletters for prompt updates, on-the-ground perspectives, and unique glimpses of SpaceX’s rocket launch and recovery processes.

Op-Ed: Pompeo announces what sounds like a new Cold War with China

LKEN HANLY DIGITAL TRENDS

After almost daily rants against China, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is now indicating that the goal of US hostility is to change China as the US begins what is in effect a new Cold War against the country.

Back to the red scare era

Pompeo likened the situation as akin to the earlier Cold War with the Soviet Union. He said that other nations in the world had an obligation to defend freedom and warned that at “our children’s children may be at the mercy of the Communist party.” He also claimed that the US had changed Soviet behavior.
Pompeo's language harks back to the language of red scares. Like the Soviet reds China wants to dominate the world and is a threat to all "freedom loving" nations. The aim may be in part to cause Americans and others to fear Chinese domination in the future.
Pompeo said: “Changing the CCP’s behavior cannot be the mission of the Chinese people alone. Free nations have to work to defend freedom. If we bend the knee now, our children’s children may be at the mercy of the Communist party." Pompeo said he had faith that the US could get China to change its behavior. This rhetoric is completely bizarre but it shows what US officials believe can still be effective in manufacturing consent for US policy in the future. If the US is so intent on defending freedom why is it a close ally of authoritarian states such as Saudi Arabia and why do they recognize their own chosen coup leader Juan Guaido as the interim leader of Venezuela rather than the elected president Nicolas Maduro?
US domination may be doomed
The US is the dominant nation both economically and militarily throughout the globe. The US tries to function as world policeman backed by its economic and financial power The US uses sanctions to try and control the behavior of nations such as Venezuela that resist its policy aims.
China's huge economic growth is beginning to challenge the US dominance although even allies such as the European Union are becoming frustrated by the US use of international systems such as the SWIFT financial system as a weapon to further its own ends. Christopher Bovis, professor of international business law at the University of Hull in the UK, notes "The European Commission has been developing a system, a parallel system to SWIFT which will allow Iran to interface with European financial systems, European clearing systems, using the nominations supported and created by the European Investment Bank based on the euro."
US policy is not to engage with China

The US and China could develop a win-win trade relationship with each other but US policy seems now to see China as an evil competitor. Pompeo said that the US can "never go back to engagement" declaring it a Marxist Leninist regime that was following a bankrupt totalitarian ideology. However, China's economy has been booming and in time may come to equal US production. Meanwhile, the US appears to be not facing up to its own social and economic problems but instead is using fear of China to divert attention from problems withing the US itself. Instead of pursuing productive trade and other relations with China a win-win situation the US has chosen a path which will hurt the economies of both countries and heighten tensions a lose-lose strategy.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

Portland's troubles reflect a leftist history but also a racist past

BY LAURENT BANGUET (AFP) JUL 25, 2020

For Portland, social conflict and street clashes are nothing new. The Oregon city has a long history of pro-labor militancy coupled with an anti-fascist culture and defiance of authorities -- but also, further back, a dark segregationist history.

So Portland, despite its small black population, was not entirely a surprising venue for the weeks of anti-racism protests that have drawn national attention, prompting President Donald Trump to send in federal agents in a highly controversial move.

Protesters have mobilized almost nightly since the death in Minneapolis of George Floyd, a black man, under the knee of a white police officer.

But the city of 650,000 began forging its reputation for far-left militancy years ago, during the ferment and unrest of the 1960s, much like Seattle to the north and San Francisco farther to the south.

And since the 2016 presidential election, the city has come to symbolize virulent opposition to Trump and his Republican Party.

"Anti-authoritarian leftist politics... have been present in Portland's true protest culture for the last 30 years or so," said Joe Lowndes, a political science professor at the University of Oregon.

- 'Little Beirut' -

The city earned the nickname of "Little Beirut," a reference to the years-long war in Lebanon, after then-President George H.W. Bush was met there with barricades, burning tires and hostile slogans.

"More recently, there's been a lot of kind of anti-fascist work which has been done on the streets of Portland," pushing back against far-right and white supremacist groups like the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, Lowndes said.

Protests and "violent attacks" on Portland residents by such far-right groups after Trump's political emergence in 2016, he added, spurred the development of "an active network of anti-fascist activists, who have grown over the last few years."

In November 2016, a demonstration against Trump's election degenerated into three days of rioting and clashes with police.

The emergence early this year of the COVID-19 pandemic initially helped restore calm on the streets.

But by then scenes of shaven-headed white supremacists and neo-Nazis clashing with hooded and black-garbed "antifa" anarchists had become commonplace.

"It is kind of a battleground for extremism," Lowndes said.

- Feedback loops -

Federal police guarded the US courthouse in downtown Portland, Oregon amid continuing protests late on July 24, 2020  Kathryn ELSESSER, AFP

"Because Portland has gained this reputation as kind of liberal, radical (and) progressive, that draws people in who share those views, and it becomes ... almost a feedback loop," making the city ever more radical, said Steven Beda, a specialist in the region's history at the University of Oregon.

A mirror-image feedback loop in some rural parts of eastern Oregon, Beda said, attracted far-right militias and communities starting in the 1960s.

Despite Portland's current reputation as a leftist haven, the city and state were the product of fundamentally racist institutions, Beda pointed out.

The Ku Klux Klan "had a huge presence in Oregon in the 1920s. It actually had the highest per capita membership numbers... and there was a very, very close relationship throughout the 1920s between the political system and the Klan," he said.

As recently as 1926, local laws forbade black people from entering the state under pain of whipping -- a punishment to be repeated every six months if they remained.

- A history of racism -

Members of the 'Portland Mom's Brigade' link arms on July 24, 2020 during an anti-police brutality rally in the Oregon city
Kathryn ELSESSER, AFP

So in Beda's view, "Any conversation about Portland's radicalism, I think, has to exist alongside this other conversation about the history of exclusion and racism in Portland," where only six percent of the population is black.

Further fueling the recent tension is the long-strained relationship between some residents and Portland law enforcement, Lowndes said, which contributed to the locals' strong pushback against the federal agents sent by Trump into the city in recent weeks.

“The previous two or three years of protest policing in Portland have created a fracture with the community," said Michael German, a former FBI agent now with the Brennan Center for Justice, in New York.

Federal police guard the US courthouse in Portland as protests have continued nearly every night for two months
Kathryn ELSESSER, AFP

"The more aggression the police gave, the more aggression was returned," he told the Washington Post.

Protesters, police clash in latest outcry over US feds
JASON REDMOND (AFP)

Protesters took to streets across the United States overnight into early Sunday, sparking clashes with police and a fatal shooting in Texas, amid a wave of public anger over Donald Trump's planned "surge" of federal agents into main cities.

The demonstrations against racism and police brutality -- ignited two months ago by the death in Minneapolis of unarmed African-American George Floyd -- come as the US president faces an increasingly tough battle for re-election, and is campaigning on a "law and order" platform.

He has met stiff resistance from big city mayors, like Lori Lightfoot of Chicago, many of them Democrats who accuse Trump of magnifying the problem for political gain.

"I have drawn a very hard line. We'll not allow federal troops in our city," Lightfoot said on CNN's "State of the Union."

"We will not tolerate unnamed agents taking people off the street, violating their rights and holding them in custody."

The demonstrations against racism and police brutality come as the President Trump faces an increasingly tough battle for re-election, and is campaigning heavily on a platform of "law and order"
Jason Redmond, AFP

Protesters marched in Austin, Texas, as well as Louisville, Kentucky; New York; Omaha, Nebraska; California's Oakland and Los Angeles, and Richmond in Virginia.

In Austin, a man was killed in a shooting that broke out Saturday night at a protest in the downtown area of the Texas state capital, police said.

A witness, Michael Capochiano, told the Austin Statesman newspaper that the incident occurred when a man in a car turned onto a street where protesters were gathered and drove toward the crowd.

The vehicle became surrounded by shouting protesters, and one approached the vehicle carrying a rifle, he said.

The driver then stuck a gun out of the car window and fired several shots, hitting the man with the rifle, before speeding away, according to Capochiano.

Police said the shooter was in custody, and cooperating with investigators.

In Seattle, police arrested 45 people during a night of violent protests in which demonstrators set fire to trailers by a construction site for a youth detention facility.

Protesters slashed car tires and smashed trailer windows, prompting police to declare a riot and clear the streets with pepper spray and flash-bang grenades.

Police in Seattle faced off against protestors, some holding umbrellas against falling pellets of pepper spray
Jason Redmond, AFP

Police Chief Carmen Best implored people to "come in peace to the city," and castigated the demonstrators.

"The rioters had no regard for the community's safety, for officers' safety or for the businesses and property that they destroyed," local media quoted her as saying.

- Federal agent 'surge' -

Further south in Portland, police and federal agents fired tear gas and forcefully dispersed protesters for a second night early Sunday.

Police moved after a group of protesters tried to pull down a fence erected around a federal courthouse.

Protestors wave placards and shout slogans as they take part in a rally against police brutality in Portland
Kathryn ELSESSER, AFP

Portland has taken center stage for the highly controversial crackdown by federal agents ordered by Trump -- one that is not supported by local officials, and which many say smacks of authoritarianism.

Saturday's demonstration began peacefully, with crowds playing music and dancing, blowing soap bubbles and attaching red roses to the barricades.

But it ended -- like many before it -- with tear gas fired after protesters attached ropes to barricades surrounding the city's courthouse in an attempt to pull them down.

Portland police declared the area a riot, ordering protesters to leave, before they were joined by federal officers to clear the area.

An AFP reporter saw at least two men being detained and escorted from the scene by federal officers.

Portland police earlier confirmed a man was stabbed, with the suspect "held down by protesters" before he was detained by officers and charged with assault, according to a statement.

The victim was transported to hospital with a serious injury.

- 'Little green men' -

"I don't like what's happening down here, what Trump is doing," said Mike Shikany, a 55-year-old aerospace engineer at the protest, adding he did not "want to get anywhere near the little green men," meaning the federal troops.

Portland retiree Jean Mullen, 74, said that without pressure nothing would change.

"It's time to become the country we always brag about being. And we can't brag anymore, about anything. We aren't first in anything and it's a terrible, terrible thing to see at the end of my life," she said.

The inspector general of the US Justice Department on Thursday opened an official investigation into the federal crackdown, but an Oregon federal judge on Friday rejected a legal bid by the state to stop agents from detaining protesters.

Trump last week announced a "surge" of federal agents to crime hotspots including Chicago, following an increase in violence in the nation's third-largest city.

Federal authorities said agents deployed there would partner with local law enforcement, not serve as riot-control forces as seen in Portland.

Op-Ed: What ‘Law and Order’? It’s a pitiful slogan for failure
 PAUL WALLIS 

Portland - Insanity is too nice a word. The sheer irony of a “president” of the crime-ridden United States bleating about Law and Order is beyond farcical; it’s obscene.

Let’s check out the current poster child for this sudden interest in law and order. In Portland, a Wall of Moms, a Wall of Dads and a Wall of Vets has sprung up almost overnight. Even the city’s elected government doesn’t want Federal forces in Portland. Yet, there they are, achieving nothing, and infuriating the residents.

Portland is an interesting demographic. It’s real Middle America, a very white city (80%) which has been supporting Black Lives Matter with demonstrations and protests for some time.

This is the semi-idealized American city Trump claims to represent, in so many ways. He has successfully antagonized most of it by bringing in Federal agencies to “protect” it. The state’s governor, Kate Brown, has dismissed the intrusion into state affairs as an election stunt. So has most of the US media.

o great surprises here; Portland wasn’t having a particularly hard time with demonstrations. They, like most responsible governments, were more worried about the pandemic. (Oregon has a surprisingly good track record in pandemic management.) Now they have a virtual takeover of local law enforcement, coupled with many tales of people being dragged off into unmarked vehicles, unidentified Federal agents (probably illegal in itself; see the Constitution for indicators) and similar bizarre incidents in the name of Law and Order.
Law and Order, you say, bozo?
This is far too big a problem to go into any sufficient level of detail. Crime is America’s other plague, and it’s been around a lot longer than the pandemic. We’ll just have to deal with the basics of law and order as general principles and show why even the principles don’t work anymore.
For the country with the highest ratio of citizens incarcerated per population in the world, “Law and Order” isn’t exactly a perceptive slogan. It’s not even a plausible myth. In terms of crime, it’s a joke at best. If you check out crime rates in the United States, you’ll see a dog’s breakfast of issues involving much human misery, and that’s been the story since the 1980s. None of these national issues has rated a mention by this administration in the last 4 years. Now it’s an issue, but not the crime; it’s those pesky people exercising their First Amendment rights. Some democracy you have there.
The rhetoric is even more absurd. Protestors are “terrorists, leftists, and anarchists”, but the huge, ugly horror story of 40 years of massive national crime statistics haven’t even qualified for discussion on any level or to any degree of depth. Check out the Gun Violence.com archive for the 2020 fun fair of Law and Order in practice nationwide.
Law and Order is a standard political cliché for any occasion. It means nothing in practice. It’s a catch-all, covering a vast range of complex issues which soon fade away into the haze of other insoluble problems. Street crime, for example, has long been in the too-hard category. The gang MS13 alone makes more news than most non-political issues in the US, but it’s protestors who are the target of this outbreak of infantile national security? Great set of priorities.
White collar crime in the US is another no-go zone for this administration. Never mind the political spectrum, this crime wave is an institution in itself. The sub primes that caused the 2008 crash are barely the tip of an ice cube, let alone the gigantic glacier of white collar crime. Law and order? There rarely if ever has been any at all. There is effectively no such thing in corporate America, beyond the odd vague swipe at outstanding cases. Again, it’s not an issue in 2020.
CAN America believe in Law and Order?
Short answer - No. There’s been very little reason to believe in it for so long. NCIS or the other mindless cop shows notwithstanding, the good guys are marginalized in practice. “Closeup/cheapskate innuendo/plodding story line/closeup” doesn’t have a lot to do with actual law enforcement.
Then, strangely, there’s the police. Remember them? Maybe not. Leave out the thousands of videos of police abuse for a moment, and focus on the other guys trying to do their actual jobs. Cases of PTSD among officers aren’t exactly unknown. How are people stressed to that level supposed to do their jobs while politicians and corruption run practically everything? Laws there may be, but this raffle of a law enforcement environment can’t be called order. Is that a re-election issue? No. It’s not even a subject for mention.
Talking Law and Order in this totally dysfunctional environment is like putting icing sugar on a corpse. It might look a bit better, but it’s still dead. The same principle applies to the Law and Order mantra coming from the White House. If it’s anything like any other statement coming from Trump, it’ll never happen.

This opinion article was written by an independent writer. The opinions and views expressed herein are those of the author and are not necessarily intended to reflect those of DigitalJournal.com

Turkish philanthropist Kavala seen as threat by Erdogan

BY FULYA OZERKAN (AFP)

Osman Kavala, imprisoned in Turkey for nearly three years without ever being convicted of a crime, is a philanthropist and businessman who supporters say has tirelessly used his wealth to help society.

He was not much known to the public before but he has been singled out by authorities under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a threat in the wake of the 2016 failed coup.

Kavala has been behind bars for 1,000 days Monday, prompting his supporters to campaign on social media and elsewhere with the hashtag #FreeOsmanKavala.

"We've had 1,000 days stolen from our life... my husband's mother is over the age of 90 and she doesn't know whether she will ever see her son again," his wife, Ayse Bugra, said during an online press conference Saturday.

The 62-year-old was excluded when April legislation allowed for the release of thousands of prisoners as a safety measure against the coronavirus outbreak.

After his acquittal by a court in February over the 2013 anti-government protests, police held Kavala on a separate charge, linking him to the failed coup.

He is now accused of seeking to overthrow the constitutional order and espionage.

Kavala's lawyer Ilkan Koyuncu said Saturday there was "no evidence" to prove the businessman had committed any crime.

- 'Never patronised'-

Born in Paris in 1957, Kavala graduated from the University of Manchester after studying economics and following his father's death in 1982, he took the helm of his business.

But he always supported art projects, helped build bridges and turn ideas into a reality by funding them.

Humble but stubborn, polite but direct, bossy but never patronising: this is how his friends described him.

Director general of Anatolian Culture, Asena Gunal, says Osman Kavala has a 'humble personality'
Ozan KOSE, AFP

"I would rather describe him as a colleague than a boss. Osman bey has never patronised us," Asena Gunal, director general of Anatolian Culture, told AFP, using an honorific title to show her respect for him.

Kavala is chairman of Anatolian Culture, or Anadolu Kultur in Turkish, which promotes human rights through art -- including with neighbouring Armenia, with which Turkey has no diplomatic ties.

"He has never boasted of his wealth but has a humble personality who feels embarrassed of whatever he owns," said Gunal at the Depo arts centre in Istanbul's upscale Tophane district.

It was a former tobacco depot -- inherited by Kavala from his father that was restored in 2008 as a culture and arts centre.

- 'Unfair'-

Kavala, who is in the heavily guarded Silivri prison on the outskirts of Istanbul, has become a symbol of what critics say is a crackdown on civil society.

Umit Kivanc, an author whose friendship with Kavala dates back to over 40 years, said the philanthropist was misunderstood by secular people and denounced the labels characterising him as a rich man who leads a bourgeois life.

Kavala's wife Ayse Bugra says they have had '1,000 days stolen from our life'
Ozan KOSE, AFP/File

"He's a man who works for justice in the world. His father died and he took over the business. Osman doesn't even lead a bourgeois life," Kivanc said.

"What he is subjected to from every (political) camp ... is unfair."

The court in February ruled there was no evidence showing Kavala financed the 2013 protests over government plans to urbanise rare green space in the heart of Istanbul.

He was the only one of nine defendants kept in jail throughout the trial.

Shortly after his acquittal, Kavala faced two fresh arrest warrants including espionage charges, which he deemed as "more ridiculous than the previous" accusations, in a message from his cell in March.

-'Stubborn leftist'-

For his friends, Kavala worked for a "better Turkey" without discriminating against anyone at a time when society is deeply divided.

"Osman has always seen the value of citizens being actively engaged in peaceful civic initiatives which are for the public good not just for the good of one part of the society," Emma Sinclair-Webb of Human Rights Watch said.

"He is the last person to support any coup attempt and it is truly appalling to see him targeted as he has been and made the pawn in some incomprehensible political game."

Kavala is careful not to offend people even though he can be tough in long debates, according to Gunal.

Osman Kavala remains in jail without having ever been convicted
OZAN KOSE, AFP/File

"I'm saddened by the fact that a person who paid utmost care not to marginalise anyone is being marginalised and targeted by people who don't know him."

Burhan Sonmez, PEN International's board member, said Kavala asked him to tell foreign friends, diplomats and activists not to attend an Istanbul hearing on December 24.

"Instead, they should spend that important moment of the year with their families and friends. Christmas is the best opportunity to come together with loved ones, he said."

Kivanc added: "People are misled. Rich, bourgeois, businessman... No, Osman is a stubborn leftist! Turkey is a land that chips away at everything that is good."

Childhood trauma driving equality push by S. Korean MP

BY CLAIRE LEE (AFP)
When Jang Hye-yeong was 13 the strain of caring for her disabled sister tore her family apart.

Her autistic sibling was placed in a care home for almost two decades, while another sister was sent away to a boarding school, and her mother left the family.

The experience turned Jang into a disability campaigner -- and singer-songwriter and YouTuber to boot -- who was elected to parliament in April as one of South Korea's youngest MPs, aged just 33.

Jang stands out in a legislature where 83 percent of MPs are over 50 and only 19 percent are women -- a figure that would place the South at 116th in the latest Inter-Parliamentary Union global ranking.

Jang Hye-yeong (right), with her sister, who was placed in a care home for almost two decades
Handout, CinemaDAL/AFP

Now she is taking on the country's deep-seated patriarchy and religious conservatism -- including powerful megachurches that condemn homosexuality -- by drawing up a new anti-discrimination bill.

It would ban favouritism based on sex, race, age, sexual orientation, disability or religion as well as several more unusual criteria such as criminal history, appearance and academic background.

However, over the past 13 years six attempts to pass broad anti-discrimination laws in South Korea have all failed.

"For a long time, parliament has existed as an institution made up of middle-aged, able-bodied men," Jang said.

- 'Very natural' -

Despite its economic advances, South Korea remains socially conservative and Human Rights Watch says discrimination against women and minorities is widespread.

Jang said her family suffered; as well as autism, her sister has intellectual disability -- conditions some blamed when they were growing up on their mother's supposed "sins".

The mother struggled to cope and received limited help from the government or community, and eventually the disabled sister was placed in an institution where Jang alleges residents were mistreated.

Jang Hye-yeong was among six MPs from the Justice Party elected to parliament in April this year Jung Yeon-je, AFP

Soon afterwards their mother left the family and her father sent Jang to live with her grandparents.

"When I realised my mother had left, I was very sad, but on the other hand, I also thought it was a very understandable decision," Jang told AFP in an interview.

Her mother's experiences, and those of her sister and herself, made feminist campaigning "very natural" to her, she added.

In 2011 she dropped out of the prestigious Yonsei University -- an unconventional decision in a competitive society where college degrees often define lives.

Then, 18 years after the family split up, Jang took her disabled sister out of the care facility to look after her herself.

Jang's 2018 documentary "Grown Up" follows their first months living together again, and on YouTube Jang has consistently called for people with disabilities to live in the community.

Last year Jang joined the left-wing Justice Party and in April this year was among six MPs from the group elected to parliament in a vote that President Moon Jae-in's Democratic Party won by a landslide.

But Jang's bill will struggle to become law.

- 'It's a sin' -

Religious beliefs hold much sway in South Korea, where churches remain an important political space and many evangelicals oppose gay rights.

Pastor Kim Kyou-ho, who leads the campaign group Counter Measure Committee for Homosexuality Problems, insists the Bible says homosexuality is a "sin".

"If anti-gay people's human rights and freedom of speech are violated in the process of protecting the human rights of sexual minorities, we cannot call this democracy," Kim said.

About 40 percent of the country's parliament is Protestant, according to the United Christian Churches of Korea, and few politicians are willing to challenge the religious lobby.

Of 10 MPs who signed Jang's bill last month, only two are from the left-leaning Democratic Party, whose support is crucial.

Activists say the Democrats have failed women, with three party heavyweights currently accused of sexual misconduct, including Seoul mayor Park Won-soon, who took his own life earlier this month.

Jang was one of two female lawmakers who declared they would not attend Park's government-run funeral, and instead called on officials to take action against sexism.

Moon, a former human rights lawyer who once pledged to be a feminist leader, supported an anti-discrimination bill during his ill-fated 2012 presidential run.

But during his successful 2017 campaign he said he "opposed" homosexuality and that "social consensus" was needed before legalising same-sex marriage.

Jang, though, insisted rights issues could not wait.

"The essence of politics lies in making choices, and taking responsibility for your actions and words," she said.

'Alarm' at Poland's plan to leave treaty protecting women

BY AFP


The Council of Europe said Sunday it is "alarmed" that Poland's right-wing government is moving to withdraw from a landmark international treaty combating violence against women.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said on the weekend that on Monday he will begin preparing the formal process to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention, the world's first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation.

A previous centrist Polish government signed the treaty in 2012 and it was ratified in 2015, when Ziobro called it "an invention, a feminist creation aimed at justifying gay ideology".

The treaty was spearheaded by the Council of Europe, the continent's oldest human rights organisation, and its Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric condemned the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government's plan to withdraw.

"Leaving the Istanbul Convention would be highly regrettable and a major step backwards in the protection of women against violence in Europe," she said in a statement on Sunday.

"If there are any misconceptions or misunderstandings about the convention, we are ready to clarify them in a constructive dialogue."

Around two thousand people marched in the Polish capital Warsaw on Friday to protest the government's withdrawal plan, some shouting "stop violence against women".

There was also outrage from several members of the European Parliament, with Iratxe Garcia Perez, the Spanish leader of the Socialist group, calling the decision "disgraceful".

"I stand with Polish citizens taking (to) the streets to demand respect for women's rights," he tweeted.

The leader of the EU parliament's Renew Europe group, former Romanian prime minister Dacian Ciolos, tweeted: "Using the fight against the Istanbul Convention as an instrument to display its conservatism is a new pitiful and pathetic move by some within the PiS government".

The Council of Europe emphasised that the Istanbul Convention's "sole objective" is to combat violence against women and domestic violence.

The treaty does not explicitly mention gay marriage.

But that has not stopped the backlash to it in Hungary and Slovakia, where the parliament rejected the treaty insisting -- without proof -- that it is at odds with the country's constitutional definition of marriage as a heterosexual union.

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is separate from the European Union, has no binding powers but brings together 47 member states to make recommendations on rights and democracy.

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, told AFP that it "regrets that such an important matter has been distorted by misleading arguments in some member states".

The Commission added that it would "continue its efforts to finalise the EU's accession" of the convention, which was signed in 2017 but has not yet been ratified.

PART 2'Alarm' at Poland's plan to leave treaty protecting women

BY AFP

The EU and the Council of Europe on Sunday voiced regret and alarm over the Polish right-wing government's move to withdraw from a landmark international treaty combating violence against women.

The Council of Europe said it was "alarmed" that Poland's right-wing government was moving to withdraw from a landmark international treaty combating violence against women.

Polish Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro said over the weekend that on Monday he would begin preparing the formal process to withdraw from the Istanbul Convention.

The treaty is the world's first binding instrument to prevent and combat violence against women, from marital rape to female genital mutilation.

Ziobro has in the past dismissed it as "an invention, a feminist creation aimed at justifying gay ideology".

The European Commission, the EU's executive arm, told AFP in Brussels that it "regrets that such an important matter has been distorted by misleading arguments in some member states".

The Commission added that it would "continue its efforts to finalise the EU's accession" of the convention, which was signed in 2017 but has not yet been ratified.

- 'Highly regrettable' -

A previous centrist Polish government signed the treaty in 2012 and it was ratified in 2015.

The treaty was spearheaded by the Council of Europe, the continent's oldest human rights organisation, and its Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric condemned the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) government's plan to withdraw.

"Leaving the Istanbul Convention would be highly regrettable and a major step backwards in the protection of women against violence in Europe," she said in a statement on Sunday.

"If there are any misconceptions or misunderstandings about the convention, we are ready to clarify them in a constructive dialogue."

Around two thousand people marched in the Polish capital Warsaw on Friday to protest the government's withdrawal plan, some shouting "stop violence against women".

There was also outrage from several members of the European Parliament, with Iratxe Garcia Perez, the Spanish leader of the Socialist group, calling the decision "disgraceful".

"I stand with Polish citizens taking (to) the streets to demand respect for women's rights," he tweeted.

The leader of the EU parliament's Renew Europe group, Romania's former prime minister Dacian Ciolos, tweeted: "Using the fight against the Istanbul Convention as an instrument to display its conservatism is a new pitiful and pathetic move by some within the PiS government".

- Other countries rejecting treaty -

Irish centre-right MEP Frances Fitzgerald said it was now essential for the whole of the EU to ratify the convention "so that no woman is left unprotected and vulnerable to violence".

The Council of Europe stressed that the Istanbul Convention's "sole objective" was to combat violence against women and domestic violence.

Although the treaty does not explicitly mention gay marriage, that has not stopped the backlash to it in Poland, Hungary and Slovakia.

In Slovakia, the parliament rejected the treaty insisting -- without proof -- that it was at odds with the country's constitutional definition of marriage as a heterosexual union.

The Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, which is separate from the European Union, has no binding powers but brings together 47 member states to make recommendations on rights and democracy.

There is growing anger among women in Turkey at the growing number of murders of women there Yasin AKGUL, AFP

Warsaw has already clashed with the EU Commission over reforms to its judicial system, championed by recently re-elected President Andrzej Duda.

Turkey is also mulling a possible withdrawal from the treaty, and on Sunday, women marched in several cities there to express support for the treaty.

The demonstrations also reflect rising anger in Turkey at the growing number of women killed, including the murder of university student Pinar Gultekin this month.

burs-zap-maj/pvh/jj

SEE
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/07/poles-split-over-govt-plan-to-exit.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/07/alarm-at-polands-plan-to-leave-treaty.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/07/poland-to-quit-treaty-on-violence.html
https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2020/07/polish-nationalist-catholic-reaction-4.html

MONOPOLY CAPITALISM
US doubles spending on potential virus vaccine to nearly $1 billion
The United States has doubled its investment -- to nearly $1 billion -- to expedite development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine by American firm Moderna, which on Monday begins the decisive final phase of clinical trials.

The government now plans to spend up to $472 million on top of the previously announced $483 million, the Moderna biotechnology company announced Sunday.

Moderna said the added investment was justified by its decision, in conjunction with the government, to "significantly" expand a Phase Three clinical trial of a candidate vaccine to include 30,000 participants.

In a small, initial trial, Moderna's experimental vaccine produced coronavirus antibodies -- which should help fend off the disease -- in the bodies of all 45 participants.

In the expanded trial starting Monday, half the 30,000 participants will receive a 100-microgram dose of the vaccine, while the rest will be given a placebo.

The United States has suffered more than 146,000 coronavirus deaths, leading the world in that grim category, even as the number of new cases has continued to surge.

It has announced massive investments in a huge effort to expedite vaccine development and get millions of Americans vaccinated by early next year.

On Wednesday, the American-German BioNTech/Pfizer pharmaceutical alliance announced that the US government had committed $1.95 billion to procure 100 million doses of its eventual vaccine.

With laboratories around the world in a furious race to develop a first effective vaccine, Moderna seems to hold the lead as it enters a final round of clinical trials -- a decisive step in determining whether a vaccine is both effective and safe.

Moderna, which has been working with US health authorities, said it expects to be able to produce 500 million doses a year -- and potentially up to 1 billion -- starting in 2021.

Chinese biotech firm Sinovac said July 6 that it, too, would begin a Phase Three clinical trial "this month," in collaboration with Brazil's Butantan biologic research center.

Also reporting encouraging early results have been a British project developed by Oxford University in partnership with the multinational AstraZenica laboratory, and a Chinese project, led by researchers from agencies including the Academy of Military Medical Sciences.

That effort is being financed by the CanSino biotechnology group, which is listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange.

In all, nearly 200 candidate vaccines are in development, including 23 now in the clinical phase, being tested on humans.

Essential Science: Why coronavirus causes smell loss is revealed

One of the symptoms of COVID-19 established early on during the coronavirus pandemic was will a loss of smell (anosmia) on the part of many who were infected. New research has the answer to why this happens.
The loss of smell associated with the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 and the disease COVID-19 is contented to olfactory support cells. This finding contrasts with earlier research that suggested that neurons were vulnerable to the novel coronavirus infection. One curio with the infection is that olfactory cell types appear to be especially vulnerable to a viral infection.

Nasal congestion from a cold, allergy, sinus infection, or poor air quality are the most common and established causes of anosmia. To these we can add infection with the novel coronavirus. Even where there are no other symptoms of the virus, anosmia can have a profound effect on a person's quality of life. For instance, those with anosmia may not be able to fully taste foods and may lose interest in eating.
COVID-19 symptoms
The main symptoms of COVID-19 are a high temperature, a new, continuous cough and a loss or change to your sense of smell or taste. The identification of the loss of the sense of smell (and taste) came a little after the identification of respiratory issues and fever. For example, it was not until the 18th May 2020 that the U.K. government (in tandem with many other nations) added loss of smell (anosmia) and taste (ageusia) to the list of symptoms of coronavirus infection that should indicate to people that they need to self-isolate for 7 days.


Smelling Something?
brian-fitzgerald (CC BY 2.0)

How common is the loss of the sense of smell?
Medical guidance published in the British Medical Journal suggests that half of patients with COVI-19 may lose sense of smell. Focused treatment involves patient reassurance, olfactory training, safety advice, and the administration of topical corticosteroids.
How does the loss of the sense of smell happen?
The new finding into the mechanism where the sense of smell is lost comes from the Harvard Medical School, and the mechanism is different to how the coronavirus infects the cells of the lungs. The difference is because the olfactory sensory neurons of the nasal passage do not express the gene that encodes the angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) receptor protein (which is the route SARS-CoV-2 uses to enter human cells - an enzyme attached to the cell membranes of cells in the lungs, arteries, heart, kidney, and intestines).


Coronavirus testing in Russia, which Britain has accused of trying to hack vaccine research
Kirill KUDRYAVTSEV, AFP

Whereas, ACE2 is expressed in cells that provide metabolic and structural support to olfactory sensory neurons, as well as certain populations of stem cells and blood vessel cells. Hence it appears that infection of nonneuronal cell types is the mechanism be responsible for anosmia in COVID-19 patients.
The researchers drew this inference from analyzing existing single-cell sequencing datasets that detailed the genes expressed by hundreds of thousands of individual cells located in the upper nasal cavities of humans, mice and nonhuman primates.
Implications
As well as pointing out a path for treatments for COVID-19 related anosmia, an additional importance attached to the research is that they may explain the background behind COVID-19-associated neurological issues. Such findings indicate that SARS-CoV-2 does not directly infect neurons but probably interferes with brain function by affecting vascular cells in the nervous system.


A woman walks past a coronavirus-related mural painted by urban artist Alejandro Bautista Torres, aka Kato, in Mexico City on July 15, 2020
PEDRO PARDO, AFP

Research paper
The research has been published in the journal Science Advances, with the research paper titled "Non-neuronal expression of SARS-CoV-2 entry genes in the olfactory system suggests mechanisms underlying COVID-19-associated anosmia."

Essential Science
This article forms part of Digital Journal’s long running Essential Science column, where a topical science subject is examined each week by Dr. Tim Sandle.

The week before we continued with coronavirus news, looking at whether there was sufficient evidence to indicate whether SARS-CoV-2 was becoming more infectious through a mutation of its spike protein.