Pandemic has led to 'infodemic' of scientific literature, researchers warn

Researchers say more stringent reviews, and AI, should be used to help vet scientific literature -- especially in situations like a pandemic, when studies are being published as fast as possible. Photo by sabinevanerp/Pixabay

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The rush to conduct and publish research in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has led to what scientists are calling an "infodemic" -- an overwhelming flow of scientific literature, including flawed and contradictory findings.

To make sense of all the new information, and to ensure the most accurate and useful information isn't drowned out by less discerning research, the authors of a new paper -- published Friday in the journal Patterns -- argue for both more stringent publishing standards and the use of artificial intelligence.

According to the paper's lead author, Ganesh Mani, an investor, technology entrepreneur and adjunct faculty member in Carnegie Mellon University's Institute for Software Research, accuracy shouldn't be sacrificed for speed.

"Science is a process and should be a more deliberate process," Mani told UPI in an email. "Reviewers should get more career credit and that may help with regards to how they prioritize reviews among their other responsibilities."

"Work needs to be done all around -- but especially in media circles -- to show prominently the more accurate, current, authoritative 'facts' and research over the most popular ones, which is what's often bubbling to the top these days," Mani said.

In the months following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientific journals have published more than 8,000 preprints of scientific papers related to the novel coronavirus. During that time, the average time for peer review has decreased from an average of 117 to 60 days.

As a result, the public, doctors and public health officials have been overwhelmed by an abundance of scientific information.

Mani and co-author Tom Hope, post-doctoral researcher at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, suggest machine learning and computer algorithms can be used to filter out less reliable information. Additionally, AI could link together and synthesize the results of similar studies, making the outflow of information during the next pandemic -- or similar global challenge -- more reliable and digestible.

Mani suggests the infodemic has revealed a variety of problems related to accuracy and reliability.

"Small cohort studies need particular attention," he said. "Folks should be aware that results might change or be subsumed by larger cohort studies -- or when a more representative population is used. Often there are multiple interpretations of data, especially as it's emerging. Communicating the multiple interpretations can be tricky."

Problems with scientific review and publication aren't new, but Mani and Hope suggest the pandemic has exacerbated the situation.

Artificial intelligence can help survey and organize information, but according to Mani, humans must work together to balance the need for speed and accuracy during an infodemic.

A failure to do so, Mani argues, will result in short- and long-term consequences.

"Poor quotidian decisions at the individual level with regards to health, wealth and wisdom," he said. "Institutions may make longer-term investment and policy decisions that are suboptimal and counterproductive."

upi.com/7037343

Ex-Salvadoran colonel gets 133 years in prison for Jesuit slayings


Former Salvadoran coronel and Defense Deputy Minister Inocente Montano was sentenced for the deaths of five Jesuit priests. File Photo by Kiko Huesca/EPA-EFE

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A Spanish court on Friday sentenced a former Salvadoran colonel to 133 years in prison for the slayings of five Jesuit priests during his country's civil war three decades ago.

The National Court in Madrid handed down a sentence of 26 years, eight months and one day in prison to Inocente Orlando Montano for each of the five deaths.

The killings happened in 1989, during El Salvador's civil war. Catholic priests were accused during this time of collaborating with left-wing opposition members.

Troops dragged the five priests, a sixth priest, their housekeeper and the housekeeper's daughter from their beds at Central American University, and killed them.

The court found Montano responsible for the three other slayings but couldn't sentence him on those charges because his extradition from the United States to Spain didn't include those cases. The sentence was handed down for the five priests who were Spanish.

Montano is one of several military officials from El Salvador accused in the slayings.

Prosecutors said he shared oversight responsibility over a Salvadoran government radio station that urged the killings of the Spanish priests days before the massacre while he served as vice minister of Defense and Public Safety.

They said he also participated in a series of meetings during which a fellow Salvadoran army officer gave the order to kill the priests.

Montano, who previously lived in Everett, Mass., was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison in 2013 for immigration fraud and perjury

A Witness Recounts 1989 Jesuit Killings By Salvadoran ... - NPR

www.npr.org › 2019/11/16 › i-miss-them-always-a-witness-recounts-el-salva...

Nov 16, 2019 - 'I Miss Them, Always': A Witness Recounts El Salvador's 1989 Jesuit Massacre ... in a nearby house when the soldiers began firing on the Catholic priests. ... who reported during El Salvador's civil war in the 1980s as a freelance journalist. ... Yet the right wing accused the Jesuits of being communists, and .

Salvadoran Civil War - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Salvadoran_Civil_War

The Salvadoran Civil War was a civil war in El Salvador fought between the military-led junta ... The growth of left-wing insurgency in El Salvador occurred against a ... While the death squads were initially autonomous from the Salvadoran ... and El Salvador's leading human rights group at the time) documented the killing

From Revolutionary War to Democratic Revolution. The FMLN ...

www.berghof-foundation.org › Transitions_Series › transitions9_elsalvador

by AM Álvarez - ‎2010 - ‎Cited by 51 - ‎Related articles

2009 and 2010, and focused especially on former members of the FMLN General ... Present day Salvador's social and economic foundations were set during the so-called ... The so-called “Soccer War”3 that took place between El Salvador and ... guerrilla organisations, along with some progressive Catholic priests of the ...

Report of the UN Truth Commission on El Salvador - En ...

www.derechos.org › nizkor › salvador › informes › truth

As this Commission submits its report, El Salvador is embarked on a positive and ... of the creativity of the United Nations at a time in contemporary history which is ... including the right of the accused to confront and examine witnesses brought ... On 16 November 1989 army units murdered the Jesuit priests of the Central ...

UPDATED

Pentagon rescinds order to shut down Stars and Stripes


U.S. soldiers in Iraq read the newspaper Stars and Stripes in 2003. Ending funding of the publication, aimed at service members, was rescinded this week by the Pentagon. Photo by 1Sgt. David Dismukes/U.S. Marine Corps 

Sept. 11 (UPI) -- The Pentagon rescinded its order to close down the military newspaper Stars and Stripes, the publication announced.

The Defense Media Activity office also told Stars and Stripes ombudsman Ernie Gates that it will withdraw its request that Congress not fund Stars and Stripes in fiscal year 2021, the newspaper reported on Thursday.

The newspaper, funded by the Defense Department but independently edited, is supplied to U.S. service members across the world for news and information. It began publishing in the 1850s, and has been a military fixture since World War II.

The decision, several days ago, to defund the newspaper's operations provoked an outcry from members of Congress, many of whom are veterans who valued the publication while in military service.

The announcement comes after President Donald Trump on Sept. 4 tweeted that the funding, amounting to about $15.5 million per year, would not be cut "under my watch."

"It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!" Trump added.

The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020
RELATED Federal deficit reaches $2.8T, breaking annual record

Prior to Trump's announcement, a bipartisan group of 15 senators asked Defense Secretary Mark Esper to maintain the newspaper. In August, Esper said the funding was better used for "higher-priority issues."

The newspaper's long-term status, though, remains in doubt. It is not included in the Senate's version of the defense budget, although Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced their support for maintaining the publication.

"That's a concrete act," Gates said of Thursday's order to rescind. "Next, it's up to Congress to be sure there is money in the fiscal 2021 defense budget to keep it publishing."


Despite Trump Tweet, Order to Dissolve Stars and Stripes Not Yet Rescinded
By Carla Babb
September 09, 2020 


A portion of the Stars and Stripes home page.


WASHINGTON - Despite a tweet from President Donald Trump vowing to reverse his own administration’s budget plan to cut government funding for an independent military newspaper, Stars and Stripes employees say they remain worried because the order to defund the news outlet has not yet been rescinded by the Pentagon. 

“There’s a great deal of anxiety in the staff,” Max Lederer, the publisher of Stars and Stripes since 2007, told VOA Tuesday. “A little less anxiety since Friday, but since it (the funding decision) is still not final, there’s a lot of concern.” 

The Department of Defense spending plans, released in February, cut out all government funding for the paper for the 2021 fiscal year, which begins on October 1. 

On Friday, President Trump tweeted that he planned to reverse the planned Pentagon budget cuts that would have ended the Stars and Stripes publication. 

“The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!” Trump tweeted.


The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020

The tweet came mere hours after media outlets reported on the Pentagon’s plans to dissolve the publication. 

But the president’s tweets alone do not indicate policy or dictate law, and Lederer said the Pentagon is “still discussing” the status of the budget order. 

The House of Representatives passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2021 on July 31, 2020, which included additional funding for the publication. The Senate did not include funding for the publication in its defense spending bill, but both houses of Congress have resolutions supporting its mission. 

A Defense Department memo by Defense Media Activity Acting Director Army Col. Paul Haverstick last month instructed the Stars and Stripes publisher to provide a plan of action “no later than September 15” to discontinue Stars and Stripes publications and dissolve the news organization “no later than January 31, 2021.” 

In the case of a continuing resolution (CR) from Congress, which would prevent a government shutdown and extend funding temporarily, the memo (obtained by VOA) instructed the publisher to plan the “last date for publication of the newspaper” “based on the end of the CR or other circumstances.” 

A bipartisan group of 11 Democratic and four Republican senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper last week, calling on the Department of Defense to maintain funding for the publication, which has more than 1 million readers. 

“The $15.5 million currently allocated for the publication of Stars and Stripes is only a tiny fraction of your Department’s annual budget, and cutting it would have a significantly negative impact on military families and a negligible impact on the Department’s bottom line,” said the letter, signed by the senators. 

Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, also sent a letter opposing the budget cut, citing strong support for Stars and Stripes in Congress. 

“As a veteran who has served overseas, I know the value that the Stars and Stripes brings to its readers,” Graham wrote. 

Stars and Stripes started during the Civil War as a publication for Union troops. Today, it distributes to U.S. service members stationed across the globe, including in war zones. 

Most recently, the publication shed light the Defense Department’s failure to shut down schools on U.S. military installations in Japan during the COVID-19 pandemic, despite Japanese public schools ruling shutdowns as necessary to stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

“Stars and Stripes tells the military’s story like no other publication can. It was held by GIs in the trenches of World War II and held by special forces members at remote outposts in Syria after being flown in by Osprey in the battle against ISIS,” Tara Copp, a reporter for McClatchy who was the Pentagon correspondent for Stars and Stripes from 2015-2017, told VOA. 

“It is a rounding error (an inconsequential amount) to DOD, but it is much, much more than that to the men and women and their families who read it,” she added. 

Copp said that the publication provides the time and resources to look into stories many other outlets do not. 

For example, her in-depth investigation into the 2000 Osprey crash at Marana Regional Airport near Tucson, Arizona, for the publication in 2015 led to former Deputy Secretary of Defense Bob Work exonerating the two Marine Corps pilots who had been blamed for the crash. 

Donald Trump Pledges Continued Funding For ‘Stars And Stripes’ After Reports Of The Publication’s Forced Closure 

By Greg Evans
Associate Editor/Broadway Critic

U.S. soldiers reading Stars and Stripes, South Vietnam, Sept. 10, 1969

AP Photo


UPDATED, with Trump response: President Donald Trump is retreating from his reported efforts to defund the venerable military newspaper Stars and Stripes.

Without an outright denial of allegations that he has sought to withdraw funding for the newspaper, or disputing charges that the Pentagon has ordered the closure of the publication by September 30, Trump tweeted this afternoon, “The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!”

The Pentagon, according to reports in USA Today and other news organizations today, has ordered the shutdown of the military newspaper (not a magazine), with the Trump Administration said to be seeking total defunding of the 159-year-old independent publication.

USA Today contributor Kathy Kiely cited a recent Pentagon memo that ordered the Stars and Stripes publisher to present a plan by September 15 for the dissolution of the newspaper, both print and online, and a “specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide.” The memo, written by Col. Paul Haverstick Jr., says the “last newspaper publication (in all forms) will be September 30, 2020.”

The Society of Professional Journalists on Friday condemned the requested closing of Stars and Stripes and called for funding to be restored.

“We are disgusted at this latest attempt by this administration to destroy the free press in this country,” said SPJ national president Patricia Gallagher Newberry. “Stars and Stripes has been a lifeline and the source of much needed information, inspiration and support for troops all over the world, including places where communication with the outside world is at a minimum or nonexistent. To destroy such an important American institution is a travesty.”

The news of a planned shutdown — and Trump’s seeming about-face — comes as the president is battling a barrage of bad press over a report in The Atlantic that the president called U.S. troops killed in battle “losers” and “suckers,” sought to prevent disabled veterans from taking part in parades because “nobody wants to see that” and denigrated John McCain after the senator and Vietnam War hero’s death. The Atlantic report, as well as Trump’s denials, have been picked up by the military newspaper.

Haverstick’s memo asserts that the administration has the authority to defund the publication under the president’s fiscal-2021 Defense Department budget request, specifically the $15.5 million annual subsidy for Stars and Stripes — a tiny fraction of the Pentagon’s $700 billion budget.


The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch. It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020

Congress has not yet approved the request, and a House-approved version of the budget would restore Stars and Stripes‘ funding. A bipartisan group of 11 Democratic and four Republican senators wrote to Defense Secretary Mark Esper this week objecting to the “proposed termination of funding” for Stars and Stripes, noting the “significantly negative impact on military families” such the closure would have.

Trump ally Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also has opposed the shutdown, writing a letter to Esper in late August describing Stars and Stripes as “a valued ‘hometown newspaper’ for the Armed Forces, their families, and civilian employees across the globe.” Graham wrote that, “as a veteran who has served overseas, I know the value that the Stars and Stripes brings to its readers.”

Stars and Stripes, a military publication independent of Pentagon editorial control, was first published in 1861 and has published regularly since World War II with a current readership of 1.3 million.

In a tweet following a USA Today report, Stars and Stripes reporter Steve Beynon assured readers his work would continue. “I read Stars and Stripes on a mountain in Afghanistan when I was a 19 year old aspiring journalist,” Beynon wrote in a tweet that was later retweeted by the official Stars and Stripes Twitter account. “Now I work there. This doesn’t stop the journalism. I’m juggling 3 future news stories today.”

I read Stars and Stripes on a mountain in Afghanistan when I was a 19 year old aspiring journalist. Now I work there. This doesn’t stop the journalism. I’m juggling 3 future news stories today. https://t.co/z9ZEHWa7mW
— Steve Beynon (@StevenBeynon) September 4, 2020

After criticism, Trump says Pentagon will not shut down military newspaper


(Reuters) - After an outcry from U.S. lawmakers, President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration would not be shutting down the Stars and Stripes military newspaper as announced by the Pentagon earlier this year.



FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump delivers a campaign speech at Arnold Palmer Regional Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, U.S., September 3, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis

“The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch,” Trump, who is running for re-election in November, said on Twitter.

“It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!” he added.

The independent military newspaper had been expected to stop publishing at the end of September after the Pentagon announced in February that it would be cutting its funding.


Trump’s tweet comes a day after the Atlantic reported that he had referred to Marines buried in an American cemetery near Paris as “losers” and declined to visit in 2018 because of concern the rain that day would mess up his hair.

Trump, who has touted his record helping U.S. veterans, has strongly denied the report.

Earlier this week, more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper urging him to reconsider closing the newspaper, which provides print and online news to U.S. troops around the world.

Esper, who has clashed with Trump on a number of issues, had defended the decision to defund the newspaper earlier this year.


Stars and Stripes receives funding from the Defense Department but is editorially independent.

There is increasing concern that Trump is politicizing America’s military, which is meant to be apolitical, ahead of the election.

Those concerns came to a head in the past month after Trump threatened to deploy active duty troops to quell civil unrest in U.S. cities over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man who died on May 25 after a Minneapolis policeman knelt on his neck.


Reporting by Idrees Ali; Editing by Sonya Hepinstall

Trump says he's reversing decision to shutter Stars and Stripes newspaper
John Fritze USA TODAY

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump on Friday reversed a decision to cut funding to Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that has served American soldiers since the Civil War, in an announcement that came hours after the outlet's demise was revealed. 

“The United States of America will NOT be cutting funding to @starsandstripes magazine under my watch,” Trump tweeted Friday. “It will continue to be a wonderful source of information to our Great Military!”

In a previously unpublicized memo cited by USA TODAY on Friday, the Pentagon delivered an order to shutter the newspaper and cease publication after Sept. 30. 

Press advocates decried the move, arguing it was the latest in a series of decisions by the Trump administration to undermine independent reporting. The initial order followed Trump's appointment of an ally to Steve Bannon, his former top adviser, to head the agency that oversees Voice of America.

The appointee, Michael Pack, has drawn criticism for firing top staff. 

"We are disgusted at this latest attempt by this administration to destroy the free press in this country," said Society of Professional Journalists President Patricia Gallagher Newberry.

"Stars and Stripes has been a lifeline and the source of much needed information, inspiration and support for troops all over the world, including places where communication with the outside world is at a minimum or nonexistent," she said.

More:The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down for no good reason

The decision to reverse course comes as the White House is facing a firestorm after a report in The Atlantic that details a history of Trump insulting members of the U.S. military who have been captured or killed. The story, citing unnamed officials, said Trump disparaged the military and described America's war dead as "losers" and "suckers" – accusations he has angrily denied.

The White House spent much of Friday vehemently denying the report. Trump described the unnamed sources making the claim as "low lifes" and "liars."

Contributing: Kathy Kiely

The Pentagon has ordered Stars and Stripes to shut down for no good reason

Trump wants to pull funding from Stars and Stripes, a newspaper for American troops that began in the Civil War and has been serving our soldiers.

Kathy Kiely
Opinion contributor

Even for those of us who are all too wearily familiar with President Donald Trump’s disdain for journalists, his administration’s latest attack on the free press is a bit of a jaw-dropper.

In a heretofore unpublicized recent memo, the Pentagon delivered an order to shutter Stars and Stripes, a newspaper that has been a lifeline and a voice for American troops since the Civil War. The memo orders the publisher of the news organization (which now publishes online as well as in print) to present a plan that “dissolves the Stars and Stripes” by Sept. 15 including "specific timeline for vacating government owned/leased space worldwide.”

“The last newspaper publication (in all forms) will be September 30, 2020,” writes Col. Paul Haverstick Jr., the memo’s author.

Stars and Stripes' long history

The first Stars and Stripes rolled off presses Nov. 9, 1861 in Bloomfield, Missouri when forces headed by Ulysses Grant overran the tiny town on the way to Cape Girardeau. A group of Grant’s troops who had been pressmen before the war set up shop at a local newspaper office abandoned by its Confederate sympathizer publisher. Since then Stars and Stripes has launched the careers of famous journalists such as cartoonist Bill Mauldin and TV commentator Andy Rooney. And its independence from the Pentagon brass has been guaranteed by such distinguished military leaders at Gens. John G. Pershing, George Marshall and Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower once reprimanded Gen. George Patton for trying to censor Mauldin cartoons he didn’t like.

Today Stars and Stripes is printed at sites around the world and delivered daily to troops — even those on the front lines, where the internet is spotty or inaccessible. As the “local paper” for the military, it provides intensive and critical coverage of issues that are important to members of the nation’s armed services and “cuts through political and military brass BS talking points,” Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., a Marine veteran, told Military.com.


It’s also arguably one of the most powerful weapons our soldiers have carried into battle with them. As a publication that’s underwritten by the military but not answerable to the brass, Stars and Stripes embodies that most American of values: the right to speak truth to power.

COLUMN:Change Confederate military base names to honor those who fought for America

As if an attack on the free press were not enough, the Trump administration’s rush to shutter Stars and Stripes also raises constitutional questions.

The memo ordering the publication’s dissolution claims the administration has the authority to make this move under the president’s fiscal year 2021 defense department budget request. It zeroed out the $15.5 million annual subsidy for Stars and Stripes. But Congress, which under the Constitution has the power to make decisions about how the public’s money is spent, has not yet approved the president’s request.

In fact, the version the House approved earlier this summer explicitly overruled the decision to pull the plug on Stars and Stripes, restoring funding for the paper.
Pushing back to keep Stars and Stripes

So far, the Senate hasn’t acted. But in a letter released earlier this week, 15 members of the chamber, including combat veteran Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and four Republicans, called on Defense Secretary Mark Esper to “take steps to preserve the funding prerogatives of Congress before allowing any such disruption to take place.”

In a separate letter, Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican and Trump ally, makes a similar request. “As a veteran who has served overseas, I know the value Stars and Stripes brings to its readers,” he wrote, telling Esper that shutting down the paper before the Senate acts would be “premature.”

It also seems unusual. Normally, when Congress has failed to approve a budget for an agency at the end of a fiscal year (an all-too-common occurrence), a “continuing resolution,” maintains funding at the past year’s levels until the lawmakers act. But the Pentagon memo to Stars and Stripes demands a plan for dissolution anyway and says “the last date of the paper will be determined” once the continuing resolution expires.

The eagerness to kill Stars and Stripes is hard to fathom. As the senators note in their letter to Esper, the $15.5 million saved by eliminating the newspaper’s subsidy would have a “negligible impact” on the Pentagon’s $700 billion budget.

But it would have an enormously negative impact on the paper’s more than 1.3 million readers. It would eliminate a symbol of the U.S. commitment to press freedom, flout the judgment of generations of military leaders and usurp the authority that the Constitution gives Congress to make decisions about how the government spends money.

The Stars and Stripes was born in the midst of a war to decide what America stood for. Now it looks like another such battle will decide its fate.

Kathy Kiely is the Lee Hills Chair for Free Press Studies at the Missouri School of Journalism. Follow her on Twitter: @kathykiely

Pentagon calls for an end to Stars and Stripes newspaper by Sept. 30


The military newspaper Stars and Stripes, first published in 1861, was ordered closed by the Pentagon this week, effective September 30, 2020. Photo courtesy of National Stars and Stripes Museum and library

Sept. 4 (UPI) -- A Pentagon memo sent this week orders the dissolution of the military news source Stars and Stripes, calling for an end to publication by Sept. 30.

The memo demanded a "specific timeline for vacating government-owned/leased space" by Sept. 15, with the last day of September scheduled as the newspaper's final issue.

Stars and Stripes is underwritten by the Defense Department, with annual funding of about $15.5 million, but is editorially an independent voice and meant to inform U.S. soldiers around the world of military matters, particularly those without a reliable news source. It has a circulation of about 7 million, with an online presence as well.

The funding was eliminated in the $704 billion military budget of Fiscal Year 2021. Defense Secretary Mark Esper noted that the money spent on the publication should be reallocated to higher priority issues. A House appropriations bill restored the funding, but the Senate has not yet acted on it.

Hours after the funding shift was reported by several news organizations, President Donald Trump tweeted that funding for the publication would not be cut "under my watch."

"It will continue to be a wonderful source of information for our Great Military," Trump said.

Stars and Stripes' ombudsman Ernie Gates called the effort to end the newspaper a "fatal interference and permanent censorship of a unique First Amendment organization." A letter, objecting to the closure of the newspaper, was signed by 10 bipartisan senators and sent to Esper on Wednesday.

"Stars and Stripes is an essential part of our nation's freedom of the press that serves the very population defending that freedom," the letter says in part.

A separate letter by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was sent to Esper on Aug. 28.

"As a veteran who has served overseas, I know the value that the Stars and Stripes brings to its readers," Graham, a retired Air Force colonel, wrote in part.

The newspaper was founded in 1861 during the Civil War. Regular publication began during World War I, and ended with the armistice, but was restarted in 1942, during World War II. It has been published continuously since.

A MONTH AGO
Military Watchdog Stars and Stripes Fighting For Survival

By Mark Greenblatt
August 4, 2020

Bipartisan pushback is growing against a Trump administration proposal to cut all funding for the independent voice of American troops.

Stars and Stripes, the editorially independent news organization that serves the men and women of the U.S. military, is fighting for its own survival. A Department of Defense push to zero out the news organization's $15.5 million budget gained steam when the Senate passed its next budget for the Pentagon and included no money for the longtime military watchdog.

If the Senate version of the budget is adopted, it would serve a potential death blow to an entity that often scrutinizes Pentagon policies and exposes threats to troops deployed overseas.

"When I was in Iraq under the George Bush administration, Stars and Stripes was talking about the lack of armor," said former Marine and member of Congress, Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ).

"Their advocacy, their interest in that spurred Congress to act and fund us to have better armor."

In July Gallego convinced the House to restore the news organization's funding in the House version of the defense budget, known as the National Defense Authorization Act. However, the Senate followed up and passed its version of the defense budget with no funding for the news organization.

"What really happens if this passes: Stars and Stripes would just cease to exist," said Gallego.

Stars and Stripes has served the military community since the Civil War era. Today, it has more digital subscribers than those who read it in print.

The multi-platform, modern operation also connects with service members and their families through video documentaries and podcasts that go in depth on issues that have particularly high importance to the members of the military.

The news organization started a coronavirus electronic newsletter that contains information so specific to the military community it would often not be replicated by any other news source.

While Stars and Stripes is a part of the Department of Defense formally, its editorial independence is protected by Congress and it makes decisions on what to report without asking for approval.

In the midst of the coronavirus, its reporters revealed a DOD plan to keep open a military school for children of troops in Japan, even after public schools in the country had already been closed for weeks. The day after the Stars and Stripes report, DOD announced it would close the school.

"I have high regard for the major newspapers and networks of the United States. Nobody else covered that story," said Terry Leonard, editor of Stars and Stripes.

Leonard says he does not believe the DOD or Trump administration is retaliating against any one story.

"I think it is a difference of philosophy about the value of independent reporting," he said.

In responding to a question from Newsy about what would replace Stars and Stripes if it ceased to exist, the DOD emailed a statement citing the "proliferation of alternative news sources" and social media.

Russell Goemaere, a spokesperson for the Office of the Secretary of Defense, also said the Department would continue to "make available timely and accurate information" on national security and defense issues. He added, "Commanders and executive leaders throughout the Department have a responsibility to make information fully and readily available... This includes a free flow of general and military information to the men and women of the Armed Forces and their dependents."

The editor for Stars and Stripes said it was potentially "dangerous" to have troops rely too heavily on military leaders for information.

"They're only going to get the command view of what they want to know," said Leonard. "Do you really want to live in a democracy where the people, you know, the troops don't have a free flow of information? Do you really believe some people in the command would not want to shut down that information?"

Newsy has learned bipartisan support to save Stars and Stripes is growing, including in the Senate.

"I'll work very hard to make sure that the spending does continue," said Republican Sen. John Boozman, the senior senator from Arkansas.

Boozman's father served more than 20 years in the Air Force, rising to the rank of Master Sergeant.

Boozman said the loss of reporting from Stars and Stripes would ultimately harm the welfare of our troops.

"They talk about housing in the military, all of these things that simply aren't going to be covered any place else," he said.

Boozman said Congress has two ways it can act to restore the news organization's funding.

He said members of the House and Senate are already meeting in conference to resolve differences between the two versions of the Pentagon's budget.

"I will be working very hard to make sure that the House language stays in," he said.

Boozman also said the Senate Defense Appropriations subcommittee, which he is a member of, still has time to step in before authorizing funding for the DOD's next fiscal year. Boozman said he has support from other Republican Senators, who are the majority party in the Senate.

"I'm not alone by any sense," he said. "I think we're actually in good shape working towards getting it in the Senate appropriations package."

The press secretary for the minority side of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Jay Tilton, said the news organization can count on support from Sen. Pat Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont who serves as the committee's vice chairman. "Stars and Stripes has a long history of serving the men and women who serve our country and the Vice Chairman looks forward to raising this issue," he said.

Mark Greenblatt is the senior national investigative correspondent for Newsy and the Scripps Washington Bureau. Follow him @greenblattmark or email a story tip to mark.greenblatt@scripps.com.

This Girl Asked Some Very Valid Questions About Math And A Mathematician Was Kind Enough To Respond

"I hope you will continue to ask probing questions. I hope that more math classes address those probing questions and help everyone to see how important they are."

Ade OnibadaBuzzFeed News Reporter

Posted on September 10, 2020

When high school student Gracie Cunningham created her now-viral TikTok where she questioned the existence of math, she never anticipated it would invoke such a strong reaction and create major debate online.

“I feel like half the people are with me and half are against [me] so it’s confusing trying to figure out which to focus on," she told BuzzFeed News.


In the original TikTok, Cunningham mused over the discovery of math as she did her everyday makeup routine while getting ready for work.

“I know it’s real because we all learned it in school or whatever. But who came up with this concept?” she asked.


The teenager questioned what events would have led to or called for the use of mathematical concepts like algebra.

“I get, like, addition. Like hey, if you take two apples and add three, it's five. But how would you come up with the concept of, like, algebra? What would you need it for?” said Cunningham.


Days after posting it on her TikTok, the video was shared on Twitter by another user with the caption: “this is the dumbest video ive ever seen.”

It was viewed more than 25 million times, and the 16-year-old told BuzzFeed News the onslaught of comments left her feeling anxious.

“Honestly it’s just an awful reminder that the internet hates teenage girls for anything they do," she said.



Dr Eugenia Cheng@DrEugeniaCheng
These are really good questions about what math *is* in a very deeply probing way. Unfortunately the haters are piling in... I have transcribed the questions and typed up my instant answers here. https://t.co/KdKX7enCMh https://t.co/Ds4VqecAlu

04:56 PM - 27 Aug 2020
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Cunningham attempted to clarify by creating a follow-up TikTok.

“Hi, folks, I'd like to redo my TikTok about how math is not real and I’d like to be smart this time because I didn't know that one was going to go viral,” she joked in the video.

The teen said if her detractors “think that’s stupid that’s on them — it’s just curiosity.”

“Also, the literal mathematicians and astrophysicists that were replying to me — that was wild because they were all on my side," she added.

Among those who defended Cunningham was Chicago-based mathematician Eugenia Cheng, who responded to her burning questions with a detailed two-page reply.


Roundturnerphotography.com


In an email to BuzzFeed News, Cheng wrote: “I felt compelled to answer the questions because I think they're really good questions that are not typically addressed in normal math education. And I think they should be! But they are difficult to answer well, as they are, in a way, deep research-level questions."

Cheng, who is the author of x+y: A Mathematician's Manifesto for Rethinking Gender, described Cunningham's line of questioning as “profound.”

She said: “Her thoughts and questions are the kinds of things that research mathematicians think about all the time, and I believe it's what drives us to do research: we are not satisfied with basic answers and we keep wanting to ask why, more and more, to get deeper and deeper into the root of a question. The detractors might be proud of themselves for being able to do, say, 63 x 17 in their head, but research mathematicians ask why — why is the answer 1,071? That's a profound question, and comes down to definitions in the foundations of math which took mathematicians thousands of years to arrive at.”

In response to Cheng’s attempt to better explain the concept of math, Cunningham said: “I thought it was nice that she answered them. I mean, I still don’t get how someone sat down and was like ‘lemme discover math’ 'cause that’s insane to me.”

The academic shared that she would be open to having “further discussion” with the curious teenager about math or "anything else, if she ever wanted to.”



Ade Onibada is a junior reporter at BuzzFeed and is based in London.

When They Came To An Oregon Town To Take Pictures Of The Fires, Armed Locals Thought They Were Antifa Arsonists

They weren't.
Christopher MillerBuzzFeed News ContributorJane LytvynenkoBuzzFeed News Reporter


Posted on September 10, 2020

Deborah Bloom / Getty Images

Gabriel Trumbly, a Portland videographer who has spent roughly 90 of the past 100 days capturing the protests, wanted to take footage of the forest fires raging in Oregon. So on Wednesday night, the 29-year-old Army veteran set out with his partner, Jennifer Paulsen, 24, to see what was happening near her childhood home of Molalla, a town of 9,000 people known for its annual rodeo, the Buckeroo. Fires surrounding the town were so intense they had prompted a level 3 “GO NOW” warning to evacuate.

Little did they know when they arrived that Trumbly and Paulsen's presence would spark national rumors that far-left activists were starting fires across the West Coast.

After parking their car on the side of a road, the couple pulled on gas masks and shot video of towering flames. As they worked, they encountered people who had rigged a garden hose to a water tank in the bed of a truck and were trying to put out a fire in the driveway. Trumbly and Paulsen briefly spoke with them, as well as a driver who asked them if they needed any water.

Trumbly and Paulsen, both of whom spoke to BuzzFeed News by phone from Portland on Thursday, said the interactions seemed “normal.” They said the fire was moving quickly, so they didn’t stay long in Molalla. “We thought it was getting a bit dangerous, so we left,” Trumbly said.


Gabriel Trumbly



But shortly after they left, Paulsen began checking Twitter and Facebook to see news about the fires. She noticed that residents were sharing information about their car, including detailed descriptions of its appearance and license plate. The posts claimed they were members of antifa, an amorphous collection of left-wing groups that the president has called “a terrorist organization,” who had come to Molalla from Portland to commit arson.

Authorities in Oregon have struggled for days to fight apocalyptic wildfires that have burned over 800 square miles, forced thousands to evacuate their homes, and killed at least three people. Now they are also fighting a wave of rumors spreading on social media that the blazes were set by left-wing activists linked to the Portland protests.

The panic in Oregon appeared to stem from a woman in a Facebook group called Molalla NOW, meant for locals to share information about community events.

The post, which Trumbly shared a screenshot of on Twitter, claimed he and Paulsen had started a fire and misidentified them as “two guys wearing gas masks and ‘press’ vests.” It quickly garnered hundreds of reactions and replies.

“It blew up with comments!” Paulsen said. “People were saying, ‘Send people out with guns!’ It said we were antifa.”

Paulsen, who graduated from Molalla High School, even knew some of the people in the group. Now she and Trumbly were being hunted by a group of armed men on the town’s streets.

BuzzFeed News was unable to identify the armed men, but a spokesperson for the Molalla Police Department confirmed their presence by phone and two Portland-based freelance reporters who visited the town on Thursday posted photographs of what they said were three armed men who threatened them.



Jennifer Paulsen@JenMP96
Apparantly I came very close to being shot by a group of 'vigilantes' from my hometown tonight... My partner and I were followed in his car, people were posting his license plate all over various community pages, making multiple reports to the police. After a conversation 1/?09:37 AM - 10 Sep 2020
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A vague Facebook message by the Molalla Police Department posted Wednesday evening fed suspicion among the rumor- and fire-stricken residents.

“To those of you still in and around town, please report any suspicious activity (strange people walking around/looking into cars and houses/vehicles driving through neighborhoods that don't belong there) to 911 immediately,” the MPD post read.

“Make them dig a grave then shoot them,” read one of the posts calling for them to be shot.

Concerned about dozens of similar posts, Trumbly called the Molalla Police Department around 1 a.m. “to clear things up,” he said.

He said an officer told him several calls had come in since he and Paulsen left Molalla about antifa members being seen in the town and a group of armed men patrolling the streets.

But it wasn’t until early Thursday morning that the police department updated its post.

“EDIT/CLARIFICATION: This is about possible looters, not antifa or setting of fires,” the updated post read. “There has been NO antifa in town as of this posting at 02:00 am. Please, folks, stay calm and use common sense. Stay inside or leave the area.”

Paulsen, who graduated from Molalla High School, even knew some of the people in the group. Now she and Trumbly were being hunted by a group of armed men on the town’s streets.

While police in Washington did make an arson arrest yesterday, it was long after the fires began spreading, and in a different state.

Besides the Molalla Police Department, the Medford Police Department, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, and the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office have published appeals on their Facebook pages in the past 24 hours for the public to stop spreading false information connecting antifa to the Oregon fires.

“Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires in DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON,” wrote the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.

Acknowledging the incident, a Molalla Police Department hotline operator told BuzzFeed News Thursday that the department has “gotten calls about antifa arsonists and more [...] We‘ve gotten calls about everything and anything.” The operator also confirmed reports on social media of armed locals patrolling the town’s streets.

“It’s certainly hindering our ability to do our job more effectively.”

Lt. Mike Budreau of the Medford Police told BuzzFeed News that his department had been inundated with unsubstantiated reports about members of antifa and the Proud Boys, a right-wing group. “It’s been problematic and it takes time away from us when we're dealing with not only these fires, we have missing people, missing pets,” he said. “It’s certainly hindering our ability to do our job more effectively.”

The narrative was quickly seized upon by provocateurs. Right-wing website the Biggs Report claimed that antifa members were starting fires throughout the Pacific Northwest. “Possible ANTIFA Member Arrested For Starting Fires In Washington State,” said the post. A Washington state volunteer firefighter service linked to that story on Facebook, receiving 56 shares before the platform removed it.

At the same time, the Biggs Report, founded by a former InfoWars contributor, attempted to knock down rumors of their own, posting a second story that purported to debunk claims that members of far-right group the Proud Boys had started fires of their own. “The Boys Did Nothing Wrong!” said the story.

The group, which the FBI has labeled “extremist” and having “ties to white nationalism,” shared both stories on its Telegram channel.

The antifa narrative was also encouraged by a failed Republican Senate candidate in Oregon. His tweet was retweeted over 8,000 times and a screenshot of it spread on pro-Trump Instagram channels. It was also pushed by a Trump supporter affiliated with conservative nonprofit students organization Turning Point USA in Seattle. Her tweet went viral. “These fires are allegedly linked to Antifa and the Riots,” she wrote.

The rumor has been posted to virtually every social media network, including TikTok and the anonymous messaging board 4chan.

Despite the rampant misinformation, some people were attempting to clarify the situation.

“Ok we gotta clear this up now,” said one person on Facebook alongside a Bureau of Land Management announcement of area closures. “Blm does NOT stand for Black lives matter in this in reference to the fires.”

“They are ones who manages the lands and watch for fires ect,” the person continued. “I think the acronym is causing confusion making people assume its ‘antifa’ before factchecking. local radio refer to them as blm too but means the government program not the protests.... thats where our hysteria is coming from.”

Paulsen said the ordeal has spooked and shocked her. “I know these people or I know their families, and they’re treating me like I’m an outsider, even though that’s where I went to high school. That’s where my parents live,” Paulsen said. “They were writing [on Facebook], “Shoot now, ask questions later. You don’t want your house catching on fire.’”

For the record, Trumbly and Paulsen said they are not members of antifa, although they are against fascism.

September 11, 2020, at 8:23 a.m.


MORE ON THIS
California And Oregon Residents Described Apocalyptic Landscapes As Wildfires Raged

Jessica Garrison · Sept. 10, 2020

Shocking Photos Show The Hellish Scenes From The West Coast Wildfires

Clarissa-Jan Lim · Sept. 9, 2020


Christopher Miller is a Kyiv-based American journalist and editor.

Jane Lytvynenko is a reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Portland, Ore., mayor halts use of tear gas on protesters

Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Portland, Ore., Mayor Tom Wheeler on Thursday ordered police to stop using tear gas on protesters after months of demonstrations against police brutality and racism.

The ban will last "until further notice," he said in a statement.

"It's time for everyone to reduce the violence in our community," Wheeler said. "We all want change. We all have the opportunity and obligation to create change. We all want to focus on the fundamental issue at hand -- justice for Black people and all people of color."

There have been daily protests in the city since late May after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis sparked global demonstrations.

Lawsuits have targeted federal and local law enforcement's use of tear gas against Portland protesters, including, at times, against those taking part in peaceful demonstrations. In some cases, demonstrators began carrying leaf blowers with them to deflect the gas away from them.

Wheeler said his order came as the result of a review on the use of tear gas by the Oregon State Legislature and a Joint Committee on Transparent Policing and Use of Force Reform.

He likewise called on protesters to halt violence and vandalism, including throwing projectiles at police, and setting debris and buildings on fire.

"Arson, vandalism and violence are not going to drive change in this community," he said. "I expect the police to arrest people who engage in criminal acts. I expect the district attorney to prosecute those who commit criminal acts. And I expect the rest of the criminal justice system to hold those individuals accountable. We must stand together as a community against violence and for progress."

Amnesty International said last month that U.S. law enforcement has committed dozens of human rights violations throughout the months of protests, including the use of "militarized equipment" such as tear gas and pepper spray against activists, journalists, legal observers and street medics.