WHO says AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine is safe despite blood clot fears

(CGTN) March 13, 2021


Dozens of countries so far have suspended or limited the roll-out of AstraZeneca vaccines after isolated reports of recipients developing blood clots. However, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday that there was no reason to stop using those vaccines, which were developed with the University of Oxford.

The WHO stressed that no causal link has been established between the vaccine and clotting. "We've reviewed the data on deaths. There has been no death, to date, proven to have been caused by vaccination," WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told reporters at a briefing in Geneva.

Early on Tuesday, Austria stopped using a batch of AstraZeneca vaccine while it investigated death from clotting and a case of pulmonary embolism.

Local media reported that a 49-year-old nurse in Zwettl, a town northwest of Vienna, died of severe coagulation disorders after receiving the vaccine. Another nurse, 35, from the same city, developed a pulmonary embolism after receiving a dose from the same batch. Currently, she is recovering.

Soon after reports of possible links between AstraZeneca shots and blood clotting and pulmonary embolism, several other countries including, Denmark, Norway, Iceland, Italy, Bulgaria, Romania, and Thailand suspended the use of that vaccine temporarily.

According to BBC, at least five million people in Europe had received the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine as of Wednesday and of the figure, 30 cases of blood-clotting events have been reported.

In a statement on Thursday, AstraZeneca said it had found no evidence of an increased risk of pulmonary embolism or deep vein thrombosis in safety data from more than 10 million records.

"In fact, the observed number of these types of events are significantly lower in those vaccinated than what would be expected among the general population," a spokesperson for AstraZeneca said.

Europe's drug regulator, the European Medicines Agency, has also stressed on Thursday that there was no indication the vaccine was causing blood clots.

Despite the suspension by some countries, Germany, France, Australia, Canada, Mexico, and Poland, meanwhile, said they would continue using the AstraZeneca vaccine and have sought to reassure their citizens of the benefits of getting vaccinated.

The vaccine produced by AstraZeneca has not been authorized by the U.S. health regulator, but the White House on Friday said it will hold onto some doses so that once approval is obtained, they can be distributed quickl

An asteroid that could wipe out a country will just miss Earth this week

Backyard astronomers with a modest telescope should be able to see the Pentagon-sized rock whiz by next week

By MATTHEW ROZSA
MARCH 13, 2021

Asteroid passing earth (Getty Images)

An asteroid the size of the Pentagon is headed our way.

The celestial passerby, named 2001 FO32, is expected to be the largest asteroid to approach Earth in 2021, measuring somewhere between 1,300 to 2,230 feet wide, according to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California. The key word here is "approach" — this wide rock isn't going to actually hit Earth. But its close approach is a good warning that an asteroid of this size is guaranteed to hit Earth eventually.
Advertisement:

2001 FO32 will be at its nearest on March 21. It is not expected to come any closer than 1.25 million miles to our planet — roughly 5.25 times the distance between Earth and the Moon — so there is no threat of it colliding with us anytime within the next few centuries. At the same time, it will come close enough for scientists to be able to get a good look at it. And while it won't be visible with the naked eye, amateur astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere with an 8-inch telescope or larger should be able to spot it in the early morning, when it will appear inside the Sagittarius constellation.

"By getting so close to Earth, it will be very bright in the sky," Dr. Tom Burbine, a senior research associate who studies asteroids at the Planetary Science Institute, told Salon by email. "It will be easier to get infrared spectra of the body, which allows us to estimate its composition. Radar observations can be done to determine its size and shape."

Dr. Henry Hsieh, who studies asteroids, comets, interplanetary dust and small satellites at Planetary Science Institute, said that it was an exciting chance to study an asteroid.

"The scientific significance of asteroids coming extremely close to Earth mean that astronomers can study them in much greater detail," Hsieh wrote to Salon. "Astronomers often study the composition of asteroids using spectroscopy, meaning they take the reflected sunlight from the asteroid and split it up by wavelength and search for signatures of various minerals. The closer an asteroid is, the brighter it will appear, and so the stronger the mineral signatures will be, meaning that astronomers can potentially get a really detailed picture of an asteroid's composition."

Want more science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.

Hsieh added that astronomers hope to learn more about how an asteroid's rotation and composition corresponds to its size. While that is usually difficult for smaller asteroids because they are so small, this one will be easier to observe because it will be brighter as it approaches Earth. In addition, "if asteroids get close enough, they can actually be studied by radar, i.e., by bouncing radio waves off of the asteroid which can give a highly detailed picture of the asteroid's surface."
Advertisement:

Naturally, Salon was curious what would happen if 2001 FO32 actually did crash our planetary party and make a menace of itself, as happens every few million years. Such an impact would not be good for life on Earth, to be sure, but it would not cause a repeat of the type of extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs.

"When talking about asteroid impacts, astronomers typically use the Torino scale for asteroid impact threats (similar to the Richter scale for earthquakes)," Hsieh explained, referring to charts that show what different numbers represent and how they are determined. Because 2001 FO32 is definitely not going to hit Earth, it rates at a zero on the Torino scale. If it was certain to collide with us, on the other hand, it would get a nine and cause what is known as "regional damage."
Advertisement:

"This kind of damage would be roughly on the continent-wide or ocean-wide scale depending on where it hits, so in other words, it could potentially wipe out the US or Europe, or create tsunamis on all surrounding landmasses around the Atlantic or Pacific Oceans if it landed in the water," Hsieh explained. "The exact effects depend on the composition of the asteroid (i.e., if it's very fragile or more solid) and where it hits."

If an asteroid is fragile, it may explode in the air and create shockwaves that flatten all of the buildings and trees in a given area, such as happened in Russia in 1908. If a solid asteroid hit the ground in one piece, it would destroy a smaller area of land but throw up throw up a lot of debris that could cause air quality problems and harm agriculture. Should that same solid asteroid land in the water, it could also create debris clouds and would additionally result in tsunamis.

"Returning to the Torino scale and your second question, the threshold for a civilization-destroying impact is thought to be about 1 kilometer, so about twice the size of 2001 FO32," Hsieh told Salon.
Advertisement:

Astronomers have gotten better at detecting asteroids near Earth. Indeed, in 2020, they detected a record number of asteroids passing our planet, identifying thousands of objects that were previously unknown.

Notably, this wasn't because there are more asteroids coming near Earth, but rather that detection technology has improved.

"I think the increasing number of detections of Earth-passing asteroids is entirely due to the fact that more asteroid search programs are going on with more telescopes dedicated to asteroid detection," Dr. William K. Hartmann, who among other things studies asteroids, comets, meteorites and small satellites at the Planetary Science Institute, wrote to Salon.

Roger Stone-connected "Stop the Steal" group hasn't filed IRS reports — and its agent disappeared

Pro-Trump group's registered agent no longer works at her law firm, and her LinkedIn page has been deactivated

By ROGER SOLLENBERGER
FEBRUARY 19, 2021 

Roger Stone, former advisor to President Donald Trump, speaks in front of the Supreme Court on January 05, 2021 in Washington, DC. (Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)

A political nonprofit with ties to longtime Trump associate Roger Stone, which was supposedly created to challenge the 2020 election results, has missed two federal deadlines to disclose how much money it spent and received before and after the election. Furthermore, the law firm that employed the group's registered agent told Salon that she no longer works there, and her LinkedIn page appears deactivated.

"Committee to Stop the Steal" was registered with the federal government as a 527 tax-exempt political organization on Oct. 16, a few weeks before the election, by a clerk at a Southern California personal injury firm called Jensen & Associates. The IRS does not require 527 groups to disclose their donors, but it does mandate that they publicize how much money they raise and spend, including in post-election and year-end reports. Committee to Stop the Steal has missed the deadlines for both.

Jensen & Associates is led by Paul Rolf Jensen, a friend of Stone's who has represented the right-wing provocateur in an array of matters for at least two decades. The firm's website appears to have been unattended in recent months, but an archived version from last February does not mention political work. While Jensen himself isn't listed on the IRS registration for the Committee to Stop the Steal, the group's listed address is a UPS Store mailbox located near the firm's physical address, and its custodian of records, Ashley Maderos, worked at Jensen for a time as a post-bar law clerk.

When Salon called to inquire about the missed deadlines, an unidentified employee of the firm said that Maderos no longer worked there, but would not say when she left, where she went or what had become of the nonprofit. Maderos also appears to have taken down her LinkedIn profile, which has not been archived but was active as recently as Jan. 29. Multiple attempts to contact her went unanswered.

Maderos' LinkedIn page also noted that she had worked for a time as an intern for former Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, a Republican notorious for being "Putin's best friend in Congress." Rohrabacher reportedly worked with Stone in an attempt to get former President Trump to pardon WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, and upon retirement from Congress took up lobbying for a biotech firm run by a Republican fundraiser who worked with one of Stone's super PACs. Jensen & Associates is located in California's 48th congressional district, which Rohrabacher represented for many years.

In 2016, Jensen represented Stone when his earlier incarnation of Stop the Steal was sued for voter intimidation. Stone created that group in April 2016, and registered it at another UPS dropbox in the same area. Jensen was also on the payroll for Stone's Committee to Restore American Greatness, which ultimately became a target of former special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in that same election.

The precise whereabouts of Ashley Maderos could well be of interest to federal investigators now seeking to untangle the roots of the Jan. 6 insurrection. In recent weeks prosecutors have expanded the scope of indictments to include conspiracy charges. Details are still unclear about who bankrolled the effort, which in part required coordinating numerous loosely affiliated conservative and militia groups from across the country.

Stone's first Stop the Steal nonprofit raised and spent tens of thousands of dollars in anticipation of defending Trump through a contested 2016 GOP primary, and then, after he won the nomination, challenging a possible Hillary Clinton victory in the general election, neither of which proved necessary. The group was accused of suppressing minority votes in that election and terminated its registration with the IRS in early 2017. But Stone, a Florida resident, reactivated the movement in 2018 to protect then-Florida Gov. Rick Scott's narrow victory in his midterm U.S. Senate race against Democratic incumbent Bill Nelson. Stone got help at the time from fellow convicted felon Ali Alexander (formerly Ali Akbar), an itinerant provocateur who helped recruit for that effort and went on to play a central role in organizing the 2020 Stop the Steal movement. Alexander went into hiding after the riot and has so far not been accused of a crime.


The night before a mob of thousands of Trump diehards laid siege to the Capitol, Stone gave a pump-up speech at a rally hosted by Alexander, who noted early in the evening that "It was Roger Stone who coined the term first: Stop the Steal," but laid claim to being the "founder of the movement." But when Stone, escorted by bodyguards from the Oath Keepers anti-government militia group, delivered his keynote address a few hours later, he clarified that Alexander had only "revived the Stop the Steal movement." It was, at its heart, a Roger Stone production.

Biden admin to reconsider objections to H1B visas during Trump regime

The move is expected to come to the rescue of a large number of Indian IT professionals who were having a tough time during the previous Trump administration rule

Press Trust of India | Washington Last Updated at March 13, 2021


The Biden administration on Friday said it is willing to reconsider the objections or adverse decisions to foreign workers on visas like H-1B due to the three policy memos by the previous Trump administration which now have been rescinded.

The move is expected to come to the rescue of a large number of Indian IT professionals who were having a tough time during the previous Trump administration due to various policies and memorandums on non-immigrant work visas, in particular H-1B.


US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) on Friday announced "it may reopen and/or reconsider adverse decisions" on Form I-129, Petition for a Nonimmigrant Worker, made based on three rescinded policy memos.

USCIS said it will generally use its discretion to accept a motion to reopen filed more than 30 days after the decision, if filed before the end of the validity period requested on the petition or labour condition application, whichever is earlier, and the decision was based on one or more policies in the three rescinded H-1B memoranda.

On June 17, 2020, USCIS issued Policy Memorandum 602-0114, which officially rescinded two prior policy memoranda. First titled "Determining Employer-Employee Relationship for Adjudication of H-1B Petitions, Including Third-Party Site Placements," that was issued on January 8, 2010; and second "Contracts and Itineraries Requirements for H-1B Petitions Involving Third-Party Worksites," issued on February 22, 2018.

On February 3, 2021, USCIS issued Policy Memorandum 602-0142.1, which officially rescinded PM-602-0142, "Rescission of the December 22, 2000 'Guidance memo on H1B computer related positions'," issued on March 31, 2017. Both Policy Memorandum 602-0114 and Policy Memorandum 602-0142.1 state that they apply to "any pending or new [H-1B Petitions], including motions on and appeals of revocations and denials of H-1B classification."

USCIS said a petitioner may request that it reopen and/or reconsider adverse decisions based on the three rescinded policy memos by properly filing Form I-290B, Notice of Appeal or Motion, accompanied by the appropriate fee.

In addition, USCIS has the discretionary authority to accept and consider untimely motions under certain circumstances as explained in the form instructions and permitted by regulation.

"Petitioners who received an adverse decision on an H-1B petition based on the now-rescinded policy memoranda should consider whether there is time remaining in the validity period requested on the previously filed H-1B petition and the relevant labour condition application," USCIS said.

USCIS will generally process motions based on filing order, and consistent with current policy guidance, the federal agency said.

Amazon ordered to shut a fulfilment centre in Canada as Covid-19 cases surge

A Canadian public health authority has ordered retail and e-commerce behemoth Amazon to shut one of its fulfilment centres owing to an increase in Covid-19 caseloads.


A Canadian public health authority has ordered retail and e-commerce behemoth Amazon to shut one of its fulfilment centres owing to an increase in Covid-19 caseloads.

Peel Public Health has issued an order under the Ontario Health Protection and Promotion Act to Amazon Canada to require all individuals working at "8050 Heritage Road in Brampton to self-isolate for two weeks effective March 13, 2021."


In accordance with the order, all employees will be required to self-isolate through March 27, "unless they have tested positive in the last 90 days and completed their isolation period as directed by public health," the health authority said in a statement.

"This Amazon facility is in a vulnerable community and employs thousands of people. Immediate action must be taken to protect these essential workers and the community where they live," said Dr Lawrence C Loh, Medical Officer of Health.

"This was a difficult decision but a necessary one to stop further spread both in the facility and across our community," Low added.

In a statement to The Verge on Saturday, an Amazon spokesperson said the "company doesn't believe the data supports the closure, and that it plans to appeal the decision".

"This closure may have some short-term impact on our Canadian customers, but we will work to recover as quickly as possible," the company said.

Over the past few weeks, the rate of COVID-19 infection in Peel region has been decreasing while the rate inside this facility has been increasing significantly, the health authority said.

In March last year, Kentucky's governor ordered an Amazon warehouse in the state remain closed following an outbreak.

Amazon temporarily closed one of its warehouses in New Jersey in December.

--IANS

na/

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

UK

Sarah Everard mourners arrested by London police while attending Clapham Common vigil

3/14/2021

London police clash with mourners at a vigil for Sarah Everard.

VIDEO Sarah Everard mourners arrested by London police while attending Clapham Common vigil - ABC News

London police have stormed in to disperse crowds at a memorial for murder victim Sarah Everard after warnings that vigils and protests about violence against women would breach COVID-19 restrictions.

Key points:
Thousands — including the Duchess of Cambridge — went to Clapham Common during the day to leave flowers

Police moved in as crowds grew in the evening, where officers forced some women onto the ground

Leaders, including the Labour leader and London's Mayor, condemned what they saw as an overstep by police

Police told organisers of events planned in London and around the country to honour Ms Everard that public gatherings would be in breach of COVID-19 lockdown rules and could lead to fines up to $17,900.

Organisers at Reclaim These Streets said they had cancelled a vigil on Clapham Common in south London near where Ms Everard, 33, was last seen 10 days ago.

Other events around the country were also cancelled.

But thousands — including the Duchess of Cambridge — went to Clapham Common during the day to leave flowers and drawings at a memorial to Ms Everard, whose killing has sparked widespread anger about women's safety.

As more people arrived during the evening, some chanting "sisters united will never be defeated", police moved in and tried to disperse the crowds gathered around a bandstand.

Video footage showed scuffles and some women forced to the floor.

"It's pretty bad really, a bunch of mostly male officers looking at a crowd of women from the centre of the bandstand," said Laura, 24, who did not want to give her full name for fear of reprisals.

"We're not threatening anyone, we just want to pay our respects to Sarah."

The local police force, Lambeth Police, said the gathering was unsafe during the coronavirus pandemic and risked public health, urging people to go home.

But Britain's opposition Labour leader Keir Starmer said the scenes of crowds being dispersed at Clapham Common were "deeply disturbing".

"Women came together to mourn Sarah Everard. They should have been able to do so peacefully," he said in a statement.

"I share their anger and upset at how this has been handled. This was not the way to police this protest."

Sarah Everard never made it home from a friend's place

 in south London on March 3.(Metropolitan Police Via AFP)

A LONDON COPPER KILLED HER

London Mayor Sadiq Khan said the police response was not appropriate.

"The scenes from Clapham Common are unacceptable," Mr Khan tweeted.

"The police have a responsibility to enforce COVID laws but from images I've seen it's clear the response was at times neither appropriate nor proportionate. I'm [in] contact with the Commissioner & urgently seeking an explanation."

MP Caroline Nokes said she was shocked by what she saw.

"Truly shocked at the scenes from Clapham Common — in this country we police by consent — not by trampling the tributes to a woman who was murdered and dragging other women to the ground. Badly misjudged by #metpolice," she tweeted.

Calls to stop violence against women

Sarah Everard's killing has led many women to share their fears of walking alone and experiences of being harassed or attacked by men in public.

(AP: Victoria Jones)

Mr Everard, a marketing executive, disappeared while walking home from a friend's house at about 9:30pm on March 3.

Her body was later found in woods about 80 kilometres away in south-east England.

Serving London police officer Wayne Couzens, 48, appeared in court on Saturday charged with her kidnap and murder.

Her killing has led many women to share their fears of walking alone and experiences of being harassed or attacked by men in public, with calls for more action to be taken to address violence against women and abuse.

As more people arrived during the evening, some chanted

 "sisters united will never be defeated".

(AP: Victoria Jones)

With vigils banned, some women and campaign groups arranged online events and doorstep tributes with candles and lights while others left notes at the memorial on Clapham Common.

"Rest in peace Sarah. You could have been any of us. I hope you get justice," read one sign placed atop flowers.

"It feels like we finally have people's attention, so it was important for me to be here in spite of the ban [on the vigil] and honour Sarah's memory," said Hannah, 29, who asked not to use her full name.


"Groping, insults, being followed … literally every woman I know has experienced this," she said.

Some women called for defiance and urged people to still head to Clapham Common on Saturday evening despite the ban, using the hashtag #vigilforSarah on social media.

Currently England is in a national lockdown to stem the coronavirus pandemic and people cannot leave or be outside of their homes except with a "reasonable excuse" and can only be outside with one other person.

London police arrest a mourner at a vigil for Sarah Everard.

(Reuters: Hannah McKay)

The head of London's Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, said in a video on Twitter that Sarah Everard's death was a "terrible tragedy" that had caused shock and anger and she understood the desire for a major gathering but it was unsafe.

"I do appeal to people to express their sadness and their solidarity and their really strong feelings about women's safety in other ways," she said.

ABC/Reuters

UK 

Opinion: Sarah Everard's case reminds women of what they already knew: 

They're never safe

Opinion by Holly Thomas CNN

3/13/2021

Earlier this month, 33-year-old Sarah Everard went missing in south London. She was last seen leaving her friend's house at 9 p.m. on March 3. 

On Tuesday, a serving male London Metropolitan Police officer was arrested on suspicion of murder in connection with her disappearance. A woman was also arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender. 

Police said that both remain in custody, as a search for Everard on Wednesday uncovered unidentified human remains in a wooded area near Ashford, Kent. On Friday, assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police Nick Ephgrave said, "I can now confirm that it is the body of Sarah Everard."

© Handout/Metropolitan Police Sarah Everard

While London mayor Sadiq Khan insisted in a statement Wednesday that "all women and girls should be able to feel safe on the street of London at all times," Metropolitan Police making door-to-door inquiries during the investigation of Everard's disappearance, according to the Sun, warned women not to go out alone. The response from many women was one of exhausted outrage. Why should our freedoms be restricted when men are overwhelmingly more likely to attack people -- both at home and outside? Why is the onus always on women to avoid being attacked?

The contrast in online and social media conversations about this case has been especially illuminating on this point, as women across the United Kingdom are speaking up to share their experiences of feeling unsafe. Some women -- including me -- suggested a curfew for men following Everard's disappearance. Some men, understandably, hated the idea and found it unfair. But in my case, the suggestion was mainly to illustrate the absurdity of asking women to confine themselves as a solution to a safety problem that overwhelmingly starts with men.

The notion that a woman is doing something irresponsibly dangerous by walking home alone falls apart as soon as a man considers it perfectly OK for him to do the same thing. The danger isn't inherent in the behavior of the victim. It's in the choice and actions of the perpetrator. But women are nevertheless constantly shouldering the responsibility of reducing opportunities for violence on the behalf of would-be attackers.

Most women I know had been aware of Everard's disappearance for at least several days before the arrests. They'd begun to talk about it -- their anxiety about leaving the house rising, their willingness to run early in the morning or in the evening (the times they were most likely to be free from work) dissipating. Many declared their intention to stay indoors rather than go out alone, restricting their own already limited freedoms under Covid-19-related lockdown almost automatically.

The men I know, by contrast, appeared largely oblivious to the story until Wednesday, when women online started to comment on their relative silence. Some men asked what they should be doing to help, and whether crossing the street if they're walking behind women in the dark might be useful. London mayoral candidate Shaun Bailey offered his condolences as a concerned "father and husband," saying he felt heartbroken that his wife and daughter had to live in fear in their own city, even has he vowed to "deliver for the safety of women and girls" if elected.

It was a pretty unsatisfactory statement for women who don't happen to be attached to men in either capacity but still worry about their own safety. And while doubtless well-meaning men would naturally point out that their immediate thought was also for the welfare of their female loved ones, the persistent framing of women's value as relative to the role they play in men's lives -- especially by public figures -- is wearing thin.

#MeToo similarly saw constant references to male concern "as a father of daughters." They begged the question of whether it would have occurred to these men to care about sexual assault if they were childless -- or, whether as well as fearing for the safety of their daughters, they might think to teach their sons to respect and care for women, whether or not they have anything in common with them. One blind woman amid the online furor of the last few days described the horror of being regularly assaulted by people pretending to help her. Her reality is alien to the vast proportion of the population, but empathy for her -- or anyone's -- circumstances shouldn't necessitate any personal connection or experience.

Some men suggested that it was women's "responsibility" to avoid danger -- with one suggesting to me on Twitter that women shouldn't make "bad decisions" and do "dangerous things." Others were offended even by the implication that women should be wary of them. Some pointed out that men are even more likely to be victims of violent crime than women.

But while it's true that men are more likely to be killed violently, men are also far, far more likely to kill both men and women. And women typically live with far more fear of violence than men, largely because for them, harm -- when it does happen -- most often occurs at the hand of someone they know. And whether their attacker is known to them or not, it is significantly more difficult for the average woman to defend herself against the average man.

A large proportion of male homicides occur because men are more likely to get into a gang-related fight with other men, or engage in violent crime. Women are much more likely to be attacked and killed by their partner, and make up the vast majority of domestic violence victims -- a point apparently overlooked when they are told to stay inside for their own safety. In 2013, women aged 15 to 44 worldwide were more likely to be killed or maimed because of male violence than because of war, cancer, malaria and traffic accidents combined. Women are far more likely to be raped as well.

The more personal, more targeted nature of violence against women is reflected in their daily experiences. A majority of women in the UK have been sexually harassed, according to a new YouGov survey for UN Women UK. Among those who said the event was not serious enough to report were women who had been groped, followed and coerced into sexual activity. Even if these instances don't end in physical violence -- though many do -- reminders of our vulnerability, and a lack of faith in authority to deal with them, are constant, as are our behavior modifications in response.

Women are coming forward across the UK and beyond to describe how unsafe they feel in their daily lives. From childhood, many women living in urban areas are taught to get a taxi home if it's late, to clutch their keys between their knuckles while they're walking if they can't afford one, not to wear headphones at night and to keep a constant eye out for an unknown figure in the dark.

Men may justifiably quote statistics on their vulnerability to murder. But as the reaction to this horrific story shows, while men may be more likely to come to danger, women are more likely to do everything in their power to avoid it.

The blame for what happened to Sarah Everard should belong to the perpetrator or perpetrators of her fate, and no one else. And for any men curious about, or affronted by the conversation in the last week, it might be worth taking a pause to consider the lived experience of women, and how that might be different to their own. The empathetic among them will no doubt soon understand why Sarah's story has struck such a chord.

A police officer charged with Sarah Everard's killing has Britain waking up to the fact it doesn't take violence against women seriously


Ashley Collman,Mia Jankowicz
Fri, March 12, 2021

THE INSIDER

An image of Sarah Everard, 33, shared by London's

 Metropolitan Police. Met Police


A serving police officer has been charged with the kidnap and murder of Sarah Everard.


Since Everard's disappearance on March 3, women have been sharing their own stories of harassment.


Many spoke of the fear of what could happen to them while they are alone in public.


The killing of a young London woman is empowering women to speak up about the fears they face on a daily basis.

Sarah Everard, 33, was last seen on a doorbell camera walking down a busy road around 9:30 p.m. on March 3, toward her apartment in Brixton after visiting a friend in neighboring Clapham, South London.

Earlier this week, officer Wayne Couzens of the London Metropolitan Police was arrested in connection to Everard's disappearance. On Friday, investigators identified human remains found in a woodland as Everard's, and the officer was charged with her kidnap and murder.

'Men simply do not know'

Everard's disappearance has hit home for many British women, who took to social media to describe how they have been harassed by men, and the lengths they go to protect themselves while alone at night.

"I've been followed home too many times to count," the singer Nadine Shah tweeted Thursday. "Once I had to hide in a bush for over an hour until two men gave up looking for me. I could hear them plotting explicitly what they were going to do to me and laughing."

A UN Women UK/YouGov poll conducted after Everard's disappearance, published by The Guardian, found that 80% of women in the UK have been sexually harassed in public spaces.

"For all those women who text their mates to let them know they got home safe, who wear flat shoes at night so they can run if they need, who have keys in their hands ready to use, it's not your fault. It never is," Anna Yearly, joint executive director of the NGO Reprieve tweeted Wednesday.

The TV presenter Shelagh Fogarty shared a list of sexual-harassment incidents she'd experienced throughout her life, with the earliest being followed home from school when she was ten.

Many women said they felt their gender is unduly burdened by the fear of harassment, saying men don't experience the same near-daily fears of being assaulted, kidnapped, raped, or murdered if they are out alone at night.

An anonymous woman wrote in The Standard that she was harassed the same night Everard went missing, in the same area, and that what upset her the most about the incident was how surprised the men in her life were about it.

"Men simply do not know" the relief she and other women "feel when we close our front doors behind us," the woman wrote.

A missing-person poster for Everard is seen on Clapham Common, near the site of her disappearance, on March 9, 2021. Leon Neal/Getty

The journalist Caitlin Moran explained how the fears of being a woman amount to her essentially having a curfew.

"Being a woman: my 'outside' day finishes at sundown. If I haven't taken the dog for a walk/jogged by then, I can't. In the winter, it often means the choice between exercise and work. Today, I had to stop work at 4 to exercise. My husband worked until 6, and is now off for a run," Moran tweeted Wednesday.
Disappearances are rare - but women know it could be anyone

For Faye White, Everard's story has brought back unwelcome memories.

The 28-year-old producer told Insider she was assaulted last April on a well-lit London street while cycling home from work.

At one point, she had to get off her bike to navigate roadworks, she said. Britain was under its first COVID-19 lockdown at the time, so the streets were quiet.

At that moment, a man - who appeared to be drunk or high, she said - came around the corner. "There wasn't going to be space for both us to pass through this obstruction, so I stood still with my bike and hoped that he didn't notice me," she said.

White said there was an altercation between them and, just when she thought he had gone, he approached her from behind and sexually assaulted her. She declined to go into further detail on the nature of the assault.

She said a male delivery cyclist was across the street and, she thinks, likely saw the whole thing - but he did nothing.

White, who is a campaigner for women's rights and was already a rape survivor before that day, was keen to report the assault to prevent the attacker from targeting any other women that night.

But when she did, she was told that unless she had the man's name and address, she would unlikely see a result - and that it would be up to her to source the surveillance footage of the assault, she said.

She said it felt as though much of the responsibility for finding the man would fall to her.

This kind of experience - or the fear of it - has become part of everyday life for women and non-binary people, she said.

"Catcalling and verbal violence happens on our streets, as well as physical advances," she said.

"I think the overarching problem is that this has been so woven into the fabric of our society, that women and non-binary people are just expected to brush it off and just kind of accept that it's part of our everyday."
Politicians react

Politicians like Home Secretary Priti Patel and Labour MP Jess Phillips have also weighed in.

"Many women have shared their stories and concerns online since Sarah's disappearance last week," Patel said in a statement Thursday. "These are so powerful because each and every woman can relate."

In parliament on Thursday, Phillips spent more than four minutes reading out the names of every woman killed in the UK in the past year, as a result of violence where a man was convicted or charged as the main perpetrator.

Phillips also tweeted that there had been a 23% drop in rape convictions last year and a 24% drop in domestic-abuse prosecution by the end of 2019.

"We are not tough on crimes against women and children perpetrated by men," she wrote.




Could more have been done?

Questions have been raised as to whether the Met overlooked a troubling sign about its own officer, who the force said faces a separate charge of indecent exposure.

The Sun reported that he had exposed himself three days before Everard's disappearance, at a South London McDonald's, but that he wasn't arrested and continued working as an officer. The Met now faces a watchdog investigation which will partly examine how it dealt with the exposure incident, the BBC reported.

Reflecting on Everard and the exposure investigation, White said: "I do hope that this case has sent shockwaves through the country and through the Met. However, it's not new."

"Yes, abductions are very rare, but everyday street violence happens," she said. "And every woman you know has a story, if not multiple."

The Met has also received criticism for telling women in Clapham and Brixton not to go out alone at night after Everard's disappearance, The Sun reported Monday.

"Why are we still feeding into the dangerous narrative that the onus is on women to protect themselves from violent men, instead of holding men accountable for harassing, intimidating, and harming women?" asked Ali Pantony in Glamour UK on Thursday. "In 2021, why are we still playing the 'but how short was her skirt' card?"

A makeshift memorial seen on March 12 near the Kent woodland 

where Everard's remains were found. Glyn Kirk/AFP via Getty Images

Meanwhile, activists are fighting the Met's decision to ban a vigil for Everard on Saturday, citing coronavirus concerns.

The organizers have hired lawyers at the prestigious Bindmans, Doughty Street, and Blackstone barristers chambers to fight the Met's decision, Law.com reported. The group has strong support: a crowdfunding campaign for legal fees met its goal of £30,000 ($36,600) within an hour on Thursday, per The Guardian.

Mary Morgan, one of the organizers, told The Guardian that the decision to ban the vigil amounted to silencing women.

"Women are being silenced in every single way. They are not being allowed to express their desire to be safe," Morgan said. "I think that it's really important to give women and allies space to come together in solidarity to stand up against an oppressive system. These are the arms of the patriarchy at work here."

Read the original article on Insider

China eventually wants astronauts to stay on moon for long periods of time

Sun, March 14, 2021

BEIJING (Reuters) - Once China establishes a lunar research station, its astronauts will stay on the moon for long periods of time as they conduct scientific studies, state media reported on Sunday, citing the architect of China's lunar programme.

China has mapped out a series of uncrewed missions this decade, including the setting up of a robotic base to explore the moon's south polar region, ahead of manned landings.

"If the lunar research station project is successfully implemented, China will not be far away from achieving manned landings," said Wu Weiren, the chief designer of China's lunar exploration programme.

Last week, China and Russia signed an initial pact to set up an international lunar research station, but did not disclose a timeline.

"Compared to American astronauts who could only stay for tens of hours after landing on the moon, Chinese astronauts will stay on the moon for a longer period of time," Wu said.

"This will be a long-term stay on the moon, not a short-term stop."

China has successfully launched a series of lunar missions in recent years, including an uncrewed retrieval of lunar rocks last year, the first by any nation since 1976.

But China still lags behind the United States in experience, expertise and technology.

NASA plans to return astronauts to the moon's surface by 2024. The last NASA crewed landing was in 1972.

Chinese rockets currently do not have sufficient thrust to send astronauts to the moon, Wu said, but China aims to make breakthroughs in rocket design in 2021-2025.

In China's next mission to the moon, lunar samples of the south pole will be retrieved, he said.

Subsequent missions will involve a detailed survey of resources in the south pole, and the testing of key technologies in preparation for the construction of the research station, Wu said.

(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)

Show must return! Protesters occupy French theatres to decry COVID closures


Cultural sector workers occupy the Theatre de l'Odeon in Paris

Fri, March 12, 2021, 

By Yiming Woo

PARIS (Reuters) - Dozens of show business workers are occupying theatres in at least nine cities in France to demand President Emmanuel Macron's government reopen cultural venues and end a months-long halt to performances because of the coronavirus pandemic.

At the Odeon Theatre on the Left Bank in Paris, the sit-in entered its eighth day on Friday as protesters rejected an additional financial support for cultural venues and artists pledged by the government a day earlier.


Sleeping bags, inflatable mattresses and donated food are laid out in the 19th-century theatre's ornate hall and velvet-lined balconies, while the 54 protesters share a single shower.

"We've got everything we need to sit tight for several days," said comedian Jennifer Catelain.

"We started with polite petitions, then peaceful protests, we occupied venues for a day here and there, but we were not listened to. So we decided to step it up, stay a little longer in a place that is emblematic."

Theatres, cinemas, art galleries and other cultural spaces have been shut since October when France was put into its second full lockdown. Much of the economy reopened in mid-December but cultural venues, like bars and restaurants, remained closed.

The protesters, among them actors, theatre workers and students, say there is no reason to keep cultural venues closed when social distancing measures can be imposed.

They have been demanding an opening date as well as an extension to special unemployment benefits for actors, musicians and other show business workers who work on short-term contracts, known collectively as "intermittents du spectacle".

The government on Thursday promised an extra 30 million euros in financial aid and made sick leave and maternity leave more widely available for intermittents during the crisis.

However the protesters said the response did not go far enough - and for now the public appears on their side.

"They have no choice when it seems they have no other solution, said Paris resident Beatrice Philippe.

(Reporting by Yiming Woo; Editing by Richard Lough and Mark Heinrich)