It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Sunday, January 09, 2022
ROARING TWENTIES SPECULATORS
Bitcoin ETF Goes From Boom to Bust After a Record U.S. Debut
Vildana Hajric
(Bloomberg) -- The crypto bloodbath has transformed a famous Bitcoin ETF that launched the most successful debut ever into one of the biggest losers for an issuer in their first two months of trading.
With a 30% drop, the ProShares Bitcoin Strategy exchange-traded fund, ticker BITO, is now one of the 10 worst performers when looking at returns two months after a public listing, Bloomberg Intelligence data analyzed by Athanasios Psarofagis show.
Thank the wider retreat in digital currencies as the Federal Reserve readies to withdraw pandemic stimulus. Bitcoin, the largest digital asset by market value, lost more than 34% in the two months after BITO’s debut on Oct. 19, and is down significantly from a November peak of above $68,000 per coin. Since the start of the year, Bitcoin is roughly 10% lower.
“Timing can be tough sometimes with ETFs,” Psarofagis said. “You aren’t hearing much about the performance flop of BITO since it went live.”
When it made its first showing, BITO saw turnover of almost $1 billion, which solidified it as the best debut behind only a fund that had pre-seed investments, Bloomberg data showed at the time. The fund also drew in $1 billion in assets in just two days, a record. For the crypto industry, it underscored pent-up demand for Bitcoin exposure in an ever-maturing institutional ecosystem.
But BITO is down near 9% this week alone. And flows data show initial euphoria also hasn’t kept up. It hasn’t seen a single day of inflows since 2022 started.
The fund is based on futures contracts and was filed under mutual fund rules that SEC Chairman Gary Gensler has said provide “significant investor protections.” An ETF that directly holds Bitcoin does not yet exist in the U.S. due to a multitude of regulatory concerns.
Still, Psarofagis says its performance thus far won’t necessarily impact future industry growth. “You can see some other ETFs had a rough start out of the gate but can still raise assets,” he said in reference to his list.
N.Y. governor proposes 1st-ever statewide ban on gas hookups in new buildings
As the centerpiece of a multipronged initiative to combat climate change, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul proposed on Wednesday a first-of-its-kind statewide ban on natural gas hookups in all new buildings.
“New construction in the state will be zero-emission by 2027, and we will build climate-friendly electric homes and promote electric cars, trucks and buses,” Hochul said in her annual State of the State speech.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul speaks at a news conference. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
In a policy outline released Wednesday ahead of her State of the State address, Hochul’s office laid out her plan to curb on-site greenhouse gas emissions. In effect, the plan means that new buildings could have neither oil or gas burners for heat or hot water, nor gas stoves. The plan would also require energy analyses of every new building’s energy usage, known as “benchmarking.” Hochul’s climate change agenda also sets a goal of 2 million electrified homes by 2030.
The governor’s proposal comes on the heels of New York City becoming the largest locality in the United States to ban gas hookups in new buildings last month. New York City also already has an energy benchmarking law on the books, which was passed in 2016.
The statewide plan drew praise from some experts.
“When we passed the city bill, we said, ‘If you can do it here, you can do it anywhere,’ and it’s really exciting to see the governor prove that out, to take these ambitions statewide,” Ben Furnas, who served as former New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio’s director of climate and sustainability, told Yahoo News. “It’s a proof point for the entire country that this makes a lot of sense.”
While the New York City law and the governor’s statewide proposal would apply only to new buildings, Furnas argued that regulations requiring electric heating for new and renovated buildings will galvanize the market and eventually make them the norm, even for owners of existing buildings.
“I think as heat pump technology for heating and hot water improves, as induction stoves become the most modern and exciting type of stove on the market, and, I think, as you see federal incentives to encourage these shifts — [and] potentially other regulatory steps that municipalities could take — I think you’re going to see, as people are replacing fossil fuel appliances in their home, they’re going to be shifting more and more to modern electric versions of these things,” Furnas said.
Electric stove. (Getty Images)
A study by the think tank RMI found that by 2040, the ban on new gas hookups in New York City will reduce the emissions that cause global warming by the equivalent of taking 450,000 cars off the road. Out of New York state’s population of 19.45 million, 11 million residents live outside New York City, so expanding the policy to the rest of the state would presumably produce similar or even greater benefits.
While the measure would have to be passed by the state Legislature, it already enjoys some support in the state Capitol.
“Growing the demand for natural gas is exactly what the world does not need right now,” New York state Sen. Brian Kavanagh, who has sponsored legislation to phase out the use of natural gas in residential and commercial buildings, told the publication Stateline on Thursday. “If you build buildings that rely on fossil fuels, you are baking in very long-term needs."
Kavanaugh, like Hochul and the large majority of members in both chambers of New York’s Legislature, is a Democrat. On the other side of the aisle, 20 Republican-dominated states have passed laws preventing local governments from banning fossil fuel infrastructure.
In 2019, New York passed a law requiring the state to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. According to a 2021 state government report, buildings are the biggest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in New York, accounting for 32 percent of the total. Currently, New York still relies on fossil fuels including natural gas to produce much of its electricity, but it has a goal, also mandated in state law, of reaching 70 percent renewable energy by 2030.
Nationally, the gas industry opposes bans on new gas hookups, arguing that electric heat pumps are more expensive for consumers than gas boilers. Furnas said, however, that isn’t necessarily true.
People walk past a new building construction site in midtown Manhattan in October. (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)
“For a new construction, our analysis showed that it was about comparable,” Furnas said. “For a retrofit, a lot of it is very site-dependent, and part of the impetus for setting a date certain for new buildings is it’s really going to help jump-start a much more robust market and competitive heat pump market. And I think you’ll see, as that technology improves and as developers and contractors get used to installing them in new buildings, you’ll have much more competitive products on the market and installers who are used to doing that kind of work.”
President Biden’s Build Back Better proposal includes customer rebates for electric heat pump installation, but that bill’s prospects for passage remain uncertain.
Although Hochul’s proposal would be trailblazing at the state level, it wouldn’t take effect for five years, which some environmental activists criticized as an excessively slow timeline. (In a concession to real estate developers, New York City also set 2027 as the deadline for large buildings, but buildings shorter than seven stories will have to stop being built with gas burners and stoves by 2024.) Climate activists also are frustrated that the governor has not embraced the Build Public Renewables Act, a bill with supporters in the state Senate and Assembly that would require the New York Power Authority to build out only renewable energy. In December, 55 legislators from both chambers of the state Assembly sent a letter to Hochul asking her to back the proposal, but it was not included in her State of the State agenda.
"As we face increasing hardship from climate change, we need to see more from the governor,” Patrick Robbins, coordinator of the New York Energy Democracy Alliance, told Yahoo News.
“Preexisting investments and a gas ban that won't take effect for five years are simply not enough. We need Gov. Hochul to pass the Build Public Renewables Act in the budget this year."
DIVIDE AND CONQUER France says Putin trying to bypass EU over Ukraine by talking solely to U.S
YOU CAN PLAY MORE THAN ONE CHESS GAME AT A TIME
Fri, January 7, 2022
PARIS (Reuters) -France's foreign minister said on Friday that Russia was trying to bypass the European Union by holding talks directly with the United States over Ukraine.
Talks between U.S. and Russian diplomats will begin in Geneva on Monday after weeks of tensions over Russian troop deployments near its border with neighbouring Ukraine, with envoys on each side trying to avert a crisis.
"(Russian President) Vladimir Putin wants to bypass the European Union... he wants to put dents in the EU cohesion, which is solidifying", Jean-Yves Le Drian told BFM TV and RMC Radio.
"You can't envisage EU security without the Europeans." France has just taken over the six-month rotating presidency of the EU.
French President Emmanuel Macron later told a news conference that he was planning to have discussions with Putin soon, to discuss topics including Ukraine - but he gave no details and did not say when that could take place.
Russia has moved nearly 100,000 troops close to its border with Ukraine. It says it is not preparing for an invasion but wants to see the West back off from its support for Ukraine's government and has demanded guarantees that NATO will not expand further eastwards.
"Putin has proposed to discuss with NATO to sort of return to the zones of influence from the past...which would mean Russia restore the spirit of Yalta," Le Drian said referring to the conference between World War Two Allied powers in February 1945 that gave the Soviet Union control over its eastern European neighbours.
"This is not our point of view, but we have to accept the discussion."
Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, drawing sanctions and condemnation from the West. Kyiv wants the territory back.
Le Drian said any further military incursion into Ukraine by Russia would bring "serious strategic consequences", with one option being a review of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea.
He said that despite Putin's assurances that he was beginning to withdraw troops from the region, Paris had yet to see that happen.
Senior French and German diplomats met with Russian counterparts in Moscow on Thursday as part of efforts to revive peace talks over eastern Ukraine.
(Reporting by John Irish, Benoit Van Overstraeten and Sudip Kar-GuptaEditing by Angus MacSwan and Frances Kerry)
STALINISTS OF A FEATHER Cambodia to take 'different approaches' to Myanmar crisis as ASEAN chair Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen speaks during a ceremony at the
Morodok Techo National Stadium in Phnom Penh
Sat, January 8, 2022
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen did not seek to meet former Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi during his visit to the country this week and will take "different approaches" to the crisis there, Cambodia’s foreign minister said on Saturday.
The comments by Prak Sokhonn indicate Cambodia, this year's chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), will likely invite junta officials to ASEAN meetings - possibly starting with a foreign minister's meeting Jan. 17.
The regional grouping had last year taken the unprecedented step of excluding junta chief Min Aung Hlaing from its annual leaders' summit.
Hun Sen, who himself seized power in a 1997 coup and has in subsequent elections been criticised over crackdowns on his political opponents, returned from Myanmar on Saturday after a two-day trip.
His visit was the first by a head of government since the army overthrew the civilian administration of Aung San Suu Kyi on Feb. 1 last year, sparking months of protests and a bloody crackdown.
Myanmar's state media on Saturday reported that Min Aung Hlaing had thanked Hun Sun for "standing with Myanmar". The army has said its takeover was in response to election fraud and was in line with the constitution.
Prak Sokhonn, who accompanied Hun Sen to Myanmar, on Saturday denied the trip amounted to backing the junta, saying it was another way of working to implement a five-point ASEAN peace plan adopted in April.
He also confirmed that Hun Sen did not ask to meet with Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who has been in detention since the army takeover last year and faces more than a dozen criminal charges.
Prak Sokhonn, expected to take up the post as special envoy for Myanmar, said the refusal of the current envoy, Brunei's foreign minister, to visit without guarantees he could meet with Suu Kyi was unproductive.
"If they build a thick wall and we use our head to hit it, it is useless," Prak Sokhonn told reporters. "Cambodia uses different approaches to achieve the five-point consensus."
(Reporting by Prak Chan Thul; Writing by Kay Johnson; Editing by David Holmes)
WATER IS PROFIT
Intel will pay water authority $32M to build 6-mile pipeline
Theresa Davis, Albuquerque Journal, N.M. Fri, January 7, 2022,
Jan. 7—For Intel, making the computing chips that power modern devices is impossible without water.
Millions of gallons are needed each day to rinse the chemicals that polish each layer of the tiny semiconductors.
The chip-making giant announced a $3.5 billion retrofit of its Rio Rancho plant in May to boost production capacity of its chip-packaging technology.
To support water demand for the expansion, the company will pay the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority to build a $32 million, 6-mile water pipeline from two wells west of Universe Boulevard to the Rio Rancho plant.
Linda Qian, spokeswoman for Intel New Mexico, said the company will then filter the nonpotable groundwater onsite into "ultrapure water."
"We use that ultrapure water to clean the surface of the silicon wafer," Qian said. "If you think of the chip process as building layers on top of a wafer, in between each of those layers, you rinse with ultrapure water."
When the 200-acre site opened, Qian said, manufacturing demanded about 2 gallons of fresh water to produce 1 gallon of ultrapure water.
Now, the ratio is about 1 to 1.
Intel estimates demand at the expanded plant could be 1 million to 3 million gallons of water a day.
The pipeline project will also replace well motors, pumps and casings.
Intel also uses water for cooling towers, industrial equipment and landscaping.
"Most of our water is used and recycled, and used again, treated and then discharged," Qian said. "A portion of the water we use is lost to irrigation or some other processes, so our restoration efforts are focused on closing that gap."
In 2020, Intel pumped more than 756 million gallons of groundwater for its New Mexico plant, according to company data.
The company treated and discharged about 705 million gallons, or 93% of its withdrawals, back into the municipal system.
Intel has a goal of restoring more water than it uses by 2030.
In New Mexico, Intel has funded watershed restoration projects with Audubon, Trout Unlimited and the National Forest Foundation.
Qian said the company is pursuing more water and habitat projects with conservation groups to balance the increase in groundwater pumping.
The city-county water utility treats Intel's wastewater again before discharging it into the Rio Grande.
Utility spokesman David Morris said the two groundwater wells west of Universe Boulevard were taken out of service about two decades ago because they exceeded new federal standards for arsenic.
"Arsenic is mainly a West Side issue because of naturally occurring arsenic related to the volcanoes and volcanic rock," Morris said.
But the water authority reserved the wells as a backup source for the northwest part of town.
"In times of really high demand, maybe in the height of the summer months ... we can blend water from these wells with water brought in from elsewhere to get it to the federal standard," Morris said.
Intel will fund $15 million in transmission lines to boost the area's drinking water capacity and replace the utility's backup water source.
The water authority is preparing to ask the state Legislature for $30 million for projects in the utility's northwest service area, although Morris said the work is "only tangentially related to Intel."
"We're looking at adding some arsenic treatment capacity out there with an additional arsenic treatment plant," he said.
"We need to do some improvements to an existing pump station and we need to upgrade reservoirs."
The utility anticipates pipeline construction will begin in April. The system should be delivering water to the Intel facility by December.
Theresa Davis is a Report for America corps member covering water and the environment for the Albuquerque Journal.
BOTTOM OF THE BOOT, LICKER
Column: Scraping bottom, Kevin McCarthy manages to sink even lower Mark Z. Barabak Fri, January 7, 2022 Rep. Kevin McCarthy in 201`8. (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images)
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Crazytown) has a history of spewing anti-vaccine, anti-mask, anti-science claptrap. This week her wacky effusions led to permanent suspension of her personal Twitter account.
Facebook — corporate motto: Putting profits first — also saw fit to briefly banish the Georgia congresswoman, an exile that lasted all of 24 hours. By Tuesday, Greene was once more free to offer constituent services and promulgate perfectly reasonable theories like the one about California's 2018 wildfires being started by Jewish-controlled space lasers.
In the year since taking office, Greene has proved to be nothing more than a political distraction, and an odious one at that. But the way GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy responded to her sanctioning by social media — and the fact he chose to weigh in — was telling.
"The American experiment is dependent on the freedom and ability of Americans to express themselves, which Republicans are fighting to preserve," the Republican from Bakersfield said in a statement.
The American experiment is also dependent on recognizing the will of voters as expressed in free and fairly conducted elections, which is something McCarthy and 146 of his Republicans colleagues refused to do on Jan. 6, 2021. But that's another column.
McCarthy further threatened to exact revenge. If Republicans take control of Congress in November's midterm election, he said, they would respond by "shutting down the business model you rely on today."
"Twitter (all big tech), if you shut down constitutionally protected speech (not lewd and obscene) you should lose 230 protection," McCarthy tweeted, referring to the provision in the 1996 federal Communications Decency Act that allows companies to publish user-posted materials without being held liable.
There are many good reasons for a long-overdue clampdown on monopolistic disinformation superspreaders like Facebook and other social media. But thwarting an investigation into the attempted violent overthrow of the government and restoring Greene's personal Twitter account are not two of them.
It's not as though Greene has been silenced. Her official congressional account remains fully functional, serving as a reliable source of misplaced pity and compassion for the jailed insurrectionists who tried to overturn the 2020 election.
Moreover, there is no constitutional right to be on Twitter or Facebook, any more than there is a constitutional right to walk into a store and take whatever you like without paying.
"Twitter simply kicking someone off is not a 1st Amendment violation," said Eugene Volokh, a UCLA expert on constitutional law. Government entities, not private companies, are bound by the guarantee of free expression.
Greene's quasi-termination for repeatedly violating Twitter's terms of service was, however, grist for an inevitable fundraising appeal. ("Rush an emergency contribution of $1.00 right away," she pleaded.) Having lost her committee assignments for, among other things, advocating violence against Democrats, Greene apparently has little to do with her time besides fleecing the gullible and outrage-prone.
Way back in 2019, McCarthy was among those Republicans who supported removing GOP Rep. Steve King from his committee assignments after the Iowa congressman defended the notion of white supremacy in a New York Times interview. (It was just the latest in a history of bigoted remarks from King.)
Fast-forward to last November. When Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) was sanctioned and stripped of his committee assignments for tweeting a video that depicted him killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and swinging swords at President Biden, McCarthy adopted a much different stance. He told reporters that Gosar and Greene might even get better committee assignments if the GOP reclaims control of the House in November.
That's quite the incentive structure: Behave badly and reap the benefit.
However, that turnabout is nothing compared with McCarthy's head-snapping response to the violent and traitorous events of Jan. 6.
He initially held Donald Trump to account, flatly stating, "The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters.” That changed when the anticipated anti-Trump backlash failed to materialize among rank-and-file Republican voters. Soon McCarthy was on a flight to Palm Beach, Fla., to grovel and beg forgiveness.
For McCarthy, it all comes down to Trump, his worshipers like Greene and Gosar, and a belief that voters in the former president's thrall are indispensable to a robust GOP turnout this fall and McCarthy's long-nurtured dream of claiming the House speakership.
Holding out Greene as some kind of free-speech martyr because her personal Twitter account was shuttered is as fanciful and absurd as one of those pyrotechnic Jewish lasers. It's also a great deal more cynical.
But, sadly, it's not surprising. As McCarthy grasps for the height of congressional power, the only question is how low he is willing to go.
TIT FOR TAT Russia reacts furiously to Blinken jibe over troops in Kazakhstan
U.S. Secretary of State Blinken speaks about Russia and Ukraine at State Department in Washington
Sat, January 8, 2022, 6:31 AM·2 min read
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia responded angrily on Saturday to a comment by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken that Kazakhstan might have a hard time getting rid of Russian troops, saying he should reflect instead on U.S. military meddling around the world.
Blinken on Friday challenged Russia's justification for sending forces into Kazakhstan https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/kazakhstan-detains-ex-security-chief-crisis-convulses-nation-2022-01-08 after days of violent unrest in the Central Asian country.
"One lesson of recent history is that once Russians are in your house, it's sometimes very difficult to get them to leave," Blinken said.
Russia's foreign ministry called Blinken's remark "typically offensive" and accused him of joking about tragic events in Kazakhstan. It said Washington should analyse its own track record of interventions in countries such as Vietnam and Iraq.
"If Antony Blinken loves history lessons so much, then he should take the following into account: when Americans are in your house, it can be difficult to stay alive and not be robbed or raped," the ministry said on its Telegram social media channel.
"We are taught this not only by the recent past but by all 300 years of American statehood."
The ministry said the deployment in Kazakhstan was a legitimate response to Kazakhstan's request for support from the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, an alliance of ex-Soviet states that includes Russia.
The Kazakh intervention comes at a time of high tension in Moscow's relations with Washington as the two countries prepare for talks on the Ukraine crisis starting on Monday.
Moscow has deployed large numbers of troops near its border with Ukraine but denies Western suggestions it plans to invade.
The judge who sentenced Ahmaud Arbery's killers made the courtroom sit in silence for 1 minute to put 'into context' how long the men chased Arbery
Rebecca Cohen
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley speaks with attorneys during the trial.AP Photo
The judge who sentenced the three men guilty for Ahmaud Arbery's murder made the courtroom sit in silence for one minute before reading their sentencing.
Judge Timothy Walmsley told the courtroom Friday that he wanted to put "into context" how long they chased Arbery.
All three were sentenced to life in prison, and only one of them was granted the possibility of parole.
The judge who sentenced the three men guilty for Ahmaud Arbery's murder made the courtroom sit in silence for one minute before reading their sentencing to put 'into context' how long they chased Arbery.
Judge Timothy Walmsley told the courtroom on Friday that he was going to "sit quietly for one minute and that one minute represents a fraction of the time that Ahmaud Arbery was running" away.
He said the three men convicted in his death — Travis McMichael, Gregory McMichael, and William Bryan — chased Arbery for five minutes in total.
The McMichaels and Bryan trailed Arbery in a pickup truck in February 2020 while he was jogging and fatally shot him After a confrontation, Travis McMichael used his shotgun to shoot and kill Arbery.
The men had claimed Arbery was responsible for robberies in their area and claimed self-defense in the killing.
All three were found guilty of Arbery's murder in November.
Walmsley sentenced the McMichaels to life in prison without parole on Friday. Bryan — who didn't fire the fatal shot but did chase Arbery and filmed the shooting — was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole, Insider reported.
Arbery killers get life in prison;
no parole for father, son
RUSS BYNUM
BRUNSWICK, Ga. (AP) — Three white men convicted of murder for chasing and killing Ahmaud Arbery were sentenced to life in prison Friday, with a judge denying any chance of parole for the father and son who armed themselves and initiated the deadly pursuit of the 25-year-old Black man.
Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley said Arbery left his home for a jog and ended up running for his life for five minutes as the men chased him until they finally cornered him. The judge paused for a minute of silence to help drive home a sense of what that time must have felt like for Arbery, whose killing became part of a larger national reckoning on racial injustice.
“When I thought about this, I thought from a lot of different angles. I kept coming back to the terror that must have been in the mind of the young man running through Satilla Shores,” he said, mentioning the neighborhood where Arbery was killed.
Greg and Travis McMichael grabbed guns and jumped in a pickup truck to chase Arbery after spotting him running in their neighborhood outside the port city of Brunswick on Feb. 23, 2020. Their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan joined the pursuit in his own truck and recorded cellphone video of Travis McMichael firing close-range shotgun blasts into Arbery.
“Ahmaud Arbery was then hunted down and shot, and he was killed because individuals here in this courtroom took the law into their own hands,” the judge said. Walmsley ordered the McMichaels to serve life without parole and granted Bryan a chance to earn parole after serving at least 30 years in prison.
A few dozen supporters cheered Arbery’s family as they exited onto the courthouse steps Friday afternoon.
“Today your son has made history, because we have people who are being held accountable for lynching a Black man in America!” said Benjamin Crump, a civil attorney representing the family.
Murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison under Georgia law unless prosecutors seek the death penalty, which they opted against in this case. During the sentencing hearing, Arbery's family had asked the judge to show no lenience in deciding whether to grant an eventual chance at parole.
Arbery's sister recalled his humor, describing him as a positive thinker with a big personality. She told the judge her brother had dark skin “that glistened in the sunlight," thick, curly hair and an athletic build, factors that made him a target for the men who pursued him.
“These are the qualities that made these men assume that Ahmaud was a dangerous criminal and chase him with guns drawn. To me, those qualities reflect a young man full of life and energy who looked like me and the people I loved," Jasmine Arbery said.
Arbery's mother said she suffered a personal, intense loss made worse by a trial where the defense was that her son had made bad choices that led to his death.
“This wasn’t a case of mistaken identity or mistaken fact. They chose to target my son because they didn’t want him in their community. They chose to treat him differently than other people who frequently visited their community,” Wanda Cooper-Jones said. "And when they couldn’t sufficiently scare or intimidate him, they killed him.”
The sentences matched the recommendation of prosecutor Linda Dunikoski, who said all deserved the mandatory life sentence for showing “no empathy for the trapped and terrified Ahmaud Arbery.”
Contending the McMichaels still believed they didn’t do anything wrong, Dunikoski disclosed Friday that Greg McMichael gave Bryan's cellphone video of the shooting to an attorney, who leaked it.
“He believed it was going to exonerate him,” the prosecutor said.
The McMichaels' defense attorneys argued that their clients deserved the possibility of parole because the killing was an unplanned, unintentional act. Bryan's lawyer said he showed remorse and cooperated with police, turning over the cellphone video of the shooting to help them get to the truth.
“Mr. Bryan isn’t the one who brought a gun,” Kevin Gough said. “He was unarmed. And I think that reflects his intentions.”
Bryan is 52, raising the chances that he will spend the remainder of his life in prison even with the chance of parole after serving 30 years.
The guilty verdicts against the men handed down the day before Thanksgiving prompted a victory celebration outside the Glynn County courthouse. In addition to murder, all three men were also convicted of aggravated assault, false imprisonment and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment. Travis and Greg McMichael were each sentenced to an additional 20 years for aggravated assault.
Defense attorneys have said they plan to appeal the convictions. They have 30 days after sentencing to file them.
Next month, the McMichaels and Bryan face a second trial, this time in U.S. District Court on federal hate crime charges. A judge has set jury selection to begin Feb. 7. Prosecutors will argue that the three men violated Arbery's civil rights and targeted him because he was Black.
Digital World Acquisition (DWAC) stock slid 10%, after surging as much as 20% a day earlier following a release date for former President Trump's new social media app.
Apple's app store states the app called "Truth Social," which can be pre-ordered, will be available on February 21.
Shares of DWAC initially shot up on the news Thursday afternoon. Friday morning though the stock opened lower.
Shares of Digital World Acquisition have been volatile since announcing a tie-up to take Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG) public.
DWAC price action for first week of 2022
DWAC shares had jumped more than 800% over the span of two sessions last October after the merger plans were announced.
The social media company will create a platform to “standup” against “Big Tech,” according to Trump, chairman of TMTG.
Digital World Acquisition had seen its market cap balloon to more than $8 billion at one point last year.
N95 and KN95 masks are held to different standards, though, so you need to be careful in deciding which is right for you.
You've probably been wearing a mask when out in public for a majority of the COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, but are you still wearing the right one? Since new mutations of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19)—like the Delta variant, and now Omicron—are even more contagious, it's important to wear masks with a high-filtration capacity and a snug fit. N95 and KN95 masks best fit that bill. 🦠Science is on our side. We'll help you make sense of it.
But what exactly are N95 and KN95 masks, what are the differences between them, and which mask should you ultimately purchase? Here are the facts.
➡️ Who Needs to Wear a Mask?
In short: everyone.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) mask guide, last updated in October, everyone two years of age or older who is not fully vaccinated should wear a mask in indoor public places (though it is not necessary to wear one in uncrowded outdoor settings).
Folks with conditions that lead to weakened immune systems, or those who are currently taking medications that can weaken their immune systems, should wear masks even if they are fully vaccinated.
Even if you are fully vaccinated, the CDC recommends that you wear a mask in regions with high numbers of COVID-19 cases—which is virtually everywhere in the United States at the moment, due to the highly contagious Omicron variant. That not only includes indoor spaces, but also crowded outdoor spaces, like concerts. You should also mask up in places where you might come into close contact with people who are not fully vaccinated, both to protect yourself and others. ➡️ What Are N95 Masks? Photo credit: JOE CICAK - Getty Images
The N95 respirator is considered the gold standard of face coverings in the medical world, and even in the construction industry. These face coverings diverge from surgical masks in that the edges are designed to fit snugly to your face.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defines N95 respirators as a "protective device designed to achieve a very close facial fit and very efficient filtration of airborne particles." The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, still doesn't recommend the general public wear them. But that's only in order to reserve supplies for health care workers and medical first responders—not because the masks are ineffective. ➡️ What Do N95 Masks Look Like?
N95 masks are made of tough, yet flexible non-woven polypropylene fiber. They're mostly round with a protrusion near the top to help cover your nose. Elastic strings stretch around your head to hold the mask in place. N95s sometimes feature a valve to make inhalation and exhalation easier, but they're not required. The mask should be labeled with "N95" on it. Watch out for typos, as these could be counterfeits. ➡️ How Do N95 Masks Work?
N95s filter out at least 95 percent of very small particles that are about 0.3 microns in size, according to the CDC. But this is the particle size for which the masks are least efficient. In fact, N95s are better at filtering out particles that are either larger or smaller than 0.3 microns.
These masks can filter about 99.8 percent of particles with a diameter of about 0.1 microns, according to a February 2017 study published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Hygiene. As an April 2020 review published in the journal eLife notes, SARS-CoV-2 is an enveloped virus with about a 0.1 micron diameter, so N95s are particularly suited to our current pandemic.
Why are N95s so efficient at filtering out the smaller particles? It has something to do with "Brownian motion," or a phenomenon that causes particles smaller than 0.3 microns to move in a haphazard, zig-zagging motion. This makes it more likely for the particles to get caught inside the fibers of the N95. Plus, the masks use electrostatic absorption, which means that rather than passing through the fiber, the particles are trapped.
"Although these particles are smaller than the pores, they can be pulled over by the charged fibers and get stuck," Jiaxing Huang, a materials scientist at Northwestern University, told USA Today. "When the charges are dissipated during usage or storage, the capability of stopping virus-sized particles diminishes. This is the main reason of not recommending the reuse of N95 masks."
In an extensive review of various face masks published in September 2020 in the journal Science Advances, researchers from Duke University found N95 masks were most effective in filtering out particles. Those masks had a droplet transmission rate of less than 0.1 percent. However, this is with the caveat that N95s don't necessarily protect others around you.
"[T]he performance of the valved N95 mask is likely affected by the exhalation valve, which opens for strong outwards airflow," the Duke scientists say. "While the valve does not compromise the protection of the wearer, it can decrease the protection of persons surrounding the wearer. In comparison, the performance of the fitted, non-valved N95 mask was far superior."
There are also various types of N95 respirators, so make sure the one you're using is rated for the performance you want. Some masks are defined as surgical, while others aren't. Some aren't fluid-resistant. All N95 masks should protect you from airborne particles, though, according to 3M, the manufacturer of most N95s in the U.S. ➡️ What Are KN95 Masks? Photo credit: Smith Collection/Gado - Getty Images
KN95s are closely related to N95s, but only the latter is approved for use in medical settings in the U.S., and the reasoning is pretty simple: N95s are the U.S. standard, while KN95s are the Chinese standard for these close-fitting filtration devices. Both are rated to filter out 95 percent of very small particles.
Due to the shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) in the U.S. at the start of the pandemic, the CDC has authorized the use of KN95 masks as a suitable alternative for N95 masks. However, a number of hospitals and other KN95 wearers have pointed out some discrepancies in quality.
*At time of update (January 7, 2022), the masks featured in this story appeared on the FDA's Appendix A: Authorized Imported, Non-NIOSH Approved Respirators Manufactured in China list. We suggest you check each listing's manufacturer name against the FDA approved list before you make a purchase. The brand name does not always match the manufacturer. ➡️ What Do KN95 Masks Look Like?
KN95 masks look a lot like N95s at first glance, but they feature a seam down the middle that makes it possible to fold the masks in half. The masks use ear loops to secure your face covering.
➡️ How Do KN95 Masks Work?
KN95 masks work similarly to N95 masks, but they aren't regulated by the same organizations. This has led to some questions about the efficacy of KN95 masks in surgical settings. (You can see if the FDA has approved your model of KN95 for emergency medical use by checking this list.)
In a September 2020 analysis of 200 KN95 masks from 15 manufacturers, the patient safety nonprofit ECRI found that up to 70 percent of the protective face coverings didn't meet U.S. standards for effectiveness, "raising risks of contracting COVID-19 for care providers and patients at hospitals and other healthcare organizations that imported masks from China."
Still, KN95 masks are better than surgical masks or cloth masks, according to ECRI. These are most appropriate in cases where you don't expect to come into contact with bodily fluids. Non-certified masks that use head and neck straps will also serve you better than those with ear loops. ➡️ How Are N95 and KN95 Masks Different? Photo credit: Gaelle Beller Studio - Getty Images
Both N95 and KN95 masks use multiple layers of synthetic material to protect you from outside particles. And, as their names suggest, both must filter out 95 percent of particles that are 0.3 microns in size or larger.
The main differences are the looks and regulating bodies that control the masks. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) regulates N95 masks, putting each mask prototype from various manufacturers through a rigorous testing process. (You can find a list of CDC-approved N95 masks for use in surgical settings here.) Meanwhile, the Chinese government regulates KN95 masks. ➡️ Here's the Bottom Line
For the average person, N95 masks and KN95 masks have negligible differences. If you're not a health care worker, either should suffice. But if you can't find either kind of mask, consider double masking with a surgical mask beneath your cloth mask.
