WATCH: China tests fishes, crabs for COVID-19 amid rise in cases

Fish and crab being tested for CIVID-19 in the Chinese city of Xiamen. — Screengrab/Twitter

Over five million people in the coastal Chinese city of Xiamen have been directed to get themselves tested for COVID-19 this week after a rise in cases.

However, the tests are not just limited to humans. The authorities have decided to test some forms of sealife as well, according to an official notice.

A notice was issued by the Xiamen's Jimei Maritime Pandemic Control district committee recently, according to which "both fishermen and their seafood must be tested" after the fishermen return to their ports, BBC reported

A video, shared by South China Morning Post on Twitter, has been going viral and has triggered a number of reactions from the netizens.

The video shows the health workers giving live fish and crabs PCR tests for the virus.

The health workers could be seen wearing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) kits and inserting swabs inside the mouths of fishes and crabs.

"Videos of pandemic medical workers giving live seafood PCR tests have gone viral on Chinese social media," said the caption.

The video received above three million views.

"Seems weird but oh well, there's no other way of knowing without testing. Everybody already knows the animal/human human/human transmission - don't think it would make the jump to marine life but weirder things have happened. So yeah, test away," wrote a user.

"Thought it was a joke. But in fact, it’s consistent with the ideological trap that’s led to cascading and insane misdirection of resources! Quite scary!" wrote another.

"Definition of insanity," wrote one of the users. 

DoD’s civilian harm reduction plan lacks specifics


By ALEXANDER WARD and LARA SELIGMAN
08/25/2022 


The Defense Department just released its much-anticipated plan to reduce civilian casualties during military operations and more accurately report incidents if they happen. | Mark Wilson/Getty Images

With help from Connor O'Brien

The Defense Department just released its much-anticipated plan to reduce civilian casualties during military operations and more accurately report incidents if they happen — nearly a year after a botched drone strike killed 10 people, including seven children, in Kabul.

The idea is to bake in expertise on reducing civilian harm to operations from the very beginning of mission planning, said a senior defense official, speaking to reporters ahead of the plan’s release.

“We would envision having somebody or probably a group of people who are experts in the civilian environment that are sitting next to the operators, the threat-focused intel folks, the lawyers as they are really developing whether it’s an individual operation or a campaign, and building in this component of civilian harm throughout the overall process,” the official said.

But there are also a lot of questions left unanswered, for instance, the timeline for implementing the changes, how many people will be needed, and the rank of those experts sitting next to the military planners.

According to a memo signed by Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN attached to the “Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan” — which officials are short-handing as CHMRAP, pronounced “chim-wrap” — the Pentagon will:

— Establish a CHMR Steering Committee to implement the plan across the whole of DoD.

— Create a Civilian Protection Center of Excellence “to expedite and institutionalize” ways to reduce civilian harm. It will be stood up in the next fiscal year, though it will take a few more years to set it up fully.

— "Incorporate deliberate and systemic measures to mitigate the risks of target misidentification.”

— Establish procedures to assess and investigate incidents of civilian harm.

— Review how DoD response to incidents, including “condolences and the public acknowledgement of harm.”

There’s more, but you get the idea. The senior defense official said the plan was meant to be “systemic” and be “implementable immediately.” The plan will cost “tens of millions of dollars” to execute, though the final number depends on a manpower study and negotiations with lawmakers, the official said.

Importantly, there’s nothing in the plan about punishment — as in, what to do if someone inappropriately makes a decision that kills civilians. No one was reprimanded following the Kabul strike because the Pentagon said everyone followed the right procedures. How those procedures will be addressed, or what happens to an official who breaks them, is still unclear.

Furthermore, it appears the Pentagon has charted a middle course. The report doesn’t go far enough to make civilian harm a top component in military decision-making — they just want the issue to be “baked in” — which will anger activists. But it also adds extra layers of bureaucracy, which will concern commanders who want to make quick, life-or-death decisions.

Some, though, found the announced changes to be sweeping. “This is a sea change,” MARC GARLASCO, who investigated U.S.-caused civilian deaths caused for the United Nations, told The New York Times. “It doesn’t mean civilians won’t be killed in war anymore. They will. But if this plan is implemented and properly resourced, it will ensure fewer people will die and create a way for the Defense Department to respond when civilians are killed.”

In January, Austin directed a review and creation of a plan to minimize civilian casualties on the battlefield. It came after a string of Pulitzer Prize-winning stories in The New York Times about how the Pentagon consistently downplayed harm to civilians during the planning of military operations and even after incidents occurred. The August 2021 strike that killed 10 people was initially labeled “righteous” by Gen. MARK MILLEY, the Joint Chiefs chair, when he believed an ISIS militant had been killed. The Times soon showed that civilians were killed, not terrorists.

It does seem like the Pentagon is learning some lessons already, though. Two retaliatory strikes against Iran-backed militants in Syria were called off over concern about killing civilians .

Pentagon Shares Plan to Lower Civilian Deaths, a Year After Botched Airstrike Killed 10

Mimi Nguyen Ly Aug 26, 2022

A relative of Ezmarai Ahmadi, stands next to a vehicle that was damaged on Aug. 29 in a U.S. drone strike that killed Ahmadi, seven children, and two other adults in the Kwaja Burga neighborhood of Kabul, Afghanistan, on Sept. 18, 2021. (Hoshang HashimiAFP via Getty Images)


The U.S. Department of Defense on Aug. 25 unveiled a plan to mitigate and respond to civilian injuries and deaths that result from U.S. military operations, coming almost a year after a botched U.S. drone airstrike killed 10 civilians.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin in January ordered top civilian and military officials in the Pentagon to develop the “Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan.” Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder told reporters during a briefing on Aug. 25 that Austin approved the plan earlier this week.

Its release on Aug. 25 comes almost a year after a botched U.S. drone airstrike on Aug. 29, 2021, caused the deaths of 10 innocent Afghan civilians, including seven children, in Kabul, Afghanistan. The Pentagon didn’t acknowledge that the drone strike killed innocent civilians and didn’t kill any terrorists until more than two weeks later, on Sept. 17, 2021.

Congressional testimony by three top officials from the U.S. military on Sept. 29, 2021, contradicted earlier military statements about what the government knew in the aftermath of the incident. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) in February this year said he doesn’t understand why U.S. military officials seemingly attempted to deny killing civilians for weeks in the wake of the Aug. 29 strike.

The release of the new action plan also comes after a report in November 2021 by the New York Times that detailed a U.S. airstrike that killed at least 64 civilians in Baghuz, Syria, in 2019, which, until the report, had not been made known to the public.
New Central Hub

Ryder told reporters during a briefing on Aug. 25 that the new action plan involves putting people “who are trained to have an understanding of civilian harm, the aspects of civilian harm mitigation, and operational planning” at all operational levels throughout the military.

These people will work for the Civilian Protection Center of Excellence, which is established under the new plan.

“The Center of Excellence will be sort of the hub that will provide expertise at a centralized location, but then that will be dispersed throughout the Department of Defense, at the [U.S. Central Command] level, at the component level,” Ryder said. “We estimate this will be approximately 150-plus individuals that will have special training and understand this.”

“The other piece of this will be incorporating it into doctrine, into instructions, into operational planning as a factor. So, that eventually will inculcate itself into the force down to the from the lowest echelon up to the highest level here at the Pentagon,” he added.

“What it does, especially at the combatant command level, is it provides someone who’s trained who understands who can advise at a level that has not always been consistent across the department,” Ryder noted. “And it’s not that we haven’t taken civilian harm or mitigation into account in the past. It’s just trying to apply a consistent approach across the department.”

‘Flexible Plan’

According to the Pentagon, the new plan aims to “improve strategic outcomes, optimize military operations, and strengthen [the Defense Department’s] ability to mitigate civilian harm during operations.”

The department characterizes it as “a flexible plan that advances the ability of [the Pentagon] to mitigate civilian harm and achieve strategic success across the full spectrum of conflict.” The 36-page document detailing the plan (pdf) says it is inherently scalable, meaning it is “relevant to counterterrorism operations as well as high intensity conflict,” and “relevant to both kinetic and non-kinetic activity.”

The plan prioritizes “the protection and restoration of the civilian environment as a critical factor in the planning and conduct of military operations,” among other things that will achieve its aims.

Actions set out in the plan “will facilitate continued learning throughout” the Pentagon to improve its approach, including in assessing and investigating previous U.S. combat operations; and improve the department’s ability to “effectively respond” in the case of civilian harm. It will also include learning about how these approaches “can be tailored to different types of conflicts, operations, and operational theaters.”

The department also said the new civilian harm mitigation plan “will enhance [the Department of Defense’s] ability to identify instances where institutional or individual accountability may be appropriate for violations of [the Department of Defense Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response] policies and applicable law.”

Action points in the plan are also aimed at improving accountability and transparency related to civilian harm as a result of U.S. military operations, according to the Pentagon release.

The action plan will also “enhance the [Department of Defense’s] ability to identify instances where institutional or individual accountability may be appropriate for violations of DoD CHMR policies and applicable law,” the document reads.

The Pentagon will begin implementing the plan immediately, but certain actions “will require additional time to properly implement,” it noted.

Ken Silva contributed to this report.

From The Epoch Times

Director at powerful Texas Right to Life anti-abortion group is fired from his job and arrested after he 'tried to arrange sex with a child online'

Lucas Bowen was arrested for the online solicitation of a minor when a sting operation caught him

Bowen worked as a political director and treasurer for anti-abortion rights titan Texas Right to Life
A spokesperson for the group said he was terminated from his position on August 3

The group is one of the premier anti-abortion groups in the country and is known for setting anti-abortion goals and agendas for other states

By JOSEPH MICHALITSIANOS FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 26 August 2022 

A man who worked as a political director at one of Texas' biggest anti-abortion advocacy groups, Texas Right to Life, has been arrested after being trapped by an online sting targeting pedophiles, cops say.

Bowen allegedly 'knowingly' solicited a minor online 'with the intent' of engaging 'in sexual contact or sexual intercourse or deviate sexual intercourse.'

His attempts to meet with the child were actually part of an undercover police sting, and there was never any danger to any underage person, cops say.

Authorities said Lucas 'Luke' Bowen was arrested 'on scene,' meaning they had enough evidence from his online exchanges they could arrest him without a warrant.

Bowen has since been fired from Texas Right to Life, which has also begun scrubbing mentions of him from its website.

While the former political director and treasurer participated in programs aimed at encouraging college students to become pro-life advocates, a spokesperson for the organization said 'he was not involved with minors in our youth programs.'

Bowen was charged on August 3 with the second-degree felony, and could face up to 20 years in prison.

 


Lucas Bowen, a political director for Texas Right to Life, was arrested on charges of soliciting sex from a minor online after a sting operation was conducted



Bowen, who is still seen in seen on the group's website in pictures like this, also served as a treasurer before he was terminated on August 3 following his arrest


Along with serving as a political director, Bowen gave speeches on behalf of Texas Right to Life and participated in youth programs

Bowen's lawyer reportedly defended his client by saying 'this investigation revolves around a fictitious alleged minor created by law enforcement and posted on the Internet. There is not a real victim in the case.'

Court records show that Bowen pleaded not guilty to the solicitation charge on August 16 and will appear before the court again on September 22.

A spokesperson for the group said he was terminated from his position on August 3.

Bowen was caught and charged after a sting operation run by the Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) task force program, said Montgomery County First Assistant District Attorney Mike Holley.

Holly said Bowen's arrest happened 'on the scene,' which means Bowen's actions when talking to officers posing as children provided enough evidence to arrest him without a warrant.

ICAC calls itself a "national network of 61 coordinated task forces, representing over 5,400 federal, state, and local law enforcement.

Texas Right to Life is known to donate heavily to anti-abortion candidates and encourages youths to volunteer for campaigns


Bowen spoke to college-age students and encouraged them to get involved in campaigns for anti-abortion candidates

Bowen was a vocal higher-up at Texas Right to Life, giving speeches and interviews on behalf of the organization and also served as the organization's treasurer.

The group is one of the premier anti-abortion groups in the country and is known for setting anti-abortion goals and agendas for other states as well as donating large sums to anti-abortion candidates.

Last year, they set up a website urging people to secretly become 'pro-life whistleblowers' and report on suspected illegal abortions they could then sue over. -

The pro-life outfit is known to run 'boot camps' for budding anti-abortion activists, and Bowen was reported to have been involved in these.

A now-deleted press release from 2018 says Bowen spoke to college-age students and encouraged them to get involved in campaigns for anti-abortion candidates.

COMMENTARY
Trump's return is distracting the GOP — and allowing Democrats to get things done

Biden racks up wins on guns, climate, and loans — as Trump conspiracies weaken the GOP's obstructionist powers

By AMANDA MARCOTTE

Senior Writer
SALON
PUBLISHED AUGUST 25, 2022 

Joe Biden and Donald Trump

(Photo illustration by Salon/Getty Images)

Republicans are acting uncharacteristically flat-footed in response to President Joe Biden's announcement that he'll be forgiving up to $20,000 in student loan debt to people who make under $125,000 a year. Sure, Fox News pundits are all crying about it, but they can't quite seem to get their story straight on why viewers are supposed to be outraged.

Sean Hannity complained, "The people that likely will benefit the most are middle class" and whined that the "young people that work on my TV show" will get relief. He tried to make it sound bad, but he inadvertently pointed out that the program benefits his audience. Jeanine Pirro called it "disgusting" and suggested that the only legitimate way to fund a college education is to have your family pay for it all. Not an appealing argument to an audience who would rather be spending their retirement funds on cruises instead of grandkids' escalating tuitions. Tucker Carlson got a little closer to stroking the Republican voter erogenous zones with a word salad about "postcolonial liberation studies from Wesleyan" and "reparations" and claiming kids today are "Xanax-addicted robots with no job prospects." But honestly, even his heart doesn't seem in it. You get the feeling he can't wait to get back to screeching about how trans kids and the Obamas are conspiring to keep your daughter from giving you white grandbabies.

As Media Matters rapid response deputy director Andrew Lawrence said on Twitter, "no one complaining about student debt relief today will ever even think about it again after Monday."

It's not just the student loan thing. Democrats have been shockingly productive in the past few months, despite a slim 50-vote majority in the Senate (with Vice President Kamala Harris as a tiebreaker) and a filibuster in the way. The student loan forgiveness is just the latest in a string of wins over what is usually a sleepy summer. The biggest, of course, is the sudden passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which will inject billions of investment money into green energy technologies to fight climate change here and around the world. They even managed to pass a gun control bill through the Senate!

There was a time not too long ago when there was no chance in hell that Democrats would get any of this done. Not with only 50 senators, a filibuster, and a centrist Democrat in the White House who used to be so bank-friendly that his nickname in his earlier years was "the senator from MBNA." The Republican Party of the old days would have been able to leverage this situation to keep Democrats from getting anything done.

Katy Tur on how ratings can influence cable TV news stories
Go To Video Page

Trump's antics have already been a political gift to Biden and the Democrats.

But that's not happening right now, and there's one primary reason why: Donald J. Trump.

He's a black hole that absorbs all attention with his relentless criminality and narcissistic antics. It's alarming in most ways, especially the cult-like hold he has over his followers. But it has one silver lining: While Trump and his followers obsess about an imaginary "deep state," they're not paying attention to what Democrats are actually doing. From the drunk uncle posting on Facebook to the Fox News punditry to Republican leadership in Congress, GOP energies are all sucked up by making excuses for Trump's crimes. They don't have a lot left in the tank after that to raise much of a fuss about student loan forgiveness, green energy, or gun control.

Related

America has a chance to retreat from madness: Will the midterms save us — or doom democracy?

It didn't use to be this way. Republicans used to be extremely good at whipping their base into a frenzy of opposition against Democratic policies, even ones most of these voters would benefit from. They knew how to create enough noise to keep Republican politicians in line and peel off enough cowardly Democratic support, killing all manner of progressive legislation.

For instance, Republicans very nearly killed Obamacare, despite Democrats having a theoretically filibuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate. They did so with non-stop and misleading propaganda ("death panels," anyone?), which compelled throngs of irate conservative voters to flood town halls during Congress' August recess and scare the pants off Democrats in swing districts. The sustained noise was successful in peeling off enough Democrats that the bill would have died, but for some deft political maneuvering at the hands of Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

In 2013, the nation was outraged after the Christmas season massacre of 26 people — including 20 first graders — in Newtown, Connecticut. Yet Republicans and the NRA were still able to destroy all proposed gun safety bills, despite Democrats holding a majority in the Senate. By whipping the Fox News audience into a frenzy of paranoia about this, Republicans were not only able to hold the line against any bill passing, but they even chipped off some Democratic support in swing states. Contrast that with the recent gun bill that not only passed with total Democratic support but also garnered 14 Republican votes in the Senate.

A big difference between now and then is that Republicans are struggling to tap into that once bottomless resource of cranky Fox News viewers willing to shriek at their elected representatives — and it is because those people are all way too worried about what Trump's up to.

The gun bill was passed during the same time period that the January 6 committee was holding hearings. The GOP base was too preoccupied with nuh-uhing the committee findings to think much about gun control. Nor did we need to worry about Republicans reacting to Biden signing the massive climate bill as they did to Obamacare, complete with massive protests and the formation of a new version of the "Tea Party." They've been way too busy freaking out about the FBI raid at Mar-a-Lago for all of that.

Given a few more FBI raids and January 6 committee hearings, heaven only knows what other progressive priorities will suddenly be able to pass.

Indeed, you can sense Republican leadership's desperation in the way they are trying to tie the Inflation Reduction Act to the FBI searching Trump's residence for stolen classified materials. The conspiracy theory claiming the bill will lead to "87,000 IRS agents" supposedly kicking down doors and murdering MAGA-Americans only has legs because the right-wing press keeps tying this lie to Trump's false claims he's somehow the victim of an FBI conspiracy. But because they've hitched this conspiracy so tightly to the Trump story, it may be hard for it to get traction outside of the world of people who are already obsessed with Trump. A huge part of why the GOP freak-outs of old about Obamacare and gun control were so effective is that they were able to appeal to swing voters and independents who were susceptible to disinformation. When a conspiracy theory is tied to Trump, however, it means those folks tend to tune it out as more Trumpian nonsense.

Related

"87,000 IRS agents": New conspiracy theory proves Trump's encouragement of violence is GOP standard

That doesn't mean that Republicans have had no luck sowing lies, especially on the state and local levels. Conspiracy theories about "critical race theory" and LGBTQ people "grooming" kids in schools have gained traction, especially in the suburban swing districts. These lies do better, I suspect, because they are disassociated from Trump. It's about appealing to the fears and prejudices of all sorts of people, not just Trump partisans whose entire world is making sure he doesn't face punishment for his crimes.

Indeed, the Republican noise machine was quite successful at obstructing Biden earlier in his term. Both the anti-vaccine push and the attacks on the Build Back Better bill successfully sabotaged Biden's agenda in his first year and a half. It was really only once Trump started to seep back into the news this past summer that Democrats were able to seize the chance to start getting things done.

Overall, Trump looks like a net negative for the GOP going into the midterms. His Supreme Court appointments allowed Roe v. Wade to be overturned, which looks like it's driving up turnout for pro-choice voters. Trump's endorsed candidates do well in the primaries but are falling behind in the general election polls, due to radicalism and/or idiocy. The January 6 hearings and the Mar-a-Lago search are reminding voters of how much Republicans have hitched their wagon to Trump and his crimes. Democrats are outperforming expectations in pre-midterm special elections as a result.

But whatever happens in the midterms, Trump's antics have already been a political gift to Biden and the Democrats. While everyone was staring at Trump — and while his supporters were preoccupied with defending him — Democrats were able to push through a bunch of priorities that might not have ever otherwise passed. Given a few more FBI raids and January 6 committee hearings, heaven only knows what other progressive priorities will suddenly be able to pass.


Amanda Marcotte is a senior politics writer at Salon and the author of "Troll Nation: How The Right Became Trump-Worshipping Monsters Set On Rat-F*cking Liberals, America, and Truth Itself." Follow her on Twitter @AmandaMarcotte and sign up for her biweekly politics newsletter, Standing Room Only.

The Mar-a-Lago raid’s Saudi connection

Posted on August 25, 2022 

Author: Adam Lammon

SPECTATOR WORLD

It appears that the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Florida residence was just the tip of the iceberg. Indeed, the Bureau’s probe has been underway for months, and its decision to interview former White House lawyers suggests that law enforcement is not only interested in what was in the more than 700 pages of documents that Trump took, but also why he took them.

The Washington Post recently alleged that some of those documents are related to nuclear weapons. This has shone a light on Trump’s prior attempts to share sensitive nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia, a country that has flirted with building nuclear weapons. Could Trump’s friends in Riyadh have been due for one of his infamous quid pro quos?

History provides a guide. As early as 2016, Donald Trump Jr., Trump’s son, met with an emissary who offered Saudi and Emirati aid for his father’s presidential election. This was certainly not lost on Trump the elder, who places a premium on loyalty and bragged about the Saudis’ generous support for his business empire. As president, Trump returned the favor: his first international trip was to Saudi Arabia, and he later kicked Qatar, a close US military partner in the Persian Gulf, to the curb when Riyadh moved to punish its smaller neighbor for audaciously pursuing an independent foreign policy. The next year, Riyadh rewarded Trump by reducing oil prices after he defended the Saudis’ decision to sic a hit squad on Jamal Khashoggi, a journalist for the Washington Post.


This is hardly an exhaustive list of Trump and the Saudis’ symbiotic dealings. Trump also vetoed a bipartisan congressional effort to end US involvement in the war on Yemen, a signature Saudi initiative, and repeatedly bypassed Congress to sell the Saudis billions of dollars of American weapons (and fired the State Department’s inspector general for examining his actions).

This brings us back to the nuclear issue. In 2019, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform chronicled how the Trump administration was intending to “rush” sensitive nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia as part of a plan that began during the Trump presidential campaign.

Congress never got to the bottom of the alleged misconduct. The committee found that the administration’s work was “ongoing” (which makes one wonder, did it ever stop?), and administration officials not only denied wrongdoing but justified their actions in national security terms. “If the United States does not sell the nuclear equipment to Saudi Arabia someone else will,” administration officials privately told the New York Times in 2018. If this outlook was new at the time, it certainly isn’t now. In fact, the Trump administration so successfully reframed the US debate on great power competition that even President Brain-Dead Biden — who has sought to distance himself from everything Trumpian — explained his recent embrace of Saudi Arabia as necessary to halt Riyadh’s cooperation with Russia and China.

Trump officials are right: countries like South Korea, France, Russia, and Communist China had been actively pursuing nuclear collaboration with the Saudis, and an American refusal to assist the Saudi nuclear program would have likely resulted in the United States losing market share to foreigners. Moreover, as Tristan Volpe has observed, the US has remarkably limited leverage when it comes to preventing its partners and allies from proliferating. As the Trump administration saw it, playing it “by the book” with a hostile Congress was not an option.

Be that as it may, there is more to Trump’s decision to back a lobbying effort by several US nuclear energy firms and Trump-connected politicos, including General Michael Flynn, Trump’s first national security advisor, and other retired military officials. One firm in particular, Westinghouse Electric, the only US manufacturer of large-scale nuclear reactors, was especially bullish on the deal. In 2018, Westinghouse’s parent company, Brookfield Asset Management, bailed out a floundering $1.8 billion building that was owned by the family company of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law. What role Kushner, who had built strong ties with the Saudi crown prince, ultimately played in the deal is unclear. The House committee’s report noted, however, that like Trump himself, Kushner was “directly involved” in the plot and the administration’s effort to develop a strategic partnership with the Saudis. Of course, that same relationship would be a key component of Kushner’s vaunted Middle East Peace Plan.

History may not repeat, but it certainly rhymes. Just this year, it was revealed that the Saudi Public Investment Fund, which is helmed by the Saudi crown prince, had invested $2 billion in Kushner’s private equity firm. Although the terms of the arrangement will pay Kushner a minimum of $25 million a year, it is apparent that Saudi Arabia wants to continue its client-patron relationship with the Trump family and inner circle — to everyone’s benefit. To be sure, Trump’s New Jersey golf club held a tournament in August 2022 that was sponsored by the same Saudi fund, provoking a protest by some families whose relatives had been killed on 9/11.

Trump knows a good business opportunity when he sees one. But would he really pilfer some of America’s most highly sensitive nuclear secrets to provide them to Saudi Arabia, as some have alleged? Much like the question of why Trump was hiding classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, it may be some time before we get answers. But the American people — and even Trump himself — deserve a speedy resolution. John Bolton, Trump’s second national security advisor, may be right: the mere existence of a piece of paper with “the word ‘nuclear’ on it doesn’t mean it’s apocalyptic.” But Trump’s obsession with nuclear weapons appears to have reared its ugly head again — with potentially deadly results.

The post The Mar-a-Lago raid’s Saudi connection appeared first on The Spectator World.

TRIFECTA

In one day, a man was diagnosed with monkeypox, HIV, and COVID-19
Andrea Michelson

Monkeypox skin lesions: small vesicles (Panel A), reddened haloed pustules (Panel B and Panel C) and umbilicated plaques (Panel D). After 16 days, the lesions had almost healed, leaving a small scar (Panels E to H). Journal of Infection

The first patient to have COVID-19, monkeypox, and HIV at the same time was recently diagnosed in Italy.

He came down with a fever and sore throat, then a blistering rash, about a week after a trip to Spain.

The man had unprotected sex with other men on vacation, which adds to growing evidence of sexually transmission

A man who tested positive for COVID-19 broke out in a rash later that day. Tests revealed he also had monkeypox and HIV, according to a case study in the Journal of Infection.

The 36-year-old patient, who was not identified by name in the report, is the first in the world to test positive for all three infections in a single day, the researchers said.

The Italian man reported that he developed a fever, sore throat and headaches nine days after returning from a trip to Spain. He tested positive for COVID-19 on July 2 — and his symptoms escalated past the typical presentation of the virus within hours.

First, the man noticed a rash starting to form on his left arm. Small, painful blisters appeared on his face, torso, legs, and backside the following day. As the blisters continued to spread and turned into telltale pustules, the man decided to seek emergency care at a hospital in Catania, Italy.

On July 6 — just a few days after his first symptoms — the man was diagnosed with a coinfection of COVID-19, monkeypox, and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). His case demonstrates how early symptoms of monkeypox and COVID can overlap, and underscores the importance of testing for other sexually transmitted infections after a diagnosis of monkeypox, doctors wrote in the report.
'Suggestive' skin lesions and recent travel

The man's body was dotted with lesions that looked like monkeypox in various stages of progression when he arrived at the hospital. Pustules on the palm of his hand and the side of his foot were bulging with pus and haloed in red. Other sores had turned into scabs with depressed centers — one of the telltale signs of the virus.

The lesions also affected the patient's perianal region, which has been typical in the recent outbreak. Experts suspect a likelihood of sexual transmission of monkeypox because the outbreak has mainly affected men who have sex with men in their intimate regions.

Since the patient disclosed that he had unprotected sex with other men on his vacation to Spain, doctors tested him for monkeypox and ordered a full STI panel upon his intake at the hospital. According to his medical history, the man also had syphilis in 2019 and was negative for HIV as of his last test in September 2021.

It's likely that his HIV infection was fairly recent, based on his sexual history and immune markers that looked normal.

This particular case "emphasizes that sexual intercourse could be the predominant way of transmission" of monkeypox, doctors wrote in the report.

The man received treatment for COVID and HIV

As this is the first known coinfection of COVID-19, monkeypox, and HIV, doctors don't yet know how the trio of viruses could affect a patient's condition.

The Italian patient recovered well, with almost all of his monkeypox lesions crusting over after a few days in the hospital. He received an infusion of Sotrovimab, a monoclonal antibody therapy, to treat his COVID infection and improved the next day.

By day six in the hospital, most of the man's symptoms had resolved. Swabs for COVID and monkeypox were still positive, but he had no new skin lesions and was discharged to home isolation.

When he returned for a follow-up visit, the patient's sores had healed "almost completely, leaving a small scar." He did not require treatment for monkeypox, although some physicians may recommend antivirals (namely tecovirimat, or TPOXX) for people with compromised immune systems.

The patient was put on a combination antiretroviral therapy to maintain his immune system function and lower the amount of HIV in his bloodstream. Like many others who live with HIV, he'll need to continue taking the medication to keep the disease at bay.

British scientists from major COVID-19 trial turn focus to monkeypox

BY REUTERS LONDON AUG 24, 2022 

A pharmacist administers a dose of Imvanex, a vaccine to protect against the monkeypox virus, at a pharmacy in Lille, northern France, Aug. 10, 2022. (AFP Photo)


The British scientists who were behind one of the most major therapeutic COVID-19 trials have now turned their focus to finding treatments for monkeypox, a viral disease that has been recently labeled a global health emergency by the World Health Organization (WHO).

The team from Oxford University behind the so-called RECOVERY trial – which honed in on four effective COVID-19 treatments – on Tuesday unveiled a new trial, dubbed PLATINUM, to confirm whether SIGA Technologies' tecovirimat is an effective treatment for monkeypox.

Although there are vaccines developed for the closely related smallpox that can reduce the risk of catching monkeypox, there are currently no treatments that have been proven to help hasten recovery in those who develop the disease.

More than 40,000 confirmed cases of monkeypox – including a handful of deaths – in over 80 countries where the virus is not endemic have been reported since early May. Over 35% of the current global case count is in the United States, while the United Kingdom has over 3,000 confirmed cases.

The virus is transmitted chiefly through close contact with an infected person. It typically causes mild symptoms including fever, rash, swollen lymph nodes and pus-filled skin lesions. Severe cases can occur, though people tend to recover within two to four weeks, according to the WHO.

Siga's drug, branded Tpoxx, has been cleared to treat diseases caused by the family of orthopoxvirus that includes smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox by the European Union and United Kingdom, but due to limited trial data it is generally only used in severe cases in Britain.

In the United States and Canada, the drug is only approved to treat smallpox.

Since smallpox has been eradicated, and cases of monkeypox and cowpox typically occur sporadically, studies to assess the effectiveness of the drug in infected people have so far not been carried out.

Instead, its effectiveness is based on studies in animals infected with lethal doses of orthopoxviruses, as well tests of the medicine's effects in healthy humans.

The PLATINUM trial, funded by a 3.7 million pound ($4.35 million) U.K. government grant, aims to recruit at least 500 participants. Participants will either be given a 14-day course of tecovirimat twice daily, or a placebo.

To assess the drug's effectiveness, the rate at which lesions heal, the time taken until patients test negative for the virus, and the proportion of patients who require hospitalisation due to complications will be tracked.

"I'm hoping that we can have a result before Christmas, but it depends on the rate of recruitment," said Sir Peter Horby, professor of emerging infections and global health at the University of Oxford and the director of the new Pandemic Sciences Institute.

Earlier this month, U.S. officials indicated they were planning a randomized clinical trial in the country to determine whether tecovirimat should secure U.S. approval for monkeypox.

Siga, which sells an oral and intravenous formulation of the drug, has already received $60 million worth of orders for oral tecovirimat this year.

Meanwhile, the only approved monkeypox vaccine – made by Danish company Bavarian Nordic – is in short supply, pushing countries to stretch existing supplies.

WE ARE NOT POST PANDEMIC

World crossed tragic milestone of 1 million reported Covid deaths: WHO

One-third of global population still unvaccinated, says health agency chief



Published: Fri 26 Aug 2022,

The world crossed the tragic milestone of 1 million reported Covid-19 deaths so far this year, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced Thursday.

''We cannot say we are learning to live with Covid-19 when 1 million people have died with Covid-19 this year alone, when we are two-and-a-half years into the pandemic and have all the tools necessary to prevent these deaths,'' said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus in his opening remarks at the Covid-19 media briefing.

''Once again, we ask all governments to strengthen their efforts to vaccinate all health workers, older people and others at the highest risk, on the way to 70% vaccine coverage for the whole population.''

He noted that one-third of the world’s population remains unvaccinated, including two-thirds of health workers and three-quarters of older adults in low-income countries.

''All countries at all income levels must do more to vaccinate those most at risk, to ensure access to life-saving therapeutics, to continue testing and sequencing, and to set tailored, proportionate policies to limit transmission and save lives.'' '

'This is the best way to drive a truly sustainable recovery,'' he affirmed.

Pakistan streets witness storm of infuriated protestors against inflated energy bills

ANI
26th August 2022, 08:37 GMT+10

Karachi [Pakistan], August 26 (ANI): Staging a massive protest against the over-billing of the electricity bills in Pakistan, numerous protestors stormed the office of K-electric in Korangi district and held demonstrations in different areas of Karachi Thursday.

Several protestors stormed different localities of Karachi and also vandalised and destroyed furniture of the K-Electric office, according to Express Tribune. Apparently, the over-billing of the electricity bills and long load-sheddings have infuriated citizens forcing them to take to the streets in different areas of the city.

Claiming that high taxes on energy bills were beyond affordability, the enraged protestors blocked the road by putting up barriers and burning tyres.

Separately, local residents also held protests against over-billing and prolonged power outages in Malir Halt and said that a large part of their income is being spent on payment of electricity bills, adding to the miseries of their lives.

As per the Express Tribune, North Karachi residents also staged a protest against power outages and over-billing in front of the KE office near the Power House roundabout, however, the police reached the spot and dispersed the protesters after negotiations.

Apart from this, demonstrations against over-billing were also held in other areas of the city including Nazimabad.

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the local residents staged protests in Sir Syed Town Kalyana of the North Karachi area.

Earlier, numerous people took to the streets on Monday and gathered in front of the Peshawar Electric Supply Company office in Saidu Sharif, after the excessive rise in fuel cost adjustment (FCA) charges on electricity bills. Due to the imposition of taxes on energy bills, residents of Amankot, Faizabad, Rahimabad, Saidu Sharif, Gul Kada, Panr and other suburbs of Mingora marched from their respective areas and held protests and subsequently marched towards the Swat Press Club where their leaders, including local government members, claimed the current month's bills were heavily laden with FCA and other taxes.

Last month, Prime Minister Shehbaz said the federal government was making all-out efforts to revive the stalled power plants to put an end to the huge energy crisis faced by the country.

Pakistan already has two long-term supply deals with Qatar, the first signed in 2016 for five cargoes a month, and the second in 2021, under which Pakistan currently gets three monthly shipments but the nation is currently under a massive grip of widespread power outrages as procurement of the chilled fuel remains unreliable and expensive due to its increased reliance on LNG for electricity generation.

The fast depletion of the foreign exchange reserves was the result of Pakistan's inflation of twin deficits, and a lack of foreign currency inflows. (ANI)

Perseverance Mars rover finds surprising volcanic rocks in crater that was once a lake

These rocks really shouldn't be there.

By Keith Cooper 

Perseverance found volcanic rocks on the floor of Jezero Crater, such as this basaltic rock (center), nicknamed 'Rochette,' which Perseverance took a sample from. (Image credit: NASA/JPL–Caltech)

The surprising discovery of volcanic, "igneous," rocks by NASA's Perseverance Mars rover on the Jezero Crater's floor could be the key to unlocking Mars' climate history and revealing exactly when it was wet and potentially habitable, according to a comprehensive analysis of findings made during Perseverance's first year on the Red Planet.

"We were very excited to find igneous rocks," Ken Farley, a professor of geochemistry at California Institute of Technology (Caltech), project scientist on the mission and lead author of the new paper, told Space.com.

The discovery of volcanic rocks was a complete surprise, since the expectation was that the Perseverance rover would be landing on sedimentary rocks formed from mud and detritus laid down by the ancient lake that filled the Mars rover's landing site, Jezero crater, about 3.7 billion years ago.

"Most of us had expected to be studying rocks deposited by the lake, and it took us quite a while to come to terms with the fact that the rocks on the crater floor are igneous," Farley said

Perseverance landed on Mars on Feb. 18, 2021, with the 28-mile-wide (45-kilometers) Jezero Crater chosen as its landing site because of an extremely prominent and ancient river delta that spills into the crater. Planetary scientists and astrobiologists hope that such an environment would have been conducive to life billions of years ago. Indeed, some of the rocks found in Jezero Crater have a similar composition to rocks from Earth's deep subsurface, where the oxidation of iron through interactions with water can produce molecular hydrogen (a potential energy source for microbial life) and hydrocarbons such as methane that can act as the building blocks of some of life's more complex compounds.

The origin of Jezero's igneous rocks remains a mystery, since there are no obvious volcanic features in or near the crater, according to Farley. Perseverance has been studying two formations of igneous rock, named Séítah (after the Navajo word for "amidst the sand") and Máaz (the Navajo for "Mars"), with the latter overlying the former. Séítah is rich in olivine, which is a common volcanic mineral made from magnesium-iron silicate. Meanwhile, Máaz is interpreted as having formed from lava that flowed over Séítah.

The view from orbit by ESA's Mars Express spacecraft of the ancient river delta spilling sediment into Jezero Crater. (Image credit: ESA/DLR/FU-Berlin)

In a second paper, led by Svein-Erik Hamran, a professor of remote sensing at the University of Oslo, Norway, results from Perseverance's ground-penetrating radar show that the entire geological unit containing Séítah and Máaz extends underground and has been partially uplifted, placing it at an angle.

"We really are puzzling over that one," Farley said. "It's a very distinctive feature — an almost 1-kilometer-long [0.6 miles] ridge of rock that is tilted by about 10 degrees."

This finding is unexpected because to lift geological units like that requires exceptional tectonic forces, but Mars does not have plate tectonics, nor is there any strong evidence that it ever did. "It's safe to say that the rocks were tilted after they were deposited by some phenomenon yet to be determined," Farley added.

The lake filled Jezero sometime after Séítah and Máaz formed, covering them with mud that ultimately formed a deep layer of sedimentary rock. But as Mars' climate changed, the lake dried up, exposing the sediment. "Since then, it's been sitting there being eroded, mostly by wind," Farley said. "Three-and-a-half billion years' worth of blowing sand can really sculpt a landscape."

One of the things that sets Perseverance apart from previous rovers is its ability to cache samples of rock and soil for a future mission to retrieve and return to Earth. NASA and the European Space Agency are working together on a sample-return mission to launch in 2028, and Perseverance has taken vital samples of igneous rocks found on the crater floor. For his part, Farley can't wait to get his hands on them, because in a terrestrial laboratory igneous rocks can be more easily dated. Scientists would be able to provide dates to the timeline of Jezero Crater that are far more accurate than those estimated from counting craters (the more craters there are, the older a surface is).

"The igneous rocks and the lake are both very old, in the vicinity of 3.7 billion years," Farley said. "I say that glibly, because that age is based on crater counting and the uncertainty on that is plus or minus half a billion years. That is an enormous uncertainty!"

Another key measurement that the samples could provide is how long Mars — or at least Jezero Crater — was wet for. The crater floor has a distinct lack of clays, which typically form when rock is exposed to a lot of water over a long period, meaning that either the water in Jezero was long-lived but shallow, or that the lake didn't exist for very long, at least not on geological timescales.

"I would hazard less than a million years," Farley said.

However, groundwater could have persisted for a much longer time, leaving its signature on the samples collected by Perseverance. Already the rover has detected salts, such as perchlorate, in the cracks between the rocks, which could have come from interactions with groundwater or even with frost melt, and therefore they could be much younger than the lake.

Now that Séítah and Máaz have been characterized as best they can be, Perseverance has departed for new pastures on the river delta that was the chief reason for landing in Jezero in the first place.

"We were expecting to land very close to the delta and begin our exploration there, but it didn't quite turn out that way," Farley said. So, after exploring the igneous rocks, Perseverance embarked on a record-breaking 3-mile (5 km) sojourn to reach the clay-rich delta, showing off the capabilities of its advanced autonomous navigation.

"We're now on the delta," confirmed Farley. "We've been working there for the past few months and we are clearly now on sedimentary rock that was deposited in the lake."

Four papers describing Perseverance's findings were published on Thursday (Aug. 25), in the journals Science(opens in new tab) and Science Advances.