Trump administration divided over new 5G network

AFP/File / SAUL LOEBThe Pentagon has expressed opposition to the deployment of a new 5G cellular network

The Trump administration is divided over the deployment of a new 5G cellular network, with the Pentagon, NASA and others at odds with other government agencies.

The five-member Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in late April to approve the deployment of a 5G cellular network by Ligado Networks.

Opponents of the plan argue that it would use spectrum that could potentially disrupt frequencies used for commercial and military Global Positioning System (GPS) signals.

The FCC decision has received the backing of Attorney General Bill Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

But Pentagon chief Mark Esper, NASA, the Commerce Department, Department of Homeland Security and major airlines have voiced their opposition.

On Wednesday, top Pentagon officials pleaded their case before a Senate committee.

"There are too many unknowns, and the risks are too great to allow the proposed Ligado system to proceed in light of the operational impact to GPS," said Dana Deasy, the top advisor to the defense secretary for information technology.

Senator Jim Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, also voiced his opposition to the project by Ligado, a Virginia company formerly known as LightSquared.

"I do not think it is a good idea to place at risk the GPS signals that enable our national and economic security for the benefit of one company and its investors," Inhofe said.

"After extensive testing and analysis, experts at almost every federal agency tell us that Ligado's plan will interfere with GPS systems," he said. "Interfering with GPS will hurt the entire American economy."

Inhofe said he had raised the question with President Donald Trump and that the FCC decision had been made "without cluing the president in on any of this."

Deasy said the Pentagon would lodge an appeal in a bid to have the FCC reverse its decision.

Defense top brass criticize Ligado's 5G proposal

Chief of Space Operations at US Space Force General John Raymond testifies before the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense Spectrum Policy and the Impact of the Federal Communications Commission's Ligado Decision on National Security during the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC Wednesday. Pool photo by Shawn Thew/UPI | License Photo

May 6 (UPI) -- Top Pentagon officials told lawmakers Wednesday that a proposed nationwide network to provide 5G and internet-of-things services was "too risky to be worth it."

"This is fundamentally a bad deal for America's national and economic security," said Dana Deasy, the Department of Defense's Chief Information Officer, at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the recently-approved Ligado proposal and its implications for national security.


In April the Federal Communications Commission approved a proposal that would allow Ligado Networks to deploy technological services using the L-band spectrum that runs adjacent to the spectrum used for global positioning systems, which form the basis for most mapping software.

The Department of Defense has repeatedly criticized the proposal, saying it would disrupt defense operations as well as significant aspects of civilian life.

At Wednesday's hearing defense leaders warned that the Ligado plan would disrupt the accuracy of weapons systems, first responders' 911 navigation ability and shipping systems.

"GPS has also long been a critical technology that has supported the Nation's public safety, law enforcement medical and medical responders. It literally saves lives. While Americans at home are typically not under threat of purposeful electronic attack, the GPS services they depend on every day for life and livelihood are also threatened if the GPS signal and its environment are not protected from disruption," said General John W. Raymond, head of the newly-created United States Space Force.

Retired U.S. Coast Guard Admiral Thad W. Allen criticized the lack of transparency in the process by which the decision was made, as well as the likely technological consequences.

"In the case of Ligado Networks, FCC did not follow the normal regulatory process for reasons that remain unclear," Allen said, drawing a contrast from the process of issuing a license to Dish Networks to convert satellite service spectrum to terrestrial mobile broadband spectrum.

Ligado wrote a letter to the committee, which was read Wednesday, defending its technology as critical to 5G development.

"We now look forward to the opportunity to build a network that will advance our Nation's progress on the race to 5G," the company wrote.

Esper, lawmakers criticize FCC's approval of Ligado 5G proposal

Defense Secretary Mark Esper, shown here during an April 1 press conference, on Thursday tweeted criticism of an FCC-approved proposal to implement a national 5G and IoT network. Photo by Oliver Contreras/UPI | License Photo

April 23 (UPI) -- Secretary of Defense Mark Esper on Thursday criticized a proposal to deploy a nationwide network to provide 5G and internet-of-things services, saying it could disrupt GPS services millions of Americans rely on daily.

The FCC approved the proposal Monday, which would see Ligado Networks deploy 5G and internet-of-things services using L-band spectrum that runs adjacent to spectrum used for GPS.

"I applaud the congressional defense leaders for their efforts to protect national security, ensure economic prosperity, promote technological leadership, & preserve Americans' way of life," Esper wrote on Twitter.

Esper also posted a link to a Wednesday statement from the Senate Armed Services Committee criticizing the proposal.

MONOPOLY CAPITALISM

RELATED Federal agencies urge FCC to ban China-owned telecom over security risks

"The problem here is that Ligado's planned usage is not in the prime mid-band spectrum being considered for 5G -- and it will have a significant risk of interference with GPS reception, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration," said the statement, which was signed by leadership from both SASC and the House Armed Services Committee, from both political parties.

"The signals interference Ligado's plan would create could cost taxpayers and consumers billions of dollars and require the replacement of current GPS equipment just as we are trying to get our economy back on its feet quickly -- and the FCC has just allowed this to happen," the members of Congress said.

Thursday's statement is not the first time the Pentagon has criticized the Ligado proposal, and lawmakers tried to stop the proposal earlier in April.

WAIT A MINUTE WHAT DO THEY KNOW WE DON'T

RELATED DoD extends travel restrictions for troops, families through June 30

The DoD is also not alone among federal departments in its criticism.

Over the weekend, the Pentagon issued a joint statement with the Department of Transportation saying the disruption to the Global Positioning System -- which is the basis for most mobile mapping software -- would be massively disruptive to civilian and military life.

"Americans rely on our Global Positioning System each day for many things: to locate citizens in need of emergency assistance through our E-911 system, to secure our financial system, to order and receive shipments, to travel by car for work and leisure, to facilitate commercial trucking and construction work, and even to make a simple cellphone call," the statement said

"Our Departments rely on GPS each day for all those reasons as well to coordinate tactical national security operations, launch spacecraft, track threats, and facilitate travel by air and sea. The proposed Ligado decision by the Federal Communications Commission will put all these uses of GPS at risk."

                                            

PROVING MONOPOLY CAPITALISM IS THE AMERICAN WAY

Pompeo has no evidence about virus lab leak: China 

POOL/AFP/File / Andrew HarnikUS Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said that there was 'enormous evidence' that the new coronavirus came out of a Wuhan lab

China hit back Wednesday at US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over his claims that the coronavirus originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, saying he "doesn't have any" evidence.

Washington and Beijing have clashed repeatedly over the virus, which emerged in China late last year but has since spiralled into a global pandemic.

Theories that the virus came from a maximum-security virology lab in Wuhan have swirled since earlier this year, but were brought into the mainstream last month by US government officials.

Pompeo said on Sunday that there was "enormous evidence" to show that the new coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab.

"I think this matter should be handed to scientists and medical professionals, and not politicians who lie for their own domestic political ends," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

"Mr Pompeo repeatedly spoke up but he cannot present any evidence. How can he? Because he doesn't have any."

On Wednesday, Pompeo reiterated his claims, though with a caveat.

"We don't have certainty, and there is significant evidence that this came from the laboratory -- those statements can both be true," Pompeo told reporters.

Most scientists believe the new virus jumped from animals to humans, with suspicion focused on a market in Wuhan that sold wildlife for meat.

US President Donald Trump has been increasingly critical of China's management of the outbreak, saying last week he had seen evidence linking the virus to the Wuhan lab and threatening new trade tariffs against Beijing.

The United States is the worst-hit country in the world, with more than 70,000 deaths.

Beijing has accused the US of trying to divert attention from its domestic handling of the outbreak.

"We urge the US to stop... shifting the focus to China," Hua said.

"It should handle its domestic affairs properly first. The most important thing now is to control the US' domestic pandemic spread and think of ways to save lives."

- Virus tensions -

The World Health Organization has said US claims about the origin of the virus were "speculative".

The top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci has echoed the WHO's statement, telling National Geographic that all evidence so far "strongly indicates" a natural origin.

But countries including the United States and Australia have called for an investigation into how the disease transformed into a global pandemic.

The WHO has also said it was waiting for an invitation from China to participate in its investigations into the animal origins of the virus.

But Beijing's UN ambassador in Geneva said Wednesday that China will not invite international experts to investigate the source of COVID-19 until after securing the "final victory" over the virus.

The envoy, Chen Xu, also said China has to counter the "absurd and ridiculous" US politicisation of the new coronavirus, adding that the "right atmosphere" was needed for an invitation to take place.

Officially, China's toll for the virus is 4,633 -- but several countries have cast doubt on whether the numbers are accurate.

China and the US had only recently soothed economic tensions, with the signing of a "phase one" trade deal in January.

But since then the world's two biggest economies have been exchanging insults and accusations.

Trump and his administration angered Beijing by repeatedly referring to "the Chinese virus" when discussing the COVID-19 outbreak.

A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing later suggested it may have been the US military which brought the virus to Wuhan, and China has sought to distance itself from the virus.

Hua said on Wednesday that there had been "many reports" suggesting that there were coronavirus cases discovered in the US or France last year, and said that this suggests the "sources (of the virus) are very diverse."

bye-rox-lth-bfm/bgs

 RIP
Florian Schneider, co-founder of Germany's iconic Kraftwerk, dead at 73

AFP/File / BRUNO FERRANDEZKraftwerk, shown here in 2005, crafted the blueprint for genres from new wave to synth-pop, hip hop to rock, industrial to techno

Kraftwerk's Florian Schneider, co-founder of the pioneering electronic music group that re-wired the future of pop, has died, the group's management said Wednesday. He was 73 years old.

Schneider died following a short battle with cancer, according to a statement citing his fellow co-founder Ralf Huetter, obtained by AFP from Kraftwerk's publicist in Los Angeles.

Schneider and Huetter began their artistic collaboration in 1968 as part of the so-called "krautrock" movement -- a broad experimental genre blending psychedelic rock with electronic rhythms and early synthesizers, seen as a rebellion against the Anglo-Saxon pop brought in by British and American troops.

But Kraftwerk, launched in 1970, hatched a far more singular vision from their "Kling Klang" studio in the western German city of Duesseldorf.

Their influence on par with The Beatles, the duo crafted the blueprint for genres from new wave to synth-pop, hip hop to rock, industrial to techno.

The nearly 23-minute title track of their 1974 album "Autobahn" -- the German word for highway -- comprised the entire first side of the LP with a prototypical, hypnotizing sound of the future, punctuated with car horns, doors slamming and ignition.

The industrial clang, sparse arrangements and computerized beats of Kraftwerk -- which means "power station" in German -- brought international recognition to the group who famously said they wanted to make music more as machines than as men.

Schneider's tools included the electric flute, violin, electric guitar and synthesizer. He also sang with Huetter, who played keyboards.

Their haunting basslines, synthesizer pads and drum machines combined with robotic vocals captured the attention of a dizzying array of stars past and present, including David Bowie, Madonna, Daft Punk and Kanye West.

AFP/File / John MACDOUGALLFlorian Schneider left Kraftwerk in 2008 but the rest of the band he co-founded continues to tour

"My favorite group is a German band called Kraftwerk -- it plays noise music to 'increase productivity,'" Bowie told Playboy in 1976, when asked what will happen to music's future.

"Sound as texture, rather than sound as music. Producing noise records seems pretty logical to me," Bowie told the magazine.

The late legend named his largely instrumental track "V-2 Schneider" off the classic 1977 album "Heroes" after the Kraftwerk co-founder.

- Never-ending 'Autobahn' -

AFP/File / ROBERT ATANASOVSKIKraftwerk's 22-minute title track of their 1974 album "Autobahn" -- the German word for highway -- comprised the entire first side of the LP with a prototypical, hypnotizing sound of the future, punctuated with car horns, doors slamming and ignition

Born April 7, 1947, Schneider was the son of Paul Schneider-Esleben a prominent architect whose designs included the Cologne airport.

The musician met Huetter when the pair were both students in Duesseldorf, where they began cultivating their pioneering concepts, tapping into the ubiquity of machines and the growing place of technology in daily life.

While "Autobahn" was perhaps their best-known album internationally, they also found global success with "Radioactivity" (1975), "Trans-Europe Express" (1977), "The Man Machine" (1978) and even the later "Tour de France Soundtracks" (2003).

The notoriously enigmatic group in 2018 also took the Grammy for Best Dance/Electronic Album for "3-D The Catalogue," a high-tech recreation of their back albums.

They won a 2014 lifetime achievement Grammy but the six-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominees have yet to be chosen for induction into that pantheon of music royalty.

Schneider's "innovative music left a lasting legacy and his work will continue to exert influence across various genres for years to come," said the Recording Academy in a statement.

"Florian's creativity knew no bounds," the body behind the Grammys said, adding "our culture is richer" thanks to the German artist.

Schneider left the group at the end of 2008 and did not participate in future tours.

Before the coronavirus pandemic halted shows worldwide, the group in February had announced a North American tour of its immersive "3-D Concerts" -- a concept launched in 2013 that fuses three-dimensional visuals and performance art with Kraftwerk's music catalog.

AFP/File / ROBERT ATANASOVSKIKraftwerk, shown here in 2005, captured the attention of a dizzying array of stars past and present, including David Bowie, Madonna, Daft Punk and Kanye West

Music world tributes poured out to Schneider upon news of his death, including from the "Father of Disco" Giorgio Moroder of Italy, another major electronic dance music mastermind, who called the Kraftwerk co-founder "one of my heroes."

"The mighty Florian Schneider has left this earth. 2020 is really just the worst thus far," tweeted rockers Garbage, as Russian DJ Nina Kravitz wrote "what would electronic music be without Kraftwerk?"

France's legendary Jean-Michel Jarre also hailed Schneider: "My dear Florian Your Autobahn will never end."

THIRD WORLD USA
American Children Are Going Hungry in the Coronavirus Pandemic

Rates of food insecurity among kids have reached “an extent unprecedented in modern times.”

By Emma Ockerman May 6 2020


Young children in the U.S. are currently being crushed by an unprecedented hunger crisis during the coronavirus pandemic. Almost one in five households with kids under 12 reported struggling with food insecurity last month, according to a new study out Wednesday.

Utilizing data from two surveys — the COVID Impact Survey and The Hamilton Project/Future of the Middle Class Initiative Survey of Mothers with Young Children — a fellow at the Brookings Institute found that rates of food insecurity among kids have reached “an extent unprecedented in modern times.”

“This is alarming,” Lauren Bauer, a Brookings fellow in economic studies, told the New York Times. “These are households cutting back on portion sizes, having kids skip meals. The numbers are much higher than I expected.”

The Survey of Mothers with Young Children found that 17.4% of mothers with kids younger than 12 reported their kids weren’t eating enough because they couldn’t afford food last month. The rate represents a quadrupling from 2018 data, and it’s nearly three times higher than the level of hunger reported among kids during the Great Recession, Bauer said.

Last month, Feeding America warned that 18 million kids could go hungry during the coronavirus pandemic, given the staggering job loss that’s forced families to enter miles-long lines for food banks. The organization noted that the country’s previous high was during the worst of the recession in 2009, when 17.2 million kids went hungry. Approximately 1 in 4 kids could suffer this time around, Feeding America said, especially since many schools — a lifeline for poor kids — are closed to prevent the virus’ spread.

Before the pandemic hit, 37.2 million Americans dealt with food insecurity, including 11.2 million children. Even in normal times, many affected households struggle to feed themselves with government benefits offered through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially referred to as food stamps. The Brookings Institute suggested Wednesday that the government rapidly expand maximum SNAP benefits by at least 15%. Democrats have called for a similar expansion in recent weeks, though they’ve been unsuccessful in clinching it so far.

“New nationally representative surveys fielded since the pandemic began show that rates of food insecurity overall, among households with children, and among children themselves are higher than they have ever been on record,” Bauer wrote in a post about her research Wednesday. “Food insecurity represents an urgent matter for policymakers in the capitol and in statehouses across the country.”

Cover: A woman and her child pick from a selection of donated food at the "Bed-sty Campaign Against Hunger" food pantry in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, NY, April 14, 2020. As millions lose their jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, food insecurity for many has become a real issue. (Anthony Behar/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images)

This article originally appeared on VICE US.

Nearly 1 in 5 US children left hungry since virus crisis: study

AFP / ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDSChildren pick up free lunch in Arlington, Virginia on March 16, 2020, after schools closed due to coronavirus. Disrupted school lunch programs could be a factor in alarming rises in hunger among US children since the outbreak began, the study says

Nearly a fifth of young children in the United States are not getting enough to eat since the coronavirus pandemic erupted, according to research out Wednesday highlighting the broader health impact of the crisis.

The Brookings Institution report said a survey found that 17.4 percent of mothers with children aged 12 or under reported that their offspring were not eating enough due to lack of money.

"It is clear that young children are experiencing food insecurity to an extent unprecedented in modern times," said lead researcher Lauren Bauer.

"Food insecurity in households with children under 18 has increased by about 130 percent from 2018 to today," she added.

The survey to measure the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic uncovered figures worse than during the financial crisis of 2008.

Bauer described the results as "alarming," telling the New York Times that households were cutting back on portion sizes and kids were being forced to skip meals.

Disrupted school meal programs could also be factor, she said, with families not collecting meals from distribution sites and older siblings competing for limited supplies at home.

Bauer called for the government to increase food security programs and boost benefit levels.

At least 30 million American workers have lost their jobs in the economic shutdown imposed to thwart the spread of the virus.

The April employment report, due out Friday, is expected to show the jobless rate soaring -- perhaps as high as 20 percent -- reaching levels not seen since the Great Depression last century.

The new coronavirus has infected nearly 1.2 million people in the United States and killed around 72,000, and analysts fear some of the economic damage may be long-term.

Toronto Restaurants Are Boycotting Uber Eats, Saying It Costs Too Much

With dining in a no-go, food delivery apps are an easy way to reach a huge customer base. But a number of restaurants say it’s a deal with the devil.

By Anne Gaviola May 6 2020


IL FORNELLO RESTAURANTS ARE HOLDING A ONE-DAY UBER EATS BOYCOTT OVER "EXORBITANT" FEES THAT CUT INTO ALREADY THIN RESTAURANT MARGINS. PHOTO SUPPLIED.

A handful of Toronto restaurants are boycotting Uber Eats Wednesday saying it charges more than any other delivery app, while marketing itself as a company that is helping the struggling food industry.

According to Ian Sorbie, the president of Il Fornello Restaurants, which operates six Toronto area locations, Uber Eats’ cut from an order over its platform is 30 percent, while DoorDash’s commission is 25 percent, and Canadian startup SkipTheDishes is around 20.

“It’s a huge amount of money that Uber Eats takes while they talk about helping out restaurants. It’s total hypocrisy and false advertising,” said Sorbie. He’s referring to Uber Eats’ move to waive delivery fees to restaurants, which doesn’t apply to his business because it’s a small chain.

In an email to VICE, an Uber spokesperson said the $0 Delivery Fees apply to orders over $20 from independent restaurants. It has also waived activation fees and offers restaurants a reduced 15 percent fee if they choose to use their own delivery people.

Sorbie says when customers are offered free delivery, that saves the consumer money, but doesn’t always mean less cost to the restaurant.

The one-day boycott coincides with a national campaign, created by Takeout Canada, an initiative supported by hundreds of restaurants, encouraging people to order food from local businesses every Wednesday during the coronavirus pandemic.

Rival takeout delivery rates vary between 10 and 25 percent but Uber Eats is the most expensive, with a significant share of the market. According to research by Dalhousie University, it has captured between 30 and 40 percent of the market in Ontario. Rival Foodora, which announced plans to pull out of Canada last week, two months after its workers were granted the right to unionize in Ontario, charged about 20 percent commission.

Sorbie says there’s intense pressure to use these apps because the competition is. Small, independently owned restaurants typically have less of a cushion to get through this massive upheaval to the industry, which has already claimed more than 800,000 food service jobs.

Other restaurants in Toronto have dropped Uber Eats completely. Popular spots such as Craig’s Cookies and Sugo have quit the platform in recent weeks.

A recent survey by Restaurants Canada, a national industry group, shows that 75 percent of restaurants are “very concerned” about their current level of debt. Half of independent restaurants say they will have to close if conditions don’t improve in the next three months.

According to research released Tuesday by Dalhousie University, demand for food delivery services has surged during the coronavirus pandemic. “In 2019 we estimate the food delivery app market was worth $1.5 billion and as a result of the pandemic, it could exceed $2.5 billion by the end of this year,” said Sylvain Charleboix, director of Dalhousie’s agrifood analytics lab.

Delivery apps now offer contactless service and have dropped some fees. UberEats advertised free local delivery, which saves you money but doesn’t reduce what it charges restaurants. SkipTheDishes offers a 10.5 percent commission to restaurants who do their own deliveries and DoorDash is waiving April commission fees for new, independent restaurants.

According to an Abacus Data survey, taken before the pandemic hit, millennials are more likely than older Canadians to use food delivery apps. About sixty percent are frequent users, meaning they use the service at least once a month.

Sorbie says the best way to support your favourite restaurant is to call them directly and place an order for pickup—and cut out the middle man.

Michelle Jobin is a spokesperson for Canada Takeout, a restaurant advocacy group, and she suggests allocating the money you would spend at your favourite places. “Think about the places that bring you joy in your regular life and spend your money there. The big companies will come out of this OK because they have the means but it’s the small places that don’t,” she said.

If you can swing it, Jobin suggests buying gift cards to your favourite place and using those for birthday presents or special occasions (hot tip: Mother’s Day is Sunday). Many places offer different denominations if you don’t have a ton to spend.

According to Jobin, even people who have no extra money right now can still lend support. “If you have zero budget and things are really tough for you, use the power of whatever influence you have to talk about your love for that place,” she said. “On social media, to family and friends, create some hype, and hopefully people who have money will spend money there.”

Follow Anne Gaviola on Twitter.

‘This Is Just Evil’: New Law Would Force Trans Hungarians to Out Themselves

FASCIST REGIMES DEMAND ID FOR EVERYTHING
Showing your ID is required for nearly everything in Hungary. Getting IDs that reflects trans Hungarians' gender identities may become simply impossible.

By Nico Lang May 5 2020

LGBT PRIDE PARADE IN BUDAPEST, HUNGARY IN 2018. | GETTY IMAGES

This was shaping up to be the best year of Katalin Kobak’s life. After getting a long-awaited promotion at her job working for a multinational IT company in Budapest, Hungary, she came out to her coworkers as a transgender woman in January. They immediately accepted Kobak, who asked to use a pseudonym in this story, and began referring to her by her new name and pronouns.

Everything was great for two months, Kobak said, until COVID-19 hit. On March 30, the Hungarian parliament voted 137 to 53 to allow its far-right prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to indefinitely rule by decree as the central European country instituted nationwide lockdowns to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus. That action effectively suspended elections until further notice and also gave him the power to silence critics of his administration by criminalizing “misinformation” about the government’s response to COVID-19.

The very next day, Orbán’s government introduced an omnibus bill, known as T/9934, that would prevent trans Hungarians from correcting the gender marker listed on their official birth certificates. The legislation, which is likely to pass given the prime minister’s new emergency powers, would amend the Hungarian Registry Act to define an individual’s gender as based on “biological sex,” a status determined by “primary sex characteristics and chromosomes.” In a memo accompanying the bill, the government declared that “completely changing one’s biological sex is impossible” and so it should not “be changed in the civil registry either.”

Kobak recalled she was at work when she learned the legislation was being pushed through parliament, and she “cried for an hour.” One of the things that made the announcement so difficult, she said, is that the plan was introduced on the International Transgender Day of Visibility, an annual event to celebrate the accomplishments and resilience of trans communities around the world.

“I couldn’t think straight,” she told VICE. “I couldn’t believe that they could be so malicious. This is just evil.”

Kobak, who is in her mid-30s, said she has been extraordinarily lucky up until now. Although LGBTQ equality is a divisive issue in a country that has become increasingly conservative under Orbán’s leadership, her coming out was embraced by friends and family members. She lives in a progressive area of Budapest where she says she’s rarely felt unsafe to be herself. However, she worries things will change if the omnibus bill passes because it will give people more “power to openly hate trans people because they will fear less about the consequences.”

“It is a possibility that at some point in the future that it won’t be safe,” Kobak said. “It only takes one angry man or woman who comes after me. I was fortunate so far, but that can’t last forever.”

Trans Hungarians who spoke to VICE said the bill’s passage would make it impossible to go about their daily lives. Although the legislation doesn’t explicitly ban transgender people from updating the name on their birth certificates, names in Hungary are explicitly gendered. The official registry through the Hungarian Academy of Sciences only allows individuals to select a name from one of two lists, and to date, there have been no names approved for both men and women. A trans woman with a male gender marker on her birth records would, consequently, be forced to also have a male name.

On its face, trans advocates said having a birth certificate that doesn’t match an individual’s lived identity could be extremely dangerous in a country where many members of the community are not publicly open about their identities; it could lead to people being outed and potentially harmed. But what makes the government’s decision to deny corrected birth records to its transgender population additionally impactful is that all other forms of identification are tied to birth certificates in Hungary. It’s impossible to get a driver’s license or ID card that reflects a transgender person’s sense of self without having those documents changed first.

“Someone can only have the exact same name on their ID card and on all kinds of documentation,” said Tina Kolos Orban, vice president of the community group Transvanilla Transgender Association. “They can only be registered at the bank under that name. They can only sign contracts under that name.”

Having correct documents is particularly critical in Hungary, where residents are required to show their IDs on a near daily basis. Identification is required for everything from voting and picking up mail at the post office to applying for a bus pass. Ivett Ördög, a 39-year-old transgender woman living in Budapest, said a friend who is a student at a local college was “humiliated in front of the entire class” when she was asked to show “her male ID” while submitting a test.

Many trans Hungarians, including Ördög, have already been forced to live without a corrected birth certificate for years. While transgender people had long been allowed to apply for legal gender recognition under an informal process with few guidelines, the government instituted an official application process in 2018. But since then, federal authorities have delayed nearly all requests or declined to respond without giving any kind of explanation. In 2019, a complaint was filed to the European Court of Human Rights on behalf of 23 individuals who had been unable to apply for a corrected gender marker under the two-year-old regulations.

Ördög said the government’s actions have resulted in “harassment” and “abuse” as countless applicants have been made to wait in limbo. “This leads to situations where we have to explain ourselves and come out to people we don’t want to come out to,” she told VICE. “One time a person wanted to call the police on me because he said that I was using a fake ID.”

Because the omnibus bill is vaguely worded, many are concerned its impacts could be even more far-reaching. Although Hungary is one of 11 European Union member countries that does not recognize full marriage equality, trans people who successfully applied for a corrected gender marker prior to 2018 were permitted to marry someone of the opposite legal sex. If the government rolls back gender recognition for trans people, would their marriages automatically be invalidated?

“A lot of people who get a legal gender change move to a different city, create new friendships, and restart their life,” Ördög said. “All of these people who have in the last 20 to 30 years decided to go stealth, they are all going to be suddenly exposed.”

Trans advocates in Hungary say the omnibus bill will pass if it comes up for a vote in parliament, which is likely to occur next month. Since Orbán came to power in 2010, the ruling party, Fidesz, has likened homosexuality to pedophilia, called to ban LGBTQ Pride marches, and pushed a “family first” policy intended to boost birth rates among heterosexual couples. In 2019, Hungary pulled out of Eurovision amid reports that government ministers opposed the long-running song contest’s embrace of LGBTQ inclusion. A spokesperson for Orbán called the speculation “fake news” on Twitter but did not proffer another reason for the country’s refusal to participate.

Tamás Dombos, a board member of the Hungarian LGBTQ group Háttér Society, noted that the fact is that Orbán’s party has a two-thirds supermajority in parliament and “can adopt whatever legislation they want,” regardless of the impact. Since the omnibus bill was announced, Dombos said the organization has received an influx of calls from people who are considering taking their own lives.

“We've received calls from people saying, ‘My life will never be okay. I will never be able to live the way I want to,’” he told VICE. “The impact of this legislation can be really detrimental on the everyday life of people.”

While advocacy organizations plan to appeal to the Constitutional Court of Hungary and the European Court of Human Rights to strike down the legislation if it passes, some say the damage is already done. Kornélia Fekete, a student in her early 20s who asked to use a pseudonym in this story, plans to leave Hungary as soon as she graduates next semester. She said the omnibus bill has turned her “world upside down” because she suddenly had to start filing residency applications “so that the clock can start ticking and [she] can apply for citizenship as soon as possible.”

The 2020 citizenship application deadline for many countries has already passed and many countries are restricting immigration during the pandemic outright, but Fekete said she will not give up. “I’m not staying here,” she told VICE. “They don’t want me here. Why should I stay? They literally want to rule us out of existence.”

Others, however, who don’t have the means or the finances to move will have no choice but to stay and stick it out, and Kobak is attempting to remain hopeful. Her colleagues at work reached out to express their shock and disbelief regarding the omnibus bill, asking what they can do to help. But as much as she is trying to stay positive, Kobak said she has been in a “downward spiral and a depressed state” over the past few weeks, especially with the country virtually shut down due to COVID-19. She lives alone and has only been going out once a week to buy groceries.

If the omnibus bill has made persisting through an unprecedented global pandemic even worse, Kobak believes that is by design. She said that Orbán’s government has been waiting to do this for years and finally found the “perfect opportunity” with the country’s attention exclusively focused on COVID-19. Because of lockdown orders, Kobak can’t even leave her house to protest the legislation.

“There is no solution in sight,” she said. “I’ve checked the news every day to see if maybe somehow they would forget about this, but so far nothing. I’m beginning to lose hope that I will have my ID changed in the next five years. I don’t know.”

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REIFICATION
'Plague, Inc.' Developer Never Expected Reality to Look Like Its Video Game

The pandemic brought their game back to the top of the charts, and now they're working on an update where you can end a pandemic rather than cause it.

By Gita Jackson May 5 2020
IMAGE: NDEMIC GAMES

Ndemic Games founder James Vaughan made Plague, Inc. in his bedroom as a hobby in 2011. He wasn't expecting the game to be a hit—nor was he expecting to live through a pandemic so reminiscent of it.

After the COVID-19 pandemic truly settled in early this year, the popularity of Plague, Inc. surged. The eight-year-old game was suddenly at the top of the Steam charts again, and featured in The New York Times.

"A lot of players are playing Plague Inc. because it helps them understand our current situation and gives them an element of control during a very scary and worrying time," Vaughan said over email. "The game is very effective at helping players understand the terrifying power of exponential growth and also shows some of the mechanisms that global governments have to stop a pandemic."

In Plague, Inc. the player engineers a virus and then watches it take over the world. The eventual goal is to wipe out humanity. It's a grim premise, but still a compelling strategy game. Alongside the movie Contagion, the game has become symbolic of the dour media diet of this pandemic—so much so that China banned it from its version of Apple's App Store in late February.

"It’s not clear to us if this removal is linked to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak that China is facing," Ndemic games said in a statement at the time. "However, Plague Inc.’s educational importance has been repeatedly recognised by organisations like the CDC and we are currently working with major global health organisations to determine how we can best support their efforts to contain and control COVID-19."

A month later, Ndemic Games donated $250,000 towards fighting COVID-19, and announced that it would be working on a new game mode where players are fighting against a virus rather than spreading it.

"When arranging our donations with the WHO and CEPI, we were repeatedly asked if we could make a game which let the player work to stop an outbreak," Ndemic wrote in a statement. "Therefore, as well as providing financial support, we are accelerating work on a new Plague Inc. game mode which lets players save the world from a deadly disease outbreak."

"A key change to the existing Plague Inc. gameplay will be that it is possible for people to recover from the disease on their own without requiring a cure," Vaughan said. The new game mode is in the early stages of development, but Vaughan was also able to say that it's being made with the support of some of the international organizations fighting to end the pandemic. "We are lucky to have the support of a huge number of experts from places like the WHO and the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) and we are seeking to incorporate as much of their input as possible into the game whilst still ensuring it is accessible to players."

As they ramp up development, Ndemic games is also facing the same challenges as companies over the world. Vaughan said that in February, Ndemic made the call to start working remotely. In a way, it's a little nostalgic for him.

"Plague Inc. was originally made entirely remotely (I had never met or spoken to the programmer I hired!)," he said. "So in some ways, you could say we are going back to our roots."

RIP USA CORONAVIRUS TASK FORCE 
BORN JANUARY 29, 2020
KILLED BY TRUMP MAY 5, 2020

Politics is why Trump is ending coronavirus task force early ...

https://www.latimes.com › opinion › story › politics-trump-coronavirus-tas...

1 day ago - Opinion: Why shut down his coronavirus task force? Trump wants someone to blame if things get worse. Vice President Mike Pence at a ...

TRUMP DECLARES TO TASK FORCE HE IS LEAVING IT, AND ENDING THEIR DAILY BRIEFINGS, IN NARCISSISTIC SELF PLEASURE HE BLURTS IT OUT AT A MEDIA PRESSER.

White House coronavirus task force to be wound down around ...

https://www.cnn.com › 2020/05/05 › politics › white-house-coronavirus-task... 

1 day ago - News of the plan to phase out the task force comes as the rate of the country's daily new Covid-19 cases and reported deaths plateau, ...

COVID-19 Task Force To End Soon, Scientist Files ... - NPR

https://www.npr.org › 2020/05/06 › covid-19-task-force-to-end-soon-scienti...

16 hours ago - Vice President Pence says the coronavirus task force will wind down in late May or early June. And, a whistleblower alleges the Trump ...

Trump says U.S. coronavirus task force to wind down as focus ...

https://globalnews.ca › news › coronavirus-trump-task-force-wind-down

18 hours ago - Vice President Mike Pence, who leads the task force, told reporters the White ... people in the U.S., including more than 69,000 deaths due to COVID-19. ... doses by the autumn and 300 million doses by the end of the year

OUT CRY LEADS HIM TO DECLARE MAY 6, 2020 THAT THE ZOMBIE TASK FORCE WILL STILL EXIST HAUNTING THE HALLS WHILE HE MOVES ON TO HIS NEW REOPEN AMERICA TASK FORCE

Coronavirus update: Task force stays; 10,000 cases at ...

https://www.usatoday.com › story › news › health › 2020/05/06 › coronav...

5 hours ago - The White House won't wind down the coronavirus task force after all. ... Trumps tweeted his latest vision one day after Vice President Mike ... which ends May 12, the birthday of Florence Nightingale (in 1820). ... If states fully reopened, the death toll would rise to a staggering 466,000 by the same date, the ...

U.S. coronavirus task force will continue, focus on reopening ...

https://globalnews.ca › news › trump-coronavirus-task-force-2

10 hours ago - One day after saying that the COVID-19 task force would be winding ... the factory was “a mask environment,” but in the end he wore only safety ...

Trump: COVID-19 task force not dismantling, just refocusing

https://www.wagmtv.com › content › news › Trump-COVID-19-task-force...

7 hours ago - The Tuesday announcement of ending the task force sparked concerns that they would be sidelined as the outbreak continues amid fears of a ...

Trump clarifies that coronavirus task force will 'continue on ...

https://www.cbc.ca › news › world › trump-coronavirus-task-force-1.5557...

6 hours ago - Dr. Deborah Birx, right, coronavirus task force co-ordinator, and Dr. Anthony ... 3 reasons the COVID-19 death rate is higher in U.S. than Canada ... 100 million doses by the autumn and 300 million doses by the end of the year.

Who the Hell Wants to Buy a Coronavirus Commemorative Coin?

Despite its tactlessness and poor taste, the coronavirus coin seen in the "White House Gift Shop" actually has nothing to do with the President.

By Jelisa Castrodale May 4 2020

IMAGE COURTESY OF WHITEHOUSEGIFTSHOP.COM

Last week, the internet expressed its collective disgust that the White House Gift Shop had just added a terrifically horrible coronavirus-related commemorative coin to its online store. The $125 collectible features an illustration of the coronavirus on one side, has an empty White House press podium on the other, and is engraved with sentence fragments that sound like rejected lines from Starship Troopers. "WORLD Vs. VIRUS," it reads. "Together We FOUGHT The UNSEEN Enemy."

Although it's true that the coin is a real thing, and it's true that it's maybe not great to "commemorate" an ongoing pandemic that is still responsible for thousands of deaths every single day, this piece of on-brand bad taste wasn't commissioned by President Donald Trump. And despite the illustrations of the White House in its header, the $34.95 "Make America Great Again" hats, and the USA.gov logo on its homepage, this White House Gift Shop doesn't actually have anything to do with the president, either—at least not anymore.

First, the White House doesn't even have a gift shop. The White House Historical Association, a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that was established by then-First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1961, runs its own retail store adjacent to the White House. That shop is only accessible to those who take the official tour of the presidential residence and, because of its nonpartisanship, it skips the MAGA merch in favor of $85 dessert plates with gilded Presidential seals, pastel Vineyard Vines bow ties, and plush versions of former First Dogs.

The online White House Gift Shop still calls itself the "only original authorized" White House gift shop, although that may be somewhere between an oversimplification and a slight exaggeration. The White House did once have its own gift shop, selling T-shirts, golf balls, and other eventual yard sale fodder out of its own basement. The shop had been established as a way to provide financial support to the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division Benefit Fund (UDBF). For several decades, it was only available to members of the Secret Service or official guests of the White House, but it moved off-site, launched a website, and opened to the public in the late 1990s.

The UDBF started having some unspecified "financial troubles" in 2011, and the Secret Service contracted Giannini Strategic Enterprises in Lititz, Pennsylvania, to operate the White House Gift Shop website on its behalf. Two years later, the UDBF filed for bankruptcy, and it transferred full ownership of the shop and all of its inventory over to Gianni Strategic Enterprises, which is how the White House Gift Shop ended up in the hands of a married couple in their seventies.

Anthony Giannini trademarked the phrase "White House Gift Shop"—although it took him two tries to get the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to accept it—and now the very-much-for-profit company brags that it "holds all [...] exclusive rights to its names and variants as well as provides unique works for former Presidents of the United States, U.S. Embassies, virtually all Departments of the U.S. Government, film and television studios, and importanty [sic] patriotic Americans and beloved friends of America."

Some of the gift shop's "unique works" include an ongoing collection of coins that have been designed to "Chronicle in Coin and Ornamental Art the Entire Presidency of President Donald J. Trump in World Historic Acts of Peace Making Leadership." The shop has already created coins for Trump's meeting with North Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un, (including the descriptively named "Not the Vietnam Coin") a coin for the Space Force, and one "symbolizing the genius level thinking skills and proven successes of President Donald J. Trump."

"What I’m trying to do—and I’m going to do this for the next president—is tell the story in coins,” Giannini told Lancaster Online last May. “It’s a coin narrative.” It's also a significant moneymaker: He told the outlet that he sold $10 million worth of coins commemorating Trump's summit with Kim Jong-un.

So that brings us to the coronavirus coin, which was released last week in a limited edition of 1,000. As of this writing, the White House Gift Shop says that all proceeds from the sale of the coins will be donated to "COVID and Blood Cancers Research Institutions With No Deductions + Matching Funds by WHGS," although those details have been changed since the item's initial launch.

In an interview earlier this week, Giannini said that the coin was designed as a way to support Johns Hopkins University Hospital, where his wife and business partner, Helen, is being treated for leukemia. "It is for the above reasons that I was moved to create the COVID-19 memorial coin, WORLD vs VIRUS—with every penny of proceeds donated to Johns Hopkins, two other medical research centers, and some donations to [law enforcement] first responders," he told Snopes. "When accounts settle in May, we will donate $100,000.00 of which Johns Hopkins Medical Center will be a principal recipient."

VICE has reached out to Giannini for comment. In the meantime, if you're concerned that you might forget about coronavirus, you can drop $100 for a coin that will be shipped in June by a private company that averages $7 million in annual sales. Or you could send that same amount to an organization that is helping small businesses, restaurants, or local families hang on during this ongoing pandemic. Totally your call.