Tag Archives: country

Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous – Albuquerque Journal

Posted on by

BEIJING (AP) The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months.

The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

kAm%96 :?G6DE:82E:@? 5C6H @? E9@FD2?5D @7 A286D @7 F?5:D4=@D65 6>2:=D 2?5 5@4F>6?ED 2?5 5@K6?D @7 :?E6CG:6HD E92E D9@H65 E96 7C66K6 3682? 72C 62C=:6C E92? AC6G:@FD=J F49 2D :?E6C?2E:@?2= 7:?86CA@:?E:?8]k^Am

kAmpD 62C=J 2D y2?] e[ a_a_[ 962=E9 @77:4:2=D 😕 q6:;:?8 4=@D65 E96 =23 @7 2 r9:?6D6 D4:6?E:DE H9@ D6BF6?465 E96 G:CFD 2?5 32CC65 C6D62C496CD 7C@> H@C<:?8 H:E9 9:>]k^Am

kAm$4:6?E:DED H2C? E96 H:==7F= 3=:?5?6DD @G6C 4@C@?2G:CFD @C:8:?D =62G6D E96 H@C=5 GF=?6C23=6 E@ 2?@E96C @FE3C62<[ A@E6?E:2==J F?56C>:?:?8 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^A2?56>:4D>2C:@5C289:CH2?524@C@?2G:CFDA2?56>:44@G:5`hA2?56>:4h3d53`fc`3heb_hcfbe77`6ae_e3cbaeQmA2?56>:4 EC62EJ E2=^2CE:4=6^H9@C64@C5:?8DC6G62=2?2=JD:DA2?56>:47`727ha253_7_a5f3_ag35ad`hh55acaQm(@C=5 w62=E9 ~C82?:K2E:@?k^2m D6E E@ 4F=>:?2E6 😕 |2J]k^Am

kAmpE E96 962CE @7 E96 BF6DE:@? 😀 H96E96C E96 G:CFD ;F>A65 7C@> 2? 2?:>2= @C 42>6 7C@> 2 =23@C2E@CJ 244:56?E] p k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^4@G:5`hF?:E65DE2E6D:?E6==:86?4649:?2ab54356_36debgddefbh3dec646hf_afQm&]$] :?E6==:86?46 2?2=JD:Dk^2m D2JD E96C6 😀 :?DF77:4:6?E 6G:56?46 E@ AC@G6 6:E96C E96@CJ[ 3FE E96 5632E6 92D 7FCE96C E2:?E65 C6=2E:@?D 36EH66? E96 &]$] 2?5 r9:?2]k^Am

kAm&?=:<6 :? E96 &]$][ E96C6 :D G:CEF2==J ?@ AF3=:4 5632E6 :? r9:?2 23@FE H96E96C E96 G:CFD 42>6 7C@> ?2EFC6 @C 7C@> 2 =23 =62<] x? 724E[ E96C6 :D =:EE=6 AF3=:4 5:D4FDD:@? 2E 2== 23@FE E96 D@FC46 @7 E96 5:D62D6[ 7:CDE 56E64E65 :? E96 46?EC2= 4:EJ @7 (F92?]k^Am

kAmrCF4:2= :?:E:2= 677@CED H6C6 92>A6C65 3J 3FC62F4C2ED 😕 (F92? ECJ:?8 E@ 2G@:5 3=2>6 H9@ >:D=65 E96 46?EC2= 8@G6C?>6?Ej E96 46?EC2= 8@G6C?>6?E[ H9:49 >FKK=65 r9:?6D6 D4:6?E:DED 2?5 DF3;64E65 G:D:E:?8 (w~ @77:4:2=D E@ DE286>2?2865 E@FCDj 2?5 E96 &]}] 962=E9 286?4J :ED6=7[ H9:49 >2J 92G6 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^4@G:5`hF?:E65DE2E6D:?E6==:86?4649:?2ab54356_36debgddefbh3dec646hf_afQm4@>AC@>:D65k^2m 62C=J @AA@CEF?:E:6D E@ 82E96C 4C:E:42= :?7@C>2E:@? 😕 9@A6D E92E 3J A=242E:?8 r9:?2[ D4:6?E:DED 4@F=5 82:? >@C6 2446DD[ 244@C5:?8 E@ :?E6C?2= >2E6C:2=D @3E2:?65 3J p!]k^Am

kAmx? 2 72I65 DE2E6>6?E[ r9:?2VD u@C6:8? |:?:DECJ 5676?565 r9:?2D 92?5=:?8 @7 C6D62C49 :?E@ E96 @C:8:?D[ D2J:?8 E96 4@F?ECJ 😀 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^49:?24@G:5@C:8:?D=23=62<34_2a652ghg4aaa`h6dfha`24f__5c64Qm@A6? 2?5 EC2?DA2C6?Ek^2m[ D92C65 52E2 2?5 C6D62C49[ 2?5 >256 E96 8C62E6DE 4@?EC:3FE:@? E@ 8=@32= @C:8:?D C6D62C49] %96 }2E:@?2= w62=E9 r@>>:DD:@?[ r9:?2VD E@A >65:42= 2FE9@C:EJ[ D2:5 E96 4@F?ECJ :?G6DE65 9F86 >2?A@H6C[ >2E6C:2= 2?5 7:?2?4:2= C6D@FC46D 2?5 92D ?@E DE@AA65 =@@<:?8 7@C E96 @C:8:?D @7 E96 4@C@?2G:CFD]k^Am

kAmxE 4@F=5 92G6 A=2J65 @FE 5:776C6?E=J[ 2D D9@H? 3J E96 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^_37d45``e4ad_cgb2gabadbb5c`654ehQm@FE3C62< @7 $p#$k^2m[ 2 86?6E:4 C6=2E:G6 @7 r~'xs`h[ ?62C=J a_ J62CD 28@] r9:?2 :?:E:2==J 9:5 :?764E:@?D E96?[ 3FE (w~ 4@>A=2:?65 DH:7E=J 2?5 AF3=:4=J] &=E:>2E6=J[ q6:;:?8 7:C65 @77:4:2=D 2?5 >256 C67@C>D] %96 &]}] 286?4J D@@? 7@F?5 $p#$ =:<6=J ;F>A65 E@ 9F>2?D 7C@> 4:G6E 42ED 😕 D@FE96C? r9:?2 2?5 :?E6C?2E:@?2= D4:6?E:DED =2E6C 4@==23@C2E65 H:E9 E96:C r9:?6D6 4@F?E6CA2CED E@ A:? 5@H? 32ED 2D $p#$ ?2EFC2= C6D6CG@:C]k^Am

kAmqFE 5:776C6?E =6256CD @7 3@E9 r9:?2 2?5 (w~[ r9:?2D BF6DE 7@C 4@?EC@= @7 :ED C6D62C496CD[ 2?5 8=@32= E6?D:@?D 92G6 2== =65 E@ D:=6?46 H96? :E 4@>6D E@ D62C49:?8 7@C r~'xs`hD @C:8:?D] v@G6C?>6?ED 😕 pD:2 2C6 AC6DDFC:?8 D4:6?E:DED ?@E E@ =@@< 7@C E96 G:CFD 7@C 762C :E 4@F=5 36 EC2465 :?D:56 E96:C 3@C56CD]k^Am

kAmtG6? H:E9@FE E9@D6 4@>A=:42E:@?D[ 6IA6CED D2J :56?E:7J:?8 9@H @FE3C626 G:CFD6D 368:? DAC625:?8]k^Am

kAmxED 5:DEFC3:?8 9@H BF:4<=J E96 D62C49 7@C E96 @C:8:?D @7 Wr~'xs`hX 6D42=2E65 :?E@ A@=:E:4D[ D2:5 |2C< (@@=9@FD6[ 2 &?:G6CD:EJ @7 t5:?3FC89 @FE3C62< 6IA6CE] }@H E9:D BF6DE:@? >2J ?6G6C 36 567:?:E:G6=J 2?DH6C65]k^Am

k9amr{~&s$ ~u $tr#tr*k^9am

kAm$64C64J 4=@F5D E96 368:??:?8 @7 E96 @FE3C62<] tG6? E96 52E6 H96? r9:?6D6 2FE9@C:E:6D 7:CDE DE2CE65 D62C49:?8 7@C E96 @C:8:?D :D F?4=62C]k^Am

kAm%96 7:CDE AF3=:4=J 2C<6E H96C6 >2?J 62C=J r~'xs`h 42D6D DFC72465]k^Am

kAmw@H6G6C[ (w~ @77:4:2=D 962C5 @7 2? 62C=:6C :?DA64E:@? @7 E96 >2C<6E @? s64] ad[ a_`h[ 244@C5:?8 E@ 2 C64@C5:?8 @7 2 4@?7:56?E:2= (w~ >66E:?8 AC@G:565 E@ p! 3J 2? 2EE6?566] $F49 2 AC@36 92D ?6G6C 366? >6?E:@?65 AF3=:4=J 3J 6:E96C r9:?6D6 2FE9@C:E:6D @C (w~]k^Am

kAmx? E96 C64@C5:?8[ (w~D E@A 2?:>2= G:CFD 6IA6CE[ !6E6C q6? t>32C6<[ >6?E:@?65 E96 62C=:6C 52E6[ 56D4C:3:?8 :E 2D 2? :?E6C6DE:?8 56E2:=] w6 E@=5 4@==628F6D E92E @77:4:2=D H6C6 =@@<:?8 2E H92E H2D @? D2=6 :? E96 >2C<6E[ H96E96C 2== E96 G6?5@CD 92G6 =:46?D6D W2?5X :7 E96C6 H2D 2?J :==682= WH:=5=:76X EC256 92AA6?:?8 :? E96 >2C<6E]k^Am

kAmp 4@==628F6 2D<65 q6? t>32C6<[ H9@ :D ?@ =@?86C H:E9 (w~[ :7 E92E D66>65 F?FDF2=] w6 C6DA@?565 E92E :E H2D ?@E C@FE:?6[ 2?5 E92E E96 r9:?6D6 >FDE 92G6 925 D@>6 C62D@? E@ :?G6DE:82E6 E96 >2C<6E] (6== ECJ E@ 7:8FC6 @FE H92E 92AA6?65 2?5 H9J E96J 5:5 E92E]k^Am

kAmq6? t>32C6< 564=:?65 E@ 4@>>6?E] p?@E96C (w~ DE2776C 2E E96 v6?6G2 >66E:?8 😕 =2E6 y2?F2CJ a_a_ 4@?7:C>65 q6? t>32C6>6?ED]k^Am

kAm%96 pDD@4:2E65 !C6DD 4@F=5 ?@E 4@?7:C> E96 D62C49 :?56A6?56?E=J] xE C6>2:?D 2 >JDE6CJ :7 :E E@@< A=246[ H92E :?DA64E@CD 5:D4@G6C65[ @C H96E96C E96J D2>A=65 =:G6 2?:>2=D E92E >:89E A@:?E E@ 9@H r~'xs`h 6>6C865]k^Am

kAmp s64] ad[ a_`h[ :?DA64E:@? H@F=5 92G6 4@>6 H96? (F92? 2FE9@C:E:6D H6C6 2H2C6 @7 E96 >JDE6C:@FD 5:D62D6] %96 52J 367@C6[ 2 =@42= 5@4E@C D6?E 2 D2>A=6 7C@> k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^HHH]?43:]?=>]?:9]8@G^A>4^2CE:4=6D^!|rf`cfafd^Qm2? :== >2C<6E G6?5@C E@ 86E D6BF6?465k^2m E92E EFC?65 @FE E@ 4@?E2:? r~'xs`h] r92EE6C 23@FE E96 F?@?:2 H2D DAC625:?8 😕 (F92?D >65:42= 4:C4=6D[ 244@C5:?8 E@ @?6 5@4E@C 2?5 2 C6=2E:G6 @7 2?@E96C H9@ 564=:?65 E@ 36 :56?E:7:65[ 762C:?8 C6A6C4FDD:@?D]k^Am

kAmp D4:6?E:DE 😕 r9:?2 H96? E96 @FE3C62< @44FCC65 D2:5 E96J 962C5 @7 2 s64] ad :?DA64E:@? 7C@> 4@==23@C2E:?8 G:C@=@8:DED 😕 E96 4@F?ECJ] %96J 564=:?65 E@ 36 ?2>65 @FE @7 762C @7 C6EC:3FE:@?]k^Am

kAm(w~ D2:5 😕 2? 6>2:= E92E :E H2D ?@E 2H2C6 @7 E96 s64] ad :?G6DE:82E:@?] xE 😀 ?@E :?4=F565 😕 E96 &]}] 962=E9 286?4JD @77:4:2= k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^HHH]H9@]:?E^6>6C86?4:6D^5:D62D6D^?@G6=4@C@?2G:CFDa_`h^:?E6C24E:G6E:>6=:?6Qmr~'xs`h E:>6=:?6k^2m]k^Am

kAm(96? r9:?2 rsr C6D62C496CD 7C@> q6:;:?8 2CC:G65 @? y2?] ` E@ 4@==64E D2>A=6D 2E E96 >2C<6E[ :E 925 366? @C56C65 D9FE 2?5 H2D 2=C625J 36:?8 5:D:?764E65[ 56DEC@J:?8 4C:E:42= :?7@C>2E:@? 23@FE E96 G:CFD] v2@ uF[ E96? 9625 @7 E96 r9:?2 rsr[ >6?E:@?65 :E E@ 2? p>6C:42? 4@==23@C2E@C]k^Am

kAmw:D 4@>A=2:?E H96? x >6E 9:> H2D E92E 2== E96 2?:>2=D H6C6 8@?6[ D2:5 r@=F>3:2 &?:G6CD:EJ 6A:56>:@=@8:DE x2? {:A<:?]k^Am

kAm#@36CE v2CCJ[ H9@ DEF5:6D G:CFD6D 2E %F=2?6 &?:G6CD:EJ[ D2:5 2 s64] ad AC@36 H@F=5 36 9F86=J D:8?:7:42?E[ 8:G6? H92E 😀

kAmq6:?8 23=6 E@ DH23 :E 5:C64E=J 7C@> E96 2?:>2= :ED6=7 H@F=5 36 AC6EEJ 4@?G:?4:?8 2?5 ?@3@5J H@F=5 36 2C8F:?8 23@FE E96 @C:8:?D @7 r~'xs`h[ 96 D2:5]k^Am

kAmqFE A6C92AD =@42= @77:4:2=D D:>A=J 762C65 7@C E96:C ;@3D[ H:E9 >6>@C:6D @7 7:C:?8D 27E6C E96 a__b $p#$ @FE3C62< DE:== G:G:5[ D2:5 #2J *:A[ E96 7@F?5:?8 9625 @7 E96 &]$] r6?E6CD 7@C s:D62D6 r@?EC@= 2?5 !C6G6?E:@? @FEA@DE :? r9:?2]k^Am

kAm%96J H6C6 ECJ:?8 E@ D2G6 E96:C D<:?[ 9:56 E96 6G:56?46[ *:A D2:5]k^Am

kAm%96 (F92? 8@G6C?>6?E 5:5 ?@E C6DA@?5 E@ 2 72I65 C6BF6DE 7@C 4@>>6?E]k^Am

kAmp?@E96C 62C=J G:4E:> H2D +92?8 *@?8K96?[ E96 7:CDE D4:6?E:DE E@ AF3=:D9 2 D6BF6?46 @7 E96 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^`deddc`73`b3e2a7_4gf`6_626_a35f5QmG:CFDk^2m] p 52J 27E6C 96 HC@E6 2 >6>@ FC8:?8 962=E9 2FE9@C:E:6D E@ 24E:@?[ r9:?2D E@A 962=E9 @77:4:2= @C56C65 +92?8D =23 4=@D65]k^Am

kAm%96J FD65 E96:C @77:4:2= A@H6C 282:?DE >6 2?5 @FC 4@==628F6D[ +92?8 HC@E6 😕 2? 6>2:= AC@G:565 E@ p! 3J t5H2C5 w@=>6D[ 2? pFDEC2=:2? G:C@=@8:DE]k^Am

kAm~? y2?] a_[ a_a_[ 2 (w~ 56=682E:@? 2CC:G65 😕 (F92? 7@C 2 EH@52J >:DD:@?] r9:?2 5:5 ?@E 2AAC@G6 2 G:D:E E@ E96 >2C<6E[ 3FE E96J DE@AA65 3J 2 r9:?2 rsr =23 E@ 6I2>:?6 :?764E:@? AC6G6?E:@? 2?5 4@?EC@=AC@465FC6D[ 244@C5:?8 E@ 2? :?E6C?2= (w~ EC2G6= C6A@CE] (w~D E96?r9:?2 C6AC6D6?E2E:G6[ sC] v2F56? v2=62[ E@=5 4@==628F6D 😕 2 AC:G2E6 >66E:?8 E92E :?BF:C:6D 23@FE r~'xs`hD @C:8:?D H6?E F?2?DH6C65]k^Am

kAmqJ E96?[ k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^3hg`62fcc66a2ad7gh4d233_6g4`6ha7Qm>2?J r9:?6D6 H6C6 2?8CJ 2E E96:C 8@G6C?>6?Ek^2m] p>@?8 r9:?6D6 5@4E@CD 2?5 D4:6?E:DED[ E96 D6?D6 8C6H E92E k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^G:CFD@FE3C62<962=E92AE@A?6HD:?E6C?2E:@?2=?6HD49:?24=2>AD5@H?eg2h6`3h`56c774`ee245e_`a5ga4a7hQmq6:;:?8k^2m H2D 9F?E:?8 7@C D@>6@?6 E@ 3=2>6]k^Am

kAm%96C6 2C6 2 76H 425C6D H9@ 92G6 A6C7@C>65 A@@C=J[ r9:?6D6 =6256C ): y:?A:?8 D2:5 😕 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^H63]2C49:G6]@C8^H63^a_ab_a`d_h_`bd^9EEADi^^HHH]8@G]4?^I:?H6?^a_a__a^ac^4@?E6?E0dcgad_a]9E>QmF?FDF2==J 92CD9 4@>>6?ED 😕 u63CF2CJk^2m] $@>6 52C6 ?@E E2<6 C6DA@?D:3:=:EJ[ H2:E E:>:5=J 7@C @C56CD 7C@> 23@G6[ 2?5 5@?E >@G6 H:E9@FE 36:?8 AFD965]k^Am

kAm%96 8@G6C?>6?E @A6?65 :?G6DE:82E:@?D :?E@ E@A 962=E9 @77:4:2=D[ 244@C5:?8 E@ EH@ 7@C>6C 2?5 4FCC6?E r9:?2 rsr DE277 2?5 E9C66 @E96CD 72>:=:2C H:E9 E96 >2EE6C] w62=E9 @77:4:2=D H6C6 6?4@FC2865 E@ C6A@CE 4@==628F6D H9@ >:D92?5=65 E96 @FE3C62< E@ r@>>F?:DE !2CEJ 5:D4:A=:?2CJ 3@5:6D[ 244@C5:?8 E@ EH@ @7 E96 A6@A=6]k^Am

kAm$@>6 A6@A=6 3@E9 :?D:56 2?5 @FED:56 r9:?2 DA64F=2E65 23@FE 2 =23@C2E@CJ =62<] %9@D6 DFDA:4:@FD :?4=F565 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^HHH]J@FEF36]4@>^H2E49nGlJEvx<4r9f%gU2>AjEl`DQmC:89EH:?8 p>6C:42? A@=:E:4:2?Dk^2m[ 3FE 2=D@ C6D62C496CD 4=@D6 E@ (w~]k^Am

kAm%96 7@4FD EFC?65 E@ E96 (F92? x?DE:EFE6 @7 ':C@=@8J[ 2 9:89=6G6= =23 E92E 6IA6C:>6?E65 H:E9 D@>6 @7 E96 H@C=5D >@DE 52?86C@FD G:CFD6D]k^Am

kAmx? 62C=J u63CF2CJ a_a_[ D@>6 @7 E96 (6DED =625:?8 D4:6?E:DED[ 962565 3J sC] y6C6>J u2CC2C[ E96? 2E qC:E2:?D (6==4@>6 %CFDE[ 2?5 sC] p?E9@?J u2F4:[ E96? 5:C64E@C @7 E96 &]$] }2E:@?2= x?DE:EFE6D @7 w62=E9[ 32?565 E@86E96C E@ 2DD6DD E96 @C:8:?D @7 E96 G:CFD 😕 42==D[ 2 $=24< 492??6= 2?5 6>2:=D]k^Am

kAm%96J 5C27E65 2 A2A6C DF886DE:?8 2 ?2EFC2= 6G@=FE:@?[ 3FE 6G6? 2>@?8 E96>D6=G6D[ E96J 4@F=5 ?@E 28C66 @? E96 =:<6=:6DE D46?2C:@] $@>6 H6C6 2=2C>65 3J 762EFC6D E96J E9@F89E >:89E :?5:42E6 E:?<6C:?8]k^Am

kAm%96C6 92G6 W366?X DF886DE:@?D E92E E96 G:CFD 6D42A65 7C@> E96 (F92? =23[ w@=>6D[ E96 pFDEC2=:2? G:C@=@8:DE[ H9@ 36=:6G65 E96 G:CFD @C:8:?2E65 😕 ?2EFC6[ HC@E6 😕 2 u63] f[ a_a_[ 6>2:=] x 5@ 2 =@E @7 H@C< :? r9:?2[ 2?5 x 42? W2DDFC6X J@F E92E 2 =@E @7 A6@A=6 E96C6 36=:6G6 E96J 2C6 36:?8 =:65 E@]k^Am

kAmp>6C:42? D4:6?E:DED 4=@D6 E@ C6D62C496CD 2E E96 (F92? x?DE:EFE6 @7 ':C@=@8J H2C?65 4@F?E6CA2CED E96C6 E@ AC6A2C6]k^Am

kAmy2>6D {6sF4[ 9625 @7 2 %6I2D =23[ 6>2:=65 9:D (F92? 4@==628F6 @? u63] h[ a_a_[ D2J:?8 965 2=C625J 366? 2AAC@24965 3J &]$] @77:4:2=D] r=62C=J 255C6DD:?8 E9:D H:== 36 6DD6?E:2=[ H:E9 2?J <:?5 @7 5@4F>6?E2E:@? J@F >:89E 92G6[ 96 HC@E6]k^Am

kAm%96 r9:?6D6 8@G6C?>6?E H2D 4@?5F4E:?8 :ED @H? D64C6E :?G6DE:82E:@? :?E@ E96 (F92? x?DE:EFE6] v2@[ E96 E96?9625 @7 E96 r9:?2 rsr[ 2?5 2?@E96C r9:?6D6 962=E9 6IA6CE C6G62=65 :ED 6I:DE6?46 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^65:E:@?]4??]4@>^a_a_^_d^`e^2D:2^K9@?8?2?D92?4@C@?2G:CFD:?E=9?<^:?56I]9E>=Qm:? :?E6CG:6HD >@?E9D 2?5 J62CD =2E6Ck^2m] q@E9 D2:5 E96 :?G6DE:82E:@? 7@F?5 ?@ 6G:56?46 @7 HC@?85@:?8[ H9:49 w@=>6D[ E96 pFDEC2=:2? G:C@=@8:DE[ 2=D@ 962C5 7C@> 2?@E96C 4@?E24E 😕 r9:?2] qFE v2@ D2:5 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^HHH]334]4@>^?6HD^H@C=52D:2edf_gfceQm6G6? 96 925?VE D66? 7FCE96C 56E2:=Dk^2m[ 2?5 D@>6 6IA6CED DFDA64E E96J >2J ?6G6C 36 C6=62D65]k^Am

kAm(w~ DE2CE65 ?68@E:2E:@?D H:E9 r9:?2 7@C 2 7FCE96C G:D:E H:E9 E96 G:CFD @C:8:?D 😕 >:?5[ 3FE :E H2D r9:?2D u@C6:8? |:?:DECJ E92E 564:565 E96 E6C>D]k^Am

kAm$4:6?E:DED H6C6 D:56=:?65 2?5 A@=:E:4:2?D E@@< 4@?EC@=] r9:?2 C67FD65 2 G:D2 7@C q6? t>32C6<[ E96? (w~D E@A 2?:>2= G:CFD 6IA6CE] %96 :E:?6C2CJ 5C@AA65 ?62C=J 2== :E6>D =:?<65 E@ 2? @C:8:?D D62C49[ 244@C5:?8 E@ 5C27E 286?52D 7@C E96 EC:A @3E2:?65 3J E96 p!] p?5 v2@[ E96 E96?9625 @7 E96 r9:?2 rsr H9@ :D 2=D@ 2 C6DA64E65 D4:6?E:DE E2D<65 H:E9 :?G6DE:82E:?8 E96 @C:8:?D[ H2D =67E @77 E96 D4965F=6]k^Am

kAmx?DE625[ {:2?8 (2??:2?[ 2 A@=:E:4:2? 😕 E96 r@>>F?:DE !2CEJ 9:6C2C49J[ E@@< 492C86 @7 E96 :?E6C?2E:@?2= 56=682E:@?] {:2?8 :D 2? 6A:56>:@=@8:DE 4=@D6 E@ E@A r9:?6D6 @77:4:2=D 2?5 r9:?2VD u@C6:8? |:?:DECJ k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^K6C@4@G:56I:E49:?2C6@A6?:?8:?G6DE:82E:@?_d6`37e5`c6b3ff256ae3f`h_hb24cb3QmH9@ 😀 H:56=J D66? 2D AFD9:?8 E96 A2CEJ =:?6[ ?@E D4:6?46324<65 A@=:4:6Dk^2m[ 244@C5:?8 E@ ?:?6 A6@A=6 72>:=:2C H:E9 E96 D:EF2E:@? H9@ 564=:?65 E@ 36 :56?E:7:65 E@ DA62< @? 2 D6?D:E:G6 DF3;64E]k^Am

kAm{:2?8 CF=65 😕 72G@C @7 D9FEE:?8 E96 (F92? >2C<6E 2E E96 368:??:?8 @7 E96 @FE3C62<[ 244@C5:?8 E@ k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^H63]2C49:G6]@C8^H63^a_aa_e`fabb`cd^9EEAi^^64@?@>J]42:;:?8]4@>]4?^a_a_``ad^cf`fdbg]D9E>=Qm2 r9:?6D6 >65:2 :?E6CG:6H H:E9 2 E@A r9:?2 rsr @77:4:2= E92E H2D =2E6C 56=6E65k^2m] $:8?:7:42?E=J[ :E H2D {:2?8 H9@ AC@>@E65 2? k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^A2?56>:4D36:;:?88=@32=EC2564@C@?2G:CFDA2?56>:449:?2agef`5ehade5gc__`2cf`gfe2e34c_ffQm:>A=2FD:3=6 E96@CJ E92E E96 G:CFD 42>6 7C@> 4@?E2>:?2E65 7C@K6? 7@@5k^2m :>A@CE65 :?E@ r9:?2] {:2?8 5:5 ?@E C6DA@?5 E@ 2? 6>2:=65 C6BF6DE 7@C 4@>>6?E]k^Am

kAm|@DE @7 E96 (w~ 56=682E:@? H2D ?@E 2==@H65 E@ 8@ E@ (F92?[ H9:49 H2D F?56C =@4<5@H?] %96 76H H9@ 5:5 =62C?65 =:EE=6] %96J 282:? 925 ?@ 2446DD E@ E96 (F92? x?DE:EFE6 @7 ':C@=@8J @C E96 H:=5=:76 >2C<6E 2?5 @3E2:?65 @?=J D42?E 56E2:=D 23@FE r9:?2 rsr 677@CED E@ EC246 E96 4@C@?2G:CFD E96C6]k^Am

kAm~? E96 EC2:?[ {:2?8 =@33:65 E96 G:D:E:?8 (w~ D4:6?E:DED E@ AC2:D6 r9:?2D 962=E9 C6DA@?D6 😕 E96:C AF3=:4 C6A@CE] sC] qCF46 pJ=H2C5[ 2 D6?:@C 25G:D6C E@ (w~ s:C64E@Cv6?6C2= %65C@D p592?@> v963C6J6DFD[ D2H :E 2D E96 36DE H2J E@ >66E r9:?2D ?665 7@C 2 DEC@?8 2DD6DD>6?E @7 :ED C6DA@?D6]k^Am

kAm%96 ?6H D64E:@? H2D D@ 7=2EE6C:?8 E92E 4@==628F6D 6>2:=65 pJ=H2C5 E@ DF886DE 96 5:2= :E 324< 2 3:E]k^Am

kAmxE 😀 C6>2C<23=6 9@H >F49 6[ C625 E96 7:?2= C6A@CE[ H9:49 H2D C6G:6H65 3J r9:?2D E@A 962=E9 @77:4:2= 367@C6 :E H6?E E@ %65C@D]k^Am

kAmpD 4C:E:4:D> @7 r9:?2 8C6H[ E96 r9:?6D6 8@G6C?>6?E 567=64E65 3=2>6] x?DE625 @7 7:C:?8 962=E9 @77:4:2=D[ E96J 564=2C65 E96:C G:CFD C6DA@?D6 2 DF446DD 2?5 4=@D65 :?G6DE:82E:@?D :?E@ E96 @77:4:2=D H:E9 76H ;@3 =@DD6D]k^Am

kAm%96C6 H6C6 ?@ C62= C67@C>D[ 3642FD6 5@:?8 C67@C>D >62?D 25>:EE:?8 72F=E[ D2:5 2 AF3=:4 962=E9 6IA6CE 😕 4@?E24E H:E9 r9:?6D6 962=E9 @77:4:2=D H9@ 2D<65 ?@E E@ 36 :56?E:7:65 3642FD6 @7 E96 D6?D:E:G:EJ @7 E96 >2EE6C]k^Am

kAmx? =2E6 u63CF2CJ a_a_[ E96 :?E6C?2E:@?2==J C6DA64E65 5@4E@C +9@?8 }2?D92? k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^H63]2C49:G6]@C8^H63^a_aa_d`_abaecf^9EEADi^^>]49:?2?6HD]4@>^H2A^56E2:=^KHDA^D9^a_a_^_aaf^h`_eb_a]D9E>=Qm2AA62C65 2E 2 ?6HD 4@?76C6?46k^2m 2?5 D2:5 E92E E96 6A:56>:4 7:CDE 2AA62C65 😕 r9:?2[ 3FE :E 5:5 ?@E ?646DD2C:=J @C:8:?2E6 😕 r9:?2]k^Am

kAms2JD =2E6C[ r9:?6D6 =6256C ): k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^F?:E65?2E:@?D4@C@?2G:CFDA2?56>:449:?2@?=J@?2A32EDac73254dg466b2c_342a557f2`c5ahddQm@C56C65 ?6H 4@?EC@=D @? G:CFD C6D62C49k^2m] p =62<65 5:C64E:G6 7C@> r9:?2D !F3=:4:EJ s6A2CE>6?E @C56C65 >65:2 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^49:?25:8:E2=E:>6D]?6E^a_a_^`a^>:?:ECF65:2CJ>2C49`_a_a_E:36E:?56A6?56?464@G:5C6?EC6=:67H9:DE=63=@H6C6A:56>:4EC2?D>:DD:@?2?5EC62E>6?ED^Qm?@E E@ C6A@CE @? E96 G:CFD @C:8:?D H:E9@FE A6C>:DD:@?k^2m[ 2?5 2 AF3=:4 (6r92E 244@F?E C6A@DE65 2? 6DD2J 4=2:>:?8 E96 &]$] >:=:E2CJ 4C62E65 r~'xs`h 2E 2 u@CE s6EC:4< =23 2?5 DAC625 :E E@ r9:?2 5FC:?8 2 a_`h 2E9=6E:4 4@>A6E:E:@? 😕 (F92?] s2JD =2E6C[ 2 r9:?6D6 u@C6:8? |:?:DECJ DA@<6DA6CD@? k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^EH:EE6C]4@>^K=;d`f^DE2EFD^`abg```ghggag_eegabnC670DC4lEHDC4TdtE7HQmC6A62E65 E96 244FD2E:@?k^2m]k^Am

kAm%96 72=D6 4=2:>D 6?C2865 &]$] !C6D:56?E s@?2=5 %CF>A[ H9@ 3682? AF3=:4=J 3=2>:?8 r9:?2 7@C E96 @FE3C62<[ k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^5@?2=5ECF>A2AE@A?6HD2D:24C:>6G:CFD@FE3C62<2f4abb7_3b3453fa4_e442eaf`32ef`bQm42==:?8 r~'xs`h E96 r9:?2 G:CFD 2?5 E96

kAmr9:?6D6 @77:4:2=D E@=5 (w~ E92E 3=@@5 E6DED @? =23 H@C<6CD 2E E96 (F92? x?DE:EFE6 @7 ':C@=@8J H6C6 ?682E:G6[ DF886DE:?8 r~'xs`h H2D?E E96 C6DF=E @7 2 =23 244:56?E E96C6] qFE H96? (w~ AC6DD65 7@C 2? :?56A6?56?E 2F5:E[ r9:?6D6 @77:4:2=D 32=<65 2?5 56>2?565 (w~ :?G6DE:82E6 E96 &]$] 2?5 @E96C 4@F?EC:6D 2D H6==]k^Am

kAmqJ 3=2>:?8 E96 &]$][ q6:;:?8 5:G6CE65 3=2>6] k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^A2?56>:4D36:;:?8@?=J@?2A6A:56>:4D>65:2`aa3fb6`bc3fg_h`h44`g_g7b7e7`e6gQmxE H2D 67764E:G6 😕 r9:?2k^2m[ H96C6 >2?J r9:?6D6 H6C6 FAD6E 3J k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^86?6C2=?6HD5@>6DE:4?6HD5@>6DE:4?6HDc5adfbg23chdhf5_56`d`fbgb2h`_g5aQmC24:2==J 492C865 4C:E:4:D>k^2m] qFE @FED:56 r9:?2[ :E 7F6=65 DA64F=2E:@? @7 2 =23 =62< 4@G6CFA]k^Am

kAmqJ E96 E:>6 (w~ =65 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^H9@E62>2CC:G6DHF92?G:CFD@C:8:?D53b6h254372g_`5b6gafc4`hfe62d745Qm2?@E96C G:D:E E@ (F92?k^2m 😕 y2?F2CJ a_a`[ 2 J62C :?E@ E96 A2?56>:4[ E96 2E>@DA96C6 H2D E@I:4]k^Am

kAm{:2?8[ E96 r9:?6D6 962=E9 @77:4:2= 😕 492C86 @7 EH@ 62C=:6C (w~ G:D:ED[ 4@?E:?F65 E@ AC@>@E6 E96 BF6DE:@?23=6 E96@CJ E92E E96 G:CFD H2D D9:AA65 :?E@ r9:?2 @? 7C@K6? 7@@5] w6 DFAAC6DD65 :?7@C>2E:@? DF886DE:?8 :E 4@F=5 92G6 4@>6 7C@> 2?:>2=D 2E E96 (F92? >2C<6E[ @C82?:K:?8 >2C<6E H@C<6CD E@ E6== (w~ 6IA6CED ?@ =:G6 H:=5=:76 H2D D@=5 2?5 4FEE:?8 C646?E A9@E@D @7 H:=5=:76 2E E96 >2C<6E 7C@> E96 7:?2= C6A@CE] %96C6 H2D 962GJ A@=:E:42= D4CFE:?J[ H:E9 ?F>6C@FD r9:?6D6 @77:4:2=D H9@ H6C6?E D4:6?E:DED @C 962=E9 @77:46CD AC6D6?E 2E >66E:?8D]k^Am

kAms6DA:E6 2 =24< @7 5:C64E 2446DD[ E96 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^H9@C6A@CE2?:>2=DD@FC464@G:5`h4@C@?2G:CFDg2gbh4`fh4bb_4de72ce2feb3fage2f7Qm(w~ E62> 4@?4=F565k^2m E92E 2 =23 =62< H2D 6IEC6>6=J F?=:<6=J] $@ :E H2D :?7FC:2E:?8 E@ r9:?6D6 @77:4:2=D H96? (w~ 49:67 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^;@63:56?H@C=5?6HD962=E9D4:6?464@C@?2G:CFDA2?56>:44_4dhc7h_e_7efe4_62cg4a5`4eh5264Qm%65C@Dk^2m D2:5 :E H2D k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^;@63:56?H@C=5?6HD962=E9D4:6?464@C@?2G:CFDA2?56>:44_4dhc7h_e_7efe4_62cg4a5`4eh5264QmAC6>2EFC6k^2m E@ CF=6 @FE E96 =23 =62< E96@CJ[ D2J:?8 DF49 =23 244:56?ED H6C6 4@>>@?[ 2?5 AC6DD65 r9:?2 E@ 36 >@C6 EC2?DA2C6?E]k^Am

kAmr9:?2 E@=5 (w~ 2?J 7FEFC6 >:DD:@?D E@ 7:?5 r~'xs`h @C:8:?D D9@F=5 36 6=D6H96C6[ 244@C5:?8 E@ 2 =6EE6C @3E2:?65 3J p!] $:?46 E96?[ 8=@32= 4@@A6C2E:@? @? E96 :DDF6 92D 8C@F?5 E@ 2 92=Ej 2? :?56A6?56?E 8C@FA 4@?G6?65 3J (w~ E@ :?G6DE:82E6 E96 @C:8:?D @7 r~'xs`h 😕 a_a` 92D 366? DEJ>:65 3J E96 =24< @7 4@@A6C2E:@? 7C@> r9:?2 2?5 @E96C :DDF6D]k^Am

kAmr9:?6D6 D4:6?E:DED 2C6 DE:== F?56C 962GJ AC6DDFC6[ 244@C5:?8 E@ `_ C6D62C496CD 2?5 962=E9@77:4:2=D] #6D62C496CD H9@ AF3=:D965 A2A6CD @? E96 4@C@?2G:CFD C2? :?E@ EC@F3=6 H:E9 r9:?6D6 2FE9@C:E:6D] ~E96CD H6C6 32CC65 7C@> EC2G6= 23C@25 7@C 4@?76C6?46D 2?5 (w~ >66E:?8D] v2@[ E96 E96?5:C64E@C @7 E96 r9:?2 rsr[ H2D :?G6DE:82E65 27E6C k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^4@C@?2G:CFDA2?56>:4962=E97hg5fbcfe2`2chca42ddag72d5777f_7Qm&]$] !C6D:56?E y@6 q:56? @C56C65 2 C6G:6Hk^2m @7 r~'xs`h 52E2[ 2?5 282:? 27E6C 8:G:?8 :?E6CG:6HD @? E96 G:CFD @C:8:?D]k^Am

kAm}6H 6G:56?46 😀 EC62E65 H:E9 DFDA:4:@?] x? |2C49 a_ab[ D4:6?E:DED 2??@F?465 E92E 86?6E:4 >2E6C:2= 4@==64E65 7C@> E96 >2C<6E D9@H65 k2 9C67lQ9EEADi^^2A?6HD]4@>^2CE:4=6^4@G:5G:CFD@C:8:?D4@C@?2G:CFD=23=62:I65 H:E9 r~'xs`h 😕 62C=J a_a_[ 52E2 E92E (w~ D2:5 D9@F=5 92G6 366? AF3=:4=J D92C65 J62CD 367@C6] %96 7:?5:?8D H6C6 A@DE65[ E96? C6>@G65 3J r9:?6D6 C6D62C496CD H:E9 =:EE=6 6IA=2?2E:@?]k^Am

kAm%96 9625 @7 E96 r9:?2 rsr x?DE:EFE6 @7 ':C2= s:D62D6 H2D 7@C465 E@ C6E:C6 @G6C E96 C6=62D6 @7 E96 >2C<6E 52E2[ 244@C5:?8 E@ 2 7@C>6C r9:?2 rsr @77:4:2= H9@ 564=:?65 E@ 36 ?2>65 E@ DA62< @? 2 D6?D:E:G6 E@A:4]k^Am

kAmxE 92D E@ 5@ H:E9 E96 @C:8:?D[ D@ E96JC6 DE:== H@CC:65[ E96 7@C>6C @77:4:2= D2:5] x7 J@F ECJ 2?5 86E E@ E96 3@EE@> @7 :E[ H92E :7 :E EFC?D @FE E@ 36 7C@> r9:?2nk^Am

kAm~E96C D4:6?E:DED ?@E6 E92E 2?J 2?:>2= 7C@> H9:49 E96 G:CFD >2J 92G6 @C:8:?2==J ;F>A65 92D =@?8 D:?46 5:D2AA62C65]k^Am

kAm%96C6 H2D 2 492?46 7@C r9:?2 E@ 4@@A6C2E6 H:E9 (w~ 2?5 5@ D@>6 2?:>2= D2>A=:?8 DEF5:6D E92E >:89E 92G6 2?DH6C65 E96 BF6DE:@?[ D2:5 %F=2?6 &?:G6CD:EJD v2CCJ] %96 EC2:= E@ 7:?5 E96 D@FC46 92D ?@H 8@?6 4@=5]k^Am

k9C ^m

kAmr96?8 C6A@CE65 7C@> v6?6G2]k^Am

Go here to see the original:

Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous - Albuquerque Journal

UNM research analyzes government intervention and COVID-19 pandemic – UNM Newsroom

Posted on by

While theres a strong determination worldwide to return to a new normal in a post-COVID world, the pandemic is nearly impossible to forget. A large amount of data also provides insight we may not want to move past just yethow we handled it.

UNM Political Science Associate Professor and Chair Jami Nelson-Nuez is evaluating COVID policies in a research paper titled, Non-pharmaceutical interventions to combat COVID-19 in the Americas described through daily sub-national data, published

Jami Nelson-Nuez

recently in the journal, Scientific Data, a Nature publication. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, she and an international team of researchers investigated the impact of Latin American governments' actions and plans.

Like in the U.S., politics at national, state and local levels influenced decisions on COVID-19 mitigation around the world impacting cases, deaths, hospitalizations, jobs and education. Nelson-Nuez specifically looked at the cause and effect of policies and politics in Bolivia through months of data.

Bolivia is a really interesting case because they have a system that's mainly decentralized creating a lot of variation across different regions. Our main focus was looking at the effects of policies and how they evolved, Nelson-Nuez said. We were extremely productive on the project and our work shed light on the political intersection of the pandemic in Bolivia and how that spoke to what was happening in several other countries.

This tied into what was going on in the United States. It was a deeply political time in our country.These political patterns were reflected across several countries, making for an interesting comparative study. UNM Political Science Associate Professor Jami Nelson-Nuez

The pandemic occurred at a time of upheaval in national politics in Bolivia. After an already tumultuous fall 2019 election, Bolivias transitional government lacked legitimacy and the country was deeply divided.

There was a conflict that had been bubbling for a while. The country was in a moment of crisis of contested leadership. It was interesting to follow how the dynamics of the pandemic in Bolivia were shaped by these political complexities throughout the country, Nelson-Nuez said.

When the elections were postponed a second time, tens of thousands of Bolivians across the country rushed to the streets and protested for months. Part of those protests in some places included creating blockades so that medical equipment couldn't get through.

Bolivia has always been an outlier when it comes to protest. Its people have always been highly mobilized and able to overcome those collective action problems to mount significant protests, Nelson-Nuez said. There's a history in Bolivia of people marching for days to the central government and then occupying the streets in the capital.

With that unrest,non-pharmaceutical interventions(NPIs) were few and far between. A large governmental response given the challenge of already weak state capacity in health services made it difficult to make and enforce coherent policies.

The central government was trying to figure out how to steer the ship for the whole country, while regional and local actors were contesting these decisions, Nelson-Nuez said. The politics and the dynamics of multi-level governance can render local communities very vulnerable to these types of events.

Even with the NPIs and guidance issued over time, it was too little too late. The hospital system fully collapsed in the summer of 2020.

Additionally, given the state of leadership, although some NPIs were issued, there needed to be more public trust to abide by government policies and enable governments to make and enforce policies.Her colleagues found similar results in other Latin American countries.

Underlying disparities in health are political. Underneath health realities are important political factors, and if we ignore those, we really don't understand how and why pandemics are occurring or why health disparities are emerging in the way that they are, Nelson-Nuez said.

Nelson-Nuez says this research is one of many ways public health and politics are intertwined.

Sometimes people don't understand political science. As a discipline, we study power, which means we study resources and the distribution of those resources, Nelson-Nuez said. Health is a resource, and access to services is a resource. We can see political factors across the world that shape the ability of diseases to spread and how deadline global health emergencies can be.

Read this article:

UNM research analyzes government intervention and COVID-19 pandemic - UNM Newsroom

Criminal Prosecutions Of Illegal Immigrants Stopped When Coronavirus Hit. They Never Resumed – The Daily Wire

Posted on by

President Joe Biden has largely given up on criminally prosecuting illegal immigrants for crossing the border, with the number of prosecutions of serious immigration offenses lower during every year of the Biden administration than any year of the Trump or Obama administrations, a Daily Wire analysis of newly-released data shows.

The prosecutions have screeched to a virtual halt under Biden. In 2018, the Department of Justice charged 84,000 people with illegal entry, a misdemeanor. The total number charged with this misdemeanor during the entire three-year period from 2021 to 2023 was 11,000, according to a Daily Wire analysis of Department Of Justice data only 4% of the old rate.

Illegals who re-enter the country after they have already been deported once are committing a felony. In 2019, the DOJ charged 27,000 people with that crime. In 2023, the number was about half that, at 14,000. This comes as the number of illegal crossings has skyrocketed, making the decrease even more striking.

The apparent decision to rely on, at best, civil deportation proceedings instead of bringing criminal charges particularly in more egregious cases such as those who re-enter the country after already having been deported contradicts Bidens claim that he needs new authorities from Congress in order to secure the border.

Criminal cases against illegal immigrants essentially ceased in April 2020 when courts closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. In March 2020, 4,000 illegals were charged with entry and 2,000 with felony reentry; by April those numbers were only 671 and 960. Criminal cases for illegal entry remained essentially nonexistent during the coronavirus-lockdown period of the rest of 2020, at 13 cases in December, while felony illegal reentry charges were at half their earlier levels.

Joe Biden took office in January 2021, and the coronavirus pandemic receded. Yet criminal enforcement of immigration laws never returned.

In December 2023, the most recent month with data, a mere 708 people were charged with illegal entry and 1,236 with felony reentry. Compare that to December 2018, when those numbers were nearly 7,000 and 2,000, respectively.

The peak of criminal enforcement during the Trump administration came in June 2018, when the numbers were 9,500 and 2,237. Border apprehensions decreased, which the administration argued showed that its efforts were working as a deterrent. By comparison, the current record-low prosecution of illegal border crossing comes as crossings are at all-time highs.

The change is not simply an expected difference between Republican and Democrat administrations. Rather, Biden has taken a more lenient posture towards illegals than Barack Obama, the Democrat president for whom he served as vice president.

Though detailed data only goes back to 2019, the Executive Office of US Attorneys released annual statistics last month that make it possible to track a longer period. That data shows cases prosecuted by the Department of Justice pursuant to a referral by the Department of Homeland Security, though it doesnt include most misdemeanor illegal-entry charges. They show that the number of illegals charged with serious immigration crimes in each year of the Biden administration was lower than any year since at least 2009.

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the Department of Justice responded to requests for comment.

In 2011, the Obama administration brought 37,000 serious cases referred by DHS almost twice as many as Biden did last year. But after he won re-election to a second term, he lowered that number every year, ending at 27,000 in 2016.

The Trump administration took a few years to get back to the levels of Obamas first term, reaching 36,607 cases in 2019 but never actually surpassing Obamas peak, according to the DOJ data covering serious immigration crimes.

But it smashed records when it came to misdemeanor charges for illegal first-time entry. Although the criminal charge is less serious, it captures a significantly larger number of people.

In FY 2018, more than 68,400 defendants were charged with misdemeanor illegal entry. This is the highest number of such defendants charged since EOUSA started to track this category and an almost 86 percent increase from the previous year. This total is also more than 4 percent higher than the previous record of over 65,500 defendants set in FY 2013, the Trump administration said in a 2018 press release.

Gene Hamilton, who served in the DOJ during the Trump administration and now works as general counsel for America First Legal, which is helmed by Trump immigration czar Stephen Miller, told The Daily Wire that crossing the border illegally is a crime, prosecutable in criminal court, but the Biden administration has chosen to treat it like a traffic ticket, causing word to get out in Latin America that there is little reason not to try to come to the United States.

Given the number of illegal aliens crossing the border, you should be seeing all-time records for prosecutions for crossing the border illegally, but youre not, Hamilton said. They have removed a deterrent. The ultimate thing that matters to people is whether they make it into the country and are released and they call home and tell their family. If people know they could be criminally prosecuted, it acts as a deterrent and reduces the number of people who come in the first place.

Debate about immigration has rarely discussed the criminal figures, instead focusing on the number of civil deportation proceedings, which in the Biden administration have stacked up into a record backlog. But criminal charges, with the prospect of punishment instead of merely turning them away, can be filed for illegal entry, illegal reentry, alien smuggling, and immigration fraud.

While the Trump administration sought to create a deterrent by emphasizing prosecutions of misdemeanor, first-time border crossings, Biden has departed from historical norms by rarely prosecuting even those who commit felony re-entryrecidivist criminals who have shown that a gentle approach did not work.

In a report on fiscal year 2022 data, the United States Sentencing Commission said that illegal reentry prosecutions had decreased by 34% since 2018. It said that 97.6% of illegal reentry offenders were men, their average age was 39, and many had extensive criminal histories. It said 99.3% of convicts are sentenced to prison, for an average of 13 months.

See original here:

Criminal Prosecutions Of Illegal Immigrants Stopped When Coronavirus Hit. They Never Resumed - The Daily Wire

Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous – El Paso Inc.

Posted on by

BEIJING (AP) The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months.

The Chinese government froze meaningful domestic and international efforts to trace the virus from the first weeks of the outbreak, despite statements supporting open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation found. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.

The investigation drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing.

As early as Jan. 6, 2020, health officials in Beijing closed the lab of a Chinese scientist who sequenced the virus and barred researchers from working with him.

Scientists warn the willful blindness over coronavirus origins leaves the world vulnerable to another outbreak, potentially undermining pandemic treaty talks coordinated by the World Health Organization set to culminate in May.

At the heart of the question is whether the virus jumped from an animal or came from a laboratory accident. A U.S. intelligence analysis says there is insufficient evidence to prove either theory, but the debate has further tainted relations between the U.S. and China.

Unlike in the U.S., there is virtually no public debate in China about whether the virus came from nature or from a lab leak. In fact, there is little public discussion at all about the source of the disease, first detected in the central city of Wuhan.

Crucial initial efforts were hampered by bureaucrats in Wuhan trying to avoid blame who misled the central government; the central government, which muzzled Chinese scientists and subjected visiting WHO officials to stage-managed tours; and the U.N. health agency itself, which may have compromised early opportunities to gather critical information in hopes that by placating China, scientists could gain more access, according to internal materials obtained by AP.

In a faxed statement, China's Foreign Ministry defended Chinas handling of research into the origins, saying the country is open and transparent, shared data and research, and made the greatest contribution to global origins research. The National Health Commission, China's top medical authority, said the country invested huge manpower, material and financial resources and has not stopped looking for the origins of the coronavirus.

It could have played out differently, as shown by the outbreak of SARS, a genetic relative of COVID-19, nearly 20 years ago. China initially hid infections then, but WHO complained swiftly and publicly. Ultimately, Beijing fired officials and made reforms. The U.N. agency soon found SARS likely jumped to humans from civet cats in southern China and international scientists later collaborated with their Chinese counterparts to pin down bats as SARS natural reservoir.

But different leaders of both China and WHO, Chinas quest for control of its researchers, and global tensions have all led to silence when it comes to searching for COVID-19s origins. Governments in Asia are pressuring scientists not to look for the virus for fear it could be traced inside their borders.

Even without those complications, experts say identifying how outbreaks begin is incredibly challenging and that its rare to know with certainty how some viruses begin spreading.

Its disturbing how quickly the search for the origins of (COVID-19) escalated into politics, said Mark Woolhouse, a University of Edinburgh outbreak expert. Now this question may never be definitively answered.

Secrecy clouds the beginning of the outbreak. Even the date when Chinese authorities first started searching for the origins is unclear.

The first publicly known search for the virus took place on Dec. 31, 2019, when Chinese Center for Disease Control scientists visited the Wuhan market where many early COVID-19 cases surfaced.

However, WHO officials heard of an earlier inspection of the market on Dec. 25, 2019, according to a recording of a confidential WHO meeting provided to AP by an attendee. Such a probe has never been mentioned publicly by either Chinese authorities or WHO.

In the recording, WHOs top animal virus expert, Peter Ben Embarek, mentioned the earlier date, describing it as an interesting detail. He told colleagues that officials were looking at what was on sale in the market, whether all the vendors have licenses (and) if there was any illegal (wildlife) trade happening in the market.

A colleague asked Ben Embarek, who is no longer with WHO, if that seemed unusual. He responded that it was not routine, and that the Chinese must have had some reason to investigate the market. Well try to figure out what happened and why they did that.

Ben Embarek declined to comment. Another WHO staffer at the Geneva meeting in late January 2020 confirmed Ben Embareks comments.

The Associated Press could not confirm the search independently. It remains a mystery if it took place, what inspectors discovered, or whether they sampled live animals that might point to how COVID-19 emerged.

A Dec. 25, 2019, inspection would have come when Wuhan authorities were aware of the mysterious disease. The day before, a local doctor sent a sample from an ill market vendor to get sequenced that turned out to contain COVID-19. Chatter about the unknown pneumonia was spreading in Wuhans medical circles, according to one doctor and a relative of another who declined to be identified, fearing repercussions.

A scientist in China when the outbreak occurred said they heard of a Dec. 25 inspection from collaborating virologists in the country. They declined to be named out of fear of retribution.

WHO said in an email that it was not aware of the Dec. 25 investigation. It is not included in the U.N. health agencys official COVID-19 timeline.

When health officials from Beijing arrived in Wuhan on Dec. 31, they decided to disinfect the market before collecting samples, destroying critical information about the virus. Gao Fu, head of the China CDC, mentioned it to an American collaborator.

His complaint when I met him was that all the animals were gone, said Columbia University epidemiologist Ian Lipkin.

Robert Garry, who studies viruses at Tulane University, said a Dec. 25 probe would be hugely significant, given what is known about the virus and its spread.

Being able to swab it directly from the animal itself would be pretty convincing and nobody would be arguing about the origins of COVID-19, he said.

But perhaps local officials simply feared for their jobs, with memories of firings after the 2003 SARS outbreak still vivid, said Ray Yip, the founding head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention outpost in China.

They were trying to save their skin, hide the evidence, Yip said.

The Wuhan government did not respond to a faxed request for comment.

Another early victim was Zhang Yongzhen, the first scientist to publish a sequence of the virus. A day after he wrote a memo urging health authorities to action, Chinas top health official ordered Zhangs lab closed.

They used their official power against me and our colleagues, Zhang wrote in an email provided to AP by Edward Holmes, an Australian virologist.

On Jan. 20, 2020, a WHO delegation arrived in Wuhan for a two-day mission. China did not approve a visit to the market, but they stopped by a China CDC lab to examine infection prevention and controlprocedures, according to an internal WHO travel report. WHOs then-China representative, Dr. Gauden Galea, told colleagues in a private meeting that inquiries about COVID-19s origins went unanswered.

There are a few cadres who have performed poorly, President Xi Jinping said in unusually harsh comments in February. Some dare not take responsibility, wait timidly for orders from above, and dont move without being pushed.

The government opened investigations into top health officials, according to two former and current China CDC staff and three others familiar with the matter. Health officials were encouraged to report colleagues who mishandled the outbreak to Communist Party disciplinary bodies, according to two of the people.

Some people both inside and outside China speculated about a laboratory leak. Those suspicious included right-wing American politicians, but also researchers close to WHO.

The focus turned to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, a high-level lab that experimented with some of the worlds most dangerous viruses.

In early February 2020, some of the Wests leading scientists, headed by Dr. Jeremy Farrar, then at Britains Wellcome Trust, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, then director of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, banded together to assess the origins of the virus in calls, a Slack channel and emails.

They drafted a paper suggesting a natural evolution, but even among themselves, they could not agree on the likeliest scenario. Some were alarmed by features they thought might indicate tinkering.

There have (been) suggestions that the virus escaped from the Wuhan lab, Holmes, the Australian virologist, who believed the virus originated in nature, wrote in a Feb. 7, 2020, email. I do a lot of work in China, and I can (assure) you that a lot of people there believe they are being lied to.

American scientists close to researchers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology warned counterparts there to prepare.

James DeLuc, head of a Texas lab, emailed his Wuhan colleague on Feb. 9, 2020, saying hed already been approached by U.S. officials. Clearly addressing this will be essential, with any kind of documentation you might have, he wrote.

The Chinese government was conducting its own secret investigation into the Wuhan Institute. Gao, the head of the China CDC, and another Chinese health expert revealed its existence in interviews months and years later. Both said the investigation found no evidence of wrongdoing, which Holmes, the Australian virologist, also heard from another contact in China. But Gao said even he hadn't seen further details, and some experts suspect they may never be released.

WHO started negotiations with China for a second visit with the virus origins in mind, but it was Chinas Foreign Ministry that decided the terms.

Scientists were sidelined and politicians took control. China refused a visa for Ben Embarek, then WHOs top animal virus expert. The itinerary dropped nearly all items linked to an origins search, according to draft agendas for the trip obtained by the AP. And Gao, the China CDC head who is also a respected scientist tasked with investigating the origins, was left off the schedule.

Instead, Liang Wannian, a politician in the Communist Party hierarchy, took charge of the international delegation. Liang is an epidemiologist close to top Chinese officials and China's Foreign Ministry who is widely seen as pushing the party line, not science-backed policies, according to nine people familiar with the situation who declined to be identified to speak on a sensitive subject.

Most of the WHO delegation was not allowed to go to Wuhan, which was under lockdown. The few who did learned little. They again had no access to the Wuhan Institute of Virology or the wildlife market and obtained only scant details about China CDC efforts to trace the coronavirus there.

On the train, Liang lobbied the visiting WHO scientists to praise Chinas health response in their public report. Dr. Bruce Aylward, a senior adviser to WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, saw it as the best way to meet Chinas need for a strong assessment of its response.

The new section was so flattering that colleagues emailed Aylward to suggest he dial it back a bit.

It is remarkable how much knowledge about a new virus has been gained in such a short time, read the final report, which was reviewed by Chinas top health official before it went to Tedros.

As criticism of China grew, the Chinese government deflected blame. Instead of firing health officials, they declared their virus response a success and closed investigations into the officials with few job losses.

There were no real reforms, because doing reforms means admitting fault, said a public health expert in contact with Chinese health officials who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

In late February 2020, the internationally respected doctor Zhong Nanshan appeared at a news conference and said that the epidemic first appeared in China, but it did not necessarily originate in China.

Chinese officials told WHO that blood tests on lab workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology were negative, suggesting they hadnt been previously infected with bat coronaviruses. But when WHO pressed for an independent audit, Chinese officials balked and demanded WHO investigate the U.S. and other countries as well.

By the time WHO led a third visit to Wuhan in January 2021, a year into the pandemic, the atmosphere was toxic.

Liang, the Chinese health official in charge of the first two WHO visits, continued to promote the questionable theory that the virus was shipped into China on frozen food. He suppressed information suggesting it could have come from animals at the Wuhan market, organizing market workers to tell WHO experts no live wildlife was sold and cutting recent photos of wildlife at the market from the final report. There was heavy political scrutiny, with numerous Chinese officials who werent scientists or health officers present at meetings.

Despite a lack of direct access, the WHO team concluded that a lab leak was extremely unlikely. So it came as an infuriating surprise to Chinese officials when, months later, WHO chief Tedros said all origins hypotheses, including the lab leak theory, remained on the table.

China told WHO any future missions to find COVID-19 origins should be elsewhere, according to a letter obtained by AP. Since then, global cooperation on the issue has ground to a halt; an independent group convened by WHO to investigate the origins of COVID-19 in 2021 has been stymied by the lack of cooperation from China and other issues.

Chinese scientists are still under heavy pressure, according to 10 researchers and healthofficials. Researchers who published papers on the coronavirus ran into trouble with Chinese authorities. Others were barred from travel abroad for conferences and WHO meetings. Gao, the China CDC director, was investigated after U.S. President Joe Biden ordered a review of COVID-19 data, and again after giving interviews on the virus origins.

New evidence is treated with suspicion. In March 2023, scientists announced that genetic material collected from the market showed raccoon dog DNA mixed with COVID-19 in early 2020, data that WHO said should have been publicly shared years before. The findings were posted, then removed by Chinese researchers with little explanation.

The head of the China CDC Institute of Viral Disease was forced to retire over the release of the market data, according to a former China CDC official who declined to be named to speak on a sensitive topic.

It has to do with the origins, so theyre still worried, the former official said. If you try and get to the bottom of it, what if it turns out to be from China?

Other scientists note that any animal from which the virus may have originally jumped has long since disappeared.

There was a chance for China to cooperate with WHO and do some animal sampling studies that might have answered the question, said Tulane Universitys Garry. The trail to find the source has now gone cold.

Cheng reported from Geneva.

See original here:

Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous - El Paso Inc.

COVID-19 Virus Outbreak Hong Kong | | smdailyjournal.com – San Mateo Daily Journal

Posted on by

The Chinese government froze meaningful efforts to trace the origins of the coronavirus pandemic, despite publicly declaring that it supported an open scientific inquiry, an Associated Press investigation has found. The AP drew on thousands of pages of undisclosed emails and documents, leaked recordings and dozens of interviews that showed the freeze began far earlier than previously known in the first weeks of the outbreak and involved political and scientific infighting in China as much as international finger-pointing. That pattern continues to this day, with labs closed, collaborations shattered, foreign scientists forced out and Chinese researchers barred from leaving the country.

See the article here:

COVID-19 Virus Outbreak Hong Kong | | smdailyjournal.com - San Mateo Daily Journal

Letters to the editor: Ignore the populist bait of an uneconomical manufacturing dream – The Australian Financial Review

Posted on by

We need better performance from our politicians, and that requires us to ignore the populist bait on offer. And to reward the politicians who act against their own interests to benefit the country.

Graeme Bennett, Artarmon, NSW

Ed Shann would have us continue business as usual and go with our strengths (Forget Made in Australia, do what we already do well). But what of energy security, and the need to decarbonise?

We have recently witnessed Australias dependence on imports, whether in the 90 per cent of our imported oil supplies at risk due to conflicts elsewhere or a pandemic that isolated the very industries Mr Shann believes are our strengths: education and tourism.

As for subsidies, the Australia Institute reported that in 2022-23, Australian governments provided fossil fuel industries with $11.1billion in spending and tax breaks: This years figure represents a 5 per cent decline on last years, but subsidies in the forward estimates have increased from $55.3 billion to a record $57.1 billion.

The focus on returns to fossil fuel shareholders needs to shift to a focus on making renewables work for the environment and for an equitable transition to cheaper energy sources. This will require investment.

On a micro level, millions of Australians have worked this out already. New home battery installations rose 21 per cent last year. According to the Climate Council, rooftop solar is now providing 11.2 per cent of our nations total power supply after 314,507 households installed solar panels last year, bringing online 2.9GW of new generation.

Fiona Colin, Malvern East, Vic

It was pleasing to read rational commentary detailing criteria necessary to boost investment (Four ways we can lift investment in local manufacturing).

It was all about fundamentals: approvals; build times; competitive input costs; skilled workforce. The only mention of tax was the sensible suggestion for faster depreciation of manufacturing investments.

Improved depreciation rates can apply across all industries. Developing and purchasing computer software is part of everyday business and necessary to drive productivity and revenue. It is like employing people to achieve outcomes. All software expenditures should be able to be written off as incurred rather than depreciated.

Graeme Troy, Wagstaffe, NSW

I offer a counter to the self-serving views of the Minerals Council of Australia as presented by chief executive Tania Constable (Dont make stuff Australia has no edge in, says MCA).

Ms Constable seems to have no idea there is much more to a manufacturing sector than raw inputs and outputs. For a start, there is the whole can do mindset that a thriving manufacturing sector can engender. Ms Constable probably cant conceive that there might be thousands of young Australians who would much rather spend their work time actually making things and gaining practical skills than answering emails and moving numbers around on a screen all day.

Can I suggest she read Identity: The Demand for Dignity and the Politics of Resentment by Francis Fukuyama and pause for a moment to consider the lasting damage to society that can occur when considerations of individual dignity and respect are simply cast aside for the narrow economic benefit of the nation?

Fraser Faithfull, Caulfield South, Vic

The AFR View is right to say the tragedy at Bondi Junction at the weekend would be 10 times worse if the perpetrator had a gun (Bondi Junction tragedy brings out the best). The reason Australians rush to help is that we dont think a gun is involved; the first thing Americans do is run away for fear of being shot.

While it is comforting to see all politicians and media condemn this monstrous act and understand the publics need for full and continuous disclosure, this period will soon end. We will then want to see real change, and real action.

This is where our political leaders could easily let us down. Labor is often criticised for being soft on crime, and time will tell if NSW Premier Chris Minns and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fall into this category.

As The AFR View rightly points out, drugs are pernicious and a scourge; we need tougher action on drug dealers (especially ice, which seems to be in every suburb, and destroys too many lives), greater focus on reducing male violence towards women, reducing domestic violence, and fast action on mental health. We must support the police use of firearms in these situations, look at technology (artificial intelligence and CCTV), the carrying of mace by women made legal, and stab vests and tasers for security guards (with appropriate training and checks).

It is time for our political leaders to realise that laying flowers and sharing updates is important to help unite people and to grieve, but its 1 per cent of the job; taking effective action is the other 99 per cent.

Glen Frost, Darlington, NSW

The news that KIA is marketing a super-sized diesel vehicle specifically for the Australian market says a lot about our mind set. The world is in a climate emergency yet we are partying like there is no tomorrow.

When I drive to the local shopping centre, my little Corolla is dwarfed by a sea of Rams, Rangers and Range Rovers. They are excessive for doing the weekly shopping and school run.

What does it take to shake Australians from their complacency? We are all in this together, folks.

Barry Lizmore, Ocean Grove, Vic

I had no idea CPI was running at 20 per cent until I bought a copy of AFR Weekend in Adelaide on Saturday with a new cover price of $6, up from $5. No doubt Rear Window will shortly do a forensic analysis. After all, the Fins preoccupation with transparency is legendary.

John Bridgland, Adelaide, SA

We are always interested to hear your views on current topics.

Guidelines for how to write an opinion article arehere.

Guidelines for how to write a letter to the editor arehere. Please send your letter to edletters@afr.com.au

Go here to see the original:

Letters to the editor: Ignore the populist bait of an uneconomical manufacturing dream - The Australian Financial Review

Guest Column: Somebody Has To Say It | Your Wyoming News Source – Cowboy State Daily

Posted on by

Another legislative budget session has finished up and legislators have now returned home to report to their constituents how things went.

This is where it gets interesting. The recent session seems to have had more fireworks than most.

From an outside perspective, it seems that the divide between members of our majority party is getting worse and distracting many away from the real reason they have been elected.

The recent discussion and vote of having a special session to override the Governors vetoes has once again exposed the divide that seems to be growing between our good ole Republican legislators.

With a super majority such as we have in Wyoming, we certainly have our disagreements among same party officials.This has always been the case.

But this time it seems different.A bit nastier and more direct.

When I see a Facebook post from current legislators, calling out the traitors or turn coats that voted against the special session, my skin begins to crawl.

Because Ive served in the Wyoming Senate, I wondered how I would react to such a public comment from a fellow legislator.

In my years of service, I saw more than my share of grandstanding moments from others that I worked with.

Most of the time I would ignore the attacks but the increase of these attacks and the trend of blowhards using social media to poke or stab at colleagues is starting to irritate me a great deal.

Heres why: it is self-promoting political grandstanding.

These caustic remarks are directed to politically hurt any opponent, while attempting to elevate the grandstander.

Now, Im a big boy and some may say its fair game or that it is politics, but what really irks me is when these same folks that make these attacks on fellow legislators cry foul when they are passed over for leadership positions in the body they serve in.

They tell their constituents that they are being mistreated because they dared to stand up to those in power or refused to kiss the ring.

The reality is that these folks can dish it out, but they cant take it.Much like the typical bully from school, when finally confronted they fold like a napkin. Sadly, the end game to all this poor behavior is nothing but wasted time.

Proof of this is the poorly crafted and passed bills that the governor elected to veto.

The logical person should ask themselves this question: if the governor knew that these vetoes would be political suicide, then why would he veto these bills?

Im sure he struggled with them and put himself on the line by using his veto power of bills that were supposed to be important to the citizens of Wyoming.

Yet he chose to apply his authority to provide a check and a balance by using his veto power.

Why would he do this unless he had valid concerns that he will now have to explain every time he is asked about his actions on these bills.

Having been in similar positions, I can tell you that his decision took a lot of thought and courage to make.

But rather than taking the high road, those that might disagree with their governor and these vetoes have taken to the social media outlets and labeled all those that opposed having a special session, with the usual banter, name calling while applying labels to any opponent that gets in the way of their efforts.

To those that have chosen to play to the crowd by slandering their fellow legislators, may I suggest a few ideas of how they may better respond to having a different opinion on a matter.

I cant speak for my colleagues that voted against having a special session, youll have to ask them why they voted as they did, I can only tell you why I voted in favor of having a special session.

Or maybe this, Ive tried to understand the concerns they may have with a special session but feel that the importance of these particular bills far outweighed the concerns that some had.

Its not that hard to say the right thing when you check your ego at the door and have a better understanding of mutual respect and honoring the position these people hold.

Words matter.Using correct language when speaking about colleagues such as my friendsor my good friends across the aisle.

As I served in the Senate, mutual respect was a constant practice. But this common decency among legislators seems to be more lacking with each passing session.

I attribute this downward trend to extremism, frustration, constant bombardment of violence from the world we live in with social media and 24-hour news and a tired and uninformed electorate.

We would rather get our information from a nasty Facebook post or blog that entertains us rather than asking the person directly.

We really dont want to know the truth of a matter but would rather assume the worst of an individual.Our standards have been lowered and we seem quick to judge or fight without getting the facts.

We assume that everyone is an enemy and we stand ready with gun in hand to shoot before asking questions.

There is no doubt that the differences between groups are magnified as we degrade ourselves by pointing out these differences rather than finding common ground.

It seems weve lost the art of compromise and substituted diplomacy with take no prisoners."

Some may think that its time we stood our ground and dig in if we are to save our values.

Sadly, the result of standing your ground is that nothing moves while the dead bodies continue to stack up, much like the trench warfare of World War I.

A great example of a futile exercise: when both parties are dug in and unwilling to move, the dead bodies will begin to stack up with little or no positive movement or effort.

I would point out to the reader that the attitude of these so-called true Republicans have set themselves up as the judge of who is a good Republican and who is not. It is nothing more than a mob mentality.

For a glimpse of the end game of this movement could be provided by a study of the extreme party in Germany that began much the same way.

They were looking for a change and the purists showed up promising reform.Their tactics were justified as a love for their country.

The tactics became more brutal as time went on and as the true extremists became more prominent.Justification and love for the country was the practice of the day.

Soon the radical ideas were casually accepted by the majority.

It came to an end when the rest of the world had seen enough and millions of lives were lost, bringing accountability to a power hungry few.

As we enter another election season, I would strongly recommend to the voters to ask your legislative candidates where they feel they stand on this important issue.

How will they be an effective legislator?What are their plans for leadership positions?

Do they have any experiences that would assist them while serving in this position?What ideas they may have or will work to introduce?

For the incumbent, you can ask them how they get along with their colleagues.Ask them if they feel they are being effective in representing us and our needs.

Ask them about the success theyve had in the bills that they have sponsored and gotten passed.Do they hold any leadership positions in the House or Senate?

Please do not let them off the hook with their typical answer such as, Well Im out-voted because conservatives like me are just few and far between.We are simply outnumbered.

Having served 13 years in the Senate, I can tell you that is only an excuse used by poor legislators.

How can any legislator come home after a grueling session and criticize other serving legislators by calling them traitors or turn coats or "RINOs" or just plain idiots and expect to be treated nice by them in return?

So why do they do these things?

Because they can come home and placate to the uninformed masses that they were the hero trying to do the right thing and the masses love them for it.

They become the poster child of fighting against the evil majority that are nothing but greedy, selfish, and power-hungry.

They will tell you how bad things are in Cheynne but, they, being the only purest in the group, are fighting an uphill battle.

And because we seem to be too lazy to discover the real deal in Cheyenne, we continue to elect these types because we think that the government is a bunch of criminals as well. When the real fact of the matter is that we elected an ineffective legislator.

Now thats tough talk but its real and its truthful.

I made many stands while serving for what I thought was right, but I never made enemies with those that I had to work with.

A good legislator knows how to make a stand without injuring fellow workers.

A good legislator knows that everyone is different and not everyone will agree with their positions and so they work to persuade others and to debate the issues with the goal of convincing others to see your view of things and to support your concept.

A good legislator also understands that many times they will fail in their attempts to get a great idea or cause passed because some may see things differently.

They dont take it personally.They dont allow themselves to be caught up in the get even" game.

This is what good legislators do.

When we elect folks that cant do these things effectively, or in the right way, we get to the point where we seem to be now, a we vs. them mentality.

The efforts to degrade the other position or the personal attacks to the opponents, are signs of a poor legislator struggling to elevate themselves by degrading another.

They cant run on their own merits because they dont have any to promote.

All they base their campaigns on are that they fight for freedom and liberty and are more conservative than the other person.

Personal integrity is gone as they allow the slander from extreme groups that happen to agree with them, to flood the mailboxes and commercials during a campaign against their opponents.

All of this because they are failing as a leader among their co-legislators.

When the campaigns start and we attend meetings to hear from our candidates, we should have a pretty good understanding of their views and positions before the meeting is over. If not, the meeting was a failure.

We need to ask the hard questions.

We need to see how fast the candidate can think on their feet, how they communicate their thoughts.Because those qualities will be required of that position.

We need to hold them accountable for their past record or lack of one.

Ask them about the issues of the day or their knowledge of state budgets and expenditures that will affect you.

By the time these meetings are over, the candidates should feel like theyve been run over because that is what a legislative session feels like.

If we have the desire to send our best candidate to Cheyenne, then we need to run these candidates through the mill and weed out the fake want-to-bes that fall back to the sound bites that seem to resonate with the majority of the voters.

That is the politician.Yet we elect them and then complain about the ineffectiveness of government. It might be a case of Ive met the enemy, and it is me.

Im getting crochety in my old age and I grow tired of the nonsense around us, especially from our so-called leaders that represent us.

I served my time in public service.I was in the ring.

For this reason, I have every right and the responsibility to call into question the lack of decorum of our state legislature and our state Republican party.

I served and I did my best to carry out that responsibility as a public servant and I grow tired of the backstabbing, and name calling that seems to control this divide we now have.

Wyoming is better than that and we deserve better than that.

Claiming to be more conservative than another is nothing more than a political stunt. Calling another Republican a "RINO" is not only short-sighted but smacks of arrogance and stupidity.

We need to go deeper into these candidates for office.

As for the other side, demeaning another for their position or labeling them a "rebel" or "hillbilly" is as ignorant as the other comments.

We all need to remember that everyone that serves was elected by the majority, and with that carries the representation of that area and that area deserves respect and opportunity to be heard and represented.

My suggestion is to leave the egos at home.Remember who you work for.

Bring honor back to the position and the entire body.Try to build the team rather than tear it apart.Listen more than you speak.

Understand that in Wyoming, we are all a pretty conservative bunch of folks with some occasional differences of opinions or ideas.

Remember that even though you may think it, you dont always have to say it.Understanding should be the key word and effort.All should have a place at the table and the opportunity to be heard.

My own photo is on the walls of the Wyoming Senate, and I remain proud of the product we made and how we made it.

I hope that those serving now will be able to say the same when they are finished.It does no one any good to say the ignorant things that Ive had to read about or listen to from supposedly the best of us and who represent us.

A legislator should not be surprised when they are not considered or supported by the very people that they poke or make enemies out of continually.

A good legislator builds bridges and friendships among those with a different position.A poor legislator digs in and lofts grenades into the supposed enemy.

Ive called for our legislators to pick up their game and make these improvements, the sooner the better.

I would also ask our voters to step up their game as well.Be engaged.Learn about the issues that affect our lives.

Do not accept the sound bites or one liner that fall short of real problem solving.

We need to send our very best. It is our responsibility to make sure we do.

Finally, to our Republican party leaders: be careful how you represent us.

We should never accept some of the practices of our partys leadership as they promote the divide that exists among us.

Read more:

Guest Column: Somebody Has To Say It | Your Wyoming News Source - Cowboy State Daily

I tried using ChatGPT to help me move across the country – Mashable

Posted on by

When you hit your 20-somethings, nobody tells you how to adult. So now, four months away from the end of my lease, I need to figure out how to move across the country for the first time by myself. I could ask my parents, but where's the fun in that I am a big boy after all. This means obviously, as a reporter for an esteemed tech outlet, the solution is artificial intelligence.

I mean why not, right?

Big Tech has spent billions of dollars trying to find meaningful ways for us to incorporate generative AI into our lives. So, why not use generative AI as my personal assistant and financial planner during my cross-country move from Austin to Chicago?

In theory, moving to a new city is an ideal test of the tools OpenAI claims ChatGPT to be good at, especially now that it can access the internet, users can upload attachments and photos, and can be custom-built for specific needs. If ChatGPT can't ease some of my burdens when it comes to budgeting, searching for, financing, and driving to a new apartment that's more than 1,100 miles away, then perhaps it's not worth the GPUs it's built with.

Even before we look at apartments, I need ChatGPT to help me save money. On top of paying rent and utilities between now and June 1, I also started paying back my student loans in January, which runs me a cool $200 a month until the 2040s.

My goal is to paint a broad picture of what I need to do financially to have the money to make my move as stress-free as possible. ChatGPT and, thus, this experiment is inherently limited because the AI can't do all the financing for me. As much as I would love, in theory, for this AI to take care of my budgeting fully, it can't; nor do I feel comfortable allowing OpenAI to have access to my sensitive financial data.

Truly, this might be way above ChatGPT's pay grade considering it's a conversational AI with a hallucination problem (and not an arithmetic machine), but I gave both AIs the prompt specifying what I'm trying to achieve and asked it to calculate "how much I need to save from each paycheck to reasonably move to Chicago."

The AI was game to help.

You gotta be as specific as possible. The AI's don't appreciate having to do financial guesswork. Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

The big challenge was getting numbers that were realistic to my current situation especially when it came to dates. Between the time this was written and when my July 1 move-in date arrives, I'll receive 7 paychecks. During testing, if my prompt didn't specify July 1, 2024, ChatGPT would assume I meant July 1, 2025, and calculate for a year's worth of money. And even when I am specific about the dates, the AIs may still just hallucinate random numbers, like when ChatGPT randomly calculated for 10 pay periods instead of the 7 I'd specified.

The math was a little spotty, but with some tweaking to the prompts, ChatGPT gave me the ideal number that I should save based on my income and recurring payments. This matched up with the math I did by hand, which admittedly doesn't mean much that's why my degree is in journalism and not STEM.

Now that I know how much I need to save, I need to get a shortlist of places that fit within my budget. My range for rent for my next apartment is $1,000-$1,500. I'm not looking for anything fancy in the Windy City, but a studio/1 bed with an in-unit washer/dryer would be perfect.

Unfortunately, OpenAI has slowly wound down plugins so we're going to have to rely on CustomGPTs, an evolved version of plugins that allows users to create their own chatbots, to specify our real estate needs for this experiment. I used three different CustomGPTs: Apartment/House Rental Finder, Apartment Scout, and Apartment Finder.

So far, the running trend with these GPTs and this experiment, in general, is I need to be extremely specific which ruins the fun for me, because I'm trying to offload all my thinking to the robot. It's clearly a worse experience than just Googling. For instance, Apartment Scout gives a bulleted list of neighborhoods, and when I tell it which one I like, it goes:

It looks like I'm encountering some technical difficulties accessing the specific rental listings directly from the sources I usually rely on. However, you can find suitable studio or 1-bedroom apartments within your price range and criteria by checking out popular rental websites such as Zillow, Apartments.com, and Realtor.com.

What do you mean go somewhere else? Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

On another attempt, it provides a few links to actual apartment listings.

Now it wants to act right. Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

At least this GPT provides a link for me, unlike Apartment/House Rental Finder, which uses Craigslist to find apartments that specify my needs and then will tell me to go there myself if I ask for links to the apartments it listed.

Very helpful. Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

Ultimately, Apartment Finder was also not of much help and also told me to go somewhere else to find what I needed.

Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

The results (or lack thereof) are not surprising. ChatGPT was designed to tell the user whatever will make the user feel happy or smart, rather than be any sort of leader or authority, so if you are unsure about the broad strokes of where you want to live, then you're not gonna have much luck.

I'll guess I'll stick to late-night scrolling on Zillow.

The final step of this move is the packing and planning of the drive. One of the perks of ChatGPT is that you can upload pictures now, so I decided to see if showing ChatGPT my room would help it give me advice on how to pack up my belongings for the move.

Short answer: It didn't. Long answer: It didn't, and instead gave me generic advice on how to rip apart my room:

First, declutter the room, separating items to keep, donate, or discard. Gather moving supplies: boxes, bubble wrap, packing paper, tape, and markers. Pack items from least used to most used, labeling boxes with contents and destination room. Dismantle furniture, wrapping pieces in moving blankets or bubble wrap. Protect the electronics with bubble wrap and place them in boxes. Roll up the rug and secure with tape. Pack the artwork with bubble wrap and place in picture boxes. Use wardrobe boxes for hanging clothes and suitcases for others. Pack a box of essentials separately. Clean the room once emptied.

This advice, especially that neat tidbit about rolling up the rug in my room, wasn't all that useful (hint: my floor is carpeted).

Don't mind my room, it's a little dirty Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

Okay, well, that was a bust, so what about the drive? Unsurprisingly, this is where ChatGPT was the most helpful. I gave it two scenarios: one where I use a rented U-Haul to drive to Chicago, and another where I keep my car. According to the U-Haul website and the math done by ChatGPT, renting and driving a U-Haul costs around $700+.

The mover's dilemma: Sell all my stuff or spend $700 on a U-Haul? Credit: OpenAI via screenshot

If I drive my car, a 2012 Dodge Durango, the cost of just the gas is only around $240.

After calculating costs, ChatGPT gave me some routes to take. Of course, that information is superfluous since I can use Google Maps anyway, but it's nice to know now where my little adventure will take me. According to my friend from Illinois, the drive from Austin to Chicago is not great, so I'm glad ChatGPT told me to have some podcasts on deck to keep me entertained.

Here's the TL;DR: Don't use ChatGPT to plan a move across the country.

It's not that ChatGPT can't be helpful, cause it can. The chatbot helped me visualize a broad overview of my finances and gave me some useful tips and tricks for packing and route-planning. However, you need to be so hyper-specific with the prompts that all that time tinkering could be spent, you know, planning your move yourself.

Wanna use the CustomGPTs to help find apartments? Sorry, they'll just tell you to use Zillow. Wanna use ChatGPT to pin down how much to save out of your paychecks? Unless you're willing to get into the weeds about your financial security, good luck getting it to not just make shit up and even then it still might. Of course, these chatbots aren't designed to do life for you, but this exercise was somehow more frustrating than I thought it would be.

I guess I'll call my parents for help after all.

See original here:

I tried using ChatGPT to help me move across the country - Mashable

Elon Musk Thinks Cannibals Are Invading the United States – Futurism

Posted on by

In his latest racist outburst, multihyphenate billionaire Elon Musk joined other conservative pundits in accusing Haitian migrants of being "cannibals," arguing that they shouldn't be allowed to move to the US.

The news comes after political unrest in the island nation came to a head this week. On Monday, Haiti's prime minister Ariel Henry agreed to resign if other Caribbean nations were to form a transitional government on behalf of the country. The statement angered Haitians, triggering mass protests, with tires being burned in the streets.

Meanwhile, Musk took to his social media platform X to further unverified and sensationalist claims of cannibalism arising out of the conflict, as NBC reports.

Case in point, today, the mercurial CEO tweeted a link to a video that claimed to show evidence of cannibalism in Haiti in response to the report.

The video was promptly taken down by X, Axios reports, which stated that the video had violated its rules.

In other words, even Musk's own social media company isn't willing to support his increasingly racist anti-immigration posts.

Ever since Musk took over the company formerly known as Twitter, hate speech has flourished on the platform. The billionaire has spread his own share of misinformation as well, from bogus COVID-19 data to false information about the Israel-Gaza conflict.

Musk has also made plenty of his own racist remarks on his platform. In January, he argued that Black students at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) have lower IQs and therefore shouldn't become pilots ridiculous claims that were met with horror by civil rights groups.

Most recently, the billionaire took aim at the people of Haiti, playing into debunked tropes.

Over the weekend, Musk tweeted "cannibal gangs..." in response to a clip by right-wing commentator Matt Walsh about unrest in Haiti.

"Civilization is fragile," he wrote in response to another since-deleted video, which claimed to show footage of a "cannibal gang eating body parts."

This week, Musk joined right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong, who argued on X earlier this week that there were "cannibal gangs in Haiti who abduct and eat people."

"If wanting to screen immigrants for potential homicidal tendencies and cannibalism makes me 'right wing,' then I would gladly accept such a label!" an incensed Musk wrote in a reply to a separate post in which Cheong complained about the NBC report. "Failure to do so would put innocent Americans in [sic] mortal risk," he added, failing to provide any evidence for his outlandish claims.

As experts have since pointed out, the posts were likely the result of gang propaganda campaigns designed to stoke fear, as NBC reports. While it's still possible that the odd gang leaders are indeed capable of such ghoulish acts, generalizing these claims is not only misleading a State Department spokesperson told the broadcaster that it had received no credible reports of cannibalism but even clearly playing into racist tropes that date back to colonial times.

There's also the issue of basic human decency. Through no fault of its residents, Haiti is in crisis; instead of wondering how the country he immigrated to could help, Musk is punching down at the most extreme examples of social dysfunction he can find online.

"It is very disturbing that Elon Musk would repeat these absurdities that do, indeed, have a long history," Yale University professor of French and African diaspora studies Marlene Daut told NBC.

In short, it's yet another troubling sign of Musk's descent into extreme right-wing circles, while using his considerable following and social media network to further conspiracy theories and racist disinformation.

"A whole population is getting blamed for what some psycho gang members are doing," Washington-based lawyer and moderator of the subreddit r/Haiti, told NBC. "It is racist. It is dehumanizing."

More on Musk: Elon Musk Deletes Tweet Saying Ex-Wives Responsible for Collapse of Civilization

Here is the original post:

Elon Musk Thinks Cannibals Are Invading the United States - Futurism

Investment starting to pay returns for women’s football in Oceania nations – Friends of Football

Posted on by

Efforts to help improve womens football in the Oceania region are bearing fruit, say football leaders.

FIFA Chief Womens Football Officer and former Samoa international Dame Sarai Bareman says the shining example was the 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup, co-hosted by New Zealand and Australia.

Its clear that the impact stretched far beyond the two hosts and into the wider Oceania region, she said.

FIFAs provision of a range of on and off-field development activities in recent years has helped fast-track growth, and led to more examples of progress at OFC Womens Olympic Qualifier tournament in Samoa.

From infrastructure upgrades notably at the hosts Football Federation Samoa Football Stadium to the provision of high-performance coaches, and financial packages supporting the national teams, the support has been broad and wide-ranging.

Main photo: Solomon Islands Ileen Pegi was one of the emerging players at the OFC Womens Olympic Qualifier Tournament in Samoa. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / Phototek.

Dame Sarai said it was pleasing to see so many competitive matches and such a lift in the quality of football at the tournament.

Its a testament to the hard work that is being done by OFC and its member associations.

Major competitions play such a crucial role in the growth of womens football. Last year, we saw Papua New Guinea come so close to qualifying for the FIFA Womens World Cup.

The levelling of competition across the confederation reflects the commitment to improvement from both the world governing body and the respective member associations.

FIFA has delivered 77 programmes to Oceanian nations since first launching the Womens Development Programmes in the region.

Notably, FIFA launched a pilot programme to help Pacific national teams prepare for the OFC Womens Nation Cup 2022.

This turned into a fully-fledged programme that supported a range of identified nations to prepare for the 2023 FIFA Womens World Cup.

Samoa, for instance, is enjoying a significant period of growth.

In February 2024, experienced administrator Ronna Lee Galumalemana became the new CEO at Football Federation Samoa (FFS), one of the few women to lead a member association in the region.

FFS President Sam Petaia says FIFA has invested more than USD$5 million for infrastructure in the past few years. Such investment has allowed FFS to host several OFC tournaments over the coming year.

Apia Park will be the main FFS administrative headquarters, while the existing Tuanaimato facility will be developed into a high-performance centre.

As part of FIFA 3.0 the academy will be developed with a gym, training pitches and player accommodation, sports science and anti-doping being housed on the site.

FIFA, through their infrastructure assistance, have given us a platform, that our Federation can challenge rugby, Petaia said.

Its about giving opportunities to kids. [Football is] the most well-funded, and the most popular grassroots programme in the country. But when they transition from primary school to secondary school, that is when we tend to lose a lot of the football players to rugby.

We have systems in place that we will make sure we try to hold onto our players, so they know theres something for them when they leave primary school. So its about us building programmes we can sustain. In five to 10 years look out, that landscape can change.

FFS Technical Director Ravinesh Kumar said: I think the FIFA Womens World Cup had a great impact on the young people, young girls as well.

We had our holiday programmes in December and we could clearly see that there is a link, between the FIFA Womens World Cup brought to Oceania and the interest it creates in our local kids. And now the Olympic qualifiers have backed up that interest, in our girls especially.

We could see a lot of girls have come in to watch the Olympic qualifiers.

Excerpt from:

Investment starting to pay returns for women's football in Oceania nations - Friends of Football

Space exploration and colonisation: US, China, Russia and others | TheCable – TheCable

Posted on by

Space exploration is dynamic and developments have been ongoing over the years with several countries actively engaged in space exploration; and have demonstrated interest in the long-term goal of space colonization. Three prominent countries at the fore of space exploration and showing interest in colonization include the United States, China, and Russia.

The United States, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), has played a lead role in space exploration since when it was established in 1958. They have a rich history of crewed space missions, which included the Apollo moon landings. In recent years, NASA has paid more attention to projects some of which are:

These are just a few, and NASA is working on various other scientific missions, technological advancements, and international collaborations. For the latest updates and detailed information, its recommended to visit NASAs official website and follow their press releases and mission updates.

Private Companies: SpaceX, or Space Exploration Technologies Corp., founded by Elon Musk in 2002, is a private aerospace manufacturer and space transportation company. They have been driving interesting activity in various space exploration initiatives. This is aimed at revolutionizing space travel and making it more accessible. Some space exploration activities and projects that SpaceX has been working on include:

Another country doing some work is China. China National Space Administration (CNSA) has been actively working on space exploration with some achievements under its belt. It is noteworthy to mention that the space industry is evolving rapidly. Here are some major areas of Chinas space exploration efforts:

Furthermore, the Russian Roscosmos has a long history in space exploration, with a rich history of achievements dating back to the era of the Soviet Union. Here are some major areas of Roscosmoss space exploration efforts:

Besides, several African countries have shown an increasing interest in space exploration and have taken steps to develop their space capabilities. It is important to say that Africas involvement in space activities varies among its countries. Here are some major aspects of space exploration in Africa:

While these examples demonstrate the progress made by some African countries in space exploration, it is important to recognize that the level of involvement varies across the continent, and yes more work can be done through private organizations active involvement. Collaboration and the sharing of resources and expertise have been major conversations in promoting Africas presence in space exploration. Continued efforts and investments are likely to shape Africas role in future space activities.

In conclusion, while space exploration has led to numerous benefits and advancements, some challenges need to be addressed, including cost, environmental impact, and ethical considerations. Continued international collaboration and responsible exploration practices are crucial for ensuring the sustainable development of space activities.

Thank you for the investment in time, and I am open to conversations on furthering these thoughts. To be notified each time I publish a new post, follow my Medium: https://medium.com/@roariyo and LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olufemi-ariyo-923ba6130/ or send an email to [emailprotected]

See original here:

Space exploration and colonisation: US, China, Russia and others | TheCable - TheCable

America Divided Part II: Mideast war magnifies free speech challenges on college campuses – The Daily Reflector

Posted on by

Since Hamas Oct. 7 attacks inside Israel and U.S. support for the resulting war in Gaza, protests and rallies have sprouted at college campuses across the U.S.

Tempers have flared, and tensions have risen.

Javascript is required for you to be able to read premium content. Please enable it in your browser settings.

kAm%92E :?4=F56D 2 C:D6 😕 C6A@CED @7 2?E:D6>:E:D>[ 244@C5:?8 E@ E96 p?E:s672>2E:@? {628F6[ H9:49 D2H 2 be`T C:D6 😕 2?E:y6H:D9 :?4:56?ED 7C@> ~4E] f E@ y2?] f 4@>A2C65 E@ 2 J62C 28@]k^Am

kAm%96 r@F?4:= @? p>6C:42?xD=2>:4 #6=2E:@?D Wrpx#X 2=D@ D2H 2 `fgT :?4C62D6 😕 C6A@CED @7 2?E:|FD=:> 2?5 2?E:!2=6DE:?:2? :?4:56?ED 24C@DD E96 &]$] 5FC:?8 E96 =2DE E9C66 >@?E9D @7 a_ab]k^Am

kAm(2C AC@E6DED 2?5 :?46?5:2CJ C96E@C:4 @? 42>AFD6D 92G6 2=D@ DA2C<65 ?6H 5632E6D 2?5 E6?D:@?D @G6C E96 =2?5D42A6 7@C 7C66 DA6649[ H96? E92E DA6649 4C@DD6D =682= =:?6D 2?5 E96 7FEFC6 @7 5:DD6?E @? 42>AFD6D]k^Am

A pro-Israel demonstrator shouts at Palestinian supporters during a protest at Columbia University, Oct. 12, 2023, in New York. More than 40 U.S. colleges and universities face federal investigations for shared ancestry discrimination under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act in the wake of anti-war and anti-Israel protests on campus.

kAmkDEC@?8mq&|!* {p}s$rp!tk^DEC@?8mk^Am

kAm%96 4FCC6?E =2?5D42A6 😀 3F>AJ] %96 xDC26=w2>2D H2C 😀 ;FDE E96 =2E6DE 6I2>A=6 E92E 92D 82=G2?:K65 5:D4FDD:@? 2?5 5:DAFE6D 23@FE E96 =:>:ED @? 7C66 DA6649 😕 @FC 9:89=J A@=2C:K65 D@4:6EJ[ D2:5 y2?6 z:CE=6J[ 2 AC@76DD@C @7 >65:2 6E9:4D 2?5 =2H 2E E96 &?:G6CD:EJ @7 |:??6D@E2D wF332C5 $49@@= @7 y@FC?2=:D> 2?5 |2DD r@>>F?:42E:@?]k^Am

kAmuC66 DA6649 25G@42E6D H@CCJ 23@FE F?:G6CD:EJ 25>:?:DEC2E@CD[ 6=64E65 @77:4:2=D @G6CD66:?8 AF3=:4 4@==686D 2?5 H62=E9J 5@?@CD DBF6=49:?8 DA6649 E96J 5@?E =:<6 :? E9:D 42D6[ G:6HD @? E96 H2C[ xDC26=[ !2=6DE:?6 2?5 &]$] A@=:4J]k^Am

kAm(92E H6C6 724:?8 ?@H 😀 E92E 8@G6C?>6?E @77:4:2=D DE2E6 F?:G6CD:E:6D[ DE2E6 =68:D=2E@CD 2C6 4@?E6>A=2E:?8 ECJ:?8 E@ C6DEC:4E @A:?:@?D H:E9 H9:49 E96J 5:D28C66] %9:D 😀 2 AC@3=6> 7@C 6G6CJ@?6[ z:CE=6J D2:5] ~?46 H6 @A6? E96 5@@C E@ 2==@H:?8 E96 8@G6C?>6?E E@ E6== FD H92E E9@F89ED 2C6?E 2446AE23=6[ H6 CF? E96 C:D< E92E[ :? E96 7FEFC6[ :562D H:E9 H9:49 H6 28C66 4@F=5 36 DFAAC6DD65[ 2D H6==]k^Am

kAmw2=6J v=F92?:49[ AC@8C2> @77:46C 7@C 42>AFD C:89ED 25G@424J 7@C E96 u@F?52E:@? 7@C x?5:G:5F2= #:89ED 2?5 tIAC6DD:@? Wux#tX[ 92D D66? 2? :?4C62D6 😕 42==D 7C@> DEF56?ED[ 724F=EJ 2?5 DE277 24C@DD E96 4@F?ECJ D:?46 E96 DE2CE @7 E96 w@=J {2?5 H2C]k^Am

kAm(6 2C6 D66:?8 6G6?ED 36:?8 42?46=65] (6 2C6 D66:?8 DEF56?E @C82?:K2E:@?D 36:?8 56492CE6C65] (6 2C6 D66:?8 DEF56?ED 2?5 724F=EJ >6>36CD 86EE:?8 5:D4:A=:?65 7@C D@4:2= >65:2 A@DED 7@C D@>6 4@>>6?ED >256 😕 4=2DD[ v=F92?:49 D2:5]k^Am

kAm$96 D2:5 ux#t 92D C646:G65 4@>A=2:?ED 24C@DD E96 4@?E6?E:@FD A@=:E:42= DA64ECF>] xE 😀 AC6EEJ 6BF2=] r@?D6CG2E:G6D 2?5 =:36C2=D H6 2C6 D66:?8 3@E9 @7 E96> 92G:?8 E96:C DA6649 C6DEC:4E65[ v=F92?:49 D2:5]k^Am

kAm$96 D2:5 E92E 92D :?4=F565 F?:G6CD:E:6D :>A@D:?8 9:89 :?DFC2?46 C6BF:C6>6?ED[ ECJ:?8 E@ >@G6 4@?EC@G6CD:2= 6G6?ED @?=:?6 @C E@ >@C6 C6>@E6 =@42E:@?D 2?5 4:E:?8 D64FC:EJ 4@?46C?D 😕 C6DEC:4E:?8 46CE2:? DA62<6CD 2?5 8C@FAD]k^Am

kAmz:CE=6J 2?5 v=F92?:49 C6:?7@C465 E96 :562 E92E AF3=:4 9:896C 65F42E:@? :?DE:EFE:@?D 2C6 6DA64:2==J 3@F?5 E@ u:CDE p>6?5>6?E AC@E64E:@?D 2?5 >FDE 2G@:5 5:D4C:>:?2E:?8 282:?DE 46CE2:? G:6HA@:?ED] %92E :?4=F56D 92E6 DA6649 E92E 42? 36 5:D4@>7@CE:?8]k^Am

kAm|2?J A6@A=6 5@?E C62=:K6 E92E 92E6 DA6649 H9:49 5@6D?E 92G6 2 4=62C 567:?:E:@? 😀 AC@E64E65 F?56C E96 u:CDE p>6?5>6?E] %9:D 😀 G6CJ :>A@CE2?E[ 3642FD6[ 2D 2 86?6C2= CF=6[ C6DEC:4E:@?D @? DA6649 E92E 2C6 G:6HA@:?E32D65 2C6 5:D72G@C65 F?56C @FC 7C66 DA6649 ;FC:DACF56?46]k^Am

kAm%96 $FAC6>6 r@FCE 92D C64@8?:K65 E92E E96 8@G6C?>6?E 42??@E 5:4E2E6 H92E 😀 @CE9@5@I 😕 E9@F89E @C DA6649[ z:CE=6J D2:5]k^Am

kAm$A6649 E92E :?4:E6D G:@=6?46 2?5 DA64:7:4 E9C62ED[ 9@H6G6C[ 5@6D ?@E 6?;@J u:CDE p>6?5>6?E AC@E64E:@?D]k^Am

American colleges have become places of anguish, with Jewish and other pro-Israel students condemning the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas, while Muslim and progressive students are pressing for recognition of suffering by Palestinians in Gaza.

kAmkDEC@?8m$%&st}%$ (p}% %~ utt{ $putk^DEC@?8mk^Am

kAm$9:C2 v@@5>2?[ D6?:@C 5:C64E@C @7 25G@424J 7@C ps{[ D2:5 AF3=:4 4@==686D 92G6 E96 =682= C:89E E@ C6DA@?D:3=J C68F=2E6 DA6649 2?5 E@ AC@E64E DEF56?ED 2?5 DE277 7C@> 5:D4C:>:?2E:@?[ 92C2DD>6?E 2?5 9@DE:=6 65F42E:@?2= 6?G:C@?>6?ED F?56C %:E=6 'x @7 E96 `hec r:G:= #:89ED p4E]k^Am

kAm%96 8@G6C?>6?E 92D E96 C:89E E@ 92G6 E:>6[ A=246 2?5 >2??6C C6DEC:4E:@?D[ A6C>:EE:?8 C6BF:C6>6?ED[ E:>6 C6DEC:4E:@?D[ D96 D2:5] (6 H2?E E9@D6 E9:?8D 6?7@C465 6BF2==J]k^Am

kAmv@@5>2? D2:5 6G6? AC@E64E65 DA6649 42? CF? :?E@ :DDF6D 😕 65F42E:@?2= D6EE:?8D C646:G:?8 7656C2= 7F?5:?8 F?56C %:E=6 'x] x E9:?< H6 7@C86E E92E E96C6 :D E96 A@DD:3:=:EJ E92E 6G6? AC@E64E65 DA6649 42? 4C62E6 2 9@DE:=6 6?G:C@?>6?E] x E9:?< E92ED :>A@CE2?E[ v@@5>2? D2:5]k^Am

kAmv@@5>2? D2:5 y6H:D9 DEF56?ED 2?5 DE277 92G6 G@:465 4@?46C?D 23@FE A6CD@?2= D276EJ 2E D49@@=D 2?5 65F42E:@?2= H@C 2?5 492=<:?8 :?G@=G:?8 DH2DE:<2D 2?5 @E96C 92E67F= DJ>3@=D 2?5 D=@82?D]k^Am

kAm~FC =682= 42== =:?6D E96JG6 8@EE6? 9F?5C65D @7 42==D 24C@DD F?:G6CD:E:6D[ D96 D2:5] $@>6 @7 E9@D6 >:89E C6DF=E 😕 =:E:82E:@?] r=2:>D 2C6 36:?8 7:=65 H:E9 E96 s~t]k^Am

kAmp &]$] s6A2CE>6?E @7 t5F42E:@? DA@<6DA6CD@? C676CC65 BF6DE:@?D 23@FE 2 A@DE~4E] f C:D6 :? 92C2DD>6?E %:E=6 'x 4@>A=2:?ED E@ 2 }@G6>36C AC6DD C6=62D6 😕 H9:49 E96 q:56? 25>:?:DEC2E:@? D2:5 :E H@F=5 DE2CE C6=62D:?8 E96 ?2>6D @7 :?DE:EFE:@?D F?56C :?G6DE:82E:@? 7@C A@E6?E:2= 5:D4C:>:?2E:@? 32D65 @? D92C65 2?46DECJ]k^Am

kAm$:?46 E96 w2>2D 2EE24@C6 E92? c_ 4@==686D 2?5 F?:G6CD:E:6D E92E 2C6 36:?8 :?G6DE:82E65 7@C A@E6?E:2= D92C65 2?46DECJ 5:D4C:>:?2E:@?]k^Am

kAm%96 :?G6DE:82E:@? =:DE :?4=F56D D49@@=D H96C6 y6H:D9 DEF56?ED 92G6 G@:465 D276EJ 4@?46C?D 5FC:?8 2?E:H2C AC@E6DED[ :?4=F5:?8 E96 r@@A6C &?:@?[ r@C?6== &?:G6CD:EJ[ r@=F>3:2 &?:G6CD:EJ 2?5 }6H $49@@= 😕 }6H *@C<[ E96 F?:G6CD:E:6D @7 %2>A2 2?5 $@FE9 u=@C:52[ w2CG2C5 &?:G6CD:EJ 2?5 E96 |2DD249FD6EED x?DE:EFE6 @7 %649?@=@8J]k^Am

kAm%96 s~t =:DE 2=D@ :?4=F56D @E96C xGJ {628F6 2?5 6=:E6 D49@@=D W:?4=F5:?8 *2=6[ $E2?7@C5[ y@9?D w@A<:?D 2?5 qC@H?X[ D6G6C2= q:8 %6? D49@@=D W:?4=F5:?8 |:49:82?[ ~9:@ $E2E6[ #FE86CD[ }@CE9H6DE6C?[ x?5:2?2q=@@>:?8E@?[ |:??6D@E2%H:? r:E:6D 2?5 (:D4@?D:?|25:D@?X[ 2D H6== 2D |@?E2?2 $E2E6 &?:G6CD:EJ 2?5 E96 F?:G6CD:E:6D @7 }@CE9 r2C@=:?2r92A6= w:== 2?5 (2D9:?8E@?]k^Am

kAmp ?F>36C @7 D49@@=D 4@?E24E65 7@C E9:D DE@CJ 5:5 ?@E C6DA@?5 E@ C6BF6DED E@ 4@>>6?E 23@FE 9@H E96J 2C6 92?5=:?8 AC@E6DED[ 7C66 DA6649 2?5 D276EJ 4@?46C?D] ~77:4:2=D 2E ~9:@ $E2E6 2?5 (:D4@?D:?|25:D@? C676CC65 E@ E96:C DA6649 A@=:4:6D DFAA@CE:?8 2 7C66 6I492?86 @7 :562D 2?5 5:776C:?8 @A:?:@?D]k^Am

kAm(6 92G6 366? 8F:565 3J EH@ =@?8DE2?5:?8 AC:?4:A=6Di ~9:@ $E2E6 😀 4@>>:EE65 E@ 6?DFC:?8 7C665@> @7 DA6649 2?5 6IAC6DD:@? @? @FC 42>AFD[ 2?5 ~9:@ $E2E6 92D ?6G6C 2?5 H:== ?6G6C E@=6C2E6 5:D4C:>:?2E:@? @C 92C2DD>6?E @7 2?J@?6 32D65 @? E96:C C6=:8:@FD 36=:67D[ ?2E:@?2=:EJ @C :56?E:EJ] p==682E:@?D @7 E9C62ED[ 5:D4C:>:?2E:@? @C 92C2DD>6?E 2C6 :?G6DE:82E65 3J @FC ~77:46 @7 x?DE:EFE:@?2= tBF:EJ[ D2:5 q6? y@9?D@?[ 2? ~9:@ $E2E6 DA@<6DA6CD@?]k^Am

kAmv@@5>2? H2?ED D49@@=D E@ 5@ >@C6 E@ >2<6 DFC6 DEF56?ED :DEC62E>6?E 2?5 E@ 36 >@C6 EC2?DA2C6?E 23@FE E96:C A@=:4:6D 2?5 A@DE ~4E] f 492?86D 27E6C E96 AC6D:56?ED @7 w2CG2C5[ |x% 2?5 E96 &?:G6CD:EJ @7 !6??DJ=G2?:2 42>6 F?56C 7:C6 7@C =F<6H2C> 2?DH6CD 5FC:?8 2 4@?8C6DD:@?2= 962C:?8 C6=2E65 E@ 86?@4:52= C96E@C:4]k^Am

kAm$EF56?ED H2?E E@ 766= D276[ D96 D2:5]k^Am

Jewish Rutgers University students and community members hold a vigil in support of Israel on Oct. 25, 2023, in New Brunswick, N.J..

kAmkDEC@?8m%wx$ x$ }t)% {t't{k^DEC@?8mk^Am

kAmr@C6J $2J=@C[ C6D62C49 2?5 25G@424J 5:C64E@C 7@C rpx#[ 😀 G6CJ 4@?46C?65 E92E D@>6 @7 E96 24E:@?D 36:?8 E2<6? @? 4@==686 42>AFD6D 2C6 2:>65 2E DFAAC6DD:?8 AC@!2=6DE:?:2? G:6HA@:?ED]k^Am

kAm%9:D 😀 ?6IE =6G6=[ $2J=@C D2:5 @7 E96 D6?E:>6?ED 2?5 AFD96D 282:?DE AC@!2=6DE:?:2? 2?5 2?E:H2C G@:46D[ H9:49 92G6 46?E6C65 @? 4@==686 42>AFD6D] %96 E2C86E:?8 @7 DEF56?ED 2?5 A6@A=6 😕 E96:C H@C

kAm$2J=@C A@:?ED E@ 8C@FAD H9@ 92G6 AF3=:4:K65 E96 ?2>6D @7 DEF56?ED[ @C82?:K2E:@?D[ 724F=EJ 2?5 6>A=@J66D H9@ 92G6 G@:465 @AA@D:E:@? E@ E96 H2C 2?5 &]$] A@=:4:6D]k^Am

kAmx? E6C>D @7 E92E[ H6 92G6?E D66? 2?JE9:?8 =:<6 H92E H6 2C6 H:E?6DD:?8 C:89E ?@H[ $2J=@C D2:5]k^Am

kAm%9@D6 @? E96 @E96C D:56 @7 E96 :DDF6 4@?E6?5 D@>6 2?E:xDC26= C96E@C:4 92D 4C@DD65 E96 =:?6 :?E@ 2?E:D6>:E:D>]k^Am

kAmv=F92?:49 2?5 z:CE=6J 2=D@ H2?E 4@==686D E@ C6G:D:E 2?5[ 😕 D@>6 :?DE2?46D[ 5:E49 D@42==65 DA6649 4@56D 2?5 9@H D49@@=D 92?5=6 4@>A=2:?ED H:E9 2 7@4FD @? >2:?E2:?:?8 7C665@> @7 6IAC6DD:@?]k^Am

kAm%96J 2=D@ H@CCJ 23@FE H62=E9J 5@?@CD 6DA64:2==J 2E AC:G2E6 D49@@=D H9@ 2C6?E 2D 3@F?5 E@ E96 u:CDE p>6?5>6?E 2D E96:C AF3=:4 4@F?E6CA2CED AC6DDFC:?8 25>:?:DEC2E@CD E@ 46?D@C DA6649 E96J 5@?E =:<6 27E6C E96 C6D:8?2E:@?D @7 E96 AC6D:56?ED @7 !6?? 2?5 w2CG2C5 27E6C E96:C 4@?8C6DD:@?2= E6DE:>@?J]k^Am

Pro-Palestinian protesters argue with a pro-Israel demonstrator during a protest at Columbia University in New York. Jewish students across the country worry about safety and a rise in antisemitism, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is concerned about universities squelching anti-war sentiments on campuses.

kAmkDEC@?8mp #xvw% %wp% $w~&{s qt $putv&p#stsk^DEC@?8mk^Am

kAmv~! =2H>2<6CD 2?5 8@G6C?@CD H9@ 92G6 AC6G:@FD=J 4@>A=2:?65 23@FE 4@?D6CG2E:G6 G@:46D 36:?8 46?D@C65 @? =:36C2= 42>AFD6D 92G6 AFD965 282:?DE 2?E:xDC26= AC@E6DED]k^Am

kAmx? u=@C:52[ v~! v@G] #@? s6$2?E:D 32??65 $EF56?ED 7@C yFDE:46 😕 !2=6DE:?6 W$y!X 2E AF3=:4 42>AFD6D 27E6C A@DE~4E] f AC@E6DED] w6 92D 2=D@ 6=:>:?2E65 DE2E6 F?:G6CD:E:6D 5:G6CD:EJ[ 6BF:EJ 2?5 :?4=FD:@? WstxX @77:46D 2?5 @G6C92F=65 E96 AC@8C6DD:G6 }6H r@==686 @7 u=@C:52]k^Am

kAm%96 p>6C:42? r:G:= {:36CE:6D &?:@? 2?5 @E96C 8C@FAD 2C6 492==6?8:?8 E96 5624E:G2E:@? @7 E96 AC@!2=6DE:?:2? 8C@FA @? 7C66 DA6649 8C@F?5D[ E9@F89 2 7656C2= ;F586 56?:65 E96:C C6BF6DE 7@C 2? :?;F?4E:@? 😕 E96 42D6 y2?] b`]k^Am

kAm}6H r@==686[ $y! 2?5 E96 pr{& 5:5 ?@E C6DA@?5 E@ C6BF6DED 7@C 4@>>6?E]k^Am

kAmp 425C6 @7 v~! =2H>2<6CD :?4=F5:?8 s6$2?E:D 2?5 |@?E2?2 pEE@C?6J v6?6C2= pFDE:? z?F5D6? 2=D@ H2?E 7@C6:8? 4@==686 DEF56?ED E@ A@E6?E:2==J =@D6 E96:C G:D2D 2?5 86E 56A@CE65 :7 E96J DFAA@CE w2>2D @C @E96C &]$]56D:8?2E65 E6CC@C 8C@FADk^Am

kAmt>:=66 r2?EC6==[ 4@>>F?:42E:@?D 5:C64E@C 7@C E96 |@?E2?2 2EE@C?6J 86?6C2=[ D2:5 DA6649 C:89ED D9@F=5 36 D2768F2C565[ 3FE 2=D@ AC@>:D65 E@ 6?7@C46 92E64C:>6 =2HD[ 2D ?66565]k^Am

kAmtG6CJ p>6C:42? 92D E96 C:89E E@ 7C66 DA6649 C682C5=6DD @7 E96:C 36=:67D[ 2 C:89E E92E D9@F=5 36 D2768F2C565] w@H6G6C[ 2DD2F=E 2?5 G:@=6?46 😕 |@?E2?2 H:== ?@E 36 E@=6C2E65] %96 |@?E2?2 s6A2CE>6?E @7 yFDE:46 H:== 5@ :ED A2CE E@ 6?DFC6 E92E DE2E6 =2HD[ :?4=F5:?8 92E64C:>6 =2HD[ 2C6 36:?8 7@==@H65[ D96 D2:5]k^Am

An anti-war protester interrupts President Joe Biden during a campaign event touting abortion rights on the campus of George Mason University in Virginia, Tuesday, Jan. 23, 2024. College campuses have become epicenters for protests against U.S. (and Bidens) support for Israels war versus Hamas in Gaza.

Read more here:

America Divided Part II: Mideast war magnifies free speech challenges on college campuses - The Daily Reflector

Democratic operative admits to commissioning Biden AI robocall in New Hampshire – The Washington Post

Posted on by

A longtime Democratic consultant working for a rival candidate admitted that he commissioned the artificial intelligence-generated robocall of President Biden that was sent to New Hampshire voters in January and triggered a state criminal investigation.

Steve Kramer, who worked for the long-shot Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips, said in a phone interview with The Washington Post that he sent out the AI-generated robocall telling voters to not vote to just under 5,000 people listed as most likely Democrats to vote in the New Hampshire primary, marking one of the first major uses of AI to disrupt the 2024 presidential election cycle.

The Phillips campaign paid Kramer roughly $250,000 to get Phillips, a third-term congressman from Minnesota challenging Biden, on the ballot in New York and Pennsylvania, according to federal campaign filings. Federal Communications Commission has issued him a subpoena for his involvement, Kramer said.

After the robocall, the Federal Communications Commission adopted a ruling that clarified generating a voice with AI for robocalls is illegal and swiftly issued a cease-and-desist letter to Kramer for originating illegal spoofed robocalls using an AI-generated voice in New Hampshire and issued a public notice to U.S.-based voice providers regarding blocking traffic related to the call.

The agency is working diligently including through all the tools available through its investigations to ensure that harmful misuse of AI technologies do not compromise the integrity of our communications networks, FCC spokesperson Will Wiquist said in a statement.

Kramer also shared details about how he created the robocall, confirming several details previously under speculation. He used software from the artificial intelligence voice cloning company Eleven Labs to create a deepfake voice of Biden in less than 30 minutes.

The calls, he added, were delivered by Voice Broadcasting, an entity associated with Life Co., which was at the center of the criminal investigation opened by New Hampshire Attorney General John Formella in early February into the Biden AI robocall. Kramer said the reason he created the robocall was to raise awareness about the dangers AI poses in political campaigns.

If anybody can do it, whats a person with real money, or an entity with real money, going to do? he said.

Kramers incident highlights the ease and accessibility by which AI-generated technology is making its way into the 2024 campaign cycle, allowing nearly anyone to use a wide array of tools to inject chaos and confusion into the voting process.

It also foreshadows a new challenge for state regulators, as increasingly advanced AI tools create new opportunities to interfere in elections across the world by creating fake audio recordings, photos and even videos of candidates, muddying the waters of reality.

The New Hampshire attorney generals investigation into the robocall remains active and ongoing, said Michael Garrity, a spokesman for the office.

Phillips and his campaign have condemned the robocalls. Katie Dolan, a spokeswoman for the Phillips campaign, said Kramers contract was finished before they became aware of his involvement in the robocall.

We are disgusted to learn that Mr. Kramer is behind this call, and we absolutely denounce his actions, she said. Kramers involvement was first reported by NBC News.

The robocall using an AI-generated voice that sounded like Biden targeted thousands of New Hampshire voters the weekend before the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary, telling them their vote would not make a difference, according to investigators.

The call, which began with a catchphrase of Bidens, calling the election a bunch of malarkey, told voters: Its important that you save your vote for the November election. The call appeared to come from the number of the former New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Kathy Sullivan, who was helping an effort to get voters to write in Bidens name to show their support for the president, even though he wasnt on the ballot. Sullivan and others reported the call to the states attorney general.

In early February, Formella announced a criminal investigation into the matter, and sent the telecom company, Life Corp., a cease-and-desist letter ordering it to immediately stop violating the states laws against voter suppression in elections.

A multistate task force was also prepared for potential civil litigation against the company, and the FCC ordered Lingo Telecom to stop permitting illegal robocall traffic, after an industry consortium found that the Texas-based company carried the calls on its network.

Dont try it, Formella said in the February news conference. If you do, we will work together to investigate, we will work together with partners across the country to find you, and we will take any enforcement action available to us under the law. The consequences for your actions will be severe.

The robocall incident is also one of several episodes that underscore the need for better policies within technology companies to ensure their AI services are not used to distort elections, AI experts said.

In late January, ChatGPT creator OpenAI banned a developer from using its tools after the developer built a bot mimicking Phillips. His campaign had supported the bot, but after The Post reported on it, OpenAI deemed that it broke rules against use of its tech for campaigns.

Paul Barrett, deputy director of the New York University Stern Center for Business and Human Rights, said in an email that it is apparent how powerful AI deepfakes can be in disrupting elections. The new technology makes it far easier for nonexperts to generate highly persuasive content that is fraudulent and can potentially mislead people about when, how, or where to vote, he said.

This is also not the first time Kramer has used AI to spoof a politicians voice. Last year, he created an AI-generated robocall of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) asking nearly 300 likely Republican voters in South Carolina whom they would support if former president Donald Trump wasnt on the ballot.

Kramer, who said he plans to support Biden if he wins the Democratic nomination, said he hopes his actions have inspired regulators to take notice of AIs potential impact on the election.

Its here now, he said, referring to AI, and I did something about it.

Clara Ence Morse, Eva Dou, and Razzan Nakhlawi contributed to this report.

Read the original:

Democratic operative admits to commissioning Biden AI robocall in New Hampshire - The Washington Post

Steward Health Care news: ER near Boston put patients in jeopardy – The Boston Globe

Posted on by

Two weeks after the patients death on Sept. 13, state health inspectors arrived at the hospital, owned by for-profit Steward Health Care, to investigate. During their review of patient records, they found an emergency department with recurring staffing problems that at times seemed to be in near-meltdown.

Extremely sick patients had no assigned nurses, including one patient who was previously found unresponsive in a hallway. In another instance, an overworked nurse who was extremely busy and was behind, trying to catch up left a patient who had been vomiting in the waiting room for more than 10 hours. A friend discovered the patient barely conscious; the person was intubated and admitted to the intensive care unit, according to a state inspection report. It is unclear from the report if those patients survived, and hospital officials declined to provide that information.

State and federal officials declared the safety lapses put patients in immediate jeopardy, a severe sanction that required Good Samaritan to develop a plan within 23 days to fix its emergency department or risk losing its Medicare funding. Good Samaritan executives said they addressed the problems immediately, including bringing in more staff.

The hazards in the hospitals emergency department should not have been a surprise to state and federal regulators. Inspectors for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health had found serious patient safety violations in Good Samaritans emergency department three other times since 2021, documents obtained by the Globe show. After each inspection, investigators required the hospital to produce an improvement plan, but their visits resulted in little lasting change.

It wasnt until Jan. 31, when the seriousness of the financial crisis engulfing the company had become public, that the health department began sending daily monitors to Good Samaritan and other Steward hospitals, raising concerns about why the state didnt do more sooner.

While emergency departments are under strain across Massachusetts and the country, staff at Good Samaritan have been especially overwhelmed as they try to treat thousands of additional patients after two nearby hospitals shut their doors. At the same time, nurses have told state inspectors that private equity-backed Steward has neglected to hire enough staff and buy enough supplies.

The Massachusetts Nurses Association, the union that represents nurses at the hospital, warned state and federal health officials in 2021 and 2022 about the deterioration of the emergency department. Among the problems they cited: the potentially avoidable deaths of two patients, patients without nurses, patients being left in the waiting room for hours without being reevaluated, and managements failure to follow through on its promises, according to a letter and a memo obtained by the Globe.

Last March, emergency room nurses spoke directly to Governor Maura Healey, Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Kate Walsh about their concerns when Massachusetts officials visited Good Samaritan after a fire shut down nearby Brockton Hospital.

In September, on the day the patient died while in the registration line, 19 nurses were supposed to be on duty, according to an internal staffing report. There were eight.

Dr. Robbie Goldstein, commissioner of the state Department of Public Health, said the patients death was a tragic event and for all us it really gave us significant pause. But he said inspectors have provided close oversight of the Good Samaritan emergency department since 2021; the department thoroughly investigated every complaint, required an improvement plan, and revisited the hospital once after each plan was submitted to ensure its implementation, he told the Globe.

He acknowledged the department did not send in regular monitors until two weeks ago, but said that step has traditionally been taken only during nursing strikes.

Do I think that we will change the way that we provide oversight, evaluate facilities, and intervene at times of financial distress? Absolutely. That story is being written right now, Goldstein said.

He said he recognizes the situation at Good Samaritan and other Steward hospitals is hard for patients and Steward staff. We are working 24/7 with Steward and with the rest of health care to make sure that we can address the challenges that people are facing, he added.

The inspections of Good Samaritan were conducted by state officials on behalf of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which issues reports called statements of deficiencies when it finds problems. Those reports include descriptions of incidents but not patients names or other identifying details.

In a statement emailed to the Globe, Good Samaritan president Matt Hesketh said that after the immediate jeopardy findings on Sept. 26 and 28, the hospital immediately hired technicians to help assess the vital signs of patients in the waiting room, and deployed nurse practitioners and physician assistants to help triage walk-in patients steps that were part of the improvement plan. The hospital also is offering $40,000 signing bonuses to nurses hired to work in the emergency department.

Inspectors from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services recently visited the hospital and we remain in full compliance with all guidelines and protocols, Hesketh said.

We have faced unprecedented challenges over the past few years, however, the safety of our patients and providing excellent, compassionate care is our focus day in and day out, he added.

Goldstein, however, said that monitors stationed at Good Samaritan and other Steward hospitals have received additional complaints about patient care, and that the department is investigating the allegations. He did not describe the nature of them.

Experts in emergency medicine and patient safety consulted by the Globe could not assess whether the issues at Good Samaritan were more severe than elsewhere.

Theres a lot of bad things there, said Dr. Joseph C. Tennyson, president of the Massachusetts College of Emergency Physicians, an advocacy group for doctors, after being told of the reports. But he added, Bad things like this are happening everywhere right now because the capacity doesnt exist.

Just two weeks ago, the state Department of Public Health designated hospitals in Greater Boston and north of the city as Tier 3, meaning they have a high risk of capacity problems throughout their hospitals and need to meet more frequently with health officials and one another to coordinate patient load. Good Samaritan and other hospitals south of Boston have been in Tier 3 for the past year, after Brockton Hospital closed.

Patients have suffered because of delays at other hospitals. A disabled patient became unresponsive in the emergency department waiting room at Cooley Dickinson Hospital in Northampton in November 2022, during a six-hour wait for care. He died several hours later.

The patient, a 74-year-old man, checked in about 8:30 p.m. complaining of a cough and other respiratory symptoms. The triage nurse ordered lab tests and a chest X-ray and sent him to the waiting room, but failed to measure his blood oxygen level, according to a state inspection report. Another nurse told inspectors the triage nurse was running behind and there were too many patients waiting to be triaged. When his guardian the man was disabled, according to a relative told staff he did not look well, they found him unresponsive. Death records show he had the flu and pneumonia, and died of sepsis.

Laura Oggeri, a spokesperson for Mass General Brigham, which owns Cooley Dickinson, said that she could not discuss a specific case due to patient confidentiality rules, but that the hospital now requires mandatory additional medical reassessments for those waiting for care.

While many emergency departments are struggling with severe overcrowding amid a national shortage of nurses, they differ in how effectively they respond, said Barbara Fain, executive director of the Betsy Lehman Center for Patient Safety, a Massachusetts state agency.

We do know that there is wide variability in the safety cultures of different hospitals, and that is really driven by the leadership, she said.

Dr. Zirui Song, associate professor of health care policy and medicine at Harvard Medical School, said the circumstances at Good Samaritan might be attributable to staffing reductions. A study he and others published in December found that after hospitals are acquired by a private equity company, they experience a 25 percent increase in adverse events, such as infections and falls. This is happening even as other hospitals are seeing a decline in such events, he said.

One of the primary hypotheses that we have is that staffing reductions after a private equity acquisition might explain these findings, Song said, and that might apply as well to the emergency department.

Song, an internist at Massachusetts General Hospital, called what happened to patients at Good Samaritan gut-wrenching and heart-breaking and not something he would expect to see at Mass. General, even when the emergency department is extremely busy. Patients with chest pain and shortness of breath are typically worked up fairly rapidly, he said.

So the fact the E.D. is full does not mean that these adverse events . . . are acceptable or expected, he said.

But sometimes they are unavoidable, said Tennyson, the emergency physicians group president. As an emergency department physician, he said, he has seen patients designated ESI 2 the second most severe level of patient illness who have waited 14 hours or longer. Ideally a patient with chest pain would be seen right away and get an electrocardiogram, a recording of the hearts electrical activity that can help diagnose a heart attack, within 10 minutes, said Tennyson, who is chief of emergency medicine at UMass Memorial HealthAlliance-Clinton Hospital.

But its not uncommon for a chest pain patient to have to wait in a busy ER, because there are five or six people or more that are having chest pain, and most of them are not having a heart attack, Tennyson said.

Those situations are painful and demoralizing for the staff, he said.

To see somebody in the waiting room that you absolutely know you need to go see, that you need to get seen right away, and theres no way to do it thats injurious and its contributing to burnout, he said.

Liz Kowalczyk can be reached at lizbeth.kowalczyk@globe.com. Felice J. Freyer can be reached at felice.freyer@globe.com. Follow her @felicejfreyer.

Read more:

Steward Health Care news: ER near Boston put patients in jeopardy - The Boston Globe

‘There was a lot of anxiety’: Florida’s immigration crackdown is causing patients to skip care – POLITICO

Posted on by

One pregnant patient experiencing alarming pain nearly refused to go to an emergency room out of fear that shed be arrested and deported, she said. A staffer at the clinic had to personally escort the patient to the hospital.

There has definitely been an uptick in the nervousness and apprehension that a lot of immigrants already had when they had to think about getting treatment, Thomas said. But I have faith that we will get through this.

DeSantis law is even affecting clinics and organizations that dont receive federal dollars, and the law applies to migrants even though they dont receive Medicaid assistance.

Officials with the Consulate of Mexico in Orlando, which for years has operated a program offering free health care to migrants from all over the world, said fewer migrant women have shown up for free medical check-ups and prenatal care since the law took effect in May. The number of patients accessing free mammograms services, for example, has dropped 18 percent, according to the consulate.

This fear of anything health related has negatively affected the prevention of diseases within our migrant community, the consulate said in a statement.

The consulate does not receive Medicaid reimbursements.

While several states have cracked down on immigration in recent years including a law in Texas that makes it a crime to enter the state illegally from a foreign country Floridas law is believed to be the only one in the nation that requires hospitals to ask patients about their immigration status.

Undocumented immigrants in general arent eligible for federal health benefits, but some states access Medicaid dollars to help undocumented immigrants. Last year, California became the first state in the country to offer health insurance to undocumented immigrants through its Medi-Cal program, which is supported through state and federal taxes..

More:

'There was a lot of anxiety': Florida's immigration crackdown is causing patients to skip care - POLITICO

From the Caribbean’s tallest falls to a hidden cenote: Seek adventure in the Dominican Republic – Euronews

Posted on by

Embarking on a Caribbean getaway in 2024? Prepare to be captivated beyond the sun-kissed beaches.

The Dominican Republic is synonymous with crystal-clear waters and idyllic, white sand beaches.

A day spent lounging beneath swaying coconut trees is the ideal refuge from Europes chilly winters, allowing you to return to the office flaunting that enviable sun-kissed tan.

In the Dominican Republic there are more than 200 beaches - from the famous Playa Bvaro in Punta Cana to Playa Fernanda in Miches, says Enrique Penson, director of Economic Studies at the countrys Ministry of Tourism.

Yet, the country's charm goes well beyond its pristine coastlines. Majestic waterfalls, lush national parks, and aromatic cacao plantations await your exploration.

In 2023 the country hosted 10 million visitors and that is because the Dominican Republic has it all, says Penson. Besides stunning beaches, magnificent nature and experiences, the best is the Dominican people's warmth and hospitality.

Heres how to get the best out of your visit to the stunning Caribbean nation.

Foodies should make a beeline for the cacao trails in San Francisco de Macors, in the northeast Duarte province.

Making up 10 per cent of the Dominican Republics lush green expanse, cacao plantations are vital to preserve the island's natural environment. Renowned as the worlds premier producer of organic cocoa, the island is the perfect place to experience the captivating floral aroma of unprocessed cocoa fruit.

Step into the enchanting haciendas de cacao, where visitors not only explore plantations and gain insights into the chocolate-making process but also have the opportunity to actively participate in cacao cultivation and harvesting alongside local producers.

Among the most popular cacao trails is that of Finca La Esmeralda. For the ultimate experience, plan your visit during the harvest period, which occurs twice a year from September to December and January to May.

The picturesque landscape of the Dominican Republic is graced with awe-inspiring waterfalls. Venture into the Saman Peninsula for the the perfect blend of beautiful beaches and trekking experiences, recommends Penson.

Here, you can discover the allure of El Limn Waterfall, which cascades from tropical surroundings. One of the most remarkable experiences in this region involves a horse ride through lush paths, allowing you to immerse yourself in the stunning nature.

The peninsula is also home to the protected Parque Nacional Los Haitises. Its remarkable limestone karsts, sinkholes and mangroves served as the filming location for the iconic Jurassic Park. Spanning 1,600 km-squared, its ancient rock formations date back 50 million years.

Further northwest, near Puerto Plata, the 27 Charcos de Damajagua awaits - a collection of 27 waterfalls that captivate thrill-seekers. This natural playground invites exploration through hiking and swimming, rewarding visitors with exhilarating cliff jumps and natural slides.

The pinnacle of waterfall grandeur, however, lies in Salto de La Jalda, the Caribbean's highest waterfall, standing at over 120 metres. Tucked within the National Park of La Jalda in Miches, reaching it can be an adventure in itself. Whether by a scenic two-hour hike or a helicopter excursion, both routes offer a chance to delve into the forest and experience the biodiversity of its flora and fauna first-hand.

For a touch of magic, venture into Punta Cana's Hoyo Azul, a mesmerising blue sinkhole nestled in lush rainforest. This cenote is often referred to as the "Indigenous eye. You'll find this hidden oasis discreetly tucked away inside the Scape Park, within the captivating Cap Cana area.

Take a revitalising dip in its natural, cold spring waters, which boast a depth of 14 metres and are embraced by a 75-metre-tall limestone cliff adorned with lush vegetation. To reach Hoyo Azul you have to cross a suspension bridge and meander through an orchid garden.

A must visit for nature enthusiasts, this unique site seamlessly blends adventure, nature and tranquillity in the heart of Punta Cana's captivating landscapes.

The Dominican Republic's cultural fusion shines through its vibrant people, who eagerly share their traditions.

The culinary landscape is a fusion of Tano, Spanish and African influences. The national dish, La Bandera Dominicana, is a hearty amalgamation of rice, beans, meat (often chicken or beef), and salad. Fresh seafood dishes, like pescado con coco (fish in coconut sauce), captivate taste buds with their vibrant flavours.

"Fish from any of our coasts is our main dish - always fresh, savoury, and complemented by our traditional sauces crafted from local ingredients," says Penson.

Beyond the national dish, start your day with mang, a breakfast staple made from mashed plantains, or savour the comforting sancocho, a stew filled with various meats and vegetables.

For a sweet and savoury experience, indulge in pasteln de pltano maduro, a dish that layers ripe plantains, meat and cheese. Each bite reflects the diverse cultural influences that have shaped Dominican cuisine, making it an essential part of your travel adventure in this vibrant Caribbean destination.

To truly grasp the essence of Dominican culture and their zest for life, learn the steps of merengue and bachata, two vibrant Caribbean dance styles recognised as Intangible Cultural Heritage by UNESCO.

"Any Dominican will gladly guide you through the steps of merengue and bachata. We carry the beats of these dances within us, cherishing the joy of dancing, and we love it when foreigners express an interest in learning," encourages Penson.

Don't miss the opportunity to attend merengue festivals held in various cities across the Dominican Republic, including the lively celebrations in Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata.

See the original post here:

From the Caribbean's tallest falls to a hidden cenote: Seek adventure in the Dominican Republic - Euronews

Where are the best surf beaches in Costa Rica – TravelDailyNews International – TravelDailyNews International

Posted on by

Join us on a journey to discover some of Costa Ricas best surf beaches, each with their unique charm and surfing potential.

Costa Rica, home to a myriad of golden beaches, lush rainforests, and vibrant culture, is renowned among surf enthusiasts from around the globe. One of the unique features of this abundant country lies in its dual coastlines, allowing surfers the opportunity to ride the waves of both the Pacific and Caribbean oceans. This Central American paradise truly is a surfers dream destination, whether youre just starting out on the board, or youre a seasoned wave rider.

Pacific coast rollers Lets begin our journey along Costa Ricas Pacific coastline, stretching along the western side of the country. This rugged and dramatic shoreline is characterized by pristine sandy beaches, dominated by towering cliffs and the countrys iconic lush rainforests that cascade down to the waters edge. The Pacific coast stands out from its Caribbean counterpart thanks to the raw power of its waves, which create a whole host of exciting opportunities for surfers in search of exhilaration. Some of this coastlines highlights include:

Tamarindo Tamarindo Beach is renowned among surfers worldwide, thanks to its spectacular sunsets and abundant wildlife. It also provides surfers with some exciting waves to tackle, leading this small town to gain a reputation as a top destination for surfers.

Tamarindos beauty lies in its strategic location, which has also resulted in its development as a cosmopolitan coastal town. Nowadays, there are various large resorts, with lots of places to eat and shop. Tamarindo is also well-connected, which results in plenty of visitors keen to enjoy its surfing opportunities.

Santa Teresa While Tamarindo might be world-famous, Santa Teresa is perhaps its opposite; far from the well-trodden surfer routes, this stunning small town emerges as a Pura Vida hideaway, quietly tucked away on Costa Ricas Nicoya Peninsula. Perhaps the worlds best-kept secret, Santa Teresa is home to secluded beaches, stunning sunsets, and fantastic surf opportunities not to mention a true sense of authenticity. Lacking large resorts and their accompanying tourists, Santa Teresa makes up for what it lacks in flamboyance with its unassuming beauty. There are also plenty of shops and restaurants here, making it a great place to enjoy a vacation. The waves can be feisty here, too, so its worth considering taking a lesson or two if youre a first-timer in the area.

It is worth making a detour here: This off-the-beaten-path haven is home to some hidden gems, such as Costa Ricas ultimate surf and yoga retreat (https://www.surfandyogacostarica.com/), where you can enjoy the thrill of riding the waves and all the wellbeing benefits of yoga and meditation in the very same stay.

Hermosa Hermosa attracts experienced surfers from all over the world, but its not the place for beginners as the waves are consistently large. Its often quieter than some of the better-known beaches, but bear in mind that the sand here is black its best not to walk on it barefoot as it heats up quickly.

Caribbean Coast Lets move to the other side of the country and find out what Costa Ricas eastern coast has to offer its surfing visitors. Generally speaking, the Caribbean coast is said to offer a more laid-back vibe. The beaches here are known for their coral reefs rather than their giant rollers, with gentler waves that appeal to surfers first starting out. Thats not to say this coastline doesnt sometimes experience more substantial waves, and its worth consulting this wave height forecaster before visiting especially if youre a surfing novice.

Puerto Viejo Puerto Viejo is home to a great selection of restaurants and bars while preserving a relaxed vibe. Surfers head to Puerto Viejo to enjoy the surf and soak up its colorful architecture, lively markets, and abundant wildlife. Puerto Viejo can be prone to some more lively waves, so its a good place for more experienced surfers to hone their skills.

Playa Chiquita Playa Chiquita blends natural beauty with an enviable laid-back atmosphere. Whats more, it enjoys a consistent, gentle swell, making it an excellent setting for beginners as well as others who perhaps need to hone their skills before heading westward to the Pacific! Playa Chiquita enjoys beautiful, lush surroundings, which only add to its allure. This unrivaled backdrop makes for an exhilarating place to unwind after a day enjoying the simple pleasures of riding the waves.

Whether youre after the adrenaline rush of larger, more spirited waves, or youre after a beginner-friendly destination, theres a Costa Rican surf beach for everyone. The only problem might be choosing where to head to first!

Read the original post:

Where are the best surf beaches in Costa Rica - TravelDailyNews International - TravelDailyNews International

AWS to invest $15bn in cloud computing in Japan – DatacenterDynamics

Posted on by

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is planning to invest 2.26 trillion yen ($15.24 billion) in expanding its cloud computing infrastructure in Japan by 2027.

As part of this investment, the company will seek to expand its data center facilities in Tokyo and Osaka.

The cloud giant previously invested 1.51 trillion yen (~$10.2bn) between 2011 and 2022 in the country. Yearly, this works out at just under $1bn spent per year. The new announcement will see this increase to more than $5bn a year for the next three years.

"The adoption of digital technology has become a source of a countrys competitiveness, said Takuya Hirai, former digital minister and current chair of headquarters for the promotion of a digital society in Japans Liberal Democratic Party.

The development of digital infrastructure in Japan is key to strengthening the country's industrial competitiveness, and data centers play an important role to this end. It promotes the use of important technologies such as AI [artificial intelligence] and improves the capabilities of research and development in Japan."

The digital infrastructure in the country is also the backbone of AWS' artificial intelligence solutions. AWS provides generative AI services to Japanese customers including Asahi Group, Marubeni, and Nomura Holdings.

AWS first entered Japan in 2009. The company launched its first cloud region in the country in 2011 in Tokyo, and another in Osaka in 2021.

Amazon's Bedrock AI offering was made available in Tokyo in October 2023. The company also invested $100m in a generative AI innovation center in June 2023.

It is currently estimated that the latest investment will contribute 5.57 trillion yen (~$37.6bn) to Japans GDP and support an average of 30,500 full-time jobs in Japanese businesses each year.

Japan's government is seeking to catch up in AI development. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has met with the heads of OpenAI and Nvidia in the past year to discuss AI regulation and infrastructure.

In December 2023, Minister Ken Saito announced the government would double down on its pledge to support the domestic chip manufacturing industry.

Follow this link:

AWS to invest $15bn in cloud computing in Japan - DatacenterDynamics

A week into 2024 and Big Tech has earned enough to pay off all 2023 fines – TechRadar

Posted on by

2023 surely was an eventful year in tech. To cite just a few key moments, generative AI became mainstream thanks to software like ChatGPT; we had to say goodbye to the iconic blue bird while welcoming Twitter's new name (I know very well the pain of writing 'X, formerly known as Twitter' over the past six months); and big tech companies got fined the most under GDPR's data abuses for a total of more than $3 billion.

Well, on the latter point, data protection regulators' efforts turned out to be not as effective as it was hoped they'd be.

Swiss privacy firm behind popular email and VPN service, Proton reported that only after a week into 2024 the likes of Meta, Google, Apple and Microsoft earned enough to pay off all last year's fines. Let's take a look at what needs to change and, most importantly, what you can do in the meantime to truly protect your privacy.

"Whats clear is that these fines, though they appear to be a huge amount of money, in reality are just a drop in the ocean when it comes to the revenues that the tech giants are making. In other words, they arent a deterrent at all," Jurgita Miseviciute, Head of Public Policy & Government Affairs at Proton, told me.

Researchers at Proton have calculated that Alphabet (Google's parent company) needs only a bit more than a day to pay off its $941 million fines. Amazon and Apple's earnings of just a few hours are then enough to repay their data protection's sanctions of $111.7 and $186.4 million respectively.

While biggest data abuse perpetrator Meta, which got a record $1.3bn fine for its (mis)handling of EU user data in May last year, managed to accumulate all the necessary money in just about five working days.

These findings make it clear that data regulators' fines, as founder and CEO of Proton Andy Yen put it, are "little more than pocket change for these companies" instead of a mean to stop them abusing users' data. Not only that, he said, as "these minuscule fines essentially give the green light to tech giants to run riot in a marketplace skewed in their favor."

It's also quite common that big tech firms might appeal to these sanctions or simply refuse to pay, delaying the repayment for years. Take how Google contested India's fine, for instance, about the Android-related inquiry for abusing its dominant position in the market which started in 2019.

On this point, Yen said: "Its the average consumer that's losing outfacing higher prices, less choice, and no privacy. It has to stop and we need real, tangible change that puts people first, not profits."

According to Miseviciute, there are two main things that must happen for things to really change.

Did you know?

Fully enforced in May 2023, the EU Digital Market Act (DMA) brought new obligations for tech companies to ensure fair competition and protect people's digital rights. A similar bill, so-called Digital Markets, Consumer and Competition Bill (DMCC) is currently passing through the UK Parliament, too.

For starters, she believes that governments have to issue fines with a real financial effect in order to fight back against big monopolies.

"Thats why fines up to even 20% of global revenues for breaches of laws such as the EUs DMA [Digital Market Act] and up to 10% in case of the proposed DMCC [Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers] Bill in the UK are a step in the right direction," she told me.

If heavier sanctions are important, they are not everything. Miseviciute explained that regulators need to combine these with practical measures such as enforced behavioral and structural changes, for example.

Again, she sees the EU quite well-placed to do so due to the new powers gained with the DMA. However, elsewhere there are also some small steps in this direction.

"We hope Googles antitrust trial in the US serves as a catalyst for comprehensive antitrust regulation on the other side of the Atlantic. We also see promising potential regulatory developments in South Korea, Japan, Australia and other major jurisdictions," she told me.

"If you open up the marketplace, and you give innovators like Proton a chance to succeed, youll get solutions that are more private and more secure for consumers."

As we have seen, 2023 was yet another hard year for our online privacy.

The US, for instance, still lacks a federal data protection law with the proposed ADPPA being stalled at the time of writing. Enforced in August last year, India's new privacy law was strongly criticized for favoring government and big tech instead of citizens. Well, where allegedly strong legislations are in place like in the EU, these seem to have not enough teeth just yet.

Commenting on this point, Miseviciute told me: "Until laws like the DMA in the EU and the proposed DMCC in the UK are effectively put into practice we are living in a world where big tech rules the internetand all our privacy is at the mercy of their surveillance capitalism business model."

Did you know?

Two thirds of people in the UK would rather lose their passport than access to their email account. Yet, despite these concerns, most of them lack the necessary knowledge and tools to protect their digital privacy. Big Tech knows that, researchers revealed.

The glimpse of light in this gloomy scenario is that it's ultimately our choice if we want to keep using data-hungry products. Luckily, there are some smaller companies offering privacy-first alternatives you can switch to.

On its part, Proton appear to have been working hard to cut Google out of our digital life. Likewise the popular service, the Swiss-based provider offers an encrypted email service Proton Mail (which even beat the big tech giant by landing with a standalone desktop app in December), secure calendar and its own cloud storage Proton Drive, too.

Proton's product offering also includes one of the best virtual private network apps on the market (Proton VPN) to help you boosting your anonymity while browsing among other things, as well as a password manager tool (Proton Pass) to secure all your login details. Even better as all the provider's services come both with free and paid plans.

However, Proton is just one of the many companies developing privacy-first alternatives to big tech software. Worth a mention there are also encrypted messaging app Signal if you wish to replace WhatsApp with a more secure application and Mullvad browser to make the switch from Safari and Chrome.

Compare today's best overall VPNs

We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.

See the original post:

A week into 2024 and Big Tech has earned enough to pay off all 2023 fines - TechRadar

Sweden seeks to tighten NATO’s grip in Baltic Sea with 2 new submarines – POLITICO Europe

Posted on by

Press play to listen to this article

Voiced by artificial intelligence.

KARLSKRONA, Sweden Theyve been on the drawing board for more than a decade, but in the heart of a vast assembly hall in a shipyard on the Baltic Sea coast, Swedens two new A26 attack submarinesare finally coming together.

Set for launch in 2027 and 2028, the 66-meter-long diesel-electric subs, named Blekinge and Skne after two Swedish counties, are designed to patrol NATOs eastern reaches under the Baltic Sea, tracking and countering Moscows maritime moves amid ever worsening relations between Russia and Europe.

The two are Swedens first new subs to be built since the mid-1990s and will join four older vessels in the Nordic states fleet.

We have a long history of building submarines, said Mats Wicksell, the head of Kockums, a business area of Swedish military equipment manufacturer Saab which is building the A26s. But this is still a big step forward for us.

The looming Swedish launches underscore a nascent subsea renewal in Northern Europe, where the Norwegian navy recently ordered four new submarines from Germanys ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems (TKMS). The Netherlands has received bids from TKMS, Saab Kockums and Frances Naval Group to build four submarines, while Denmark, which disposed of its fleet in 2004, recently suggested itmightreverse that move.

This expansion will partially bridge the gap to NATOs biggest European fleets, which are set for slight growth this decade, according to a report by Swedens Defense Research Agency. Six new French Barracuda class submarines are entering service and two further Type 212 subs will join an existing German fleet of six. The U.K.s fleet of Astute class submarines will total seven by the end of the decade and the Italian Todaro class submarines eight.

The European upgrades come amid a Russian PR drive about additions to its own fleet. In December, President Vladimir Putin posed on the dockside at Russias White Sea submarine production hub at Severodvinsk alongside two new vessels, the Krasnoyarsk and Emperor Alexander the Third.

The Russian navy will have 50 submarines in 2030, according to the Swedish report.

The U.S. submarine fleet is set to shrink slightly in numerical terms to 57 by 2030, but the continued introduction of the new Virginia class will serve to maintain and even widen America's technological advantage over its rivals during the same period, the Swedish report said.

Visited on a recent weekday, the Saab shipyard in the southern Swedish naval town of Karlskrona was humming with activity.

The partially built Blekinge was shrouded in scaffolding, while metal workers prepared further steel hull sections for highly skilled welders to later stitch together into a whole capable of withstanding blasts from mines and impact with the seabed. In another area, electricians threaded seemingly endless reams of wiring into high-tech interiors.

For Sweden, the long delayed new submarines they were initially supposed to enter service in 2018 and 2019 will be a shot in the arm in a rapidly deteriorating security environment.

Sweden has seenincursionsby an unidentified submarine in its territorial waters as well as explosions crippling the Russian-built Nord Stream natural gas pipelines in its maritime exclusive economic zone in 2022 and the severing of a subsea communications cable linkto Estoniain 2023.

Sweden reinstated conscription and remilitarized its strategically placed Baltic Sea of Gotland in the wake of Russias annexation of Crimea in 2014. Since the Kremlins full scale attack on Ukraine in 2022, it has boosted defense spending by 30 percent between 2023 and 2024 and applied to join NATO.

In early January, the Swedish government and the head of its armytoldcitizens to prepare themselves for war.

Theplan tolaunch the A26s has been a key pillar in Stockholms claim that it cancontributeto NATOs military strength,and isnt applying to join the alliance solely to benefit from its mutual defense guarantees.

Since the accession to NATO of the Baltic States in 2004 and Finland last April, the alliance has faced a headache over how to protect maritime supply lines to those states and restrict access to Russia in the event of conflict with the Kremlin.

Carl Gyhlenius, a Swedish former submarine commander and now a planner for the countrys navy, said he felt that NATO was getting a missing jigsaw piece with Sweden's NATO accession delayed by foot-dragging from Turkey and Hungary.

The Baltic Sea is hard to deal with if you don't have the necessary experience, and the fact that another country is joining NATO which has this as its backyard, with that regional expertise, that should ease operational problems, Gyhlenius said.

The Baltic is widely seen as a tricky operating environment because its varying salt levels affect sonar. It is also shallow and heavily trafficked, which increases collision risk.

On a recent visit to Stockholm, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg praised Swedens defense industry saying it offered advanced technology across a range of branches addingthat the NATO accession of the Nordic statewill be a big advantagefor the alliance as it seeks to maintainits technological edgeoveritsrivals.

Swedens first submarine, called the Shark, was launched in 1904, and over the decades that followed the Swedish navyexpanded its underwater capabilities as part of its broader effort to mount a credible national defense as a neutral state betweenEast andWest.

Toward the end of the last century,Swedish engineers achieved a technical breakthrough with a system called air independent propulsion (AIP) which allowed Swedish submarines to operate for longer periods without surfacing, aiding their ability to evade detection.

Following the end of the Cold War, Sweden cut back on defense spending and its submarine program was largely on hold foradecade until 2010, when Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors announced a plan to build the A26.

Through this significant renewal, we are ensuring that the Swedish submarine fleet will continue to maintain the highest international class, he said. Modern submarines represent a significant obstacle to any actor who wants to use the Baltic Sea for anything other than peaceful shipping.

In the years since, the A26 project has been criticized for delays and cost overruns.

But its defenders say the wait and extra cost will be justified by the delivery of vessels tailor-made for Baltic Sea conditions at a time when control of that waterway is geopolitically vital.

In its promotional material, Saab notes that the dimensions of the A26 as well as its updated AIP system and new sonar-defeating hull design make it ideally suited to the Baltic.

It also has a new modular design, which will allow obsolete technology to be replaced with new systems more easily and a new portal toward the front of the boat will also allow easier interaction between the crew inside the vessel and divers or unmanned vessels operating outside, Saab says.

Kockums chief Wicksell said the A26 represents value for money because its combination of stealth and advanced weapons systems can help ward off foes and reduce the risk of a costly future conflict.

If I know there is something out there but I dont know where it is and I cant defend myself against it, that is a deterrent, he said.

Read more from the original source:

Sweden seeks to tighten NATO's grip in Baltic Sea with 2 new submarines - POLITICO Europe