Will Power has ended the sole practice session from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway road course on top of the times ahead of qualifying, setting a 1:09.9487 for Team Penske.

The Australian, who failed to finish inside the top ten last time out in Texas, was over a tenth of a second faster than second-placed Santino Ferrucci, who was in the wars with Ryan Hunter-Reay during the session.

As Hunter-Reay made his way into Turn 7, Ferrucci was approaching at a much higher speed from behind, and as they both turned into the apex of the corner, contact was made causing Hunter-Reay to spin around.

Despite the incident, both drivers ended the session inside the top six, with Hunter-Reay clocking in behind Marcus Ericsson, who was the lead Chip Ganassi car, Patricio OWard and Scott Dixon.

The Ferrucci/Hunter-Reay incident caused a red flag, however it was not the only session stoppage during the 90 minutes, as Sage Karam stalled his car after running off the track following a minor mistake. The Dreyer & Reinbold driver ended the session on the bottom of the timesheets.

Simon Pagenaud, who won at the Indianapolis road course last year, ended up in seventh place for Team Penske ahead of Felix Rosenqvist.

Spencer Pigot was ninth, heading rookie Oliver Askew who managed to score a top ten finish on his debut in Texas last month for Arrow McLaren SP.

Qualifying for the GMR Grand Prix takes place on Friday night at 4:30 PM ET, before the race on Saturday afternoon in Indiana.

Want the latest Formula 1, Formula E & IndyCar news sent directly to you? Subscribe here!

Continue reading here:

Will Power heads practice at Indianapolis as Ferrucci and Hunter-Reay collide - FormulaSpy

At this point, Id like to think the Footy Talks brand needs no introduction.

In the beforetimes, the gang at Homestand Sports brought great Footy Talks events to the Rivoli: live chats and beers with local pundits, players, and super fans. Eventually, they outgrew the space and moved to the Rec Room, where the scope expanded to also include viewing parties and rallies across all the big European Leagues.

This past year, they levelled up with TFC crossover events to open the season, and anyone that attended the Canada Soccer Rally at the Rec Room before the victory over the USMNT at BMO Field last October was witness to something truly special.

Lets also not forgot the weekly Footy Talks Podcast, hosted by our very own Mitchell Tierney and often featuring all your favourite WTR / TFC talking heads as guests.

As the pandemic turned our lives upside down, Footy Talks was there to keep our footy flames burning, with weekly Zoom based chats hosted by the big threeKJ, Caldwell, and WilemanLa Liga talks, and a-so-fun-I-almost-dont-want-to-mention-it-for-fear-of-more-competition Trivia challenge with some SICK prizes.

The weekly Footy Talks live chats were not just a great respite from the scary world outside, but they were required viewing for the #TFClive diehards. Weve been blessed with some very candid, very vulnerable tete-a-tetes with the likes of Sebastian Giovinco, Victor Vasquez, Richie Lareya, and, just last week, the Captain himself, Micheal Bradley.

As we move cautiously into the reality that is the MLS is Back Tournament / Mickey Mouse Cup, Footy Talks has asked us here at Waking the Red to host our own weekly show and we couldnt possibly be more excited. Its a serious honour.

Thats right, for the duration of the Tournament, the gang at WTR will be your hosts as we discuss TFC and MLS LIVE until were all blue in the face.

Every week, join Mitchell, myself (Jeffrey P. Nesker), and Michael Singh, plus special guests, as we bring WTR level banter to the interwebs. We are champing at the bit to interact with the community on this new platform; its been awhile since we had a good old fashioned WTR style multi-thread. Heres hoping we can upgrade to the live setting!

The logistics are simple: register online for free and get a zoom link to attend. As before, the show will be simultaneously live streamed on the Footy Talks Facebook page. the live chat will be active on both platforms.

The schedule is as follows:

July 7 (12 pm EST) - MLS is back Tournament Preview

July 14 (12 pm EST) - Episode One

July 21 (12 pm EST) - Episode Two

Enjoy our special teaser below, and see you all on the 7th!

Read more:

Waking the Red Weekly presented by Footy Talks - Waking The Red

As infections in the U.S. are rising sharply, the death rate has dropped.

After a minor late-spring lull, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States is again on the rise. States like Arizona, Florida and Texas are seeing some of their highest numbers to date, and as the nation hurtles deeper into summer, the surge shows few signs of stopping.

Yet the virus appears to be killing fewer of the people it infects a seemingly counterintuitive trend that might not last, experts said.

In April and May, Covid-19 led to as many as 3,000 deaths per day and claimed the lives of roughly 7 to 8 percent of Americans known to have been infected. Now, even though cases are rising in the majority of states, some of which are hitting single-day records, the number of daily deaths is closer to 600, and the death rate is less than 5 percent.

Because death reports can lag diagnoses by weeks, the current rise in coronavirus cases could portend increases in mortality in the days to come. However, there are also a few factors that can help explain the apparent drop.

One is increased diagnostic testing, which has identified many more infected individuals with mild or no symptoms. That means those who die with Covid-19 form a smaller overall proportion of cases, said Caitlin Rivers, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security

And with more tests available, infections are often identified earlier, which allows us to intervene earlier, said Saskia Popescu, a hospital epidemiologist and infectious disease expert in Arizona.

Health experts also noted that treatments had improved, and that the virus is now infecting more young people, who are less likely to die of Covid-19.

With U.S. infections surging, Trump visits Mt. Rushmore for fireworks.

Reports of new cases have increased 90 percent in the United States in the last two weeks. More than 53,000 new daily coronavirus cases were reported in the United States on Friday, according to a New York Times database. That total exceeded all previous daily counts but the 55,595 on Thursday, the first time the number had passed 50,000.

At least five states set single-day case records on Friday: Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina, according to data compiled by The New York Times. In South Carolina, where more than 1,800 new cases were announced Friday, the positivity rate has hovered around 20 percent this week, up from about 10 percent in early June. In Kansas, where at least 770 new cases were announced, daily reporting totals vary widely because the state government only releases new data three times a week. The state reported positivity rates exceeding 10 percent for the first three days in July, a significant uptick from mid-June when the rate hovered between 5 and 7 percent.

On Thursday, the United States set a single-day case record for the sixth time in nine days, with more than 55,000 new cases announced, and single-day highs in eight states. Domestic travel restrictions have re-emerged, and many locales have slowed or reversed reopenings.

The vast majority of July 4 fireworks displays in big cities and small rural towns have been canceled. Most politicians, including former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., the presumptive Democratic nominee, are forgoing the traditional parades and flag-waving appearances.

President Trump, however, has a different, discordant message: The sparkly, booming show must go on at all costs. Mr. Trump was in South Dakota on Friday evening for a massive fireworks display at the Mount Rushmore National Memorial, a made-for-TV patriotic display that he has spent years lobbying to revive. (There have been no fireworks at Mount Rushmore since 2009 because of fears that they would set off forest fires and contaminate groundwater.)

Few in the packed crowd of supporters wore masks. In his pre-fireworks speech, Mr. Trump barely mentioned the pandemic, which has killed more than 120,000 people in America, instead choosing to cast himself as waging battle against a new far-left fascism.

Hours before Mr. Trump spoke at Mount Rushmore, law enforcement officials, many holding shields, clashed with protesters blocking a road.

As tension escalated, an officer warned demonstrators that they should disperse if they wanted to avoid chemical agents.

Its not going to be a pleasant smell, the officer said, according to a video posted on Twitter. If you dont mind it, you can stay here, but its going to be very irritating.

Anti-Trump protesters chanted and held signs reading, You are trespassing on stolen land, and Black Lives Matter, according to video footage of the event. A group of Trump supporters held Trump 2020 posters and All Lives Matter signs.

Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Mr. Trumps eldest son and a top fund-raising official for the Trump re-election campaign, tested positive for the coronavirus on Friday before the event at Mount Rushmore, a person familiar with her condition said.

Ms. Guilfoyle traveled to South Dakota with Donald Trump Jr. They did not travel aboard Air Force One, according to the person familiar with her condition, and she was the only person in the group who tested positive.

The president plans to follow up his trip with a Salute to America celebration the following day on the South Lawn at the White House, including a military flyover and a massive fireworks display on the National Mall that Washingtons mayor, Muriel Bowser, has warned violates local health guidelines.

Mr. Trump has consistently downplayed concerns over new cases, claiming that young people get better much easier and faster and that the virus will just disappear.

In many places across the country, face coverings have gone from suggestions to mandates, but Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota, a Republican, said there were no plans to enforce social distancing during Mr. Trumps open-air address before a live audience, framed by some of the nations most revered presidents.

Early in the pandemic, more than 1,000 cases were linked to the Smithfield pork processing plant in Sioux Falls, which remains one of the countrys largest known clusters. But in recent weeks, South Dakota has had one of the countrys most encouraging trend lines. The state has averaged a few-dozen new cases each day, including 85 announced Friday. There has not been a day with more than 100 new cases in South Dakota since late May.

For the U.S. capital, July 4 will mean protests as well as celebration.

A number of protests are planned for Independence Day in the nations capital, ahead of the annual fireworks display and a military flyover hosted by Mr. Trump.

Since the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the end of May, Washington has become a center of protests. Its mayor, Muriel Bowser, publicly challenged Mr. Trumps decision to order National Guard troops into the city during demonstrations against racism and police brutality, and she presided over the painting of the words Black Lives Matter in giant yellow letters on a street near the White House.

Black Lives Matter DC and two other groups, Sunrise and the Black Youth Project 100, announced several events over the weekend focused on defunding the police. The Instagram account #dcteensaction lists at least nine protests for Saturday, including a march near the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture and an evening protest beginning in Malcolm X Park.

For the official celebration, the federal government said it would provide around 300,000 face coverings, and a news release from the Department of the Interior warned visitors to observe social distancing while noting that viewing areas on the Mall would be accessible by four security entry points. Ms. Bowser told reporters that she did not think the event was in keeping with federal health officials guidelines for gatherings during the pandemic.

The holiday comes amid a national reckoning over racism, and the founding story of the United States is part of what is being questioned right now.

William H. Lamar IV, the pastor of the Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, a few blocks from the White House, said that he did not normally celebrate the Fourth but that this year the country might be observing the holiday with more honesty than usual.

The symbols coming down, thats only the beginning, Reverend Lamar said. Thats people saying, We need a new story. This story excludes me. It is inherently violent and evil. It murdered me. It erased me as a human being. I deserve a story that includes me and wants me to flourish.

He added: Is there a kind of national story that can hold us together in this multiethnic, multiracial, multireligious reality? The survival of this experiment called America depends upon it.

Brazil, which has more coronavirus cases than any country but the United States, topped 1.5 million total infections on Friday, just two weeks after reaching a million cases, according to a New York Times database.

But even as the country passed that grim milestone, President Jair Bolsonaro vetoed a measure that would have provided masks to vulnerable groups and required businesses to provide masks to their employees, according to The Associated Press.

Since mid-June, some major cities in Brazil have eased preventive measures. Shopping malls have already reopened in So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Beaches are starting to draw crowds again. And Rio allowed gyms and bars to reopen at 50 percent capacity on Thursday, while some hospital systems were close to running out of intensive care beds.

If the countrys trend lines hold, some epidemiologists project the pandemics death toll in Brazil could surpass that of the U.S. by late July. Brazil had recorded 63,174 total deaths as of Friday; the U.S. has recorded 129,402.

Some experts initially thought that Brazil was well equipped to cope with the pandemic, based on its track record during past public health emergencies. Brazil has a public health care system that, while underfunded, provides robust coverage across the country.

Starting July 10, England will drop its mandatory 14-day quarantine for visitors from more than 50 countries but leave the restrictions in place for travelers coming from the United States, deepening the isolation of America. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland apply their own travel policies and may not follow Englands lead in easing restrictions.

The European Union recently upheld a ban on U.S. travelers, even as it opened its borders to visitors from Canada, Rwanda, Thailand and 15 other countries. Englands policy, announced on Friday, is less restrictive: Americans can still enter so long as they agree to isolate themselves for two weeks.

The United States has barred most visitors from Britain since March, after briefly exempting them from a travel ban on the European Union. At the time, Europe was dealing with far more coronavirus infections than the United States. Since then, the epicenter of the pandemic has moved across the Atlantic.

However, Britain still has the worlds third-highest known death toll, with triple-digit death counts still coming most days.

More than half the countrys nursing homes have had at least one case since March. The government announced on Friday that nursing home residents will be tested for the virus monthly, while staff members will receive tests weekly, officials announced.

Some public-health experts said the fractious debate over the travel quarantine had distracted from more pressing problems, like safely reopening Britains schools and organizing an effective test-and-trace program.

The U.K. government seems focused on giving people a summer pandemic holiday instead of dealing with the hard issues facing the aviation industry for the coming year, said Professor Devi Sridhar, the director of the global health governance program at the University of Edinburgh.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who said earlier this week that it was Britons patriotic duty to go to the pub when they reopen at 6 a.m. on Saturday, has now urged people not to overdo it. His warning came after tens of thousands have flocked to beaches, organized illegal music parties and violated social-distancing rules in recent weeks.

Lets not blow it now, folks, Mr. Johnson told LBC radio on Friday, weeks after he announced that the countrys long hibernation was over and that the virus was under control.

Foreigners in a South Korean quarantine hotel are finding the welcome anything but warm.

Spending two weeks quarantined in a hotel room is not a pleasant experience, as thousands of people whove flown internationally since the pandemic began can attest.

But the 300 foreigners confined to a Ramada hotel in Yongin, South Korea, have it worse than most.

Each day for the past week, from about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., protesters outside the hotel have been raising a deafening noise with drums, brass gongs and loudspeakers blaring music. They are local residents, angry that the government chose a hotel in their neighborhood as a quarantine site.

Even with double-glazed windows, they can still be heard when the windows are closed, said James Martin Thompson, an app developer from Washington, from his fifth-floor room in the hotel, the Ramada by Wyndham Yongin.

When youre stuck in a small indoor space 24/7, being able to open the windows makes it much more bearable, said Mr. Thompson. And during much of the daytime, that isnt practical with the noise coming from the demonstrators.

On June 11, the South Korean government designated the Ramada as one of eight facilities where foreigners who arrive with no Covid-19 symptoms are quarantined for two weeks.

Three days later, a foreigner quarantined at the hotel tested positive for the coronavirus. Since then, residents of the neighborhood, called Jeondae-ri, have been accusing the government of recklessly exposing them to infection.

On June 27, protesters began their daily noise-making campaign in front of the 18-story hotel, hoping to force the authorities to send foreigners elsewhere for quarantine.

A large banner that protesters hung in front of the Ramada read, This is a hotel that produced a confirmed Covid-19 case. Shut it down immediately!

The foreigners are confined to their rooms with little hope of escaping the torment, even if they wanted to try.

Infections among Secret Service agents explain Pences changed visit to Arizona.

Vice President Mike Pence changed his travel plans in Arizona after Secret Service agents set to accompany with him tested positive or showed symptoms, two administration officials said on Thursday.

Mr. Pence had been scheduled to visit Arizona on Tuesday, but multiple factors related to the spread of the virus foiled those plans, according to a person familiar with Mr. Pences travel.

A swift rise in new cases in the state has overwhelmed testing centers in recent days, and Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, ordered bars, gyms and movie theaters closed this week. As of Friday, there have been more than 4,300 new cases reported in the state. In an apparent acknowledgment of outbreaks erupting across the South and the West, the vice president canceled his plan to headline a Faith in America campaign rally in Tucson on Tuesday and then tour Yuma with Mr. Ducey.

Instead, Mr. Pence opted for a shorter visit to Phoenix on Wednesday, where he participated in a public health briefing at Sky Harbor International Airport.

Help is on the way, Mr. Pence said at a news conference with Mr. Ducey at the airport, after descending the steps of Air Force Two wearing a mask, the latest sign of the administrations evolving stance on face coverings.

But the positive tests and symptoms of Secret Service agents expected to be in proximity to the man who is next in line for the presidency were some of the factors that prompted his change of schedule, the officials said. The news of the agents who showed symptoms, or tested positive, was first reported by The Washington Post.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Pence did not respond to a request for comment.

The latest illnesses among the small circle of individuals who interact directly with the vice president were a reminder of the dangers of carrying on with campaign and official government travel as the pandemic rages on.

The president of Honduras is recovering at home after being hospitalized for Covid-19.

President Juan Orlando Hernndez of Honduras has been discharged from the hospital after receiving more than two weeks of inpatient treatment for Covid-19 and related pneumonia.

He was admitted on June 17, hours after he tested positive for the illness. His wife, Ana Garca, also tested positive, but convalesced at home.

My commitment to Honduras is stronger than ever, Mr. Hernndez said on Twitter, announcing his release on Thursday. To work!

Officials said he would continue his recuperation in isolation at home.

Honduras, like many other countries in Latin America, is struggling to contain the spread of the virus. As of Friday, more than 21,000 cases had been confirmed in Honduras, along with more than 590 deaths.

The World Health Organization has declared Latin America the center of the pandemic, and several countries in the region are now suffering some of the worlds worst outbreaks.

The organizations regional director for the Americas, Carissa Etienne, warned this week that the death toll from Covid-19 in Latin America and the Caribbean could roughly quadruple by October to more than 438,000.

As case counts continued to hit record highs in many states, local officials released new guidance, creating a patchwork system for Americans planning to celebrate the holiday weekend.

As many as 80 percent of community fireworks displays in large cities and small rural towns have been canceled this year over fears that they would create a social distancing nightmare. In New York City, instead of the usual hourlong fireworks extravaganza, Macys will have five-minute displays in undisclosed locations across the five boroughs. The grand finale on Saturday, which will also be from an undisclosed location, will be televised.

In Florida, Miami-Dade and Broward counties had already announced they were closing beaches for the Fourth of July weekend. And on Friday, Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimnezs countywide curfew, which was announced Thursday, went into effect from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. Mr. Gimnez also rolled back the opening of movie theaters, arcades, casinos, concert halls, bowling halls and adult entertainment venues that recently had their reopening plans approved by the county. Florida reported more than 9,400 new cases Friday. Exactly one month earlier, the state reported just 1,317 new cases.

In Mississippi, which reported more than 900 new coronavirus cases Friday the second-highest single day total recorded by the state Gov. Tate Reevess executive orders will allow indoor gatherings of up to 20 people. Bars and restaurants can offer indoor dining as long as they stay below 50 percent capacity. Backyard BBQs can have up to 100 people so long as guests remain socially distanced. And outdoor stadiums will also be allowed to remain open at 25 percent capacity, potentially allowing thousands to gather at a single event.

And in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott reversed course on Thursday, ordering residents in counties with 20 or more virus cases to wear masks in public. Mr. Abbott, a Republican, had previously opposed attempts by Democratic mayors and other local officials to require everyone in their cities to wear masks in public. Texas has been one of the worst-hit states in the past week reaching a record number of hospitalizations on Friday, up 270 to 7,652, and reporting more than 6,400 new cases.

Elsewhere in the U.S.:

In Arkansas, Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an executive order allowing local officials to pass mask ordinances on Friday. Mr. Hutchinson, a Republican, never implemented a statewide stay-at-home order, instead opting to close high-contact businesses like gyms and personal care services. More than 540 new cases were announced in the state on Friday, just a day after a record 878 cases were reported, according to a New York Times database.

Critics of Amtraks newly announced cutbacks worry that the rail agency will not bring back service to the long-distance routes it has long sought to end. With ridership down 95 percent and revenue plummeting, Amtrak plans to cut up to 20 percent of its work force by October and suspend daily service on routes that service over 220 communities. Amtrak has received letters from 16 senators asking why it needed to enact such steep cuts since it had already received $1 billion in emergency aid.

Results of Major League Baseballs first round of widespread coronavirus testing were released on Friday, as preseason training resumed in full after being shut down for more than three months. Out of 3,185 tests, 38 were positive (31 players and seven staff members). The league plans to open a 60-game season on July 23, with no fans in the stands. Preseason preparation has resumed at teams home stadiums rather than returning to spring-training sites in Florida and Arizona.

In New York Times/Siena College surveys of voters in battleground states for the presidential election, supporters of Joseph R. Biden Jr. were far more likely than President Trumps to be concerned about in-person voting during the pandemic. About 40 percent of Mr. Bidens supporters said they would feel uncomfortable, compared with just 6 percent of Mr. Trumps supporters. Most of these people said they would go to the polls anyway, but 8 percent of Mr. Bidens surveyed supporters and less than 2 percent of Mr. Trumps said they would be too uncomfortable to go vote. Voting by mail for any reason is available in all six battleground states included in the Times/Siena data.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot of Chicago said Thursday that travelers from 15 states with large outbreaks would have to quarantine for two weeks or face up to $7,000 in fines.

Some 13,400 employees, or nearly 70 percent of the staffing, of Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency that handles U.S. visas and naturalization, face furlough by Aug. 3 because the immigration processing fees that fund it have plummeted

The SAG-AFTRA actors union issued a do-not-work notice to its members for a pandemic-themed independent film starring Demi Moore and Craig Robinson, saying that producers had not been transparent about their safety protocols. Producers for the film, Songbird, include Michael Bay, who is better known for his work on big-budget films, and Adam Goodman, a former president of production at Paramount Pictures.

Songbird has drawn attention as one of the first movies aiming to roll cameras since the virus brought production in Hollywood to a halt in March. California allowed film and television shoots to resume on June 12 under strict safety protocols and Los Angeles began issuing permits last week. So far, however, only a handful of TV shows (mostly soap operas like The Bold and the Beautiful) have restarted production; none of the major movie studios are expected to shoot anything before next month.

The independent companies behind Songbird have said they planned to use nontraditional camera techniques to avoid having actors in proximity. The film, a thriller, takes place in the near future during a pandemic lockdown martial law has been imposed to combat a fast-mutating virus and focuses on a young woman and a motorbike courier with rare immunity.

Representatives for the producers either declined to comment or did not respond to a query. Invisible Narratives, one of the companies involved, told Deadline, an entertainment trade news site, that it was actively working to resolve this paperwork issue.

Leaders in many states are urging people to stay at home this holiday weekend. Here are some safe ideas for enjoying the Fourth of July holiday.

Reluctant professors are one problem for colleges in the fall.

College students across the country have been warned that campus life will look dramatically different in the fall, with temperature checks at academic buildings, masks in half-empty lecture halls and maybe no football games.

What they might not expect: a lack of professors in the classroom.

Thousands of instructors at American colleges and universities have told administrators in recent days that they are unwilling to resume in-person classes because of the pandemic.

More than three-quarters of colleges and universities have decided students can return to campus this fall. But they face a growing faculty revolt.

Until theres a vaccine, Im not setting foot on campus, said Dana Ward, 70, an emeritus professor of political studies at Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif., who teaches a class in anarchist history and thought. Going into the classroom is like playing Russian roulette.

This comes as major outbreaks have hit college towns this summer, spread by partying students and practicing athletes.

Read this article:

Coronavirus Cases in U.S. Are Rising, Even as Death Rates Trend Down - The New York Times

International collaboration takes Vaisala and the Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) to Mars onboard NASAs Mars 2020 Perseverance rover. The rover is scheduled to launch on July 30, 2020. Vaisalas sensor technology combined with FMIs measurement instrumentation will be used to obtain accurate and reliable pressure and humidity data from the surface of the red planet.

The Finnish Meteorological Institute (FMI) is among the scientific partners providing measurement equipment for the new Perseverance rover, expected to launch in July and land on Mars in February 2021.The pressure and humidity measurement devices developed by the FMI are based on Vaisala's world known sensor technologyand are similar but more advanced to the ones sent to Mars on the first Curiosity rover in 2012.

The new mission equipment complements the Curiosity rover. While working on Mars, the Curiosity and Perseveranceroverswillform a small-scale observation network. The network is onlythefirst step, anticipating the extensiveobservationnetwork planned on Marsinthe future.

International and scientific collaboration aims to gather knowledge of the Martian atmosphere and other environmental conditions

The Mars 2020 mission is part of NASAs Mars Exploration Program. In order toobtaindata from the surface from the Red Planet, NASAselected trustedpartnersto provide measurement instrumentsfor installationon the Marsrover.ASpanish-led European consortium provides therover withMars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA); a set of sensors that provides measurements of temperature, wind speed and direction, pressure, relative humidity, and the amount and size of dust particles.

As part of the consortium, FMI delivers instrumentation to MEDA for humidity and pressure measurements based onVaisalastop qualitysensors.

Mars, as well as Venus, the other sister planet of Earth, is a particularly important area of atmospheric investigations due to its similarities to Earth. Studying Mars helps us also better understand the behavior of Earths atmosphere, comments Maria Genzer, Head of Planetary Research and Space Technology group at FMI.

The harsh and demanding conditionsof Marsrequire themost reliable sensor technology that provides accurate and reliable data withoutmaintenance or repair.

"We are honored that Vaisalas core sensor technologies have been selected to provide accurate and reliable measurement data on Mars. In line with our mission to enable observations for a better world, we are excited to be part of this collaboration. Hopefully the measurement technology will provide tools for finding answers to the most pressing challenges of our time, such as climate change, saysLiisastrm,Vice President, Products and Systems of Vaisala.Same technology, different planet utilizing Vaisala core technologies for accuracy and long-term stability

Intheextreme conditions of the Martian atmosphere, NASAwill be able to obtainaccurate readings of pressure and humidity levels with VaisalasHUMICAP and BAROCAP sensors.The sensors' long-term stability and accuracy, as well as their ability to tolerate dust, chemicals, and harshenvironmental conditions, makethem suitable for very demandingmeasurement needs, also in space. The same technology is used in numerous industrial and environmental applications such as weather stations, radiosondes, greenhouses and datacenters.

The humidity measurement device MEDA HS, developed by FMI for Perseverance, utilizesstandard Vaisala HUMICAPhumidity sensors. HUMICAP is a capacitive thin-film polymer sensor consisting of a substrate on which a thin film of polymer is deposited between two conductive electrodes.The humidity sensor onboard is a new generation sensor, with superior performance also in the low pressure conditions expected on the red planet.

In addition to humidity measurements, FMI has developed a device for pressure measurement, MEDA PS, which uses customized Vaisala BAROCAP pressure sensors, optimized to operate in the Martian climate.BAROCAP is a silicon-based micromechanical pressure sensor that offers reliable performance in a wide variety of applications, from meteorology to pressure sensitive industrial equipment in semiconductor industry and laboratory pressure standard measurements.Combining two powerful technologies single-crystal silicon material and capacitive measurement BAROCAP sensors feature low hysteresis combined with excellent accuracy and long-term stability, both essential for measurements in space.

Our sensor technologies are used widely in demanding everyday measurement environments here on Earth. And why not if they work on Mars, they will work anywhere," strm concludes.

Is there anybody out there? Yes we are! Join us for the live webcast to hear more! Welcometolearn about space-proof technology, how it works, what it does, whyitsimportant, and whymeasurements play a key role in space research. Youll hear examples and stories by our experts, and by a special guest speaker, who will be sharing his own experiences and insights of space.Date: July 20, 2020Time: 15.30-16.30EEST /14.30-15.30CEST /08.30-09.30EDTPlace: Virtual event sign up:Sign up here

The event is organized by Vaisala and the Finnish Meteorological Institute.It will be held in English and itis free of charge.Live subtitles in Finnish will be available.

Learn more aboutspace-proof technologybefore the event by visitingvaisala.com/spaceand follow the discussion on social mediausing#spacetechFI.

More information for the media:Miia Lahti, Communications Manager, Vaisala+358 50 555 4420, comms@vaisala.com

Kaisa Ryynnen, Communications Specialist, Finnish Meteorological Institute+ 358 29539 2283, viestinta@fmi.fi

Read this article:

Vaisala and FMI technology heads to Mars onboard NASA's Perseverance rover - PharmiWeb.com

The 2020 Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup finally hit the track for the first official session of a race weekend this year at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

Following a two-day test last week, the 25 competitors headed out in the Austrian sunshine at the end of the first day of action at the Styrian circuit.

Jean-Baptiste Simmenauer set the early pace before Dylan Pereira forged his way to the top of the timesheets shortly before Stphane Denoual ran wide on to a kerb, sliding across the track and gravel trap, and colliding with the barriers. A short red flag period was called as the marshals recovered the stricken Porsche.

Philipp Sager lined up in the pitlane as the drivers awaited the restart of the session. As the lights turned green the track got busy. Almost all of the cars headed out on track as they scrambled for some space in the only practice session of the weekend.

Florian Latorre ran wide briefly later in the session while Jukka Honkavuori was lucky to recover after a lockup; a brief trip through the gravel trap and the Finn got back to business.

As the session timer counted down, the drivers continued to explore the track limits, a number of laps were wiped as a result with the stewards being kept busy.

Entering into the final 10 minutes it was Pereira leading the way ahead of Ayhancan Gven and Simmenauer. Larry ten Voorde, Jaxon Evans and Julian Hanses rounded out the top six places.

Ten Voorde was on the move with six minutes remaining, setting the fastest time in the first sector, unfortunately, the final two sectors were not as promising, and on the final corner, the Dutchman ran wide across the grass, losing time.

There was little movement in the times in the last five minutes of the session, other than Marius Nakken setting a personal best time and Simmenauer moving up to second as the chequered flag fell.

Periera would end the session as the fastest driver with a time of1:31.105, it was an impressive performance from the rookie driver Simmenauer as he finished the day in second place, just 0.060 seconds off of the pace of the leader; Guven took third place 0.284 seconds behind Peirera. Fastest in the Pro-Am class was reigning champion Roar Lindland.

Follow Porsche Motorsport Community on: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

Read more:

Pereira leads the way as Supercup heads to Austria - The Checkered Flag

MUNCIE, Ind. Muncie officials say they're getting the city's finances under control after starting Mayor Dan Ridenour's administration with multiple city accountsin the red.

Ridenour sat down with The Star Press at the beginning of the year to explain the city had multiple accounts withnegative balances totaling more than $3 million.

City officials attributed the negative account balances to major issues in accounting practices. At the end of 2019, 18of the city accounts were showing a total negative balance of $3,310,928.

Fast forwardsix months into Ridenour's administration and those numbers have gone down significantly.

The city released a report on Wednesday showing that as of June 30, the total number of negative accounts hadbeen reduced to 10, totaling $1,254,333 in the red.

While that amount is still high, it takes the city's negative balances down by a little more than $2million.

Reducing the number and amounts of negatives is a major victory for the city, and I am proud of the team who all played a role in this effort, Ridenour said in a release.

Ridenour has been outspoken about the need for a keeping a closer eye on spending, something he'd been promising since the the election last began last year.At the start of 2020, department headschanged accounting methods, and worked closely with the mayor's office to bring the negative accounts under control.

PREVIOUS COVERAGE OFCITY FINANCES:

Muncie City finances: $3 million in negative balances start off 2020 accounting concerns

Muncie's EDIT account was overspent in 2019; new administration starts in the red $250,000

Theimprovement, according to officials,was made through departments combing through the accounts and finding out why they were so far in the red. Multiple accounts had outstanding payments that had to be made, as well as money owed to the city in reimbursements they then collected.

Other ways of balancing them came down to curbing spending, whichwas achieved without cutting anyfull-time staff, according to officials.

The city's community development office ended 2019 with 11 accounts with a negative balance, but that number is now down to 6. The Mayor's EDIT account, which was also in the red by $250,000, is no longer negative, now showing a balance of $108,479.

Other accounts are still in the red, including one each within the police department and the street department.Muncie's road and streets account is still negative, but has regained nearly $900,000 in six months.

Ridenour told the Star Press on Thursday the administration was confident it could continue to make progress in fixing the city's negative accounts before the end of the year.

Corey Ohlenkamp is the city/county government reporter. Contact him via email at cohlenkamp@muncie.gannett.com or by phone at 765-213-5874. Follow him on Twitter at @Ohlenkamp.

Read or Share this story: https://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/local/2020/07/03/city-administration-makes-progress-negative-accounts/5365887002/

Follow this link:

City administration makes progress on negative accounts - The Star Press

news, federal-politics, byelection, Eden-Monaro, polling day, eden-monaro byelection, kristy mcbain, fiona kotvojs, queanbeyan

There were political big heads, rainbow beanies and plastic, zip-tied candidate bunting stretching for hundreds of metres as voters turned out in droves for Saturday's Eden-Monaro byelection. Appropriately enough, Monaro St in Queanbeyan was one of the busiest areas of the electorate, with a steady stream of voters having to run the gauntlet of party hawkers and pamphleteers before making it, gasping with relief, into the sanctity of the polling booth. Prime Minister Scott Morrison couldn't make it to the NSW electorate on polling day, but his big-headed replica, complete with Hawaiian shirt, attracted many smiles, thumbs up and horn toots in central Queanbeyan. Directly across the road from the Monaro St polling booth at Bean Central, former public servant turned restaurateur Matt Morrissey barely had time for a chat as he plated up his famous potato rostis for the brunch crowd. "I did my duty early; I was across there this morning when they first cracked the door [to the polling booth] at 8am," Mr Morrissey said. "We've hardly drawn breath here in the restaurant since then; it's been flat out." The polling booths for the byelection this year are a model of clean and green. All the demountable cardboard booths, set three metres apart for social distancing, are made of unbleached, recycled cardboard. Everyone receives their own democracy pencil for voting and taking home as a keepsake, and the perspex screens which separate voters and registrars receive a regular scrub with disinfectant. Attention to detail even includes little perspex supports for the screens, cut into the shape of the Australian continent. But outside the gates to the booths, it's like a Trump-endorsed version of July 4. At the busy Queanbeyan and Jerrabomberra booths, there was very little social distancing observed between the blue-shirted Liberal, red-shirted Labor, and green-shirted Green party supporters wishing to thrust as many pamphlets into people's hands as possible. Only the Hemp Party supporter, with his impressive beard and multi-hued rainbow beanie, observed the correct protocol by placing himself midstream in Monaro St, right on the central traffic island. He had fewer customers, but arguably greater visibility. While the Australian Electoral Commission is striving for less waste this byelection, there was little evidence of the same concern on the part of by both major parties outside some of the larger polling booths. At Queanbeyan East Primary School, where 11 new classrooms opened this term for the first time, there were gaudy plastic party hoardings, both Labor and Liberal, stretched top and bottom across the steel security fencing for hundreds of metres, all fastened with plastic zip ties. The preparation must have started in the wee hours of polling day and the awful plastic waste it will generate when the day is over, as one passer-by wryly observed, will be with us for years. At sleepy Sutton Primary School, voting day was typically low key and country pleasant. The two fluoro-vested security guards appeared in for a slow day, and the party pamphleteers at the school's front gates outnumbered the voters, chatting amicably and cracking jokes despite their very different political leanings. Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs lives on the South Coast but chose to vote at Jerrabomberra mid-morning, then head off to Googong by lunchtime. She intends to get to as many booths in the area as possible before polling closed at 6pm. "My family are covering the booths down the coast for me and they will drive up tonight when voting closes so we can watch the counting together," she said. "This is such a huge electorate; it takes five hours to drive from one end to the other." At the last election, when she was narrowly defeated by the retiring incumbent Mike Kelly, it took almost 10 days to finalise the count. She only needs to swing less than 1000 votes to win the day. "I know there has been some strong pre-poll voting and I'm sure the count will again be close. It may take 10 days again to finalise the count, but I'm hoping not," she said.

https://nnimgt-a.akamaihd.net/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc7bakowfnooi1elpms1h5.jpg/r8_466_4020_2733_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg

There were political big heads, rainbow beanies and plastic, zip-tied candidate bunting stretching for hundreds of metres as voters turned out in droves for Saturday's Eden-Monaro byelection.

Appropriately enough, Monaro St in Queanbeyan was one of the busiest areas of the electorate, with a steady stream of voters having to run the gauntlet of party hawkers and pamphleteers before making it, gasping with relief, into the sanctity of the polling booth.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison couldn't make it to the NSW electorate on polling day, but his big-headed replica, complete with Hawaiian shirt, attracted many smiles, thumbs up and horn toots in central Queanbeyan.

Directly across the road from the Monaro St polling booth at Bean Central, former public servant turned restaurateur Matt Morrissey barely had time for a chat as he plated up his famous potato rostis for the brunch crowd.

Laura Allen gets her democracy sausage from the Queanbeyan East Public School P&C's Chantell Braun. Picture: Elesa Kurtz

"I did my duty early; I was across there this morning when they first cracked the door [to the polling booth] at 8am," Mr Morrissey said.

"We've hardly drawn breath here in the restaurant since then; it's been flat out."

The polling booths for the byelection this year are a model of clean and green.

All the demountable cardboard booths, set three metres apart for social distancing, are made of unbleached, recycled cardboard. Everyone receives their own democracy pencil for voting and taking home as a keepsake, and the perspex screens which separate voters and registrars receive a regular scrub with disinfectant.

Attention to detail even includes little perspex supports for the screens, cut into the shape of the Australian continent.

But outside the gates to the booths, it's like a Trump-endorsed version of July 4.

Candidates' plastic bunting lines the fences of polling booths for hundreds of metres at Queanbeyan East Public School. Picture: Elesa Kurtz

At the busy Queanbeyan and Jerrabomberra booths, there was very little social distancing observed between the blue-shirted Liberal, red-shirted Labor, and green-shirted Green party supporters wishing to thrust as many pamphlets into people's hands as possible.

Only the Hemp Party supporter, with his impressive beard and multi-hued rainbow beanie, observed the correct protocol by placing himself midstream in Monaro St, right on the central traffic island. He had fewer customers, but arguably greater visibility.

The Liberal candidate for Eden-Monaro, Fiona Kotvojs, enters her vote at the Jerrabomberra Public School polling booth. Picture: Elesa Kurtz

While the Australian Electoral Commission is striving for less waste this byelection, there was little evidence of the same concern on the part of by both major parties outside some of the larger polling booths.

At Queanbeyan East Primary School, where 11 new classrooms opened this term for the first time, there were gaudy plastic party hoardings, both Labor and Liberal, stretched top and bottom across the steel security fencing for hundreds of metres, all fastened with plastic zip ties.

The preparation must have started in the wee hours of polling day and the awful plastic waste it will generate when the day is over, as one passer-by wryly observed, will be with us for years.

AEC staff members Heather Cross and James Field adhere to COVID-19 guidelines in polling booths. Picture: Elesa Kurtz

At sleepy Sutton Primary School, voting day was typically low key and country pleasant.

The two fluoro-vested security guards appeared in for a slow day, and the party pamphleteers at the school's front gates outnumbered the voters, chatting amicably and cracking jokes despite their very different political leanings.

Liberal candidate Fiona Kotvojs lives on the South Coast but chose to vote at Jerrabomberra mid-morning, then head off to Googong by lunchtime. She intends to get to as many booths in the area as possible before polling closed at 6pm.

Candidates' plastic bunting lines the fences of polling booths at Queanbeyan East Public School. Picture: Elesa Kurtz

"My family are covering the booths down the coast for me and they will drive up tonight when voting closes so we can watch the counting together," she said.

"This is such a huge electorate; it takes five hours to drive from one end to the other."

At the last election, when she was narrowly defeated by the retiring incumbent Mike Kelly, it took almost 10 days to finalise the count. She only needs to swing less than 1000 votes to win the day.

"I know there has been some strong pre-poll voting and I'm sure the count will again be close. It may take 10 days again to finalise the count, but I'm hoping not," she said.

Continue reading here:

Byelection kicks off with big heads, rainbow beanies and reams of plastic bunting - The Canberra Times

Just in time for the Independence Day weekend, celebrity chef Giada De Laurentiis unveiled a sumptuous salad thats as delicious as it is eye-catching.

Containing a representative from nearly every food group, the Giada in Italy stars recipe is, most importantly, easy to make and a sure crowd pleaser.

RELATED:Celebrity Chef Giada De Laurentiis Weird Favorite Childhood Dish That You Might Have To Try

As most families right now, De Laurentiis has been sheltering in place with her daughter, Jade, 12, the two staying in together to stay safe.

While theyve been stuck inside, what else is there to do with a pre-teen besides your fair share of TikTok videos. (This dynamic duo also bakes, cooks, and engages in yoga and sunbathing, as per De Laurentiis Instagram account photos.)

Jade had her mom appear with her in a few TikToks and Giada looks like the ultimate TikToking pro. Heres the very with-it moms TikTok collection.

RELATED: Celebrity Chef Giada De Laurentiis Weird Favorite Childhood Dish That You Might Have To Try

De Laurentiis and her boyfriend, Shane Farley, have been spending a great deal of time, including most holidays, together, and Independence Day should be no different. The two have been together since 2015.

This past Valentines Day, a lifetime ago before coronavirus (COVID-19) changed life forever, Farley prepared a romantic dinner for his girlfriend. In a conversation with People before the big unveil, she couldnt have been more appreciative and curious of what it could be.

RELATED:How Did Giada De Laurentiis Meet Her Boyfriend Shane Farley?

I lovecheesy holidayslike this and I love the idea of getting into the spirit of it, De Laurentiis said. The cheesier the better. Its lighthearted and fun, and it can be very whimsical as well, so I have fun with it.

Before the dinner, the Roman-born De Laurentiis did her very best to let him know of her preferences and small details. It must have been difficult for her to be cooked for instead of in charge of the feast.

Im keeping my fingers crossed. Ive dropped a lot of hints, continued De Laurentiis. I dont care about the quality of the actual dinner. He doesnt cook for me often, but I think that is themost romantic thingthat hes ever done.

De Laurentiis light and easy salad is basically a one-bowl event.

To start, De Laurentiis has home cooks preparing their own quick pickled cucumbers. But if it saves you time, just buy store-bought pickles, chop them, and save them for later to sprinkle on top of your completed salad.

In a large bowl, De Laurentiis calls for combining one tablespoon champagne vinegar; one teaspoon whole-grain mustard; and three tablespoons extra virgin olive oil until its well combined.

Then, the fun starts. The television personalitys recipe calls for mixing two chopped heads of radicchio; one chopped curly endive or frisee; one and a half cup of halved red grapes; one cup of blueberries; a half cup of chopped roasted and salted pistachios; and a half cup of crumbled gorgonzola picante. Sprinkle your chopped pickles on top and thats De Laurentiis busy cooks masterpiece!

The salad is a sensory celebration of sweet, sour, and spicy flavors in each bite, much like a great fireworks show!

RELATED:Giada De Laurentiis Is Nuts Over This Freaking Phenomenal Recipe by The Barefoot Contessa Ina Garten

Visit link:

Giada De Laurentiis' Red, White, and Blue Salad Is a Must for the 4th of July Weekend - Showbiz Cheat Sheet

A pair of beautiful granite dvarapalas (door guardians), each nearly five feet tall and weighing a tonmassive Vijayanagara dynasty edifices who had guarded the sanctum since the 15th century. The Pazhuvur Nataraja of similar vintage but cast in bronze. All three were targeted by thieves and exported out of our ports in 2005.

The right-side dvarapala had a broken hand while the Nataraja had his whole lower left hand sawn away, for the robbers had assumed He was made of gold and tested it by cutting and then melting His hand only to realise that this was just bronze. Even worse, the Nataraja made a trip around the world to Hong Kong and London, where a now-charged restorer made a new hand for him, before sending him to New York to appear on Subhash Kapoors auction catalogue.

The bronze then shockingly made an illicit return to Chennai, to be surrendered quietly to the Tamil Nadu polices Idol Wing in August 2011. How could these and hundreds of other stolen idols be exported despite such obvious red flags? The World Customs Cooperation Council adopted an important resolution in Brussels in July 2016 on the role of customs in preventing illicit trafficking of cultural objects.

It said: International borders still offer the best opportunity to intercept stolen cultural artefacts and to that end, customs authorities can play an instrumental role in preventing illicit trafficking of cultural objects.It would come as a surprise to many, but compared to the limited role of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as a custodian, the scope of Indian customs is more significant in the context of combating illicit trafficking of cultural property, not just as a border check but one that goes much further.

The Customs Act of 1962 is used for the bulk of prosecution in antiquities trafficking cases as the Antiquities and Art Treasures Act of 1972 (AAT) lacks a specific provision for prosecution. We will take up the need for reform in legislations later, but here, the focus is on the need for reform in the current procedural aspects covering the export process, search and seizureand on why India has such a poor record of success in discovery and seizure, and fares even worse in successful prosecution of cultural property crimes.

The start point is obviousthe exit channels from where antiquities are trafficked out of Indiagateway ports (both sea and air) and porous borders. The main vectors acting as carriers are ocean and air transport companies, in the initial post-Independence decades via diplomatic pouches and now couriers, accompanied and unaccompanied baggage.The customs export procedure consists of two important stepsassessment and examination. In the last two decades, tremendous progress has been made in the first via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). This has almost replaced manual document filing and assessment in most gateways. But its true power is yet to be properly harnessed in the antique smuggling domain.

Moving to the second step, it would be impossible to do a 100% physical examination of all export consignments. The logical procedure would be random but assisted samplinghowever currently, there is no data available in public domain on how consignments are picked for checking. Today, pattern analysis tech can be used to set up obvious red flagsa treasure trove of shipment data connected to past and current smugglers under probe including exports by Nimbus (Subhash Kapoor case) and Vaman Ghiya, wherein a host of Indian exporters fooled the system and shipped out genuine antiquities declaring them audaciously as garden furniture, brassware, etc.

The Customs Act has stringent penalties against exporters for wrong declarations in shipping bills. But authorised custom house agents file the shipping bills; if in doubt, customs officers are expected to mark any suspected parcels to the ASI for a no-objection certificate. Currently, the ASI has deputed officers for this only in Mumbai and Delhi (airport). There are further hindrances as even the deputed ASI officers are empowered only to declare an object as suspected to be an antiquity or non-antiquity on the spot. The Kapoor case has thrown up instances of favourable officers and due to the opaque nature of inspections, there is no proper record.

Even if suspected to be an antiquity, the process gets longer invoking the AATs Section 24 that says the ASIs director general is the final authority. But since the DG ASIs nomination criteria are muddled and he doesnt necessarily have to come from the field of archaeology, he in turn is to appoint an authorised nominee with the help of three or four field experts. Sadly, the choice of panellists, number of such sittings, minutes of these evaluations and even the number of objects declared as antiquities or otherwise are not published.

The problem is amplified by the method of issuance of a non-antiquity certificate (NAC) for export. This is done by the ASI via its circle offices. The process for obtaining an NAC hasnt changed for over five decadesthe prospective exporter submits the object for assessment to the ASI. After ascertaining it is a non-antiquity (less than 100 years old as per the AAT), the NAC is issued as a paper certificate: A photo of the object is stamped and it is valid for six months for export. With the experience gained from a multitude of cases where smuggler dens were raided yielding hundreds of fakes, its a no-brainer that the system has been gamed.

Fakes are submitted for certification while the originals are switched at the time of export with custom officers having to rely on just a photo for comparison.The process is complicated by expert fakers and restorers working hand in hand with the smugglers in creating fakes that are artificially aged and originals painted over to give a recent look. Customs is seriously hampered due to the lack of support with respect to expert opinions and dearth of scientific testing methods that stand the scrutiny of courts and high-profile lawyers employed by the collecting cabal.

A list of suggestions to remedy these flawed processes:

1) Export ban on any artefact that shows damage/mutilation. Countries like Thailand have already banned the export of Buddha heads even if newly made (Buddha is not for decoration campaign).

2) Complete ban on artificially aged, patinated metal objects.

3) Do away with the six-month time limit of the ASIs NAC and ensure complete visibility of chain of custody from the time of inspection to export.

4) Create a national panel of experts (an alternating roster); the opinion must be due to a majority vote and the same must be published periodically on the ASI website as an annual report with statistics of the number of objects inspected, stopped and seized at the customs exit point.

5) A toolkit for customs and law enforcement, maybe modelled on the UNESCO-EUs one on illicit trafficking for European judiciary and law enforcement, with model lookout lists and sample photos of frequently trafficked objects by state.

6) Work on studying past prosecutions to prepare red flags inside the customs EDI framework. As we are not harvesting the virtual treasure trove of customs data spanning two decades, key perpetrators of crimes are still free and actively smuggling our art treasures.

7) Work with reputed universities to create centres of excellence for research, scientific testing and dating methods to support prosecution.

8) Cancel or at least temporarily ban the export and antique dealership licenses of anyone charged with violation of the Customs Act or AAT.

S VijayKumar Co-Founder, India Pride Project and Author of The Idol Thief(The India Pride Projects #BringOurGodsHome initiative has helped bring many stolen idols back to our country)(vj.episteme@gmail.com)

Read this article:

What can Indian customs do to tackle idol thefts? - The New Indian Express

When the Covid-19 vaccine finally comes, it will be no silver bullet to end the pandemic, said world-renowned virus-hunter Peter Piot.

The head of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine warned that it is unlikely for the vaccine to get to billions of people in the next few months, or be 100 per cent protective, and there remain questions on whether it will confer lifelong immunity.

The Belgian was a guest speaker in the Thursday episode of a webinar series hosted by the National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine.

He said it seems unlikely there will be a vaccine ready for hundreds of millions of people in a few months' time. Vaccine development takes time and is difficult, with the success rate, in general, being far less than 10 per cent, he added.

"You can't take shortcuts... You need to demonstrate that it protects and that requires randomised control trials in a population where the incidence of new infections is high enough to come to meaningful conclusions. And that takes time," said Professor Piot.

"The question that is not being discussed enough is, will this vaccine... prevent acquisition of the virus or is it only going to prevent severe disease and death... and will it be as effective in elderly people, because that's where, often, the effectiveness of vaccines is lower if you're over 80, or even 70," he said.

Then, there is the safety issue to contend with. "This is a vaccine that will probably be needed by billions of people and so we need to make sure we are injecting absolutely safe biological material in these people," he said.

There may be hiccups along the way - the vaccine may not protect as much as expected, it can fail, or it can produce an undesirable side effect.

The world does not have the manufacturing capacity for billions of doses at the moment, neither are there enough glass vials available.

"When you hear some politicians or public health figures say, okay, we need to do all this and next year we'll have a vaccine, and we'll go back to normal. I think, forget it, a vaccine is not going to be a silver bullet," he said.

"If we have a 70 per cent effective vaccine, I think I would consider that a big success.''

Then, there is the issue - likely a major geopolitical one - of which nation will have access to it.

Professor Peter Piotwas one of the disco-verers of the Ebola virus in Zaire in 1976, when he was 27.

He has led research on Aids and was the founding executive director of the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/Aids and the undersecretary-general of the United Nations from 1995 until 2008.

The Belgian microbiologist became the director of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in 2010.

In May, he was appointed the special Covid-19 adviser to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

In the role, he will advise the commission on supporting and steering research and innovation in the global fight against the coronavirus pandemic.

In his message for the Coronavirus Global Response initiative upon his appointment, he had said that the brightest minds in different fields need to come together to fight the virus as "the pandemic is not going to be over anywhere, until it is over everywhere".

He and his wife, Professor Heidi Larson, an anthropologist and the founding director of The Vaccine Confidence Project at the school, live in London.

Just this week, the United States said it had secured nearly all of the next three months' projected production of remdesivir - the only anti-viral drug that has been shown to be relatively effective in treating Covid-19.

"There are agreements with some generic manufacturers in India to produce it, but this is really the worst possible scenario... That's the kind of scenario we need to avoid when it comes to vaccines."

Prof Piot said people will need to embrace a new normal.

"We'll probably have to go to what we call an HIV combination prevention strategy; we will have to continue to do certain things like social distancing, wear masks and all that."

Combination prevention is a package of prevention interventions tailored to national and local needs. In HIV prevention, there is no single strategy.

Prof Piot, who was in the team that discovered Ebola and led global fights against HIV unscathed, experienced the wrath of the coronavirus first-hand.

The 71-year-old caught the coronavirus in March. He had a headache and felt feverish on March 19 and then suffered from extreme exhaustion - and it has taken him three months to recover.

He can now go jogging, an activity he could not do just two weeks ago, he said on the webinar.

He was hospitalised for about a week. When he was discharged, he had thought he just needed to rest.

"But then I developed organising pneumonia... It was only then that I became short of breath," he said. It was a delayed immune reaction that would have killed him if it had happened when he was acutely ill with Covid-19, he had said previously.

Although he is nearly fully recovered, some of the effects of the illness remain.

"I had atrial fibrillation and some cardiac problems... That seems to be okay now. I probably have a bit of fibrosis in the lungs and so on, but you can live with that."

By sharing his story, he wanted to show that the virus cannot be underestimated as it can probably affect all the organs in the body. The illness has taught him that Covid-19 is "much more than either a bit of a flu or a serious flu", or an illness where just 1 per cent of infected persons die.

Covid-19 patients may have to deal with a lot of chronic conditions as a result of the illness, he said.

While many have mild illnesses, some can spend weeks in ill health.

Around the world, coronavirus cases continue to rise.

World Health Organisation director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week that some countries face a long, hard road ahead by taking a fragmented approach.

He said Italy and Spain - the epicentres of the pandemic in March - had brought their epidemics under control with leadership, humility, active participation by every member of society and implementing a comprehensive approach.

Continued here:

Coronavirus vaccine will not be silver bullet to end pandemic: Expert - The Straits Times

Caoilinn Hughess acclaimed debut novel, 2018s Orchid and the Wasp, explored the long fallout from the global economic crash of 2008 through the coming-of-age story of Gael Foess, part of a formerly wealthy Irish family rapidly on the descent. Gael was a 21st-century Becky Sharp, cutting a merciless swathe through Dublin, London and the New York of Occupy Wall Street. Hughess follow-up, the darkly adventurous The Wild Laughter, loosely follows a similar theme of the consequences of boom and bust, but stays closer to the festering claustrophobia of home.

Ireland is where strange tales begin and happy endings are possible. Charlie Haughey said that, and mind what a hammer of an end he got. Wisecracking and woeful, Doharty Hart Black is the 25-year-old younger son of a terminally ill, failing farmer, Manus, a proud man known by his sons as the Chief. While Harts brother, Cormac, two years his senior, got the university education and then founded a series of successful startups in Dublin, Hart is left toiling on the family farm in County Roscommon, along with the boys brittle mother, a former nun, whom Hart mostly refers to with hostility by her name, Nra. The elder son is favoured by the Chief for his flamboyance and entrepreneurial talent and by Nra as a co-conspirator against the hapless Hart, whose eventual scapegoating is foreshadowed throughout.

It is 2014, and against the backdrop of the shabby farmhouse and tiny watchful community the Chief is dying: a rasping, leaking, slow affair made all the more agonising by the familys catastrophic debts. Eight years earlier, just prior to the bursting bubble of the Celtic Tiger, the Chief was lured into a bad property investment in Bulgaria by a shark-like neighbour. Got himself half a million in debt. Two sun-soaked chalets hed never cross the thresholds of when he hadnt the roof over our heads paid off. When he stubbornly refuses to declare bankruptcy, the Blacks land is remortgaged and leased back to them, a humiliation echoed later in the novel when Hart buys back a donated suit of his fathers from a charity shop.

Resentment and low-level violence seethes between the two brothers, whose only seeming points of agreement are vengeance against the man who ruined their family and a determination to carry out their fathers final wishes by helping him end his life an act illegal in Ireland. (The basis of the story lies in the case of Marie Fleming, who in 2013 unsuccessfully petitioned Irelands Supreme Court to change the ban on assisted suicide.)

The differences between the Chiefs sons are distinctively drawn. Hart, at times disturbingly reminiscent of an older Holden Caulfield, doggedly worships their father; Cormac, who is as flashy as his cufflinks, appears more lazily ambivalent in his affections. His mind was a luxury, Hart reports at the novels beginning, his face a menace of features. (Hughes was a poet before she started writing novels; her metaphors and similes burn bright.) The pair are gifted a dream of a femme fatale in the person of Dolly, an older actor whose stagey duplicitousness is evident from the breathless tropes Hart uses to describe her: hair black as space, a red wool coat spilled around her like a pool of blood, earlobes white downy disks, weightless as Eucharists or Disprins.

Hughes has fashioned a sturdy drama that, despite the plot twists of its last section which centres on a court case and a betrayal is more powerful in its first two thirds. The Chief, his mind and body unravelling through pain, is a significant creation, 6ft 4in with a large head the only part of him the recession couldnt shrink. Undertones of the Cain and Abel story rumble appropriately beneath the surface, most vividly realised in an electrifying volte face during which the sympathetic local priest, Father Shaughnessy, makes his own unexpected confession.

Narrators are notoriously unreliable: Harts first-person account is noticeably erratic, while capriciousness is a hallmark of the other characters, too, with Nras changeable past, Cormacs dodgy business dealings and Dollys enjoyably flagrant lies. Harts embittered anguish is resplendent throughout; his role in one of the books key scenes makes for an outstanding passage of manipulation, misery and culpability. Even the kindly priest is not without his baser side when it comes to the final question of the wretched Harts choreographed redemption. Was there no resting place for the old Irish in the new Ireland a patch of land resistant to liquefaction? Hart wonders. The Wild Laughters reckoning is as much concerned with these far-reaching effects of history as with the ongoing brutality of austerity.

The Wild Laughter is published by Oneworld (14.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

See the article here:

The Wild Laughter by Caoilinn Hughes review an Irish Cain and Abel - The Guardian

WASHINGTON The United States reported more than 55,000 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, a new daily global record for the coronavirus pandemic, as infections rose in a majority of states.

A surge in coronavirus cases over the past week has put President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis under the microscope and led several state governors to halt plans to reopen their economies after strict lockdowns.

The daily US tally stood at 55,274 late on Thursday, topping the previous single-day record of 54,771 set by Brazil on June 19.

Coronavirus cases are rising in 37 out of 50 US states including Florida, which confirmed more than 10,000 new cases on Thursday. That marked the state's largest daily spike so far and a level that exceeded single-day tallies from any European country at the height of the outbreak there.

California, another epicentre, saw positive tests climb 37 per cent with hospitalisations up 56 per cent over the past two weeks.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican who has previously resisted calls to make face masks mandatory, on Thursday ordered them to be worn in all counties with over 20 coronavirus cases. He also barred people from gathering in groups larger than 10.

"In the past few weeks, there has been a swift and substantial spike in coronavirus cases," Mr Abbott said in a video message. "We need to refocus on slowing the spread. But, this time, we want to do it without closing down Texas again."

Texas recorded its second-worst day of the pandemic with 7,915 new cases, according to state health department data on Thursday.

Virus-related hospitalisations expanded by 6.9 per cent to 7,382, the data showed, with medical facilities in Houston and elsewhere showing increasing signs of strain.

The US has now recorded over 131,000 deaths, almost a quarter of the known global total.

The wave of new cases has several governors halting or back-pedalling on plans to reopen their states after months of strict lockdowns, closing beaches and cancelling fireworks displays over the July 4 holiday weekend.

"We are not out of this crisis. We are still in the first wave of this crisis. It requires some level of personal responsibility," California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said at a daily briefing on the pandemic.

The sweeping business shutdowns earlier in the pandemic devastated the US economy and threw millions of Americans out of work, leaving governors reluctant to take such draconian steps again, even if the lifting of restrictions likely touched off the new outbreak.

A Labour Department report out on Thursday showed the re-openings had a dramatic impact on hiring, with the US creating jobs at a record pace in June. However, employment remains 14.7 million jobs below pre-pandemic levels.

"Today's announcement proves that our economy is roaring back," Mr Trump told reporters at the White House.

But the latest batch of high-frequency data assembled by Federal Reserve officials, economists and private companies suggests that economic activity stalled in recent days during new clampdowns.

"More than ever, we're concerned about the worsening health situation and its impact on the burgeoning recovery," wrote Oxford Economics analyst Gregory Daco.

"Rebounding mobility and poor use of protective equipment will make for a dangerous summer cocktail," the analyst wrote.

Meanwhile Mr Trump headed to Mount Rushmore yesterday for an early Independence Day celebration with thousands of guests who would not be required to wear masks or observe social distancing.

The show will feature a military flyover and the first fireworks in more than a decade at the mountain in the Black Hills region of South Dakota which is carved with the visages of four American presidents.

"We've going to have a tremendous evening," Mr Trump said on Thursday at the White House. "It's going to be a fireworks display like few people have seen."

Coronavirus cases are rising in 37 out of 50 US states including Florida, which confirmed more than 10,000 new cases on Thursday. That marked the state's largest daily spike so far and a level that exceeded single-day tallies from any European country at the height of the outbreak there.

The mass gathering - which is expected to include about 7,500 ticketed guests - comes as members of Mr Trump's coronavirus task force are pleading with Americans to wear masks and practise social distancing.

Health officials around the country have urged Americans to scale back their holiday plans and celebrate at home. In Los Angeles County, California, the health department ordered beaches closed and fireworks shows cancelled.

"The most patriotic thing they can do this year is to stay at home," said Dr Peter Beilenson, the director of Sacramento County's Department of Health Services, of revellers planning to float on rafts along the American River.

REUTERS, BLOOMBERG, NYTIMES

Read more:

US reports world's largest ever daily increase in coronavirus cases - The Straits Times