Author Archives: Danzig

‘PF’s divide and rule schemes’ The Mast Online – themastonline.com

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Mulondwe Muzungu says the PF governments oppression, cruelty, brutality, tribal hate and political violence have the potential to escalate into genocide.

The PF has destroyed our cherished national unity, leaving Zambia polarised by their divide and rule schemes and the naked tribal hate. With the foregoing abominations in Zambia, citizens are fed-up and desire a regime change sooner than later, says Muzungu.

Theres no doubt that Edgar Lungu and his PF are relying heavily on divide and rule strategy, and the tribal card to perpetuate their stay in government.

We have all been witnesses to how they have viciously canvassed on tribal and regional lines.

And they dont seem to care the long term consequences of their political game.

But as Dr Kenneth Kaunda warned against a spate of hate based on tribe, province, race, colour and religion in 1967 The people we have taught to hate others, may successively be taught to hate us next time. So that even from a personal and rather selfish angle this way of electioneering must be condemned as completely unZambian unless, of course, we do not mean it when we speak of One Zambia One Nation. Let it be remembered that it would be madness to expect to harvest groundnuts where in fact we had planted castor oil.

Today, our country is witnessing schemes that eat at the core of our unity as Edgar attempts to rewrite our democratic values and entrench himself in power, even at the expense of mutilating the Constitution.

Indeed, the PF is unashamedly destroying our cherished national unity, leaving Zambia polarised by their divide and rule schemes and the naked tribal hate.

But as we have stated before, there are no corrupt and tyrannical politicians whose ending has not been disastrous. And Edgar will be no exception. His ending will be bad.

In this we are in no way cursing him or wishing him bad things. Its simply an honest assessment of things and a matter of drawing the right conclusions.

Every corrupt and tyrannical politician thinks he is different and what happened to other corrupt and tyrannical politicians before him wont happen to him. But the ending has been invariably the same. Look at Idi Amin, Mobutu, Bokassa, Blaise Compaore, Eduardo Dos Santos, Mugabe! The list is endless. And what is special about Edgar?

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'PF's divide and rule schemes' The Mast Online - themastonline.com

Truth telling and giving back: how settler colonials are coming to terms with painful family histories – The Conversation AU

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There is a quiet movement among settler colonials in Australia and the US to critically examine their family histories as a way of re-examining the impact of centuries of dispossession and slavery of Indigenous peoples.

Critical family histories enable a shift from celebratory tropes of benign settlement to deep considerations of legitimacy. The myth of great white men and women, bravely opening new worlds and taming the wilderness, including the savage Indigenes, is now being challenged by a search for the truth.

As Diane Kenaston, an American pastor and genealogist, explains in her book Genealogy and Anti-Racism: A Resource for White People, genealogy has long been entwined with white supremacy. And family history research has been the preserve of white privilege.

But, she writes, critical family history can also change the narratives within our own families.

Our ancestors were works in progress, just as we are. They, like us, sometimes participated in oppressive systems and sometimes resisted them. [We need to] engage this complex legacy.

Read more: Friday essay: the 'great Australian silence' 50 years on

Education activist Christine Sleeter first adopted the use of critical family history in this way. While researching teaching methods for the multicultural classroom, she discovered that intersections of race, class, culture, gender and other forms of difference and power had shaped her own family history.

In her research, Sleeter found

a history and legacy of not only European American immigration, but also of Appalachia, of slave ownership, of African Americans passing as white and leaving family behind, and of Jim Crow.

Her awareness led to a sense of responsibility and debt. In 2017, she returned to the Ute people US$250,000, which she had inherited from the sale of a homestead on land stolen from the Ute people in Colorado in 1881.

In Australia, David Denborough, a writer and academic, thought there would be nothing of interest in the stories of his ancestors.

Working alongside Aboriginal people, documenting their stories of dispossession and survival, he was challenged by Jane Lester, a Yangkunytjatjara/Antikirinya woman, to find his ancestors.

Now, 20 years later, he is publishing a book of letters to his great-great-grandfather, Sir Samuel Walker Griffith.

Griffith, a celebrated founding father of Australia, was premier of Queensland during the killing times and later became the countrys first chief justice.

The relationships between Denboroughs ancestors and Aboriginal people were marked by colonisation, racism and often inhumane treatment. While Griffith wrote terra nullius into the Australian constitution, another ancestor, Charles Cummins Stone Anning, was responsible for atrocities against Aboriginal people in Queensland.

Denborough is determined to tell the truth as part of his healing journey and his close relationship with Aboriginal people. He has realised

there is no sense in moral superiority towards my ancestry because colonial violence in this country has not ended; no place for hopelessness because First Nations resistance has never wavered; and, no time for paralysing shame because invitations to partnerships are still being offered by Aboriginal people and [there is] so much to be done.

James Brown was 16 years old and shepherding alone on a remote sheep run near present-day Quorn, South Australia, in 1852. He was found tragically clubbed to death and mutilated in unknown circumstances.

An unwritten rule of the frontier was that attacks on white people, no matter the circumstances, were followed by vigilante violence. Men, women and children were often massacred in retribution.

Seventeen men, including Browns brothers and two Aboriginal trackers, rode out. They reported killing four Aboriginal men. Tellingly, though, two of the 15 men would not swear this on the Bible.

Mike Brown, a descendent of this family who took over land in the Flinders Ranges area, knew very little of the Aboriginal history of Australia. After hearing Reg Blow, a Gureng Gureng elder, speak about the true history of the criminal takeover of Aboriginal lands, Brown was inspired to research his own family history.

Read more: Friday essay: masters of the future or heirs of the past? Mining, history and Indigenous ownership

Wanting to investigate the Aboriginal stories of the 1852 massacre, he found a lifetime friend in Ken McKenzie, a prominent Kuyani-Adnyamathana elder, from whom he received the dignity of forgiveness.

Brown is now working with others on a documentary, Beyond Sorry, to reveal the full story of the massacre. He told me,

Its how we discover who we really are as a people and our relationship to this land [] we need to be released from the illusion we live under that affects our attitudes to others, to be free.

In NSW, playwright Clare Britton was also shocked to discover the story of brutally murdered relatives in her family history.

The pregnant Elizabeth O'Brien and her infant son Poggy were clubbed to death by the Aboriginal bushrangers Jimmy and Joe Governor in 1900. With the help of descendents of the Governor family and Aboriginal elders, Brittons theatre company produced a play based on this story, Posts in a Paddock. The title refers to all that remained of the O'Brien household when she visited, a stark memorial to the family tragedy.

Britton explained that elder Aunty Rhonda Dixon Grovenor introduced the concept of dadirri deep listening to the ensemble. They sat with their Aboriginal collaborators and each others families. And listened to each other. She said,

so many Indigenous people were killed, separated from their families and taken away from their homes and you cant read about that in the same way because those stories were not recorded. [These murders] were thoroughly documented because my family and the other victims were white.

The understandings I formed then have changed me.

In the US, artist Anne Mavor was inspired to learn about her ancestors after attending a public meeting where a local Indigenous person challenged the white audience to critically examine their histories.

Mavor put together an exhibition, I Am My White Ancestors: Claiming the Legacy of Oppression, comprised of 12 pieces of art depicting her ancestors. They include royal figures, a slave owner, warriors, farmers and a pilgrim all with Mavors face. The life-size portraits make whiteness visible and accountable.

Mavor told me she seeks

to inspire white viewers to claim both positive and negative aspects of their own family histories to contribute to the end of racism.

She says white people dont get a pass by ignoring the oppression of their ancestors. They need to ask: What is the legacy of this oppression and how does this affect me now?

This is just one of many projects designed to give back to Indigenous peoples. In Seattle, residents can pay rent to the citys first inhabitants, the Duwamish people, who have long been rejected by the US government for federal recognition as a Native American tribe.

Read more: Explorer, navigator, coloniser: revisit Captain Cooks legacy with the click of a mouse

The Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites has developed the Real Rent program as a means of restitution, but also to educate the broader public about the plight of the Duwamish.

Another project, Reconciliation Rising, coordinated by Lakota journalist Kevin Abourezk and academic Margaret Jacobs, showcases the work of those engaged in confronting painful and traumatic histories as a way towards reconciliation.

Their website lists examples of apologies, notable activists and many instances of the return of ancestral lands.

Land hand-backs are happening in Australia, too. Tom and Jane Teniswood have returned half of their 220-acre property in Tasmania to the local Aboriginal community. The Teniswoods advocate individual action over government reconciliation efforts, saying

reconciliation is great but it is so much talk, so many documents and so little action. This is just a symbol of action.

It is easy to agree with them. While government leadership in truth-telling is vital, we will see more of these acts of profound generosity and genuine reconciliation from settler colonials.

Settler colonials are beginning to understand the true impacts of the criminal takeover of Indigenous lands. They are seeking to right the balance and achieve a spiritual resolution.

This is the Aboriginal way of approaching history, in order to move forward after a conflict. A common process across the continent, it is called Makaratta by the yolngu people of Arnhemland. In the same way, a critical approach to family histories involves a great deal of communication between settler colonials and Indigenous peoples. It enables the forging of new relationships.

It is histories such as these that will change people through deep understanding and empathy. They also present an opportunity to truly and indelibly change the nature of our society and leave a meaningful legacy for our children.

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Truth telling and giving back: how settler colonials are coming to terms with painful family histories - The Conversation AU

Puncturing the Allure of Robert E. Lee, and Other Civil War-Era Histories – The New York Times

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ROBERT E. LEE AND ME A Southerners Reckoning With the Myth of the Lost Cause By Ty Seidule291 pp. St. Martins. $27.99.

Long before the alt-right circled the statue of the Confederate general Robert E. Lee in Charlottesville in 2017, Seidule, a retired brigadier general and professor emeritus of military history at West Point, set out to understand why his academy continued to display a portrait of Lee, a graduate of the school who resigned his Army commission to fight against his country.

This investigation required that Seidule, a native Virginian and graduate of Washington and Lee University, examine his own reverence for Lee and the myth of the Lost Cause. The resulting book part autobiography, part history is a powerful and introspective look into white Americans continuing romance with the Confederacy, and the lasting damage that has done.

The chapters follow Seidules life, from his upbringing in Alexandria (which he later learned was a major slave-trading hub) and Monroe, Ga. (where a grisly 1946 quadruple lynching remains unsolved), to his Army career and years teaching at West Point. Along the way he explores Lost Cause ideology, which denies that slavery was the wars central motive; describes the pro-Confederate propaganda served to children in Southern schools in the 1960s and 70s; and illuminates the tortuous relationship between the U.S. Army and its greatest traitor.

The history of the Armys relationship to the Confederacy and Lee is fascinating, especially in light of current controversies over military bases named after Confederate commanders. After the Civil War, Seidule explains, West Point banished the Confederates from memory. The academys postwar motto, Duty, Honor, Country, was a rebuke to secession. Over the next century, however, Lee memorials began to appear. Seidule saw a pattern. Again and again, he says, progress toward integration and equal rights in the military was accompanied by Confederate memorialization.

The books epilogue sets out the reason for Lees treason: the protection of slavery. The evidence is clearly on Seidules side. It is long past time to break Lees grip on American Civil War memory. Seidule provides a blueprint for doing just that.

A SHOT IN THE MOONLIGHT How a Freed Slave and a Confederate Soldier Fought for Justice in the Jim Crow SouthBy Ben MontgomeryIllustrated. 285 pp. Little, Brown/Spark. $28.

The breathless title tells it all. The shot in the moonlight was fired by George Dinning, an emancipated slave, in defense of his home and family in Simpson County, Ky., in 1897. Dinnings target was a mob that had congregated at his home and accused him of theft; his shot killed a white farmer, the scion of a wealthy local family. Dinning was spirited away by a civic-minded sheriff determined to prevent a lynching. Denied that satisfaction, the mob burned Dinnings house to the ground.

Although Kentucky remained in the United States during the Civil War, it was rived politically and plagued by guerrilla violence long past 1865. By the turn of the century, the states white elite had grown impatient with mob violence, which marred its reputation and deterred investment. Kentuckys legislature passed an anti-lynching bill one month before Dinning stood trial for murder. Dinning could have been hanged, either by the mob or by the state. Instead, he was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to seven years in prison.

This sentence was too extreme for Gov. William Bradley, who pardoned Dinning, declaring that the fair name of Kentucky had been disgraced by mobs for too long. Noting that Dinnings conviction had been procured almost entirely on the evidence of his assailants, Bradley also affirmed Dinnings defense: that he had fired into the mob only after it had fired on him, and that he acted solely to protect his family.

Dinning, aided by his lawyer, Bennett Young a former Confederate soldier and humanitarian went on to sue members of the mob for the destruction of his home. They won a noteworthy victory in the Kentucky courts.

Montgomerys claim that a Black man in the South had sued his would-be lynchers and won is overstated. Its not clear that the men who congregated at Dinnings home intended to lynch him, and the lawsuit centered on the burned house, not on personal assault. Even so, its a good story, one that reveals the complicated history of the post-bellum South, a world that included brave freedmen, occasionally sympathetic white men and genuine commitment to law and order.

ECONOMY HALL The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood By Fatima ShaikIllustrated. 525 pp. The Historic New Orleans Collection. $34.95.

Economy Hall is so inviting that the true depth of its scholarship is revealed only in its bibliography, which lists dozens of archival and other sources. Shaiks monumental book is anchored in 24 handwritten ledgers rescued from the trash by her father years ago. Her painstaking translation of the ledgers, and re-creation of the world that produced them, transports you to the orbit of the Socit dEconomie et dAssistance Mutuelle, a benevolent association and social club begun in 1836 by 15 French-speaking freemen of African descent in New Orleans. The book is simultaneously a history of the mens iconic meeting place, Economy Hall, and of the city they called home.

Alexis de Tocqueville, commenting on Americans propensity to form associations, called this art of joining the fundamental science of democracy. Shaik emphasizes the political activism of the New Orleans group. Whether refuting the claims of scientific racism, risking their lives for the right to vote or nurturing jazz and other forms of African-American culture, members of the Economie fought to participate in democratic life. Not all of their ventures achieved the desired outcome, as a coalition of New Orleans Black men that included a president of the Economie discovered in 1896, when the Supreme Court upheld Louisianas separate train car law in Plessy v. Ferguson.

After 1900, the Economie evolved from an elite to an inclusive society, Shaik writes. As segregation tightened across the South, the society was led by the son of a Black mother and a Jewish father and began to focus less on politics and more on culture, particularly jazz. Economie musicians shaped the new musical form, and Economy Hall became famous for its dance parties.

The book is organized around the life of Ludger Boguille, the groups long-serving secretary and a local leader of New Orleanss prosperous Creole community. A fierce advocate of Black suffrage, Boguille was nearly killed in 1866 when an armed mob led by police burst into a reconvened Louisiana constitutional convention. Boguille was also a teacher, who prescribed radical kindness for students and parents alike. The city of New Orleans is Boguilles co-star, and Shaiks rendition of her hometown is lyrical and mysterious and always captivating.

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Puncturing the Allure of Robert E. Lee, and Other Civil War-Era Histories - The New York Times

POV: A New Age for Equal Access and the Deaf Community – BU Today

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Recently, the White Houses new press secretary, Jen Psaki, announced that all White House press briefings will include an American Sign Language (ASL) interpreter. This announcement signals a new age for equal access and the deaf community, and is in stark contrast to the previous administrations disregard for the rights of deaf citizens to have access to communication from our government. The Biden administration has set a high bar for the rest of the country by recognizing that language is power, a giant leap forward to addressing the lack of access experienced by the deaf community in this country on a daily basis.

The deaf community, as a cultural and linguistic minority, fights for linguistic equality and access every day. Many assume that closed captions alone provide sufficient access, but this is not the case. ASL is the native language of many deaf people in the United States, and so direct access to information in ASL is critical.

Former President Donald Trump refused to provide an ASL interpreter during his entire tenure, forcing the National Association of the Deaf to sue the administration. A federal court judge ordered Trump to provide an interpreter, at minimum, to include access for hundreds of thousands of deaf people to briefings providing information on the COVID-19 pandemic, stating in his opinion: Captioning in English is not accessible for many deaf and hard of hearing people who use a different language, ASL. With their lives at risk due to the pandemic, it is important to provide the information in ASL so that deaf and hard of hearing people have access to this information.

Unfortunately, the Biden administrations first foray into this new age resulted in a brief gaffe when the first interpreter hired turned out to be a well-known alt-right activist. She appeared across social media touting MAGA propaganda and volunteered with a group called Right Side ASL (which changed its name to The Hands of Liberty after its previous page was flagged and blocked by Facebook), which spread misinformation regarding the outcome of the 2020 election. This interpreter was certified by the Registry of Interpreters for the Deaf (RID)the national organization responsible for establishing the standard of quality for interpreters. The RID code of conduct stipulates that individuals do not engage in an interpreting role when there is a real or perceived conflict of interest. In this case, the fact that this interpreter had volunteered to interpret for an organization that promoted misinformation constitutes a conflict of interest.

This misstep does not, and should not, take away from the intention of the Biden administration to provide access to all deaf Americans in their native language, ASL. And to their credit, they quickly remedied the issue by hiring Elsie Stecker, the founder of ASLIZED.org, who is not only a qualified ASL interpreter, but also a certified deaf interpreter (CDI). CDIs are certified through the RID and are themselves deaf or hard of hearing interpreters who have a thorough understanding of the deaf community and deaf culture, and have native or near-native sign language skills. They have obtained specialized training that provides them with additional proficiency to enhance communication in a way that nonnative signers are not able to produce.

This move to using a CDI highlights the power of access to the deaf community through the hands of a native deaf professional interpreter. In Massachusetts, Governor Charlie Baker has led the way with his commitment to equality for the deaf community by hiring a CDI for every one of his coronavirus briefings since the pandemic beganperhaps yet another example that the commonwealth of Massachusetts is not afraid to lead the way in doing what is right.

The more people who are educated about ASL and deaf culture, the stronger the impact on our society. This affects changes in laws and ultimately our access to information nationwide.

Here at BU, the Wheelock College of Education & Human Development Deaf Studies Program, with its ASL and deaf culture classes, is a stepping-stone to informing the greater society of language and access needs.

Having the White House acknowledge ASL and the deaf communitys needs is a milestone for our community. The new administration has set a high bar for others, and as members of the Deaf Studies and ASL programs at BU, where advocating for the deaf community is our mission, we applaud their actions. We see the new administrations step to include ASL as a positive sign of more change to come with regard to the rights and recognition of all members of our society.

POV is an opinion page that provides timely commentaries from students, faculty, and staff on a variety of issues: on-campus, local, state, national, or international. Anyone interested in submitting a piece, which should be about 700 words long, should contact John ORourke at orourkej@bu.edu.BU Today reserves the right to reject or edit submissions. The views expressed are solely those of the author and are not intended to represent the views of Boston University.

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POV: A New Age for Equal Access and the Deaf Community - BU Today

Anatomy of the pro-Trump mob: How the former president’s rhetoric galvanized a far-right coalition – ABC News

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Nearly a month after a pro-Trump mob violently stormed the U.S. Capitol, a clearer picture is emerging of the individuals and groups involved as federal authorities arrest and charge people who allegedly participated in the riot.

Former President Donald Trumps supporters -- 74 million of whom voted to give him a second term in 2020 -- are diverse in background and ideology and come from all corners of the United States, and those who stormed the Capitol represent just a fraction.

But to some experts, the hundreds who took part in the Capitol siege represent some of the most fervent and radical adherents of the Make America Great Again movement and others caught up in the frenzy of the day. They say attempts to unite those extremist elements fell apart after Charlottesville but gained renewed momentum in 2020, with racial unrest, the pandemic and most recently the unfounded controversy over the election.

Pro-Trump protesters gather in front of the U.S. Capitol Building, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C., before a mob stormed the Capitol, breaking windows and clashing with police officers, as congress gathered to certify the election of Joe Biden.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, a sociology professor at American University who studies extremism and far-right movements, said that those who stormed the Capitol are a loose coalition of groups from across the far-right spectrum.

These were people who were radicalized and participated in an insurrection, its just that some did so in a very planned way, and I think others ended up being caught up spontaneously in mob rioting," Miller-Idriss said.

For the experts, the most prominent force that unified hard-right adherent, militias and other Trump supporters and whipped them up into a frenzy behind the idea that the election was stolen -- Trump himself.

And Trump, unlike past presidents, gave these disparate groups a national platform unlike any they'd had in modern American history with the instantaneous recognition and feedback of social media.

Trumps false claims about election fraud and his rhetoric post-election urging his supporters to fight back is at the heart of the former presidents Senate impeachment trial, which is set to begin next week. The House of Representatives voted to impeach Trump on Jan. 13 after House Democrats filed an article of impeachment, charging him with "incitement of insurrection."

ABC News reached out to the former presidents legal team but representatives declined to comment.

Larry Rosenthal, chair and lead researcher of the Berkeley Center for Right-Wing Studies, said that the mob was generally made up of two groups: right-wing populists, whom he described as part of Trumps most faithful rally-goers, and right-wing militia groups that represent two overlapping currents of the far-right movement: white nationalism and anti-government.

President Donald Trump is seen on a screen as his supporters cheer during a rally Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C. Trump supporters gathered in the nation's capital today to protest the ratification of President-elect Joe Biden's Electoral College victory over President Trump in the 2020 election.

Some of these ideologies and beliefs were on display in far-right insignia scattered among the crowd, which included symbols of the Confederacy, Nazism, white supremacy and anarchy.

And some of those arrested have documented their alleged involvement on social media and some have known ties to far-right groups, or are adherents of disproven conspiracy theories.

In addition to a diverse and loose coalition of groups involved, the members of the mob were also not racially and ethnically homogenous.

Although the majority of rioters at the Stop the Steal rally were white, the Trump mob was not a homogenous group of white nationalists," Cristina Beltrn, a professor at New York University who studies race, ethnicity and American politics, said.

Jacob Chansley and other supporters of President Donald Trump are confronted by U.S. Capitol Police officers outside the Senate Chamber inside the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021.

In fact, one of the organizers of Stop the Steal is far-right activist and conspiracy theorist Ali Alexander, who identifies as Arab and Black. Blacks for Trump signs were spotted in the crowd and some Black and Latino participants are now wanted by the FBI for their alleged involvement in the siege.

In order to understand Trumps support, we must think in terms of multiracial whiteness, Beltrn writes in a Washington Post op-ed: Multiracial whiteness reflects an understanding of whiteness as a political color and not simply a racial identity a discriminatory worldview in which feelings of freedom and belonging are produced through the persecution and dehumanization of others.

The motivations of the mob

After weeks of hearing false claims from Trump and his allies that the election was stolen, thousands of the former president's most loyal followers disrupted the certification of the 2020 election results by breaching the U.S. Capitol and clashing with law enforcement in a violent siege that resulted in the death of five people.

Supporters listen as US President Donald Trump speaks on The Ellipse outside of the White House, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

This insistence -- and not just Trumps, but other elected officials insistence on that narrative of disinformation and that false conspiracy about the election has played a huge role in mobilizing these people, Miller-Idriss said.

In fact, chants shouted by rioters and signs spotted in the crowd closely mirrored Trumps own words.

For instance, the rally was named Stop the Steal, a phrase the Trump appeared to revel in and tweeted repeatedly before his account was suspended; shortly after Trump urged supporters to march to the Capitol and fight like hell, rioters shouted fight for Trump as they violently breached law enforcement to enter the building; signs reading take back our country and Trump won the legal vote were spotted among rioters, reflecting language Trump has been using for weeks on Twitter as he repeated his false claims that the election was stolen from him.

Member of a pro-Trump mob exit the Capitol Building after teargas is dispersed inside, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington, D.C.

And finally, after Trump continued to falsely claim that Vice President Mike Pence could refuse to ratify President Joe Biden's 2020 win -- but had declined to do so, chants of Hang Mike Pence were heard among rioters and images casting Pence as a traitor were scattered among the crowd.

(Trump) was continuing to propagate and circulate and disseminate this information about the election in ways that posed an existential threat to them and made them feel that their democracy has been stolen, Miller-Idriss said.

"People move from radicalization into mobilization, to really believing that they are not only empowered to act, but compelled to do so.

People shelter in the House gallery as protesters try to break into the House Chamber at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.

The leader of the mob

According to Rosenthal, far-right groups that subscribe to white nationalist ideologies have always existed in the United States and since the second era of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s and 30s they have generally existed on the fringes of society, but Trump gave them a place in national politics.

Trump supporters gather outside the U.S. Capitol, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington.

Suddenly, in 2015 at the level of presidential politics, somebody is talking their language, he added, pointing to Trump's anti-immigrant and racially charged rhetoric.

During his presidency, Trump frequently failed to condemn white supremacists and far-right groups espousing hateful and disproven conspiracy theories. He also often galvanized their causes.

The Stop the Steal movement energized some of the same elements of the far-right movement in the U.S. that shaped the August 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville when hundreds of so-called alt-right groups took to the streets to violently protest the removal of Confederate monuments.

The Unite the Right [movement] failed. It did not create such a unified militia and the groups that put it together started falling apart among themselves the alt-right kind of went into decline, but 2020 resurrected things, Rosenthal said.

This past year, anti-lockdown and anti-mask demonstrations amid the COVID-19 pandemic inflamed the anti-government right-wing militia groups, while the Black Lives Matter protests that erupted over the summer following the police killing of George Floyd activated the white nationalist side of the far-right movement, Rosenthal added.

Supporters of President Donald Trump gather in the rain for a rally at Freedom Plaza, Jan. 5, 2021, in Washington, D.C., the day before a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol following a rally with Trump.

And Trump, who was outspoken on both issues, elevated these positions to the national stage, experts said.

As president, Trump repeatedly downplayed the pandemic, refused to implement a nationwide mask mandate, mostly refused to wear a mask himself and his administration frequently flouted federal safety guidelines meant to curb the crisis.

Meanwhile, during his 2020 campaign, Trump cast himself as the law and order candidate, slammed the Black Lives Matter movement, dismissed concerns surrounding systemic racism and police brutality and in a message to voters, he claimed that if he is not re-elected, crime and riots will overtake the suburbs.

President Donald Trump arrives to speak at a rally Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington D.C.

During his final weeks in office, the coalition of far-right groups again found a common cause around the baseless cause that the election had been stolen or rigged.

The white nationalist and anti-government currents compounded in "Stop the Steal," along with an important element of "fascist mobilizations," Rosenthal said: "A devotion to a singular leader who can command their attention.

ABC News' Alexander Mallin and John Santucci contributed to this report.

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Anatomy of the pro-Trump mob: How the former president's rhetoric galvanized a far-right coalition - ABC News

Majority of Proud Boys who disrupted peaceful Halifax protest still in uniform, despite new terrorist designation – The Telegram

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The majority of the Proud Boys who dressed up in matching polo shirts and attempted to disrupt a peaceful protest in Halifax more than three years ago are still in the military, even though the federal government deemed the alt-right group a terrorist organization last week.

The five men four of them in the navy and one an army soldier attended a July 1, 2017 ceremony meant to honour Canada's missing and murdered Indigenous women near the statue of former governor Edward Cornwallis, infamous for his 1749 scalping proclamation aimed at Mi'kmaq people.

Of the five members involved in this incident, two have since released from the Forces, and three have completed required counselling and probation and have renounced their affiliation with the Proud Boys, Jessica Lamirande, who speaks for the Department of National Defence, said in an email responding to a question about whether the new terrorist designation means the men would be kicked out of the military.

These actions are absolutely not tolerated behaviour in the CAF. There are serious consequences for any CAF members who express intolerance while in or out of uniform.

Last week, Ottawa placed 13 new groups on its Criminal Code list of terrorist entities, including four ideologically motivated violent extremist groups:Atomwaffen Division, the Base, the Proud Boys and Russian Imperial Movement, according to a news release from Public Safety Canada.

Based on their actions, each group meets the legal threshold for listing as set out in the Criminal Code, which requires reasonable grounds to believe that an entity has knowingly participated in or facilitated a terrorist activity, or has knowingly acted on behalf of, at the direction of, or in association with such an entity.

The military is now reviewing how that will affect its policies, Lamirande said. The naming of specific groups as terrorist organizations provides an additional safeguard against the infiltration of (ideologically motivated violent extremist) organization members into the (Canadian Armed Forces and in partnership with the RCMP, facilitates the investigation of any CAF member suspected of supporting their activities.

People in Canadas military "are not permitted to be affiliated with or be part of any terrorist organizations, she said.

It should also be noted that prior to the announcement, it was already not permitted for (Canadian Armed Forces) members to participate in any activity, or be a member of any group or organization, that is connected with hate-related criminal activities, and/or promotes hatred, violence, discrimination, or harassment on the basis of a prohibited ground of discrimination as defined in the Canadian Human Rights Act.

These strong institutional core values, and a Code of Service Discipline that demands the highest standard of behaviour, were in place "long before these changes to the (ideologically motivated violent extremist) list, Lamirande said.

Members who cannot live up to those core values are dealt with through a range of administrative or disciplinary tools.

The military investigated the Proud Boys in Halifax and their unacceptable hateful conduct as soon as it heard about it and "undertook the appropriate corrective measures, Lamirande said.

The matter was deemed so serious even the country's top soldier at the time, Jonathan Vance, a retired general who was then chief of defence staff, was being kept in the loop, according to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act.

"Definitely inconsistent with our values," Vance wrote in an email to several senior sailors and soldiers.

"Will want, as a minimum, for them to be told (as soon as possible) that their actions are not acceptable and that they must stop."

Rebecca Thomas is a Mi'kmaq poet who participated in the peaceful ceremony the Proud Boys tried to disrupt on Canada Day in2017.

"There was an (Indigenous) woman who was cutting her braids off in mourning because of the legacy she'd experienced through residential schools, through being an Indigenous woman having lost some of her children," Thomas said.

The woman "was standing her ground against the Cornwallis statue," she said, noting the statue, which has since come down, represented a lot of that history.

As she was cutting off her braids, "these young, white dudes carrying the Red Ensign flag and chanting started coming into the park because they saw what was going on," Thomas said..

"Then you had a lot of non-Indigenous allies standing and blocking them. And there was a bit of a stare-down."

The men were trying to instigate trouble, saying things like, "It's a free country. We can walk through here. We're going to pay our respects to the founder of this great city," Thomas remembered.

The whole thing seemed unecessary, Thomas said. "They just wanted to be disruptive because they were told that they couldn't go through."

She questioned whether the men who took part have truly changed their ways.

"They can renounce it, but are their attitudes and behaviours still the same?" Thomas said. "They might not have an official membership card to the Proud Boys, for lack of a better word, but do they still kind of act in this kind of bravado, free country I can do whatver I want mentality? Because that's not any better."

Punishment is not necesarily the answer, said Thomas, who works as a student adviser at the Nova Scotia Community College.

"Consequence doesn't have to equate to punishment -- let's lose your livelihood," she said. "But consequence must mean something and I don't know what that something looks like."

Addressing the community they harmed is an important part of the justice process, Thomas said. "And I don't know if they've ever had to do that."

She wasn't surprised to learn last week that Canada has labelled the Proud Boys a terrorist organization, especially after they took part in storming the U.S. Capitol building in January. "A lot of folks will point to the United States and say, 'Look at all their problems that they have to deal with,' but then not recognizing that the Proud Boys were born in Canada. So I think, if anything, it is a moment for Canadians to look inward and say, 'This came from our country.' That we have issues; we can't just point to south of the border and say, 'Wow, it's so nice not to be like them.' Because ... we have our own issues, too."

We can't make laws retroactive, said Michel Drapeau, a retired colonel who practises military law in Ottawa.

"I think it's water under the bridge," he said of the Proud Boys who tried to disrupt the 2017 ceremony in Halifax.

But going forward, this should give people in uniform pause for thought before doing something similar, Drapeau said.

"Anybody who's got two cents worth of intelligence would understand, whether or not they're a member of the military or the public service or anything else," he said.

"The law is quite clear: If you're part of that, then you're commiting a crime just by your association or membership in it," Drapeau said. "You'd certainly be putting into peril your security classification. And if you do, you're not going to be able to hold a job within the military or within the public service."

That message "is loud and clear," he said.

Designating the Proud Boys a terrorist organization sends a "powerful signal that we're not going to put up with it, and if you do this then you're going to be paying a heavy penalty," Drapeau said.

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Firehawk Aerospace wants to 3-D print rocket engines and is moving to Dallas to join the space race – The Dallas Morning News

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Rocket engine startup Firehawk Aerospace is moving to Dallas to grow its 3-D printed rocket engine and fuel concept and join the space race as Texas becomes a growing hub in the commercial rocket world.

Firehawk is looking for space for its primary research facility in the Dallas-Fort Worth area after getting $1.2 million in investment funding from local startup fund Harlow Capital Management and CEO Colby Harlow.

The company is moving from Floridas Space Coast, where Kennedy Space Center has long been a magnet for commercial space research.

But that is quickly shifting as companies such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Firefly are growing in the Lone Star State and the new generation of multibillionaire space magnates look for a future beyond the government confines of NASA.

Just this week, the focus of the space exploration world once again focused on Texas and Boca Chica beach as SpaceX tested its Starship concept with a test launch to 10 kilometers that ended in a spectacular explosion as the rocketship tried to land. And last month, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos rocket company, Blue Origin, declared its 14th rocket launch in West Texas a wholly successful mission that moves human flight one step closer.

We want to tap into everything thats going on here in Texas and really provide Dallas with a new kind of company, Firehawk Aerospace CEO Will Edwards said.

Firehawk uses 3-D printing technology to make a hybrid-style rocket engine, which it says is simpler, cheaper and more stable than traditional solid-fuel-style rockets. The company says its fuels can be loaded earlier onto rockets and can be stored for months or years at a time.

The kind of explosions that SpaceX has demonstrated during its research phases wouldnt be possible with a Firehawk-style rocket engine, Edwards said.

Firehawk is still in its early stages, but the company considers its technology to be promising. It has conducted tests with 200 pounds and 500 pounds of thrust and is working on an engine with 5,000 pounds of thrust. Thats small compared with the 1.2 million pounds of thrust used to launch the space shuttle or the 1.9 million pounds on SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket. But Firehawk says the technology can be easily scaled up.

Weve been able to eliminate some of the historical shortcomings of hybrid rockets, company founder and chief scientist Ron Jones said. Our fuel is much denser than liquid fuels and our engines are less expensive to develop.

The engines could also have potential military applications. Thats another reason North Texas is an attractive landing spot for Firehawk with Lockheed Martin operating a major rocket and missile technology and manufacturing center in Grand Prairie and Raytheon Technologies space and airborne systems business based in McKinney.

We have some prospective clients and they vary between defense-type operations and commercial space flight, Jones said. What weve discovered is that they are not in Florida.

Florida does have a robust space industry, but companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin primarily have manufacturing facilities there to keep their big rockets close to the launch center at Kennedy Space Center. SpaceX is headquartered near Los Angeles International Airport in Hawthorne, Calif., and Blue Origins base is in Kent, Wash., near Seattle.

Of course, space rocket companies come in all shapes and sizes. SpaceXs Falcon 9 rockets are among the biggest ever developed, but Firefly, which is based outside of Austin in Cedar Park, is developing rockets for small- and medium-size payloads. Its larger engines have about 40,000 pounds of thrust and are combined to achieve the kind of power needed to get into space.

Firehawks rockets could be put into use on smaller engines in as little as 15 months, Edwards said.

One big key factor, Jones said, is that the rockets and the printing technology can be easily modified, allowing rockets to be designed and built in just a few months for custom applications.

Firehawk is working on moving operations to Dallas and looking at opening another facility in Oklahoma, hoping to take advantage of that states aerospace manufacturing capabilities.

The company plans on doing research, design and manufacturing of rockets.

We intend to draw aerospace engineering graduates, so we think that Dallas is one of the best places to locate, Edwards said.

The company is considering spaces in the Plano-Richardson area, he said. Its in the process of moving its small research team from Florida and hiring about 20 more researchers and developers in North Texas.

Harlow, who runs Harlow Capital Management, said his firm put the $1.2 million into Firehawk because the company demonstrated its product has high growth potential.

Space has been very popular in the last couple of years with a lot of big name investors, from Elon Musk to Jeff Bezos, Harlow said. Because the engine technology can be so uniformly shared across the industry, it can be modified to work with any company.

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Marvel To Reprint And Replace Offending Copies Of Immortal Hulk #43 – Bleeding Cool News

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Marvel Comics has informed comic book retailers that they are correcting and reprinting the main and variant editions of Immortal Hulk #43, which went on sale this week. And that requests to return copies in exchange for a corrected version may be made starting today.

Last night, Bleeding Cool reported that Joe Bennett had apologised for a panel in Immortal Hulk #43, that had been interpreted as an anti-Semitic slur.

A jewellery store featured in the comic is named after David Cronenberg, the horror movie director, known for the kind of body horror that The Immortal Hulk has embraced in its run. But, instead of the window sign reading 'Jewelry,' it reads 'Jewery' instead and is placed above a Star of David. While, in the foreground, Joe Fixit/Bruce Banner and the store employee were talking about money.

When approached by Bleeding Cool, artist Joe Bennett told us, "I've been including references to famous horror directors to pay respects to the genre throughout the series, and in Immortal Hulk #43, I included a nod to David Cronenberg. The misspellings on the window were an honest but terrible mistake since I was writing backwards, I accidentally spelled both of those words wrong."

"I have no excuse for how I depicted the Star of David. I failed to understand this troubling and offensive stereotype, and after listening to you all, I now understand my mistake. This was wrong, offensive, and hurtful in many ways. This is a mistake I must own, and I am sorry to everyone who I hurt by this. I am working with Marvel to correct this, and I am using this lesson to reflect on how I approach my stories and my work."

The errors and wording were also overseen by Marvel, of course, and I understand that internally Marvel is acknowledging their editorial failure regarding this. The artwork will, as you might expect, be corrected for the digital version, as well as for future printings and collections and now a voluntary recall, reprint and replacement. If you would like your copy replaced, now would be a good time to talk to your comic book shop.

The comparison is being made to a recalled issue of Wolverine that featured the word "kike" rather than "killer" in error, rather than the issue of X-Men Gold in which the artist Ardian Syaf inserted specific references to an anti-Christian/Jewish march with violent demands.

IMMORTAL HULK #43MARVEL COMICSNOV200541(W) Al Ewing (A) Joe Bennett (CA) Alex RossNew York City holds eight million peopleand harbors one monster. A creature of chaos and anarchy, driven by rage and contempt for the structures of man.His criminal activities continue even while the beast is hidden in the skin of an ordinary human. But don't be afraid, citizens. This radioactive disease has a cure.The U-FOES are here and they're going to kill the HULK.Say "thank you." Rated T+In Shops: Feb 03, 2021 SRP: $3.99

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.

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Watch: ATEEZ Gets Standing Ovation From Rain With Their Performance On Immortal Songs – soompi

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On February 6, KBSs Immortal Songs aired their Rain special, with performances from 2AMs Jo Kwon, Jamie, 2AMs Changmin, N.Flyings Yoo Hwe Seung, ATEEZ, and Kim Young Heum.

The episode opened with a powerful performance from Rain himself and Ciipher, the boy group he produced, of his viral hit GANG.

The firstperformer to compete was Kim Young Heum, whoput his own spin on Instead of Saying Goodbye.Jo Kwon went next with Bad Guy and set up his performance like a whole musical number, winningthe round against Kim Young Heum.Performing third was N.Flyings Yoo Hwe Seung, who sang How to Avoid the Sun. At the end, Rain stood up to applaud his performance, but Jo Kwon ended up winning this round as well. Performing fourth was Changmin with Rainism, which he reinterpreted with a band and a funky vibe. As a result, he was able to defeat Jo Kwon and win the round. Next to perform was Jamie, who sang Love Song and showed her emotional range, butwas unable to win against Changmin.

Goinglast this episode was ATEEZ, who chose the song Its Raining andimpressed the audiencewith a performance that lived up to their title as performance masters. Asked about the key point of Rains original performance, ATEEZ talked about Rains amazing physique and his sexy breathing during the song. The group also hyped up their performance by asking, Is the stage sturdy? Because were going to smash our performance and Instead of its raining, its going to be ATEEZ-ing from now on.

ATEEZ alsoshared a preview of their powerful moveswhiledancing to some of Rains songs before theirperformance.

After their electric performance, Rain and the entire panel rose to give the group a standing ovation. MC Kim Tae Woo said, There are no cracks in ATEEZ. Their dancing, singing, expressions, and gestures are all perfect. Rain said in admiration, I think that ATEEZ are the superstars of the next generation superstars.

The panelists voted ATEEZ the final winner of the episode, marking the second time that the group has taken the final win on Immortal Songs. The grouppreviously also won a round on the King of Kings specialof the show.

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Cobra Kai and Immortal Hulk – The Daily LITG, 6th February 2021 – Bleeding Cool News

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Welcome to the Daily LITG. The world can seem like a terrible and strange place sometimes, but there are highlights. At Bleeding Cool you can still read all about comics, merch, TV shows, games, movies and more. Whether that's Cobra Kai, DC Infinite Frontier, Immortal Hulk or more, the Daily Lying In The Gutters remains a long-running run around the day before and the day ahead. You can sign up to receive it as an e-mail here.

The world keeps turning, and America is beginning to heal from all the burns.

In case you fancied more LITG about comic books.

And Death Note returned for a one-shot.

And Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil Daredevil.

There may still not be much of a party atmosphere right now. All depends on which state you are living in. But comics folk are always getting older and still celebrating that special date.

Interested in more Daily LITG discussion about what this all means? Subscribe to our LitG Daily Mailing List. And we'll see you here tomorrow.

Founder of Bleeding Cool. The longest-serving digital news reporter in the world, since 1992. Author of The Flying Friar, Holed Up, The Avengefuls, Doctor Who: Room With A Deja Vu, The Many Murders Of Miss Cranbourne, Chase Variant. Lives in South-West London, works from Blacks on Dean Street, shops at Piranha Comics. Father of two. Political cartoonist.

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The indie Chinese RPG that suddenly became one of Steam’s most popular games may get an English translation – PC Gamer

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Tale of Immortal is one of Steam's most popular games right now. After launching just last week, the Chinese indie RPG rocketed to the top of Steam's global top sellers list and most popular games by concurrent viewers. Around 176,000 players are playing during peak gaming hours in Chinamaking Tale of Immortal more popular than familiar mainstays like Grand Theft Auto 5, Team Fortress 2, and even Apex Legends.

As I wrote just a few days ago, it's another fascinating case of Chinese indie games exploding onto Steam and often beating out big-budget releases from major North American or European developers. It's cool to see, but Tale of Immortal is currently only available in Simplified Chinese, which makes it tough to play if you don't know the language. It's on the vanguard of a new subgenre of RPG popular in China called "cultivation sims," which are open-world sandbox RPGs set in the incredibly popular "xianxia" genre of Chinese fiction. The gist is simple: Through training, meditation, and adventuring, you ascend from being a mere mortal to divine godhood.

Judging by the 20,000 positive user reviews on Steam, players like it a lot, and those of us who don't read Chinese may eventually get a chance to see why: An English translation is in the plans according to a forum response from one of the developers back in December.

Steam user MidnightCerealKiller, who is one of the developers on Tale of Immortal, responded to a question about whether the game would eventually be localized in English or other languages. In that response, MidnightCerealKiller outlined what a massive challenge it is for a small team to take a text-heavy RPG like this and translate it to different languages. "The amount of words in the game and their difficulties could be very time-consuming," the developer wrote, "but we will work hard to have at least English localization in the future!"

It's not exactly an announcement that an English localization is actively in the works, but it's clear that the development team wants to launch an English version at some point. That's very good news.

Tale of Immortal is currently in Early Access and the developers expect it to take a year before launching the full version, so that might be a likely window for an actual English translation.

I've reached out to Tale of Immortal's publisher, Lightning Games, for more information.

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Watch: Jamie Shares What Kind Of Senior 2AM’s Jo Kwon Was At JYP And More On Immortal Songs – soompi

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On the February 6 episode of KBSs Immortal Songs, Kim Young Heum, 2AMs Jo Kwon, N.Flyings Yoo Hwe Seung, 2AMs Changmin, Jamie, and ATEEZ performed songs from Rain.

Beforetheperformancesbegan, theMCs highlighted the interesting battle between Changmin and Jo Kwon, members of 2AM who would be competing on this episode as solo artists.

Changmin said, Rain built about half of JYP Entertainment. I felt a certain ambition for this episode just because it was about Rain. Jo Kwon said, 2AM has a group chat and we were talking about stuff when we realized that both of us were filming for Immortal Songs.'

Changmin said, Its the first time since 2016 that we both appeared in the same frame like this. Its been about six years [since our original contracts expired]. He added, I want to avoid a head-to-head battle in case he gets hurt,but Jo Kwon said, It would definitely be a news item. If we both stand together on the judging platform, it would make for a good picture.

Jamie, who had beena JYP Entertainment artist with 2AM, was asked if she could win against her seniors. She said,JoKwon has to win. Hating to lose is just part of his personality.I think it would be more comfortable if I lost.Im not going to insert myself in the middle of a 2AMfamily fight.

She then picked Jo Kwon as thesenior artistwho was the most intimidating at JYP Entertainment. Hehad an expression when hewatchedus from the back, like, What is this? It had that kind of vibe, she explained. But once yougot friendly with him, there was no one else like him for taking care of people. At the same time, she said that Jo Kwon was the disciplinarian at JYP. Hedidnt actually tell us off, and he told us he wouldnt, but when hecame around, we allsat up straighter, she said.

During the competition, Jo Kwon took an earlylead with wins against Kim Young Heum and N.Flyings Yoo Hwe Seung, but eventually lost to Changmin, who also won against Jamie. The final win on the episode was taken by ATEEZ (check out their performance here).

Check out some other performancesbelow!

Jo Kwon Bad Guy

Changmin Rainism

Jamie Love Song

Yoo Hwe Seung How to Avoid the Sun

Kim Young Heum Instead of Saying Goodbye

Watch Immortal Songs below!

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Impressions of the Immortal Mystics, the Spanish MOBA that seeks to give a twist to the genre – Inspired Traveler

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Mindiff is a Spanish studio that has been working on an ambitious project for the last five years: The Immortal Mystcs, a MOBA that comes with the intention of giving a little twist to the genre by betting on those characteristics that its own creators would love to see in other titles. This was told to us in a talk in which we were able to discover the project in motion and attend several games of a game that promises.

They themselves told us that they already have an age and that they perceived that the rest of MOBAS required two characteristics that they no longer have: many reflections and a lot of free time. Games like League of Legends or Heroes of the Storm have many micromanages, very specific requirements when it comes to enjoying the games at a competitive level. From Mindiff they wanted to promote another idea and that team play was much more important than these small individual sparkles. Faster games for busy players and a much faster learning line than other titles in the genre. A good cover letter for The Immortal Mystics, which also seeks to satisfy the most purist players.

The Immortal Mystics is a MOBA with all the letters, that these initial investigations do not make you think that it is a game that seeks to simplify the rules and needs of other games on the market. In fact, the study itself commented that in the first years of development they focused on creating the basis for a game of the genre with all the elements intact, taking as a reference other greats in the sector. It has been the last two years where they have dedicated themselves to adjusting the experience and adding the most personal elements that make the experience unique.

Although it is yet to be officially announced and they did not give us many details, Mindiff assured us that in addition to the traditional game modes, The Immortal Mystics will incorporate an additional mode designed for more casual players or for those who want a different experience with the genre. They will be unique maps with their own rules and limitations, so in each of them we will have to face the games in different ways. In about five minutes, we will enjoy these small experiences that seek to find another type of audience that does not want to face only another MOBA on the market.

But lets go where we are, have we really noticed that The Immortal Mystics is different and original? The game is still in an alpha-beta state, so work will continue on it. The launch of its open beta on PC is expected for the summer of 2021, where the game will already appear with all the expected features, store, skins and will begin to function as a product. Yes we have perceived that the games are faster than those of other MOBAs (about 20 minutes) and that many features have been incorporated to make the competitive confrontations somewhat lighter and more dynamic.

For example, teleportations have been incorporated that, at the cost of some points that will increase as the game progresses, we can immediately return to the line where we were before dying or return to the base. Everything suggests that additional speed that will convince players who do not want to spend a lot of time in each game, but without losing the deepest characteristics at the playable level. Because we insist: The Immortal Mystics is a MOBA with all the consequences.

There will be more than 20 heroes (right now they have a total of 28 developed, but they will not release all on the first day) and 3 maps for launch day. All heroes will have their own roles (recognizable within the genre), different special abilities and a series of unique characteristics that will completely vary the way in which we will play with them. The Immortal Mystics has an interesting armor system that we can customize and that will completely change the statistics of each character, even those that are the same. In addition, it will invite the player to play games to try to get different ones.

These armors will be chosen before starting the game and will allow the character to fill their gaps with different gems. These will boost some specific statistics, but it will depend on where on the body they are located. That is, depending on the role and class of the character, it will be convenient for us to have armor with holes in certain places, which will encourage us to get those that we think can better marry each of them. However, this will lead to multiple combinations and strategies, because as the study itself indicated, The Immortal Mystics places a lot of importance on team play.

The Immortal Mystics, in addition to this armor system, incorporates some elemental skills that we also choose at the beginning of each game. This will allow us to choose between fire, water, earth, wind and other natural elements to be able to carry out special attacks (with the F) of this type, but focused on the combination with those of our companions. If we do it close, both elements will be combined, ours and our partners (although they are different) allowing the attacks to be even more devastating. This leads us to the importance of companionship and to act with strategy, since this type of combos can only be carried out if both players have the action available.

For those who are wondering, these types of actions can also be limited to avoid trolling or problems with certain players at the multiplayer level. For example, you can select that your elemental ability is only shared with specific players to limit their actions. Everything that Mindiff has raised seeks cooperation and communication, which will be key to obtaining victory beyond the individual capacity of the best players.

But, with all these very strategic elements, isnt the duration of the games prolonged and the speed and dynamism that was sought is avoided? Indeed, that is why the studio itself has been very aware of this and new minions and different roles have been incorporated into the games to enhance speed despite these original brushstrokes, which require cooperation and patience to find the right moment.

Expect the typical minions that provide the group with gold and experience to level up, bosses, towers, the cores in each base that must be destroyed to win the game, the ultimate abilities of each character Any player who has enjoyed a MOBA will be able to enter The Immortal Mystics without any problem, discovering these differentiating points as incentives to enjoy a well-known but refreshing experience.

Mindiff has had two lines of development in recent years at its headquarters in Tenerife and Malaga. The first has worked on The Immortal Mystics, while the second has continued to perfect the technology of its own engine, Plague, which has been generating RTS and RPG video games for 20 years, to which they recently migrated to MOBAs for this project. A very specific engine for the genre they are going to license, highly specialized and with enormous potential. More than 60 people in total have worked during these years in both projects, which shows the magnitude and importance of the video game.

It will be this summer of 2021 when we can access those more than 20 heroes, 3 maps, 7 roles and more than 100 objects from the ingame store, to which skins and cosmetics of different kinds will also be incorporated. Although nothing is completely defined yet and it will be time and the players who mark the destiny of The Immortal Mystics, the studio is excited and has already told us their intention to continuously incorporate heroes, skins and all kinds of content, as well as keep updating that other game mode more focused on casual players who also want to open a door.

The Immortal Mystics has incredible potential. It seems that it will work very well as an initial MOBA with a much faster and less demanding learning curve than the great exponents of the current genre., along with all its own characteristics that focus on the importance of teamwork ahead of individual sparkles and not exhausting the player with excessively long games. It can be the beginning of something truly immortal.

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Activision: Diablo Immortal Sets Stage for Franchise to Expand "Global Reach," Lot of Excitement From "Depth & Authenticity" -…

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While Activision has confirmed that Diablo 4 wont be released this year, there is a Diablo game set to launch in 2021, and thats Diablo Immortal. While some gamers might still not be warm to the Diablo mobile game, Activision has lavished praise on it based on regional testing.

In Activisions quarterly earnings report, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick says that Diablo Immortal has set the stage for the franchise to expand its global reach.

Diablo Immortal our upcoming free-to-play mobile title was extremely well received during its recent regional testing. And this has set the stage for the franchise to meaningfully expand its global reach. Bobby Kotick, Activision CEO

In the same earnings report, Daniel Alegre,President & Chief Operating Officer of Activision confirms that Diablo Immortal is on track for release later this year, and adds that based on regional testing, Immortal garnered excitement due to its depth and authenticity.

Diablo Immortal concluded its first stage of regional testing with very positive player feedback. A lot of excitement about the depth and authenticity, that this latest Diablo experience and strong engagement metrics.

We look forward to getting the game in the hands with more players and further regional testing ahead of a launch planned for later this year. And the Blizzard team is looking forward to channeling the spirit of BlizzCon to engage and celebrate the community once again. At BlizzConline on February 19th and 20th where they will share more about the plans for the franchise. Daniel Alegre, President & Chief Operating Officer of Activision

Hopefully, the mobile game does deliver a proper and faithful Diablo experience on mobile. If it can pull that off, Activision might have another Call of Duty Mobile hit on their hands again.

Father, gamer, games media vet, writer of words, killer of noobs.

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‘If I said I’d scripted it that would be a lie’ – Tommo’s words that went viral – Racing Post

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Derek Thompson: infamous promo video has had more than 230,000 views on YouTube

Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

In 2013, an innocent promotional video designed to attract visitors to a hotel in South Yorkshire went viral when presenter Derek 'Tommo' Thompson put his own spin on it and turned it into an Alan Partridge-style production with elements of Benny Hill mixed in.

Beginning in the bar and dining room, our man toured the hotel before stumbling upon a pair of towel-clad ladies in a bathroomand ending up in a suite. The Partridgesque performance ended up with Tommo somehow sharing a bed with another two women in bathrobes.

The video, of the Crown Hotel at Bawtry, near Doncaster, may have lasted under a minute but it was quickly shared on social media and has hadmore than 230,000 views on YouTube. It was revisited more recently when Radio 1 DJ Greg James came across it in 2019. James particularly liked Tommo's opening line in the bar scene and took the story to a whole new, and much younger, audience.

Derek Thompson,presenter

Simon Mapletoft and his wife Jo asked me to do a promo video for the hotelas it's popular with Doncaster racegoers. There were ladies who worked there posing as guests during the filming, whichbegan when I walked into the bar and uttered the now-immortal words, 'Are you well? I thought you were!'. I don't know where that came from as there was no script and I thought nothing of it until later.

We did the video, which the hotel was pleased with, and I thought no more about it until about two years ago my daughter India shouted to me one morning and said I was on the Greg James show on Radio 1. I didn't even know who he was but listened in and heard him use my line, 'Are you well? I thought you were!' and he later rang me and said he was playing the Centaur after racing at the Cheltenham Festival and would I like to join him on stage.

Greg James: huge Tommo fan who invited him on stage during a Cheltenham Festival gig

I got in there in front of around 5,000 people and he put my line to music, which was unbelievable. Greg then came to Newmarket after the 2,000 Guineas and we did the same thing there. I was stunned when it came out and they were even asking for t-shirts with that line on it. It was mental.

Until it was forced to close for lockdown, people even used to send me videos of themselves going around the Crown Hotel impersonating me. They have had some great publicity out of it and if I don't have a room for life at the venue there is something wrong!

Simon Mapletoft, broadcaster

Basically, the owner of the Crown Hotel, Craig Dowie, is a good friend of ours and I've helped him out with PR over the years. He came up with this idea of a promo video to portray the place as THE racing hotel in Doncaster and thought that Tommo was the ideal man to front it. I produced it but if I said I'd scripted it that would be a lie and Tommo very much put his own spin on it. As soon as he walked into the bar and uttered that immortal line, 'Are you well? I thought you were!', the big fella had stamped his own comedy gold all over it.

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Luke Harvey: 'The cameraman followed me and I've never found out why!'

'He was a real showman and there was no-one before or since like him'

Rishi Persad: 'The thought in my head was 'holy s***, this is massive'

Derek Thompson: 'I simply assumed it was a woman and still laugh about it now'

Hayley Moore: 'It was a random thing to do. I didn't expect it to go viral'

Luke Harvey: 'It very soon dawned on me that I was part of television gold'

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Chem4Kids.com: Reactions: Overview

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When you are trying to understand chemical reactions, imagine that you are working with the atoms. Imagine the building blocks are right in front of you on the table. Sometimes we use our chemistry toys to help us visualize the movement of the atoms. We plug and unplug the little connectors that represent chemical bonds. There are a few key points you should know about chemical reactions:

1. A chemical change must occur. You start with one molecule and turn it into another. Chemical bonds are made or broken in order to create a new molecule. One example of a chemical reaction is the rusting of a steel garbage can. That rusting happens because the iron (Fe) in the metal combines with oxygen (O2) in the atmosphere. Chemical bonds are created and destroyed to finally make iron oxide (Fe2O3).

When a refrigerator or air conditioner cools the air, there is no reaction in the air molecules. The change in temperature is a physical change. When you melt an ice cube, it is a physical change. When you put bleach in the washing machine to clean your clothes, a chemical change breaks up the molecules in your stains.

2. A reaction could include atoms, ions, compounds, or molecules of a single element. You need to remember that a chemical reaction can happen with anything, just as long as a chemical change occurs. If you put pure hydrogen gas (H2) and pure oxygen gas in a room, they might be involved in a reaction to form water (H2O). However, it will be in very very small amounts. If you were to add a spark, those gases would be involved in a violent chemical reaction that would result in a huge explosion (exothermic). Another chemical reaction might include silver ions (Ag+). If you mix a solution with silver ions with a solution that has chloride (Cl-) ions, silver chloride (AgCl) precipitate will form and drop out of solution.

3. Single reactions often happen as part of a larger series of reactions. When a plant makes sugars, there might be as many as a dozen chemical reactions to get through the Calvin cycle and eventually create (synthesize) glucose (C6H12O6) molecules. The rusting example we used earlier only showed you the original reactants and final products of the chemical reaction. There were several intermediate reactions where chemical bonds were created and destroyed. The silver chloride example only focused on the ions. In reality, the two solutions were created when two salts dissociated (split into ions) in water.

Mars: Why is Curiosity Looking for Organics? (NASA/JPL Video)

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Diversified Chemical’s George Hill on finding the right chemistry – Crain’s Detroit Business

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CRAIN'S DETROIT BUSINESS: You started the company in the back of your house, right, around 1970? How did that come about?

GEORGE HILL: Well, this is one of those believe-it-or-not kind of situations. I was working at Chrysler Corp. at the time. The director of government affairs ... got ill and he was supposed to be representing Chrysler at a (Small Business Administration) conference and ... he called me up and said, 'George, you've been around for a while ... I want you to stand in for me.' This is a true story. So, I went to the conference.

I wandered about and wandered into this one particular event and you had to sign in, not knowing that my signage was going to end up being a data point to the people who were in that group who were interested in contracts. A few weeks later I started getting these government bids in the mail. I went to this friend of mine who was kind of in that business, knew something about it. He said, 'Look, why don't we see if we can't make some money on the side.' We did it, and we got the bid. We got several more and he said, 'See how easy it is to make money in this chemical business?' That became kind of a side job ... and bingo. Here we are.

So in 1968 you were on a CBS affiliate in Detroit hosting the show "Job Opportunity Line," the first Black person on regularly scheduled TV in the area. Can you talk about how that came about?

Well, what happened is that after the ('67 uprising) of course there was a great deal of interest, as there is now, in what's going on in the Black community ... and everyone was trying to figure out what could be done to improve conditions in the community and to get a better peek into the world of African Americans. A friend of mine ... had been talking to CBS without my knowledge. He'd kind of thrown my hat into the ring. He called me and said, 'George, I've done this and I wonder if you'd take the time to talk to these folks.' So I went out and talked to them and much to my surprise, they wanted me to do it. I was the interviewer, we talked about jobs, education, things in the community. I was interviewing people who had companies, I was interviewing university professors about training ... It was really odd. It came out on Sunday mornings this is kind of funny. When I first started the business, you know, there was a period in which you're gearing up to do your manufacturing and on one point in time I would be in people's living rooms and bedrooms (doing interviews) and then on Monday I'd be out calling on small businesses and we'd be going in to (do cleaning work). They'd look at me and say, 'Didn't I see you on TV yesterday morning? ... Come on, come on to my office, we'll talk.' ... That might be the secret sauce to the beginnings of the company's small successes.

How did the company develop over time, then?

We started off doing simple things. (Chemicals to) clean the floor, clean the toilets, that kind of stuff. We had a small plant up on Woodrow Wilson. We were selling things primarily in gallons and drums, that kind of stuff. As we grew and had our own chemists, we recognized the formulations that were being used to clean X would be the same basic formulations to clean Y. Then, in the manufacturing plants, once a part is machined, it has to be cleaned before it can be welded or assembled or anything else, and they'd been cleaning all these things with ... very high caustic solutions and high heat, and the energy costs were just enormous. Well, as we got more chemists and had more sophistication ... we started innovating in terms of the things we could do in our plants and laboratories here that would mimic and replicate what was going on in our customers' plants. We developed a variety of very innovative products that really saved a lot of money and did a great deal of cleaning without the dangers of the caustic being heated up.

Can you give us an idea of the size of the company?

In terms of revenue we're in the $75 million-$100 million range. We will be in the neighborhood of $80 million probably in 2021. We have about 90 employees.

You guys put emphasis on hiring Detroit residents, right?

We always do. There was a lot more talent and confidence, particularly in the Black community, than people suspected. I mean this is an extraordinary city. We felt there was a lot here to tap into (as a Black middle class and education and homeownership grew with the automotive industry) ... so we really felt as though, given my personal philosophy that people really drive your success, people who are talented, committed, skilled, passionate ... so Detroit itself was just the perfect spot. We grew on a national basis and even built a plant in Germany and in South Korea at one time ... We've been a much bigger company, by the way, we've sold off divisions. In the downturn of the '80s we sold off a $25 million-$30 million division. But the basis for all that (expansion) was the people who were here and the educational base that was here and industries that were here.

Anything new going on?

We are licensed to manufacture, and the only licensee in the country, to manufacture a product called Envirocleanse, which is a water-based disinfectant that kills the virus that leads to COVID-19. (We got the license) within the last six-seven months.

Right now we're looking at this pandemic-induced downturn. What do you think needs to be done in Detroit to help the city and Detroiters during this time?

I've got a philosophy that the answer to the regeneration of urban areas and the regeneration of the economy would be a marriage between corporate America and small business, particularly small business that's diverse. Black, Hispanic, et cetera. As we look at the relationship we've got with some of our partners for instance, Henkel (Adhesive Technologies). Henkel is engaged with us on the community level ... Henkel has joined with us (on an educational and mentorship program called Math Corps) and (companies like Henkel) want to do something that makes a difference. So my answer to what has to be done is bringing resources ... into our community and that those resources make an investment in people, who are the businesses, in order to make sure we have a future that is always in jeopardy if we are not always developing the skills to make us first ... I'm going to sound very critical when I say this. Our level of science competency and engineering competency, we are no longer leaders of the world in those areas. We should be. We need to come together in a way that we start recognizing this is a marathon, not a sprint.

Hear the entire interview on crainsdetroit.com/theConversation

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Physics – Selective Bond Breaking with Splat Chemistry – Physics

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February 1, 2021• Physics 14, 13

Colliding a large organic molecule with a surface can break a specific chemical bond in the molecule with surprising precision.

The ability to selectively excite and break specific bonds in molecules would open new vistas in synthetic chemistry, allowing the creation of compounds that are difficult to synthesize via conventional chemical techniques. However, decades of research have shown that, with a few exceptions [1], when energy is put into a specific molecular bondwith a laser, for exampleit is quickly redistributed among many vibrations in the molecule long before a reaction may occur. In other words, attempting to selectively put energy into a bond usually leads to the same chemical reaction as heating the reactants on a hot plate. Surprisingly, Lukas Krumbein, at the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Germany, and colleagues have now observed that a bond in a large molecule can be selectively broken by adding energy to the system in the simplest way possibleby colliding the molecule with a surface [2]. The result improves our understanding of the dynamics of large molecules and could offer novel ways to control their reaction products.

The idea that energy imparted during a collision can promote chemical reactionsa process sometimes called splat chemistryhas been around for decades. Researchers have shown, for instance, that the collision of argon atoms onto methane (CH4) molecules adsorbed on a surface can lead to the molecules dissociation [3]. In that experiment, the equivalence of the four CH bonds means that the collision process is not bond specific. What is significant about the work by Krumbein and colleagues is that they demonstrate the cleavage of a particular bond.

The researchers use electrospray ionization and ion-beam deposition to accelerate a 73-atom molecule called Reichardts dye toward a copper surface. Using scanning tunneling microscopy to inspect the scene of the collision, they find that when the molecule collides with the surface at translational energies of 250 eVlarger than the energy associated with thermal excitationit selectively cracks at a specific carbonnitrogen (CN) bond. Breaking this bond results in the molecule opening into a more spread-out configuration. In contrast, when the molecule is simply heated, a different CN bond is broken, which splits the original molecule into two pieces. Krumbein and colleagues also observe this lower-energy splitting reaction in some collisions, but this reaction has a lower probability than the cracking reaction.

Key to the success of their experiment is the sheer size of the molecule involved. Previous studies of surface dynamics have focused on the reactions of small molecules, such as nitric oxide (NO) or CH4. The collision-induced excitation of single bonds in such small molecules is relatively ineffective. For example, when a molecule of NO collides with a surface, the efficient compression of the NO bond would require a perfectly aligned, head-on collision geometry. With any other alignment, the molecule would behave much like an American football, hitting with its long axis at an angle to the surface [4, 5]. This off-axis geometry causes most of the translational energy to be converted into rotational energy, sending the molecule spinning away from the surface but without inducing any chemical change.

The situation is very different for Reichardts dye, named after the doctoral student who developed the molecule while searching for a compound that would change its color depending on the solvent. This large organic molecule consists of seven rings surrounding a central nitrogen atom. When a Reichardts dye molecule hits the surface, the collision doesnt compress a single bond. Instead, the collision causes the entire molecule to undergo a large-scale distortion in a very short period of timemore like a prop-comedy rubber chicken hitting a wall than like a football.

Based on simulations of their experiment, Krumbein and colleagues explain that the fate of the molecule depends on its orientation when hitting the surface. The key difference between the collision geometries is how the large-scale distortion strains the three carbon atoms surrounding the central nitrogen atom (Fig. 1). Collisions that focus the molecules distortion on one particular carbon atom lead to splitting, with the molecule breaking apart into two fragments. Distortions focused on one of the other two (symmetry equivalent) carbon atoms lead to cracking, in which the molecule hinges open but remains in one piece. Other impact configurations produce no reaction, leaving all three bonds unbroken and the molecule intact (Fig. 2).

The experiments demonstrate that, as expected, the probability of a reaction is dependent on the initial translational energy of the molecule. Faster molecules split or crack with higher probability than slower molecules. Using simulations that account for the collision process, the researchers explain the experimental observation that the more common outcome is a cracking reaction, even though splitting is the thermally favored pathway. This is not contradictory, as the reaction rate is controlled both by the activation barrier and by the probability of attaining a suitable molecular configuration for the reaction. The simulations reveal that the collisions selectively strain the central nitrogen atom in a way that promotes CN bond cleavage. In contrast, heating the molecule distributes energy randomly.

The results obtained by Krumbein and colleagues provide important new insight into the localization of energy in molecules: The large-scale distortion of the molecule focuses the energy on a single bond while simultaneously preventing the energy from rapidly delocalizingat least for the picosecond or so that it takes for the molecules geometry to stabilize after the collision. These types of large-scale deformations are common in macromolecules under strain, such as polymers, proteins, and DNA. Accounting for the way that energy is concentrated on specific bonds within these molecules will help predict how they respond to such strain. Insights such as those provided by this work are also important for understanding mechanochemistry, the coupling between macroscopic strain and chemical reactivity. Mechanochemistry underlies important phenomena, such as stress-corrosion cracking and polymer degradation under shear. An atomistic understanding of mechanochemistry is still in its infancy, but Krumbein and colleagues experiment represents a considerable advance.

Melissa A. Hines is a professor of chemistry at Cornell University. Her research focuses on understanding and controlling the chemical reactivity of surfaces to enable advances in areas ranging from photocatalysis and self-cleaning surfaces to the development of stable, high-brightness photocathodes.

Lukas Krumbein, Kelvin Anggara, Martina Stella, Tomasz Michnowicz, Hannah Ochner, Sabine Abb, Gordon Rinke, Andr Portz, Michael Drr, Uta Schlickum, Andrew Baldwin, Andrea Floris, Klaus Kern, and Stephan Rauschenbach

Phys. Rev. Lett. 126, 056001 (2021)

Published February 1, 2021

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Chemistry and computer science join forces to apply artificial intelligence to chemical reactions – Princeton University

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In the past few years, researchers have turned increasingly to data science techniques to aid problem-solving in organic synthesis.

Researchers in the lab ofAbigail Doyle, Princeton's A. Barton Hepburn Professor of Chemistry,have developed open-source software that provides them with a state-of-the-art optimization algorithm to use in everyday work, folding whats been learned in the machine learning field into synthetic chemistry.

Princeton chemists Benjamin Shields and Abigail Doyle worked with computer scientist Ryan Adams (not pictured) to create machine learning software that can optimize reactions using artificial intelligence to speed through thousands of reactions that chemists used to have to labor through one by one.

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C. Todd Reichart, Department of Chemistry

The software adapts key principles of Bayesian Optimization (BO) to allow faster and more efficient syntheses of chemicals.

Based on the Bayes Theorem, a mathematical formula for determining conditional probability, BO is a widely used strategy in the sciences. Broadly defined, it allows people and computersuse prior knowledge to inform and optimize future decisions.

The chemists in Doyle's lab, in collaboration withRyanAdams, a professor of computer science,and colleagues at Bristol-Myers Squibb, comparedhuman decision-making capabilities with the software package. They found that the optimization tool yields both greater efficiency over human participants and less bias on a test reaction. Their work appears in the current issue of the journal Nature.

Reaction optimization is ubiquitous in chemical synthesis, both in academia and across the chemical industry, said Doyle.Since chemical space is so large, it is impossible for chemists to evaluate the entirety of a reaction space experimentally. We wanted to develop and assess BO as a tool for synthetic chemistry given its success for related optimization problems in the sciences.

Benjamin Shields, a former postdoctoral fellow in the Doyle lab and the papers lead author, created the Python package.

I come from a synthetic chemistry background, so I definitely appreciate that synthetic chemists are pretty good at tackling these problems on their own, said Shields. Where I think the real strength of Bayesian Optimization comes in is that it allows us to model these high-dimensional problems and capture trends that we may not see in the data ourselves, so it can process the data a lot better.

And two, within a space, it will not be held back by the biases of a human chemist, he added.

The software started as an out-of-field project to fulfill Shields doctoral requirements. Doyle and Shield then formed a team under the Center for Computer Assisted Synthesis (C-CAS), a National Science Foundation initiative launched at five universities to transform how the synthesis of complex organic molecules is planned and executed. Doyle has been a principal investigator with C-CAS since 2019.

Reaction optimization can be an expensive and time-consuming process, said Adams, who is also the director of the Program in Statistics and Machine Learning. This approach not only accelerates it using state-of-the-art techniques, but also finds better solutions than humans would typically identify. I think this is just the beginning of whats possible with Bayesian Optimization in this space.

Users start by defining a search space plausible experiments to consider such as a list of catalysts, reagents, ligands, solvents, temperatures, and concentrations. Once that space is prepared and the user defines how many experiments to run, the software chooses initial experimental conditions to be evaluated. Thenit suggests new experiments to run, iterating through a smaller and smaller cast of choices until the reaction is optimized.

In designing the software, I tried to include ways for people to kind of inject what they know about a reaction, said Shields. No matter how you use this or machine learning in general, theres always going to be a case where human expertise is valuable.

The software and examples for its use can be accessed at this repository. GitHub links are available for the following: software that represents the chemicals under evaluation in a machine-readable format via density-functional theory; software for reaction optimization; and the game that collects chemists decision-making on optimization of the test reaction.

"Bayesian reaction optimization as a tool for chemical synthesis," byBenjamin J. Shields, Jason Stevens, Jun Li, Marvin Parasram, Farhan Damani, Jesus I. Martinez Alvarado, Jacob M. Janey, Ryan P. Adams andAbigail G. Doyle, appears in the Feb. 3 issue of the journal Nature (DOI:10.1038/s41586-021-03213-y). This research was supported by funding from Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Princeton Catalysis Initiative, the National Science Foundation under the CCI Center for Computer Assisted Synthesis (CHE-1925607), and the DataX Program at Princeton University through support from the Schmidt Futures Foundation.

Editor's note: You can read the unabridged version of this story on the Department of Chemistry homepage.

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Atmospheric chemistry discovery could help Indian cities clear away the haze – Chemistry World

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A new study suggests that high levels of chloride from industry and burning plastic waste could be responsible for enhanced haze and fog formation in Delhi and Chennai,1 leading to around half the reduced visibility in Indias capital city and having serious implications for health and the economy. The results could help researchers understand why some polluted regions are more prone to smog and cloud than others.

Many cities in India are affected by pollution, with air quality being particularly bad in winter. Particulate matter a mixture of suspended solid and liquid particles is a key atmospheric contaminant that affects millions of people across the country. The low visibility associated with haze and fog can cause air traffic delays and increase motor vehicle accidents, notes Pengfei Liu, an atmospheric chemist at the Georgia Institute of Technology in the US, who led the study together with Sachin Gunthe of the Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The severe air pollution also causes increases in cardiovascular, respiratory and neurological diseases, he adds. We cant tackle this air pollution problem unless we understand the chemical mechanism behind it.

It is unclear why Delhi is more affected by haze and fog than other polluted Asian cities, although a large fraction of its particulate matter is primary organic matter. Now, the international team may have found the answer. We determined the chemical composition of atmospheric fine particles in Indian cities and observed unexpectedly high concentrations of chloride, Liu says.

The team monitored the mass and chemical composition of particulate matter smaller than 1m in Delhi and Chennai in real time and then performed thermodynamic modelling to uncover the role of chloride in haze and fog formation.

They demonstrated that particulate matter grows very fast due to co-condensation of HCl, ammonia and water, explains Manabu Shiraiwa, a researcher at the University of California, Irvine, in the US, who was not involved in the study. He points out that India has a unique environment, characterised by high ammonia release from agriculture and significant chlorine emissions due to burning waste.

Winter mornings in Delhi are usually cold and humid, offering the ideal conditions for the process to take place. Gas-phase HCl emitted from plastic-containing waste burning and industrial processes can dissolve in aerosol water, explains Liu. Ammonia can then react with HCl to form ammonium chloride, stabilising chloride in the particle phase, he adds. This particle-phase chloride can absorb even more water from air, leading to a quick growth of the aerosol particles into haze and fog droplets. We estimate that this mechanism can contribute more than 50% of the visibility deterioration in Delhi.

Yafang Cheng from the Max-Planck Institute for Chemistry in Germany believes that the discovery will help to develop more locally tailored strategies. The identified high chloride concentration is a special characteristic of air pollution in India, different from other megacities such as Beijing, she says. This finding has very important implications for air-pollution management in India. Besides learning from examples in other places of the world, India may now develop its own, more precise and cost-effective solution against its severe haze pollution, for example, targeting the control of chlorine emissions.

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Atmospheric chemistry discovery could help Indian cities clear away the haze - Chemistry World