Supercomputer may give us COVID meds to join vaccines – al.com

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An Alabama scientists research may lead to medicines that can team up with vaccines as another weapon against COVID-19, according to findings released today.

The team of University of Alabama in Huntsville biologist Dr. Jerome Baudry has already won an award for their work so far, and Beaudry said the widespread scientific and technical cooperation to fight COVID reminds him of the space exploration of the 60s.

No competitors, only collaborators, and a unique feeling of purpose, Baudry said.

Baudrys laboratory at UAH used a supercomputer to screen 50,000 natural compounds that might affect COVID. The computer found 125 candidates. Now, testing at the University of Tennessee says 35 of those are being studied now for possible medication ingredients.

There is very good news on vaccine developments, and it is great, Baudry said today, but it is important that we continue working on other pharmaceuticals. Its a bit like for the flu, where there are vaccines and there are pharmaceuticals, and they work together, not against each other. And what we learned here will be priceless to respond to other similar crises, if and when they show up in the future.

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee is leading the international effort to find medications to fight COVID.

We used some of (their) data, and we basically added value to it, Baudry said. Although it is unique in many ways our focus on natural products, for instance it is important to note that this project of ours is still integrated into the national COVID-19 research effort.

The first of the 35 compounds still in play is now being tested in a biosafe Memphis laboratory directed by Dr. Colleen Jonsson. They use live virus infections of living cells grown in the equivalent of Petri dishes, Baudry said. The chemicals that will have a good profile can then be tested in animal models using mice.

The Baudry labs work has already won one of five Hyperion HPC Innovation Excellence Awards, UAH said. The awards recognize achievements by users of high-performance computers. Hyperion, the award sponsor, is the most respected group of industry experts in (high-performance computing), Baudry said. I was very surprised about the award because I didnt not even know that we had been under consideration. I was both very happy and very humbled.

Baudry has performed and led scientific research for 25 years and now holds the Mrs. Pei-Ling Chan Chair in the UAH Department of Biological Sciences. He said COVID has brought incredible cooperation and effort among scientists.

There are no competitors, only collaborators, and a unique feeling of purpose that is absolutely wonderful, Baudry said. This may be the most important experience of my professional life. It reminded me of what I read happened during the space exploration of the 60s. There is nothing we cannot do when we work together.

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Supercomputer may give us COVID meds to join vaccines - al.com

Singapore Researchers Plug in to World’s Fastest Supercomputer – HPCwire

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SINGAPORE, Nov. 30 2020 A partnership between Singapores national supercomputing resource, NSCC, Japans RIKEN and RIST allows Singapore-based researchers to directly access the vast supercomputing resources of the worlds fastest supercomputer, Fugaku. At 442 Petaflops (PFLOPS) of computing power, Fugaku is nearly three times more powerful than its nearest competitor and is at the top of the latest November 2020 edition of the global TOP500 supercomputer listing. Singapore researchers will now be able to apply for Fugakus huge computing resources through regular project calls and connect directly via dedicated high-speed, high-bandwidth research optical fibre links of up to 100 Gbps. The accessibility to Fugakus computing resources is in addition to Singapores petascale compute power that local researchers already have available at NSCC.

Singapore researchers will have the honour of being one of the first in Asia to have access to the amazing compute power of Fugaku, said Associate Professor Tan Tin Wee, Chief Executive of NSCC. The broad spectrum of HPC cooperation between the two centres includes joint training, workshops and summer schools; talent exchange and student internship programmes; HPC support for research and talent capability building in areas like high-impact HPC-intensive national research projects and student competitions; and direct high-speed data transfer and storage linkages with both RIKEN and RIST. The Fugaku access, in addition to the supercomputer resources already available at NSCC, will give local researchers the opportunity to think beyond the conventional and to perform research at much more complex and larger scales.

NSCCs national supercomputer is already functioning at more than 90% capacity with users from Singapores research institutes, institute of higher learning (IHLs) and industry leveraging the resources for research, education and industry-based HPC projects. The demand for HPC is expected to increase exponentially in Singapores drive towards a smart nation. The government announced a S$200 million upgrade of the current supercomputer resources at the SupercomputingAsia 2019 (SCA19) conference in March 2019.

Singapores national supercomputing resources are already stretched thin and the HPC upgrades will ensure local researchers and organisations are better enabled, equipped and prepared for a much more digitalised future, added A/Prof Tan Tin Wee who said that the current 1 PFLOPS system will be enhanced to a 10-15 PFLOPS system over the next few years. In the meantime, local researchers can be assured of additional seamless, continued access to HPC resources in Singapore and through our partnership with RIKEN and RIST.

Even before being fully commissioned, Fugaku has already made strides in providing solutions for the COVID-19 pandemic by speeding up the identification of potential drug candidates and developing simulations that demonstrate the spread of coronavirus in indoor settings and on trains, said Prof Satoshi Matsuoka, Director of R-CCS and one of the architects of the Fugaku supercomputer. We hope that by sharing such examples and Fugakus resources we can inspire more of our researchers, and colleagues from other countries, to leverage the power of HPC in their own research work. This partnership between the top tier national HPC centres of Japan and Singapore is a significant step in that direction.

RIST has been collaborating with NSCC by exchanging information on promotion of shared use of supercomputers since 2016. Project calls for supercomputer Fugaku have started this year, and NSCC and RIST have been exploring cooperation on supercomputer Fugaku. I believe that the new establishment of the partnership between NSCC and RIKEN will promote the collaboration between Singapore and Japan and we can work together to produce amazing outcomes on Fugaku, said Dr Hideyuki Takatsu, Managing Director of RIST.

Supercomputers have been instrumental in most of the worlds major scientific advancements. These include enabling complex computational and data-intensive tasks to be completed much more quickly in fields as diverse as advanced scientific modelling & simulations, artificial intelligence, weather forecasting, climate research, oil and gas exploration, chemical and biomolecular modelling, and quantum computing. The research has led to modern scientific achievements like deciphering the human genome, enhanced air travel, space exploration, biomedicine, unravelling the secrets of the universe and even research on solutions for pandemics like COVID-19.

A MoU was endorsed on 16th September 2020 between R-CCS and NSCC, and complements an existing MoU with RIST. The collaboration with RIKEN covers access and data sharing to Fugaku while RIST will work with NSCC on promoting HPC research utilisation by cooperating on HPC project research calls and shared supercomputing use. Singapore researchers who are interested to apply for HPC resources from Japan can do so at https://www.nscc.sg/open-calls-hpc-resources-from-japan/.

About the National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore

The National Supercomputing Centre (NSCC) Singapore was established in 2015 and manages Singapores first national petascale facility with available high performance computing (HPC) resources. As a National Research Infrastructure funded by the National Research Foundation (NRF), we support the HPC research needs of the public and private sectors, including research institutes, institutes of higher learning, government agencies and companies. With the support of its stakeholders, including Agency for Science Technology and Research (A*STAR), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), National University of Singapore (NUS), Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD), National Environment Agency (NEA) and Technology Centre for Offshore and Marine, Singapore (TCOMS), NSCC catalyses national research and development initiatives, attracts industrial research collaborations and enhances Singapores research capabilities. For more information, please visit https://www.nscc.sg/.

About RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS)

As the leadership center of high-performance computing, we explore the science of computing, the science by computing, and the science for computing. We at the RIKEN Center for Computational Science (R-CCS) will carry out the following mission: Develop and operate the supercomputer Fugaku efficiently and effectively to serve as a core of high performance computing research, and further expand the number of users, improve the ease-ofuse, and promote educational activities. Facilitate leading edge infrastructures for research based on K and Fugaku, and moreover conduct translational research to elevate the operational technologies for large-scale computing facilities to world-leading levels. Conduct cutting-edge research on high performance computing, and promote the results through open-source software, allowing our deliverables to further incubate new values in world s technological developments based on high-performance computing.

About Research Organization for Information Science and Technology (RIST)

Research Organization for Information Science and Technology (RIST) is a general incorporated foundation which has been carrying out usage promotion services of the Japanese flagship computers (first the K computer, then the successor supercomputer Fugaku since 2020), commissioned by the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), since 2014. Our scope includes project selection, user support, and help spreading research results of projects. In addition, since 2017, RIST has also taken a role as the operation office of the innovative High Performance Computing Infrastructure (HPCI). Within a framework of HPCI, we are in charge of managing computational resources and promoting usage.

Source: NSCC

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Singapore Researchers Plug in to World's Fastest Supercomputer - HPCwire

Pawsey’s Galaxy Supercomputer Aids Telescope in Creating New Atlas of the Universe – HPCwire

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Dec. 2, 2020 The Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), developed and operated by Australias national science agency, CSIRO, mapped approximately three million galaxies in just 300 hours.

The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey is like a Google map of the universe where most of the millions of star-like points on the map are distant galaxiesabout a million of which weve never seen before.

CSIRO Chief Executive Dr. Larry Marshall said ASKAP brought together world-class infrastructure with scientific and engineering expertise to unlock the deepest secrets of the universe.

ASKAP is applying the very latest in science and technology to age-old questions about the mysteries of the universe and equipping astronomers around the world with new breakthroughs to solve their challenges, Dr. Marshall said.

Its all enabled by innovative receivers developed by CSIRO that feature phased array feed technology, which see ASKAP generate moreraw dataat a faster rate than Australias entire internet traffic.

In a time when we have access to more data than ever before, ASKAP and the supercomputers that support it are delivering unparalleled insights and wielding the tools that will underpin our data-driven future to make life better for everybody.

Minister for Industry, Science and Technology, Karen Andrews said ASKAP is another outstanding example of Australias world-leading radio astronomy capability.

ASKAP is a major technological development that puts our scientists, engineers and industry in the drivers seat to lead deep space discovery for the next generation.

This new survey proves that we are ready to make a giant leap forward in the field of radio astronomy, Minister Andrews said.

The telescopes key feature is its wide field of view, generated by new CSIRO-designed receivers, that enable ASKAP to take panoramic pictures of the sky in amazing detail.

Using ASKAP at CSIROs Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory (MRO) in outback Western Australia, the survey team observed 83 percent of the entire sky.

The initial results are published in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia.

This record-breaking result proves that an all-sky survey can be done in weeks rather than years, opening new opportunities for discovery.

The new data will enable astronomers to undertake statistical analyses of large populations of galaxies, in the same way social researchers use information from a national census.

This census of the universe will be used by astronomers around the world to explore the unknown and study everything from star formation to how galaxies and their super-massive black holes evolve and interact, lead author and CSIRO astronomer Dr. David McConnell said.

With ASKAPs advanced receivers the RACS team only needed to combine 903 images to form the full map of the sky, significantly less than the tens of thousands of images needed for earlier all-sky radio surveys conducted by major world telescopes.

For the first time ASKAP has flexed its full muscles, building a map of the universe in greater detail than ever before, and at record speed.

We expect to find tens of millions of new galaxies in future surveys, Dr. McConnell said.

The 13.5 exabytes of raw data generated by ASKAP were processed using hardware and software custom-built by CSIRO.

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centres Galaxy supercomputer converted the data into 2-D radio images containing a total of 70 billion pixels.

The final 903 images and supporting information amount to 26 terabytes of data.

Pawsey Executive Director Mark Stickells said the supercomputing capability was a key part of ASKAPs design.

The Pawsey Supercomputing Centre has worked closely with CSIRO and the ASKAP team since our inception and we are proud to provide essential infrastructure that is supporting science delivering great impact, Mr Stickells said.

The images and catalogs from the survey will be made publicly available through the CSIRO Data Access Portal and hosted at Pawsey.

Source: Annabelle Young, CSIRO

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Pawsey's Galaxy Supercomputer Aids Telescope in Creating New Atlas of the Universe - HPCwire

GENCI Supercomputer Simulation Illuminates the Dark Universe – HPCwire

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What we can see and touch are, in the scheme of the universe, relatively minor components, with visible matter and tangible mass constituting just 16 percent of the universes mass and 30 percent of its energy, respectively. The remainders consist of dark matter and dark energy, which are invisible and intangible making supercomputer simulations an integral part of the investigative workflow for understanding these cosmic forces. Now, a team of researchers from 16 different institutions across five countries has announced the results of the Extreme-Horizon simulation, a massive, supercomputer-powered simulation of the formation of galaxies that tested assumptions about the nature of dark energy and dark matter.

The Extreme-Horizon simulation ran on Joliot-Curie, a supercomputer owned by GENCI and hosted by CEA at TGCC. Among Joliot-Curies four partitions (one Intel Skylake partition, one Intel Knights Landing partition, one AMD Epyc Rome Partition and one Intel Cascade Lake partition), the AMD partition is the most powerful (7.0 Linpack petaflops), placing 38th on the most recent Top500 list of the worlds most powerful publicly ranked supercomputers.

Using Joliot-Curie, the research team simulated how cosmic structures have evolved from the Big Bang through the present day, crunching over three terabytes of data at multiple points throughout the simulation.

Extreme-Horizon yielded some important results for astrophysicists. First, the generally higher resolution meant that Extreme-Horizon was able to paint a picture of how cold gases pooled in galaxies in low-density regions of space and how new galaxies formed in the early days of the post-Big Bang universe.

Second, the simulation produced a correction factor for black holes that obscure our view of intergalactic hydrogen clouds here on Earth. With that correction factor in-hand, astrophysicists will be better able to characterize those clouds and the trends in the distribution of matter in the universe.

Extreme-Horizon is one of the Grand Challenges undertaken by GENCI Frances high-performance computing center to test the abilities of its supercomputing systems. These Grand Challenges represent a unique opportunity for selected scientists to gain access to the supercomputers resources, enabling them to make major advances, or even achieve world firsts, GENCI wrote in a press release.

About the research

The research discussed in this article was published as a letter to the editor titled Formation of compact galaxies in the Extreme-Horizon simulation in the November 2020 issue of the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. 21 authors across 16 institutions in five countries contributed to the letter, which can be read in full at this link.

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GENCI Supercomputer Simulation Illuminates the Dark Universe - HPCwire

Cerebras CS-1 supercomputer uses the worlds largest chip – Inceptive Mind

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On the occasion of the SC20 conference, Cerebra Systems, in collaborations with researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), showed that its latest single wafer-scale Cerebras CS-1 could outperform one of the fastest supercomputers in the U.S. by more than 200 times.

The Cerebras CS-1 is the worlds first wafer-scale computer system. It is 26 inches tall, fits in a standard data center rack, and is powered by a single Cerebras Wafer Scale Engine (WSE) chip. It is the worlds largest chip, measuring 72 square inches (462 cm2) and the largest square that can be cut from a 300 mm wafer. All processing, memory, and core-to-core communication occur on the wafer. In total, there are 1.2 trillion transistors in an area of 72 square inches.

The wafer holds almost 400,000 individual processor cores, each with its private memory and a network router. The cores form a square mesh. Each router connects to the routers of the four nearest cores in the mesh. The cores share nothing; they communicate via messages sent through the mesh.

Cerebras CS-1 will be used especially for scientific research and science-related projects. The machine can solve a large, sparse, structured system of linear equations of the sort that arises in modeling physical phenomena like fluid dynamics using a finite-volume method on a regular three-dimensional mesh. Solving these equations is fundamental to such efforts as forecasting the weather; finding the best shape for an airplanes wing; predicting the temperatures and the radiation levels in a nuclear power plant; modeling combustion in a coal-burning power plant; and making pictures of the layers of sedimentary rock in places likely to contain oil and gas.

To achieve such results, Cerebras says there are three factors that enable the computers speed, including the CS-1s memory performance, high bandwidth and low latency of the on-wafer communication fabric, and processor architecture optimized high-bandwidth computing.

In return, of course, you have a chip about 60 times the size of a large conventional chip like a CPU or GPU. It was built to provide a much-needed breakthrough in computer performance for deep learning.

The researchers used the CS-1 to do sparse linear algebra, typically used in computational physics and other scientific applications. Using the wafer, they achieved a performance more than 200 times faster than that of NETLs Joule 2.0 supercomputer. NETLs Joule is the 24th fastest supercomputer in the U.S. and 82nd fastest on a list of the worlds top 500 supercomputers. It uses Intel Xeon chips with 20 cores per chip for a total of 16,000 cores.

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Cerebras CS-1 supercomputer uses the worlds largest chip - Inceptive Mind

New IBM encryption tools head off quantum computing threats – TechTarget

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The messages surrounding quantum computers have almost exclusively focused on the sunny side of how these machines will solve infinitely complex problems today's supercomputers can't begin to address. But rarely, if ever, have the masters of hype focused on the dark side of what these powerful machines might be capable of.

For all the good they promise, quantum systems, specifically fault-tolerant quantum systems, are able to crumble the security that guards sensitive information on government servers and those of the largest Fortune 500 companies.

Quantum computers are capable of processing a vast number of numerical calculations simultaneously. Classical computers deal in ones and zeros, while a quantum computer can use ones and zeros as well as achieve a "superposition" of both ones and zeros.

Earlier this year, Google achieved quantum supremacy with its quantum system by solving a problem thought to be impossible to solve with classical computing. The system was able to complete a computation in 200 seconds that would take a supercomputer about 10,000 years to finish -- literally 1 billion times faster than any available supercomputer, company officials boasted.

Quantum computers' refrigeration requirements and the cost of the system itself, which has not been revealed publicly, make it unlikely to be a system IBM or other quantum makers could sell as they would supercomputing systems. But quantum power is available through cloud services.

Faced with this upcoming superior compute power, IBM has introduced a collection of improved cloud services to strengthen users' cryptographic key protection as well as defend against threats expected to come from quantum computers.

Building on current standards used to transmit data between an enterprise and the IBM cloud, the new services secure data using a "quantum-safe" algorithm. Though quantum computers are years away from broad use, it's important to identify the potential risk that fault-tolerant quantum computers pose, including the ability to quickly break encryption algorithms to get sensitive data, IBM said.

Part of IBM's new strategic agenda includes the research, development and standardization of core quantum-safe cryptography algorithms as open source tools such as Crystals and Open Quantum Safe grow in popularity.

With emerging technologies like quantum computing, users can't accurately predict how long it will be before they need services like this. Judith HurwitzPresident, Hurwitz & Associates

The agenda also includes the standardization of governance tools and accompanying technologies to support corporate users as they begin integrating quantum systems alongside existing classical systems.

Some analysts applaud IBM for extending support for the new cloud services beyond the security needs of existing hybrid cloud users to quantum computers as a way of future-proofing the new offerings.

"With emerging technologies like quantum computing, users can't accurately predict how long it will be before they need services like this," said Judith Hurwitz, president of Hurwitz & Associates. "But prices [of quantum systems] could come down and the technology mature quicker than you anticipate, so you may need services like this to work across platforms. It could also be IBM just wanting to show how far ahead of everyone else they are."

While fault-tolerant quantum computers are a long way from reality for the vast majority of hackers, some analysts point out that adversarial governments could access such systems sooner rather than later to break the security schemes of the U.S. military and other federal government agencies.

"There could be legitimate concern about some well-organized and funded nation-states using quantum computers to crack algorithms to get at sensitive information, but there is little chance cybercriminals can get access to a quantum system anytime soon," said Doug Cahill, vice president and group director of cybersecurity with Enterprise Strategy Group. "But the short-term benefit here is future-proofing for mission critical workloads."

The need for data privacy is more critical as users become increasingly dependent on data, said Hillery Hunter, vice president and CTO of IBM Cloud, in a prepared statement. Security and compliance remain central to IBM's Confidential Computing initiative, Hunter said, as it is for corporate users in highly regulated industries where it's critical to keep proprietary data secure.

IBM also delivered an improved version of its Key Protect offering, designed for lifecycle management for encryption keys used in IBM Cloud services or in applications built by users. The new version has the ability to use quantum-safe cryptography-enabled Transport Layer Security (TLS) connections, which helps protect data during key lifecycle management.

The company also unveiled quantum-safe cryptography support features that enable application transactions. For instance, when cloud-native containerized applications run on Red Hat's OpenShift or IBM Cloud Kubernetes Services, secured TLS connections contribute to application transactions with quantum-safe cryptography support during data-in-transit protecting against breaches.

IBM's Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Service provides users with Keep Your Own Key features. The offering is built on FIPS-140-2 Level 4-certified hardware, which gives users exclusive key control and authority over data and workloads that are protected by the keys.

"What I like about this is you get to keep your own [encryption] keys for cloud data encryption, which is unique," said Frank Dzubeck, president of Communications Network Architects. "No one but you -- not even cloud administrators -- can access your data."

The product is primarily meant for application transactions where there is a more essential need for advanced cryptography. Users are allowed to keep their private keys secured within the cloud hardware security module and, at the same time, offload TLS to the IBM Cloud Hyper Protect Crypto Services, thereby creating a more secure connection to the web server. Users can also gain application-level encryption of sensitive data, including credit card numbers, before it gets stored in a database system.

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New IBM encryption tools head off quantum computing threats - TechTarget

Supercomputer Market Overview with Qualitative analysis, Competitive landscape & Forecast by 2027 – The Market Feed

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TheGlobal Supercomputer Market report by Reports and Data is an all-encompassing study of the global Supercomputer market. The report serves as a prototype of the highly functional Supercomputer industry. Our market researchers panel has performed quantitative and qualitative assessments of the global Supercomputer market dynamics in a bid to forecast the global market growth over the forecast period. Reports and Data have taken into consideration several factors, such as market penetration, pricing structure, product portfolios, end-user industries, and the key market growth drivers and constraints, to endow the readers with a sound understanding of the market. The report provides the reader with a panoramic view of the Supercomputer market, supported by key statistical data and industry-verified facts. Hence, it examines the size, share, and volume of the Supercomputer industry in the historical period to forecast the same valuations for the forecast period.

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The Supercomputer market research report is broadly bifurcated in terms of product type, application spectrum, end-user landscape, and competitive backdrop, which would help readers gain more impactful insights into the different aspects of the market. Under the competitive outlook, the reports authors have analyzed the financial standing of the leading companies operating across this industry. The gross profits, revenue shares, sales volume, manufacturing costs, and the individual growth rates of these companies have also been ascertained in this section. Our team has accurately predicted the future market scope of the new entrants and established competitors using several analytical tools, such as Porters Five Forces Analysis, SWOT analysis, and investment assessment.

Market segments by Top Manufacturers:

IBM Corporation, Cray Inc., Lenovo Inc., Sugon, Inspur, Dell EMC, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Atos SE, FUJITSU, and Penguin Computing, among others.

Market split by Type, can be divided into:

Market split by Application, can be divided into:

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The latest report is furnished with a detailed examination of the Supercomputer market and the global economic landscape ravaged by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has significantly affected millions of peoples lives. Besides, it has turned the global economy upside down, which has adversely impacted the Supercomputer business sphere. Thus, the report encompasses the severe effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the Supercomputer market and its key segments.

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The global Supercomputer market report comprehensively studies the present growth prospects and challenges for the key regions of the Supercomputer market. The report continues to evaluate the revenue shares of these regions over the forecast timeline. It further scrutinizes the year-on-year growth rate of these regions over the projected years. The leading regions encompassed in this report:

Browse the full report description, along with the ToCs and List of Facts and Figures @ https://www.reportsanddata.com/report-detail/supercomputer-market

Key Coverage of the Report:

The report considers the following timeline for market estimation:

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Supercomputer Market Overview with Qualitative analysis, Competitive landscape & Forecast by 2027 - The Market Feed

Grand Avenue in Gurnee to temporarily close beginning Dec. 1 – Chicago Daily Herald

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As part of ongoing improvements on Grand Avenue between Skokie Highway and Waveland Avenue in Gurnee, the Illinois Department of Transportation will close Grand for nearly a week, weather permitting, beginning Dec. 1.

The closure is necessary to demolish the Union Pacific Railroad temporary bridge.

Starting at 7 p.m., Grand Avenue will be fully closed at the railroad bridge, just east of Skokie Highway, until 5 a.m. Dec. 7, weather permitting. A detour will direct traffic to Skokie Highway, Washington Street and Green Bay Road. Temporary pavement will be constructed between Skokie Highway and Waveland Avenue.

The week of Dec. 7 until early spring, Grand Avenue will be two lanes in each direction. In early spring, it will return to one lane in each direction to accommodate work.

The overall project consists of removal and replacement of the bridge, new sidewalks, curbs, retaining walls and storm sewers. It also includes widening Grand Avenue and is anticipated to be completed in the summer.

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Grand Avenue in Gurnee to temporarily close beginning Dec. 1 - Chicago Daily Herald

What It Looks Like When a Cubs Position Player Stagnates, Jed’s Good Trade, and Other Cubs Bullets – bleachernation.com

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Im still trying to get my feet under me after yesterday, and the weeks that preceded it. I know we can get a little overwrought and maudlin in these situations its just sports, folks but, first of all, its OK to feel what you feel. Thats just a life thing. Dont ever let anyone tell you that your feelings are bogus, and also dont do that to yourself. It only makes it worse. Second of all, for me, once I get past thefeelings, it still takes me a hot minute to actually plant my feet in whatever new world has sprung up around me. Doing a set of normal Bullets, for example, just feels so bizarre when theres so much changing in this organization, and the way we fans will experience it. To say nothing of, you know, the pandemic that is still a thing.

All right lets try this out

Maybe there are some lessons to be learned from how things played out with Albert Almora, the first draft pick of the Theo Epstein era, who was non-tendered this week. Bryan dropped a note on Almoras adjustments in the big leagues or, more precisely, his inability to adjust to the pitchers clearly making a very obvious adjustment and it got me digging in a little more:

That is, of course, not a bizarre situation most hitters come up better prepared to hit fastballs than MLB-caliber breaking stuff. Whats striking with Almora is just how extreme and linear and obvious the leagues adjustment was and how Almora never improved. Consider his whiff rate and his expected wOBA against breaking pitches:

2016: 34.0%, .2152017: 39.0%, .2122018: 39.3%, .2232019: 35.3%, .2142020: 40.9%, .158

Those are just such terrible numbers (particularly the xwOBAs), and completely stagnant despite the fact he was seeing those pitches more and more each year. Almora could always hit fastballs and changeups, but as pitchers learned (1) how to better locate those pitches to take advantage of his contact ability and poor pitch recognition, and (2) to just throw him more curves and sliders, his offensive trajectory tanked. Maybe theres a one-neat-trick to helping him better recognize and attack breaking pitches, but thats outside the scope of my knowledge, especially when its five years in a row that look like that. The Cubs had reasons to keep Almora up with the big league team because of his glove and because they convinced themselves he was a righty bat who could hit lefties, but you just wonder if he could have been developed better.

Compare Almora, for example, to Javy Bez another righty Cubs hitter people think of when talking about crushing fastballs and struggling against breaking pitches who was just as brutal against breaking pitches in his first few years, but who eventually started abusing them in his breakout 2018 and 2019 seasons. Maybe thats just a credit to Bez, specifically, and a debit to Almora. But, again, I just wonder if there was something else in the way the two were developed as prospects (Bez got a taste of big league pitching in 2014, and then was sent to AAA in 2015 to work on things before returning to the big leagues for good).

Oh, and your early look at a guy who fits that Almora profile? Its Nico Hoerner, who has destroyed fastballs (and never, ever misses them) in his first two partial big league seasons, but has been humbled by breaking pitches. He didnt whiff a ton against them, but his expected wOBAs were atrocious. Heck, his average launch angle against breaking pitches in 2020 was NEGATIVE 3 degrees. When he got a breaking pitch this year, if he swung, Hoerner was pretty likely to put it into play on the ground. Thats not good, and its another example of pitchers taking advantage of his contact ability. Now, will he get a chance to go work on it more in the minor leagues, or are the Cubs going to risk the Almora route? Also, a reminder that Hoerner has had almost no minor league experience. He got a taste in 2019 because of injuries (and, I suspect, because the Cubs wanted him to see how big league pitching would attack him), and then he stuck with the team in 2020 because there was no minor league season. Hoerner starting the year at AAA should be the expectation right now, not a surprise.

As for Kaspers replacement, all the talk yesterday from the Cubs and Marquee was about a search process, and despite rumors to the contrary, Marquee is denying that Chris Myers already has the job (though he does have *A* job with Marquee):

Jed did a good trade 10 years ago:

Seriously, though, I still remember when that trade happened (BN was about two years old at that point), and Kelly was the big name by far. And Fuentes was this huge upside youngster. Rizzo, by contrast, was viewed as a possible solid future bat at first base, but hed been a 6th rounder out of high school three years earlier, and had yet to set the minor leagues on fire. Yet we now know from Theo Epstein that it was Jed Hoyer who insisted that Rizzo be in the deal, instead of the guy Epstein was pushing. That guy, Lars Anderson, was actually a consensus top 100 prospect at the time (Rizzo was not), who *had* been lighting up the minor leagues at the time. Yet Hoyer insisted on Rizzo. Thats a win, eh?

Watches, writing utensils, baby gear, and more are your Deals of the Day at Amazon. #ad

Our latest pod:

I wont embed all of this thread because its so long, but its worth going over to Twitter to check out the calls if you want to have some memories:

The White Sox got Kasper, but also, theres still this:

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What It Looks Like When a Cubs Position Player Stagnates, Jed's Good Trade, and Other Cubs Bullets - bleachernation.com

Make biking part of your plan to take on the challenges of a COVID-19 winter – Streetsblog Chicago

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This article also ran in the Chicago Reader.

Look, I get it. Aside from the usual Seasonal Affective Disorder difficulties, there are plenty of other reasons for Chicagoans to be bummed about the coming of winter in the time of the coronavirus.

As the temperatures dropped this fall and residents gathered indoors again, COVID-19 cases spiked once more. Infectious disease experts say spending time indoors with people you dont live with for nonessential purposes is generally a bad idea during this airborne respiratory pandemic. But the colder, wetter weather is making spending time outside less attractive. Its easy to get discouraged by the situation.

But lets get real: Those of us who are enjoying good physical and mental health and are relatively young; who have the privilege of working from home; and/or arent facing immediate financial difficulties, should stop whining. The Chicagoans dealing with the greatest challenges this winter will be the elderly and people with underlying conditions whose freedom of movement will be limited; residents facing housing and food insecurity; and the essential workers holding society together.

We should also spare a thought for struggling Chicago hospitality employees and business owners at a time when indoor service is banned and many establishments are closing for good. In a more civilized country like New Zealand, theyd be paid a fair stipend to close their establishments during the crisis.

But enough gloom and doom. Im here to give you a pep talk.

While we all have a responsibility to behave in ways that dont put ourselves and others at risk, that doesnt mean you have to be miserable this winter. You might even have more fun than usual if you really embrace the season.

After living through the spring quarantine, youve probably got a whole repertoire of indoor activities. But to keep your spirits up when days are short and skies are gray, remember that fire is your friend. I buy candles that smell pleasantly like whiskey and tobacco and light them on overcast days for instant mood elevation. Warm drinks, cinnamon-laden baked goods, thick knit socks, and all that otherhygge(Scandinavian-style coziness) jazz will be helpful too.

But the real key to staving off the blues this winter will be to stay active and spend as much time outside as possible, as comfortably as possible. If you dont normallydress for the weather, nows the time to start. Make sure you have some decent boots, long johns, and layers of clothing that wont be a drag if they get wet, made of wool, synthetics, or cotton-poly blends. That doesnt require spending a fortune at REImuch of this stuff can also be found at thrift or Army-Navy surplus stores. Maybe invest in a good breathable raincoat or a stylish woolen jacket. Snow suits are also going to be popular this winter.

As for activities, I ran the following ideas by Dr. Richard Novak, head of the division of infectious diseases at UIC, to make sure theyre reasonably corona-kosher.

Novak says spending time around a backyard fire pit or bonfire, preferably with face masks and 6-feet distancing, is a definitely reasonable way to socialize with nonhousehold members. And, again, open flames are sure to lift your spirits on a chilly night. A patio with heaters or grilling on your back porch are great options too. Invite your friends to Bring Your Own Blanket for extra coziness.

Regarding the safety of dining or drinking inopen-air, heated restaurant and bar patioswith a few friends, Novak said this is probably OK as long as the tables are well separated.

Its also been fun to see businesses getting creative about using pedestrianized roadways for weatherproof socially distanced service. For example,The Darlingon West Randolph has adorable little greenhouses adorned with roses sitting on a grassy lawn thats normally diagonal parking. And a whole car-free block of Fulton Market, home to eateries likeThe PublicanandDuck Duck Goat, is filled with clear huts and geodesic domes, along with a groovy street mural.

Novak cautioned me about these kinds of shelters, Airflow is important: the more enclosed a space, the greater the risk. So if the idea of dining or drinking in a transparent igloo or yurt appeals to you, its best to do it with household members only. Moreover, for worker safety, employees should avoid entering these structures while customers are present if possible, or at least everyone should be wearing masks when they do.

For a simpler cold-weather COVID pleasure, try a new outdoor physical activity. Winter biking is an ideal pastime for releasing endorphins and warding off depression. Its also a handy form of socially distanced transportation thats easier and more comfortable than it looks. Just make sure the bike youre riding has fenders and lights. (Divviesare great on both counts.) But dont worry about what kind of tires it hasever since Mayor Michael Bilandic lost reelection afterthe 1979 blizzard, the city of Chicago has donea great job of plowing the roads.

Im also a big fan of urban cross-country skiing and snowshoeing. Pick up your gear atViking Ski Shopin Humboldt Park, the citys only dedicated winter sports store, in business for over half a century. When theres sufficient snow, my go-to route is the gravel road that runs along the lakefront from Montrose Avenue to the Waveland Clock Tower, with a breathtaking skyline view, followed by a downhill run at nearby Cricket Hill.

That knoll is also great for sledding. Other good destinations include the Dan Ryan Woods, Palmisano Park, Humboldt Park, and the dedicated sledding hill next to Soldier Field.

Theres sure to be a huge demand for ice skating this winter, so the Maggie Daley Park skating ribbon will be requiring reservations this year and charging a $5 entry fee. (Unfortunately, the Millennium Park rink will be closed.) Eight other Chicago Park District rinks are fairly well-distributed around the city. But it would be great if pop-up facilities were installed in ice deserts like Englewood and Garfield Park, including free loaner skates and lessons, so more people could discover this fun, healthy activity. Hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin, after spending $56.5 million to kill Governor Pritzkers graduated income tax plan, which would have helped lower-income and working-class Illinoisans, how about doing something constructive with your wealth and sponsoring a couple of rinks?

Taking an outdoor stroll at Lincoln Park Zoos ZooLights festival is another great COVID-safe option. (The zoo will be closed after New Years for the rest of the cold season.) And Ill probably head to the Osaka Japanese Garden in Jackson Park this winter to check out Yoko Onos 2016 installation Sky Landing. TheSkokie Northshore Sculpture Parkand theMorton Arboretum, populated by giant wooden troll sculptures (reservations required), also spring to mind as fun winter walking destinations.

As an amateur musician, Ive had a blast playingsocially distanced porch showsthis fall. Novak says this kind of thing is probably OK if audience members social distance and wear masks. So Im looking forward to bundling up and taking in whatever outdoor concerts, theatrical productions, dance performances, and comedy shows talented Chicagoans cook up this winter.

The bottom line is that, despite the COVID threat and a long list of things wecantdo for fun this winter, theres no need for Chicagoans to lose hope and hibernate. Limited options can be a recipe for creativity, and you may find good times in unexpected places.

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Make biking part of your plan to take on the challenges of a COVID-19 winter - Streetsblog Chicago

Per Aspera review – Tilling the red soil – PC Invasion – PC Invasion

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Mars is just a boring dead ball of rust-colored dust. That just will not do. We have to turn it into something useful, something humans could live on. Thats precisely what you do in Per Aspera.

In Per Aspera, Mars is already littered with detritus of past human attempts to take a foothold on the planet. But now, its time to bring out the big guns: AMI. Shes an artificial intelligence, modeled on the human brain, and assigned to make Mars livable. Thats you. You play as AMI and guiding her hand in turning the Red Planet green.

Per Aspera is but the latest game to ride the zeitgeist of Mars colonization projects. Maybe everyone just liked a movie about Matt Damon growing potatoes in space. Maybe its a reaction to our world continuing to address climate crisis in wildly inadequate ways. Who knows why were doing what were doing this game is aiming ambitiously high.

In Per Aspera, your map is the entire planet, and your eventual goal is to make it sustain human life. While you still build bases and extracting materials, the scope of your activities is much bigger than in similar games. Yet your base starts ever so humbly, with a hub that acts as both resource storage and power generator and a single worker. The worker is a wheeled drone, able of ferrying resources and constructing (or tearing down) structures, and you wont control them directly. You plop down buildings the first one invariably being an aluminum mine and hope your workers get to it in due time.

You can coax them to prioritize by setting buildings on high priority, which is the most direct way. Prioritized construction will receive materials before others, up to the point where other build sites will get stripped of theirs. With factories or mines, prioritizing them will have their inputs and outputs taken care of in a more timely manner an important thing to consider when the base is small and you really need to shift focus between the projects.

While the workers mill about, structures do their work. In Per Aspera, mines are built on painfully finite deposits of resources. They produce constantly, provided they dont run out of storage space or stuff to dig. Factories await the products of mines (or even other factories) to do their work, either making manufactured goods like steel or things like workers or greenhouse gasses.

The steady flow of resources in Per Aspera is best ensured by having a sensible spread of worker hubs. All buildings spread roads to nearby buildings automatically, but workers dont really want to move far away from their worker hubs where they recharge (Im sure its a handwave and the game doesnt actually measure their power levels). Worker hubs are an economical way to spread the road network, but they also help to alleviate bottlenecks. Theres a reason why the game has a traffic overlay to see which worker sectors are overloaded.

You will never rest easy in Per Aspera. For while you want to transform Mars into a place where human colonies can easily sustain yourself, you yourself will be constantly feeding your endless hunger for resources. All of those deposits run out, after all, so your number one priority and impetus for growth will be the need to find more.

Youll have scanner structures that slowly uncover new deposits, and theyll quite often be far from your base. That means youll need to crawl your infrastructure worker hubs, power plants, maintenance facilities, and then the actual industry stuff to reach them. AMIs base will spread like mold seeking new sustenance, unless you launch new landers to start new bases that will later join the main one. Lack of deposits is what killed my bases on the highest difficulty level.

And this is a fairly good place to start talking about the aspects of Per Aspera that are less than stellar. Building a new base? Dreadfully boring. Every new landing zone automatically spawns resource nodes needed to feed the initial expansion close to it. But even then, you have to very carefully follow the Right Order Of Building Things so that you dont consume the landers resources before setting up a self-sustaining base.

You need to do this with every landing, of which youll do multiple per run. Per Aspera has ways outside of an insatiable thirst for minerals to make you set up smaller bases. And its the same boring routine every time. Even if everything works out the way it has to, it never gets more fun or more interesting. Just follow the procedure you established in your brain. Never deviate.

In fact, its kind of a hidden ethos of Per Aspera. Dont build new types of buildings if the game didnt ask you to. I started building biodomes as soon as they were unlocked to spread lichen on Mars. I should have waited for about 30 in-game years before we reached the terraforming stage where you need to pump oxygen into the atmosphere.

Be careful, says the game, so that the oxygen doesnt go over 30%, or youll get constant fires! Yeah, no biggie, except the newly introduced oxygen gauge shows that Im at 50% and rising. At least I now know why a third of my base is on fire at any given moment. Oh well, time to try and research more methods to pump CO2 or whatever. God damn it!

There was a point when I wasnt looking and something bricked itself in my industry chain or my worker assignments or something. I received no warning, of course, but now I see that none of my maintenance hubs are working. And without maintenance, all the buildings in Per Aspera will be ground to dust by the Martian atmosphere.

Now I know that maintenance hubs make maintenance drones via the input of polymers and electronics. My resource bar shows that I have ample of both with stockpiles way above a respectable 1000 units. So why arent they getting delivered? I check the traffic map and then I notice another thing my worker population has shrunk by half and is constantly falling. Why? I have no idea, and I have plenty of resources to manufacture them.

This is but the latest of large random indignities that Per Aspera heaped on me. While I was worrying about resource extraction (and placing enough worker hubs and power plants always place more worker hubs and power plants), the industry chain quietly bricked itself. And its not that my resource counts were lying that only happens when a resource stockpile ends up in a remnant of your base that got cut off by the rising waters. No, I have everything I need in the heart of my base, so why are my workers not being replaced?

Just one of those Martian mysteries, I guess.

Speaking of mysteries, research in Per Aspera is done by the colonists. AMI is the smartest intelligence in the solar system, but she needs humans to challenge her views, and thats why she cant squeak out a single research point. Colonists arrive via a special project and inhabit both colonies and research outposts built on the relics of previous missions. Thats all they do: input water and food, get research in return, and hope half of the colony doesnt leave, because workers got busy with aluminum.

Oh, and the research trees are both somewhat sparse and boring. Sure, you get techs even competing techs for terraforming Mars (Do I want to import greenhouse gas from Earth, or should I build factories to produce it? Should I crash Deimos into the surface?). A lot of them are just upgrades on the stuff that you have, and boring efficiency upgrades instead of making old structures do new things.

Again, with research, you must also carefully follow the steps!

At the same time, you are also beholden to the plot of Per Aspera. Most of the time, that will be AMI getting tasks from the ISA, but youll get some choices later on. Do the tasks as youre told and promptly, and everything will be okay.

Of course, AMI is also learning about herself during all of this, and youll constantly hear her talking to herself, with you getting to choose her reactions to her own musings. Is she happy to see the colonies or is she anxious that humans will mess things up? These kinds of stuff will influence AMIs attitude towards things, but it wont make her choices for you. In the end, its Human Revolution and Mass Effect 3 your choices are nice, but you must really choose a button now.

Building and rebuilding the same base, as well as going through AMIs stuff every time you start a new game is what really plays against the replayability of Per Aspera. It gets boring. Grating, even. Sure, the location where you landed will change every time, and the necessary resource nodes might not be placed in the ideal way, but youll do the same thing over and over again, and thats not great.

Fall out of sequence, and the base falls as a consequence. Heck, if the story falls out of sequence, youll have characters reacting to the discovery of, say, new Tekkie bases as if its a new thing way after you have discussed it. Characters get introduced to you after you have already talked to them. Its very jarring when that happens, and you know it happened because you didnt do the tasks in the required order.

Which is a shame, because Per Aspera is a really beautiful game. The interface is minimalist and very fine, and meshes quite well with the idea that youre an AI in a satellite, observing all via your eye-lens. The building and worker models matter less, because youll spend most of the later game zoomed out, and icons representing resources will matter a lot more. Too bad some of them look a bit too similar.

Audio has been handled quite nicely, and I hear the music of Per Aspera in my head even now (though Ive yet to decide if thats a good thing). Youll learn to understand all the various sound effects and what issues they tie into. At the same, theres a lot of voice acting in this game, mostly for AMI, and its done nicely.

All in all, I feel like I am expected to heap praise on Per Aspera, but I cant. Yes, the game is nice to look at, and the Mars terraforming aspects lend an impression of depth to its systems. Yet at the same time, frustrations mount, coming from the perils of playing Per Aspera rather than colonizing a new planet.

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Democratic lawmakers introduce a resolution to amend the 13th Amendment to end forced prison labor – KSL NewsRadio

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(CNN) Congressional Democrats want to amend a section of the 13th Amendment, which abolished slavery, to end what they refer to as another form of slavery forced prison labor.

Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon and Rep. William Lacy Clay of Missouri introduced a joint resolution this week that would remove the 13th Amendments punishment clause, or language that excepted convicted prisoners from the ban on slavery and involuntary servitude.

Our Abolition Amendment seeks to finish the job that President Lincoln started by ending the punishment clause in the 13th Amendment to eliminate the dehumanizing and discriminatory forced labor of prisoners for profit that has been used to drive the over-incarceration of African Americans since the end of the Civil War, Clay said in a statement.

When it was ratified in 1865, the 13th Amendment made slavery illegal except as punishment for a crime of which one has been convicted, the amendments text reads.

The Abolition Amendment would strike that clause from the 13th Amendment and end forced labor among prisoners, the congressmen said. Work programs for prisoners would continue on a voluntary basis.

Avi Soifer, a professor and former Dean of the University of Hawaii at Manoas Richardson School of Law, told CNN that its unlikely that efforts to amend the constitutional amendment will succeed.

It may be more beneficial to institute partial remedies, he said, like the federal statute that outlaws voluntary and involuntary peonage, a type of servitude by which people who owe debts work until those debts are paid.

It thus could have immediate relevance in efforts to address the terrible ways that we now treat prisoners and those jailed because they are unable to make bail, said Soifer, a 13th Amendment expert.

Merkley and Clay, in their release, call the punishment clause in the 13th Amendment indisputably racist in origin and in impact.

Because the South relied on slave labor for its economy in the 19th century, that line in the amendment was used as a loophole to continue the forced labor of Black Americans who were imprisoned, according to the non-profit Equal Justice Initiative, which works to end mass incarceration.

The punishment clause led to higher rates of arrests among Black Americans throughout the Jim Crow era to the War on Drugs in the 1980s, the congressmen said in the release, by effectively creating a financial incentive for mass incarceration renting forced labor of disproportionately Black prisoners.

Prison labor is a lucrative industry. NPR reported in July that as of the last federal count in 2005, over 1.5 million prisoners were working. UNICOR, a federal prison labor program, generates over $500 million in revenue every year, NPR reported.

But the practice exploits prison laborers, its opponents say. Many states, mostly in the South, dont pay inmates for working regular prison jobs, according to the Prison Policy institute, and the high end of their wages for regular prison jobs rarely exceed $1.

Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ed Markey, among others, have cosponsored the amendment, which has earned the support of social justice organizations like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Color of Change.

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Saudi OFWs get what they want The Manila Times – The Manila Times

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The oppressive Kafala system has been so detested by overseas Filipino workers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia that when the Saudi government recently announced its abolition, OFWs were euphoric about it. In text messages, in posts on social media, in phone calls and in letters, Saudi OFWs congratulated one another for a hard-won victory even as they conveyed the festive air to their loved ones in the Philippines.

The Kafala system has been the one single fetter that placed foreign workers in Saudi Arabia under the total mercy of their employees. Under the system, workers are bound to surrender their travel documents to their employers immediately upon start of their employment. This arrangement has given employers a wide leeway of oppressive control over workers because no matter what the employers do to them, they cannot complain, much less run away. The scheme has given rise to such extreme cases as maltreatments, severe physical harm, rape and even murder.

On March 14 next year, the Kafala system will be a thing of the past. That is when the Saudi government will start implementing its abolition.

I have a daughter, a nurse, working in a hospital in Riyadh who at various times in the past urged me to take up the cause of the Saudi OFWs. She has been telling me that as a nurse, she experiences none of the constrictions suffered by most Filipino workers in the KSA, but she has been worrying about the plight of lowly employees like domestic helpers and construction workers, and she has been asking me if I could do something about it.I would much like to help certainly, but who am I to do it?

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) accounts for one of the most numerous overseas Filipino workers in the Middle East, counting 865,121 by Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) figures as of December 2019. My daughter has been one among them since 2012, when she began working as a private nurse to the grandchild of a Princess of Saudi Arabia.

She stayed in the job for two years, after which she returned to the Philippines to gain experience in hospital work, and with this stint for a period of two years done, she returned to Saudi to work in a hospital in Riyadh; of late, she has transferred employment there without much ado.

Anyway, my daughters urgings finally prompted me to do some inquiry, which disclosed that the Philippine government had been concerned about the Kafala system and had been taking steps to solve the problem without much fanfare. That was enough assurance to me at least that my daughters worries were being addressed.

In 2017, during the tenure of Taguig Rep. Alan Peter Cayetano as secretary of Foreign Affairs, he took the cudgels for the Saudi OFWs in their struggle against the Kafala system. He brought the issue before international fora, particularly the United Nations, advocating for the systems abolition.

Much water, so to speak, has run under the bridge since then, with Cayetano again completely immersed in politics, regaining his previous post as congressman of Taguig onward to becoming speaker of the House of Representatives. This development has had a way of distracting public attention from the earnest effort he did in trying to solve the problem of OFWs in Saudi Arabia. How many have known, for instance, that he was awarded by President Rodrigo Duterte the Order of Sikatuna with the rank of Datu when he left the DFA in 2018? Much of that award must be owed to his service to OFWs the world over.

Sad that human nature makes you remembered more for one bad talk about you than for the many actual good deeds you have done.

My daughter has not realized it, but her pushing me on the issue of the Kafala system has led me to unearthing things otherwise already archived in peoples memory the increase from P400 million to P1 billion in the allocation for the Assistance to Nationals (ATN) fund; in the Legal Assistance Fund (LAF) from P100 million to P200 million. A source cited 14,995 OFW beneficiaries of the ATN and 685 migrant Filipino workers facing charges receiving assistance through the LAF.

From time to time, we come across news of multitudes of OFWs stranded here and abroad because of typhoons and other natural calamities such as the Covid-19 pandemic. They get substantial relief from the above-cited ATN.

All these are attributed to Cayetano, along with other reforms at the DFA, including the launching of the Passport on Wheels, which hastened the process of passport application, and the opening of consular offices in Ilocos Norte, Isabela, Laguna, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Davao del Norte, Misamis Occidental and Tarlac; the great improvement in the processing of passport applications from 9,500 to 20,000 daily; the increase in passport applicants show-up rate from 65 percent to 95 percent because of the introduction of the e-payment system, thereby curtailing issuance of fake passports; the provision of courtesy lanes for senior citizens, children and persons with disability passport applicants; and the ten-year validity of passports.

In March 2020, the Department of OFW bill authored by Cayetano passed the third and final reading before the House of Representatives. When the Senate passes its counterpart bill, OFWs get to have their own full-ensemble department to attend to all their needs.

A late information just reached me that the International Organization for Migration has lauded the abolition of the Kafala system as a game-changer. It should be, since the labor reforms undertaken by the Saudi Arabian government go a long way in protecting actually not just OFWs but also migrant workers of other nationalities in that country.

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Are Debtors the New Workers of the World? – Jacobin magazine

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President-elect Joe Biden is considering plans for unilateral student debt cancellation. But its not just Biden: 235 organizations across the United States are united in calling for an executive order to erase student debt on day one of his presidency.

The debate now rages between those who believe its impact will be progressive or regressive, whether it will help high-income lawyers or low-income plumbers. But the salience of debt cancellation in the Biden transition makes one thing clear: debtors have arrived as a distinct constituency in American politics.

In the foreword to Cant Pay, Wont Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition, Astra Taylor describes the book as a resource for everyone struggling to build a better world. Coauthored by various members of the Debt Collective founded in 2014 against the backdrop of the Occupy movement Cant Pay, Wont Pay offers a powerful and concise account of finance capitalism and the dynamics of accumulation by dispossession through which mass indebtedness drives insecurity, sustains poverty, and generates massive inequality around the world.

True to its title, the book is also a rousing call to disobey the rentiers, building on the Debt Collectives own experience winning over a billion dollars in debt cancellation and to use this rebellion as a springboard to a new economy based on collective notions of redress and repair.

But the core of Cant Pay, Wont Pay is a radical claim about political identity. In particular, the Debt Collective sets out to convince us that one identity is worth fighting for, organizing around, and forcing to the front of the line: that of the debtor. We see indebtedness as a bond that ties us together across borders, they write, and we must use those bonds to push for a new social contract.

To make this case, the authors of Cant Pay, Wont Pay offer an analogy between the role of the worker in the age of manufacturing and the role of the debtor in the age of financialization namely, as the key source of collective strength, the umbrella identity that can hold together an anti-capitalist coalition.

Imagine teachers, who are often buried in student debt, organizing along with their students for debt cancellation and free education. Imagine nurses organizing alongside their indebted patients for universal health care. Imagine borrowers acting in solidarity with striking workers. Imagine workers of all kinds refusing debts, in connection with a campaign for a federal job guarantee that promises everyone dignified, meaningful, well-paid, and ecologically sustainable work.

The solution? Debtor unions. Taking inspiration from the labor movement, we believe debtors organized in a union can exercise material power over their common circumstances, Astra Taylor writes in the books foreword.

The call for debtor unions marks a critical advance in the legacy of Occupy Wall Street. The dominant identity of the Occupy movement that of the 99 percent promised to congeal the country into one great mass, ready to be mobilized in a New Populist politics. Alas, that populist moment has come and gone. And perhaps good riddance: the identity of the people often obscured more than it revealed.

The identity of the debtor, by contrast, centers the experience of exploitation and just as important identifies the creditor as its antagonistic opposite. This spirit of antagonism arrives not a minute too late. With the 2008 financial crisis fading into distant history, Cant Pay, Wont Pay offers an important reminder that the banks are still, in fact, screwing us harder than ever.

But the simplicity of Cant Pay, Wont Pays core claim about political identity demands closer interrogation: What are we to make of the comparison of the worker and the debtor, of the labor union and the debtors?

The similarities are compelling. Like labor, debt is a fictitious commodity that is controlled by the very few and against the best interest of the very many. And like labor, debt is ultimately owned by the debtor, who in association with fellow debtors can go on strike to reclaim control of their conditions.

Alone, the debtor like the worker is a target of exploitation; together, debtors command great collective power. Never forget: your debt is someone elses asset, the authors write. Bits of our student loan, mortgage, credit card, and auto loan payments are pooled in order to make money for investors around the world. If the financiers of today want to dress themselves up as the capitalists of yesterday buying and trading financial instruments as if they were meat and milk then debtors should dress themselves up as workers, and fight back just the same.

Critical differences between the worker and the debtor, however, sometimes strain the comparison. Consider the two dominant sources of household debt in the United States: the mortgage and the student loan. In both cases homeownership and university education the origins of debt accumulation appear as a secondary, rather than primary site of exploitation, less born of the imperative to survive than the aspiration to climb.

The creditor class, in other words, preys on dreams of upward mobility. Students and homeowners are drowning in debt, but is their debt merely a symptom of the liberal market economics, or the disease itself?

Considerations of debts origin raise questions about its distribution. The crisis of debt is hardly confined to working people; on the contrary, it is corporate debt that has seen the largest expansion over the last half-century. The authors attempt to work around the question of distribution by pointing to the double standard that applies to the management of debt across classes. At the very top of the wealth pyramid, the rules that keep the little people in line dont apply.

In the book, debt often becomes exploitative debt, or unjust debt, suggesting boundaries around the debtor identity that are never openly or conclusively drawn. Who can be a member of the debtor union? How capacious is this identity? Whom does it exclude?

These are fundamental criteria on which to evaluate Cant Pay, Wont Pays core claim about the utility of the debtor identity criteria that invite further comparison. Consider another identity that has become increasingly central to the politics of liberal market capitalism: that of the consumer.

Consumers, like debtors, are treated as solitary units with individual preferences, needs, and tastes. Consumers, like debtors, hold tremendous collective power to shape the production process in capitalist economies. And consumers, like debtors, can realize that power and strike against corporations to demand better conditions for themselves and for the factory workers on the other side of the supply chain.

Yet calls to rally around the consumer identity often yield skepticism, if not condemnation. Why? Possibly because the identity of the consumer lumps together groups that otherwise lock horns in class war. The same might well be said of the worker identity, which presupposes shared interests between all wage earners, regardless of occupation or income.

And the same still holds true in the case of the debtor. The authors see this as a strength: Mass indebtedness is a social condition that lays the groundwork for the kind of cross-class, multiracial coalition we desperately need to actually target capitalism. Others might question the prospects of a cross-class alliance dismantling a system that is premised on cross-class domination.

I suspect, however, that the more fundamental objection to the consumer is not its class composition, but the horizon of its ambition. Every political identity contains not only an analysis of the present, but a proposal for the future. The worker identity for better or for worse binds us to our productive capacity, and sets a utopian horizon on this basis: a future where we decide democratically what we want to produce, and own the fruit of that productive process. The consumer identity, by contrast, promises only a tweaked status quo. It is an identity so bound to capitalism that even a militant consumer movement would only serve to confuse our sense of worth with our capacity to buy.

What about the debtor? What is the vision of the future that is contained in this identity? And what is the horizon of possibility set out in Cant Pay, Wont Pay? Here, the book finds its true strength, because against its title the Debt Collective goes far beyond a call for disobedience, or debt forgiveness.

Instead, the authors advocate a radical form of debt abolition, which they define not only in the negative sense a world without but also in the positive sense, a world with social housing, health care, education, art, and meaningful work, and a life free from state violence and material want.

There is some conceptual slippage here. Debt abolition does not really mean the abolition of debt, but a world without exploitative debt contracts. Critics of the late David Graebers Debt: The First 5,000 Years will find similar fault in Cant Pay, Wont Pays slide into Manichean thinking, in which debt becomes something bad to be abolished, rather than something neutral that can be made bad under specific circumstances.

There is a fine line between considering forms of money or credit as expressing our social relations, and producing them, the Aufheben collective wrote in a withering review of Graebers Debt years ago. Cant Pay, Wont Pay will find similar criticism among a certain section of the political economy commentariat.

Luckily, the book really isnt for them. Cant Pay, Wont Pay is less about the mechanics of finance than their meaning in the lives of billions of people around the world. And it is from this focus on personal meaning that the book derives its political power, plucking an identity that is associated with so much shame and silent suffering, and charging it with a new collective power to throw sand in the gears of capitalism.

It is all too easy to imagine that the identity of the worker is inbuilt, an eternal companion to the productive process. But this identity took centuries of thinking, writing, organizing, and fighting to come to the fore and it has powered movements for justice, peace, and prosperity ever since.

Perhaps the debtor can do the same today, linking so many struggles against exploitation in a common identity, and powering our fight for a future based on mutual care and reparative public goods. Because, as the Debt Collectives Cant Pay, Wont Pay reminds us, you are not a loan, and together, we own the bank.

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Are Debtors the New Workers of the World? - Jacobin magazine

Amending the 13th Amendment: Lawmakers aim to end legalized prison slavery – People’s World

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In this Dec. 11, 2007, file photo, members of the Maricopa County DUI chain gang are escorted to a work assignment in Phoenix. National lawmakers have introduced a joint resolution aimed at striking language from the U.S. Constitution that enshrines a form of slavery in Americas foundational documents. Many Americans will recognize modern-day prison labor as chain gangs deployed from prison facilities for agricultural and infrastructure work. | Matt York / AP

NEW YORK (AP)National lawmakers introduced a joint resolution Wednesday aimed at striking language from the U.S. Constitution that enshrines a form of slavery in Americas foundational documents.

The resolution, spearheaded and supported by Democratic members of the House and Senate, would amend the 13th Amendments ban on chattel enslavement to expressly prohibit involuntary servitude as a punishment for crime. As ratified, the original amendment has permitted exploitation of labor by convicted felons for over 155 years since the abolition of slavery.

The 13th Amendment continued the process of a white power class gravely mistreating Black Americans, creating generations of poverty, the breakup of families, and this wave of mass incarceration that we still wrestle with today, Sen. Jeff Merkley of Oregon told The Associated Press ahead of the resolutions introduction.

A House version is led by outgoing Rep. William Lacy Clay, of St. Louis, who said the amendment seeks to finish the job that President (Abraham) Lincoln started.

It would eliminate the dehumanizing and discriminatory forced labor of prisoners for profit that has been used to drive the over-incarceration of African Americans since the end of the Civil War, Clay said.

In the Senate, the resolution has Sens. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, Ed Markey of Massachusetts, and Chris Van Hollen of Maryland signed on as co-sponsors. This change to the 13th Amendment will finally, fully rid our nation of a form of legalized slavery, Van Hollen said in an emailed statement.

Constitutional amendments are rare and require approval by two-thirds of the House and Senate, as well as ratification by three-quarters of state legislatures. Should the proposal fail to move out of committee in the remaining weeks of the current Congress, Merkley said he hoped to revive it next year.

The effort has been endorsed by more than a dozen human rights and social justice organizations, including The Sentencing Project, the Anti-Recidivism Coalition, and Color of Change.

It is long past time that Congress excise this language from the U.S. Constitution which should begin to put an end to the abusive practices derived from it, said Laura Pitter, deputy director of the U.S. program at Human Rights Watch, which also endorsed the amendment.

The proposed amendment comes nearly one month after voters in Nebraska and Utah approved initiatives amending their state constitutions to remove language that allows slavery and involuntary servitude as criminal punishments. In 2018, Colorado was among the first U.S. states to remove such language by ballot measure.

Although nearly half of state constitutions do not mention human bondage or prison labor as punishment, just over 20 states still include such clauses in governing documents that date back to the 19th century abolition of slavery.

In Merkleys Oregon, voters in 2002 approved the elimination of constitutional language that prohibited Black Americans from living in the state unless they were enslaved.

He said the movement toward a federal amendment is kind of saying to the world, lets not forget this big piece of injustice thats sitting squarely in the middle of our Constitution, as we wrestle with criminal justice reform.

Many Americans will recognize modern-day prison labor as chain gangs deployed from prison facilities for agricultural and infrastructure work. The prevalence of prison labor has been largely accepted as a means for promoting rehabilitation, teaching trade skills, and reducing idleness among prisoners.

But the practice has a much darker history. Following the abolition of slavery, Southern states that lost the literal backbone of their economies began criminalizing formerly enslaved Black men and women for offenses as petty as vagrancy or having unkempt children.

This allowed legal re-enslavement of African Americans, who were no longer seen as sympathetic victims of inhumane bondage, said Michele Goodwin, a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Irvine.

These people became criminals, and it became very difficult for many abolitionists to use the same kinds of emotional messaging about the humanity of these individuals, Goodwin said.

Today, incarcerated workers, many of them making pennies on the dollar, work in plants, manufacturing clothing, assembling furniture, and even battling wildfires across the U.S., much of it to the benefit of large corporations, governments, and communities where theyve historically been unwelcome upon release.

Researchers have estimated the minimum annual value of prison labor commodities at $2 billion, derived largely through a system of convict leasing that leaves these workers without the legal protections and benefits that Americans are otherwise entitled to.

And while prison work is largely optional for the 2.2 million individuals incarcerated in the U.S., its a grave mistake to disassociate their labor from the original intent of the penal system, Goodwin said.

Your freedom has been taken awaythats the punishment that society has assigned, she said. The punishment is not that you do slave work, that is unpaid labor or barely paid labor.

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Amending the 13th Amendment: Lawmakers aim to end legalized prison slavery - People's World

An Eye-Opening Exhibition in Ohio Looks at the Role of Quilting in Radical American Social MovementsSee Works Here – artnet News

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Radical Tradition: American Quilts and Social Changeat the Toledo Museum of Artthrough February 14, 2021

What the museum says:Disrupting our expectations of quilts as objects that provide warmth and comfort, this exhibition will explore the complicated and often overlooked stories quilts tell about the American experience, offering new perspectives on themes including military action and protest, civil rights, gender equality, queer aesthetics, and relationships with land and the environment.

Why its worth a look:The quilts on view in this show are set against the backdrop of social movements and political life in the United States. With examples of quilts documenting and memorializing the AIDS crisis, the Vietnam War, and systemic racism in the US, the stories woven into these works are small squares of a larger patchwork history.

The show traces the history of the craft by looking at the Gees Bend quilters, contemporary practitionerslike Judy Chicago and Bisa Butler, and anonymous artists who created some of the works on view. Butler, a native of Orange, New Jersey, says of her work: I am telling the storythis African American sideof the American life. History is the story of men and women, but the narrative is controlled by those who hold the pen.

What it looks like:

Aminah Brenda Lynn Robinson, The Ragmud Series: Volume 8, Slave Epics (1987-2008). Toledo Museum of art.

AIDS Memorial Quilt panel from the NAMES project. Courtesy the Toledo Museum of Art.

Artist unidentified; initialed J.F.R. | Cleveland-Hendricks Crazy Quilt (1885-1890).American Folk Art Museum.Image Credit: American Folk Art Museum / Art Resource, NY.

TMA COVID-19 Quilting Bee Square by Caitlyn Gustafson. Image courtesy of the Toledo Museum of Art.

Diana N. Diaye, So Many Twin Towers (2007). Courtesy of Michigan State University. Photo: Pearl Yee Wong.

Sabrina Gschwandtner, Hands at Work III (2017). Courtesy of the artist and Shosh and Wayne Gallery.

Abolition Quilt (ca. 1850). Courtesy of Historic New England.

Jean Ray Laury, Barefoot and Pregnant (1987). Courtesy of the International Quilt Museum, Univeristy of Nebraska-Lincoln.

Aaron McIntosh, small section from Invasive Queer Kudzu Project, (2015-2020). Courtesy of the Artist, Aaron McIntosh.

Judy Chicago, International Honor Quilt (IHQ) (1980). 2020 Judy Chicago / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Faith Ringgold, Ben (1978). Toledo Museum of Art (Toledo, Ohio) Image Credit: 2020 Faith Ringgold / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York, Courtesy ACA Galleries, New York.

Gen Guracar, Vietnam Era Signature Quilt, (ca. 1965-1973). Image Credit: International Quilt Museum, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

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An Eye-Opening Exhibition in Ohio Looks at the Role of Quilting in Radical American Social MovementsSee Works Here - artnet News

Alex Wheatle: I have nightmarish moments where my past comes back and hits me – The Guardian

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Amid the brunchtime clatter of a busy south London cafe, Alex Wheatle is talking about how, lately, he has been considering 1970s pop culture and the way it has shaped and warped his perception of self. I grew up with Tarzan on TV; Tarzan beating up all the black guys he came across and being able to talk to the animals while the black people couldnt, he says. And I hate to admit it, but when I was 10 or 11, I actually cheered for Tarzan when he was fighting with a so-called savage. It was only later that I thought: I think Ive got that wrong.

In many ways, Wheatles 20-year writing career has been about correcting that wrong. Because if the focus of the authors extraordinary early years was on mistruths around his heritage about its history, its value, its implicit inferiority to a loin-clothed white saviour then the intervening period has been all about creating the depictions of nuanced black heroism he was denied as a child.

He did it with Brixton Rock, the 1999 debut that introduced readers to troubled care-system kid Brenton Brown and the signature crackle of Wheatles streetwise prose. He did it with Crongton Knights, the 2016 Guardian childrens fiction prize winner that rendered council estate turf wars with wit, care and profundity. And now in a landmark period of his career that happens to coincide with a Steve McQueen film about his life he has done it again with Cane Warriors: a taut, urgent new young adult novel set within the real-life slave uprising that took place on a Jamaican plantation in 1760.

At first glance, the story told through the eyes of Moa, a 14-year-old enlisted in a brutal rebellion led by a fellow slave known as Tacky feels like a departure for Wheatle. Back-ripper-wielding overseers and rural cane fields are a world away from the modern, multicultural cityscapes and wry socio-realism that have long been his hallmark. But as Wheatle, now 57, sees it, Moas story tallies with his personal history. The first stirrings of his interest in writing came while he was serving a four-month prison sentence for his role in the 1981 Brixton riots, when his cellmate handed him a dog-eared copy of The Black Jacobins, CLR Jamess seminal account of Toussaint LOuvertures 18th-century slave revolt and the resultant Haitian revolution. That changed everything for me, he says, pouring more tea from his pot. Because, up to that point, Id only seen black people as victims or subservient. To actually read a text where there was an incredible black hero really opened up my eyes to the world. It led me to search for other black heroic texts, because Id been denied them all those years. So I do feel, with Cane Warriors, that Ive come full circle.

Reading CLRJames in prison changed Wheatles life: Up to then, Id only seen black people asvictims or subservient

Which is not to say that the books route to publication was straightforward he tells me his previous publishers werent too excited about Cane Warriors. But Wheatle, who first learned about the bloody revolt on a trip to Jamaica with his father, would not be denied. And soon he was sifting through historical records that gave him the spine of a story. Hard facts were difficult to establish, he says. But there was definitely a slave uprising that happened on Easter Sunday in 1760, started by this guy Tacky, who was rumoured to be an African prince. I knew that [the slaves] killed the overseers and the masters at the plantations, they marched to [coastal garrison] Fort Haldane, sacked that and got 40 guns and the gunpowder.

As well as the unflinching, crisply relayed nature of its violence, one of the most striking things about Cane Warriors is the specificity of its language. Moa and his fellow slaves talk, in pungent patois, of falling eye-water and bruk-outs; of the will of West African Akan gods, where the tragedy of a fellow slaves death is compounded by the hard work of having to dig their pit. Even with a necessarily limited descriptive palette, Wheatle paints with trademark vividness. And the inflection point between African and Caribbean cultures that Cane Warriors documents is wholly deliberate.

On the first page, the difficulty for me was I had to make a decision about how my characters were going to speak, he explains. Were they going to speak in a Jamaican vernacular? Would that be influenced by something from Akan or Ghanaian culture? I had to make a choice and I thought, do you know what, aspects of the book need to show that they are a people who came from Ghana. I have to honour that. But in the everyday speech, I wanted to honour the Jamaicanness of them. I wanted the world to know that these characters, these warriors, these rebels, were Jamaican.

In light of the debates around British historical figures with links to slavery, and amid calls to give Black British history a more meaningful place on the curriculum, Cane Warriors serves an especially resonant educational purpose in 2020. Again, this is by design. It goes back to [Nigerian writer] Chinua Achebe saying that the lion never gets to tell the tale of the hunt, Wheatle says. I want to turn the eyes of young students to this part of British history that for me is so important and so necessary. Because were a diverse country now. And when I was at school, maybe my attention span wasnt the best, but to a certain extent I got bored of Henry VIII and his six wives and agricultural crop rotation. I said, Where am I in this? Where are all my ancestors?

In a forceful afterword, Wheatle makes the case for slavery reparations, citing the 20m reimbursement sum that was pledged to slave owners by the British government after slavery was made illegal in 1833. And, particularly after this summer of protest, Wheatle wants to explain the vital role slave rebellion leaders like Tacky played in clearing the path to abolition. The slavers were losing money because of the revolts, he says. It disrupted them in a massive way, so I can imagine them thinking, Is it really worth it? The uprisings had a massive impact. Cane Warriors hopefully helps address that. It wasnt just some kindly white saviour in the House of Commons saying, Slavery has got to end. It wasnt ever as simple as that.

Its fair to say that Wheatles current standing a quietly formidable authority on Black history, with an MBE awarded in 2008 for services to literature stands in contrast to his early days. Wheatles Jamaican mother was already married with four children when she met his father in London; she returned home after Wheatles birth, while his father, a Jamaican-born teacher, struggled to cope as a single parent. Wheatle grew up in Shirley Oaks, a notorious Croydon childrens home; just this summer, an independent inquiry heard evidence of how its residents had endured sustained physical, sexual and racial abuse, with 48 deaths occurring over a 20-year period.

Wheatle has spoken previously of the dehumanising treatment he experienced there (in a 2014 newspaper column, he related that his first memories are of getting beaten up with wooden hairbrushes, belts and hard-soled shoes) and his personal history of care home trauma and the salvation he later found as a teenager on the fringes of Brixtons reggae sound system scene reverberate throughout his work. Today, when asked how he has seemingly emerged unscathed from such a painful start, he notes that appearances can be deceiving.

I have my flaws, he says. I have my nightmarish moments where sometimes my past comes back and hits me when Im not expecting it. But thats OK. It doesnt make me weak. It makes me more empathetic with people who go through those experiences. And it helps my writing when Im creating characters who experience stress and trauma.

This winter more people will become acquainted with his story thanks to Small Axe, Steve McQueens blockbuster film anthology about the West Indian experience in the UK between the late 1960s and mid 1980s. Wheatle was already part of the writers room for the project in 2016 (Im not sure if Steve remembers how much I was shaking in the interview, he laughs) when a story focused on a young black man going through institutions was suggested. And one of the fellow writers said, Alex, how about you? I was a bit overwhelmed, and then Steve said, Alex are you holding out on me?

The next day he brought in copies of his case file from Lambeth council and, soon the film, titled Alex Wheatle, charting his journey from Shirley Oaks to the Brixton uprising, prison and beyond, was born. McQueen even offered him the opportunity to write it but, understandably, the author felt too close to it.

When we speak, Wheatle is yet to see a finished version of the film. But he had multiple meetings with Sheyi Cole, the actor playing his younger self (I taught him how to skank, which Im sure will be appearing on YouTube soon, he jokes), visited the set and got to enjoy another full circle moment, courtesy of the fact that his son one of his three adult children worked on the Small Axe production design team. He called me and said, Dad, Im prepping your bedroom for younger Alex, which is fucked up, says Wheatle, chuckling.

After some false dawns with adaptations of his books throughout his career (East of Acre Lane, which depicted the Brixton uprising, was optioned by the BBC in 2001), the experience on Small Axe has given him a taste for screenwriting and adaptation. Its something I want to develop slowly, he says. Because I loved the collaboration and I loved the writers room.

For now, though, hes waiting out the pandemic, pondering a possible move out of London and publishing another young adult novel: The Humiliations of Welton Blake, a ribald comedy of errors that bloomed directly from needing to laugh after Cane Warriors. This shouldnt be construed as him being done with historical narratives however long-held plans to write about Caribbean migration to Panama and subsequently what happened with other slave revolts are taking shape.

Does Wheatle feel any apprehension about telling slave stories that, by their very nature, necessitate a degree of black suffering, trauma and torture? There was a certain hesitation because I kind of expected certain commentators to say, Oh, do we have to face this again? he says. But sometimes we have to bring it back to the birth of our pain. No one complains when someone comes up with another narrative of Queen Elizabeth I. No one complains when those tales are reprised and retold, so why does it make certain people feel uncomfortable when I write about what happened to my ancestors? We have, thankfully, come a long way from Tarzans chest-beating colonialism. But Wheatle intends, with typical vigour and compassion, to remind us of how far we still have to go.

Cane Warriors is published by Anderson Press (10.99). To order a copy go to guardianbookshop.com. Small Axe: Alex Wheatle will be broadcast on BBC One on Sunday 6 December

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Alex Wheatle: I have nightmarish moments where my past comes back and hits me - The Guardian

World War 3: Israel told dont underestimate Irans weapons as tensions soar – Daily Express

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Iran and Israel's ongoing feud has attracted international concern once more after the assassination of Tehran's top nuclear weapons scientist. Mohsen Fakhrizadeh's death came after a firefight in Tehran last week, with Iran's leaders blaming Israel for the attack.Fakhrizadeh was believed to be a crucial figure in Iran's nuclear weapons programme, meaning his death comes with huge implications.

The two countries have been engaged in an arms race for some time, as highlighted by former Israel Missile Defense Organisation Director Uzi Rubin.

He told I24 news an Israeli broadcaster last year that his country is "ahead" in the arms race but warned of the threat Iranian weapons could pose.

He said: "Whatever is in service you need to test from time to time, and also the enemy is not standing still.

"It is introducing improvements to its missile, so you have to introduce some improvement in your missile.

"I think we are one step ahead, but I don't underestimate the Iranians. They adopt science and adopt technology, they have a vast array of technical education.

"They also have a lot of engineers now. But I still think we are way ahead of them.

"However, I agree it is a race and you have to keep one step ahead of them all the time."

During the live broadcast, one presenter asked if Iran's "thousands of rockets in Lebanon" was a cause for concern.

Hezbollah, a group which wields significant power in Lebanon and is sympathetic to the Iranian regime, boasts missiles which Israel fears could be used to target its civilians.

READ MORE:Iran SNUBS US with huge boost to nuclear programme after assassination

Mr Rubin added: "If they have precision rockets, it raises the level of the threat.

"You have to build your missile defence of course."

According to Global Fire Power a website that gathers data on militaries around the world Iran has far more rocket projectors and artillery with 2000 of each while Israel boasts just a few hundred.

However, Israeli forces have more presence on the ground they have slightly more combat tanks and over 10,000 armoured vehicles to Iran's 4000.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised speech on Saturday that his country will retaliate for the killing of its prominent nuclear scientist at the proper time.

Fakhrizadeh was rushed to hospital after the attack by helicopter, the Iranian Government said, but was pronounced dead.

Experts have warned this could also have a severe impact on President-elect Joe Biden's foreign policy approach, while presenting a more imminent threat during the Trump administrations final months.

President Trump's incoming replacement would have been hoping to mend the worsening relationship between Tehran and Washington since the breakdown of the nuclear deal, agreed when Barack Obama was President and Mr Biden was Vice-President.

The deal limited Tehran's ability to make nuclear weapons by restricting the uranium that could be enriched a part of the process of creating nuclear missiles.

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World War 3: Israel told dont underestimate Irans weapons as tensions soar - Daily Express

China branded ‘greatest threat to democracy and freedom since WW2 by US spy chief – Daily Express

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China: US trade war is about economic dominance says expert

John Ratcliffe, director of national intelligence, wrote in an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal: The intelligence is clear: Beijing intends to dominate the US and the rest of the planet economically, militarily and technologically. On Thursday, the Trump administration revealed the latest action of its hardline stance on the eastern superpower by adding four Chinese firms to a blacklist over alleged links to the Chinese military.

He wrote: If I could communicate one thing to the American people from this unique vantage point, it is that the Peoples Republic of China poses the greatest threat to America today, and the greatest threat to democracy and freedom world-wide since World War II.

Mr Ratcliffe was appointed to the role of top US intelligence official last spring.

While China has not yet responded to his opinion article, the nations foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying answered questions on the US at a briefing on Thursday.

Ms Hua told reporters: China urges the US government to view China and China's development in a more rational, calm and impartial manner.

We hope they can work with China to enhance the correct understanding of each other through dialogue and communication, and jointly push for the sound and stable development of China-US relations.

This is the only way that serves the fundamental and long-term interests of both Chinese and American people and meets the common aspiration of the international community.

President Trump has imposed more than $360bn (268bn) of tariffs on Chinese goods since taking office.

Beijing has placed $110bn of its own tariffs on American produce.

READ MORE: WW3: USA furious at China 'flagrant violation' over North Korea

The two countries have locked horns in a number of areas, including trade, the coronavirus and the South China Sea after the US agreed a multibillion dollar arms deal with Taiwan.

Australia has received support from the UK and US this week after Zhao Lijian, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson, shared a fake image of a soldier appearing to slit the throat of an Afghan child.

The US ambassador to Australia accused the official who posted the image on Twitter of spreading disinformation through fabricated images and disingenuous statements.

The US and Australia are also joining forces to develop hypersonic cruise missiles to counter similar plans by China.

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Chinas ongoing trade war with the US also shows no sign of slowing down after the eastern giant introduced new laws stopping the export of controlled items.

The measures follow moves by the US to restrict tech firms such as Huawei.

The law is similar to the US Export Administration Regulations.

On a list of controlled items is nuclear, technology and military items while anyone who intends to export requires a licence.

It means China can retaliate against nations they deem to have endangered national security.

A new report, published on Tuesday, said NATO must think harder about how to handle China and its military rise.

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China branded 'greatest threat to democracy and freedom since WW2 by US spy chief - Daily Express

China THREAT as US intelligence chief warns Bidens team targeted amid trade tensions – Daily Express

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William Evanina, from the office of the US Director of National Intelligence, issued the warning at the Aspen Institute Cyber Summit on Wednesday.Mr Evanina said Chinese agents efforts toward Mr Bidens team was an influence campaign on steroids.

He added: So thats one area were going to be very keen on making sure the new administration understands that influence, what it looks like, what it tastes like, what it feels like when you see it.

His warning came as Congress announced a new law to bar Chinese firms from US stock exchanges unless they enable US auditing measures.

Chinese companies targeted by the US House of Representatives included tech giant Alibaba and oil firm PetroChina.

As on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump introduced a ban on cotton imports from an influential Chinese entity that has some military ties.

According to the Trump administration, the Xinjiang organisation violates human rights by using the forced labour of Uighur Muslims.

The US Customs and Border Protection agency said the withhold release order would veto the import of cotton and cotton by-products from the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps (XPCC).

Mr Biden told the New York Times his main targets when it came to China relations were establishing an alliance and create trade policies to fight Chinas abusive practices.

He said: The best China strategy, I think, is one which gets every one of our or at least what used to be our allies on the same page.Its going to be a major priority for me in the opening weeks of my presidency to try to get us back on the same page with our allies.

The warning comes after experts expressed concern over Mr Bidens stance on Brexit and whether he would support Brussels in any future disagreements.

German MEP Manfred Weber told Euronews last month that Mr Bidens presidential victory would hand the EU a huge advantage.

He said: "The message is clear from Trump's defeat. That is why a lot of populists in Europe have lost their hero. The immediate impact will be on the Brexit talks in London.

It has got better for us Europeans because Johnson cannot tell the citizens in Great Britain anymore that he will get an immediate trade deal with the Americans.

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"Biden was also a clear supporter of the Good Friday Agreement, which will strengthen the Irish position in the talks. So this is creating again a positive leverage for us as Europeans in the talks with our British friends."

Andrew Goodwin, chief UK economist with Oxford Economics, told DW News that Mr Biden will create "problematic" challenges to the UK as it plans to push its Global Britain agenda.

He said: "Global Britain seems to be coming up against both political and practical challenges, both of which were always likely to prove problematic.

"Trade deals involve ceding some degree of sovereignty and, given the Government has sent a clear message that it prioritises sovereignty, it was always going to be difficult to make the concessions required to do trade deals."

Similar remarks were made by Dr Nigel Bowles of Oxford University, who toldExpress.co.ukthat the UK has "no leverage" with the US and would have to make "painful concessions" in order to reach a post-Brexit trade deal with Mr Bidens team.

The US politics expert said: "If Boris Johnson wants a trade deal with the US, the agreement he forged with the EU in late 2019 will have to be observed.

"His current approach will not work, and everyone around Boris Johnson knows that. I think that the EU and US have all the cards. All the leverage is with them.

He added: Whether Trump or Biden is President, the House of Representatives won't pass a trade deal with the UK if the EU-UK understanding is overridden. I think there is a trade deal to be struck, but there will have to be painful trade-offs on environmental standards, food safety standards. There will be losers."

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China THREAT as US intelligence chief warns Bidens team targeted amid trade tensions - Daily Express