HHS spokesperson Michael Caputo pushed COVID-19 conspiracy theories and praised white supremacists in unearthed podcast – Media Matters for America

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In a podcast unearthed by Media Matters, Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Michael Caputo spread baseless conspiracy theories about the coronavirus, praised white supremacist Milo Yiannopoulos, and said Democrats are counting on COVID-19 fatalities in order to win the election against President Donald Trump.

On his now-defunct show Still Standing with Michael Caputo, the current HHS spokesperson pushed the debunked conspiracy theory that the coronavirus was invented in a bioweapons facility in Wuhan, used racist terms to refer to the virus, and said Democrats are calculating how long they can actually keep the coronavirus concern ball in the air in order to win the election. He also praised various white supremacist and alt-right personalities, including neo-Nazi Milo Yiannopoulos and Pizzagate conspiracy theorists and alt-right Twitter personalities Mike Cernovich and Jack Posobiec. On his podcast, Caputo also pushed anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about billionaire progressive donor George Soros paying anti-Trump protesters and other conspiracy theories about Democrats, the media, and the Mueller investigation.

CNN previously reported on racist and sexist now-deleted tweets from Caputo.

Caputo was thrust into the national spotlight when then-special counsel Robert Mueller looked into his involvement in the Trump 2016 campaign during his investigation. He spread conspiracy theories about the investigation on Twitter, and in the clips unearthed by Media Matters, he said hes not right after going through the Mueller investigation and can barely breathe because of his anger.

A longtime friend of Stone, Caputo was at the forefront of the campaign to get Stone a presidential pardon. HHS Secretary Alex Azar appointed Caputo to his position as an HHS spokesperson in April 2020, putting a vocal defender of President Donald Trump in a key messaging role, according to CNN.

Two of the most important agencies under HHS tasked with fighting the coronavirus, the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, have recently come under fire for the perception that the apolitical agencies are being influenced by political pressure from the Trump White House. Controversial FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn told the HHS spokesman his position is well deserved during an interview on the podcast that Caputo currently hosts for the department.

Caputo at present represents a department that includes science-driven research and regulatory bodies, all of which require trust from the public at large. His history as a Trump loyalist, an ally of white supremacists, and a conspiracy theory enthusiast all raise questions as to whether the HHS has appropriate personnel in place to respond to the global pandemic.

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HHS spokesperson Michael Caputo pushed COVID-19 conspiracy theories and praised white supremacists in unearthed podcast - Media Matters for America

Labour and owner must become one if sugar industry to thrive – Stabroek News

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Dear Editor,

No doubt about it. The March general elections were decided, not by those who were dancing to the fanfare and future expectations of oil, but by those former sugar workers whose children could not go to school because there was simply no food. I know. I visited a few former sugar estate communities, specifically at Wales and Enterprise, and saw more hungry children than I ever saw, even during the destabilization decade of the sixties.

Regardless of political ideologies and discriminating administrations, no one should go hungry in a country which is principally agricultural and rural in economic setting and presently witnessing structural transition to an oil economy and an encouraging degree of commercialization of agriculture.

Yet poverty and hunger have been institutional characteristics of an enclave sugar economy that co-existed within, and greatly influenced the national economy, as well as the politics and sociology of the whole society not just the past five years or forty, but for hundreds of years.

Which therefore begs the reasonable, rational mind to think in the line of two major transformations: one ideological, the other structural. Afterall, reasonable, rational people do not govern and do the same thing over and over and over for a hundred years and expect different results as apparently all past administrations have been doing the past forty years. Reasonable, rational, and I daresay, nationalistic leaders with futuristic ideas embark on structural, institutional, and infrastructural development changes and projects (like the subway system of New York City) that will last for hundreds of years.

In term of ideology transformation, it must be noted that there exists, and has always existed ever since sugar was introduced in the third world, a serious antagonistic relationship between capital and labour, simply put, between ownership and workers. Ownership has on countless occasions through history pulled sugar out of disastrous bankruptcies by sheer exploitation of labour as expressed by slavery, indentured-neo-slavery, and current wage slavery. The mere shifting from slavery to indentureship was one such major instance as proven by Dr. Eric Williams in his doctoral thesis, later published in a book as, Capitalism and Slavery; and again by Hugh Tinker in his book, (Indentureship) A New System of Slavery; and even by me, in a Labor Economics paper at UG in 1978.

Labour, on the other hand, even sometimes aided and abetted by their respectable trade unions, have sabotaged the industrys productive and productivity capacities in a multiplicity of ways.

Hence, that antagonistic relationship definitely needs to change to a more favourable one, one in which there is mutual positive contributions to each other, and to the enclave industry, and to the national economy by both labour and owner.

Labour and owner must become one. Since the industry is principally agricultural, and land is the main form of capital, then the labour must belong to the land and the land must belong to labour. Which reminds me of a saying by Chief Seattle that I saw inscribed on a plaque in a museum in Kansas: The land does not belong to the people, the people belong to the land, and only when this is so can there be harmony between the two. The old, dirty, primitive savage even then, taught us that development is not only about landscapes, as is commonly perceived, but more about the transformation of lives. And concomitantly further, that economic development is about restructuring and transformation of the means, forces, and relations of production.

Oh God, when are we going to learn from those who did not attend our universities?

This is the first prerequisite to any agrarian reforms, and the utilization of agriculture to launch the economic development of any country. No country has ever jumped straight into industrialization by bypassing agriculture. It is and was imbecilic of wealthy oil-producing countries to have thought so, (and I say unapologetically, also the PNC and their mass of jump-up supporters). Wisely, most of these oil barons have corrected themselves the past thirty years or so after they realized that they had oceans of money but no food. Too bad Venezuela and Nigeria did not learn this lesson.

For fear of boring the reader, I will pause here, and having dealt somewhat on the ideological aspect of this proposal, I will continue soon on the second aspect of the economics of agriculture, a subject of which I am more comfortable.

Suffice the reader to know that I will write about Wales. I know every nook and cranny about Wales. I know the food productive capabilities of Wales. Wales was the fruit basket of the Caribbean; I was born in Wales and wrote a book about Wales that won the Guyana Prize for Literature.

But I now have on my economist cap.

Yours faithfully,

Gokarran Sukhdeo

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Labour and owner must become one if sugar industry to thrive - Stabroek News

Academics should continue mobilizing against the racist, anti-Black and patriarchal doctrines in US society (opinion) – Inside Higher Ed

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In July, Lawrence M. Mead, a prominent political scientist and public policy scholar at New York University, published a commentary in Society expressing racially violent narratives directed at Black and Latinx communities. His commentary blamed not only these communities, but by proxy all Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC), for the effects of historic and systemic inequities, ultimately characterizing us as leading unproductive lives.

Mead concluded that there are cultural differences between rich Western countries, described as ambitious individualists, and non-Western countries, described as cautious collectivists. If this rhetoric sounds familiar, its because this is another commentary in a long history of reducing structural racism to victim blaming. But we educators have a responsibility to work against such racial violence within academe and beyond it.

Meads perspective reflects the pervasive racist, anti-Black, patriarchal, hegemonic doctrines that permeate American society today. These traditional culture of poverty arguments use structural racism to blame BIPOC communities for the prevalence of poverty, crime and unemployment. The core reasoning grounding these arguments correlates societal challenges to cultural pathology. The narrative itself is mundane, founded in the work of Oscar Lewis and Daniel Patrick Moynihan and thoroughly discredited through sound empiricism. Once again, however, we are forced to confront the culture of poverty narrative and discredit its core thesis.

Lets begin with a modest assertion: globally, every country has some type of economic inequality and poverty. Certainly, poverty exists here in the United States. As of 2018, 11.8percent of people in the nation live in poverty. When the data are disaggregated, racial and ethnic differences exist, as well, with 21percent of Black communities, 25percent of Indigenous communities and 18percent of Latinx communities living in poverty.

It is important to recognize, however, that the methodology itself is problematic, as the reported poverty threshold for a four-person household with two children under the age of 18 is $25,465 -- or $4,695 less than the federal minimum wage ($30,160; calculated using a 40-hour workweek across 52 weeks for two working adults), and $43,343 less than a necessary living wage ($68,808) according to the Massachusetts Institute of Technologys Living Wage Calculator estimates.

How can the poverty threshold be set so low, when the national average for a one-bedroom rental is $1,078 per month or $12,936 per year? Are we not expected to pay taxes, eat, pay for health and cognitive care, pay for childcare, or have any entertainment whatsoever? I digress purposefully to give pause because recognizing that poverty exists and that many communities exhibit a high degree of poverty should elicit two responses: 1) What informs those systems that create such poverty? and 2) How can we support these communities with immediate targeted efforts to mitigate the effects of poverty?

Poverty should not elicit a theory that blames the group, instead of a system that underpays and undervalues specific communities in a targeted manner. Thus, while poverty exists, a culture of poverty does not.

Poverty is not endemic to any culture or any society. Poverty itself is not monolithic, and there is no significant evidence that demonstrates poverty exists as an artifact of culture. Supporting a culture of poverty narrative, or renaming the narrative while maintaining its theoretical foundations that blame BIPOC communities, is nothing more than an attempt to reify the oppressive, classist, racist, hegemonic white supremacy that historically persecutes BIPOC communities. The culture of poverty narrative persists under the guise of peer review and professorship. Pathologizing poverty as intrinsically related to a group culture allows deficit theorists to blame the group, instead of focusing on the systemic inequities that create poverty.

The stark reality is this: in 2020 Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities are targeted for persecution and blocked from opportunity through specific systems that reify white supremacy. Black, Indigenous and Latinx communities are far too often:

Despite the evidence, deficit theorists promote and publish their work, are lauded and praised as thought leaders in scholarship and policy praxis, and ascend prestige pipelines. Their work discounts systemic oppression, purposefully erasing the racial violence that BIPOC communities have endured. Deficit theorists also ignore the nefarious collectivism that creates those systems and dismisses historical racial violence.

Racial and cultural dominance in the United States is not the result of individualism that absorbed Indigenous and Mexican communities as Anglos moved west, as well as imported slaves to the South, as Mead suggests. Racial and cultural dominance is a collectivist effort by wave after wave of Europeans who agreed, before leaving their continent, to work in concert for control of land and wealth. This includes mass murder and genocide, chattel slavery, religious inculcation and persecution, sexual violence and rape, and the commoditizing of BIPOC bodies for profit, experimentation and seizure -- all of which trickled down through history to the disparities outlined above. European imperialism hoards wealth and power in modern society and believes no other entity is as valuable as itself.

The cultural differences between BIPOC communities and Anglo communities are not individualism versus collectivism but an ideological manifest destiny proliferating immeasurable violence to create, institutionalize and maintain white supremacy. This is the ideology Anglos must acknowledge, not the symptomatic racism visible in modern society. Furthermore, minoritized groups arent burdened by freedom, as Mead asserts -- we have simply never had the luxury of absolute freedom. We need look no further than the recent murders of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd for current examples.

As educators, scholars, researchers, advocates and community leaders granted the power to educate and inform, we in academe have the responsibility to do so in a manner that advances equity for historically and consistently oppressed communities. We have the responsibility to mend the wounds of racial violence. We have the responsibility to dismantle structural barriers while creating new systems of resistance and acceptance that celebrate and promote justice.

As teachers, it is also our responsibility to curate a message of justice, equity, diversity, inclusion and access so that the violence against ethnically and racially diverse communities long normalized in our society no longer influences public policy. We must continue to stand in solidarity to fight for civil and human rights and freedom and continue resisting white supremacy in all its forms. To do nothing less is a disservice to our craft, to our elders and to our ancestors.

So where do we go from here?

Admittedly, mobilizing an effort that leads to retraction of a commentary is negligible in the movement toward freedom and dismantling white supremacy. We must recognize as well the damage from that commentary is done. Nothing can reverse the steps that allowed for the commentarys publication. But in the short term, to dismantle inequity and racial violence, let those of us in higher education support the scrutiny of those systems that reify oppression in our local community. Lets support each other as individuals in a community so we are arent afraid to call out instances of racial violence and oppression. Lets collectively praise our work in an effort to promote basic civil and human rights and freedom. Lets continue to support each other as we preserve a discourse of our community that is factually accurate and refute deficit narratives based in deceit. Lets support each other as we take risks and get involved beyond our own area and subfield. Lets forgive and support each other as we engage in difficult dialogue.

Finally, lets be mindful of ourselves, of each other and our well-being, acknowledging that it is OK to take a step back as an individual -- recognizing that sometimes by stepping back, the movement can step forward. In developing our work, in developing our collective support, we understand there is no panacea, and the struggle for justice, equity, diversity, inclusion, access, opportunity and freedom endures, as we do.

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Academics should continue mobilizing against the racist, anti-Black and patriarchal doctrines in US society (opinion) - Inside Higher Ed

Letters to the editor, Aug. 28 – News – The Daily News – Jacksonville, NC – Jacksonville Daily News

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Vandalism impedes First Amendment right

To the editor: The Henderson County Democratic Party has placed several large signs around the county on private property and many are suffering vandalism.These signs are protected by our constitutional right to free speech.The positive messages on these signs should represent the shared values of all Henderson County residents regardless of party affiliation.Some examples:

Protect Rural Hospitals

Support Small Business

Healthcare:A Fundamental Need

Reverse Climate Change

Main Street, Not Wall Street

Are the positive Democrat messages so intimidating and disturbing to the Republicans in Henderson County that it is necessary to resort to cowardly vandalism to quiet the messages that clearly support Western North Carolina people?Message to vandals: Instead of trampling on our First Amendment rights, it would be more constructive to engage us in a respectful dialogue about the merits of the values that we are expressing on our signs.

We need to hear from the more responsible members of the local Republican party denouncing these destructive tendencies of its more radical membership. Silence is consent, if not outright encouragement.

Kathleen Gould, chair, Henderson County Democratic Party

Save Social Security, Medicare

To the editor: In 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Social Security Act. In the debate, conservatives spoke out against it. Rep. John Taber of New York: "Never in the history of the world has any measure been brought here so insidiously designed as to enslave workers and to prevent any possibility of the employers providing work for the people." (Social Security equals slavery.)

But, in 1932, Democrats had won an overwhelming victory and Republicans couldnt stop it. In the presidential election of 1936, Republican candidate Alf Landon called for the repeal of Social Security.

In 2005, George W. Bush and conservatives called for private Social Security accounts. If Bushs plan had not been stopped, the door would have been opened for the disabling of Social Security.

Social Security is not a constitutional right. Neither is Medicare. So, they are up for a vote every election cycle. Trump and his congressional enablers have to be voted out of office to stop the threats.

But, its not just Social Security and Medicare. The entire core functions of government that protect the safety, security, and well-being of citizens are under attack. Trump, Mitch McConnell, and Thom Tillis have to go! Vote them all out!

Chris Walters, Hendersonville

We need facts about Socialism

To the editor: I long to see a fact-based column on what Socialism is and is not. Socialism is not Communist Russia or China. It is not South and Central American dictatorships.

Socialized medicine: Medicare and the VA. Redistribution of income: Social Security. Medicaid: surely Marxist!

Yes, the Prime Minister of Denmark declared Denmark is not a Socialist country . . . they just have a "very extensive social safety net." Far more extensive than Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid.

In 1978 the average CEO here made about 30 times the average worker and the top tax bracket was 70%. Today it is nearly 300 times the average worker and the top tax is 37%. Minimum wage, inflation-adjusted, peaked in 1968. If workers at the bottom are in fact essential, shouldnt they be paid at least a living wage? Henry Ford said if he paid his workers more, they could afford his cars. He would sell more and everyone would be better off.

Have we forgotten that basic economic reality of a consumer-driven economy? The Preamble to our Constitution calls for us to "promote the general Welfare." Lets talk about that, too, rationally and honestly.

Cheryl Goodwin, Columbus

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Letters to the editor, Aug. 28 - News - The Daily News - Jacksonville, NC - Jacksonville Daily News

Stabbing at the heart of the beast: An interview with Lenny Cioe – Uprise RI

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More than anything else, I am motivated by the patients I meet in the hospital and their inability to afford life-saving medical care. I see healthcare as a right, not a privilege. I want to see healthcare coverage detached from employment status

Lenny Cioes entry into politics is audacious. Hes challenging Senate President Dominick Ruggerio in Senate District 4 (Providence, North Providence) in the Democratic Primary on Tuesday, September 8. Its difficult to challenge an incumbent, its much more difficult to challenge and incumbent who is as politically powerful, connected and well-financed as Ruggerio.

Cioe has been critical of the Senate President, who, along with Speaker of the House Nicholas Mattiello, has effectively shut down the General Assembly in the midst of a global pandemic. Ruggerio is also extremely conservative, voting against both reproductive rights and same-sex marriage.

Cioe is a Registered Nurse on the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis. He is a 2003 graduate of the Community College of Rhode Island in respiratory therapy and a 2008 graduate of Rhode Island College where he received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing. Lenny has been a health care professional for 18 years. We conducted this interview by email:

UpriseRI: What made you decide to run for State Senate against a powerful, connected Senate President?

Lenny Cioe: My parents taught me that I can fight to make the world around me a better place. First, this drove me to become a nurse. I buried many friends during the AIDS crisis, and decided I wanted to enter the healthcare system to make it better at protecting the people it usually left behind. But I cant help the people who are too afraid to even come into the hospital because theyre afraid of the bill. I am running for State Senate because I want to fix our broken healthcare system. I happen to live in the same district as Senator Ruggerio. And while its been difficult to run against someone with so much power and so many connections, it has only pushed me to work harder. Our Senate should not be controlled by someone who cares more about private interests and profit than he does the people of Rhode Island. I am running to bring true civic leadership to Smith Hill.

Funding for our reporting relies entirely on the generosity of readers like you. Our independence allows us to write stories that hold RI state and local government officials accountable. All of our stories are free and available to everyone. But your support is essential to keeping Steve and Will on the beat, covering the costs of reporting many stories in a single day. If you are able to, please support Uprise RI. Every contribution, big or small is so valuable to us. You provide the motivation and financial support to keep doing what we do. Thank you.

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UpriseRI: Do you think the Rhode Island Senate has been serving the people of Rhode Island?

Cioe: Our State Senate serves some Rhode Islanders very well, but leaves many more behind. For instance, the 2006 tax cut on the top 1% of earners in our state served the very wealthy, but resulted in a huge decrease in tax revenue that could have been used to serve everyone else. That money should have gone to our healthcare system, our schools, and affordable housing developments. That is how the State Senate can truly serve the people of Rhode Island: reform the tax system so that the super-rich pay their fair share, and use that money to fund public services.

UpriseRI: Is your opponent serving his constituents?

Cioe: My opponent is serving his friends. He has spent 35 years in office making connections that benefit him and his supporters.

UpriseRI: What issues are motivating you? What are you hearing from voters as you knock on doors? How does outreach work during COVID?

Cioe: More than anything else, I am motivated by the patients I meet in the hospital and their inability to afford life-saving medical care. I see healthcare as a right, not a privilege. I want to see healthcare coverage detached from employment status.

I will fight for single-payer healthcare. Healthcare is an investment in every Rhode Islander. We must guarantee this basic right so that the people of our state can focus on their jobs and their families, not their outrageous medical bills.

I have been so encouraged by the conversations Ive been having at the doors. Voters are really excited for change. Regardless of how they feel about Ruggerios time in office, they are ready to see someone new in the Senate. They are excited to see someone whose values align with their own as Democrats. Voters are excited to have a choice this year.

Outreach during COVID has been difficult, because people are reluctant to come to the door and talk to a stranger. But we have been practicing social distancing at the doors, and all our canvassers always wear a mask and travel with hand sanitizer. The hardest thing has been that we cant host the fundraising and informational events that we would during a normal election year. That just means were leaning more heavily on online outreach.

UpriseRI: In addition to the crisis of COVID, Rhode Island is facing a reckoning with our history of racism and slavery, as well as an economic crisis, a housing crisis and an unemployment crisis. Its a big job right now. What are your instincts as to what should be done in the short term and the medium term?

Cioe: In the short-term, measures like removing Providence Plantations from our states name are good ones that show us were moving in the right direction to address our history of racism and slavery. But that is not nearly enough.

Our police are supposed to keep our communities safe. To do that, they need to be well-trained in anti-racist settings. But we must also understand that community safety doesnt just come from law-enforcement: it comes from secure housing, access to healthcare, and quality public education. Our state funds must be distributed across all of these areas.

In the medium term, we need to put our money where our mouth is. Right now, the top 1% of earners in our state only pay 7.9% of their annual income in taxes. The poorest 20% of Rhode Islanders pay 12.1%. We must get rid of this regressive tax cut and have the rich pay their fair share. This will allow us to provide healthcare to all Rhode Islanders, invest in affordable housing, and institute a living minimum wage.

Were also facing the climate crisis, and we have to take bold action to act immediately. I will fight for the Green New Deal, which will create thousands of jobs for Rhode Islanders, addressing the growing unemployment crisis.We cannot delay bold action against climate change. We need a just transition to 100% renewable energy by 2030 that prioritizes those made most vulnerable by a changing climate. We must create jobs along the way, and make it work for our economy.

UpriseRI: Can you expand a little on your thoughts about housing?

Cioe: We need to invest in affordable and safe public housing, rather than prioritizing profitable sales to private developers. We can make no progress in our state if the basic need for safe and stable housing is not met for Rhode Islanders.

UpriseRI: Id like to ask about a few subjects we havent quite covered yet. Your opponent has voted against both same sex marriage and reproductive rights. Where are you on these issues?

Cioe: I will always protect a womans right to choose and as a gay man, I will always fight for LGBTQ rights. I would like to see the definition of common-law marriage in Rhode Island expand to include queer couples living together.

UpriseRI: Thank you!

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Stabbing at the heart of the beast: An interview with Lenny Cioe - Uprise RI

South Africa: The upside-down world of racial capitalism and Black Lives Matter, Part 2 – Daily Maverick

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The innauguration of Thabo Mbeki as South African president, pictured with previous president Nelson Mandela, in Pretoria on 27 April 2004. (Photo: Gallo Images / Christiaan Kotze)

This is Part 2 in a two-part series. Part 1 can be read here.

The failure of the South African Left

This is a subject more properly dealt with by books, many books. This is true even when, as here, the focus is exclusively on the white Left. The absence of a black Left critique (with the notable exception of Neville Alexander silenced by death in 2012) makes evident their concurrence with the positions of their white comrades.

Two events (although both involving the SACP and Cosatu) encapsulate the general failure.

The first event began with a heated public debate in the build-up to the 1994 elections. At issue was the pay and perks given to the outgoing members of the apartheid Parliament. The critique from the Left was that MPs salaries, rather than continuing to be that of the First World, should reflect the Third World reality of most South Africans. One of the first steps taken by the new Mandela government was to establish a commission to recommend a pay structure appropriate for the then-new South Africa. At least one member of the commission was not only a member of the SACP but, unlike most other communists, she was not also a member of the ANC. Her reason for this, she told me, was that the ANC was bourgeois.

The commission duly reported towards the end of 1994. It found that there was indeed a major problem with MPs pay: it was too little! The new Parliament voted themselves the recommended salary increase. This, arguably, turned out to be the single most seminal decision of democratic South Africa. As an ironic inversion of the slogan of the 1922 white miners, it was a case of: Elites of the world unite to make way for a Black South African elite (a comment made by Diane Salters).

The SACP, with its large parliamentary presence (as part of the ANC contingent), was silent about the increase. So, too, was the officially socialist Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), which also had a significant presence on the ANC benches in Parliament. There was, indeed, only one notable public dissenting voice: that of Archbishop Desmond Tutu who said much of what one would have expected from the SACP and Cosatu consistent with the struggle having been on behalf of our people.

I asked some of the leading members of the parliamentary SACP, both as MPs and members of Mandelas first Cabinet, how they could have supported this unexpected move. They explained that they had queried the decision within the ANCs parliamentary caucus. They had kept quiet when accused of being racist; that they were querying the matter only because most MPs were now Africans.

This event needs closer unpacking. The African response will be deferred until the final section of this article. For now, what needs addressing is an outrageous accusation. The charge was against individuals whose commitment to the struggle against white racism was beyond question: they had not only devoted most of their lives to the Struggle but had risked their very lives as part of the Struggle. In a word, they were part of a small group best placed to be mortified by their own sometimes lifelong comrades accusing them of racism. Adding to the manifest injustice of the charge is that it stemmed from a single event that went to the very heart of the Struggle: the ANCs acceptance of a salary increase when the ethical position made so clear by a shocked Archbishop Tutu was to have argued for a pay cut consistent with the Struggle having been on behalf of our people.

Why had these white communists allowed themselves to be cowed?

An immediate answer is the two-stage revolution of the SACPs strategic understanding of the transition to socialism: South African capitalism would first need to be normalised by the emergence of African capitalists before the class contradictions of capitalism were sufficiently developed for the African working class to separate itself from its racial identity and thereby lead the revolution to socialism.

Whether or not they were familiar with Marxs own words about the innermost secret, the hidden basis of the entire social structure being the specific economic form in which unpaid surplus labour is pumped out of the direct producers, they knew more than enough. They knew that beginning with 16th century slavery, to say nothing about the enforced bloody creation of a black working class and the gold and diamond riches that required cheap labour, racism made the exploitation and oppression morally acceptable. This is to say they knew and they taught others to know that the exploiters had to turn the exploited into non-people for the fruits of the exploitation to be devoured without guilt. Race, in other words, was, in origin, a social construction of class imperatives; the innermost secret of capitalism where the dehumanised Other was of a different skin colour.

This understanding does indeed offer what could be an immediate answer to the SACPs acceptance of the salary increase. But this would be far too simple to be anything near a sufficient explication.

Making sense of the silence of the white communists in 1994 suggests that race had by then become different from and independent of class. Moreover, the specifically African race of South Africa was implicitly seen to be classless, without any class divisions. It is further suggested that, such was and is the identification with the victims of class oppression that the working class, the class for itself which was to be the springboard into a classless society, was metamorphosed into the hegemonic primacy of a classless black race of Africans.

Inherent in this perception is that capitalism functions according to the colour of its capitalists. Thus, black capital behaves differently from white capital.

Confirmation of this colour confusion brings us to the second of the two events. In 2003, as part of the governments strategy of creating a black bourgeoisie, it outsourced one of its state-owned enterprises (SOE) to a large British transnational corporation that, together with African owners, bought 51% of the enterprise. The now African-managed company was offering a 0.5% wage increase conditional on an increase in the working week from 40 hours to 45 hours. Sick leave was to be reduced and transport subsidies phased out. The wage negotiations resulted in bitter and prolonged strike action. Six weeks into the strike, the lead negotiator of the main Cosatu-affiliated trade union involved, who was a life-long (white) socialist, made the following confession:

The problem with this dispute is that we didnt put up a huge resistance to this particular privatisation. To be honest I think the union genuinely believed, because there was a strong black economic empowerment component, that things wouldnt be too bad, but its been quite the contrary. Everyone in our union agrees that we have not come across such hard-headedness since the 1980s and, if anything, this is the kind of dispute that will harden attitudes against privatisation because it simply demonstrates what can happen (Mail & Guardian 23/1/04).

Strikingly, the hardening of attitudes was against privatisation rather than a reassessment of the attitude towards the black capitalists. Another Cosatu-affiliated trade union, whose members were also part of the strike, expressed its anger that a company, prominently owned by Africans, could be so anti-worker (SABC News 28/1/04).

The abandonment of any Marxian class analysis is, indeed, most evident when it comes to Thabo Mbekis creation of the black bourgeoisie. When the language changed from black bourgeoisie to its current Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) or Transformation, it was met with the same silence. Both should be a direct challenge to the Left. In the name of this transformation, we now have a South Africa unequivocally committed to interfering with the normal reproduction of our inherited class structure.

The Left (particularly initially) says little about this, and the SACP and Cosatu the ANCs formal allies have done nothing in practice to challenge the mere transfer of class-defined benefits to the members of the government, or the ANCs leading cadres, African businesses and African professionals. BEE claims the empowerment of all black people. One doesnt expect the government to say anything about whether this is possible under capitalism. But the Lefts essential silence is consistent with its view of Black being classless and, therefore, of an empowerment that embraces the working class. Black capitalism ends up being a socialism for the working class!

A further striking testimony to the characteristic primacy of colour rather than class among the Left was provided by a leading member of the SACP. In a private conversation with me (probably in 2000 or 2001) about which class bourgeois or worker benefits from the SACPs alliance with the ANC, the life-long white communist stunned me by saying he couldnt objectively critique the ANC because the ANC not the SACP was the centre of his life!

This acknowledgement has further ramifications. What is essentially a romanticised picture of socially constructed Africans shapes the white Left in other significant ways. The very strength of the empathy with the oppressed produces an inversion of the classical defence mechanism of identification with the oppressor. The standard example being the Jews who hid their identity by being the most anti-Semitic of the Nazis. Not being able to change their colour, the white Lefts inability to become the oppressed has resulted in both a favourable predisposition towards Africans, and a deferential surrender to African nationalism.

Disavowals of being white by attacking anything they can label White is another consequence. Hence the white Lefts leading role in colour-coding class privileges. White Monopoly Capital is probably a white Left invention. Rather than speaking of residential areas of the rich, the reference becomes White areas. Under the original Racial Capitalism of apartheid, white areas were White as a function of law; under the current Racial Capitalism they are rich as a function of capitalism. Yet, the Left chooses the anachronistic apartheid designation rather than the current class one. Similarly, class privileges regardless of which specifics invariably become colour-coded as White privileges. The working class itself is similarly and anachronistically racialised as the black (meaning African) working class. It is with these various colour confusions where the black Left joins the white Left in the racialisation of class.

A far bigger challenge now faces us. Understanding the white Left is easy compared to making sense of the turpitude of what might appear to be a racialised African disorder. Recall the anguished question of the Daily Maverick editorial: The [African] elite are immune to everything, including shame.

Racism turned upside down: The black bourgeoisie play the race card

There is an easy answer to why and how South Africa has now become the broken society spoken about in so many different ways and by so many different people. The answer is to invoke Fanon. Writing in 1961 about the then very new phenomenon of decolonisation, Frantz Fanon, in his celebrated, The Wretched of the Earth, provides a penetrating analysis of the post-independence black leadership that is perspicacious of todays SA.

The national middle class discovers its historic mission: that of intermediary. Seen through its eyes, its mission has nothing to do with transforming the nation; it consists, prosaically, of being the transmission line between the nation and a capitalism, rampant though camouflaged, which today puts on the mask of neo-colonialism. The national bourgeoisie will be quite content with the role of the Western bourgeoisies business agent. But this same lucrative role, this cheap-Jacks function, this meanness of outlook symbolize[s] the incapability of the middle class to fulfil its historic role [of transformation. Instead] the spirit of indulgence is dominant and this is because the national bourgeoisie identifies itself with the decadence of the bourgeoisie of the West. [The national bourgeoisie] is in fact beginning at the end. It is already senile before it has come to know the petulance, the fearlessness, or the will to succeed of youth.

This searing critique, however, is not the sufficient answer to South Africa in 2020. The ANC itself recognises this. It did so in 1969 when it committed itself to avoiding these dangers. Arguably among the most important ANC documents, prior to its unbanning in 1990, is its Morogoro Conferences Strategy & Tactics. The then-commitment is so starkly different from todays reality that it bears repeating in some length.

Our nationalism must not be confused with chauvinism or narrow nationalism It must not be confused with the classical drive by an elitist group among the oppressed people to gain ascendancy, so that they can replace the oppressor in the exploitation of the mass.

In our country more than in any other part of the oppressed world it is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning, without a return of the wealth of the land to the people as a whole. It is, therefore, a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests, intact, is to feed the root of racial supremacy, and does not represent even the shadow of liberation.

Our drive towards national emancipation is, therefore, in a very real way, bound up with economic emancipation. This perspective of a speedy progression from formal liberation to genuine and lasting emancipation, is made more real by the existence in our country of a large and growing working class whose class consciousness complements national consciousness. Its militancy and political consciousness as a revolutionary class will play no small part in our victory, and in the construction of a real peoples South Africa.

Thabo Mbeki, the president who declared the formation of a black bourgeoisie to be among the top priorities of an ANC government, the same Mbeki who was a member of the Central Committee of the SACP, provides much of what I would consider to be a Marxian answer to our conundrum. His answer, moreover, carries all the weight of his own contradictory position. He thus merits being quoted at some length. Adding to its significance is that it comes from his speech delivered at the 4th Annual Nelson Mandela Lecture in July 2006, presented, moreover, before an audience that included a great number of the black bourgeoisie he had already helped create.

[T]he new order, born of the victory in 1994, inherited a well-entrenched value system that placed individual acquisition of wealth at the very centre of our society as a whole.

Thus, every day, and during every hour of our time beyond sleep, the demons embedded in our society seem always to beckon each one of us towards a realisable dream With every passing second, they advise, with rhythmic and hypnotic regularity get rich! get rich! get rich!

And thus has it come about that many of us accept that our common natural instinct to escape from poverty is but the other side of the same coin [with] the words at all costs, get rich!

In these circumstances, personal wealth, and the public communication of [that] message becomes the means by which we communicate the message that we are worthy citizens of our community, the very exemplars of what defines the product of a liberated South Africa.

This peculiar striving produces the particular result that manifestations of wealth determine the individuality of each one of us who seeks to achieve happiness and self-fulfilment, given the liberty that the revolution of 1994 brought to all of us.

In these circumstances, the meaning of freedom has come to be defined not by the seemingly ethereal and therefore intangible gift of liberty, but by the designer labels on the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the spaciousness of our houses and our yards, their geographic location, the company we keep

It is perfectly obvious that many in our society, having absorbed the value system of the capitalist market, have come to the conclusion that, for them, personal success and fulfilment means personal enrichment at all costs, and the most theatrical and striking public display of that wealth.

What this means is that many in our society have come to accept that what is socially correct is the notion that each one of us is as excellent a human being as our demonstrated wealth suggests!

After this, one may well ask, is there anything more to say? There is! The black bourgeoisie are no more immune to thinking well of themselves than the white variety who, to achieve the dehumanisation of the exploited Other, invented a subhuman race of black people.

The black bourgeoisie achieve this same end within the inequalities of capitalism and the status system it necessarily evokes by inverting the racism they keep alive. They do this in two ways. First, both legitimising their personal enrichment at all costs and, indeed, being the steroids on which they achieve even greater heights of personal enrichment, are the White Supremacy and Whiteness they have resurrected as the reminders of the reality of their dehumanisation. The fortunes the white bourgeoisie pay themselves are further reminders of felt injustice. As a South African inversion of race always being a relational construct, the meaning of Blackness both implies and depends on Whiteness (Posel, D. (2010). Races to consume: revisiting South Africas history of race, consumption and the struggle for freedom, Ethnic and Racial Studies, 33(2), 157-75).

Saying all this is not to absolve them of their individual immoralities. What it does do is underscore the salience of Marxs hidden secret of the specificities of the societal whole built on and around the way in which capitalism produces mass poverty and obscene inequality as the collateral damage of the wealth expropriated by the few regardless of colour.

The ANCs Black Lives Matter is not a hypocrisy. It is much more than that. It is a defence. It is the second of the two ways in which the African rich seek to think well of themselves. It serves as a self-justification of otherwise intolerable actions and unthinkable greed. Our people expresses an anguish that assuages the guilt of their class separation from the people they have left behind. Like the trickle down rationalisation once so favoured by the global rich, the African rich are probably appeased by thoughts of our people being the eventual beneficiaries of their current, reprehensible labours.

The ANC is not the cause of corruption. Nor is BEE or tenderpreneurship, or even privatisation. All are symptoms; all facilitate corruption. But none are the primary causes.

From being a colonial and apartheid nightmare, Racial Capitalism has become a means of delivering long-delayed reparations but only for a few. Colour-coded class-inequalities have the last ambiguous laugh. A laugh of celebration but also a laugh of remorse.

Changing the world or, more modestly, South Africa always first requires a sufficient understanding of the conditions in need of changing. This long essay therefore ends by returning to the beginning: the need for change. Against this urgency, the analysis offered here is easy. DM

South Africa: The upside-down world of racial capitalism and Black Lives Matter, Part 1

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South Africa: The upside-down world of racial capitalism and Black Lives Matter, Part 2 - Daily Maverick

Leicester garment factory bosses banned from running businesses for more than 400 years – The Guardian

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Directors of clothing manufacturers in Leicester have been struck off for a combined total of more than 400 years in cases costing HMRC millions, data shared with the Guardian reveals.

Details of disqualified directors in Leicester provided by the Insolvency Service show that more than 50 people with links to the citys textiles industry are currently banned from running companies for between three and 14 years.

They represent about 40% of all disqualified directors linked to companies listed on Companies House as headquartered in Leicester, suggesting that clothing manufacturers are hugely overrepresented against the citys business community as a whole. Just over 1,000 of the 38,393 active companies registered in Leicester are listed as manufacturers of textiles or wearing apparel, or about 2.5%.

Leicesters textiles factories have faced heavy scrutiny since the city became the first in the UK to face a second lockdown. One factor linked to the spread of coronavirus was a lack of social distancing measures in some of the hundreds of factories and workshops in Leicesters garment district, where companies are also accused of failing to pay workers the minimum wage.

The fast fashion firm Boohoo has also been heavily criticised over its oversight of its supply chain in Leicester. Last week the Guardian revealed that 18 Boohoo suppliers had failed to prove they paid workers the minimum wage, and industry sources said they were aware of similar audits on dozens more firms.

The new disclosures suggest minimum-wage issues in Leicester go alongside a range of other problems in factories there, including employer tax violations and allegations of so-called phoenixing when a company goes bust owing significant sums in tax, only to reopen under a different name soon afterwards.

HMRC said it made 25 investigations into textile firms VAT affairs in 2018-19 and recovered more than 2m in tax.

Neil Williams, a legal director at the law firm Rahman Ravelli who has worked on serious tax fraud cases, said the figures certainly seemed on the face of it to be disproportionate. A concentration to that level suggests that somethings going on. A lot of it will be about the fact that many of the workers in these companies will not be on HMRCs radar, and that can mean PAYE fraud.

The Guardian understands that a dossier of public records on clothing businesses financial affairs has been submitted by industry experts to the National Crime Agency, which has been ordered by Priti Patel, the home secretary, to examine allegations of modern slavery in the city.

Andrew Bridgen, the MP for North West Leicestershire who has campaigned on factory conditions in Leicester and described the garment industry there as the wild west, said the activities of such companies were putting legitimate competitors out of business.

Many of those who have been struck off will continue to act as shadow directors, said Bridgen, a former regional chairman of the Institute of Directors. He called on HMRC to focus attention on the problem. The regulators need to concentrate on areas of concern, and clearly whats going on in Leicester is an area of concern. They need to risk-assess these businesses and sectors and concentrate their resources where there are obvious problems.

While a director may be struck off over tax issues, they are not barred from owning a company if others manage it. There are fears that in some cases, banned directors may continue to play an active role in running the new companies, simply installing a new director to sign documents and be the public face of the business. Several of the struck-off directors are now persons of significant control in companies created after their previous businesses went into liquidation.

When HMRC finds that a former director acts in breach of a disqualification order or undertaking, it may seek to make them personally liable for any tax debts accrued while disqualified. They may ultimately face criminal investigation and a prison sentence of up to two years.

The reasons for disqualifications were not available in all of the cases examined by the Guardian, but in 21 of the 28 files where the basis for disqualification was provided, it related to tax fraud, inadequate tax returns, inadequate accounting records or trading to the detriment of HMRC an umbrella term for cases where other creditors, including directors, have been paid but the tax authority has not.

While only limited information was available on the tax liabilities owed when the companies in question went bust, significant sums were owed to HMRC in some of those where information was provided.

In one case, a director was struck off for eight years after his company went into liquidation owing 848,214. In another, a director was struck off for seven years when he failed to submit VAT returns and his company went bust owing 739,232.27. A third director who failed to preserve or deliver up adequate accounting records took his company into liquidation owing 491,799.37 in tax. The nine companies where figures were available went bust owing a total of 3.5m an average of 389,000.

Williams said HMRC was often the main debtor in phoenixing cases. HMRC will be looking for shadow directors, family members, or patsies paid to sign documents with no accessing to banking, essentially but [the former directors] will remain the controlling minds. Its hard for HMRC to prove without an investigative capacity: where theres a closed shop factory, its very hard to gather that information.

Frances Coulson, the head of insolvency and litigation at Moon Beever solicitors and deputy chair of the Fraud Advisory Panel, said such activity in the clothing industry was nothing new. She said HMRC needed to do more to allow creditors to appoint independent liquidators to investigate insolvent businesses. You can disrupt these activities and recover funds if you appoint a liquidator, she said. People should be prosecuted, but that takes a long time and a lot of money. You can do both.

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Leicester garment factory bosses banned from running businesses for more than 400 years - The Guardian

Decentralized Reddit enables users to secure Twitter on the blockchain – Cointelegraph

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Reddit-inspired social aggregation platform Discussions.app announced its expansion to the Telos network on Sept. 3.

The first project to come out of the new collaboration will be a decentralized identity system, allowing users to record their accounts and contacts from Twitter and other social networks to the blockchain in the event of a block or ban.

In the social-media age, users spend years growing networks and followers on various platforms, although this work can be destroyed by the sometimes arbitrary-seeming decisions of the networks.

Discussions.app addresses this by allowing users to migrate across platforms without losing their valuable identities and connections. Telos chief architect Douglas Horn explained the problem:

It seems that every few days I see another unique voice de-platformed and the connections they invested years building pulled out from under them like a cheap rug especially in the crypto community. Discussions.app empowers individuals to secure their own social networks immune to the whims of Facebook, YouTube and Twitter.

As Cointelegraph reported, YouTube has arbitrarily banned (and then reinstated) a number of crypto-related channels over the past few months. In May, the platform even pulled the plug on our special livestream of the halving event.

In addition to digital identity management, Telos will provide Discussions.app with options for advanced governance and Ethereum Virtual Machines which can run Ethereum-compatible smart contracts with zero transaction fees.

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Decentralized Reddit enables users to secure Twitter on the blockchain - Cointelegraph

Mapping on the Blockchain, Explained – Cointelegraph

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While new projects are popping up all the time that tackle these types of issues in new ways, there are already a few major players defining this space. Some of the most popular projects being developed now are FOAM, XYO and Hyperion.

For starters, a project called FOAM is one example of how the issue of a decentralized mapping system could be addressed. In essence, FOAM utilizes the Ethereum blockchain and a service called geohash in order to make network addresses that correspond to real world locations. The system is referred to as Proof of Location (PoL) and involves the use of radio transmitters, called Anchors, to act as nodes for the network. Operators must stake some FOAM tokens in order to participate, however they are also rewarded for successful contributions. These nodes then connect to each other and form “zones,” which basically define an area on the surface of the earth. 

Once the basic grid is established, users can then create “Points of Interest” (PoI) which get mapped to the network by being attributed to a specific address on the blockchain. By staking tokens, different users can vote on the validity of a given PoI, with the winning side receiving all staked tokens as a reward, and the losing side losing all. This incentivises honesty, as a PoI like a landmark or coffee shop is either there or it isn’t, hence false claims could be quickly voted out of the network.

The system isn’t perfect, of course. It requires sufficient infrastructure of Anchors to be in place and while there is economic incentive to run one, there is a long way to go to cover the earth. Also since the system runs on Ethereum, it is subject to the limitations of that network’s bandwidth and speed, though these are admittedly set to improve.

Another project looking to create a blockchain powered location service is called XYO. The unique approach here is that users can capture real world location data with special sensors called “Sentinels.” Simply by deploying these sentinels, users can begin earning XYO immediately. When sentinels communicate with each other in “the wild”, by being in close proximity, then further rewards can be earned. This incentivises users to deploy as many sentinels as possible, which of course work to expand the network and the quality of the location data. It should also be noted that any smartphone can also be turned into a sentinel by downloading the project’s app.

There are other ways users can get involved and earn rewards as well, such as by becoming “Archivists” or “Diviners.” These are basically the layers of the network that record information to the blockchain and run queries against that data. With all these parts working together, a constantly evolving, real-time map of the world is being recorded on an immutable ledger. One possible stumbling block could be getting enough Sentinels deployed, as they act as a key cornerstone of the system. That being said, they are fairly inexpensive and again, any mobile device can also be used.

One other project, taking a somewhat different approach to the global mapping on blockchain      endeavor, is called Hyperion, which is offering comprehensive location based services thanks to the deployment of their “economic model 2.1.” This model has three layers. The user level layer, an app called “Titan,” provides location information services as well as a wallet for the native HYN token, which users can use to provide their own PoIs to be verified. Beneath this layer is a “Proof of Hybrid” (PoH) system, which is basically a two-tier network that has both a Proof of Work (PoW) layer, called Map3, and a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) layer, called Atlas. Map3 is where location data is stored, verified and distributed; the Atlas layer is where map asset transactions and validation takes place on the blockchain. The system is designed to be censorship-resistant and fault-tolerant.

Users on Titan can stake their HYN tokens to support the Map3 layer, which will earn them passive rewards for participating in the functioning of a node. Furthermore, these tokens can then be re-staked on the Atlas layer, which further aids the network and adds more opportunities for user rewards. Using Atlas’s proof-of-stake consensus mechanism, the top 88 block production nodes will be selected to receive block rewards. 

One more reason users may want to get in early is that Hyperion has 9 planned scaling cycles, and in each cycle network nodes will be effectively “split” into two nodes each, which will scale the network horizontally — in both the Map3 and Atlas layers. This will also increase the amount of rewards node operators see in the long term, further incentivising contribution to the decentralized map service.

It also helps that the Hyperion network can be seamlessly integrated into existing map applications, bringing familiar interfaces connected to the highest quality location data. Lastly, the token burning model employed by the network ensures that the supply of HYN tokens will incrementally decrease as the total amount staked on the network and requests to the map service grow. So, based upon supply and demand dynamics, that should drive up the value of the token. This aims to encourage increased adoption of the network due to a naturally deflationary currency acting as the cornerstone.

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Mapping on the Blockchain, Explained - Cointelegraph

A Few Smart Moves Can Jumpstart The Promise Of Blockchain In Cities – Forbes

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In 2009, Bitcoin, the first of many cryptocurrencies and still the most successful today, arrived on the scene. Eleven years later, despite repeated forecasts of its demise, Bitcoin and thousands of other cryptos continue to be in use, and some would say, thriving and disrupting the status quo of fiat currency and parts of the financial industry. Back in 2009, few would have predicted that the underlying technology that makes cryptocurrency work, the so-called distributed ledger, would come to be an even bigger story.

Distributed ledger technology (DLT) or blockchain, the term more commonly used, has captured the imagination of innovators, entrepreneurs and a wide variety of stakeholders from across the economy. Its advantages, which Ill describe briefly in a moment, has shown up in almost every industry and type of organization. Even many government organizations have tentatively embraced blockchain in some creative ways. However, cities have warmed to the technology to a much lesser degree than other organizations and their efforts have been given much lower priority.

Why hasnt this new technology rocked the world of city CIOs yet, or is it because the promise of blockchain has simply failed to deliver?

An abundance of articles has been written on what blockchain is and what its not. You likely have at least some basic knowledge, but in case, heres my quick primer.

I like to think of blockchain as a type of database. Its a database that has some clever qualities. These include mathematically linking database entries, so it becomes near impossible to change transactions. It also prohibits the deletion of data making it possible to understand every transaction since the very first entry in the database. Best of all (in my opinion), new entries can only be added through a process of network consensus.

The blockchain database itself is distributed among all users, with no central system or governance. These properties increase the integrity of transactions, eliminate centralized management, lower the risk of cyberthreats and remove the need to rely on trust. A blockchain system is said to be trust-less.

The totality of this design means its possible to deliver some powerful capabilities such as having viable digital money; to process common transactions that require no middleman such as steps in a mortgage; and as a way to distribute independent logic such that it is reliable and auditable. This latter quality enables Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, for example, to execute transactions without having to bear the burden of latency validating against a central system.

With these features, what are some obvious applications in a city context?

Since cities, like all government agencies, collect, create, store and process an abundance of data, intuitively blockchain has the ability to increase the security and integrity of that data. By far, this is the most common use in City Halls that use the technology.

Blockchain has the capability to increase trust and transparency in digital government solutions. Enhanced integrity of digital transactions in a city means that blockchain has the ability to enhance and improve a wide variety of common functions that range from procurement to identity management.

With cities becoming a platform for a wide range of connected devices, from autonomous vehicles to IoT sensors, blockchain appears to also offer some compelling advantages for securely moving and processing data.

Surely then, with all these advantages, blockchain technology must be making a killing in our cities.

Not so fast.

While there is growing interest, city CIOs for the most part, have not made blockchain a priority. While government more broadly has been trending towards some mature experimentation and in some limited cases even production use, cities have been much more conservative.

That said, there have been some compelling city use cases. Here are a couple of examples.

The city government of Zug in Switzerland, sometimes referred to as Crypto Valley because it hosts over 450 blockchain-based organizations, is also a user of the technology. The city permits the use of Bitcoin for some government payments and in 2017 it began using blockchain as an identity solution for certain services. In an article in Smart City Hub, the mayor of Zug, Dolfi Mller said, We want a single electronic identity a kind of digital passport for all possible applications. And we do not want this digital ID to be centralized at the city, but on the blockchain. Efforts continue to expand and today the city of Zug is fostering an international ecosystem of blockchain innovation.

In 2016, the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates in collaboration with the Smart Dubai Office and the Dubai Future Foundation, launched the Dubai Blockchain Strategy. Its focus is to explore and evaluate blockchain as a way to deliver seamless, safe, efficient, and impactful experiences.

By early 2020, the effort had produced over 24 use cases in eight industry sectors and established Dubai as a global leader in blockchain technology. One of the notable efforts was the use of blockchain to process payments by constituents for government services. In the old system, payment reconciliation and settlement could take an average of 45 days. The new blockchain-based system eliminated the delay entirely and issues are resolved in real-time.

In a blog post she wrote for CoinDesk, Dr. Aisha Bin Bishr, director general at Smart Dubai Office, said, Dubais adoption of blockchain technology at a city-wide scale is a testament to its commitment to positively transform government from service provider to service enabler.

In both city instances, leadership and an appetite for bold steps were essential to move forward.

Blockchain has many supporters and proven benefits, but its not without its detractors. Many argue that blockchain is being explored and used when a less complicated and more mature relational database could be used. They maintain that the technology continues to be too unstable and immature for use in critical systems (to a degree, Id say thats a fair assessment although the technology is quickly evolving).

The most damning criticism is that blockchain, aside from cryptocurrency, is a technology looking for a problem to solve. This kind of sentiment is often shared by more cautious (and skeptical) city CIOs who have seen lots of hyped technology come and go. In the risk averse environment of local government, unfortunately, being more conservative can be the right strategy.

For city CIOs to move forward with blockchain and for its promises to be assessed will require a number of important prerequisites.

The first, Id argue, is for more education on the topic. City CIOs and their technical teams need to get deeper into the weeds on the subject so they can understand its possibilities.

The second prerequisite is for city CIOs to ensure that they have the innovation ecosystem and a blockchain sandbox in place to enable the exploration and experimentation of the technology.

Finally, the IT leader must educate their city leadership and elected officials. They need their support and formal approval.

While certainly not exhaustive, these three recommendations will better position the city CIO to move forward with some light-risk opportunities.

In the years ahead, solving our intractable urban issues in order to create smarter and more sustainable communities means there often wont be the luxury of business as usual. City CIOs will be required to explore the art of the possible. Again and again.

Without any guarantees of success in the short-term, blockchain technology must be part of their innovation toolbox. Theres no evidence yet that the technologys use in cities has failed to deliver. However, the promise of blockchain will always be elusive if its not even given a fair try.

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A Few Smart Moves Can Jumpstart The Promise Of Blockchain In Cities - Forbes

Blockchain And Online Learning Are A Powerful Combination – Forbes

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Education has gone online, and blockchain can play an important role in securing, safeguarding, and growing this trend.

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Much has been written about the dramatic pivot to online learning and education that has taken place during 2020. Although the discussion and debate around virtual education has become a hot topic recently, this is not a new item; education and learning have been taking place in various virtual formats for years. COVID-19 might have turbocharged the move from physical education and learning to online formats; instead of creating a new trend, it has merely accelerated something that was already underway.

Peruse any education related site, and a primary topic will be the number of courses that will be taught online. It remains to be seen if this shift will be completely permanent, but it would not be illogical to forecast an increasing percentage of courses being taught in a virtual format going forward. With ever larger amounts of information, both institutional and individual, being stored and shared virtually over an array of networks, there will invariably be risks associated with hackers and other unethical actors.

Especially as many private organizations, either on a solo basis or in collaboration with educational partners, continue to roll out certificate programs, training opportunities, and even entire degrees in a virtual format, the risk of this information being compromised is not an abstract one. As a part of the educational or training process, there is a large amount of personally identifiable information transferred between the individual, the institution, and any number of third-party providers.

Blockchain seems almost tailor made to help secure and protect this new model of education with a combination of information security, as well as the ability to share this data among a wide network of counterparties, and to do so in a completely virtual manner. Specifically, there are a few considerations and opportunities for online educators, institutions offering education online, and private sector blockchain organizations to improve the educational process and product.

Accreditation and credentialing. Credentials are, ultimately, why many individuals engage in education in the first place, and the continued rise of online education and offerings makes obtaining credentials more convenient than ever. That very same convenience, however, also opens the door for identity theft, fraudulent diploma mill types of institutions, and non-accredited or non-certified offerings operating on a seemingly level playing field with accredited institutions.

Having a blockchain-based system to record the accreditation, track the changes over time, and enable the instantaneous verification of credentials and degrees delivers two distinct benefits. This increased 1) transparency, and 2) trust that blockchain-secured records would provide can help open the door to any number of new offerings and institutions. As individuals continuously need to reskill and upskill over the course of their careers, the verification and tracking of newly obtained credentials will only increase in importance.

Rationalize intellectual property. Many breakthroughs and innovations have been started by, or at least been partially affiliated with, the research and efforts undertaken by educational institutions. Professors, other educators, and individuals linked to the educational space often allocate large amounts of time and energy developing intellectual property in the form of research papers, prototype products or services, and sometimes even the creation of entire textbooks. In an economy that is increasingly a digital-first and shifting toward a digital-everything model, the importance of securing and potentially monetizing the results of these creative efforts is paramount.

Specifically, since any number of private enterprises and other non-traditional organizations are entering the educational space, creating additional revenue streams can make such efforts financially self-sustaining. A self-sustaining model helps ensure the continued production of high-quality offerings, and a return on investment that will attract capital to further develop educational products.

Reinventing higher education. One of the most prominent use cases and concepts that underpin the blockchain ecosystem is the idea of a borderless and completely open system. The free sharing of information and ensuring accessibility to this information are integral components of blockchain. By connecting these core functional components of blockchain to higher education, an entirely new educational model is possible. Since the world is becoming increasingly interconnected on a daily basis, it would make sense that education should follow suit. But how?

Blockchain-enabled smart contracts, agreements between different individuals or organizations consisting of executable programmable code, would allow education to be available on an ad hoc basis across the globe. In other words, students and instructors including those already enrolled or associated with incumbent providers could collaborate and work together, enabling institutions to become more flexible, responsive, and keep pace with the rapid pace of change in the economy.

Higher education and blockchain might not seem like topics that have a lot in common, but looking beneath the surface reveals just how much potential this combination has moving forward. Increased responsiveness, better transparency, and creating a new market for digital assets are just a few of the applications this combination can unlock; exciting times for sure.

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Blockchain And Online Learning Are A Powerful Combination - Forbes

Building the blockchain community is essential for further developments – Cointelegraph

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Cryptocurrency was built on the premise that a reimagined financial system could exist. It was brought to life by a community that supported these ideals and worked tirelessly to bring them to fruition.

As the blockchain community grows, so does the recognition that cryptocurrency is important. According to Big Four audit firm Deloittes 2020 Global Blockchain Survey, more than half of those surveyed believe that digital assets will be very important, while almost 89% of respondents feel that digital assets will be important to their industries in the next three years.

Cryptocurrency remains the priority for the blockchain space within traditional financial hubs, such as Hong Kong SAR and Singapore, as outlined in Deloittes report. Such growing acceptance and support for blockchain and digital assets globally have proved to be important to adoption and advancements within the ecosystem.

The community has played a pivotal role in developing blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies since their inception. It is now imperative that the industry continues to recognize the important role the community will play in the further development and adoption of the digital asset space. There is still much that the industry as a whole can do to further spur growth within the community.

Cryptocurrencies were designed to be decentralized without any connection to a centralized third party. Forming the bedrock for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC), decentralization allows users to transact digital assets directly with another user without the need for a third party, like a bank, to be involved.

This has led to a decentralized form of finance that enables a more open and transparent financial system supported by decentralized technologies like blockchain. Decentralized finance provides more inclusive access to financial services and credit at a lower cost. This includes smart contracts, protocols, decentralized applications and digital currencies, such as Bitcoin and stablecoins, notably Tether (USDT), whose growing usage in DeFi is indicative of the pivotal role that it plays in the nascent sector.

Decentralization also sees projects driven by community ideals, ensuring a free flow of information within the community. Community-driven development has given developers control over the development process, while the resources and decision-making authority are directly in the hands of the community.

There have been many examples of projects and exchanges in the industry that have taken a community-first stance to development, product offerings and overall day-to-day operations. For example, the ethos of Bitfinex has always been to remain driven by its community and to be designed for its community. Bitfinex is now one of the most advanced and most liquid exchanges in the world.

Polkadot built a community of anticipated followers and is now expected to be the most anticipated project since Bitcoin and Ethereum, which is transitioning to Ethereum 2.0 with the support of its dedicated community.

An important sub-community is crypto traders. Understanding the needs and feedback of trading communities, many projects and exchanges are now focused on creating a place for traders to communicate with one another. This has helped the industry flourish while creating a pathway for new tokens, projects and digital assets.

This focus on community building has led to the creation of crypto-centric social networks, such as Bitfinex Pulse, and has led to the creation of Reddit communities for nearly every project in the industry. These platforms have opened up a dialogue for the next generation of traders, facilitating a free flow of ideas and providing real-time, high-quality market intelligence for the benefit of the entire trading community.

Ultimately, innovation comes from outside and within. Innovation is vital within industries because it gives companies an edge in penetrating markets faster. Innovation can also provide better connectivity to developing markets, possibly leading to bigger opportunities. Listening to the opinions and needs of the community can facilitate and accelerate innovation within an industry.

The pressure to innovate, challenge and self-disrupt are intense, especially as the blockchain industry transforms at an exhausting rate.

By taking the time and effort to build and listen to the community, companies and industries can tap into a pool of diverse voices and new ideas to drive innovation. The same is true for the blockchain industry as well.

Building the blockchain community has led to many new innovations and further adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. This intense focus on community building can only help the digital asset space to fulfill its immense potential.

The views, thoughts and opinions expressed here are the authors alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.

Paolo Ardoino joined Bitfinex at the beginning of 2015 and now serves as its chief technology officer. After graduating from Genoas Computer Science University in 2008, he started working as a researcher for a military project focused on high-availability, self-recovering networks and cryptography. Interested in finance, Paolo began developing financial related applications in 2010 and founded Fincluster in late 2013. Backed by two financing investment rounds, Fincluster delivered an advanced, modern and accessible web platform serving different clients with customization capabilities.

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Building the blockchain community is essential for further developments - Cointelegraph

Ethereum Blockchain focused Developer ConsenSys Is Also Addressing Fintech related Issues, Industry Exec Explains – Crowdfund Insider

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Lex Sokolin, the Global Fintech Co-Head and CMO at ConsenSys, confirms that the organization recently acquired Quorum from J.P. Morgan. Quorum is a platform that serves as a private, enterprise version of Ethereum (ETH). As covered, ConsenSys has also received an investment from J.P. Morgan.

Sokolin notes that theres a lot of jargon or confusing terminology being used in the blockchain industry, and that he wants to try to explain the acquisition in simpler terms, so that people can really understand why the Quorum project is relevant to traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi).

He explains that, at the core of the answer, is the question about the computing paradigm. He notes that we should ask: How does software operate? Where does it operate?

Sokolin continues:

Who secures [software]? And of course, in the spirit of our common interest, how does this impact financial infrastructure? Ultimately, financial infrastructure is just our collective solution for enabling the above activities using the latest in technology. J.P. Morgan, the global bank, was one of the first large financial institutions to understand and invest in the potential of this technology.

Sokolin adds that J.P. Morgan had an internal team that developed a version of Ethereum (ETH) that supported the specific requirements of the financial company, including privacy and scalability. ConsenSys has also been making updates to the technology stack to address Fintech related issues experienced by financial institutions when they work with blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT)-based platforms, Sokolin said.

He explains that theres been a steady progression from mainframe computers, to standalone desktop PCs and more compatible laptops that would run using local software. Now, we are leveraging the magnificence and efficiency of cloud computing which is accessed via the interfaces of mobile devices.

We also have open-source programmable blockchain or DLT networks that are being secured by computational mining, he adds. He also mentions that these gears of computational machine [support] core banking, portfolio management, risk assessment, and underwriting in the guise of various companies.

Sokolin writes:

[We have] worlds that today are quite different: the exponential innovation of decentralized finance, trying to outpace regulation and automate away human involvement, and the transformative reformatting that will happen to financial incumbents over time. As DeFi assets approach $10 billion, one narrative we may see is that crypto is a completely separate, new sphere of economics and finance. It does not need to connect to the old world. It simply needs to be left alone to perform.

He adds:

In some sense, this is the distinction between physical cash, credit cards, e-commerce payment processors, NFC-based proximity payments, and QR codes. Each has their own logic and sphere of influence. But in reality, one usually sits on the accomplishments of the other. Even Ant [Group] today is directing its billion users to traditional capital providers, while leveraging modern user experiences.

He thinks that the ConsenSys Codefi application suite is evolving towards the natural financial behaviors turned into software. For example, ConsenSys Codefi apps may be used for paying, saving, investing, trading, insuring, Sokolin explains.

He claims that DeFi protocols such as Aave, Compound, Maker, Nexus Mutual, and Yearn do even more of the work as battle-tested and capital-tested financial primitives. He believes that all we need to do in the long-term is to connect into them in a risk-managed way to the existing economy.

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Ethereum Blockchain focused Developer ConsenSys Is Also Addressing Fintech related Issues, Industry Exec Explains - Crowdfund Insider

What Stands in the Way of Healthcare Blockchain Adoption? – DevPro Journal

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What is blockchain?

Blockchain technology is a ledger-based technology that has traditionally been used in banking and crypto-currencies like Bitcoin. Blockchain stores information in batches or transactions call blocks. Each addition, deletion or modification of this data is composed of an additional block. These ledger entries are linked together in a chain of blocks.

Blockchain was designed to be decentralized and distributed across a large network of computers. There were two purposes for this decentralization; the first being redundant storage to ensure data is not lost and the second to ensure there is trust in the data. This trust is first created by the initial computer solving a crypto puzzle. This crypto answer is then shared with all other computers on the network, this is called proof-of-work. The computers in this network all verify the initial proof-of-work and if correct the new block will be added to the chain. The combination of these complex math puzzles and the verification by many computers provides trust for each block in the chain.

The healthcare industry started looking carefully at blockchain technology many years ago as a way of ensuring confidentiality, integrity and availability of health data. Rising attacks by cyber-criminals and nation-state hackers has compounded the urgency for increased protection of PII, PHI and clinical research. Recent cyber-attacks against medical research facilities working on COVID-19 vaccines underlines this urgency.

In 2017, the US FDA partnered with IBM Watson to develop a secure exchange of medical record data utilizing blockchain, In 2018, Mount Sinai opened a center for Biomedical Blockchain research to evaluate its own medical research programs and its partnerships and eMQT utilized blockchain to study the results of their sequencing of DNA from thousands of Africans with sickle cell disease.

The Healthcare industry is constantly working to increase the stability and comprehensive nature of their EMR systems. Blockchain offers secure and complete access to a patients global medical records. This combined need for transparency and security are at times in conflict with each other. Blockchain technology offers a means to reach both goals without impacting the other.

The security aspect is covered by the fact that every node in the network must verify and record any changes to the medical record. This means that if someone wanted to tamper with the data, they would have to control every computer in that network.

The fact that the medical record data is stored across so many network nodes assures access to that data for the patients provider. A single servers downtime will not impact patient care.

More importantly, since the medical data belongs to the patient, each patient can decide who should have access to it at any given time. This control of their own data empowers patients to play a greater role in their own care.

There are many case studies to argue for the use of blockchain technology in healthcare:

Our healthcare institutions are constantly under attack in 2018 over 15 million patient records were compromised in 503 breaches. In 2019 according to Malwarebytes there was a 60% increase in these breaches and a majority of these breaches were over an extended period and not reported within the HIPAA mandated 60 days. Blockchain can provide data security because it has no centralized point of failure and users can only access the data with a highly complex access key, making ransomware and similar attacks useless against it.

The lack of interoperability in healthcare is one of the most common pain points as physicians seek to treat their patients in a timely manner. The decentralized nature of blockchain allows for access to medical records across states, countries and continents. It helps to alleviate the challenge created by incompatible security protocols between different institutions as the patient is the critical owner of the data. Each patient could own a digital key that they could share with their medical providers and their health insurance provider.

There is no such thing as free healthcare, even non-profit organizations must seek compensation to cover their operating costs. Blockchain with its instantaneous exchange of medical and financial information could allow insurance claims to be instantly filed and fulfilled as all data will be verified and coming from trusted partners.

There are some problems that must be resolved for blockchain to become the panacea for secure access to healthcare medical records:

Blockchain suffers from the double hit of being a fairly new technology (2008) and that had been closely tied to the cryptocurrency Bitcoin. This perception has hindered its acceptance within the medical research communities.

All entities involved in patient care and medical research must embrace this new model of collaborative exchange of information with new read/write standards and the distributed platforms and systems needed to support this new blockchain technology.

One of the questions raised is if a patient is unconscious how can the patient provide the security key to access their data files. There must be a way that the patient can always carry the keys with them and does not require any conscious input from the patient. Medical bracelets with biometrics security could be a solution to this problem.

Blockchains ledger legacy means it is difficult for it to handle large amounts of data in a single transaction such as an MRI or CAT Scan image or even genome sequences. Backend repositories and encoded libraries will be needed to store and track these large file formats.

Blockchain does not remove deleted or replace modified records; instead additional blocks are added to the chain to represent these deletions and modifications. This process results in the need for ever-increasing storage. EMR systems and their associated redundant backups are already a huge cost to healthcare institutions, making these storage requirements larger and the constantly growing storage in support of these chains becomes a technical and financial hurdle.

Finally, in todays ongoing medical evolution there is a battle between the time a provider spends examining the patient and the time it takes them to enter the data into their EMR systems for patient tracking and billing. Both of these times slots are under pressure to be reduced to allow the provider to be more efficient without sacrificing patient care. Any new data technology like blockchain must be applied and provide secure access of the data without adding steps and time to the doctors patient process.

It is often said that blockchain as a viable technology, could be many years from practical application across the healthcare industry, but as we are already seeing, this is not just limited to cutting edge early adopters.

Adoption of blockchain has already taken off with over 2 dozen companies including IBM implementing their own solutions to meet not just secure access of the EMR data but also utilizing AI to identify patterns within the Block Chains to help identify leading remedies or effective treatments for a specific disease. Medical equipment manufacturers and drug research companies can track the development, manufacturing, delivery and effectiveness of the products and programs to validate their efforts to bring a product to market.

The latest example of this is Mount Sinais use of blockchain technology in its use of AI to rapidly read chest CAT Scans of potential COVID-19 patients. CT chest scans have been proven to be a more reliable validation of a COVID-19 viral infection than the present swab and blood testing. Mount Sinais research has found that its AI model can accurately detect the ground glass opacities in the lungs as well as any seasoned radiologist. This will greatly accelerate the time required to identify a positive patient and limit their time to spread the disease before being forced into quarantine.

The advantages of blockchain technology is only just beginning to be understood. When this technology is combined with AI, the possibilities to find treatments to our major sources of diseases may be endless. As US and other healthcare systems attempt to deal with both financial and pandemic crises, so the development of tools, technologies and clinical applications that encompass blockchain will become ever more necessary and desirable. As interoperability and digitalization of health services across the world increase so too will the need for verifiable patient information and the need to protect that information from attackers. Blockchain is here to stay!

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What Stands in the Way of Healthcare Blockchain Adoption? - DevPro Journal

Blockchains Role In Reshaping The Future Of Work – Forbes

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With unemployment numbers at record highs, millions of people around the world are embarking on the daunting task of job hunting which is even more challenging for both candidates and recruiters in todays world of remote work.

Lets face it finding the right person for the right job is hard enough, but verifying their credentials to finalize the hire can be a nightmare. Personal references can often be unreachable or unresponsive, past roles may be unverifiable due to the companies being defunct or acquired, and credentials from other countries are incredibly hard to validate. It makes it difficult for both the employer to make a hire and candidates to land the job.

This is where blockchain technology can make a huge difference in essence, acting as a trusted source of truth for employers and delivering a greater sense of data security for employees records.

Yes, thats right Im talking about applying blockchain to careers. The same technology that can be used to facilitate currency exchange, and that many companies now use to track shipments of goods across a supply chain. Believe it or not, blockchain has an incredible opportunity in the workplace to help validate data about career history, educational background, and accreditations.

To discuss blockchains potential for the future of work, I met (virtually) with Dror Gurevich, CEO of the Velocity Network Foundation, a non-profit established by Velocity Career Labs, developer of blockchain technology that underlies a global network for verifiable education and career credentials, known as the Internet of Careers. Founding members of the foundation include tech companies (including Oracle), background screening firms, professional services providers, and ed tech specialists. Heres what we discussed:

Fixing the Data Problem

The problem that the foundation wants to remedy is the fragmented and unreliable data underlying todays HR processes and systems, Gurevich told me on the call.

While organizations have made progress in their ability to manage employee data, many employees now have multiple employers or are taking gig assignments on the side. This makes it difficult for a single employer to have the holistic picture needed to drive personalized solutions and derive value through analytics. In fact, most of this career data is scattered across multiple platforms and databases, with proprietary restrictions making access either difficult and/or prohibitively expensive.

The Velocity Network instead proposes a system where individuals use a designated credential wallet app to connect with credential issuers (i.e. their employers, schools, trade associations etc.) to claim their career-related records. Those credentials are issued and signed by the issuing entity and then the individual can store their credentials on a local device.

In parallel, the issuer generates a cryptographic proof of validity that is stored on blockchain run by the Velocity Network. At that point, individuals can choose whether to share credentials with third-parties, how the credentials may be used by others, and for how long. Once a prospective employer or other party is authorized to access the blockchain, they can verify the credentials.

The foundations challenge is to make sure that the keepers of various pieces of peoples historyuniversities, technical organizations, training companies, employersall agree to fix this data problem, which slows the vetting and hiring process.

The current state of the art is that job applicants share their resumes with a target employer. If that company decides to proceed, a long, onerous, and expensive process of confirming past employers, degrees, and references listed on the resume ensues. Depending on the company, there will also be checks to credit and legal status. That process of chasing and verifying a scattered set of facts about a persons professional life can take weeks, even months. With readily available, verified, and tamper-proof records, hiring can be done much faster.

How the Pandemic Exacerbates Hiring Snafus

While the data problem described above pre-existed COVID-19, many virus-fueled job displacements have sparked a greater sense of urgency. When you need to hire healthcare workers and first responders to fill the ranks of sick workers, the stakes are higher.

And its not just first responders, per se grocery store stockers and cashiers, as well as a multitude of gig workers, are needed in full force now more than ever.

Take truck drivers for example. Their drivers licenses must be updated periodically to keep them on the road, but a commercial license renewal can take weeks to filter through various systems. During that time the availability of supplies hangs in the balance.

There are 1.6 million long-haul truckers in the U.S. Delayed credentials can cause lost work, lost income, and burden the supply chain, Gurevich said.

A verifiable, more automated process enabled by blockchain would mean that job openings are filled faster, allowing work to go on.

In addition, a truly international career network utilizing a blockchain-enabled set of references could help refugees and immigrantswho now typically must settle for menial jobsbetter apply their skills in a new country. How many times have we heard about refugees who were doctors or nurses in their native countries who must drive cabs or deliver food because they could not verify their credentials? Blockchain as a career tool can help provide a solution.

Cleaning Up the Resume Supply Chain

Additionally, the data in LinkedIn listings and other resume repositories is entirely self-reported, unchecked, and likely to include inaccuracies.

The emergence of more accurate and up-to-date data could not only help employers vet candidates more easily, but identify possible recruits more effectively.

Career credentials data is key to sustaining efficiencies across all employment-related processes: hiring, job matching, internal mobility, learning and development, compensation, benefits and complianceall are based on peoples career history and credentials data, Gurevich said.

Blockchain technology holds robust benefits for both individuals and organizations.

If you are an individual, you can control your career data and who can see it. If you work for a hiring organization, you will be able to find qualified job candidates faster. And you can apply analytics and AI to employee data to more accurately match individuals to suitable roles, recommend learning and development paths, and design talent management activities.

While the concept of blockchain playing a role in the future of work may seem unusual at first, the prospects and potential are immense. This technology could not only streamline processes, but reshape the way we search for jobs and build the right teams. Personally, Im very excited to see what the future holds for blockchain in careers and what Velocity Network can accomplish in this new world of work.

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Blockchains Role In Reshaping The Future Of Work - Forbes

Reducing barriers to mainstream gene therapy – BioPharma-Reporter.com

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The company is to invest 3.4m (around US$4.5m) alongside the grant.

The funds will support research into the manufacturing challenges associated with scaling gene therapies for widespread patient access, to further develop technologies to improve the safety and efficacy of current therapies, and to enable the treatment of genetic diseases with more complicated disease pathways the industry is not yet able to address.

Along with the creation of 11 new jobs in Edinburgh, the developer said it will further enhance its Pro10 platform, an AAV manufacturing process that can be scaled and applied throughout the group.

The grant will also advance development of the tool kit of inducible, repressible, tunable and responsive expression cassettes to be adopted in the current clinical pipeline and new disease targets.

Gene therapy has the potential to treat a wide range of diseases including certain forms of muscular dystrophy, congestive heart failure and some diseases of the central nervous system but, at present, only two market-approved therapies are available.

David Venables, president, AskBio Europe, commented: The grant awarded by Scottish Enterprise supports AskBio in working towards developing even safer and more effective gene therapies through improved development and manufacturing techniques. Science and innovation keep progressing, and that makes this an exciting time to develop this type of therapeutic agent.

AskBios technology is inside both currently approved AAV gene therapies, which include Luxturna, developed by Spark Therapeutics, for the treatment of patients with inherited retinal disease, and Zolgensma, developed by AveXis, for the treatment of patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA).

AveXis licenses AskBios self-complementary DNA technology for Zolgensma.

While the promise of such therapies is being shown, significant barriers remain before gene therapies can become more broadly impactful, according to AskBio.

With global headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, and European headquarters in Edinburgh, UK, AskBio has generated hundreds of proprietary third generation AAV capsids and promoters, several of which have entered clinical testing.

BioPharma-Reporter (BPR) spoke to Ken Macnamara, (KM), PhD, chief operating officer, AskBio Europe,to get the AAV developers take on the factors preventing gene therapy going mainstream.

BPR: What criteria did AskBio have to fulfill to be awarded this grant?

KM: The research must be highly novel with significant risk from which a successful outcome will accelerate business growth within Scotland and globally.

BPR: What are the current manufacturing challenges associated with scaling gene therapies for widespread patient access?

KM: As we see growing evidence that gene therapy is a viable, transformational medicine, along with an acceleration in the number of AAV therapeutics moving towards regulatory approval, the ability to manufacture these therapies for diseases with large patient populations does not exist today and costs are extremely high.

Many companies can manufacture small batches of therapeutics for clinical applications, but as they approach commercialization, the challenges of production costs and timelines remain an issue. We recognized this more than a decade ago and focused on creating robust, scalable manufacturing capabilities.

Today, the challenges for manufacturing gene therapy are being met by simply adding large amounts of capacity, which is not the long-term answer. There is a significant amount of innovation taking place that will no doubt shape the future of manufacturing AAV gene therapeutics. This work continues today in our Edinburgh and US facilities to further improve the technology.

BPR: What are some of the typical safety and efficacy issues linked to current therapies?

KM: Currently approved gene therapies have provided effective therapy by targeting tissues in the body with an administered gene that produces a new, effective protein. This new gene replaces the defective or missing gene causing the patients underlying disease.

Because the techniques are relatively new, some of the risks may be unpredictable; however, medical researchers, institutions, and regulatory agencies are working to ensure that gene therapy research is as safe as possible.

AAV is not known to cause human disease, and it cannot make more of itself without outside help, so it will not replicate in the body like normal viruses do. AAV is engineered to carry therapeutic genes by removing some of its genetic cargo and replacing it with human gene sequences. This results in an AAV vector, a therapeutic genetic medicine.

Risks associated with AAV gene therapy vector administration include unwanted immune system reactions. The body's immune system may see the newly introduced AAV vectors as intruders and attack them, which may cause inflammation and, in severe cases could be local and mild or throughout a greater area of the body and be more serious. AAV vectors can also target tissues other than the intended tissue. Thus, it's possible that AAV vectors may affect additional cells, not just the targeted cells containing mutated genes. These are called off-target effects. If this happens, healthy cells may be damaged.

BPR: Can you indicate the other significant barriers that remain before gene therapies can become more broadly impactful?

KM: Therapies need to express the gene in the right tissue, at the right level, for the right amount of time. There is a great deal of research happening throughout the gene therapy field to identify the best means of delivering and controlling activation of the genetic material. Furthermore, the response of the patients immune system also needs to be considered based on the therapy. Additional funding, like that from Scottish Enterprise, can help speed up the development process of promising therapies.

BPR: How does AskBio envisage exploring the treatment of genetic diseases with more complicated disease pathways that the industry is not yet able to address?

KM: One of the most exciting advances in modern medicine has been the discovery of how AAV vectors can be used as an effective delivery system for therapeutic genetic material into living tissue. AAV gene therapy has broad therapeutic implications for a vast array of diseases.

Some genetic diseases are caused by mutations in a single gene, while others are a result of mutations in multiple genes, for example, cancer. Additionally, environmental factors, such as smoking and diet, can play a role in diseases. The complexity of these disease characteristics creates variables in developing and testing potential treatments. Currently the gene and cell therapy options that exist today are limited to treating diseases caused by a single gene mutation.

AskBios Edinburgh team leads the gene therapy field in the design and development of synthetic gene expression cassettes. The technology is essential for controlling the expression of AAV therapeutics, thereby improving their safety and efficacy. This R&D project will enable AAV therapeutics to be turned on and off and dialed up or down depending on the amount of drug needed at any given time. This technology provides a desired safety switch and level of variable dosing that previously did not exist. Before this breakthrough, AAV therapeutics could only express at one constant level and could not be turned off, which limited the type of therapeutics for which AAV could be used and may hold the key to treating pathway diseases where multiple genes are affected.

BPR: On the job creation front, is the talent already hired or are you starting a recruitment drive?

KM: The grant allows us to make some positions permanent and bring in new talent.

Ken Macnamara joined AskBio in 2019 with a wealth of R&D, business operations, financial planning, intellectual property and quality/compliance experience gained from start-up to multinational firms. He most recently was COO at Synpromics.

Dr Macnamara began his career at the University of Edinburgh, where he earned a PhD in chemistry before helping to start Lab901 (Scottish SME). There, he was a product development manager responsible for developing the TapeStation and ScreenTape technologies from concept to market success. Lab901 was acquired by Agilent Technologies in 2011. Dr Macnamara then served as R&D director for the Microfluidics business at Agilent.

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Reducing barriers to mainstream gene therapy - BioPharma-Reporter.com

Mapping Genetic Diversity of Lung Tumors Over Time May Lead to More Effective Therapies – UCSF News Services

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Lung cancer cells invade surrounding tissues and start to spread.Image courtesy of the National Cancer Institute

A malignant tumor is a bustling metropolis populated by many different kinds of cancer cells. This cellular diversity, however, is what makes cancer so difficult to treat, as each type of cell in a tumor responds differently and sometimes not at all to cancer therapies. This is especially true for lung cancer, which often responds to an initial course of treatment, only to remerge after becoming drug-resistant, making it the deadliest form of cancer worldwide.

A better understanding of the diversity that exists within a lung tumor would likely lead to more effective treatments. Today, clinicians generally rely on tests that generate genetic profiles of biopsied tumors in bulk rather than one cell at a time. Unfortunately, this usually fails to capture the full extent of cellular diversity within tumors and ends up obscuring clinically significant information. This has led scientists to search for ways to assemble a census of the many types of cells that comprise a malignant tumor. Even better would be a more complete picture of how these cell populations evolve during the course of treatment. However, figuring out exactly how to conduct this survey has proven to be a major technical barrier for scientists.

But this hurdle, once thought to be nearly insurmountable, was recently cleared by a research team led by UC San Francisco and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub scientists. The researchers figured out how to assemble genetic profiles of individual lung cancer cells obtained from patients at different times during the course of their treatment. In doing so, they revealed a vast cornucopia of cellular diversity in both lung tumors and the tissue surrounding the tumor as they evolved during the course of treatment clinically significant information that had previously eluded scientists. The findings are detailed in a paper published Aug. 20 in the journal Cell.

This study is among the first of its kind, said Trever Bivona, MD, PhD, professor of medicine and senior author of the study. We observed features of lung cancer cells and the tumor microenvironment that no one had seen before. This gave us a window into the evolution of individual cells within the tumors ecosystem.

Starting with 49 biopsies obtained from 30 lung cancer patients, the researchers used single-cell sequencing to map the landscape of gene activity in over 23,000 individual lung cancer cells at three time points: before treatment, after the tumors stabilized or went into remission during treatment, and after the cancer, despite continuous treatment, had fully re-grown and become treatment resistant.

These single-cell profiles revealed the presence of tumor cells that harbored cancer-driving genetic mutations distinct from those that were identified by the various clinical tests that the patients received during the course of their treatment. Though these mutations were present in only a fraction of cells in each tumor, they had a significant effect on patient outcomes. Patients whose tumors carried two or more of these mutations had significantly lower overall survival rates than patients with fewer than two.

The researchers also found that when lung tumors stabilized or went into remission in response to treatment, some malignant cells were able to cling to life by switching on genes associated with injury repair and survival that are normally only active in healthy lung cells. When these genes are active, the cancer cells enter a repair and survival state that, according to Bivona, puts the cells into hibernation mode so that the cell death machinery doesnt get activated.

But these survival genes have an Achilles heel. They rely on whats known as the Wnt/beta-catenin signaling pathway, which can be targeted with existing drugs. In fact, laboratory tests demonstrated that when administered at the appropriate time, drugs targeting the Wnt/beta-catenin pathway, combined with a common lung cancer therapy, reduced the number of cancer cells that survived.

Our results suggest that we could target specific cell states in lung tumors and improve patient survival by constraining tumor evolution and preventing drug resistance and tumor survival and re-growth, Bivona said.

The study also provides key insights into how the cells and tissue that surround a lung malignancy the tumor microenvironment create conditions that prevent the immune system from taking up arms against the tumor.

Single-cell profiling revealed that the tumor microenvironment was hostile to immune activity both before treatment and after a tumor had evolved drug resistance. However, during treatment, when the cancer is in the hibernation mode revealed in the study, the researchers found that immune cells were able to infiltrate the tumor microenvironment and appeared to be switched on, suggesting there may be a limited window of opportunity during which conventional cancer therapies can be combined with immunotherapies a class of cancer treatments that has proven effective against some cancers, but has largely failed against the types of lung tumors profiled in this study to produce better overall survival rates.

Putting tumor heterogeneity front and center would better equip clinicians with information that allows for a high-resolution window into the evolution of tumors during therapy, and help us use such a roadmap to intervene more proactively to better control tumors and help patients, said Bivona. The single-cell analysis that we proved is feasible in real-life clinical tumors may help usher in a new era in the clinical management of tumors during therapy by strengthening our molecular diagnostic toolkit.

Authors: Additional authors include Caroline E. McCoach, Franziska Haderk, D. Lucas Kerr, Elizabeth A. Yu, Philippe Gui, Tasha Lea, Wei Wu, Anatoly Urisman, Kirk Jones, Pallav K. Kolli, Eric Seeley, Yaron Gesthalter, Sourav Bandyopadhyay, Khyati Shah, Lauren Cech, Nicholas J. Thomas, Anshal Gupta, Mayra Gonzalez, Hien Do, Lisa Tan, Bianca Bacaltos, Matthew Gubens, Thierry Jahan, Johannes R. Kratz, David Jablons, Jonathan Weissman, and Collin M. Blakely of UCSF; Ashley Maynard, Lincoln Harris, Weilun Tan, Alexander Zee, Michelle Tan, Rene Sit, Daniel D. Le, Kevin A. Yamauchi, Rafael Gomez-Sjoberg, Norma Neff, and Spyros Darmanis of Chan Zuckerberg Biohub; Julia K. Rotow of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; and Erin L. Schenk, David M. Naeger and Robert C. Doebele of the University of Colorado.

Funding: This research was supported by NIH awards U54CA224081, R01CA204302, R01CA211052, R01CA231300, R01CA169338, U01CA217882, R01CA227807, T32 HL007185, and K12 CA086913; the Van Auken Foundation; Novartis Pharmaceuticals; Pfizer; the University of California Cancer League; AstraZeneca; The Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation award P0528804; Doris Duke Charitable Foundation award P2018110; V Foundation award P0530519l; and the Mildred Scheel postdoctoral fellowship from the German Cancer Aid.

Disclosures: See manuscript for a full list of disclosures.

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Mapping Genetic Diversity of Lung Tumors Over Time May Lead to More Effective Therapies - UCSF News Services

Multi-site study to evaluate the role of testing guidelines in ensuring access to genetic information for men with prostate cancer – PRNewswire

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SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 3, 2020 /PRNewswire/ --Invitae (NYSE: NVTA), a leading medical genetics company, today announced enrollment has begun for a nationwide study to better understand the role of current genetic testing guidelines in ensuring prostate cancer patients receive testing to identify clinically relevant genetic variants that can inform prognosis and support access to targeted therapies. The study is supported by Invitae and is part of the company's ongoing work to increase access to genetic information for men with prostate cancer.

"Currently, germline testing guidelines for patients with prostate cancer have evolved from more than one set of NCCN guidelines and some may still find these guidelines difficult to implement in everyday practice," said Neal D. Shore, M.D., F.A.C.S. from the Carolina Urologic Research Center in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and the principal investigator of the study. "Guidelines were established when testing was both more expensive and less accessible and don't address newer therapeutic approvals and trial literature for expanding therapeutic options, missing many patients whose clinical care and treatment choices could benefit from genetic information. Our study is intended to provide a deeper understanding of how these issues impact the care of men with prostate cancer so that we might improve how genetic information can be assessed and utilized for their cancer care and potentially inform their family members."

The use and importance of genetic information in the diagnosis and treatment of prostate cancer has been growing, particularly as the development of targeted treatments continues to accelerate. Despite its utility, guidelines governing testing among prostate cancer patients remain restrictive, and genetic information is underutilized in prostate cancer care. The study will determine whether guidelines are adequate in identifying patients who may benefit from genetic testing.

"Simplifying and possibly expanding current testing guidelines would provide benefits for medical management of men with prostate cancer and offer opportunities for targeted therapies, including PARP inhibitors and qualification for clinical trials," said Robert Nussbaum, M.D., chief medical officer of Invitae. "In addition, the genes involved in prostate cancer include BRCA1 and 2, which as we all know also play an important role in breast and ovarian cancer, and MSH6 and other genes involved in hereditary colon cancer. Widespread testing among men with prostate cancer could have an important role in not only improving their care but also the health of their relatives."

The study will enroll men across the country who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Both men who meet and don't meet current testing guidelines will be included to gather data on whether genetic testing results change treatment and recommendations. In addition, the study will also gather data on the patient's experience with genetic testing.

A study presented recentlyby Invitae at the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics (ACMG) underscored the frequency of actionable variants expanded testing can help uncover. The study of 2,252 men found an overall positive rate of 13% with no statistical differences in rates among stages of disease. Only half of patients with an actionable variant reported a family history suggestive of increased risk. Nearly three-quarters (71%) of positive patients were eligible for management guidelines and/or potentially eligible for approved precision therapies or clinical trials.

An estimated three million men are living with prostate cancer in the U.S., and just under 200,000 are newly diagnosed each year.

Contact [emailprotected] for more information about the study.

About InvitaeInvitae Corporation(NYSE: NVTA) is a leading medical genetics company whose mission is to bring comprehensive genetic information into mainstream medicine to improve healthcare for billions of people. Invitae's goal is to aggregate the world's genetic tests into a single service with higher quality, faster turnaround time, and lower prices. For more information, visit the company's website atinvitae.com.

Safe Harbor StatementThis press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to the use and importance of genetic testing and information; and the benefits of simplifying and possibly expanding current testing guidelines for men with prostate cancer. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially, and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the company's history of losses; the company's ability to compete; the company's failure to manage growth effectively; the company's need to scale its infrastructure in advance of demand for its tests and to increase demand for its tests; the company's ability to use rapidly changing genetic data to interpret test results accurately and consistently; security breaches, loss of data and other disruptions; laws and regulations applicable to the company's business; and the other risks set forth in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks set forth in the company's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2020. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof, and Invitae Corporation disclaims any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Contact:Laura D'Angelo[emailprotected](628) 213-3283

SOURCE Invitae Corporation

http://www.invitae.com

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Multi-site study to evaluate the role of testing guidelines in ensuring access to genetic information for men with prostate cancer - PRNewswire

Global Prime Editing Market to Witness Heightened Growth During the Period 2020 2030 – The Daily Chronicle

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Prime editing is the gene-editing method that can insert, delete and do base swapping accurately. Prime editing also termed as genetic word processor precisely select the target DNA and replace genetic code. Targeting 75,000 different mutations and correcting 89% of genetic defects will drive the demand for prime editing. In 2017, the first gene editing in the human body was attempted. Gene editing in a patient with Hunters syndrome was tested for safety and concluded reliable shreds of evidence. Superior target flexibility and editing precision with minimal errors make Prime editing first preference over the other conventional technique such as CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats). Application of prime editing in reversing Genetic disease will be a milestone in gene editing.

Increasing prevalence of genetic disease creates a huge opportunity for prime editing market. Successful preliminary results with a genetic disease like Tay Sachs and Sickle cell anaemia will drive the prime editing market. Technological advancements providing minimal error with this technique will fuel the growth of prime editing. Decreased cost of DNA sequencing will propel prime editing market for research and commercialization. Arising ethical and safety concerns will make prime editing highly regulated sector. This may limit the scope and can restraint the growing market. Detrimental effect on Genetic diversity due to genetic engineering in one way may limit the market scope.

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The global Prime Editing market is classified on the basis of application and end user:

Based on application, Prime Editing Market is segmented into following:

Based on end user, Prime Editing Market is segmented into following:

Prime Editing is the most recent invention has created a buzz in the market. Firms accessing conventional genome engineering technologies have rolled plans of transitioning to this new technology. The restructuring by the firms is either by building upon the technological capabilities or by merging or acquiring the firms which hold expertise in prime editing. Inscripta, one of the most innovative company has launched the worlds first benchtop platform for digital genome engineering. Inscriptas Onyx device that was launched in October 2019, will enable genome editing at an unprecedented scale and cheaper rate. In 2019, Beam Therapeutics collaborated with a premium start-up in prime editing segment Prime Medicine for Prime Editing Technology. Beam therapeutics holds expertise in precision genetic medicine using base editing technology. The market consolidation activities my giants depict that genome editing will be the largest revenue-generating segment for prime editing market.

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North America will drive the market for Prime Editing due to high prevalence of genetic disease and technological advancement in the U.S. and Canada. One in every 27 Jews, is carrying Tay Sachs disease gene. After North America, Europe is leading in patient pool for genetic diseases such Hemophilia and Cystic fibrosis. The genetic disease pool will drive the adoption for Prime editing treatments in this region. Asia-Pacific will remain at steady growth for Prime Editing market due less disease prevalence and focus on other therapies. Latin America and Middle East and Africa region will boost the market owing to the disease prevalence.

Examples of some of the market participants in Prime Editing market identified across the value chain Beam Therapeutics Inc., Precision BioSciences, Inscripta, Inc, Horizon Discovery Ltd., Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc., CRISPR Therapeutics., Intellia Therapeutics, Inc., and others

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Global Prime Editing Market to Witness Heightened Growth During the Period 2020 2030 - The Daily Chronicle

Liquid biopsies to disrupt the oncology testing market – Medical Device Network

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Obtaining sufficient tumour tissue for oncology testing can be challenging, particularly when there is an insufficient biopsy sample, and invasive procedures pose a health risk to the patients. This is especially true for non-small cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC), where 27%31% of patients are unable to provide a suitable specimen upon diagnosis. One area of active research in oncology testing has been the evaluation of alternative sources of testing material. Liquid biopsy refers to the analysis of any tumour-derived material, circulating in the blood or any other body fluid. The detection of mutations via circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) found in plasma has been rising in popularity due to its minimal invasiveness.

On 7 August, Guardant Health announced the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its novel liquid biopsy comprehensive tumour mutation profiling test across all solid cancers. This is a landmark approval for cancer testing as Guardant Healths liquid biopsy is the first of its kind to genetically profile tumours anywhere in the body from a single blood draw. The FDA approval of this test includes its approval as a companion diagnostic for identifying patients with metastatic NSCLC based on the presence of mutations in the EGFR gene. Lung cancer is the current leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide with NSCLC comprising 80%90% of all lung cancers. As such, the need for this test is very high.

On 27 August, Foundation Medicine, a Roche company, received FDA approval for its FoundationOne Liquid CDx, a multi-cancer comprehensive liquid biopsy test. Foundation Medicines test is broader than Guardant Healths, covering more than 300 cancer-related genes. In addition to single-gene alterations, Foundation Medicines test also reports on the presence of multi-gene signatures namely microsatellite instability and blood tumour mutational burden, which can help guide the use of cancer immunotherapies.

The genomic analysis of ctDNA has the potential to offer insight across multiple metastatic sites. This is particularly valuable in settings with increased genomic heterogeneity such as in patients with treatment resistance. Some key opinion leaders (KOLs) interviewed by GlobalData have indicated that despite the fact that the test has some sensitivity issues, liquid biopsies are a cheaper alternative and the minimally invasive aspect of the technique improves patient satisfaction. Other KOLs noted the potential for liquid biopsies to integrate the overall cancer burden in patients with numerous metastases in different locations. GlobalData predicts an increased usage of liquid biopsies in the future due to the benefits they offer patients with metastatic recurrence.

Liquid biopsy is revolutionising cancer tests as it is non-invasive, precise and provides faster turnaround time for results compared to traditional solid tumour biopsy. While DNA sequencing methods such as Sanger sequencing have been considered the gold standard for detecting many genetic mutations associated with cancer, these techniques have lower sensitivity, and thus, require samples with a higher percentage of mutated DNA. As such, the use of ctDNA will be important for detecting cancerous mutations where tumours are hard to resect. Furthermore, the use of highly sensitive assays such as next-generation sequencing (NGS) will aid in the detection of cancerous mutations. As sequencing technology like NGS becomes more developed and its costs decrease, GlobalData expects these techniques to be more frequently used to test for mutations in cancer.

GlobalData is this websites parent business intelligence company.

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Liquid biopsies to disrupt the oncology testing market - Medical Device Network